The role of cerebellum and cerebro-cerebellar system in neural plasticity induced by cerebral gliomas involving language network has long been ignored. Moreover, whether or not the process of ...reorganization is different in glioma patients with different growth kinetics remains largely unknown. To address this issue, we utilized preoperative structural and resting-state functional MRI data of 78 patients with left cerebral gliomas involving language network areas, including 46 patients with low-grade glioma (LGG, WHO grade II), 32 with high-grade glioma (HGG, WHO grade III/IV), and 44 healthy controls. Spontaneous brain activity, resting-state functional connectivity and gray matter volume alterations of the cerebellum were examined. We found that both LGG and HGG patients exhibited bidirectional alteration of brain activity in language-related cerebellar areas. Brain activity in areas with increased alteration was significantly correlated with the language and MMSE scores. Structurally, LGG patients exhibited greater gray matter volume in regions with increased brain activity, suggesting a structure-function coupled alteration in cerebellum. Furthermore, we observed that cerebellar regions with decreased brain activity exhibited increased functional connectivity with contralesional cerebro-cerebellar system in LGG patients. Together, our findings provide empirical evidence for a vital role of cerebellum and cerebro-cerebellar circuit in neural plasticity following lesional damage to cerebral language network. Moreover, we highlight the possible different reorganizational mechanisms of brain functional connectivity underlying different levels of behavioral impairments in LGG and HGG patients.
The comprehension of spoken language is one of the most essential language functions in humans. However, the neurological underpinnings of auditory comprehension remain under debate. Here we used ...multi‐modal neuroimaging analyses on a group of patients with low‐grade gliomas to localize cortical regions and white matter tracts responsible for auditory language comprehension. Region‐of‐interests and voxel‐level whole‐brain analyses showed that cortical areas in the posterior temporal lobe are crucial for language comprehension. The fiber integrity assessed with diffusion tensor imaging of the arcuate fasciculus and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus was strongly correlated with both auditory comprehension and the grey matter volume of the inferior temporal and middle temporal gyri. Together, our findings provide direct evidence for an integrated network of auditory comprehension whereby the superior temporal gyrus and sulcus, the posterior parts of the middle and inferior temporal gyri serve as auditory comprehension cortex, and the arcuate fasciculus and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus subserve as crucial structural connectivity. These findings provide critical evidence on the neural underpinnings of language comprehension.
Our findings provide direct evidence for an integrated network of auditory comprehension whereby not only the superior temporal gyrus and sulcus but the posterior parts of the middle and inferior temporal gyri also serve as auditory comprehension cortex, and the arcuate fasciculus and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus subserve as crucial structural connectivity. These findings provide new evidence on the neural underpinnings of language comprehension
Objective
To investigate whether interhemispheric functional connectivity (FC) recovers in the first year after total callosotomy.
Methods
Eight epilepsy patients undergoing total callosotomy were ...recruited. Resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging was acquired before and after surgery. The precallosotomy and postcallosotomy interhemispheric and intrahemispheric FC was analyzed by using graph theory and voxel‐mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC). The seizure outcome was scored using the Engel surgical outcome scale.
Results
After callosotomy (mean postoperative interval = 4 months), the network density, average node degree, characteristic path length, and global efficiency of the whole interhemispheric networks were significantly decreased, compared to those in the precallosotomy networks. However, postcallosotomy interhemispheric FC and homotopic VMHC were not significantly reduced in bilateral frontal and temporal lobes. The network density and average node degree of the intrahemispheric networks were significantly increased. The characteristic path length and global efficiency of intrahemispheric networks were unchanged.
Significance
The interhemispheric FC may be preserved or recover early within the first postoperative year after total callosotomy, particularly in the frontal and anterior temporal lobes.
Prostatitis is a common condition in adult men of all ages. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) are most frequent pathogen involved in bacterial prostatitis by refluxing the infected urine into ...prostatic ducts and resulting in an ascending urethral infection. However, the study about the mechanisms of UPEC to invade, replicate and persist in normal prostate epithelial cell is only few. Given the fact that UPEC is pathogen most frequently involved in prostatitis and that testosterone has been demonstrated to attenuate prostate inflammation caused by other etiologies. In this study we investigated whether the testosterone reduces the prostatitis and related mechanism by regulating IFN-γ/STAT1 signaling pathway. In the current study aimed to clarify whether testosterone influences the process of UPEC-induced prostate inflammation and invasion into the prostate epithelial cells. In addition, we set up a normal prostate cell model for UPEC infection to evaluate the ability to invade the urothelial cells as well as the colonization of intercellular bacterial communities in vitro. By using the model, we examine the effects of testosterone to suppress effectively the invasion and survival of UPEC in the prostate cells, and inhibit LPS-induced inflammatory responses through the JAK/STAT1 pathway have also been indicated. Our results demonstrated testosterone not only suppressed the invasion and colonization of UPEC, but also inhibited the expression of pro-inflammatory IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-8 cytokines expression induced by UPEC in a dose-dependent manner. We found the effective dose of testosterone to suppress UPEC infect prostate cells may be appropriate under 40μg/ml. Our data also revealed 20μg/ml testosterone treated PZ-HPV-7 cells significantly suppressed the LPS-induced JAK/STAT1 pathway and inflammatory responses, and reached to maximal effects at 40μg/ml treatment. These results indicate that testosterone plays an anti-inflammatory role in LPS-induced prostate cell inflammation by down-regulating JAK/STAT1 signaling pathway. Interestingly, the JAK inhibitor and testosterone for 24hr pretreatment rather markedly induced the colonization of UPEC in the PZ-HPV-7 cells. Based on the above data, the suppression of UPEC colonization in the prostate cells by testosterone seems to be unrelated with JAK/STAT signaling pathway, whereas the JAK may involve into the UPEC infection. Summing up these data, our findings have demonstrated the suppressive effects of testosterone on the invasion and survival of UPEC and induced inflammation in prostate epithelial cells. These findings indicate the action mechanism of testosterone as an anti-inflammatory mediator in the prostate cells is regulated through JAK/STAT1 signaling pathway, may be beneficial in treating prostate inflammation. Altogether, this study has provided the possibility that using testosterone in the prevention and clinical treatment of prostatitis is a new direction.
Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) exhibit concurrent deficits in both sensory and higher-order cognitive processing. Connectome studies have suggested a principal primary-to-transmodal ...gradient in functional brain networks, supporting the spectrum from sensation to cognition. However, whether this gradient structure is disrupted in patients with MDD and how this disruption associates with gene expression profiles and treatment outcome remain unknown. Using a large cohort of resting-state fMRI data from 2227 participants (1148 MDD patients and 1079 healthy controls) recruited at nine sites, we investigated MDD-related alterations in the principal connectome gradient. We further used Neurosynth, postmortem gene expression, and an 8-week antidepressant treatment (20 MDD patients) data to assess the meta-analytic cognitive functions, transcriptional profiles, and treatment outcomes related to MDD gradient alterations, respectively. Relative to the controls, MDD patients exhibited global topographic alterations in the principal primary-to-transmodal gradient, including reduced explanation ratio, gradient range, and gradient variation (Cohen's d = 0.16-0.21), and focal alterations mainly in the primary and transmodal systems (d = 0.18-0.25). These gradient alterations were significantly correlated with meta-analytic terms involving sensory processing and higher-order cognition. The transcriptional profiles explained 53.9% variance of the altered gradient pattern, with the most correlated genes enriched in transsynaptic signaling and calcium ion binding. The baseline gradient maps of patients significantly predicted symptomatic improvement after treatment. These results highlight the connectome gradient dysfunction in MDD and its linkage with gene expression profiles and clinical management, providing insight into the neurobiological underpinnings and potential biomarkers for treatment evaluation in this disorder.
Nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is associated with fading consciousness in humans. Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the spatiotemporal alterations of the brain functional connectivity ...(FC) in NREM sleep, suggesting the changes of information integration in the sleeping brain. However, the common stationarity assumption in FC does not satisfactorily explain the dynamic process of information integration during sleep. The dynamic FC (dFC) across brain networks is speculated to better reflect the time‐varying information propagation during sleep. Accordingly, we conducted simultaneous EEG‐fMRI recordings involving 12 healthy men during sleep and observed dFC across sleep stages using the sliding‐window approach. We divided dFC into two aspects: mean dFC (dFCmean) and variance dFC (dFCvar). A high dFCmean indicates stable brain network integrity, whereas a high dFCvar indicates instability of information transfer within and between functional networks. For the network‐based dFC, the dFCvar were negatively correlated with the dFCmean across the waking and three NREM sleep stages. As sleep deepened, the dFCmean decreased (N0~N1 > N2 > N3), whereas the dFCvar peaked during the N2 stage (N0~N1 < N3 < N2). The highest dFCvar during the N2 stage indicated the unstable synchronizations across the entire brain. In the N3 stage, the overall disrupted network integration was observed through the lowest dFCmean and elevated dFCvar, compared with N0 and N1. Conclusively, when the network specificity (dFCmean) breaks down, the consciousness dissipates with increasing variability of information exchange (dFCvar).
•The state dependency of the neurovascular coupling was reflected by distinctive patterns of the EEG-fMRI spectra correspondence between task and resting conditions.•In the eye-open-eye-close (EOEC) ...task, a phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) was found between EEG alpha-band oscillations and the low-frequency fMRI signals in the visual area.•In the resting state, an amplitude-amplitude coupling (AAC) was demonstrated between gamma-band of EEG-Oz and the high-frequency fMRI signals (0.15–0.25 Hz) in the visual network.•Based on the hilbert-huang transform (HHT), the EEG-fMRI coupling was carried out for both PAC and AAC, exhibiting different sensitivity features between PAC/AAC spectral correspondence maps.
Neurovascular coupling serves as an essential neurophysiological mechanism in functional neuroimaging, which is generally presumed to be robust and invariant across different physiological states, encompassing both task engagement and resting state. Nevertheless, emerging evidence suggests that neurovascular coupling may exhibit state dependency, even in normal human participants. To investigate this premise, we analyzed the cross-frequency spectral correspondence between concurrently recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, utilizing them as proxies for neurovascular coupling during the two conditions: an eye-open-eye-close (EOEC) task and a resting state. We hypothesized that given the state dependency of neurovascular coupling, EEG-fMRI spectral correspondences would change between the two conditions in the visual system. During the EOEC task, we observed a negative phase-amplitude-coupling (PAC) between EEG alpha-band and fMRI visual activity. Conversely, in the resting state, a pronounced amplitude-amplitude-coupling (AAC) emerged between EEG and fMRI signals, as evidenced by the spectral correspondence between the EEG gamma-band of the midline occipital channel (Oz) and the high-frequency fMRI signals (0.15–0.25 Hz) in the visual network. This study reveals distinct scenarios of EEG-fMRI spectral correspondence in healthy participants, corroborating the state-dependent nature of neurovascular coupling.
We explored the macro-scale neurovascular coupling via the spectral correspondence of concurrent EEG-fMRI signals in a resting-state condition and a eye-open-eye-close (EOEC) task. By decomposing time-frequency maps for both signals, we revealed the EEG-fMRI spectral coupling through the temporal correlations at different frequency bands in the resting state, as compared with those in the EOEC task. Display omitted
High-density Ag nanotwinned films with a very thin twin spacing of about 6.05 nm have been deposited by electron beam evaporation for the first time. With ion beam assistance, Ag thin films with a ...highly textured structure can be deposited on Si substrates pre-coated with Ti/Ag (111) seed layers. In contrast, the Ag films deposited without ion beam assistance exhibit mostly fine grains with about <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">0.8~\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> grain size and random annealing twins. The nanotwinned Ag films have a nanoindentation hardness of 1.23 GPa, about five times higher than that of Ag films deposited without ion beam assistance. For the mechanism of enhancing nanotwin formation in Ag films deposited with ion beam assistance, the energy and stress perspectives are both discussed. The formation of Ag nanotwins is ascribed to sufficient stress induced by ion bombardment under suitable parameters, which leads to the generation of twinning partial dislocations, formation of twin boundaries, and release of strain energy.
In this study, a novel method for producing high-density 〈111〉-oriented nanotwinned Ag film is proposed so as to improve the performance of backside metallization for power devices. Negative bias ...voltages were applied during sputtering to facilitate the formation of densely stacked nanotwinned columnar structures. In addition, the effects of substrate bias on the properties of Ag films were observed in the lower transition layer thickness, stronger 〈111〉 texture, and higher indentation hardness. The optimal indentation hardness, 1.71 GPa, was found in the nanotwinned Ag film sputtered with a bias voltage of − 150 V; it was about twice that of the normal-grained Ag film sputtered without substrate bias, 0.85 GPa. In addition, the results showed that the Ag film sputtered with a bias voltage of − 150 V possessed the strongest (111) intensity, and its surface (111) ratio was 98%, much higher than the 77% of the Ag film sputtered without substrate bias. It is concluded that the Ag nanotwinned film sputtered with a bias voltage of − 150 V has the potential for application as an interlayer in low-temperature direct bonding.
Background. Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) induce secondary neuroinflammation through astrocyte reactivation, which adversely affects neuronal survival and eventually causes long-term disability. CDGSH ...iron sulfur domain 2 (CISD2), which has been reported to be involved in mediating the anti-inflammatory responses, can serve as a target in SCI therapy. Wild bitter melon (WBM; Momordica charantia Linn. var. abbreviata Ser.) contains an anti-inflammatory agent called alpha-eleostearic acid (α-ESA), a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-β (PPAR-β) ligand. Activated PPAR-β inhibits the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway via the inhibition of IκB (inhibitor of NF-κB) degradation. The role of astrocyte deactivation and CISD2 in anti-inflammatory mechanisms of WBM in acute SCIs is unknown. Materials and Methods. A mouse model of SCI was generated via spinal cord hemisection. The SCI mice were administered WBM intraperitoneally (500 mg/kg bodyweight). Lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) stimulated ALT cells (astrocytes) were used as an in vitro model for studying astrocyte-mediated inflammation post-SCI. The roles of CISD2 and PPAR-β in inflammatory signaling were examined using LPS-stimulated SH-SY5Y cells transfected with si-CISD2 or scramble RNA. Results. WBM mitigated the SCI-induced downregulation of CISD2, PPAR-β, and IκB and upregulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP; marker of astrocyte reactivation) in the spinal cord of SCI mice. Additionally, WBM (1 μg/mL) mitigated LPS-induced CISD2 downregulation. Furthermore, SH-SY5Y neural cells with CISD2 knockdown exhibited decreased PPAR-β expression and augmented NF-κB signaling. Conclusion. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report that CISD2 is an upstream modulator of the PPAR-β/NF-κB proinflammatory signaling pathway in neural cells, and that WBM can mitigate the injury-induced downregulation of CISD2 in SCI mice and LPS-stimulated ALT astrocytes.
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