Right Superior Temporal Gyrus Altered Functional Activity in Patients With Definite Vestibular Migraine

The study aimed to investigate resting-state functional brain activity alterations in patients with definite vestibular migraine (dVM). Seventeen patients with dVM, 8 patients with migraine, 17 health controls (HCs) were recruited. The amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF), fractional ALFF (fALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) were calculated to observe the changes in spontaneous brain activity. Then brain regions with altered fALFF were selected for seed-based functional connectivity analysis. Compared with HCs, VM patients showed significantly increased ALFF values in the right temporal lobe (Cluster size = 91 voxels, P=0.002, FWE corrected), and significantly increased ReHo values in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG), middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) (Cluster size = 136 voxels, P=0.013, FWE corrected). Compared with patients with migraine, patients with VM showed significantly increased fALFF values in the right parietal lobe (Cluster size = 43 voxels, P=0.011, FWE corrected) and right frontal lobe (Cluster size =36 voxels, P=0.026, FWE corrected), significantly increased ReHo values in the right thalamus (Cluster size = 92 voxels, P=0.043, FWE corrected). Our findings documented that patients with VM showed enhanced spontaneous functional activity in the right temporal lobe (STG, MTG, and ITG) compared with HCs, and increased spontaneous activity in the right parietal lobe-frontal lobe-thalamus compared with patients with migraine. Patients with VM and migraine both had altered brain function, but the regions involved are different.

EEG characteristic investigation of the sixth-finger motor imagery and optimal channel selection for classification

Objective. Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRL) are body augmentation robotic devices by adding extra limbs or fingers to the human body different from the traditional wearable robotic devices such as prosthesis and exoskeleton. We proposed a novel MI (Motor imagery)-based BCI paradigm based on the sixth-finger which imagines controlling the extra finger movements. The goal of this work is to investigate the EEG characteristics and the application potential of MI-based BCI systems based on the new imagination paradigm (the sixth finger MI). Approach. 14 subjects participated in the experiment involving the sixth finger MI tasks and rest state. Event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) was adopted to analyse EEG spatial features and key-channel time-frequency features. Common spatial patterns (CSP) were used for feature extraction and classification was implemented by support vector machine (SVM). A genetic algorithm (GA) was used to select combinations of EEG channels that maximized classification accuracy and verified EEG patterns based on the sixth finger MI. And we conducted a longitudinal 4-week EEG control experiment based on the new paradigm. Main results. ERD (event-related desynchronization) was found in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and primary motor area (M1) with a faint contralateral dominance. Unlike traditional MI based on the human hand, ERD was also found in frontal lobe. GA results showed that the distribution of the optimal 8-channel is similar to EEG topographical distributions, nearing parietal and frontal lobe. And the classification accuracy based on the optimal 8-channel (the highest accuracy of 80% and mean accuracy of 70%) was significantly better than that based on the random 8-channel (p<0.01). Significance. This work provided a new paradigm for MI-based MI system and verified its feasibility, widened the control bandwidth of the BCI system.

Brenda Milner: Pioneer of the Study of the Human Frontal Lobes

Although the behavioral effects of damage to the frontal lobes date back to at least the late 19th century even midway through the 20th century very little was known about human frontal lobe function and there was a general consensus that the frontal lobe did not play a key role in cognition. This all changed when Brenda Milner published a chapter in a 1964 volume entitled: The Frontal Granular Cortex and Behavior. Milner’s chapter, “Some effects of frontal lobectomy in man,” was the first systematic study of the effect of frontal lobe excisions on cognition in human patients. Milner had access to a unique population of frontal excision patients at the Montreal Neurological Institute that were being treated by Wilder Penfield and his associates for a wide range of neurological disorders, including intractable epilepsy. Milner and her colleagues engaged in a more than 50-year study that has had a formidable impact on our understanding of frontal lobe function. Paralleling studies of frontal lobe function in non-humans they influence on understanding the evolution and function of the prefrontal cortex of mammals. Thus, although Brenda Milner is best known for her studies of human memory, she has had an equally important contribution to our understanding of the frontal lobes.

The Effects of Facial Exercise on Mental Health, Facial Expression and EEG in Community-Dwelling Older People

Although it is well documented that exercising is good for the mental health and cognitive function as well as the physical condition in elderly people, exercising is difficult in elderly individuals with a low motor function. To develop an exercise program targeting elderly individuals unsuited for whole-body exercises, we assessed the effects of facial exercises on the mental health and mood in healthy elderly people. Community-dwelling older adults (N = 75, age range = 65-87 yrs) were randomly divided into a facial exercises group and a wait-listed control group. A facial exercises program of 30 min was given twice a week for 12 weeks. This program consisted of rhythmic facial movement, muscle stretching, facial yoga, and Tanden breathing. The GHQ-12 for mental health were administered to both groups before and after the 12-week study period. In addition, facial expression and EEG were measured. Fifty-three participants completed the protocol. In the intervention group, the GHQ-12, facial expression, and α wave in frontal lobe improved post-intervention. These results suggest that facial exercises are effective in improving the mental health, facial expression, α wave in frontal lobe of elderly people, and that exercises may be useful as a therapeutic modality in this population.

The Effects of Facial Exercise on Mental Health, Facial Expression and EEG in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Although it is well documented that exercising is good for the mental health and cognitive function as well as the physical condition in elderly people, exercising is difficult in elderly individuals with a low motor function. To develop an exercise program targeting elderly individuals unsuited for whole-body exercises, we assessed the effects of facial exercises on the mental health and mood in healthy elderly people. Community-dwelling older adults (N = 75, age range = 65-87 yrs) were randomly divided into a facial exercises group and a wait-listed control group. A facial exercises program of 30 min was given twice a week for 12 weeks. This program consisted of rhythmic facial movement, muscle stretching, facial yoga, and Tanden breathing. The GHQ-12 for mental health were administered to both groups before and after the 12-week study period. In addition, facial expression and EEG were measured. Fifty-three participants completed the protocol. In the intervention group, the GHQ-12, facial expression, and α wave in frontal lobe improved post-intervention. These results suggest that facial exercises are effective in improving the mental health, facial expression, α wave in frontal lobe of elderly people, and that exercises may be useful as a therapeutic modality in this population.

Cognitive ageing: 20 years process

Background: People with normal functionality have normal cognitive changes associated with the ageing process while many people age without cognitive decline. The most exact effects of age are cognitive impairments in learning, memory, and problem solving. These age-related effects slightly increase or do not change for many years, and do not affect the daily life activities of the person. Methods: To investigate age-related cognitive effects, detailed cognitive evaluations were compared with 20 years intervals in 7 (seven) elderly individuals at Haydarpaşa Numune Training and Research Hospital in 2019. These individuals are continuing daily life activities and sociocultural relations independently. Mini-mental state examination, verbal memory processes test and visual memory test-Wechsler memory scale for memory processes, digit span test for attention function, verbal fluency, similarities, stroop, and trail-making test for the evaluation of frontal lobe functions, Benton’s line direction determination test for the visuospatial organization have been applied to individuals. Results: In comparison with the cognitive test results applied twenty years ago; immediate memory impairment is evident, abstraction and attention function are relatively less affected. The tests showing the frontal lobe function, the verbal fluency which also reflects the vocabulary information is less affected, while the cognitive impairment is more in consecutive-complex processes. Conclusion: Cognitive functions based on attention, vocabulary and knowledge are substantially preserved with mild improvement in normal ageing. The most important improvement is on executive functions due to the decrease in motor and cognitive processing speed in cases where complex information needs to be processed.