Hasil untuk "Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry"

Luca Ciampi, Ludovico Iannello, Fabrizio Tonelli et al.

In this paper, we present a neuro-inspired approach to reservoir computing (RC) in which a network of in vitro cultured cortical neurons serves as the physical reservoir. Rather than relying on artificial recurrent models to approximate neural dynamics, our biological reservoir computing (BRC) system leverages the spontaneous and stimulus-evoked activity of living neural circuits as its computational substrate. A high-density multi-electrode array (HD-MEA) provides simultaneous stimulation and readout across hundreds of channels: input patterns are delivered through selected electrodes, while the remaining ones capture the resulting high-dimensional neural responses, yielding a biologically grounded feature representation. A linear readout layer (single-layer perceptron) is then trained to classify these reservoir states, enabling the living neural network to perform static visual pattern-recognition tasks within a computer-vision framework. We evaluate the system across a sequence of tasks of increasing difficulty, ranging from pointwise stimuli to oriented bars, clock-digit-like shapes, and handwritten digits from the MNIST dataset. Despite the inherent variability of biological neural responses-arising from noise, spontaneous activity, and inter-session differences-the system consistently generates high-dimensional representations that support accurate classification. These results demonstrate that in vitro cortical networks can function as effective reservoirs for static visual pattern recognition, opening new avenues for integrating living neural substrates into neuromorphic computing frameworks. More broadly, this work contributes to the effort to incorporate biological principles into machine learning and supports the goals of neuro-inspired vision by illustrating how living neural systems can inform the design of efficient and biologically grounded computational models.

Marcello Barylli, Joyaditya Saha, Tineke E. Buffart et al.

Recent advances in single cell sequencing and multi-omics techniques have significantly improved our understanding of biological phenomena and our capacity to model them. Despite combined capture of data modalities showing similar progress, notably single cell transcriptomics and proteomics, simultaneous multi-omics level probing still remains challenging. As an alternative to combined capture of biological data, in this review, we explore current and upcoming methods for post-hoc network inference and integration with an emphasis on single cell transcriptomics and proteomics. By examining various approaches, from probabilistic models to graph-based algorithms, we outline the challenges and potential strategies for effectively combining biological data types while simultaneously highlighting the importance of model validation. With this review, we aim to inform readers of the breadth of tools currently available for the purpose-specific generation of heterogeneous multi-layer networks.

Gavin Wong, Ping Shu Ho, Ivan Au Yeung et al.

Biological pathways map gene-gene interactions that govern all human processes. Despite their importance, most ML models treat genes as unstructured tokens, discarding known pathway structure. The latest pathway-informed models capture pathway-pathway interactions, but still treat each pathway as a "bag of genes" via MLPs, discarding its topology and gene-gene interactions. We propose a Graph Attention Network (GAT) framework that models pathways at the gene level. We show that GATs generalize much better than MLPs, achieving an 81% reduction in MSE when predicting pathway dynamics under unseen treatment conditions. We further validate the correctness of our biological prior by encoding drug mechanisms via edge interventions, boosting model robustness. Finally, we show that our GAT model is able to correctly rediscover all five gene-gene interactions in the canonical TP53-MDM2-MDM4 feedback loop from raw time-series mRNA data, demonstrating potential to generate novel biological hypotheses directly from experimental data.

Kangni Deng, Yuheng Zhou, Jiasi Qian et al.

BackgroundChronic non-specific neck pain (CNSNP) is the most common type of chronic neck pain encountered in clinical practice. Existing studies have demonstrated that intermediate frequency therapy can effectively alleviate neck pain symptoms. Among other conservative treatment modalities, Tai Chi, a typical mind-body exercise, may improve musculoskeletal function and postural control, but its effect on cervical stability and CNSNP remains unclear. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical efficacy of Tai Chi combined with intermediate frequency therapy vs. intermediate frequency therapy alone in patients with CNSNP.MethodsAccording to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, patients with CNSNP were recruited from the rehabilitation medicine clinic of the Sixth People's Hospital of Kunshan City, resulting in the enrollment of 60 eligible participants. Patients were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (EG) or the control group (CG). The EG received Tai Chi combined with intermediate frequency therapy, while the CG received intermediate frequency therapy alone. The primary outcome was the visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain. Secondary outcomes included the Neck Disability Index (NDI), the D value of cervical physiological curvature measured by x-ray, and the cervical range of motion (ROM) score. The intervention lasted eight weeks, with sessions conducted five times per week, for a total of 40 sessions. Assessments were performed at baseline, at four weeks (mid-intervention), and at the end of eight weeks.ResultsDuring the study, one participant in the EG withdrew after missing one week of Tai Chi intervention. Two participants in the CG discontinued: one due to a change in their treatment plan, and one for personal reasons. Thus, 57 patients with CNSNP completed the study. Both groups showed significant improvements in VAS, NDI, cervical physiological curvature (D value), and ROM scores after treatment compared to baseline. Notably, the improvement in the D value was significantly greater in the EG than in the CG.ConclusionFor patients with CNSNP, the combination of Tai Chi and intermediate frequency therapy appeared to alleviate pain and improve function. Compared to intermediate frequency therapy alone, this combined approach significantly improves the physiological curvature of the cervical spine in individuals with CNSNP. Furthermore, these findings suggest that Tai Chi may be a safe and beneficial adjunctive therapy, and may represent a promising alternative for the management of CNSNP. However, larger-scale long-term studies are still needed.Clinical Trial Registration:www. itmctr.ccebtcm.org.cn, identifier (TTM-CTR-2025000447).

Shuangpeng Han, Ziyu Wang, Mengmi Zhang

Biological motion perception (BMP) refers to humans' ability to perceive and recognize the actions of living beings solely from their motion patterns, sometimes as minimal as those depicted on point-light displays. While humans excel at these tasks without any prior training, current AI models struggle with poor generalization performance. To close this research gap, we propose the Motion Perceiver (MP). MP solely relies on patch-level optical flows from video clips as inputs. During training, it learns prototypical flow snapshots through a competitive binding mechanism and integrates invariant motion representations to predict action labels for the given video. During inference, we evaluate the generalization ability of all AI models and humans on 62,656 video stimuli spanning 24 BMP conditions using point-light displays in neuroscience. Remarkably, MP outperforms all existing AI models with a maximum improvement of 29% in top-1 action recognition accuracy on these conditions. Moreover, we benchmark all AI models in point-light displays of two standard video datasets in computer vision. MP also demonstrates superior performance in these cases. More interestingly, via psychophysics experiments, we found that MP recognizes biological movements in a way that aligns with human behaviors. Our data and code are available at https://github.com/ZhangLab-DeepNeuroCogLab/MotionPerceiver.

Daniel Koch, Akhilesh Nandan, Gayathri Ramesan et al.

Living systems, from single cells to higher vertebrates, receive a continuous stream of non-stationary inputs that they sense, e.g., via cell surface receptors or sensory organs. Integrating these time-varying, multi-sensory, and often noisy information with memory using complex molecular or neuronal networks, they generate a variety of responses beyond simple stimulus-response association, including avoidance behavior, life-long-learning or social interactions. In a broad sense, these processes can be understood as a type of biological computation. Taking as a basis generic features of biological computations, such as real-time responsiveness or robustness and flexibility of the computation, we highlight the limitations of the current attractor-based framework for understanding computations in biological systems. We argue that frameworks based on transient dynamics away from attractors are better suited for the description of computations performed by neuronal and signaling networks. In particular, we discuss how quasi-stable transient dynamics from ghost states that emerge at criticality have a promising potential for developing an integrated framework of computations, that can help us understand how living system actively process information and learn from their continuously changing environment.

Bryan C. Daniels, Enrico Borriello

Previous work in Boolean dynamical networks has suggested that the number of components that must be controlled to select an existing attractor is typically set by the number of attractors admitted by the dynamics, with no dependence on the size of the network. Here we study the rare cases of networks that defy this expectation, with attractors that require controlling most nodes. We find empirically that unstable fixed points are the primary recurring characteristic of networks that prove more difficult to control. We describe an efficient way to identify unstable fixed points and show that, in both existing biological models and ensembles of random dynamics, we can better explain the variance of control kernel sizes by incorporating the prevalence of unstable fixed points. In the end, the association of these outliers with dynamics that are unstable to small perturbations reveals them as artifacts of deterministic models, making them less biologically relevant and reinforcing the generality of easy controllability in biological networks.

Tomáš Páleníček, Tereza Kluckova, Marek Nikolic et al.

Zhuo-Hui Huang, Fei Wang, Zi-Lang Chen et al.

ObjectiveThe consequences and impact of violent behavior in schizophrenia are often serious, and identification of risk factors is of great importance to achieve early identification and effective management.MethodsThis follow-up study sampled adult patients with schizophrenia in primary mental health care in a rural area of southern China, in which 491 participants completed a comprehensive questionnaire at baseline and the 2-year follow-up. Sociodemographic, clinical and psychological assessment data were collected from all participants. Paired sample T-Tests and the McNemar Test were performed to examine changes over the follow-up period. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) were used to analyze the risk factors for violent behavior.ResultsThe results showed that about two in five community-dwelling patients with schizophrenia reported violent behavior in the past year. At follow-up, participants were significantly less employed, had more times of hospitalization, more psychotropic medication, and severer depressive symptoms, but had better health-related quality of life than at baseline. Use of clozapine and better insight into medication decreased the possibility of violent behavior, while more severe positive symptoms, insomnia, as well as use of second-generation antipsychotics other than clozapine, antidepressants and mood stabilizers increased the possibility of violent behavior.ConclusionsRisk evaluation, prevention and management of violence in patients with schizophrenia are demanded in primary mental health care.

Gamze Şen

Kiesler's (1983) Interpersonal Cycle Model has become a powerful tool for conceptualizing, organizing, and evaluating interpersonal tendencies in recent years. Accordingly, the Interpersonal Cyclical Model provides a theoretical basis for the nature of relationships and thus facilitates an understanding of 'self' and 'the others’' relationships. The first of the two main purposes of our study was to create valid and reliable stories about the four themes (failure, abandonment, rejec-tion, and criticism) that we define as challenging life events. The second one offered a theoretical example of these stories in interpersonal relations, based on the model. For this purpose, two different samples were defined. In the first, twelve stories were created, inspired by sample situa-tions of failure, abandonment, rejection, and criticism, received from a total of 40 people aged between 18-35 (age: M = 25.46, SD = 1.66). The level of representation of the target theme of the stories was examined by three judges and ten reviewers who are experts in clinical psychology. To test the effectiveness of the scenarios, five judges with theoretical knowledge on Interpersonal Schemas. Secondly, three separate judges were involved to evaluate their codability in accord-ance with the model. At this stage, the intraclass correlation coefficient of reliability for all stories was found to be high and significant (ICC = .84 to .99, p = .025) according to the results of the pilot study, which was performed on 15 people (age: M = 22.43, SD = 3.87), seven of whom were male. It was decided that the psychometric properties of the Story Completion Inventory in Ro-mantic Relationships were at levels that could be studied within the framework of Cognitive Interpersonal Theory and could be used in the literature.

Alper Yegenoglu, Anand Subramoney, Thorsten Hater et al.

Neuroscience models commonly have a high number of degrees of freedom and only specific regions within the parameter space are able to produce dynamics of interest. This makes the development of tools and strategies to efficiently find these regions of high importance to advance brain research. Exploring the high dimensional parameter space using numerical simulations has been a frequently used technique in the last years in many areas of computational neuroscience. High performance computing (HPC) can provide today a powerful infrastructure to speed up explorations and increase our general understanding of the model's behavior in reasonable times.

Pavlos Beis, Marc Graf, Henning Hachtel

Alexis T. Baria, Keith Cross

The Computational Metaphor, comparing the brain to the computer and vice versa, is the most prominent metaphor in neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI). Its appropriateness is highly debated in both fields, particularly with regards to whether it is useful for the advancement of science and technology. Considerably less attention, however, has been devoted to how the Computational Metaphor is used outside of the lab, and particularly how it may shape society's interactions with AI. As such, recently publicized concerns over AI's role in perpetuating racism, genderism, and ableism suggest that the term "artificial intelligence" is misplaced, and that a new lexicon is needed to describe these computational systems. Thus, there is an essential question about the Computational Metaphor that is rarely asked by neuroscientists: whom does it help and whom does it harm? This essay invites the neuroscience community to consider the social implications of the field's most controversial metaphor.

S. Sellami, H. Mami, M. Moalla et al.

Introduction Lorazepam is a benzodiazepine derivative that is globally used for the therapy of anxiety and insomnia. Objectives The objective of our work was to show that Lorazepam can be a cause of unexpected liver injury even though it is a rare entity. Methods We reported the case of a patient who had a Drug-Induced Liver Injury (DILI) under Lorazepam. We performed a literature review based on a PubMed search with the following keywords: “Lorazepam,DILI”. Results A 20 year-old-Tunisian woman was hospitalized in the psychiatry department of the hospital of Nabeul in Tunisia for a brief psychotic episode.She had a DILI under Olanzapine, Chlorpromazine and Lorazepam, which conducted us to interrupt her treatments except for the Lorazepam(5mg/day). The hepatic tests went back to normal even under Lorazepam. Few days later, the liver enzymes increased again to reach very high levels. Extensive workup was negative for other causes of liver injury, including viral hepatitis A, B, C and E.; capillary electrophoresis of serum proteins was normal; Exhaustive immunological tests were performed searching for auto immune hepatitis(anti-smooth muscle antibodies, anti-LKM1, anti-LC1, anti-SLA/LP) primary biliary cholangitis(anti-mitochondrial antibodies, anti-GP210, anti-sp100) and other antibodies like antinuclear antibodies were negative. Liver biopsy showed polymorphic inflammatory infiltrate including some eosinophilic polynuclear cells and rare vaguely epitheloid macrophages, with necrotico-inflammatory foci in the lobules, all of which were consistent with DILI. Lorazepam was discontinued and within 10 days her liver enzymes decreased and completely normalized. Conclusions Lorazepam, with an unknown action mechanism, can be a cause of DILI. Disclosure No significant relationships.

M. Milutinović, G. Kalpak, L. Novotni et al.

Introduction For the first time in N. Macedonia we had the experience to include peer workers as an equal members in the newly formed community mental health teams. For the purpose of the RECOVER-e project we engaged 2 patients to be the new peer workers. Objectives To evaluate the initial period of peer worker involvement in the community mental health teams and to identify the next steps for them. Methods Conducting interviews with the peer workers. Results One important aspect that is worth mentioning is their motivation to continue their work in the community mental health teams and continue to improve. Another finding is their will to establish a user led organisation. A user led organisation in the field of mental health in our country is rare to be find, with only a couple of them functioning in N. Macedonia. So if our peer workers can make it, it would be a great step in the right direction. Conclusions Overall, taking into consideration all that the peer workers have achieved in the last period, including the ups and downs of being the first official peer workers in N. Macedonia, they are looking forward to improve their knowledge and continue building their practical experience. A great plus of it all is that they have a financial stability for this troubled pandemic period. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Claudia Lädrach, David S. Zee, Thomas Wyss et al.

Objective: Alexander's law (AL) states the intensity of nystagmus increases when gaze is toward the direction of the quick phase. What might be its cause? A gaze-holding neural integrator (NI) that becomes imperfect as the result of an adaptive process, or saturation in the discharge of neurons in the vestibular nuclei?Methods: We induced nystagmus in normal subjects using a rapid chair acceleration around the yaw (vertical) axis to a constant velocity of 200°/second [s] and then, 90 s later, a sudden stop to induce post-rotatory nystagmus (PRN). Subjects alternated gaze every 2 s between flashing LEDs (right/left or up/down). We calculated the change in slow-phase velocity (ΔSPV) between right and left gaze when the lateral semicircular canals (SCC) were primarily stimulated (head upright) or, with the head tilted to the side, stimulating the vertical and lateral SCC together.Results: During PRN AL occurred for horizontal eye movements with the head upright and for both horizontal and vertical components of eye movements with the head tilted. AL was apparent within just a few seconds of the chair stopping when peak SPV of PRN was reached. When slow-phase velocity of PRN faded into the range of 6–18°/s AL could no longer be demonstrated.Conclusions: Our results support the idea that AL is produced by asymmetrical responses within the vestibular nuclei impairing the NI, and not by an adaptive response that develops over time. AL was related to the predicted plane of eye rotations in the orbit based on the pattern of SCC activation.

Etedal Ahmed AbuElbasher Ibrahim, Fatima Gammer, Alsadig Gassoum

Abstract Background Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a demyelinating disease primarily affecting the optic nerves and spinal cord. It is distinguished from other demyelinating conditions by the presence of AQP4-IgG and serum aquaporin 4 (AQP4), found mainly in the blood–brain barrier. This descriptive study was conducted from January 2015 to June 2018 at the National Center for Neurological Sciences (NCNS) in Khartoum, Sudan. All participants were Sudanese patients diagnosed with NMO. In our study the selection of cases was based on Dean Wingerchuk diagnostic criteria (2006), which states that the diagnosis of NMO should meet two absolute criteria and two supportive criteria. The absolute criteria are myelitis and optic neuritis, whereas supportive criteria include radiological findings obtained from brain and spinal cord MRI. Furthermore, AQP4-IgG levels were measured from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum using immunofluorescence. Data were collected by a pre-designed questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 17. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 31 patients were enrolled in this study [6 male (19.4%) and 25 female (80.6%)]. The mean age was 38 ± 12.8 years. Motor and visual difficulties were the initial symptoms and occurred in 21 (67.7%) and 10 (32.3%) patients, respectively. Fundoscopy confirmed optic atrophy in 22 (71.0%) patients. The course of the disease revealed one relapse in 21 patients (67.7%). Seropositive AQP4-IgG were seen in 23 patients (79.31%). There was a significant correlation between AQP4 and response to treatment (p ≤ 0.038). The correlation between serum AQP4-IgG, showed that, complete improvement was detected in 2 patients (6.9%) one of them was positive and the other was negative, 20 (69.0%) patients presented with some disability, among them 18 (62.1%) were positive and 2 (6.9%) were negative, while 7 patients showed no improvement (24.1%) 4 out of them were positive (13.8%) and 3 were negative (10.3%). Conclusion At the initial presentation of NMO, longitudinal myelitis was observed more frequently than optic neuritis. More than two third of the patients showed strong seropositivity for serum AQP4. Most seropositive patients showed a good response to treatment but with residual disabilities.

Jan-Vegard Nilsen, Trine Wiig Hage, Øyvind Rø et al.

Abstract Background Recommended treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) is usually family-based and an overarching treatment aim is to empower the parents to manage the difficult meals and aid their child toward recovery. While family-based treatment prioritize collaborating with the parents, understanding the young persons’ views on recovery is also important. Understanding the young person’s views and ideas is relevant as this may facilitate the therapeutic alliance and thus aid the therapeutic process. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the reflections of young persons with a lived experience of anorexia nervosa, and what factors they consider important for the recovery process. All participants had been provided with a family-based inpatient treatment program, a program inspired by the core features of outpatient family-based treatment. Methods Participants (n = 37) presented with an extensive treatment history, including outpatient and inpatient treatment for AN. Interview transcripts were analyzed by applying a predominantly inductive thematic approach to generate themes across participants. Results The qualitative analysis generated a thematic structure entailing three levels. The superordinate theme, “Recovery is a long and winding journey: recognizing the need for support and highlighting the need for action”, captured three main themes, “Realizing you have a problem”, “Being involved in important relationships”, and “Giving treatment a real chance”. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that although young persons with a lived experience of anorexia nervosa recognized the importance of support from others, they placed a distinctive emphasis on self-responsibility and determination. We recommend clinicians working within the recommended family-based treatment frameworks be curious about young patient’s subjective perspectives of the recovery process, as connecting with their views can potentially strengthen therapeutic relationships and facilitate change. Plain English summary Recommended treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa is usually family-based. These recommendations are supported by decades of research. In family-based treatment the overarching aim is to empower the young person’s parents to manage and take charge of the difficult situation caused by the eating disorder. As recommended family-based treatments usually prioritize collaborating with the parents, it is important to be curious on the adolescents own views of what is regarded as important for the recovery process. The present study offers insights into factors considered important to the recovery process by young persons with lived experience of AN. Although voicing the importance of enlisting support from families, friends, and loved ones, the young participants distinctly emphasized their own responsibility, motivation and self-determination as critical factors for recovery. Inspired by our findings, we recommend that clinicians address the young patient’s own preferred ideas for recovery during treatment.

Paulo E. P. Burke, Luciano da F. Costa

Several interdisciplinary areas have appeared at the interface between biological and physical sciences. In this work, we suggest a complex network-based methodology for analyzing the interrelationships between some of these interdisciplinary areas, including Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biochemistry, among others. This approach has been applied over respective data derived from Wikipedia. Related reviews from the scientific literature are also considered as a reference, yielding a respective bipartite hypergraph which can be used to gain insights about the interrelationships underlying the considered interdisciplinary areas. Several interesting results are obtained, including greater interconnection between the considered interdisciplinary areas with biological than with physical sciences. A good agreement was also found between the network obtained from Wikipedia and the interrelationships revealed by the literature reviews. At the same time, the former network was found to exhibit more intricate relationships than in the hypergraph derived from the literature review.

Leena Latonen

Protein- and RNA-containing foci and aggregates are a hallmark of many age- and mutation-related neurodegenerative diseases. This article focuses on the role the nucleolus has as a hub in macromolecule regulation in the mammalian nucleus. The nucleolus has a well-established role in ribosome biogenesis and functions in several types of cellular stress responses. In addition to known reactions to DNA damaging and transcription inhibiting stresses, there is an emerging role of the nucleolus especially in responses to proteotoxic stress such as heat shock and inhibition of proteasome function. The nucleolus serves as an active regulatory site for detention of extranucleolar proteins. This takes place in nucleolar cavities and manifests in protein and RNA collections referred to as intranucleolar bodies (INBs), nucleolar aggresomes or amyloid bodies (A-bodies), depending on stress type, severity of accumulation, and material propensities of the macromolecular collections. These indicate a relevance of nucleolar function and regulation in neurodegeneration-related cellular events, but also provide surprising connections with cancer-related pathways. Yet, the molecular mechanisms governing these processes remain largely undefined. In this article, the nucleolus as the site of protein and RNA accumulation and as a possible protective organelle for nuclear proteins during stress is viewed. In addition, recent evidence of liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) and liquid-solid phase transition in the formation of nucleoli and its stress responses, respectively, are discussed, along with the increasingly indicated role and open questions for noncoding RNA species in these events.