Basic and Clinical Neuroscience

INTRODUCTION: The right and left-hand motor imagery (MI) analysis based on the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal can directly link the central nervous system to a computer or a device. This study aims to identify a set of robust and nonlinear effective brain connectivity features quantified by transfer entropy (TE) to characterize the relationship between brain regions from EEG signals and create a hierarchical feature selection and classification for discrimination of right and lefthand MI tasks...

INTRODUCTION: The study of the relationship between bilingualism and the possible impact it might have on the control aspect of intelligence of adults in general and preschool children, in particular, has always been the subject of controversy for researchers. This research, following the related findings and gaps in the literature and inspired by Craik and Bialystok's (2005) framework, tries to divulge whether bilingualism could be related to the control aspect of intelligence. As our secondary goal, we also tried to see whether there are correlations between different tests assessing control...

INTRODUCTION: Phantom limb pain (PLP) as neuropathic pain affects the life of amputees. It is believed an efficient PLP treatment should consider the underlying neurological mechanisms. Hereby, we investigated brain activity in PLP and its relationships to the psychological and cognitive dimensions of chronic pain. We investigate differences in resting brain activities between amputees with and without pain. We hypothesize significant differences in the motor cortex and parietal cortex activity that are related to pain perception...

INTRODUCTION: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an imaging method in which a light source and detector are installed on the head; consequently, the re-emission of light from human skin contains information about cerebral hemodynamic alteration. The spatial probability distribution profile of photons penetrating tissue at a source spot, scattering into the tissue, and being released at an appropriate detector position, represents the spatial sensitivity. METHODS: Modeling light propagation in a human head is essential for quantitative near-infrared spectroscopy and optical imaging...

INTRODUCTION: Brain atrophy is associated with physical disability in multiple sclerosis (MS), but there is a great variability between different studies and methodologies, and its use is still limited to research projects. We aimed to analyze the relationship between several volumetric measurements and physical disability and cognitive functioning in MS patients in a clinical practice setting. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. A total of 41 patients (31 relapsing-remitting MS, 6 secondary-progressive MS, and 4 primary-progressive MS) were included...

INTRODUCTION: Negative early-life experiences (e.g. having an aggressive father) can leave long-lastingimpacts on the behavior. However, it is not clear if they influence learning and memory. METHODS: In this study, we investigated the influences that the presence of an aggressive father had on the level of passive avoidance learning and spatial memory. We also studied the changes in the dopamine receptor D2 ( DRD2 ) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-α ( PGC-1α ) gene expression in the hippocampus...

INTRODUCTION: Schizophrenia (SZ) is a chronic brain disorder characterized by diverse cognitive dysfunctions due to abnormal brain connectivity. Evaluating these connectivity alterations between and within such networks (intra- and inter-connectivity) may improve the understanding of disrupted information processing patterns in SZ patients. METHODS: Resting-state fMRI analysis was performed on 24 SZ patients and 27 matched healthy controls. A functional connectivity matrix was constructed for each participant based on 129 gray matter regions...

INTRODUCTION: Febrile seizure is a temperature-related seizure that affects the QT interval. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in the QT interval caused by febrile convulsion (FC) compared with healthy children. METHODS: This case-control study examined 180 children equally distributed between patients and controls. The study was conducted at the Ali Ebne Abi Talib Hospital in Zahedan City, Iran. The disease was diagnosed and confirmed based on standard definitions of FC...

INTRODUCTION: Cognitive control plays a role in human behavior and mental processes and affects paranormal beliefs. This study aims to investigate the role of cognitive control in paranormal beliefs using the go/no-go task. METHODS: A total of 92 people were selected based on low, middle, and high scores in the revised paranormal belief scale (R-PBS) and assigned to 3 groups. The groups included 30 severe paranormal believers (13 females with a mean age of 25.3 years), 31 mild paranormal believers (14 females with a mean age of 26...

INTRODUCTION: Schizophrenia is a severe psychotic brain disorder. One of the potential mechanisms underlying this disease may be volumetric changes in some brain regions. The present study aimed to employ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to estimate and quantitatively analyze the brain of patients with schizophrenia compared to the controls. METHODS: This case-control study was conducted on MRI scans of 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls in Zahedan City, Southeastern Iran...

INTRODUCTION: Evidence indicates that medial septum nicotinic receptors regulate cognitive processes. Ghrelin is a gut hormone that regulates energy homeostasis. Ghrelin is also produced in the brain and is involved in cognitive function. This study aims to evaluate the effects of medial septal administration of ghrelin on the amnestic effect of morphine in rats. In addition, the possible relationship between the medial septal ghrelin and acetylcholine nicotinic receptors on the amnestic effect of morphine is evaluated...

INTRODUCTION: Emerging evidence has shown that the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist can be used to treat Alzheimer disease; however, knowledge of its neural targets is limited. To understand the neural substrates of GLP-1 , we have done whole brain mapping for GLP-1 and its receptor ( GLP-1R ), in 30 human brains. METHODS: GLP-1 expression was studied by immuno-histochemistry and confirmed by the western blot method. The GLP-1R gene expression was studied by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction...

INTRODUCTION: The brain waves pattern in primary insomniacs is different from healthy subjects. Studies have shown that binaural beats can alter the pattern of brain waves in healthy individuals; however, the efficacy of binaural beats in altering the pattern of brain waves in primary insomniacs has not yet been investigated. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of theta binaural beat on the absolute power of theta activity in primary insomniacs. METHODS: This study was a randomized clinical trial with experimental and control groups...

INTRODUCTION: Sexual addiction is known as a disorder that afflicts a person with difficulty in controlling or delaying sexual behaviors. To prevent social, physical, and psychological consequences, validated screening tests are needed to diagnose this disorder. One of these tests is established by Carnes with the name of sexual addiction screening test-revised (SAST-R). In this study, SAST-R has been translated and verified in the Persian language. METHODS: The original screening test was translated into the Persian language and also back-translated for matching by two separate expert teams...

INTRODUCTION: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most prevalent form of drug-resistant epilepsy with concurrent cognitive impairment. Prevention, earlier diagnosis, and personalized management of cognitive deficits in TLE require more understanding of underlying structural and functional brain Ialterations. No study has evaluated the performance of TLE patients in different cognitive domains based on their structural brain lesions. METHODS: In this study, 69 refractory TLE patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) epilepsy protocol and several neuropsychological tests, consisting of the Wechsler adult intelligence scale-revised, Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test, verbal fluency test, digit span test, spatial span test, Wechsler memory scale-III, design fluency test, Rey visual design learning test, auditory-verbal learning test, and trail making test...

INTRODUCTION: Neuropathic pain is a common and painful somatosensory nervous system disease, and its treatment remains a medical challenge. Evidence demonstrates that gut microbiota alters in neuropathic pain and, therefore, improvement of the gut flora may affect the disease. The present study aimed to evaluate the antinociceptive effect of probiotics in neuropathic pain and oxidative biomarkers' responsiveness to the probiotic treatment. METHODS: Using chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the rats' sciatic nerve, neuropathic pain was induced...

INTRODUCTION: Sensory processing is profoundly regulated by brain neuromodulatory systems. One of the main neuromodulators is serotonin which influences higher cognitive functions, such as different aspects of perceptual processing. Accordingly, malfunction in the serotonergic system may lead to visual illusion in psychiatric disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia. This study aims to investigate the serotonergic modulation of visual responses of neurons to stimulus orientation in the primary visual cortex...

INTRODUCTION: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is characterized by serious both motor and sensory disability of the limbs below the injured segment. It is the most traumatic disorder among central nervous system (CNS) conditions which not only leads to psychological and physical harm to patients but also results in a dramatic loss in the life quality. Many efforts have been developed to find a therapeutic approach for SCI; however, an effective treatment has not yet been found. The lack of effective treatment approach and rehabilitation of SCI underscores the need to identify novel approaches...

UNLABELLED: Memory is probably one of the most complex human cognitive functions, and in many years, thousands of studies have helped us better recognize this brain function. Professor Kandel and his colleagues have written one of the reference textbooks in neuroscience, which has also elaborated on the memory function. In this book, I encountered several ambiguities while explaining the memory system. Here, I share those points, either to find an answer to them or to let them be a suggestion for our future works...

INTRODUCTION: The electroencephalography signal is well suited to calculate brain connectivity due to its high temporal resolution. When the purpose is to compute connectivity from multi-trial electroencephalography (EEG) data, confusion arises about how these trials involved in calculating the connectivity. The purpose of this paper is to study this confusing issue using simulated and experimental data. METHODS: To this end, Granger causality-based connectivity measures were considered...