Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience最新文献

Background: Central vertigo and peripheral vertigo are common clinical conditions with different underlying pathophysiologies. The identification of reliable biomarkers for differential diagnosis remains a challenge.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the differential expression of CCL4L2 in the serum of patients with central and peripheral vertigo and assess its diagnostic potential.

Methods: A total of 180 patients (90 central vertigo, 90 peripheral vertigo) were enrolled. RNA sequencing was on serum samples to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis revealed relevant biological pathways. The expression of CCL4L2 was measured using RT-qPCR, and its diagnostic performance was evaluated by Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The correlation between CCL4L2 expression and biomarkers NSE and S100β was also assessed.

Results: RNA sequencing revealed significant differences in gene expression between central vertigo and peripheral vertigo groups. The KEGG pathway analysis identified several enriched pathways, including NF-κB signaling, where CCL4L2 was a key gene. CCL4L2 expression was significantly higher in the CV group compared to the PV group (p < 0.001). ROC analysis demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy for CCL4L2 in distinguishing CV from PV (AUC = 0.909, p < 0.001). Additionally, moderate positive correlations were observed between CCL4L2 and NSE (r = 0.475, p < 0.001), and a weaker correlation with S100β (r = 0.364, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: CCL4L2 may serve as a potential biomarker for differentiating central from peripheral vertigo. Its expression is closely associated with inflammatory pathways, making it a promising target for further investigation in vertigo diagnostics.

Reward processing, which ensures survival, has evolved to also shape emotions, learning, and overall well-being. While traditional models of reward have focused predominantly on central neural circuits, emerging evidence underscores the role of peripheral bodily signals. This represents a new opportunity by which we may understand neurological and neuropsychiatric health. In this review, we explore the gut-brain and heart-brain interfaces in reward processing, delineating their contributions across distinct phases of reward and offering insights into their bioenergetic significance. By framing this interplay within an adaptive and clinical context, we propose new avenues for understanding and treating neuropsychiatric disorders through a mind-body medicine lens.

There is increasing interest in the utility of electrophysiological measures such as resting EEG and evoked potential (EPs) to serve as biomarkers to facilitate therapeutic development for rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Research on this topic thus far has been encouraging, but has also revealed the necessity for unique methods when acquiring EEG and EPs in children with genetic NDDs. Details of these methods are typically beyond the scope of research publications, yet are crucial to the quality and ultimately, usability of the data. In the current manuscript, we detail the methods that we have developed for acquiring EEG and EPs as part of multi-site studies with participants with Rett syndrome, CDKL5 deficiency disorder, MECP2 duplication syndrome, and FOXG1 syndrome. By making our methods accessible, we hope to support other groups interested in acquiring EEG and/or EPs as part of clinical trials or research studies with individuals with genetic NDDs, including groups without prior experience with EEG/EP acquisition. The paper is presented as step-by-step procedures followed by a discussion of issues that may arise during acquisition and ways to troubleshoot these issues. We then discuss considerations for choosing EEG equipment and study paradigms and briefly, considerations for data analysis.

Introduction: We have shown that a delayed auditory cortex neural response is associated with language ability in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder and related syndromes, with this delay exacerbated in the context of co-occurring intellectual disability (ID). As a clinical diagnosis of ID is generally not made until school age, identification of neural measures that precede a behaviorally assessed ID diagnosis would help identify young children likely to benefit from early treatment. The present study evaluated if the speed of auditory cortex neural activity (M50 latency) would predict language ability in 3-year-old children who have an existing diagnosis that is a risk factor associated with a range of later functional outcomes, including ID or developmental delay (DD), irrespective of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.

Methods: Thirty 3-year-old children with elevated likelihood for ID or DD (ID/DD-EL) were enrolled. Evaluable magnetoencephalography (MEG) data as well as language and cognitive ability measures were obtained from 23 participants.

Results: A longer time to encode auditory stimuli (i.e., a delayed M50 cortical evoked response) in the left hemisphere predicted lower language ability. Left M50 latency was not associated with cognitive ability. Right hemisphere M50 latency was not associated with language or cognitive ability.

Discussion: Present observations demonstrate that non-invasive brain imaging in conjunction with a passive auditory task (with early primary/secondary auditory cortex neural responses) can identify paths for variable language outcome in preschool children with ID/DD-EL. This lays the foundation for further investigation of these neural mechanisms as early indications for treatment as well as early signals of response to treatment.

Introduction: Symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are closely associated with impaired executive function. Medication is the first-line treatment for ADHD, yet its effects on brain function and structure remain unclear. To investigate medication-related brain alterations in children with ADHD, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy, which captures cortical hemodynamic activity, and structural magnetic resonance imaging, which measures subcortical volume.

Methods: We investigated the differences in brain hemodynamic activity between 23 children with ADHD taking medication and 22 children who were not taking medication.

Results: Compared with the medicated ADHD group, the unmedicated ADHD group showed significantly reduced activation in the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (channel 9, p = 0.01; channel 13, p = 0.02) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (channel 14, p = 0.01). The unmedicated group also exhibited a negative correlation between oxygenated hemoglobin and symptom severity, whereas the medicated group showed a positive correlation. Furthermore, abnormal asymmetry of the thalamic volume was reduced in the medicated group compared to the unmedicated group.

Discussion: These findings suggest that increased prefrontal activation and reduced thalamic asymmetry may reflect medication-related improvements in inhibitory control in children with ADHD.

Statistical learning (SL) is a fundamental cognitive ability enabling individuals to detect and exploit regularities in environmental input. It plays a crucial role in language acquisition, perceptual processing, and social learning, supporting development from infancy through adulthood. In this review, we adopt a multidimensional perspective to synthesize empirical and theoretical findings on SL, covering experimental paradigms, developmental trajectories, and neural mechanisms. Furthermore, we extend the discussion to the emerging intersection between SL and affective processes. Although emotional factors have recently been proposed to modulate SL performance, this area remains underexplored. We highlight current insights and theoretical frameworks addressing the SL-emotion interaction, such as predictive coding theory, and propose directions for future research. This review provides a comprehensive yet focused overview of SL across cognitive and affective domains, aiming to clarify the scope and future potential of this growing field.

While the autism diagnosis emphasizes "deficits" in social communication, the article advances that sensory-movement differences underpin autism through a review of the following sources of evidence. This account critically challenges "autistic regression", with evidence that sensory-movement features appear by birth as the earliest signs of autism and underlie the behavioral differences used for diagnosis, which may reflect adaptations to inherent differences and misunderstandings from others. Sensory and motor differences are salient to autistic people, but they often go underrecognized by others. They cause cascading effects in infancy on behavior and communication through differences in sensorimotor learning, automatic imitation, eye contact, sensory perception, and interests. The article then explains how sensory processing differences may influence reduced perceptual narrowing, which involves a bottom-up information processing style grounded in the surrounding environment. Furthermore, this bottom-up processing may grow from reduced sensory integration in feedback loops potentially involving the cerebellum of the brain. The article then moves into implications for the widespread consequences of these inherent differences on quality of life. The article closes with implications for autism as a construct (including underestimated empathy and pain), testing the theory, providing sensory-sensitive support and acceptance of autistic people, and applications to diverse autistic people. The theory may apply particularly well to autistic women and girls, autistic people with speech divergence, autistic people with ADHD, and autistic people with co-occurring sensory and motor-related neurodivergences. Throughout the article, the theory also provides clinical, neurological, and experiential evidence for sensory and motor differences as lifelong, challenging the notion of "losing" (an) autism (diagnosis) as instead reflecting (risky and not necessarily "successful") camouflaging.