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Objective The aim was to examine the effect of polytherapy (i.e. the number of administered anti-seizure medications (ASMs)) on memory, and whether the interaction between the number of ASMs and attentional/executive functioning affect presurgical memory functioning and postsurgical memory changes in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Methods Two studies were carried out. Study 1 consisted of a presurgical assessment of 125 adult patients, in which attention/executive function (EpiTrack screening tool) and memory were assessed (cross-sectional study). Of them, 72 patients underwent a second postsurgical evaluation, in which memory was assessed (Study 2). Patients were distributed into groups based on EpiTrack performance and number of ASMs. Results The interaction between the number of ASMs and the attentional/executive functioning significantly affected presurgical memory, with patients with impaired EpiTrack performance taking three-four ASMs having poorer scores than patients with intact EpiTrack performance taking three-four ASMs (for all, p  < .0001). This interaction also affected postsurgical memory changes, with patients with impaired Epitrack performance taking three-four ASMs having higher postsurgical decline than those with intact Epitrack performance taking three-four ASMs (for all, p  < .005). No differences were found in patients taking two ASMs. Furthermore, the number of ASMs was associated with presurgical memory performance and postsurgical memory changes only in patients with impaired EpiTrack performance (for all, p  < .05). Conclusions Our findings underline the utility of EpiTrack, together with the clinical information on the number of prescribed ASMs, to corroborate the impact of polytherapy on memory and to optimize the prediction of postsurgical memory changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotation curves of galaxies probe their total mass distributions, including dark matter. Dwarf galaxies are excellent systems to investigate the dark matter density distribution, as they tend to have larger fractions of dark matter compared to higher mass systems. The core-cusp problem describes the discrepancy found in the slope of the dark matter density profile in the centres of galaxies (β*) between observations of dwarf galaxies (shallower cores) and dark matter-only simulations (steeper cusps). We investigate β* in six nearby spiral dwarf galaxies for which high-resolution CO J  = 1–0 data were obtained with ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array). We derive rotation curves and decompose the mass profile of the dark matter using our CO rotation curves as a tracer of the total potential and 4.5  |$\mu$| m photometry to define the stellar mass distribution. We find 〈β*〉 = 0.6 with a standard deviation of ±0.1 among the galaxies in this sample, in agreement with previous measurements in this mass range. The galaxies studied are on the high stellar mass end of dwarf galaxies and have cuspier profiles than lower mass dwarfs, in agreement with other observations. When the same definition of the slope is used, we observe steeper slopes than predicted by the FIRE and NIHAO simulations. This may signal that these relatively massive dwarfs underwent stronger gas inflows towards their centres than predicted by these simulations, that these simulations overpredict the frequency of accretion or feedback events, or that a combination of these or other effects are at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]