radiation cognition

Heterozygous carriers of the glucocerebrosidase 1 (GBA) L444P Gaucher mutation have an increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD). The GBA mutations result in elevated alpha synuclein (aSyn) levels. Heterozygous mice carrying one allele with the L444P mutation knocked-into the mouse gene show increased aSyn levels and are more sensitive to motor deficits following exposure to the neurotoxin (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine) MPTP than wild-type mice. Paraquat (PQ), a herbicide, increases PD risk in most studies...

PURPOSE: Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) experience significant symptom burden from combination chemotherapy and radiation (chemoradiation) that affects acute and long-term health-related quality of life (HRQOL). However, psychosocial impacts of HNC symptom burden are not well understood. This study examined psychosocial consequences of treatment-related symptom burden from the perspectives of survivors of HNC and HNC healthcare providers. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional, mixed-method study conducted at an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center...

With the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence-driven object recognition, the development of cognitive tunable imaging sensors has become a critically important field. In this paper, we demonstrate an infrared (IR) sensor with spectral tunability controlled by the applied bias between the long-wave and mid-wave IR spectral regions. The sensor is a Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) containing asymmetrically doped double QWs where the external electric field alters the electron population in the wells and hence spectral responsivity...

PURPOSE: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a devastating chronic pain disorder, defined by unilateral shock like pain in at least one division of the trigeminal nerve. Although several studies have investigated structural brain plasticity in TN patients, treatment-induced alterations remain largely uninvestigated. MATERIALS/METHODS: Combining T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and multiple-regression analyses, we assessed gray matter maps of TN patients to investigate changes in gray matter volume (GMV) from before to half a year after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS)...

Up to approximately 70% of cancer survivors report persistent deficits in memory, attention, speed of information processing, multi-tasking, and mental health functioning, a series of symptoms known as "brain fog." The severity and duration of such effects can vary depending on age, cancer type, and treatment regimens. In particular, every year, hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide undergo radiotherapy (RT) for primary brain tumors and brain metastases originating from extracranial tumors. Besides its potential benefits in the control of tumor progression, recent studies indicate that RT reprograms the brain tumor microenvironment inducing increased activation of microglia and astrocytes and a consequent general condition of neuroinflammation that in case it becomes chronic could lead to a cognitive decline...

BACKGROUND: Childhood cancer survivors (CCS) exposed to platinum chemotherapy are at an increased risk of developing hearing loss and reporting decreased quality of life (QOL). This study compared two QOL measures; one developed for children with hearing loss, The Hearing Environments and Refection on Quality of Life (HEAR-QL), and one validated in CCS, the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), to assess their ability to evaluate QOL deficits in this population...

Because of improved survival of cancer patients, more patients irradiated for brain metastases develop intracerebral recurrences requiring subsequent courses of radiotherapy. Five studies focused on reirradiation with whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) after initial WBRT for brain metastases. Following the second WBRT course, improvement of clinical symptoms was found in 31-68% of patients. Rates of neurotoxicity, such as encephalopathy or cognitive decline, were reported in two studies (1.4% and 32%). In another study, severe or unexpected adverse events were not observed...

BACKGROUND: Craniopharyngiomas (CPs) are rare tumours of the sellar region often leading to significant comorbidities due to their close proximity to critical structures. Aim of this study was to analyse survival outcome and late toxicities after surgery and proton beam therapy (PBT) in childhood CPs. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Within the prospective XXXX study (XXXX), data of 74 childhood patients with CP, receiving PBT between 08/2013-06/2022 were eligible. Late toxicities were analysed according to the grading system of CTCAE 4...

It is generally believed that at-Γ bound states in the continuum (BICs) are enclosed by a linearly polarized vortex in momentum space when the structures have mirror (σz ) symmetry, in-plane inversion ( I ) symmetry, and time reversal symmetry ( T ). Here, we reveal an anomalous situation in which at-Γ BICs can be enclosed by linearly and elliptically polarized far-field even when the σz , I , and T symmetries are all maintained in non-Bravais lattices, which is radically different from previous cognition...

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify disruptions in white matter integrity in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients by utilizing the white matter tract integrity (WMTI) model, which describes compartment-specific diffusivities in the intra- and extra-axonal spaces, and to investigate the relationship between WMTI metrics and clinical and cognitive measurements. METHODS: A total of 73 patients with T2DM and 57 healthy controls (HCs) matched for age, sex, and education level were enrolled and underwent diffusional kurtosis imaging and cognitive assessments...

Eighty patients with chronic insomnia and 50 normal controls were selected. Evaluation scales included Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Self-Rating Depression Scale, Ruminative Responses Scale and Social Disability Screening Schedule. All patients and controls underwent whole-brain DTI scanning and Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) analysis was performed. Chronic insomnia patients are mainly accompanied by white matter lesions of right posterior thalamic radiation, right sagittal tract, and right upper longitudinal tract...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk is increased in carriers of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele and decreased in ε2 allele carriers compared with the ε3ε3 genotype. The aim of this study was to determine whether: the APOE genotype affects brain grey (GM) or white matter (WM) structure; and if differences exist, the age when they become apparent and whether there are differential effects by sex. We used cross-sectional magnetic resonance imaging data from ~43,000 (28,494 after pre-processing) white British cognitively healthy participants (7,446 APOE ε4 carriers) aged 45-80 years from the UK Biobank cohort and investigated image-derived phenotypes (IDPs)...

OBJECTIVE: There is limited research on neurocognitive outcome and associated risk factors in long-term, adult survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), without treatment of cranial radiation therapy. Moreover, the impact of fatigue severity and pain interference on neurocognition has received little attention. In this cross-sectional study, we examined neurocognitive outcome and associated factors in this population. METHOD: Intellectual abilities, verbal learning/memory, processing speed, attention, and executive functions were compared to normative means/medians with one sample t tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests...

Injury responses in terminally differentiated cells such as neurons is tightly regulated by pathways aiding homeostatic maintenance. Cancer patients subjected to neuronal injury in brain radiation experience cognitive declines similar to those seen in primary neurodegenerative diseases. Numerous studies have investigated the effect of radiation in proliferating cells of the brain, yet the impact in differentiated, post-mitotic neurons, especially the structural and functional alterations remain largely elusive...

INTRODUCTION: Loss of blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity is hypothesised to be one of the earliest microvascular signs of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Existing BBB integrity imaging methods involve contrast agents or ionising radiation, and pose limitations in terms of cost and logistics. Arterial spin labelling (ASL) perfusion MRI has been recently adapted to map the BBB permeability non-invasively. The DEveloping BBB-ASL as a non-Invasive Early biomarker (DEBBIE) consortium aims to develop this modified ASL-MRI technique for patient-specific and robust BBB permeability assessments...

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) show distinct atrophy and overlapping hypometabolism profiles, but it is unknown how disruptions in structural and functional connectivity compare between these disorders and whether breakdowns in connectivity relate to either atrophy or hypometabolism. Thirty amyloid-positive PCA patients, 24 amyloid-negative DLB patients and 30 amyloid-negative cognitively unimpaired (CU) healthy individuals were recruited at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, and underwent a 3T head MRI, including structural MRI, resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) sequences, as well as [18 F] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET...

The role of radiation therapy in the management of brain metastasis is evolving. Advancements in machine learning techniques have improved our ability to both detect brain metastasis and our ability to contour substructures of the brain as critical organs at risk. Advanced imaging with PET tracers and magnetic resonance imaging-based artificial intelligence models can now predict tumor control and differentiate tumor progression from radiation necrosis. These advancements will help to optimize dose and fractionation for each patient's lesion based on tumor size, histology, systemic therapy, medical comorbidities/patient genetics, and tumor molecular features...

There is a growing interest in low dose radiation (LDR) to counteract neurodegeneration. However, LDR effects on normal brain have not been completely explored yet. Recent analyses showed that LDR exposure to normal brain tissue causes expression level changes of different proteins including neurodegeneration-associated proteins. We assessed the proteomic changes occurring in radiated vs. sham normal swine brains. Due to its involvement in various neurodegenerative processes, including those associated with cognitive changes after high dose radiation exposure, we focused on the hippocampus first...

As our knowledge about the biology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) expands and we recognize the significance of early intervention for effective treatment, there is a shift in focus toward detecting the disease at an early stage. AD is characterized by the accumulation of misfolded amyloid-β (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau proteins in the brain, leading to the formation of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. While a definitive diagnosis of AD can only be confirmed through autopsy by examining these pathological features, there are now reliable methods available for diagnosing the disease in living individuals...

OBJECT: The aim of our study was to examine the alterations in microstructure in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and cognitive impairment (CI) using diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI). Additionally, we aimed to investigate the potential correlation between DKI parameters and cognitive function. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 28 CAD patients and 30 healthy controls (HC) were prospectively enrolled in our study. All participants underwent routine and diffusion sequences of head imaging...