Neurotransplantation Therapy and Cerebellar Reserve

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Cendelin ◽  
Hiroshi Mitoma ◽  
Mario Manto
Keyword(s):  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
The Self ◽  
Regenerative Processes ◽  
Recovery Capacity ◽  
Cerebellar Ataxias ◽  
Synaptic Formation ◽  
Target Recovery ◽  
Cerebellar Anatomy ◽  
Functional Circuitry

Background & Objective: Neurotransplantation has been recently the focus of interest as a promising therapy to substitute lost cerebellar neurons and improve cerebellar ataxias. However, since cell differentiation and synaptic formation are required to obtain a functional circuitry, highly integrated reproduction of cerebellar anatomy is not a simple process. Rather than a genuine replacement, recent studies have shown that grafted cells rescue surviving cells from neurodegeneration by exerting trophic effects, supporting mitochondrial function, modulating neuroinflammation, stimulating endogenous regenerative processes, and facilitating cerebellar compensatory properties thanks to neural plasticity. On the other hand, accumulating clinical evidence suggests that the self-recovery capacity is still preserved even if the cerebellum is affected by a diffuse and progressive pathology. We put forward the period with intact recovery capacity as “restorable stage” and the notion of reversal capacity as “cerebellar reserve”. Conclusion: The concept of cerebellar reserve is particularly relevant, both theoretically and practically, to target recovery of cerebellar deficits by neurotransplantation. Reinforcing the cerebellar reserve and prolonging the restorable stage can be envisioned as future endpoints of neurotransplantation.

scholarly journals Improving the performance of the amblyopic visual system

2008 ◽  
Vol 364 (1515) ◽  
pp. 399-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis M Levi ◽  
Roger W Li
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
Sensory Function ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Visual Improvement ◽  
Perceptual Performance ◽  
Effectiveness And Efficiency

Experience-dependent plasticity is closely linked with the development of sensory function; however, there is also growing evidence for plasticity in the adult visual system. This review re-examines the notion of a sensitive period for the treatment of amblyopia in the light of recent experimental and clinical evidence for neural plasticity. One recently proposed method for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of treatment that has received considerable attention is ‘perceptual learning’. Specifically, both children and adults with amblyopia can improve their perceptual performance through extensive practice on a challenging visual task. The results suggest that perceptual learning may be effective in improving a range of visual performance and, importantly, the improvements may transfer to visual acuity. Recent studies have sought to explore the limits and time course of perceptual learning as an adjunct to occlusion and to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the visual improvement. These findings, along with the results of new clinical trials, suggest that it might be time to reconsider our notions about neural plasticity in amblyopia.

Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juewon Khwarg ◽  
Daniel A. Fung ◽  
Corey Hunter ◽  
Timothy T. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Platelet Rich Plasma ◽  
Direct Application ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Regenerative Processes ◽  
Autologous Plasma ◽  
The Past ◽  
Preparation Techniques ◽  
Insight Into

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous plasma suspension enriched with a supraphysiologic concentrate of platelets, isolated through a process of centrifugation. Administered locally (usually by injection or direct application) to areas of injury, PRP contains a high density of growth factors, which are believed to potentiate the body’s natural regenerative processes. Over the past 20 years, interest in PRP therapy has grown exponentially, as it offers a relatively safe, autologous treatment modality. It has gained particular popularity for a wide variety of musculoskeletal pathologies. There is a growing body of scientific literature that is giving further insight into PRP’s therapeutic effects. This chapter will review the history, preparation techniques, basic science justifications, current clinical evidence, as well as procedural considerations for the therapeutic use of PRP.

Non-invasive Cerebellar Stimulation in Cerebellar Disorders

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Di Nuzzo ◽  
Fabiana Ruggiero ◽  
Francesca Cortese ◽  
Ilaria Cova ◽  
Alberto Priori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Cortical Excitability ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Neurological Diseases ◽  
Pharmacological Treatments ◽  
Cerebellar Dysfunction ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Cerebellar Ataxias ◽  
Cerebellar Disorders ◽  
Cerebellar Stimulation

Background & Objective: Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) might be a valuable therapeutic approach for neurological diseases by modifying the cortical activity in the human brain and promoting neural plasticity. Currently, researchers are exploring the use of NIBS on the cerebellum to promote functional neural changes in cerebellar disorders. Conclusion: In the presence of cerebellar dysfunction, several movement disorders, such as kinetic tremor, ataxia of gait, limb dysmetria and oculomotor deficits, become progressively more disabling in daily life, and no pharmacological treatments currently exist. Conclusion: In the present mini-review, we report the main evidence concerning the use of NIBS in three specific cerebellar dysfunctions, cerebellar ataxias (CA), essential tremor (ET) and ataxic cerebral palsy, in which abnormalities of neuroplasticity and cortical excitability can be important pathophysiological factors.

Hardwired

2020 ◽  
pp. 108-132
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fein
Keyword(s):  
Support Groups ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
The Self ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Clinical Ethnography ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Molecular Modulation

Sociologist Nikolas Rose has posited the emergence of a “neurochemical self” organized around the assumption that our personal characteristics, moods and desires arise from our brain chemicals, and are amenable to molecular modulation through psychiatric drugs. Drawing on clinical ethnography of a series of support groups run by and for individuals diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and other autism spectrum conditions, this chapter charts the emergence of a contrasting model of the “neurostructural” self, oriented around the concept of developmental disability and its presumption of fixed innateness and lifelong course. In rejecting the demands for flexibility and adaptation entailed in neurochemical selfhood, this counterdiscourse of hardwired genetic and synaptic brain structure functions as a form of resistance against the demand for constant fluidity and change that characterizes late modernity. However, its core assumptions of a self that is fixed and inalterable are increasingly threatened by the ascendance of neural plasticity as a new mode of both conceptualizing and intervening on the self.

scholarly journals The Target Recovery Strategy for Preventing Avalanche Breakdown on Interdependent Community Networks

Complexity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Kai Gong ◽  
Yu Huang ◽  
Xiao-long Chen ◽  
Qing Li ◽  
Ming Tang
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Giant Component ◽  
Community Networks ◽  
Avalanche Breakdown ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Community Structures ◽  
Recovery Strategy ◽  
Recovery Model ◽  
Size Of Giant Component ◽  
Target Recovery

Many real infrastructure systems such as power grids and communication networks across cities not only depend on each other but also have community structures. This observation derives a new research subject of the interdependent community networks (ICNs). Recent works showed that the ICNs are extremely vulnerable to the failure of interconnected nodes between communities. Such vulnerability is prone to cause avalanche breakdown of the ICNs. How to improve the robustness of ICNs remains a challenge. In this paper, we propose a new target recovery strategy in the self-awareness recovery model, called recovery strategy based on community structures (RCS). The self-awareness recovery model repairs and reactivates the original pair of failed nodes that belong to mutual boundary of networks during cascading failures. The key insight is that the RCS explicitly considers both intercommunity links and intracommunity links. In this paper, we compare RCS with the state-of-the-art approaches based on randomness, degree centrality, and local centrality. We find that the RCS outperforms the other three strategies on the size of giant component, the existence probability of giant component, the number of iterative cascade steps, and the average degree of the remaining network. Moreover, RCS is robust against a given noise, and the optimal parameter of RCS remains stable even if the recovery ratio varies.

Psychotherapy, clinical evidence, and the self-fulfilling prophecy.

1987 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Masling ◽  
Ira S. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
The Self

Habits of Transformation

Hypatia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Cuffari
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Habit Formation ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
The Self ◽  
Existential Phenomenology ◽  
Ethical Significance

This essay argues that according to feminist existential phenomenology, feminist pragmatism, and feminist genealogy, our embodied condition is an important starting place for ethical living due to the inevitable role that habits play in our conduct. In bodies, the phenomenon of habit uniquely holds together the ambiguities of freedom and determinism, transcendence and immanence, and stability and plasticity. Seeing habit formation as a matter of self-growth and social justice gives fresh opportunity for thinking of “assuming ambiguity” as a lifelong endeavor made up of many small projects and practices of situated resistance to stagnation. Transcendence, understood as ameliorative transformation, is found in cultivating habits of learning from our bodily living. I articulate this argument via a reading of Simone de Beauvoir's The Coming of Age, John Dewey's Human Nature and Conduct, and Ladelle McWhorter's Bodies and Pleasures. I discuss two domains wherein the ethical significance of habit formation appears: cognitive psychological research on neural plasticity, and certain projects of self-cultivation that risk turning into overdetermining “cult of the self” practices that close off possibilities for personal and collective transformation.

scholarly journals Experimental Investigation on Bending Behavior of Existing RC Beam Retrofitted with SMA-ECC Composites Materials

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Hui Qian ◽  
Qingyuan Zhang ◽  
Xun Zhang ◽  
Enfeng Deng ◽  
Jundong Gao
Keyword(s):  
Reinforced Concrete ◽  
Reinforced Concrete Beam ◽  
High Energy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Reinforced Concrete Beams ◽  
Rc Beam ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Recovery Capacity ◽  
Section Area ◽  
Bending Behavior

In order to realize the self-centering, high energy consumption, and high ductility of the existing building structure through strengthening and retrofit of structure, a method of reinforced concrete (RC) beam strengthened by using Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) and Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) was proposed. Four kinds of specimens were designed, including one beam strengthened with enlarging section area of steel reinforced concrete, one beam strengthened with enlarging section area of SMA reinforced concrete, beam strengthened with enlarging section area of SMA reinforced ECC, and beam strengthened with enlarging section area of steel reinforced ECC; these specimens were manufactured for the monotonic cycle loading tests study on its bending behavior. The influence on the bearing capacity, energy dissipation performance, and self-recovery capacity for each test specimens with different strengthening materials were investigated, especially the bending behavior of the beams strengthened by SMA reinforced ECC. The results show that, compared with the ordinary reinforced concrete beams, strengthening existing RC beam with enlarging section area of SMA reinforced ECC can improve the self-recovery capacity, ductility, and deformability of the specimens. Finally, a revised design formula for the bending capacity of RC beams, strengthened with enlarging sections of ECC, was proposed by considering the tensile capacity provided by ECC, and the calculated values are in good agreement with the experimental value, indicating that the revised formula can be well applied to the beam strengthening with enlarging section of SMA-ECC Materials.

Problem behavior in autism spectrum disorders: A paradigmatic self-organized perspective of network structures

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucio Tonello ◽  
Luca Giacobbi ◽  
Alberto Pettenon ◽  
Alessandro Scuotto ◽  
Massimo Cocchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
The Self ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Critical Equilibrium ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
Acute Agitation ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) subjects can present temporary behaviors of acute agitation and aggressiveness, named problem behaviors. They have been shown to be consistent with the self-organized criticality (SOC), a model wherein occasionally occurring “catastrophic events” are necessary in order to maintain a self-organized “critical equilibrium.” The SOC can represent the psychopathology network structures and additionally suggests that they can be considered as self-organized systems.

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