Posterior spinal artery infarct.

Posterior spinal artery syndrome has a variable presentation and often poses a clinical challenge. We describe an acute posterior spinal artery syndrome in a man in his 60s with vascular risk factors, who presented with altered sensation in the left arm and left side of his torso but with normal tone, strength and deep tendon reflexes. MR imaging showed a left paracentral T2 hyperintense area affecting the posterior spinal cord at the level of C1. Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) showed high signal intensity in the same location. He was medically managed as having ischaemic stroke and made a good recovery. Three-month MRI follow-up showed a persisting T2 lesion but the DWI changes had resolved, consistent with the time course for infarction. Posterior spinal artery stroke has a variable presentation and is probably under-recognised clinically, requiring careful attention to MR imaging for its diagnosis.

The effects of kinesthetic and visual motor imagery on interjoint coordination in the hemiplegic index finger: an experimental study using the index of temporal coordination / Os efeitos da imagem cinestésica e viso-motora na coordenação interfalângica do dedo indicador hemiplégico: um estudo experimental usando o "the index of temporal coordination"

Abstract Upper limb hemiparesis is a common impairment following stroke and can affect interjoint coordination. Motor imagery training is one treatment strategy. However, motor imagery can use visual or kinesthetic modalities and there has been a lack of research comparing the effectiveness of these modalities when treating the upper limb. The aim of this study was to compare visual and kinesthetic motor imagery in improving interjoint coordination in the hemiparetic index finger. Fifteen stroke survivors with upper limb hemiparesis were allocated to groups using kinesthetic or visual motor imagery, or a control group using guided relaxation. Reaching and grasping movements of the upper limb were captured using optoelectronic motion capture. Interjoint coordination of the hemiparetic index finger was analysed using the index of temporal coordination. No significant differences were found for interjoint coordination following treatment in either condition. Future work should focus on comparing kinesthetic and visual motor imagery in the rehabilitation of more proximal upper limb joints.

Resumo A hemiparesia do membro superior é uma incapacidade comum após o AVC e pode afetar a coordenação das articulações interfalângicas. A terapia por imagens motoras é uma estratégia de tratamento. No entanto, essa terapia de imagem motora pode usar modalidades visuais ou cinestésicas e há uma escassez de pesquisas que comparem a eficácia dessas modalidades no tratamento do membro superior. O objetivo deste estudo foi comparar a terapia por imagem viso-motora e cinestésica na melhoria da coordenação interfalângica no dedo indicador hemiparético de pessoas com AVC. Quinze participantes com hemiparesia de membro superior foram alocados em grupos cuja terapia foi por imagens cinestésicas ou viso-motoras, e um grupo controle cuja terapia foi de relaxamento guiado. Movimentos de alcance e preensão com o membro superior foram capturados por meio de captura de movimento optoeletrônica. A coordenação interfalângica do dedo indicador hemiparético foi analisada por meio do instrumento "temporal coordination index". Nenhuma diferença significativa foi encontrada para a coordenação interfalângica após o tratamento em qualquer condição. O trabalho futuro deve se concentrar na comparação das imagens cinestésicas e viso-motoras na reabilitação das articulações mais proximais dos membros superiores.

Scalable interrogation: Eliciting human pheromone responses to deception in a security interview setting.

Individuals trying to conceal knowledge from interrogators are likely to experience raised levels of stress that can manifest itself across biological, physiological, psychological and behavioural factors, providing an opportunity for detection. Using established research paradigms an innovative scalable interrogation was designed in which participants were given a 'token' that represented information they had to conceal from interviewers. A control group did not receive a token and therefore did not have to deceive the investigators. The aim of this investigation was to examine differences between deceivers and truth-tellers across the four factors by collecting data for cortisol levels, sweat samples, heart-rate, respiration, skin temperature, subjective stress ratings and video and audio recordings. The results provided an integrated understanding of responses to interrogation by those actively concealing information and those acting innocently. Of particular importance, the results also suggest, for the first time in an interrogation setting, that stressed individuals may secrete a volatile steroid based marker that could be used for stand-off detection. The findings are discussed in relation to developing a scalable interrogation protocol for future research in this area.

The salience network is responsible for switching between the default mode network and the central executive network: replication from DCM.

With the advent of new analysis methods in neuroimaging that involve independent component analysis (ICA) and dynamic causal modelling (DCM), investigations have focused on measuring both the activity and connectivity of specific brain networks. In this study we combined DCM with spatial ICA to investigate network switching in the brain. Using time courses determined by ICA in our dynamic causal models, we focused on the dynamics of switching between the default mode network (DMN), the network which is active when the brain is not engaging in a specific task, and the central executive network (CEN), which is active when the brain is engaging in a task requiring attention. Previous work using Granger causality methods has shown that regions of the brain which respond to the degree of subjective salience of a stimulus, the salience network, are responsible for switching between the DMN and the CEN (Sridharan et al., 2008). In this work we apply DCM to ICA time courses representing these networks in resting state data. In order to test the repeatability of our work we applied this to two independent datasets. This work confirms that the salience network drives the switching between default mode and central executive networks and that our novel technique is repeatable.