Brain correlates to facial motor imagery and its somatotopy in the primary motor cortex

Soliman, Ramy S.,Lee, Sanghoon,Eun, Seulgi,Mohamed, Abdalla Z.,Lee, Jeungchan,Lee, Eunyoung,Makary, Meena M.,Kathy Lee, Seung Min,Lee, Hwa-Jin,Choi, Woo Suk,Park, Kyungmo Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams Wilkin 2017 NEUROREPORT - Vol.28 No.5

<P>Motor imagery (MI) has attracted increased interest for motor rehabilitation as many studies have shown that MI shares the same neural networks as motor execution (ME). Nevertheless, MI in terms of facial movement has not been studied extensively; thus, in the present study, we investigated shared neural networks between facial motor imagery (FMI) and facial motor execution (FME). In addition, FMI somatotopy within-face was investigated between the forehead and the mouth. Functional MRI was used to examine 34 healthy individuals with ME and MI paradigms for the forehead and the mouth. The general linear model and a paired t-test were performed to define the facial area in the primary motor cortex (M1) and this area has been used to investigate somatotopy between the forehead and mouth FMI. FMI recruited similar brain motor areas as FME, but showed less neural activity in all activated regions. The facial areas in M1 were distinguishable from other body movements such as finger movement. Further investigation of this area showed that forehead and mouth imagery tended to lack a somatotopic representation for position on M1, and yet had distinct characteristics in terms of neural activity level. FMI showed different characteristics from general MI as the former exclusively activated facial processing areas. In addition, FME and FMI showed different characteristics in terms of BOLD signal level, while sharing the same neural areas. The results imply a potential usefulness of MI training for rehabilitation of facial motor disease considering that forehead and mouth somatotopy showed no clear position difference, and yet showed a significant BOLD signal intensity variation. NeuroReport 28: 285-291 Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Effect of abdominal visceral fat on the development of new erosive oesophagitis: a prospective cohort study

Nam, Su Youn,Kim, Young-Woo,Park, Bum Joon,Ryu, Kum Hei,Choi, Il Ju,Nam, Byung-Ho,Kim, Hyun Boem Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. 2017 European journal of gastroenterology & hepatology Vol.29 No.4

<P>Objectives Although abdominal visceral fat has been associated with erosive oesophagitis in cross-sectional studies, there are no data that describe its longitudinal effects. We aimed to evaluate the longitudinal effects of abdominal visceral fat on the development of new erosive oesophagitis in patients who did not have erosive oesophagitis at baseline. Materials and methods This was a single-centre prospective study. A total of 1503 participants without erosive oesophagitis at baseline were followed up for 34 months and they underwent oesophagogastroduodenoscopy and computed tomography at both baseline and during follow-up. The longitudinal effects of abdominal visceral fat on the development of new erosive oesophagitis were evaluated using odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results New oesophagitis developed in 83 patients. Compared with the first quartile, the third (OR=3.96, 95% CI: 1.54-10.18) and the fourth (OR=4.67, 95% CI: 1.79-12.23) of baseline visceral fat quartiles, the third (OR=3.03, 95% CI: 1.14-8.04) and the fourth (OR=7.50, 95% CI: 2.92-19.25) follow-up visceral fat quartiles, and the fourth visceral fat change quartile (OR=2.76, 95% CI: 1.47-5.21) were associated with increased development of new erosive oesophagitis, and the P value for each trend was less than 0.001. New erosive oesophagitis was inversely related to the follow-up Helicobacter pylori status and it was associated positively with the presence of a hiatal hernia and smoking during follow-up, but it was not associated with reflux symptoms, the H. pylori status, presence of a hiatal hernia or smoking at baseline. Conclusion Higher level of visceral fat at baseline and follow-up visceral fat, and greater changes in the visceral level were associated linearly with the development of new erosive oesophagitis in this longitudinal study. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Greater corticostriatal activation associated with facial motor imagery compared with motor execution: a functional MRI study

Makary, Meena M.,Eun, Seulgi,Park, Kyungmo Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams Wilkin 2017 NEUROREPORT - Vol.28 No.10

<P>Motor imagery (MI) relies on conscious mental simulation of a motor act without overt motor output and can promote motor skill acquisition and facilitate rehabilitation for patients with stroke or neurological conditions. Although a plethora of neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural network of MI regarding different body parts, exploration of the neural correlates to facial MI remains warranted. Here, we used functional MRI with a large cohort of 41 participants who underwent motor execution (ME) and MI runs of mouth-stretching tasks. Then, we carried out conjunction and contrast analyses to investigate the commonalities and differences between the two conditions. Conjunction analysis, representing the shared neural network between ME and MI, showed activation in the primary motor cortex, primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, premotor cortex, parietal lobe, anterior insula, supplementary motor area (SMA) and pre-SMA, thalamus, putamen, and caudate. Contrast analysis showed greater activation of primary motor cortex, primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, SMA, anterior insula, and the thalamus in response to ME than MI and greater activation of the premotor cortex, pre-SMA, putamen, and caudate in response to MI than ME. Interestingly, we found exclusive activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in response to MI, reflecting the motor inhibition network responsible for blocking the transmission of motor commands to peripheral effectors during mental rehearsal. Taken together, these findings show that, despite the neural overlap between ME and MI, there are different degrees of activation within this overlap, and that MI normally involves motor command inhibition possibly mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Montelukast treatment protects nigral dopaminergic neurons against microglial activation in the 6-hydroxydopamine mouse model of Parkinson’s disease

Jang, Hannah,Kim, Sehwan,Lee, Jae Man,Oh, Yong-Seok,Park, Sang Myun,Kim, Sang Ryong Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams Wilkin 2017 NEUROREPORT - Vol.28 No.5

<P>Although the main cause of degeneration of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic (DA) projection in Parkinson's disease (PD) is still controversial, many reports suggest that excessive inflammatory responses mediated by activated microglia can induce neurotoxicity in the nigrostriatal DA system in vivo. Montelukast, which plays an antiinflammatory role, is used to treat patients with asthma. In addition, recent studies have reported that its administration could reduce neuroinflammatory activities, showing beneficial effects against various neuropathological conditions. These results suggest that montelukast may be a useful drug to alleviate inflammatory responses in PD, even though there are no reports showing its beneficial effects against neurotoxicity in the nigrostriatal DA system. In the present study, our results showed that treatment with montelukast could protect DA neurons against 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced neurotoxicity and its administration significantly attenuated the production of neurotoxic cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) from activated microglia in the substantia nigra (SN) and striatum following 6-OHDA treatment. Therefore, we suggest that montelukast can be used as a potential inhibitor of microglial activation to protect DA neurons in the adult brain against PD. NeuroReport 28: 242-249 Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Disruption of frontal–parietal connectivity during conscious sedation by propofol administration

Kim, Pil-Jong,Kim, Hong-Gee,Noh, Gyu-Jeong,Koo, Yong-Seo,Shin, Teo Jeon Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams Wilkin 2017 NEUROREPORT - Vol.28 No.14

<P>The sedative state is a transitional state from wakefulness to general anesthesia. However, little is understood regarding the mechanism of conscious sedation, different from general anesthesia while maintaining wakefulness. In this study, we aimed to investigate changes in functional connectivity of the parietal-frontal network, implicated in wakefulness during conscious sedation induced by propofol infusion. The electroencephalography was obtained at the frontal and parietal areas of adult volunteers who maintain wakefulness during low-dose propofol infusion (1.5 mg/kg/h) over 1 h. Spectral Granger causality (GC) (delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma frequency bands) and time-domain GC were calculated during each stage of awake (before propofol administration), sedation, and recovery (after discontinuation of propofol). We also calculated the phase-locking index and compared it with GC during each stage. A decrease in GC from the frontal to parietal areas was observed particularly in the low-frequency bands during propofol administration. Contrary to the GC changes in the frontoparietal direction, GC from the parietal to frontal areas was increased in the high-frequency bands during propofol administration and significantly decreased after discontinuation of propofol. In summary, we showed that frontal-parietal neural networks were significantly changed differently by the frequency of the brain rhythm and the directions of connections during sedation by propofol administration. Our result suggests that the alteration of brain interaction may induce sedative state lying between awake and general anesthesia. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Neuroanatomical assessment of the impact of negative emotion on explicit memory in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Jang, In-Soo,Kim, Gwang-Won,Jeong, Gwang-Woo Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams Wilkin 2017 NEUROREPORT - Vol.28 No.1

<P>The aim of this study was to identify the brain activation patterns associated with emotionally neutral or unpleasant words during explicit memory tasks in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) using a functional MRI. Sixteen patients with OCD (mean age= 31.4 +/- 10.1 years) and 16 healthy controls (mean age= 32.6 +/- 5.8 years) who had no history of neurological or psychiatric illness underwent functional MRI examinations on a 3-T Siemens MR Scanner. The stimulation paradigm consisted of five times rest-condition, two times encoding of two-syllable words, and two times explicit retrieval of the previously learned words. Six different words were presented for 3 s each in the encoding and retrieval tasks. In the retrieval task, the same words as those used at the encoding task were presented randomly. Brain activation maps were quantified and analyzed using SPM8 and MRIcron software. During the explicit retrieval tasks with emotionally neutral words, the predominant activation areas observed in patients with OCD included the angular gyrus and the supramarginal gyrus, whereas healthy controls showed significantly higher activity in the postcentral gyrus (P< 0.005). During the explicit retrieval tasks with unpleasant words, patients with OCD showed significantly higher activity, compared with healthy controls, in the cerebellum, posterior cingulate gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus (P< 0.005); however, no predominant activation areas in healthy controls over patients with OCD were observed. This study showed differential brain activation patterns in response to emotionally neutral and unpleasant words in patients with OCD. This finding will be useful in assessing the neural mechanisms associated with emotional effect on the impairment of memory retrieval in OCD. Copyright (C) 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Appropriate margin thresholds for isocontour metabolic volumetry of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET in sarcoma: a hybrid PET/MRI study

Lee, Hyunjong,Paeng, Jin Chul,Hong, Sung Hwan,Yoo, Hye Jin,Cheon, Gi Jeong,Lee, Dong Soo,Chung, June-Key,Kang, Keon Wook Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. 2016 Nuclear medicine communications Vol.37 No.10

<P>ObjectivesMetabolic volumetry and heterogeneity indexes are increasingly being used in fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18-FDG) PET, mostly using isocontour methods. However, there is no standard method to determine optimal margin thresholds for isocontour volume of interest (VOIiso). Here, VOIiso with various margin thresholds were compared with exact anatomical tumor volumes in sarcoma using a hybrid PET/MRI scanner.Patients and methods(18)F-FDG PET/MRI images were retrospectively analyzed for 36 lesions of soft tissue or bone sarcoma. VOIiso of tumors was drawn with varying margin thresholds; standardized uptake value (SUV) 1.0-4.0 with an increment of 0.5 and 30-70% of maximal SUV (SUVmax) with an increment of 10%. Exact anatomical tumor volumes (VOIMRI) were drawn manually on the basis of MRI. In each VOI, metabolic tumor volume, SUVmean, total lesion glycolysis, and SD were measured and compared between VOIiso and VOIMRI.ResultsSignificant correlations were observed between the indexes from VOIiso and VOIMRI. For metabolic tumor volume, no significant difference existed between VOIiso and VOIMRI with margin thresholds of 30 and 40% of SUVmax, and SUV 1.5. For SUVmean, no significant difference existed with 30% of SUVmax, and SUV 1.5. For total lesion glycolysis, no significant difference existed with 40% of SUVmax, SUV 1.5, and 2.0. For SD, no significant difference existed with 30% of SUVmax, SUV 1.5, and 2.0.ConclusionMargin thresholds of 30 or 40% of SUVmax and SUV 1.5 or 2.0 may be used for the VOIiso method in F-18-FDG PET images of sarcoma. VOIiso with these margin thresholds are expected to produce reliable metabolic, volumetric, and heterogeneity indexes on F-18-FDG PET images.Copyright (C) 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Activation of maternal toll-like receptor-2 causes social deficits and memory impairment in female offspring

Lee, Younghwa,Jeon, Se Jin,Choi, Ji Woong,Ryu, Jong Hoon Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams Wilkin 2016 NEUROREPORT - Vol.27 No.4

<P>To study the relevance of the activation of toll-like receptor-2 and abnormal behavioral properties, we introduced prenatal zymosan, a toll-like receptor-2 ligand, to investigate the effect of maternal immunity on offspring behavior. Only female offspring showed impaired social and cognitive function, suggesting that zymosan may influence females' behavior. Copyright (C) 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Comparative evaluation of the white matter fiber integrity in patients with prelingual and postlingual deafness

Kim, Jinna,Choi, Jae Young,Eo, Jinseok,Park, Hae-Jeong Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams Wilkin 2017 NEUROREPORT - Vol.28 No.16

<P>The aim of this study was to perform a comparative investigation of white matter integrity in patients with prelingual and postlingual deafness; we carried out a tract-based statistical analysis of diffusion tensor anisotropy in eight and ten adults with prelingual and postlingual deafness, respectively. Patients with deafness showed significant decreases in diffusion anisotropy at the right internal capsule, the right thalamus, and the splenium of the corpus callosum as well as within the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (including Heschl gyrus) and right temporal white matter. Furthermore, relative to patients with postlingual deafness, those with prelingual deafness showed lower anisotropy in the right superior temporal gyrus, bilateral temporal white matter, and the genu and anterior body of the corpus callosum. We believe that, in patients with deafness, reception of early auditory stimuli before language acquisition might be more critical to white matter maturation and brain reorganization than the natureof auditory stimuli itself or the duration of disuse. These findings provide the theoretical background for early auditory rehabilitation. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>

Impaired anterior insular activation during risky decision making in young adults with internet gaming disorder

Lee, Deokjong,Lee, Junghan,Yoon, Kang Joon,Kee, Namkoong,Jung, Young-Chul Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams Wilkin 2016 NEUROREPORT - Vol.27 No.8

<P>Internet gaming disorder is defined as excessive and compulsive use of the internet to engage in games that leads to clinically significant psychosocial impairment. We tested the hypothesis that individuals with internet gaming disorder would be less sensitive to high-risk situations and show aberrant brain activation related to risk prediction processing. Young adults with internet gaming disorder underwent functional MRI while performing a risky decision-making task. The healthy control group showed stronger activations within the dorsal attention network and the anterior insular cortex, which were not found in the internet gaming disorder group. Our findings imply that young adults with internet gaming disorder show impaired anterior insular activation during risky decision making, which might make them vulnerable when they need to adapt new behavioral strategies in high-risk situations. Copyright (C) 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.</P>