Cortical activity involved in perception and imagery of visual stimuli in a subject with aphantasia. An EEG case report.

Aphantasia has been described as the inability to voluntarily evoke mental images using the "mind's eye." We studied a congenital aphantasic subject using neuropsychological testsand 64 channel EEG recordings, in order to studycortical activity involved in perception and imagery evaluating event-related potentials(N170, P200, N250). The subject is in the normal range of the neuropsychological tests performed, except for specific imagery tests. The EEG results show that when he evokes the same mental image, he starts the evoking process from left temporal instead of frontal areas, he does not activate occipital visual nor left anterior parietal areas.

Spread of SARS-CoV-2 through Latin America and the Caribbean region: A look from its economic conditions, climate and air pollution indicators.

We have evaluated the spread of SARS-CoV-2 through Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region by means of a correlation between climate and air pollution indicators, namely, average temperature, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, rainfall, average relative humidity, wind speed, and air pollution indicators PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 with the COVID-19 daily new cases and deaths. The study focuses in the following LAC cities: Mexico City (Mexico), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Bogotá (Colombia), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Manaus (Brazil), Lima (Perú), Santiago (Chile), São Paulo (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). The results show that average temperature, minimum temperature, and air quality were significantly associated with the spread of COVID-19 in LAC. Additionally, humidity, wind speed and rainfall showed a significant relationship with daily cases, total cases and mortality for various cities. Income inequality and poverty levels were also considered as a variable for qualitative analysis. Our findings suggest that and income inequality and poverty levels in the cities analyzed were related to the spread of COVID-19 positive and negative, respectively. These results might help decision-makers to design future strategies to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in LAC and around the world.

Brain circuit-gene expression relationships and neuroplasticity of multisensory cortices in blind children.

Sensory deprivation reorganizes neurocircuits in the human brain. The biological basis of such neuroplastic adaptations remains elusive. In this study, we applied two complementary graph theory-based functional connectivity analyses, one to evaluate whole-brain functional connectivity relationships and the second to specifically delineate distributed network connectivity profiles downstream of primary sensory cortices, to investigate neural reorganization in blind children compared with sighted controls. We also examined the relationship between connectivity changes and neuroplasticity-related gene expression profiles in the cerebral cortex. We observed that multisensory integration areas exhibited enhanced functional connectivity in blind children and that this reorganization was spatially associated with the transcription levels of specific members of the cAMP Response Element Binding protein gene family. Using systems-level analyses, this study advances our understanding of human neuroplasticity and its genetic underpinnings following sensory deprivation.

[Differences in early visual cerebral processing in children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorders with predominance of no attention]. / Diferencias en procesamiento cerebral visual temprano en niños con trastornos del déficit de atención.

To evaluate attentional processes to visual stimuli that do not require motor response, a study with evoked potentials was carried out on 17 children with attention deficit disorder predominantly inattentive (ADDH-I) and 15 controls between the ages of 7 and 11 years. The latency and localization of sources of the early visual evoked potentials P100 and N100 were analyzed during the performance of a visual oddball task (20% horizontal and 80% vertical lines) where the vertical lines did not require motor response. The results indicate that ADDH-I group process visual information that does not require motor response with a greater increase in brain activity and through the ventral temporal pathway, while the control group does so by means of the dorsal parietal stream. This neurobiological process of visual information processing by ventral temporal pathway of ADDH-I group could be due to alterations in emotional processes that directly influence visual recognition or as consequence of deficit in the control of attentional processes by the dorsal parietal pathway.

Para evaluar los procesos atencionales a estímulos visuales que no requieren repuesta motora, se llevó a cabo un estudio con potenciales evocados a 17 niños con trastornos del déficit de atención/ hiperactividad (TDAH-I) con predominio inatento y a 15 controles de edades entre 7 y 11 años. Se analizó la latencia y localización de fuentes de los potenciales evocados visuales tempranos P100 y N100 durante la realización de una tarea oddball visual (20% rayas horizontales y 80% verticales) en que las rayas verticales no exigían respuesta motora. Los resultados indican que los niños con TDAH-I procesan la información visual que no requiere respuesta motora con un mayor aumento de la actividad cerebral y mediante la vía temporal ventral mientras que el grupo control lo hace mediante la vía parietal dorsal. Este proceso neurobiológico de procesamiento de la información visual vía temporal ventral de los niños con TDAH-I podría deberse a alteraciones en los procesos emocionales que influyen directamente en el reconocimiento visual o a un déficit en el control de los procesos atencionales por parte de la vía parietal dorsal.

Effect of the HERVAT neuroeducational program on evoked potential P300 in children with attention deficit disorder.

INTRODUCTION: Attention deficit disorder (ADD) has been investigated from various perspectives. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this condition remain unknown. Evoked potentials, including P300, can be used to investigate the processes underlying deficient attentional and cognitive functions in children with ADD. METHODS: In this study, we analyze the effect of a neuroeducational program, HERVAT (Hidratación [hydration], Equilibrio [balance], Respiración [breathing], Visión [vision], Audición [hearing], Tacto [touch]), on evoked potential P300 in a group of children aged 7-11 years with ADD. RESULTS: At the end of the study, the latency of P300 improved and brain activity was reorganized toward frontal areas in children with ADD who undertook the HERVAT program. In the control group, on the other hand, the latency of P300 and the posterior cortical areas remained unchanged during tests to discriminate between multisensory stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the neuroeducational program HERVAT effectively shortened the latency of evoked potential P300, which is responsible for information processing in the brain, and reorganized brain activity from posterior areas toward frontal cortical areas, which are responsible for the attentional processes involved in executive function.

Occipital cortex activation by long-term repetitive tactile stimulation is necessary for object recognition in blinds: a case report.

Tactile vision has been approached from a variety of angles using different techniques. So far, a certain kind of object (and text) recognition has been shown, though seeing as such has not been achieved yet, and it remains unclear. Trough repetitive passive tactile stimulation perceptual processing is transferred from temporo-parietal to occipital areas, which affects object recognition. We report the results of passive tactile stimulation, as well as rTMS, applied to a 50 year old left handed blind male with over 97% loss of vision, who suffers from Peter's anomaly and microphthalmia. After 15 weeks of passive tactile stimulation, the subject showed increased activity in occipital areas associated with the development of visual-like perception which remained unchanged after three months without passive tactile stimulation. Inhibitory rTMS over the visual cortex led to noticeable reduction of spatial recognition performance and visual sensations in this subject. Stable changes in occipital cortical activity can be associated with subjective sensations of seeing. Once occipital activation has been achieved, it is necessary for spatial object recognition. Both facts highlight the implication of occipital areas in tactile vision and the cortical plasticity of passive tactile long-term stimulation in people with blindness.

Deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder: is the side relevant?

BACKGROUND: Deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has targeted several subcortical nuclei, including the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and the nucleus accumbens. While the most appropriate target is still being looked for, little attention has been given to the side of the stimulated hemisphere in relationship to outcome. METHODS: We report 2 patients diagnosed with OCD, one having symmetry obsessions and the other one with sexual-religious obsessive thoughts. They were implanted bilaterally with deep electrodes located at both STN and nuclei accumbens. The effectiveness of the stimulation was tested for every possible paired combination of electrodes guided by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score reduction. RESULTS: In both cases, the combination of electrodes which best relieved the OCD symptoms was both the left STN and left accumbens. In case 1, the preoperative Y-BOCS score was 33, and 1 month after stimulation it was 16. In case 2, the Y-BOCS scores were 33 and 3, respectively, with the patient being free of obsessions. CONCLUSION: Some reports suggest that lesion stimulation or stimulation of only the right side relieves OCD symptoms. However, anatomical and functional studies are not conclusive as to which side is most affected in OCD. Possibly, each OCD patient has an individualized optimal side to stimulate.

The quality of vital statistics for studying perinatal health: the Spanish case.

BACKGROUND: Birthweight and gestational age are key indicators for perinatal health obtained through the birth certificate. Knowing the validity of birth certificate data is crucial when identifying needs and evaluating birth outcomes. In Spain, vital information is reported by parents and is not checked for consistency with any hospital document. Therefore, to perform a validation study and describe the variables associated with misreporting is essential to improve the quality of birth certificates. METHODS: A database was created using birth information from hospital medical records that were individually linked with the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) birth certificate files. Measures of reliability and validity were used to compare the data from the two sources. Logistic regression models were adjusted to model the odds of being misreported in birthweight and gestational age, controlling for relevant variables. RESULTS: INE overestimated the prevalence of birthweight and gestational age. The degree of agreement between the two sources was good for most gestational age groups (Kappa = 0.74), very good for the very preterm (Kappa = 0.85) and very good also for all categories of birthweight (Kappa = 0.88). Misreporting was significantly higher among immigrants, unmarried mothers and girls. Being a preterm birth increased the odds of being declared with errors in gestational age; having low birthweight and missing information on gestational age were associated with misreporting birthweight. CONCLUSIONS: The reliability of INE information could be greatly improved if hospitals included birthweight and gestational age on the document provided to parents for registering the birth.

rTMS stimulation to induce plastic changes at the language motor area in a patient with a left recidivant brain tumor affecting Broca's area.

INTRODUCTION: Extent of resection is one of the most powerful predictors of outcome in surgery of gliomas. Tumors located within areas governing eloquence may impede a total tumor resection. Functional plasticity may be induced by therapeutic means, such as cortical stimulation with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Thus, rTMS is a potential tool to induce an improvement of functions of eloquence menaced by brain tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We report a case of a 59-year-old woman operated for a left sided precentral oligodendroglioma with awake intraoperative stimulation, whose tumor could not be completely removed because it affected areas governing language. Nine months later the tumor progressed and the motor language functions worsened. We submitted the patient to rTMS directed to Broca's area, next to the anterior pole of the tumor, with the aim of improving motor language function before a new tumor resection attempt. We performed 12 daily sessions of theta-burst rTMS followed by intensive language rehabilitation for 10 minutes, and 5 different aspects of language were measured before, immediately after and 10 minutes after each session. RESULTS: Repetition and nomination worsened immediately after each rTMS session, and improved after 10 min of rehabilitation. However, basal values improved globally along the experiment. Also, the impact of rTMS on motor language was increasingly less along the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: rTMS induces changes in Broca's area and this effect can be potentially used to improve language function in tumors located at or close to eloquent cortical areas.

Sex-related similarities and differences in the neural correlates of beauty.

The capacity to appreciate beauty is one of our species' most remarkable traits. Although knowledge about its neural correlates is growing, little is known about any gender-related differences. We have explored possible differences between men and women's neural correlates of aesthetic preference. We have used magnetoencephalography to record the brain activity of 10 male and 10 female participants while they decided whether or not they considered examples of artistic and natural visual stimuli to be beautiful. Our results reveal significantly different activity between the sexes in parietal regions when participants judged the stimuli as beautiful. Activity in this region was bilateral in women, whereas it was lateralized to the right hemisphere in men. It is known that the dorsal visual processing stream, which encompasses the superior parietal areas, has been significantly modified throughout human evolution. We posit that the observed gender-related differences are the result of evolutionary processes that occurred after the splitting of the human and chimpanzee lineages. In view of previous results on gender differences with respect to the neural correlates of coordinate and categorical spatial strategies, we infer that the different strategies used by men and women in assessing aesthetic preference may reflect differences in the strategies associated with the division of labor between our male and female hunter-gatherer hominin ancestors.

The Parietal Lobe in Alzheimer's Disease and Blindness.

The progressive aging of the population will notably increase the burden of those diseases which leads to a disabling situation, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and ophthalmological diseases that cause a visual impairment (VI). Eye diseases that cause a VI raise neuroplastic processes in the parietal lobe. Meanwhile, the aforementioned lobe suffers a severe decline throughout AD. From this perspective, diving deeper into the particularities of the parietal lobe is of paramount importance. In this article, we discuss the functions of the parietal lobe, review the parietal anatomical and pathophysiological peculiarities in AD, and also describe some of the changes in the parietal region that occur after VI. Although the alterations in the hippocampus and the temporal lobe have been well documented in AD, the alterations of the parietal lobe have been less thoroughly explored. Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed that some metabolic and perfusion impairments along with a reduction of the white and grey matter could take place in the parietal lobe during AD. Conversely, it has been speculated that blinding ocular diseases induce a remodeling of the parietal region which is observable through the improvement of the integration of multimodal stimuli and in the increase of the volume of this cortical region. Based on current findings concerning the parietal lobe in both pathologies, we hypothesize that the increased activity of the parietal lobe in people with VI may diminish the neurodegeneration of this brain region in those who are visually impaired by oculardiseases.

The Latin America Early Career Earth System Scientist Network (LAECESS): addressing present and future challenges of the upcoming generations of scientists in the region.

Early career (EC) Earth system scientists in the Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC) have been facing several issues, such as limited funding opportunities, substandard scientific facilities, lack of security of tenure, and unrepresented groups equality issues. On top of this, the worsening regional environmental and climatic crises call for the need for this new generation of scientists to help to tackle these crises by increasing public awareness and research. Realizing the need to converge and step up in making a collective action to be a part of the solution, the Latin America Early Career Earth System Scientist Network (LAECESS) was created in 2016. LAECESS's primary goals are to promote regional networking, foster integrated and interdisciplinary science, organize soft skills courses and workshops, and empower Latin American EC researchers. This article is an initial step towards letting the global science community grasp the current situation and hear the early career LAC science community's perspectives. The paper also presents a series of future steps needed for better scientific and social development in the LAC region.

The correlation between white-matter microstructure and the complexity of spontaneous brain activity: a difussion tensor imaging-MEG study.

The advent of new signal processing methods, such as non-linear analysis techniques, represents a new perspective which adds further value to brain signals' analysis. Particularly, Lempel-Ziv's Complexity (LZC) has proven to be useful in exploring the complexity of the brain electromagnetic activity. However, an important problem is the lack of knowledge about the physiological determinants of these measures. Although a correlation between complexity and connectivity has been proposed, this hypothesis was never tested in vivo. Thus, the correlation between the microstructure of the anatomic connectivity and the functional complexity of the brain needs to be inspected. In this study we analyzed the correlation between LZC and fractional anisotropy (FA), a scalar quantity derived from diffusion tensors that is particularly useful as an estimate of the functional integrity of myelinated axonal fibers, in a group of sixteen healthy adults (all female, mean age 65.56±6.06 years, intervals 58-82). Our results showed a positive correlation between FA and LZC scores in regions including clusters in the splenium of the corpus callosum, cingulum, parahipocampal regions and the sagittal stratum. This study supports the notion of a positive correlation between the functional complexity of the brain and the microstructure of its anatomical connectivity. Our investigation proved that a combination of neuroanatomical and neurophysiological techniques may shed some light on the underlying physiological determinants of brain's oscillations.

Reorganization of functional connectivity as a correlate of cognitive recovery in acquired brain injury.

Cognitive processes require a functional interaction between specialized multiple, local and remote brain regions. Although these interactions can be strongly altered by an acquired brain injury, brain plasticity allows network reorganization to be principally responsible for recovery. The present work evaluates the impact of brain injury on functional connectivity patterns. Networks were calculated from resting-state magnetoencephalographic recordings from 15 brain injured patients and 14 healthy controls by means of wavelet coherence in standard frequency bands. We compared the parameters defining the network, such as number and strength of interactions as well as their topology, in controls and patients for two conditions: following a traumatic brain injury and after a rehabilitation treatment. A loss of delta- and theta-based connectivity and conversely an increase in alpha- and beta-band-based connectivity were found. Furthermore, connectivity parameters approached controls in all frequency bands, especially in slow-wave bands. A correlation between network reorganization and cognitive recovery was found: the reduction of delta-band-based connections and the increment of those based on alpha band correlated with Verbal Fluency scores, as well as Perceptual Organization and Working Memory Indexes, respectively. Additionally, changes in connectivity values based on theta and beta bands correlated with the Patient Competency Rating Scale. The current study provides new evidence of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying neuronal plasticity processes after brain injury, and suggests that these changes are related with observed changes at the behavioural level.

Perception, experience and body identity.

Physician has to know the patient in the disease and not only the disease in the patient, from the dual perspective of the body as object and the body as subject. This also affects the patient who has to cope with the reality of having a body that bursts into the subject's consciousness as a vital threat, as source of discomfort and inability and being a body (Marcel). The human body in its dual aspect has been and is a great unknown, if not a great outrage in spite of the fact that we are our body and our body is each of us. We sometimes do not feel as we are and thus a confrontation arises, sometimes more normal, others more morbid. This forces the physician to face complex ethics considerations and the scientist to accept a personal identity disorder. Dualism considers that there are two substances in us, one that distinguishes us from other beings and from the rest of the individuals of the human species, the soul, the psychic life, mind or consciousness, and another more insubstancial one, the body. The aim of the first substance is to dominate the body, to survive it after death when it is, already a corpse is meant to become putrefied, is buried, incinerated or thrown to the depth of the sea. This dualism aims to explain the origin of the evil and the attitude to defeat it and it does so efficiently. This anthropology has very ancient roots (the Upvanishads, in the orphic texts, in Plato), it is the core of Gnostic thought and the foundation of the modern science since Descartes. Some monist perspectives are a masked dualism or a mereologic fallacy, according to which, the brain is conscious, when that what is conscious is the subject, although the subject, with the brain could not be conscious. Therefore, a new perspective is proposed, chiasmatic or janicular monism, that considers the adaptive value of focusing on the reality from two perspectives, as physical universe and the world of interpersonal relationships. In the agnosias and in the phantom limb there is a confrontation between the body object and the body subject that has made it possible to investigate how the perception of the own body is and how the brain generates the schema and the body image. The study of the body experience, from the phenomenology and the anthropological psychiatry perspective, has made it possible to go greater in-depth into the knowledge of the alterations of the experience of the own body in different mental diseases, especially in those in which a confrontation between the body and the personal identity arises makes it necessary to consider the process of individual identification and a category of personal identity disorders that would include body dysmorphic disorder, erythrophobia, anorexia nervosa, body integrity identity as well as the gender-type disorders (transsexualism, nonfetishistic transvestism, gender identity disorder during childhood). Key words: Dualism, Monism, Agnosia, Phantom limb, Cenesthesia, Body schema, Body image, Body experience, Personal identity disorders, Body dysmorphic disorder, Anorexia nervosa, Personal integrity identity disorder.

Connectivity adaptations in dopaminergic systems define the brain maturity of investors.

Investment decisions rely on perceptions from external stimuli along with the integration of inner brain-body signals, all of which are shaped by experience. As experience is capable of molding both the structure and function of the human brain, we have used a novel neuroimaging connectomic-genetic approach to investigate the influence of investment work experience on brain anatomy. We found that senior investors display higher gray matter volume and increased structural brain connectivity in dopamine-related pathways, as well as a set of genes functionally associated with adrenaline and noradrenaline biosynthesis (SLC6A3, TH and SLC18A2), which is seemingly involved in reward processing and bodily stress responses during financial trading. These results suggest the key role of catecholamines in the way senior investors harness their emotions while raising bodily awareness as they grow in investment maturity.

Complexity analysis of spontaneous brain activity in Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment: an MEG study.

Nonlinear analyses have shown that Alzheimer disease (AD) patients' brain activity is characterized by a reduced complexity and connectivity. The aim of this study is to define complexity patterns of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients. Whole-head magnetoencephalography recordings were obtained from 18 diagnosed AD patients, 18 MCI patients, and 18 healthy controls during resting conditions. Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC) values were calculated. MCI patients exhibited intermediary LZC scores between AD patients and controls. A combination of age and posterior LZC scores allowed ADs-MCIs discrimination with 94.4% sensitivity and specificity, whereas no LZC score allowed MCIs---controls discrimination. AD patients and controls showed a parallel tendency to diminished LZC scores as a function of age, but MCI patients did not exhibit such "normal" tendency. Accordingly, anterior LZC scores allowed MCIs-controls discrimination for subjects below 75 years. MCIs exhibited a qualitatively distinct relationship between aging and complexity reduction, with scores higher than controls in older individuals. This fact might be considered a new example of compensatory mechanism in MCI before fully established dementia.

Structural and functional patterns in healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer disease.

The aim of this study was to analyze the combined contribution of magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. To whole-head MEG recordings were obtained from three diagnosis groups: Alzheimer disease (AD), MCI, and control. Magnetic resonance imaging volumetric data of global brain, temporal lobe, and hippocampal volumes, were also obtained. Results indicated that a reduction of volume in the hippocampal structure allowed the discrimination between AD and MCI patients as compared with controls. The percentage of correct classification was 91.3% when AD versus controls was compared, and 83.3% when we compared MCI versus control. MEG data showed that AD patients exhibit higher theta and delta activity than MCI and controls. Such higher activity was significant in parietal, temporal, and occipital areas. Left parietal theta classified controls versus MCIs with 78.3% rate of correct classification. Right occipital theta and the left parietal delta allowed the discrimination of controls versus ADs, with 81.8% rate of correct classification. Left parietal theta discriminated between ADs and MCIs with 56.6% rate of correct classification. In addition, the combination of both techniques significantly improved the rate of correct classification, thus indicating that a multidisciplinary perspective of techniques may improve the diagnostic capabilities.

Vital satisfaction as a health indicator in elderly women.

The long life expentancy of the elderly motivates interest in their quality of life. Our study analyzes vital satisfaction as a global indicator of the three dimensions (physical, mental, and social) of the quality of life in relation to health. The subjects were 310 women, with an average age of 71.22 years old (SD 6.72), with minimum education, and active aging. The reliability was examined with the COOP-WONCA Charts and the Nottingham Health Profile. The results show that vital satisfaction significantly correlates with the three dimensions of health, in particular with the mental domain.

Limitations of Standard Accessible Captioning of Sounds and Music for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People: An EEG Study.

Captioning is the process of transcribing speech and acoustical information into text to help deaf and hard of hearing people accessing to the auditory track of audiovisual media. In addition to the verbal transcription, it includes information such as sound effects, speaker identification, or music tagging. However, it just takes into account a limited spectrum of the whole acoustic information available in the soundtrack, and hence, an important amount of emotional information is lost when attending just to the normative compliant captions. In this article, it is shown, by means of behavioral and EEG measurements, how emotional information related to sounds and music used by the creator in the audiovisual work is perceived differently by normal hearing group and hearing disabled group when applying standard captioning. Audio and captions activate similar processing areas, respectively, in each group, although not with the same intensity. Moreover, captions require higher activation of voluntary attentional circuits, as well as language-related areas. Captions transcribing musical information increase attentional activity, instead of emotional processing.