CHIASM, the human brain albinism and achiasma MRI dataset

We describe a collection of T1-, diffusion- and functional T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data from human individuals with albinism and achiasma. This repository can be used as a test-bed to develop and validate tractography methods like diffusion-signal modeling and fiber tracking as well as to investigate the properties of the human visual system in individuals with congenital abnormalities. The MRI data is provided together with tools and files allowing for its preprocessing and analysis, along with the data derivatives such as manually curated masks and regions of interest for performing tractography.

Shared neural codes for visual and semantic information about familiar faces in a common representational space

Processes evoked by seeing a personally familiar face encompass recognition of visual appearance and activation of social and person knowledge. Whereas visual appearance is the same for all viewers, social and person knowledge may be more idiosyncratic. Using between-subject multivariate decoding of hyperaligned functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we investigated whether representations of personally familiar faces in different parts of the distributed neural system for face perception are shared across individuals who know the same people. We found that the identities of both personally familiar and merely visually familiar faces were decoded accurately across brains in the core system for visual processing, but only the identities of personally familiar faces could be decoded across brains in the extended system for processing nonvisual information associated with faces. Our results show that personal interactions with the same individuals lead to shared neural representations of both the seen and unseen features that distinguish their identities.

Optimal confidence for unaware visuomotor deviations

Numerous studies have shown that humans can successfully correct deviations to ongoing movements without being aware of them, suggesting limited conscious monitoring of visuomotor performance. Here, we ask whether such limited monitoring impairs the capacity to judiciously place confidence ratings to reflect decision accuracy (metacognitive sensitivity). To this end, we recorded functional magnetic resonance imaging data while thirty-one participants reported visuomotor cursor deviations and rated their confidence retrospectively. We show that participants use a summary statistic of the unfolding visual feedback (the maximum cursor error) to detect deviations but that this information alone is insufficient to explain detection performance. The same summary statistics is used by participants to optimally adjust their confidence ratings, even for unaware deviations. At the neural level, activity in the ventral striatum tracked high confidence, whereas a broad network including the anterior prefrontal cortex encoded cursor error but not confidence, shedding new light on a role of the anterior prefrontal cortex for action monitoring rather than confidence. Together, our results challenge the notion of limited action monitoring and uncover a new mechanism by which humans optimally monitor their movements as they unfold, even when unaware of ongoing deviations.

The Dimethyl Fumarate Experience: A Handy Drug With Broad Clinical Utility

Objectives: The aim of this study was to characterize multiple sclerosis (MS) patients exposed to dimethyl fumarate (DMF) and to evaluate the predictors of therapeutic response. In addition, the study offers a picture of how DMF use has changed over the past few years in naive or switcher patients.Methods: In this observational monocentric study, we examined the prescription flow of DMF in MS patients categorized as naive or switchers (for safety/tolerability, ineffectiveness, and de-escalation strategy) from 2015 to 2019. Clinical and magnetic resonance imaging data of DMF-treated patients were analyzed, and NEDA-3 status at 24 months was evaluated by the three assessment components (absence of clinical relapses, no Expanded Disability Status Scale progression, no radiological activity). Determinants of therapeutic response were also evaluated using regression analysis.Results: The sample included 595 MS patients exposed to DMF categorized as naive (158; 26.5%) and switchers for reasons of safety/tolerability (198; 33.3%), inefficacy (175; 29.4%), and de-escalation strategy (64; 10.8%). A 15% increase in DMF use in naive and horizontal shift groups was observed in the last 3 years of observation, whereas there was a drop, with prescription passed from ~20% to <5%, as an exit strategy from second-line therapies. NEDA-3 status was calculated for 340 patients after 24 months of DMF treatment and achieved in 188 (55.3%) of these. Analyzing the predictors of DMF response, we observed that lower annualized relapse rate (ARR) in 2 years pretreatment [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.49, p = 0.001] and being naive patients (HR = 1.38, p = 0.035) were associated with achievement of NEDA-3. Analogously, ARR in 2 years pretreatment affected the NEDA-3 achievement at 24 months in patients of the de-escalation group (HR = 0.07, p = 0.041), also indicating an effect related to the DMF initiation within 3 months (HR = 1.24, p = 0.029).Conclusion: Our findings confirm DMF as a handy drug with broad clinical utility, with greater benefits for naive patients and horizontal switchers. Additionally, an increase in the flow of DMF prescriptions in these two groups of patients was also observed in our cohort.