Neuroscience
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The optimal stimulation frequency for inducing neuromodulatory effects remains unclear. The purpose of our study was to investigate the effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) with different frequencies on cortical and spinal excitability. Thirteen able-bodied individuals participated in the experiment involving NMES: (i) low-frequency at 25 Hz, (ii) high-frequency at 100 Hz, and (iii) mixed-frequency at 25 and 100 Hz switched every one second. ⋯ Our results showed that mixed frequency was most effective in modulating corticospinal excitability, although motor performance was not affected by any intervention. The cortical silent period was prolonged and Mmax was inhibited by all frequencies, while the F-wave and MVC were unaffected. Mixed-frequency stimulation could recruit a more diverse range of motor units, which are recruited in a stimulus frequency-specific manner, than single-frequency stimulation, and thus may have affected corticospinal facilitation.
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In recent years, the incidence rate of children with autism has shown a significant upward trend. Rehabilitation training is an important part of recovery or improvement in autism children. However, during autism rehabilitation training, the methods that can visually reflect and objectively evaluate its effects are seldom considered. ⋯ The differences in speed, acceleration, and angle between the high- and low-score groups were mainly reflected in left-hand movement. Moreover, analysis of multimodal data showed that visual motor training had a positive effect on brain activation and functional connectivity, and increasing the frequency of left-hand training and using more green light were beneficial to the improvement of brain function. These findings can be used as basis to help optimize rehabilitation programs and improve rehabilitation effectiveness.
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Cellular senescence is involved in the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Motor neurons exhibit senescence-like alterations in ALS. BRD7, identified as a regulatory factor associated with cellular senescence, its function in ALS remains unclear. ⋯ Knockdown of BRD7 inhibited p53 mitochondrial translocation, leading to reduced apoptosis. Our results suggest that BRD7 plays an important role in the survival of ALS motor neurons. BRD7 knockdown can reduce cellular senescence and apoptosis by inhibiting p21 and p53 mitochondrial translocation.
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Essential tremor with resting tremor (rET) and tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease (tPD) share many similar clinical symptoms, leading to frequent misdiagnoses. Functional connectivity (FC) matrix analysis derived from resting-state functional MRI (Rs-fMRI) offers a promising approach for early diagnosis and for exploring FC network pathogenesis in rET and tPD. However, methods relying solely on a single connection pattern may overlook the complementary roles of different connectivity patterns, resulting in reduced diagnostic differentiation. ⋯ Compared with single-pattern GCN, our proposed MCGCN model demonstrated superior classification accuracy, underscoring the advantages of integrating multiple connectivity modes. Specifically, the model achieved an average accuracy of 88.0% for distinguishing rET from HC, 88.8% for rET from tPD, and 89.6% for tPD from HC. Our findings indicate that combining graph convolutional networks with multi-connection patterns can not only effectively discriminate between tPD, rET, and HC but also enhance our understanding of the functional network mechanisms underlying rET and tPD.
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With the increased availability and sophistication of digital devices in the last decade, young people have become mainstream mobile phone users. Heavy mobile phone dependence causes affective problems (depression, anxiety) and loss of attention on current activities, leading to more cluttered thoughts. Problematic mobile phone use has been found to increase the occurrence of mind wandering, but the neural mechanism underlying this relationship remains unclear. ⋯ FC between the frontoparietal and motor networks, between the default mode network and cerebellar network, and within the cerebellar network mediated the relationship between mobile phone addiction and mind wandering. The findings confirm that mobile phone addiction is a risk factor for increased mind wandering and reveal that FC in several brain networks underlies this relationship. They contribute to research on behavioral addiction, education, and mental health among young adults.