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1.
Sci Rep ; 14(1): 10518, 2024 05 08.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38714827

ABSTRACT

Previous work assessing the effect of additive noise on the postural control system has found a positive effect of additive white noise on postural dynamics. This study covers two separate experiments that were run sequentially to better understand how the structure of the additive noise signal affects postural dynamics, while also furthering our knowledge of how the intensity of auditory stimulation of noise may elicit this phenomenon. Across the two experiments, we introduced three auditory noise stimulations of varying structure (white, pink, and brown noise). Experiment 1 presented the stimuli at 35 dB while Experiment 2 was presented at 75 dB. Our findings demonstrate a decrease in variability of the postural control system regardless of the structure of the noise signal presented, but only for high intensity auditory stimulation.


Subject(s)
Acoustic Stimulation , Noise , Humans , Female , Male , Adult , Young Adult , Postural Balance/physiology , Color , Posture/physiology , Standing Position
2.
PLoS One ; 19(5): e0303420, 2024.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38739625

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Studies indicate that individuals with chronic conditions and specific baseline characteristics may not mount a robust humoral antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. In this paper, we used data from the Texas Coronavirus Antibody REsponse Survey (Texas CARES), a longitudinal state-wide seroprevalence program that has enrolled more than 90,000 participants, to evaluate the role of chronic diseases as the potential risk factors of non-response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in a large epidemiologic cohort. METHODS: A participant needed to complete an online survey and a blood draw to test for SARS-CoV-2 circulating plasma antibodies at four-time points spaced at least three months apart. Chronic disease predictors of vaccine non-response are evaluated using logistic regression with non-response as the outcome and each chronic disease + age as the predictors. RESULTS: As of April 24, 2023, 18,240 participants met the inclusion criteria; 0.58% (N = 105) of these are non-responders. Adjusting for age, our results show that participants with self-reported immunocompromised status, kidney disease, cancer, and "other" non-specified comorbidity were 15.43, 5.11, 2.59, and 3.13 times more likely to fail to mount a complete response to a vaccine, respectively. Furthermore, having two or more chronic diseases doubled the prevalence of non-response. CONCLUSION: Consistent with smaller targeted studies, a large epidemiologic cohort bears the same conclusion and demonstrates immunocompromised, cancer, kidney disease, and the number of diseases are associated with vaccine non-response. This study suggests that those individuals, with chronic diseases with the potential to affect their immune system response, may need increased doses or repeated doses of COVID-19 vaccines to develop a protective antibody level.


Subject(s)
Antibodies, Viral , COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Humans , Male , Female , COVID-19 Vaccines/immunology , COVID-19 Vaccines/administration & dosage , Middle Aged , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/immunology , Adult , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Antibodies, Viral/blood , Antibodies, Viral/immunology , Aged , Texas/epidemiology , Chronic Disease , Seroepidemiologic Studies , Young Adult , Risk Factors
3.
Cereb Cortex ; 34(4)2024 Apr 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38596882

ABSTRACT

We currently lack a reliable method to probe cortical excitability noninvasively from the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). We recently found that the strength of early and local dlPFC transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-evoked potentials (EL-TEPs) varied widely across dlPFC subregions. Despite these differences in response amplitude, reliability at each target is unknown. Here we quantified within-session reliability of dlPFC EL-TEPs after TMS to six left dlPFC subregions in 15 healthy subjects. We evaluated reliability (concordance correlation coefficient [CCC]) across targets, time windows, quantification methods, regions of interest, sensor- vs. source-space, and number of trials. On average, the medial target was most reliable (CCC = 0.78) and the most anterior target was least reliable (CCC = 0.24). However, all targets except the most anterior were reliable (CCC > 0.7) using at least one combination of the analytical parameters tested. Longer (20 to 60 ms) and later (30 to 60 ms) windows increased reliability compared to earlier and shorter windows. Reliable EL-TEPs (CCC up to 0.86) were observed using only 25 TMS trials at a medial dlPFC target. Overall, medial dlPFC targeting, wider windows, and peak-to-peak quantification improved reliability. With careful selection of target and analytic parameters, highly reliable EL-TEPs can be extracted from the dlPFC after only a small number of trials.


Subject(s)
Electroencephalography , Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation , Humans , Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation/methods , Electroencephalography/methods , Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex , Reproducibility of Results , Prefrontal Cortex/physiology , Evoked Potentials/physiology
4.
PLoS One ; 19(3): e0301232, 2024.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38547209

ABSTRACT

We report a prozone effect in measurement of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibody levels from an antibody surveillance program. Briefly, the prozone effect occurs in immunoassays when excessively high antibody concentration disrupts the immune complex formation, resulting in a spuriously low reported result. Following participant inquiries, we observed anomalously low measurement of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibody levels using the Roche Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S immunoassay from participants in the Texas Coronavirus Antibody Research survey (Texas CARES), an ongoing prospective, longitudinal antibody surveillance program. In July, 2022, samples were collected from ten participants with anomalously low results for serial dilution studies, and a prozone effect was confirmed. From October, 2022 to March, 2023, serial dilution of samples detected 74 additional cases of prozone out of 1,720 participants' samples. Prozone effect may affect clinical management of at-risk populations repeatedly exposed to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein through multiple immunizations or serial infections, making awareness and mitigation of this issue paramount.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus , Humans , Masks , Prospective Studies , Immunoassay/methods , Antibodies, Viral
5.
Nanoscale Adv ; 6(4): 1145-1162, 2024 Feb 13.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38356633

ABSTRACT

Streptococcus pyogenes is a causative agent for strep throat, impetigo, and more invasive diseases. The main reason for the treatment failure of streptococcal infections is increased antibiotic resistance. In recent years, infectious diseases caused by pyogenic streptococci resistant to multiple antibiotics have been rising with a significant impact on public health and the veterinary industry. The development of antibiotic resistance and the resulting emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria have become primary threats to the public health system, commonly leading to nosocomial infections. Many researchers have turned their focus to developing alternative classes of antibacterial agent based on various nanomaterials. We have developed an antibiotic-free nanoparticle system inspired by naturally occurring bacteriophages to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Our phage-mimicking nanoparticles (PhaNPs) display structural mimicry of protein-turret distribution on the head structure of bacteriophages. By mimicking phages, we can take advantage of their evolutionary constant shape and high antibacterial activity while avoiding the immune reactions of the human body experienced by biologically derived phages. We describe the synthesis of hierarchically arranged core-shell nanoparticles, with a silica core conjugated with silver-coated gold nanospheres to which we have chemisorbed the synthetic antimicrobial peptide Syn-71 on the PhaNPs surface, and increased the rapidity of the antibacterial activity of the nanoparticles (PhaNP@Syn71). The antibacterial effect of the PhaNP@Syn71 was tested in vitro and in vivo in mouse wound infection models. In vitro, results showed a dose-dependent complete inhibition of bacterial growth (>99.99%). Cytocompatibility testing on HaCaT human skin keratinocytes showed minimal cytotoxicity of PhaNP@Syn71, being comparable to the vehicle cytotoxicity levels even at higher concentrations, thus proving that our design is biocompatible with human cells. There was a minimum cutoff dosage above which there was no evolution of resistance after prolonged exposure to sub-MIC dosages of PhaNP@Syn71. Application of PhaNP@Syn71 to a mouse wound infection model exhibited high biocompatibility in vivo while showing immediate stabilization of the wound size, and infection free wound healing. Our results suggest the robust utility of antimicrobial peptide-conjugated phage-mimicking nanoparticles as a highly effective antibacterial system that can combat bacterial infections consistently while avoiding the emergence of resistant bacterial strains.

7.
Sci Rep ; 13(1): 22700, 2023 12 20.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38123591

ABSTRACT

How does a train of TMS pulses modify neural activity in humans? Despite adoption of repetitive TMS (rTMS) for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, we still do not understand how rTMS changes the human brain. This limited understanding stems in part from a lack of methods for noninvasively measuring the neural effects of a single TMS train-a fundamental building block of treatment-as well as the cumulative effects of consecutive TMS trains. Gaining this understanding would provide foundational knowledge to guide the next generation of treatments. Here, to overcome this limitation, we developed methods to noninvasively measure causal and acute changes in cortical excitability and evaluated this neural response to single and sequential TMS trains. In 16 healthy adults, standard 10 Hz trains were applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in a randomized, sham-controlled, event-related design and changes were assessed based on the TMS-evoked potential (TEP), a measure of cortical excitability. We hypothesized that single TMS trains would induce changes in the local TEP amplitude and that those changes would accumulate across sequential trains, but primary analyses did not indicate evidence in support of either of these hypotheses. Exploratory analyses demonstrated non-local neural changes in sensor and source space and local neural changes in phase and source space. Together these results suggest that single and sequential TMS trains may not be sufficient to modulate local cortical excitability indexed by typical TEP amplitude metrics but may cause neural changes that can be detected outside the stimulation area or using phase or source space metrics. This work should be contextualized as methods development for the monitoring of transient noninvasive neural changes during rTMS and contributes to a growing understanding of the neural effects of rTMS.


Subject(s)
Motor Cortex , Adult , Humans , Brain , Brain Mapping/methods , Evoked Potentials/physiology , Evoked Potentials, Motor/physiology , Motor Cortex/physiology , Prefrontal Cortex , Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation/methods
8.
Sci Rep ; 13(1): 18898, 2023 11 02.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37919322

ABSTRACT

Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is a form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation designed to induce changes of cortical excitability that outlast the period of TBS application. In this study, we explored the effects of continuous TBS (cTBS) and intermittent TBS (iTBS) versus sham TBS stimulation, applied to the left primary motor cortex, on modulation of resting state electroencephalography (rsEEG) power. We first conducted hypothesis-driven region-of-interest (ROI) analyses examining changes in alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-21 Hz) bands over the left and right motor cortex. Additionally, we performed data-driven whole-brain analyses across a wide range of frequencies (1-50 Hz) and all electrodes. Finally, we assessed the reliability of TBS effects across two sessions approximately 1 month apart. None of the protocols produced significant group-level effects in the ROI. Whole-brain analysis revealed that cTBS significantly enhanced relative power between 19 and 43 Hz over multiple sites in both hemispheres. However, these results were not reliable across visits. There were no significant differences between EEG modulation by active and sham TBS protocols. Between-visit reliability of TBS-induced neuromodulatory effects was generally low-to-moderate. We discuss confounding factors and potential approaches for improving the reliability of TBS-induced rsEEG modulation.


Subject(s)
Motor Cortex , Electroencephalography , Evoked Potentials, Motor/physiology , Motor Cortex/physiology , Reproducibility of Results , Theta Rhythm/physiology , Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation/methods , Humans
9.
Pediatr Res ; 2023 Oct 24.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37875728

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This analysis examined the durability of antibodies present after SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination in children and adolescents. METHODS: Data were collected over 4 time points between October 2020-November 2022 as part of a prospective population-based cohort aged 5-to-19 years (N = 810). Results of the (1) Roche Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immunoassay for detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (Roche N-test); and (2) qualitative and semi-quantitative detection of antibodies to the SARS CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (Roche S-test); and (3) self-reported antigen/PCR COVID-19 test results, vaccination and symptom status were analyzed. RESULTS: N antibody levels reached a median of 84.10 U/ml (IQR: 20.2, 157.7) cutoff index (COI) ~ 6 months post-infection and increased slightly to a median of 85.25 (IQR: 28.0, 143.0) COI at 12 months post-infection. Peak S antibody levels were reached at a median of 2500 U/mL ~6 months post-vaccination and remained for ~12 months (mean 11.6 months, SD 1.20). CONCLUSIONS: This analysis provides evidence of robust durability of nucleocapsid and spike antibodies in a large pediatric sample up to 12 months post-infection/vaccination. This information can inform pediatric SARS-CoV-2 vaccination schedules. IMPACT: This study provided evidence of robust durability of both nucleocapsid and spike antibodies in a large pediatric sample up to 12 months after infection. Little is known about the long-term durability of natural and vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the pediatric population. Here, we determined the durability of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike (S-test) and nucleocapsid protein (N-test) in children/adolescents after SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or vaccination lasts at least up to 12 months. This information can inform future SARS-CoV-2 vaccination schedules in this age group.

10.
bioRxiv ; 2023 Sep 05.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37732239

ABSTRACT

Background: We currently lack a robust and reliable method to probe cortical excitability noninvasively from the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), a region heavily implicated in psychiatric disorders. We recently found that the strength of early and local dlPFC single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-evoked potentials (EL-TEPs) varied widely depending on the anatomical subregion probed, with more medial regions eliciting stronger responses than anterolateral sites. Despite these differences in amplitude of response, the reliability at each target is not known. Objective: To evaluate the reliability of EL-TEPs across the dlPFC. Methods: In 15 healthy subjects, we quantified within-session reliability of dlPFC EL-TEPs after single pulse TMS to six dlPFC subregions. We evaluated the concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) across targets and analytical parameters including time window, quantification method, region of interest, sensor-vs. source-space, and number of trials. Results: At least one target in the anterior and posterior dlPFC produced reliable EL-TEPs (CCC>0.7). The medial target was most reliable (CCC = 0.78) and the most anterior target was least reliable (CCC = 0.24). ROI size and type (sensor vs. source space) did not affect reliability. Longer (20-60 ms, CCC = 0.62) and later (30-60 ms, CCC = 0.61) time windows resulted in higher reliability compared to earlier and shorter (20-40 ms, CCC 0.43; 20-50 ms, CCC = 0.55) time windows. Peak-to-peak quantification resulted in higher reliability than the mean of the absolute amplitude. Reliable EL-TEPs (CCC up to 0.86) were observed using only 25 TMS trials for a medial dlPFC target. Conclusions: Medial TMS location, wider time window (20-60ms), and peak-to-peak quantification improved reliability. Highly reliable EL-TEPs can be extracted from dlPFC after only a small number of trials. Highlights: Medial dlPFC target improved EL-TEP reliability compared to anterior targets.After optimizing analytical parameters, at least one anterior and one posterior target was reliable (CCC>0.7).Longer (20-60 ms) and later (30-60 ms) time windows were more reliable than earlier and shorter (20-40 ms or 20-50 ms) latencies.Peak-to-peak quantification resulted in higher reliability compared to the mean of the absolute amplitude.As low as 25 trials can yield reliable EL-TEPs from the dlPFC.

11.
Front Psychol ; 14: 1271795, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37663342

ABSTRACT

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1124171.].

12.
Soc Sci Med ; 332: 116104, 2023 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37517313

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Most research on discrimination and health operationalizes discrimination as direct individual experiences. Here, we examine the social patterning of vicarious discrimination, an important but largely overlooked dimension of discrimination. METHODS: Drawing on community-based participatory research with a multi-stage probability sample (n = 178) of African Americans in Tallahassee, Florida, we measured vicarious discrimination, or exposure to discrimination through one's family and friends. We used chi-square tests to examine gender differences in the social domains and relational sources of vicarious discrimination. Negative binomial regression models were fit to identify predictors of exposure to vicarious discrimination. RESULTS: Vicarious discrimination is more prevalent than direct experiences of discrimination (73 versus 61%) and more than 20% of participants report vicarious discrimination in the absence of direct discrimination. For women, vicarious discrimination most often involved the workplace; for men, police. However, gender differences are smaller for vicarious versus direct discrimination. Close friends and children were top relational sources of vicarious discrimination for men and women, respectively. Middle-aged participants reported the most vicarious discrimination. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our data show that vicarious discrimination is more common than widely understood and associated with individual-level sociodemographic characteristics that index one's position in broader social systems. The prevalence of vicarious discrimination in the absence of direct discrimination suggests that standard approaches, which measure individual exposures in isolation, are subject to misclassification bias. Our results imply that existing research on discrimination and health, which already demonstrates substantial harm, underestimates African Americans' true exposures to salient aspects of discrimination.

13.
Front Psychol ; 14: 1124171, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37359877

ABSTRACT

Self-regulation research highlights the performance trade-offs of different motivational states. For instance, within the context of regulatory focus theory, promotion motivation enhances performance on eager tasks and prevention motivation enhances performance on vigilant tasks (i.e., regulatory focus task-motivation fit). Work on metamotivation-people's understanding and regulation of their motivational states-reveals that, on average, people demonstrate knowledge of how to create such task-motivation fit; at the same time, there is substantial variability in this normative accuracy. The present research examines whether having accurate normative metamotivational knowledge predicts performance. Results revealed that more accurate metamotivational knowledge predicts better performance on brief, single-shot tasks (Study 1) and in a consequential setting (course grades; Study 2). The effect was more robust in Study 2; potential implications of this variability are discussed for understanding when and why knowledge may be associated with performance.

14.
Children (Basel) ; 10(5)2023 Apr 30.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37238366

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To describe COVID-19 illness characteristics, risk factors, and SARS-CoV-2 serostatus by variant time period in a large community-based pediatric sample. DESIGN: Data were collected prospectively over four timepoints between October 2020 and November 2022 from a population-based cohort ages 5 to 19 years old. SETTING: State of Texas, USA. PARTICIPANTS: Participants ages 5 to 19 years were recruited from large pediatric healthcare systems, Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers, urban and rural clinical practices, health insurance providers, and a social media campaign. EXPOSURE: SARS-CoV-2 infection. MAIN OUTCOME(S) AND MEASURE(S): SARS-CoV-2 antibody status was assessed by the Roche Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immunoassay for detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (Roche N-test). Self-reported antigen or PCR COVID-19 test results and symptom status were also collected. RESULTS: Over half (57.2%) of the sample (N = 3911) was antibody positive. Symptomatic infection increased over time from 47.09% during the pre-Delta variant time period, to 76.95% during Delta, to 84.73% during Omicron, and to 94.79% during the Omicron BA.2. Those who were not vaccinated were more likely (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.47, 2.00) to be infected versus those fully vaccinated. CONCLUSIONS: Results show an increase in symptomatic COVID-19 infection among non-hospitalized children with each progressive variant over the past two years. Findings here support the public health guidance that eligible children should remain up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations.

15.
bioRxiv ; 2023 May 12.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37215043

ABSTRACT

Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is a form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation designed to induce changes of cortical excitability that outlast the period of TBS application. In this study, we explored the effects of continuous TBS (cTBS) and intermittent TBS (iTBS) versus sham TBS stimulation, applied to the primary motor cortex, on modulation of resting state electroencephalography (rsEEG) power. We first conducted hypothesis-driven region-of-interest (ROI) analyses examining changes in alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-21 Hz) bands over the left and right motor cortex. Additionally, we performed data-driven whole-brain analyses across a wide range of frequencies (1-50 Hz) and all electrodes. Finally, we assessed the reliability of TBS effects across two sessions approximately 1 month apart. None of the protocols produced significant group-level effects in the ROI. Whole-brain analysis revealed that cTBS significantly enhanced relative power between 19-43 Hz over multiple sites in both hemispheres. However, these results were not reliable across visits. There were no significant differences between EEG modulation by active and sham TBS protocols. Between-visit reliability of TBS-induced neuromodulatory effects was generally low-to-moderate. We discuss confounding factors and potential approaches for improving the reliability of TBS-induced rsEEG modulation.

16.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36894435

ABSTRACT

Noninvasive brain stimulation and neuroimaging have revolutionized human neuroscience with a multitude of applications, including diagnostic subtyping, treatment optimization, and relapse prediction. It is therefore particularly relevant to identify robust and clinically valuable brain biomarkers linking symptoms to their underlying neural mechanisms. Brain biomarkers must be reproducible (i.e., have internal reliability) across similar experiments within a laboratory and be generalizable (i.e., have external reliability) across experimental setups, laboratories, brain regions, and disease states. However, reliability (internal and external) is not alone sufficient; biomarkers also must have validity. Validity describes closeness to a true measure of the underlying neural signal or disease state. We propose that these metrics, reliability and validity, should be evaluated and optimized before any biomarker is used to inform treatment decisions. Here, we discuss these metrics with respect to causal brain connectivity biomarkers from coupling transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with electroencephalography (EEG). We discuss controversies around TMS-EEG stemming from the multiple large off-target components (noise) and relatively weak genuine brain responses (signal), as is unfortunately often the case in noninvasive human neuroscience. We review the current state of TMS-EEG recordings, which consist of a mix of reliable noise and unreliable signal. We describe methods for evaluating TMS-EEG biomarkers, including how to assess internal and external reliability across facilities, cognitive states, brain networks, and disorders and how to validate these biomarkers using invasive neural recordings or treatment response. We provide recommendations to increase reliability and validity, discuss lessons learned, and suggest future directions for the field.


Subject(s)
Electroencephalography , Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation , Humans , Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation/methods , Reproducibility of Results , Electroencephalography/methods , Brain/physiology , Biomarkers
17.
Exp Brain Res ; 241(5): 1241-1249, 2023 May.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36961554

ABSTRACT

Auditory and somatosensory white noise can stabilize standing balance. However, the differential effects of auditory and tactile noise stimulation on balance are unknown. Prior work on unimodal noise stimulation showed gains in balance with white noise through the auditory and tactile modalities separately. The current study aims to examine whether multimodal noise elicits similar responses to unimodal noise. We recorded the postural sway of healthy young adults who were presented with continuous white noise through the auditory or tactile modalities and through a combination of both (multimodal condition) using a wearable device. Our results replicate previous work that showed that auditory or tactile noise reduces sway variability with and without vision. Additionally, we show that multimodal noise also reduces the variability of sway. Analysis of different frequency bands of sway is typically used to separate open-loop exploratory (< 0.3 Hz) and feedback-driven (> 0.3 Hz) sway. We performed this analysis and showed that unimodal and multimodal white noise affected postural sway variability similarly in both timescales. These results support that the sensory noise effects on balance are robust across unimodal and multimodal conditions and can affect both mechanisms of sway represented in the frequency spectrum. In future work, the parameters of acoustic/tactile manipulation should be optimized for the most effective balance stabilization, and multimodal therapies should be explored for older adults with typical age-related balance instabilities.


Subject(s)
Noise , Postural Balance , Young Adult , Humans , Aged , Acoustic Stimulation/methods , Postural Balance/physiology , Vision, Ocular , Standing Position
18.
bioRxiv ; 2023 Nov 22.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36778457

ABSTRACT

How does a train of TMS pulses modify neural activity in humans? Despite adoption of repetitive TMS (rTMS) for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, we still do not understand how rTMS changes the human brain. This limited understanding stems in part from a lack of methods for noninvasively measuring the neural effects of a single TMS train - a fundamental building block of treatment - as well as the cumulative effects of consecutive TMS trains. Gaining this understanding would provide foundational knowledge to guide the next generation of treatments. Here, to overcome this limitation, we developed methods to noninvasively measure causal and acute changes in cortical excitability and evaluated this neural response to single and sequential TMS trains. In 16 healthy adults, standard 10 Hz trains were applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in a randomized, sham-controlled, event-related design and changes were assessed based on the TMS-evoked potential (TEP), a measure of cortical excitability. We hypothesized that single TMS trains would induce changes in the local TEP amplitude and that those changes would accumulate across sequential trains, but primary analyses did not indicate evidence in support of either of these hypotheses. Exploratory analyses demonstrated non-local neural changes in sensor and source space and local neural changes in phase and source space. Together these results suggest that single and sequential TMS trains may not be sufficient to modulate local cortical excitability indexed by typical TEP amplitude metrics but may cause neural changes that can be detected outside the stimulation area or using phase or source space metrics. This work should be contextualized as methods development for the monitoring of transient noninvasive neural changes during rTMS and contributes to a growing understanding of the neural effects of rTMS.

19.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36792455

ABSTRACT

Personalized treatments are gaining momentum across all fields of medicine. Precision medicine can be applied to neuromodulatory techniques, in which focused brain stimulation treatments such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) modulate brain circuits and alleviate clinical symptoms. rTMS is well tolerated and clinically effective for treatment-resistant depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite its wide stimulation parameter space (location, angle, pattern, frequency, and intensity can be adjusted), rTMS is currently applied in a one-size-fits-all manner, potentially contributing to its suboptimal clinical response (∼50%). In this review, we examine components of rTMS that can be optimized to account for interindividual variability in neural function and anatomy. We discuss current treatment options for treatment-resistant depression, the neural mechanisms thought to underlie treatment, targeting strategies, stimulation parameter selection, and adaptive closed-loop treatment. We conclude that a better understanding of the wide and modifiable parameter space of rTMS will greatly improve the clinical outcome.


Subject(s)
Depressive Disorder, Treatment-Resistant , Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation , Humans , Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation/methods , Depression , Depressive Disorder, Treatment-Resistant/therapy
20.
J Infect Dis ; 227(10): 1164-1172, 2023 05 12.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36729177

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Breakthrough infections of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are well documented. The current study estimates breakthrough incidence across pandemic waves, and evaluates predictors of breakthrough and severe breakthrough infections (defined as those requiring hospitalization). METHODS: In total, 89 762 participants underwent longitudinal antibody surveillance. Incidence rates were calculated using total person-days contributed. Bias-corrected and age-adjusted logistic regression determined multivariable predictors of breakthrough and severe breakthrough infection, respectively. RESULTS: The incidence was 0.45 (95% confidence interval [CI], .38-.50) during pre-Delta, 2.80 (95% CI, 2.25-3.14) during Delta, and 11.2 (95% CI, 8.80-12.95) during Omicron, per 10 000 person-days. Factors associated with elevated odds of breakthrough included Hispanic ethnicity (vs non-Hispanic white, OR = 1.243; 95% CI, 1.073-1.441), larger household size (OR = 1.251 [95% CI, 1.048-1.494] for 3-5 vs 1 and OR = 1.726 [95% CI, 1.317-2.262] for more than 5 vs 1 person), rural versus urban living (OR = 1.383; 95% CI, 1.122-1.704), receiving Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson versus Moderna, and multiple comorbidities. Of the 1700 breakthrough infections, 1665 reported on severity; 112 (6.73%) were severe. Higher body mass index, Hispanic ethnicity, vaccine type, asthma, and hypertension predicted severe breakthroughs. CONCLUSIONS: Breakthrough infection was 4-25 times more common during the Omicron-dominant wave versus earlier waves. Higher burden of severe breakthrough infections was identified in subgroups.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Humans , Adult , Breakthrough Infections , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Incidence , Vaccination
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