Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews最新文献

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a severe and progressive neurodegenerative condition that exerts detrimental effects on brain function. As of now, there is no effective treatment for AD patients. This review explores two distinct avenues of research. The first revolves around the use of animal studies and preclinical models to gain insights into AD's underlying mechanisms and potential treatment strategies. Specifically, it delves into the effectiveness of interventions such as Optogenetics and Chemogenetics, shedding light on their implications for understanding pathophysiological mechanisms and potential therapeutic applications. The second avenue focuses on non-invasive brain stimulation (NiBS) techniques in the context of AD. Evidence suggests that NiBS can successfully modulate cognitive functions associated with various neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including AD, as demonstrated by promising findings. Here, we critically assessed recent findings in AD research belonging to these lines of research and discuss their potential impact on the clinical horizon of AD treatment. These multifaceted approaches offer hope for advancing our comprehension of AD pathology and developing novel therapeutic interventions.

It is little appreciated not only how closely linked are the disciplines of neurology, psychiatry, and anthropology but even more so the degree to which they share a "common ancestry". This paper briefly reviews the definition and historical origins of each area of study to then begin to illustrate how their "genealogies" overlap. This illustration is by way of a sampling of the many key figures who contributed to the rise of not just neuropsychiatry or anthropology but both disciplines. That is, a selective review is undertaken of paragons whose careers bridged medicine, neuropsychiatry, and anthropology. A sampling from among the dozens who have made major contributions to spanning these disciplines illuminates the significant extent of their co-mingled intellectual ancestry. This series is akin to a data table of necessarily concise biographical vignettes - past scholars with some or full medical training who also advanced both anthropology and neuropsychiatry as these disciplines grew into intellectual maturity. Each is, in a sense, a data point that bolsters the overarching thesis that the intellectual history of both disciplines has shared ancestry. Thus, even this preliminary and topical survey of a few past "exemplars" underscores the importance of this unique intellectual siblingship. Moreover, there is now a profusion of living scholars who add fulsomely to what might be deemed this 'trilateral marriage' of anthropology, psychiatry, and neurology. A compilation of more contemporary contributors is well worthy of a future review that expands from this first consideration. This initial work is meant to engender more robust scholarship that better elucidates and, thereby, enriches and enlivens further work while also uncovering new avenues of deeper insight, notably as to the "conceptual and heuristic progression" of evolutionary neurosciences with respect to the normative and pathologic.

Amidst the replicability crisis, promoting transparency and rigor in research becomes imperative. The Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm is increasingly used in human studies to offer insights into how Pavlovian cues, by anticipating rewards or punishments, influence decision-making and potentially contribute to the development of clinical conditions. However, research on this topic faces challenges, including methodological variability and the need for standardized approaches, which can undermine the quality and robustness of experimental findings. Hence, we conducted a meta-analysis to unravel the methodological, task-related, individual, training, and learning factors that can modulate PIT. By scrutinizing these factors, the present meta-analysis reviews the current literature on human PIT, provides practical guidelines for future research to enhance study outcomes and refine methodologies, and identifies knowledge gaps that can serve as a direction for future studies aiming to advance the comprehension of how Pavlovian cues shape decision-making.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, our aim was to identify and quantify evidence of action observation therapy (AOT) efficacy in managing language deficits in patients with aphasia. This study conducts two quantitative investigations: firstly, comparing the effects of AOT and conventional control therapy in different groups, and secondly, analyzing within AOT group to explore potential moderators of AOT effectiveness. Four databases were searched up until August 2023 to find studies utilizing AOT for aphasia management. Seven eligible studies were included. The main analyses revealed moderate evidence of improvement in naming tasks, with a large effect size (Hedge's g = 1.27, 95 %CI [0.44; 2.09], p = 0.003, I2 < 25) following AOT compared to control interventions. Furthermore, to be efficient, AOT should focus on human actions (e.g., running, jumping) rather than non-human actions (e.g., meowing or barking). These findings indicate that AOT is a promising alternative complementary approach for patients with aphasia. Future research should confirm the potential benefits of AOT with more randomized controlled studies and aim to clarify the minimal dose necessary and the possibility of transfer to various language tasks.