Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
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To examine the viscerosomatic interaction between bladder afferents and somatic nociception we evaluated the effect of bladder filling on the nociceptive withdrawal reflex (NWR) in 21 healthy subjects. ⋯ The effect of bladder filling on the NWR may represent a useful tool to investigate interactions between the neural pathways controlling the bladder and pain.
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A number of studies provide supporting evidence for changes in synchronization during anesthetic-induced unconsciousness. This study investigates how anesthetic administration affects the widespread patterns of phase synchrony. ⋯ Our findings have implications in the study of consciousness, support existing literature in the field and contribute towards the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms behind loss of consciousness. Future investigations could result in a synchrony-based measure for monitoring the level of hypnosis of patients during surgery.
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High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) modulates cortical excitability. We investigated its effect on visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in migraine. ⋯ Migraineurs may have increased responsiveness to rTMS because of a cortical dysfunction that changes before a migraine attack.
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Motor dysfunction in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) has been associated with bilateral changes in central motor processing, suggesting abnormal coupling between the affected and unaffected limb. We evaluated the occurrence of involuntary muscle activity in a limb during voluntary movements of the contralateral limb (i.e., mirror activity) in unilaterally affected patients to examine disinhibition of contralateral motor activity in CRPS. ⋯ Although motor dysfunction in CRPS has been associated with bilateral changes in cortical motor processing, the present findings argue against disinhibition of interhemispheric projections to homologous muscles in the contralateral limb during unimanual movement.
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The pathophysiological basis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is not completely understood and likely varies among patients. In this regard, some patients with OSA do not exhibit hypoxemia. We aimed to analyze the clinical, sleep, and autonomic features of a group of patients with severe OSA without hypoxia (OSA-h) and compare to OSA patients with hypoxia (OSA+h) and controls. ⋯ OSA is a heterogeneous entity. These differences must be taken into account in future studies when analyzing therapeutic approaches for sleep apnea patients.