Restorative neurology and neuroscience
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Restor. Neurol. Neurosci. · Jan 2018
Eugenol promotes functional recovery and alleviates inflammation, oxidative stress, and neural apoptosis in a rat model of spinal cord injury.
Eugenol, a natural phenolic compound found in essential oils, shows a variety of remedial properties, while its effect on spinal cord injury (SCI) is still unknown. ⋯ These findings suggest that down-regulating NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathway may support the neuroprotective effect of Eugenol against traumatic SCI.
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Restor. Neurol. Neurosci. · Jan 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialTranscranial direct current stimulation of the primary motor cortex on postoperative pain and spontaneous oscillatory electroencephalographic activity following lumbar spine surgery: A pilot study.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on primary motor cortex (M1) provides a new way to relieve postoperative pain. Previous studies only found postoperative analgesia dosage significantly reduced in tDCS group while the patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) was applied. However, there lacks the study about the effect of M1-tDCS on pain intensity and brain activity while the analgesia dosage is the same for both groups. ⋯ The postoperative pain intensity in patients receiving surgery could reduce after a single session of anodal M1-tDCS compared to sham M1-tDCS. The effect to the top-down dimension of postoperative pain might account for the analgesic effect of M1-tDCS, which reflecting slow oscillations in left prefrontal EEG.
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Restor. Neurol. Neurosci. · Jan 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialRandomized, crossover, sham-controlled, double-blind study of transcranial direct current stimulation of left DLPFC on executive functions .
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique commonly used to modulate cognitive functions; so-called "anodal" stimulation is considered to increase cortical excitability while "cathodal" stimulation is presumed to have the opposite result. Yet, a growing number of recent studies question the robustness of this polarity-dependent effect, namely because of the important inter-individual variability with regards to tDCS modulatory effects. A plausible reason for this heterogenous response may lay in task impurity issues in the evaluation of cognitive functions. ⋯ Offline tDCS has limited impact on executive functions at both the task and factorial levels. This suggests that reducing task impurity does not increase the effectiveness of tDCS in modulating cognitive functions.
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Restor. Neurol. Neurosci. · Jan 2018
Paired associative stimulation modulates corticomotor excitability in chronic stroke: A preliminary investigation.
Paired associative stimulation (PAS) combining repeated pairing of electrical stimulation of a peripheral nerve with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) can induce neuroplastic adaptations in the human brain and enhance motor learning in neurologically-intact individuals. However, the extent to which PAS is an effective technique for inducing associative plasticity and improving motor function in individuals post-stroke is unclear. ⋯ These results provide preliminary evidence for the potential of PAS to increase corticomotor excitability that could favorably impact motor skill performance in chronic individuals post-stroke and are an important first step for future studies investigating the clinical application and behavioral relevance of PAS interventions in post stroke patient populations.
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Restor. Neurol. Neurosci. · Jan 2018
Kinematic and kinetic benefits of implantable peroneal nerve stimulation in people with post-stroke drop foot using an ankle-foot orthosis.
Contralesional 'drop foot' after stroke is usually treated with an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO). However, AFOs may hamper ankle motion during stance. Peroneal functional electrical stimulation (FES) is an alternative treatment that provides active dorsiflexion and allows normal ankle motion. Despite this theoretical advantage of FES, the kinematic and kinetic differences between AFO and FES have been scarcely investigated. ⋯ This study substantiates the evidence that implantable peroneal FES as a treatment for post-stroke drop foot may be superior over AFO in terms of knee stability, ankle plantarflexion power, and propulsion.