neurology occupational

BACKGROUND: Gait impairment has a major impact on quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). It is believed that basal ganglia oscillatory activity at β frequencies (15-30 Hz) may contribute to gait impairment, but the precise dynamics of this oscillatory activity during gait remain unclear. Additionally, auditory cues are known to lead to improvements in gait kinematics in PD. If the neurophysiological mechanisms of this cueing effect were better understood they could be leveraged to treat gait impairments using adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS) technologies...

Occupational exposure to manganese (Mn) primarily occurs through the inhalation of manganese-containing fumes and dust, with welding environments being significant sources of such exposure. Elevated levels of Mn in welding fumes can lead to a neurological syndrome known as manganism. A 28-yr-old male welder with 14 yr of experience, is presenting with complaints of forgetfulness, reasoning disorder, and decreased mental functions persisting for 10 yr. Three months ago, when he started working at the new workplace, he underwent employment screening conducted by the workplace physician...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The cognitive reserve hypothesis posits that cognitively stimulating work delays the onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. However, the effect of occupational cognitive demands across midlife on the risk of these conditions is unclear. METHODS: Using a cohort study design, we evaluated the association between registry-based trajectories of occupational cognitive demands from ages 30-65 years and clinically diagnosed MCI and dementia in participants in the HUNT4 70+ Study (2017-19)...

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent type of dementia and represents 60-80% of dementia cases. AD affects over 32 million people globally, and 8.1% of affected females and 5.4% of affected males were older than 65 years. Cognitive rehabilitation focuses on helping patients develop individualized strategies to obtain or maintain optimal functioning. As of now, there is no complete and systematic meta-analysis on the effects of cognitive rehabilitation on cognitive functioning in AD patients...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Occupational therapy (OT) consensus recommendations and articles outlining a sensory-based OT intervention for functional neurological disorder (FND) have been published. However, limited research has been conducted to examine the efficacy of OT interventions for FND. We performed a retrospective cohort study aimed at independently replicating preliminarily characterized sensory processing difficulties in patients with FND and reporting on clinical outcomes of a sensory-based OT treatment in this population...

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the efficacy of telerehabilitation (TR) in school-based Occupational Therapy (OT) for children with Specific Learning Disorder (SLD), focusing on occupational competence and parental satisfaction, aiming to contribute empirical insights to the discourse on the educational well-being of this population. MATERIALS & METHODS: The study adopted a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) design involving 31 children diagnosed with SLD, implementing TR and in-person interventions alongside a control group...

Globally, occupational workers suffer various health impacts due to extreme heat. In this short review, we examined the literature discussing health impacts of heat on occupational workers, and then discussed certain individual and institutional measures needed to address the problem. Though the available literature in the recent decade discusses health impacts of heat on workers as various heat-related illnesses, we found very few studies examining how occupational workers suffer from issues concerning cardiovascular health, neurological health, respiratory health, and mental health...

The alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7-nAChR) has has long been considered a promising therapeutic target for addressing cognitive impairments associated with a spectrum of neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. However, despite this potential, clinical trials employing α7-nAChR (partial) agonists such as TC-5619 and encenicline (EVP-6124) have fallen short in demonstrating sufficient efficacy. We here investigate the target engagement of TC-5619 and encenicline in the pig brain by use of the α7-nAChR radioligand 11 C-NS14492 to characterize binding both with in vitro autoradiography and in vivo occupancy using positron emission tomography (PET)...

PURPOSE: Self-awareness is a multifaceted phenomenon that comprises two main concepts: general awareness and online awareness. The latter is an emerging concept that requires further consensus on its definition. The aim of this paper is to define the key components of online awareness and identify approaches for measuring this concept for adults with neurological conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Concept analysis using Rodgers' evolutionary method was used to systematically review and summarise relevant literature...

BACKGROUND: Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) appears in neurological conditions where some brain areas are likely to be injured, such as deep grey matter, basal ganglia area, and white matter subcortical periventricular áreas. Moreover, modeling these brain areas in a newborn is challenging due to significant variability in the intensities associated with HIE conditions. This paper aims to evaluate functional measurements and 3D machine learning models of a given HIE case by correlating the affected brain areas with the pathophysiology and clinical neurodevelopmental...

Ogden syndrome, also known as NAA10-related neurodevelopmental syndrome, is a rare genetic condition associated with pathogenic variants in the NAA10 N-terminal acetylation family of proteins. The condition was initially described in 2011, and is characterized by a range of neurologic symptoms, including intellectual disability and seizures, as well as developmental delays, psychiatric symptoms, congenital heart abnormalities, hypotonia and others. Previously published articles have described the etiology and phenotype of Ogden syndrome, mostly with retrospective analyses; herein, we report prospective data concerning its progress over time...

In this study, we conducted a survey targeting 191 physical therapists (PTs) and 159 occupational therapists (OTs) in South Korea to explore attitudes toward virtual rehabilitation. Utilizing the Korean version of the ADOPT VR by Glegg et al., OT exhibited significantly more experience with virtual reality (VR) and active video games (AVG) than PT. Therapists with VR/AVG experience scored significantly higher in most categories, and the scores in each category were significantly correlated with the Behavioral Intention category, reflecting the willingness to use VR/AVG...

BACKGROUND: Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient as well as a well-established neurotoxicant. Occupational and environmental exposures may bypass homeostatic regulation and lead to increased systemic Mn levels. Translocation of ultrafine ambient airborne particles via nasal neuronal pathway to olfactory bulb and tract may be an important pathway by which Mn enters the central nervous system. OBJECTIVE: To measure olfactory tract/bulb tissue metal concentrations in Mn-exposed and non-exposed mineworkers...

The articles in this Special Issue on Recovery of Function After Neurological Injury include an impressive range of clinical diagnoses, scientific approaches, and theoretical frameworks that demonstrate the breadth and depth of occupational therapy in the restoration of function after neurological injury. An emerging theme throughout is the need for the profession of occupational therapy to identify and use more efficient methods for diagnosing and treating people with neurological injuries to improve their quality of life and the impact of care...

BACKGROUND: About 11 million Americans are caregivers for the 6.7 million Americans currently living with dementia. They provide over 18 billion hours of unpaid care per year, yet most have no formal dementia education or support. It is extremely difficult for clinicians to keep up with the demand for caregiver education, especially as dementia is neurodegenerative in nature, requiring different information at different stages of the disease process. In this digital age, caregivers often seek dementia information on the internet, but clinicians lack a single, reliable compendium of expert-approved digital resources to provide to dementia caregivers...

Physical activity has been viewed as a potential non-pharmacological therapeutic strategy to improve the clinical symptoms and neurocognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia. However, there are various types of physical activities, and different exercise prescriptions might produce inconsistent benefits. Thus, this study aimed to conduct a systematic review of exercise interventions for patients with schizophrenia, clarifying the benefits of these interventions on cognitive function and clinical symptoms...

BACKGROUND: Up to 50% of people in low- and middle-income countries do not receive the rehabilitation they require. Telerehabilitation has the potential to improve access to neurorehabilitation services especially in low- and middle-income countries. Although there are reports of the barriers and facilitators to telerehabilitation in such settings, almost all are anecdotal. Furthermore, family or carers have a significant influence on the adoption and success of telerehabilitation, but their views have not been reported...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There are racial disparities in health care services received by patients with neurodegenerative diseases, but little is known about disparities in the last year of life, specifically in high-value and low-value care utilization. This study evaluated racial disparities in the utilization of high-value and low-value care in the last year of life among Medicare beneficiaries with dementia or Parkinson disease. METHODS: This was a retrospective, population-based cohort analysis using data from North and South Carolina fee-for-service Medicare claims between 2013 and 2017...

Awake craniotomy (AC) allows intraoperative brain mapping (ioBM) for maximum lesion resection while monitoring and preserving neurological function. Conventionally, language, visuospatial assessment, and motor functions are mapped, while the assessment of executive functions (EF) is uncommon. Impaired EF may lead to occupational, personal, and social limitations, thus, a compromised quality of life. A comprehensive literature search was conducted through Scopus, Medline, and Cochrane Library using a pre-defined search strategy...

The incidence of long COVID in adult survivors of an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection is approximately 11%. Of those afflicted, 26% have difficulty with day-to-day activities. The majority of long COIVD cases occur after mild or asymptomatic acute infection. Children can spread SARS-CoV-2 infections and can also develop long-term neurological, endocrine (type I diabetes), and immunological sequelae. Immunological hypofunction is exemplified by the recent large outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus and streptococcal infections...