Neuroadaptive Bayesian optimisation to study individual differences in infants' engagement with social cues.

Infants' motivation to engage with the social world depends on the interplay between individual brain's characteristics and previous exposure to social cues such as the parent's smile or eye contact. Different hypotheses about why specific combinations of emotional expressions and gaze direction engage children have been tested with group-level approaches rather than focusing on individual differences in the social brain development. Here, a novel Artificial Intelligence-enhanced brain-imaging approach, Neuroadaptive Bayesian Optimisation (NBO), was applied to infant electro-encephalography (EEG) to understand how selected neural signals encode social cues in individual infants. EEG data from 42 6- to 9-month-old infants looking at images of their parent's face were analysed in real-time and used by a Bayesian Optimisation algorithm to identify which combination of the parent's gaze/head direction and emotional expression produces the strongest brain activation in the child. This individualised approach supported the theory that the infant's brain is maximally engaged by communicative cues with a negative valence (angry faces with direct gaze). Infants attending preferentially to faces with direct gaze had increased positive affectivity and decreased negative affectivity. This work confirmed that infants' attentional preferences for social cues are heterogeneous and shows the NBO's potential to study diversity in neurodevelopmental trajectories.

Psychological status and role of caregivers in the neuro-rehabilitation of patients with severe Acquired Brain Injury (ABI).

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationships between (a) the psychological status of the caregiver, (b) the specific features of caregiving as perceived by the cognitive therapist in neuro-rehabilitation, (c) the caregivers' subjective approach to neuro-rehabilitation, and (d) the functional outcome of the patient. METHODS: Twenty-four patients with severe acquired brain injury and their 24 caregivers participated in this observational study. Caregivers underwent a psychological assessment examining emotional distress, burden and family strain; their subjective approach to neuro-rehabilitation has been evaluated by two specific answers. The patients' cognitive therapists responded to an ad-hoc questionnaire, namely the "Caregiving Impact on Neuro-Rehabilitation Scale" (CINRS), evaluating the features (i.e., amount and quality) of caregiving. Finally, the functional outcome of the patient was assessed through standardized scales of disability and cognitive functioning. RESULTS: The caregivers' psychological well-being was associated to the features of caregiving, to the subjective approach to neuro-rehabilitation, and to the functional recovery of their loved ones. A better caregivers' approach to neuro-rehabilitation was also associated to an overall positive impact of caregiving in neuro-rehabilitation and to a better functional outcome of the patients. CONCLUSIONS: We posited a virtuous circle involving caregivers within the neuro-rehabilitation process, according to which the caregivers' psychological well-being could be strictly associated to a better level of caregiving and to a better functional outcome of the patients that, in turn, could positively influence the caregivers' psychological well-being. Although preliminary, these results suggest a specific psycho-educational intervention, aimed at improving the caregivers' psychological well-being and at facilitating their caring of the loved one.

Utility of spiral CAT scan in the follow-up of patients with pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis.

Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (PLCH) is a rare disease that occurs almost exclusively in smokers, generally young adults between 20 and 40 years old. Prognostic biomarkers of the disease are lacking. This study describes the clinical-radiological features of a group of PLCH patients and applies a semi-quantitative CT score of the chest to verify the prognostic value of radiological findings in this disease. Clinical-radiological and immunological data from 12 Caucasian patients (6M, 7 smokers and 5 ex-smokers, mean age 36±8 years) were recorded at onset and after a follow-up period of 4 years. Application of the semi-quantitative CT score revealed a prevalently cystic pattern at onset and follow-up in the majority of the patients. Patients with a prevalently nodular pattern developed cystic lesions during follow-up. Interestingly, significant correlations were found between the extent of cystic lesions and DLCO values at onset (time 0: p<0.05) and at the end of follow-up (time 1, p<0.05) and with FEV1 values at time 0 (p<0.05) and time 1 (p<0.05). Patients with progressive functional decline were those with CT evidence of severe cystic alterations. The results suggest that high resolution CT scan of the chest is mandatory for characterizing PLCH patients at diagnosis and during follow-up. The proposed CT score of the chest showed potential prognostic value.

Rare localizations of bone sarcoidosis: two case reports and review of the literature.

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem disease of unknown origin. Granulomatous bone involvement has an overall incidence of 1-13%. This incidence is probably underestimated in certain patient series because bone involvement is often asymptomatic. The small bones of hands and feet are the most common localizations, while skull, knee, rib, pelvic and sternal localizations are rarely reported. Here we describe some interesting cases of chronic sarcoidosis with unusual bone localizations observed at our regional referral centre for sarcoidosis. We also review the literature to underline the complexity of the disease, the problem of differential diagnosis with respect to malignancies and the need for appropriate and effective therapy of this rare localization.