Brain structural changes and molecular analyses in children with benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes.

BACKGROUND: Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is a common childhood epilepsy syndrome, accompanied by behavioral problems and cognitive impairments. Previous studies of BECTS-related brain structures applied univariate analysis and showed inconsistent results. And neurotransmitter patterns associated with brain structural alterations were still unclear. METHODS: Structural images of twenty-one drug-naïve children with BECTS and thirty-five healthy controls (HCs) were scanned. Segmented gray matter volume (GMV) images were decomposed into independent components (ICs) using the source-based morphometry method. Then spatial correlation analyses were applied to examine possible relationships between GMV changes and neurotransmitter systems. RESULTS: Compared with HCs, drug-naïve children with BECTS showed increased volume in one GMV component (IC7), including bilateral precentral gyrus, bilateral supplementary motor area, left superior frontal cortex, bilateral middle/ inferior frontal cortex and bilateral anterior/ middle cingulate cortex. A positive correlation was observed between one GMV component (IC6) and seizure frequency. There were significantly positive correlations between abnormal GMV in IC7 and serotonergic, GABAergic and glutamatergic systems. CONCLUSION: These findings provided further evidence of changed GMV in drug-naïve children with BECTS related to their behavioral problems and cognitive impairments, and associated neurotransmitters which could help to better understand neurobiological mechanisms and underlying molecular mechanisms of BECTS. IMPACT: The article provides further evidence of changed gray matter volume in drug-naïve children with BECTS related to their behavioral problems and cognitive impairments as well as associated neurotransmitters. Most literature to date has applied univariate analysis and showed inconsistent results, and neurotransmitter patterns associated with brain structural alterations were still unclear. Therefore, this article uses multivariate method and JuSpace toolbox to fill the gap. Significantly increased gray matter volume was found in drug-naïve children with BECTS compared with healthy controls. Abnormal gray matter volume was significantly correlated with clinical data and specific neurotransmitters.

Structure of brain grey and white matter in infants with spastic cerebral palsy and periventricular white matter injury.

AIM: To investigate the possible covariation of grey matter volume (GMV) and white matter fractional anisotropy in infants with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) and periventricular white matter injury. METHOD: Thirty-nine infants with spastic CP and 25 typically developing controls underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. Multimodal canonical correlation analysis with joint independent component analysis were used to capture differences in GMV and fractional anisotropy between groups. Correlation analysis was performed between imaging findings and clinical features. RESULTS: Infants with spastic CP showed one joint group-discriminating component (i.e. GMV-fractional anisotropy) associated with regions in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop and in the corpus callosum compared to typically developing controls and one modality-specific group-discriminating component (i.e. GMV). Significant negative correlations were found between loadings in certain regions and the motor function score in spastic CP. INTERPRETATION: In infants with spastic CP, covarying GMV-fractional anisotropy and altered GMV in specific regions were implicated in motor dysfunction, which confirmed that simultaneous GMV and fractional anisotropy changes underly motor deficits, but might also extend to sensory, cognitive, or visual dysfunction. These findings also suggest that multimodal fusion analysis allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the relevance between grey and white matter structures and its crucial role in the neuropathological mechanisms of spastic CP.

Changes of insular function in lifelong premature ejaculation patients before and after SSRI administration.

OBJECTIVE: Lifelong premature ejaculation (PE) is regarded as one of the most common male sexual dysfunction. We aimed to detect whether insula-related brain functional networks are altered in lifelong PE patients and whether such alterations are "normalised" after selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) administration. METHODS: Twenty-three drug-naive lifelong PE patients and 30 healthy controls (HC) were recruited in current study. All subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan at first. One hour after dapoxetine administration, all patients underwent fMRI scanning again. The degree centrality (DC), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis, and ROI-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis were applied to calculate the abnormalities in insula-related functions among three groups. RESULTS: Compared to HC group, PE patients at baseline showed significantly altered DC, ALFF, and ReHo value of the bilateral insula, which subsequently showed a "normalised" trend after dapoxetine administration. Additionally, compared to HC group, PE patients at baseline showed significantly decreased FC between insula and precentral gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, middle/inferior temporal gyrus, and caudate, while patients after dapoxetine administration showed increased insula-related FC in anterior cingulate cortex and decreased FC in thalamus and middle/inferior temporal gyrus. The main effects of dapoxetine were located in precentral gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, caudate, and limbic system. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings report altered brain mechanism of insula in lifelong PE patients and also indicate that dapoxetine can "normalise" the abnormal function of the insula to certain extent in lifelong PE patients.

Percentage amplitude of fluctuation and structural covariance changes of subjective cognitive decline in patients: A multimodal imaging study.

Back ground: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) may be the first clinical sign of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The possible neural mechanisms of SCD are not well known. This study aimed to compare percent amplitude of fluctuation (PerAF) and structural covariance patterns in patients with SCD and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: We enrolled 53 patients with SCD and 65 HCs. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and T1-weighted anatomical brain 3.0-T MRI scans were collected. The PerAF approach was applied to distinguish altered brain functions between the two groups. A whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis was performed, and all significant regions were selected as regions of interest (ROIs) for the structural covariance analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using two-sample t-tests, and multiple regressions were applied to examine the relationships between neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms. Results: Functional MRI results revealed significantly increased PerAF including the right hippocampus (HIPP) and right thalamus (THA) in patients with SCD relative to HCs. Gray matter volume (GMV) results demonstrated decreased GMV in the bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and right insula in patients with SCD relative to HCs. Taking these three areas including the bilateral vlPFC and right insula as ROIs, differences were observed in the structural covariance of the ROIs with several regions between the two groups. Additionally, significant correlations were observed between neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms. Conclusion: Our study investigated the abnormal PerAF and structural covariance patterns in patients with SCD, which might provide new insights into the pathological mechanisms of SCD.

Abnormal percent amplitude of fluctuation and functional connectivity within and between networks in benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes.

BACKGROUND: Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is one of the most common childhood epilepsy syndromes. The neural basis of BECTS is still poorly understood. This study aimed to further investigate the possible neural mechanisms of BECTS by comparing percent amplitude of fluctuation (PerAF) of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) signal of each brain voxel and connectivity within and between related networks in children with BECTS and healthy controls (HCs). METHODS: Firstly, we used PerAF method to investigate brain functional alteration and defined the regions of interest (ROIs) where children with BECTS exhibited significant PerAF alterations compared to HCs. We then divided these ROIs into different networks based on previous findings and investigated alterations of functional connectivity within and between networks in children with BECTS. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was employed to assess the reliable biomarker for distinguishing children with BECTS from HCs based on the intergroup PerAF differences. RESULTS: Children with BECTS showed decreased PerAF in the left middle frontal cortex (MFC), right precentral gyrus, left precuneus (PCUN), bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), left angular gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), right supplementary motor area (SMA) and left primary somatosensory cortex (S1) compared to HCs. The IPL and PCC exhibited higher classification power by ROC analysis. Moreover, our findings exhibited increased Intra-network connectivity in the default mode network (DMN), and increased inter-network connectivity of the sensorimotor network (SMN) with Broca's area and DMN. CONCLUSIONS: Our study investigated the abnormal PerAF and functional brain networks in children with BECTS, which might provide new insights into the pathological mechanisms of BECTS.

Improving the Dynamic Mechanical Properties of XNBR Using ILs/KH550-Functionalized Multilayer Graphene.

Graphene has been considered an ideal nanoscale reinforced phase for preparing high-performance composites, but the poor compatibility and weak interfacial interaction with the matrix have limited its application. Here a highly effective and environmentally friendly method for the functionalization of graphene is proposed through an interaction between as-exfoliated graphene and (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (KH550), in which 1-butylsulfonate-3-methylimidazolium bisulfate (BSO3HMIm)(HSO4) ionic-liquids-modified graphene was prepared via an electrochemical exfoliation of graphite in (BSO3HMIm)(HSO4) solution, then (BSO3HMIm)(HSO4)-modified graphene as a precursor was reacted with amine groups of KH550 for obtaining (BSO3HMIm)(HSO4)/KH550-functionalized graphene. The final products as filler into carboxylated acrylonitrile‒butadiene rubber (XNBR) improve the dynamic mechanical properties. The improvement in the dynamic mechanical properties of the nanocomposite mainly depends on high interfacial interaction and graphene's performance characteristics, as well as a good dispersion between functionalized graphene and the XNBR matrix.

Effect of Hindered Phenol Crystallization on Properties of Organic Hybrid Damping Materials.

Organic hybrid damping materials have achieved sustainable development in recent years for superior damping properties due to the hydrogen bonding of hindered phenol. However, the aggregation and crystallization of hindered phenol in the matrix can lead to a sharp decline in material properties. Thus, a series of hindered phenol hybrid carboxylated nitrile rubber (XNBR) composites with different types and contents of hindered phenol were prepared by melt blending to study the effects of different hindered phenol on the properties of organic hybrid damping materials. A dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to study the dynamic mechanical properties and cross-section morphology of composites. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to study the crystallization of hindered phenol. The results show that the properties of organic hybrid damping materials were affected by the structure of hindered phenol, and that hindered phenol molecules with a linear structure had better performances. The greater the number of hydrogen bonds between hindered phenol and the XNBR matrix, the more difficult it was for the hindered phenol to crystallize.

High-performance optical projection controllable ZnO nanorod arrays for microweighing sensors.

Optical microweighing sensors are an essential component of micro-force measurements in physical, chemical, and biological detection fields, although, their limited detection range (less than 15°) severely hinders their wide application. Such a limitation is mainly attributed to the essential restrictions of traditional light reflection and optical waveguide modes. Here, we report a high-performance optical microweighing sensor based on the synergistic effects of both a new optical projection mode and a ZnO nanorod array sensor. Ascribed to the unique configuration design of this sensing method, this optical microweighing sensor has a wide detection range (more than 80°) and a high sensitivity of 90 nA deg-1, which is much larger than that of conventional microcantilever-based optical microweighing sensors. Furthermore, the location of the UV light source can be adjusted within a few millimeters, meaning that the microweighing sensor does not need repetitive optical calibration. More importantly, for low height and small incident angles of the UV light source, we can obtain highly sensitive microweighing properties on account of the highly sensitive ZnO nanorod array-based UV sensor. Therefore, this kind of large detection range, non-contact, and non-destructive microweighing sensor has potential applications in air quality monitoring and chemical and biological detection.

Modification of Talc@TiO2 toward high-performance nitrile rubber application.

To improve the dispersion of talcum powder (Talc) for polymer applications, modified nano-titania powders (TiO2) using a silane coupling agent (KH550), a titanate coupling agent (NDZ201) and sodium polyacrylate (PAAS) were well adhered to the surface of Talc with a ball milling method, thereby preparing a series of mixed Talc@TiO2 particles to realize good dispersion in carboxylated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (XNBR). Note that Talc@TiO2 particles modified by PAAS and NDZ201 show better colloidal dispersion in anhydrous ethanol due to organification and repulsion of charge, with original Talc and NDZ201 modified Talc@TiO2 powders as a comparison. Modified Talc@TiO2 hybrid XNBR shows good performance characteristics, including damping capacity and impact resistance, depending mainly on the excellent mechanical property of Talc, good dispersion and the high adhesive force between modified Talc@TiO2 and XNBR.