Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging
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Comparative Study
Effect of stimulation by foliage plant display images on prefrontal cortex activity: a comparison with stimulation using actual foliage plants.
Natural scenes like forests and flowers evoke neurophysiological responses that can suppress anxiety and relieve stress. We examined whether images of natural objects can elicit neural responses similar to those evoked by real objects by comparing the activation of the prefrontal cortex during presentation of real foliage plants with a projected image of the same foliage plants. ⋯ The frontal cortex responded differently to presentation of actual plants compared with images of these plants even when the subjective emotional response was similar. These results may help explain the physical and mental health benefits of urban, domestic, and workplace foliage.
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Controlled Clinical Trial
No signs of intracranial arterial vasoconstriction in transient global amnesia.
The current theories to explain the pathophysiology of transient global amnesia (TGA) involve epilepsy, migraine, and hippocampal ischemia which might be determined by venous congestion or arterial vasoconstriction triggered by Valsalva-associated maneuvers in susceptible individuals. ⋯ Extra-intracranial atherosclerosis does not play a pathogenic role in TGA and no supporting evidence for the arterial vasoconstriction hypothesis of TGA emerged from this study.
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Basilar artery stenosis where flow restriction constitutes the main pathomechanism are exceptional. Here, we report a case where the lesion progression was characterized by watershed infarct between the anterior inferior-superior cerebellar arteries and deep pontine arteries, indicating a significant hemodynamic impairment.
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Case Reports
Vertebral body infarct and ventral cauda equina enhancement: two confirmatory findings of acute spinal cord infarct.
Two valuable confirmatory MRI findings of acute spinal cord infarct are highlighted and discussed: concomitant vertebral body infarct and ventral cauda equina nerve root enhancement.
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Case Reports
Benefit of cone-beam CT angiography in visualizing aneurysm shape and identification of exact rupture site.
While high-resolution cone-beam computational tomographic (CBCT) angiography has gained use in intracranial vascular imaging, digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and 3-dimensional-rotational angiography (3D-RA) remain the preferred acquisition modalities for intracranial aneurysm imaging. This case report highlights the utility of the greater spatial resolution afforded by CBCT for cerebral aneurysm imaging. A 54-year-old man presenting with subarachnoid hemorrhage was confirmed to harbor a ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm by conventional angiography. ⋯ The greater resolution of CBCT revealed in an unequivocal fashion the exact site of rupture on the aneurysm dome, visualized as a discrete irregular and elongated bleb that was not seen on either 3D-RA or DSA. High-resolution CBCT visualized the shape of the target aneurysm in greater detail than the more conventional 2D-DSA and 3D-RA, enabling more precise computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Given that aneurysms most likely change shape either prior to rupture or upon rupture, future studies evaluating fluid dynamics using computer reconstructions should be cognizant of the differences in resolution provided by various imaging modalities.