The relationship between cognitive reserve focused on leisure experiences and cognitive functions in bipolar patients.

Bipolar disorder (BP) is characterized by cognitive decline. Individual differences exist in maintaining cognitive function due to daily physical activity and sleep. We examined the relationship between leisure experiences as proxies for cognitive reserve (CR) and cognitive function in patients with bipolar disorder after adjusting for daily physical activity and sleep. The CR of patients with BP (n = 24) and healthy study controls (HC) (n = 24) was assessed using premorbid IQ, years of education, and leisure activity history. Performance-based neuropsychological tests were performed to evaluate cognitive function. A self-reported scale was used to assess resilience. Physical activity and sleep were measured using an activity meter. Verbal fluency, story memory, and verbal memory were significantly positively correlated with the kinds of leisure experiences in patients with BP. A hierarchical regression analysis accounting for confounding factors showed that verbal fluency and memory were associated with the kinds of leisure experiences. Neither years of education nor resilience were significantly associated with neuropsychological scores. Various leisure experiences in patients with BP are associated with higher language-related cognitive functioning. Engaging in various leisure experiences may affect higher cognitive functions related to language.

Prominent gamma band activity during visual motion perception in early-stage Alzheimer's disease.

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects multiple neural pathways and regions, resulting in various visual impairments such as motion perception. Generally, gamma-band activities during visual motion perception have been thought to reflect ongoing cognitive processes. Nevertheless, few studies have specifically examined induced gamma band activity during visual motion perception in AD patients. Therefore, after performing magnetoencephalography (MEG) recording during apparent motion (AM) stimulation for the left hemi-visual field in patients diagnosed as having AD in the early stage, we compared the results with findings of cognitive performance. METHODS: Seventeen AD patients in the early stage and 17 controls matched for age, sex, and educational attainment participated in this study. For each participant, memory performance was assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R). For MEG analysis, we examined power changes induced in a higher frequency range (20-100 Hz) after AM stimuli. RESULTS: The power of induced gamma band activities was significantly higher in AD patients. The power of induced gamma band activities was associated with higher performance on both MMSE and WMS-R tests for attention and concentration in AD patients. CONCLUSIONS: Given that neuronal dysfunction in AD is associated with excitotoxic neurodegeneration, and given that subsequent development of compensatory inhibitory mechanisms also contributes to pathology in AD patients, elevated gamma band oscillations might reflect an imbalance of inhibitory and excitatory activity in AD patients. Moreover, positive correlation between induced gamma activity and cognitive performance might signify a compensating mechanism of inhibitory neurons which preserve the pyramidal neuron from excitotoxicity in a posterior association area.

Atypical Resting State Functional Neural Network in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Graph Theory Approach.

Measuring whole brain networks is a promising approach to extract features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a brain disorder of widespread regions. Objectives of this study were to evaluate properties of resting-state functional brain networks in children with and without ASD and to evaluate their relation with social impairment severity. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data were recorded for 21 children with ASD (7 girls, 60-89 months old) and for 25 typically developing (TD) control children (10 girls, 60-91 months old) in a resting state while gazing at a fixation cross. After signal sources were localized onto the Desikan-Killiany brain atlas, statistical relations between localized activities were found and evaluated in terms of the phase lag index. After brain networks were constructed and after matching with intelligence using a coarsened exact matching algorithm, ASD and TD graph theoretical measures were compared. We measured autism symptoms severity using the Social Responsiveness Scale and investigated its relation with altered small-worldness using linear regression models. Children with ASD were found to have significantly lower small-worldness in the beta band (p = 0.007) than TD children had. Lower small-worldness in the beta band of children with ASD was associated with higher Social Responsiveness Scale total t-scores (p = 0.047). Significant relations were also inferred for the Social Awareness (p = 0.008) and Social Cognition (p = 0.015) sub-scales. Results obtained using graph theory demonstrate a difference between children with and without ASD in MEG-derived resting-state functional brain networks, and the relation of that difference with social impairment. Combining graph theory and MEG might be a promising approach to establish a biological marker for ASD.

Epileptiform discharges relate to altered functional brain networks in autism spectrum disorders.

Many individuals with autism spectrum disorders have comorbid epilepsy. Even in the absence of observable seizures, interictal epileptiform discharges are common in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. However, how these interictal epileptiform discharges are related to autistic symptomatology remains unclear. This study used magnetoencephalography to investigate the relation between interictal epileptiform discharges and altered functional brain networks in children with autism spectrum disorders. Instead of particularly addressing individual brain regions, we specifically examine network properties. For this case-control study, we analysed 70 children with autism spectrum disorders (52 boys, 18 girls, 38-92 months old) and 19 typically developing children (16 boys, 3 girls, 48-88 months old). After assessing the participants' social reciprocity using the Social Responsiveness Scale, we constructed graphs of functional brain networks from frequency band separated task-free magnetoencephalography recordings. Nodes corresponded to Desikan-Killiany atlas-based 68 brain regions. Edges corresponded to phase lag index values between pairs of brain regions. To elucidate the effects of the existence of interictal epileptiform discharges on graph metrics, we matched each of three pairs from three groups (typically developing children, children with autism spectrum disorders who had interictal epileptiform discharges and those who did not) in terms of age and sex. We used a coarsened exact matching algorithm and applied adjusted regression analysis. We also investigated the relation between social reciprocity and the graph metric. Results show that, in children with autism spectrum disorders, the average clustering coefficient in the theta band was significantly higher in children who had interictal epileptiform discharges. Moreover, children with autism spectrum disorders who had no interictal epileptiform discharges had a significantly lower average clustering coefficient in the theta band than typically developing children had. However, the difference between typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder who had interictal epileptiform discharges was not significant. Furthermore, the higher average clustering coefficient in the theta band corresponded to severe autistic symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder who had interictal epileptiform discharges. However, the association was not significant in children with autism spectrum disorders who had no interictal epileptiform discharge. In conclusion, results demonstrate that alteration of functional brain networks in children with autism spectrum disorders depends on the existence of interictal epileptiform discharges. Interictal epileptiform discharges might 'normalize' the deviation of altered brain networks in autism spectrum disorders, increasing the clustering coefficient. However, when the effect exceeds tolerance, it actually exacerbates autistic symptoms.

Japanese local government management of compulsory hospitalization for patients with mental disorders and comorbid COVID-19.

Administering medical treatment or managing quarantine for a patient is particularly difficult when a patient harming others or causing self-harm because of severe depression, a manic state, or psychomotor agitation is also infected with COVID-19. Kanazawa University Hospital is the only facility able to manage such difficult cases occurring in Ishikawa prefecture, a local administrative area in Japan. The hospital has arranged a negative pressure apparatus in a psychiatric ward with two protection rooms. This report describes an urgently established but viable system in one prefecture of Japan for treating COVID-19-infected patients with severe psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Complexity of Body Movements during Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Recently, measuring the complexity of body movements during sleep has been proven as an objective biomarker of various psychiatric disorders. Although sleep problems are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and might exacerbate ASD symptoms, their objectivity as a biomarker remains to be established. Therefore, details of body movement complexity during sleep as estimated by actigraphy were investigated in typically developing (TD) children and in children with ASD. Several complexity analyses were applied to raw and thresholded data of actigraphy from 17 TD children and 17 children with ASD. Determinism, irregularity and unpredictability, and long-range temporal correlation were examined respectively using the false nearest neighbor (FNN) algorithm, information-theoretic analyses, and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Although the FNN algorithm did not reveal determinism in body movements, surrogate analyses identified the influence of nonlinear processes on the irregularity and long-range temporal correlation of body movements. Additionally, the irregularity and unpredictability of body movements measured by expanded sample entropy were significantly lower in ASD than in TD children up to two hours after sleep onset and at approximately six hours after sleep onset. This difference was found especially for the high-irregularity period. Through this study, we characterized details of the complexity of body movements during sleep and demonstrated the group difference of body movement complexity across TD children and children with ASD. Complexity analyses of body movements during sleep have provided valuable insights into sleep profiles. Body movement complexity might be useful as a biomarker for ASD.

Influence of oxytocin administration on somatosensory evoked magnetic fields induced by median nerve stimulation during hand action observation in healthy male volunteers.

Watching another person's hand movement modulates somatosensory evoked magnetic fields (SEFs). Assuming that the mirror neuron system may have a role in this phenomenon, oxytocin should enhance these effects. This single-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover study therefore used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate SEFs following electrical stimulation of the right median nerve in 20 healthy male participants during hand movement observation, which were initially presented as static images followed by moving images. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either oxytocin or saline during the first trial, with the treatment being reversed during a second trial. Log-transformed ratios of the N20 and N30 amplitudes were calculated and compared between moving and static images observations. Phase locking (calculated using intertrial phase coherence) of brain oscillations was also analyzed to evaluate alpha, beta and gamma rhythm changes after oxytocin administration. Log N30 ratios showed no significant changes after placebo administration but showed a decreasing tendency (albeit not significant) after placebo administration, which may suggest mirror neuron system involvement. In contrast, log N20 ratios were increased after placebo administration, but showed no significant change after oxytocin administration. Interestingly, the gamma band activity around N20 increased after placebo administration, suggesting that oxytocin exerted an analgesic effect on median nerve stimulation, and inhibited the gamma band increase. Oxytocin might therefore modulate not only the mirror neuron system, but also the sensory processing associated with median nerve stimulation.

Markers for the central serotonin system correlate to verbal ability and paralinguistic social voice processing in autism spectrum disorder.

Impairment in verbal communication abilities has been reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Dysfunction of the serotonergic system has also been reported in ASD. However, it is still unknown how the brain serotonergic system relates to impairment in verbal communication abilities in individuals with ASD. In the present study, we investigated the correlation between brain serotonergic condition and brain sensitivity to paralinguistic stimuli (i.e., amplitude in the human voice prosodic change-evoked mismatch field) measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG) or verbal ability in 10 adults with ASD. To estimate the brain serotonergic condition, we measured the serotonin transporter nondisplaceable binding potential cerebrum-wide using positron emission tomography with [11C]N,N-dimethyl-2-(2-amino-4-cyanophenylthio)benzylamine ([11C] DASB). The results demonstrated a significant positive correlation between brain activity to paralinguistic stimuli and brain serotonin transporter binding potential in the left lingual gyrus, left fusiform gyrus and left calcarine cortex. In addition, there were significant positive correlations between verbal ability and serotonergic condition in the right anterior insula, right putamen and right central operculum. These results suggested that the occipital cortex is implicated in recognition of the prosodic change in ASD, whereas the right insula-involved serotonergic system is important in nurturing verbal function in ASD.Trial registration: UMIN000011077.

Atypical body movements during night in young children with autism spectrum disorder: a pilot study.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reportedly suffer from sleep problems at a higher rate than typically developing (TD) children. Several previous studies have reported differences in sleep indices (e.g., sleep latency) in children with ASD. However, no previous studies have focused specifically on the time course of body movements. In the present study, we investigated the time course of body movements in young TD children and young children with ASD as well as the relationship between body movements during night and social ability. Seventeen TD children and 17 children with ASD participated in this study (5 to 8 years old). We used an accelerometer attached to the waist to record movements during night and measured the average time course of body movements for 3 nights. Our results demonstrated that the rate of body movement 2 to 3 hours after the onset of body stillness was higher in children with ASD than in TD children. In addition, the higher rate of body movement at 0.5 to 1 hour after the onset of body stillness was associated with a lower social ability in the children with ASD. Our results suggested that the time course of body movements is an objective behavioural index for young children with ASD.

Changes in maternal feelings for children with autism spectrum disorder after childbirth: The impact of knowledge about the disorder.

The social interactions between caregivers and their children play a crucial role in childhood development; therefore, caregivers' feelings for children are critical for the development of social minds. Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to experience higher levels of stress. However, knowledge regarding mothers' feelings for their children before receiving a clinical diagnosis is limited. This study retrospectively investigated the time course of mothers' feelings from the time of birth and the effect of protective factors. The participants were 5- to 8-year-old children with an ASD diagnosis and their mothers. The mothers of the children with ASD had less positive feelings toward their children than the mothers of the typically developed (TD) children before receiving a clinical diagnosis. Intriguingly, prior knowledge of ASD may relieve maternal mental distress during the child-rearing years and at the time of diagnosis.