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Researchers who have been assessing the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) programs are expressing a growing concern with the validity of the assessment protocols and have tried to improve them by including multidomain measures in addition to cognitive and behavioral ones. Within this scope, changes in brain functioning associated with CR are being reported through the analysis of neural correlates. Nonetheless, the influence of CR on functional connectivity (FC) and its relationship with the behavioral outcomes conventionally used are still unclear. A systematic review of the literature was performed, up to January 2021, through a search on EBSCOhost, PubMed, and Web of Science, which targeted empirical studies assessing the efficacy of CR programs in adults, with FC as an outcome. This review included 51 studies, whose methodological quality was assessed through Cicerone's classification. We present the characteristics of the studies, the cognitive rehabilitation programs, as well as the techniques, protocols and methods used to measure FC. All of the CR programs used in the studies were associated with significant improvements in FC, and the majority of these programs were also related to significant improvements in behavioral outcomes. In addition, 32 studies that analyzed the relationship between behavioral and neural outcomes had reported that changes in FC were significantly associated with improvements in behavioral outcomes, namely in cognitive functioning, quality of life, and affective domains. Despite the high methodological heterogeneity of the studies, FC seems to be a proper indicator of the efficacy of CR programs, unveiling the importance of its use combined with behavioral outcomes., Author(s): Andreia Geraldo [sup.1] , Artemisa Rocha Dores [sup.1] [sup.2] , Alexandre Castro-Caldas [sup.3] , Fernando Barbosa [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.5808.5, 0000 0001 1503 7226, Laboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty [...]

A study was conducted to examine the effects of clinical exposure to mercury amalgam in children. A total of 507 children were assigned to treatment with either amalgam or resin-based composite. It is concluded that exposure to mercury from dental amalgam does not adversely affect neurological status.

Dental amalgam is a widely used restorative material containing 50% elemental mercury that emits small amounts of mercury vapor and since high levels of mercury are demonstrated to be toxic, the fact that dental amalgam induces some level of mercury exposure raised safety concerns. However, there is little or no evidence concerning health effects of low-level mercury exposure from amalgam, especially in children.

Simon Askel[ddot{o}]f Abstract * Previous behavioral and functional neuroimaging data indicate that certain aspects of phonological processing may not be acquired spontaneously, but are modulated by learning an alphabetic written [...]

Byline: Joaquim J. Ferreira (1), Claire Thalamas (2), Jean Louis Montastruc (3), Alexandre Castro-Caldas (1), Olivier Rascol (3) Author Affiliation: (1) Egas Moniz Research Centre, Lisbon Faculty of Medicine, Av. Prof. Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisbon, Portugal, PT (2) Clinical Investigation Centre, Hopital Purpan, Pavillion Riser, 31059 Toulouse Cedex, France, FR (3) Department of Clinical Pharmacology, 37 Allees Jules Guesde, 31073 Toulouse Cedex, France, Tel.: +33-5-61 14 59 62, Fax: +33-5-61 25 51 16, e-mail: rascol@cict.fr, FR Article note: Received: 14 August 2000 / Received in revised form: 9 November 2000 / Accepted: 10 December 2000