Stimulation of the cuneiform nucleus enables training and boosts recovery after spinal cord injury.

Severe spinal cord injuries result in permanent paraparesis in spite of the frequent sparing of small portions of white matter. Spared fibre tracts are often incapable of maintaining and modulating the activity of lower spinal motor centres. Effects of rehabilitative training thus remain limited. Here, we activated spared descending brainstem fibres by electrical deep brain stimulation of the cuneiform nucleus of the mesencephalic locomotor region, the main control centre for locomotion in the brainstem, in adult female Lewis rats. We show that deep brain stimulation of the cuneiform nucleus enhances the weak remaining motor drive in highly paraparetic rats with severe, incomplete spinal cord injuries and enables high-intensity locomotor training. Stimulation of the cuneiform nucleus during rehabilitative aquatraining after subchronic (n = 8 stimulated versus n = 7 unstimulated versus n = 7 untrained rats) and chronic (n = 14 stimulated versus n = 9 unstimulated versus n = 9 untrained rats) spinal cord injury re-established substantial locomotion and improved long-term recovery of motor function. We additionally identified a safety window of stimulation parameters ensuring context-specific locomotor control in intact rats (n = 18) and illustrate the importance of timing of treatment initiation after spinal cord injury (n = 14). This study highlights stimulation of the cuneiform nucleus as a highly promising therapeutic strategy to enhance motor recovery after subchronic and chronic incomplete spinal cord injury with direct clinical applicability.

[Norms of the German Version of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS-G) - Self-Assessment Scale on a German-Speaking Sample]. / Normierung der deutschen Fassung der Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS-G) ­ Selbstbeurteilungsskala an einer deutschsprachigen Stichprobe.

PROBLEM: The German version of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS-G) is an instrument for the assessment of sensitivity. Validity of the scale was confirmed in prior research (Konrad & Herzberg, 2017). This paper provides norm values of the HSPS-G for German-speaking countries. METHOD: To generate norms, data from 7458 participants (6251 female, 1207 male; age ranging: 14-80 years; mean=37.80; SD=11.75) were collected in an online assessment. Participants were German-speaking citizens of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. RESULTS: Analysis of variance suggested systematic gender differences in the scores. Thus, gender-specific norms were created for the subscales and the total score of the HSPS-G. The resulting norm values comprising percentiles and T-values enable comparative interpretation of the results of the HSPS-G, enabling the assessment of inter- and intraindividual differences with respect to demographic variables.

Gathering Global Perspectives to Establish the Research Priorities and Minimum Data Sets for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Sampling Strategy of the First Round Consensus Surveys of AO Spine RECODE-DCM.

STUDY DESIGN: Survey. INTRODUCTION: AO Spine Research Objectives and Common Data Elements for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (AO Spine RECODE-DCM) is an international initiative that aims to accelerate knowledge discovery and improve outcomes by developing a consensus framework for research. This includes defining the top research priorities, an index term and a minimum data set (core outcome set and core data elements set - core outcome set (COS)/core data elements (CDE)). OBJECTIVE: To describe how perspectives were gathered and report the detailed sampling characteristics. METHODS: A two-stage, electronic survey was used to gather and seek initial consensus. Perspectives were sought from spinal surgeons, other healthcare professionals and people with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM). Participants were allocated to one of two parallel streams: (1) priority setting or (2) minimum dataset. An email campaign was developed to advertise the survey to relevant global stakeholder individuals and organisations. People with DCM were recruited using the international DCM charity Myelopathy.org and its social media channels. A network of global partners was recruited to act as project ambassadors. Data from Google Analytics, MailChimp and Calibrum helped optimise survey dissemination. RESULTS: Survey engagement was high amongst the three stakeholder groups: 208 people with DCM, 389 spinal surgeons and 157 other healthcare professionals. Individuals from 76 different countries participated; the United States, United Kingdom and Canada were the most common countries of participants. CONCLUSION: AO Spine RECODE-DCM recruited a diverse and sufficient number of participants for an international PSP and COS/CDE process. Whilst PSP and COS/CDE have been undertaken in other fields, to our knowledge, this is the first time they have been combined in one process.

The self-congruity effect of music.

Music is a universal phenomenon that has existed in every known culture around the world. It plays a prominent role in society by shaping sociocultural interactions between groups and individuals, and by influencing their emotional and intellectual life. Here, we provide evidence for a new theory on musical preferences. Across three studies we show that people prefer the music of artists who have publicly observable personalities ("personas") similar to their own personality traits (the "self-congruity effect of music"). Study 1 (N = 6,279) and Study 2 (N = 75,296) show that the public personality of artists correlates with the personality of their listeners. Study 3 (N = 4,995) builds on this by showing that the fit between the personality of the listener and the artist predicts musical preferences incremental to the fit for gender, age, and even the audio features of music. Our findings are largely consistent across two methodological approaches to operationalizing an artist's public personality: (a) the public personality as reported by the artist's fans, and (b) the public personality as predicted by machine learning on the basis of the artist's lyrics. We discuss the importance of the self-congruity effect of music in the context of group-level process theories and adaptionist accounts of music. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).