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Motor imagery (MI) is one of the popular control paradigms in the non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) field. MI-BCI generally requires users to conduct the imagination of movement (e.g., left or right hand) to collect training data for generating a classification model during the calibration phase. However, this calibration phase is generally time-consuming and tedious, as users conduct the imagination of hand movement several times without being given feedback for an extended period. This obstacle makes MI-BCI non user-friendly and hinders its use. On the other hand, motor execution (ME) and motor observation (MO) are relatively easier tasks, yield lower fatigue than MI, and share similar neural mechanisms to MI. However, few studies have integrated these three tasks into BCIs. In this study, we propose a new task-to-task transfer learning approach of 3-motor tasks (ME, MO, and MI) for building a better user-friendly MI-BCI. For this study, 28 subjects participated in 3-motor tasks experiment, and electroencephalography (EEG) was acquired. User opinions regarding the 3-motor tasks were also collected through questionnaire survey. The 3-motor tasks showed a power decrease in the alpha rhythm, known as event-related desynchronization, but with slight differences in the temporal patterns. In the classification analysis, the cross-validated accuracy (within-task) was 67.05 % for ME, 65.93 % for MI, and 73.16 % for MO on average. Consistently with the results, the subjects scored MI (3.16) as the most difficult task compared with MO (1.42) and ME (1.41), with p < 0.05. In the analysis of task-to-task transfer learning, where training and testing are performed using different task datasets, the ME-trained model yielded an accuracy of 65.93 % (MI test), which is statistically similar to the within-task accuracy (p > 0.05). The MO-trained model achieved an accuracy of 60.82 % (MI test). On the other hand, combining two datasets yielded interesting results. ME and 50 % of the MI-trained model (50-shot) classified MI with a 69.21 % accuracy, which outperformed the within-task accuracy (p < 0.05), and MO and 50 % of the MI-trained model showed an accuracy of 66.75 %. Of the low performers with a within-task accuracy of 70 % or less, 90 % (n = 21) of the subjects improved in training with ME, and 76.2 % (n = 16) improved in training with MO on the MI test at 50-shot. These results demonstrate that task-to-task transfer learning is possible and could be a promising approach to building a user-friendly training protocol in MI-BCI., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Neural circuits produce reliable activity patterns despite disturbances in the environment. For this to occur, neurons elicit synaptic plasticity during perturbations. However, recent work suggests that plasticity not only regulates circuit activity during disturbances, but these modifications may also linger to stabilize circuits during future perturbations. The implementation of such a regulation scheme for real-life environmental challenges of animals remains unclear. Amphibians provide insight into this problem in a rather extreme way, as circuits that generate breathing are inactive for several months during underwater hibernation and use compensatory plasticity to promote ventilation upon emergence., Results: Using ex vivo brainstem preparations and electrophysiology, we find that hibernation in American bullfrogs reduces GABA A receptor (GABA A R) inhibition in respiratory rhythm generating circuits and motor neurons, consistent with a compensatory response to chronic inactivity. Although GABA A Rs are normally critical for breathing, baseline network output at warm temperatures was not affected. However, when assessed across a range of temperatures, hibernators with reduced GABA A R signaling had greater activity at cooler temperatures, enhancing respiratory motor output under conditions that otherwise strongly depress breathing., Conclusions: Hibernation reduces GABA A R signaling to promote robust respiratory output only at cooler temperatures. Although frogs do not ventilate lungs during underwater hibernation, we suggest this would be beneficial for stabilizing breathing when the animal passes through a large temperature range during emergence in the spring. More broadly, these results demonstrate that compensatory synaptic plasticity can increase the operating range of circuits in harsh environments, thereby promoting adaptive behavior in conditions that suppress activity., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Despite the connections and clear importance of the cerebellum in motor function, research utilizing cerebellar neuromodulation for treatment of movement disorders is still underdeveloped. Here we conduct a systematic review to investigate non-invasive neurostimulation of the cerebellum and its potential impact on motor systems and its function. Our aim is to give a general review of each neurostimulation study focusing on the cerebellum as a treatment target in the past five years at time of search, in order to update the field on current findings and inspire similar cerebellar neurostimulation research without unnecessary repetition., Methods: Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, our search included articles over the past five years that evaluated neurostimulation of the cerebellum (e.g., transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, and transcranial alternating current stimulation, etc.). Inclusion criteria included: (1) neurostimulation (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS)) of the cerebellum; (2) only original articles, and (3) outcomes focused on motor functions. Exclusion criteria included: (1) neurostimulation with the goal of targeting any brain structure other than the cerebellum and (2) reviews and conference abstracts., Results: The search revealed 82 distinct articles relevant to the research question. Included are 17 articles concerning rTMS, 56 articles concerning tDCS, and 9 articles concerning tACS. The majority of the studies are controlled trials of varying types, with 79, with two case studies and one pilot study., Conclusions: Many studies showed significant effects on motor function and circuitry via non-invasive neurostimulation of the cerebellum. Common targets of cerebellar neurostimulation include visuomotor control, stroke rehabilitation for improvements in balance and coordination, and motor skill acquisition. The field is still exploring ideal parameters of neurostimulation for each disorder or function of interest. Future research areas should include the inclusion of individual anatomy, including functional connectivity, and improving stimulation selectivity., (© 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)

Background: Evidence suggests that aging contributes to decreased cerebral blood flow and brain oxyhemoglobin (HbO 2 ) in the association cortices during rest. However, the influence of aging on functional brain activation is still controversial. The objective of this study was to investigate the age-related dependence of HbO 2 across distinct motor control conditions in both primary and association cortices., Methods: Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), this study assessed HbO 2 level changes within the primary somatosensory cortex (PSC), primary motor cortex (PMC), supplementary motor cortex (SMC), prefrontal cortex (PFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) under various motor control conditions. Analysis examined changes in the concentration of HbO 2 measured by fNIRS during rest, motor execution (ME), motor passivity (MP) and motor imagery (MI) with elbow flexion in 30 younger (21.5 ± 1.17 years old) and 30 older (60.9 ± 0.79 years old) adults., Results: During motor execution HbO 2 was higher in younger adults than older adults in bilateral PMC, bilateral PFC, left PSC, left SMC and left DLPFC ( p < 0.05). During motor passivity, HbO 2 was higher in younger adults than older adults in bilateral PMC, left PSC and left SMC ( p < 0.05). During motor imagery, HbO 2 was higher in younger adults than older adults in bilateral PFC and bilateral DLPFC ( p < 0.05)., Conclusion: This study provided evidence that HbO 2 levels are different in the primary and association cortices during different motor control conditions in young and old adults and that HbO 2 levels in different brain regions under different motor control conditions can be influenced by age., (© 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)

Study Design: Experimental study utilizing with a standardized model (MASCIS Impactor) of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in Balb C mouse model with implantation of mononuclear stem cells derived from the human umbilical cord and placenta blood in the early chronic phase of SCI., Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the nerve regeneration and motor functional recovery in Balb C mice with surgically induced paraplegia in response to the use of mononuclear stem cells, in early chronic phase (> 2 weeks and < 6 months), because there is yet potential of neuronal and functional recovery as the neuronal scar is not still completely established., Methods: Forty-eight mice were randomly assigned to 6 groups of 8 animals. Group 1 received the stem cells 3 weeks after the trauma, and Group 2 received them six weeks later. In Group 3, saline solution was injected at the site of the lesion 3 weeks after the trauma, and in Group 4, 6 weeks later. Group 5 underwent only spinal cord injury and Group 6 underwent laminectomy only. The scales used for motor assessment were BMS and MFS for 12 weeks., Results: The intervention groups showed statistically significant motor improvement. In the histopathological analysis, the intervention groups had a lower degree of injury (p < 0.05). Regarding axonal budding, the intervention groups showed increasing in axonal budding in the caudal portion (p < 0.05)., Conclusions: The use of stem cells in mice in the chronic phase after 3 and 6 weeks of SCI brings functional and histopathological benefits to them., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 HCFMUSP. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Mu rhythm (∼8-12 Hz) in the somatosensory cortex has traditionally been linked with doing and seeing motor activities. Here, we aimed to learn how the medium (physical or screened) in which motor actions are seen could impact on that specific brain rhythm. To do so, we presented to 40 participants the very same narrative content both in a one-shot movie with no cuts and in a real theatrical performance. We recorded subjects' brain activities with electroencephalographic (EEG) procedures, and analyzed Mu rhythm present in left (C3) and right (C4) somatosensory areas in relation to the 24 motor activities included in each visual stimulus (screen vs. reality) (24 motor and grasping actions x 40 participants x 2 conditions = 1920 trials). We found lower Mu spectral power in the somatosensory area after the onset of the motor actions in real performance than on-screened content, more pronounced in the left hemisphere. In our results, the sensorimotor Mu-ERD (event-related desynchronization) was stronger during the real-world observation compared to screen observation. This could be relevant in research areas where the somatosensory cortex is important, such as online learning, virtual reality, or brain-computer interfaces., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Many animals adapt their activity patterns to the best environmental conditions using daily rhythms. African mole-rats are among the mammals that have become models for studying how these rhythms can be entrained by light or temperature in experimental laboratory studies. However, it is unclear whether they exhibit similar circadian rhythms in their natural lightless, subterranean environment. In this study, we used biologging to investigate the activity rhythms of wild, highveld mole-rats. We show that their activity cycle exhibited an ultradian rhythm with a length between 4 and 8 h. On an individual level, mole-rats displayed about five activity bouts per day, occurring at various times during the day and night. On a population level, activity peaked in the afternoon, coinciding with the peak in ambient temperature. Our research suggests that wild subterranean mammals, which experience reduced environmental variation, are unlikely to show clear circadian rhythmicity in activity patterns. Instead, activity periods are distributed over several bouts throughout the day and night, and activity coincides with the peak in daily temperature. We propose that ultradian rhythms in activity may be more common than previously thought and discuss how physiological processes may generate differences in periodicity between laboratory and wild populations.

The gene FOXP2 is well established for a role in human speech and language; far less is known about FOXP1. However, this related gene has also been implicated in human language development as well as disorders associated with features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). FOXP1 protein expression has also recently been identified in the cerebellum-a neural structure previously shown to express FOXP2 protein. The current study sought to elucidate the behavioral implications of a conditional knock-out of Foxp1 using an En1-Cre driver, which is active in the entirety of the cerebellum and a subset of neurons in the midbrain and spinal cord, in mice using a test battery including motor tasks associated with cerebellar dysfunction, as well as communicative and autistic-relevant behaviors. Male and female mice with a conditional knock-out (cKO, n = 31) and wildtype littermate controls (WT, n = 34) were assessed for gross and orofacial motor control, motor-coordination learning, locomotion, social behavior, anxiety, auditory processing and expressive vocalizations. Overall results suggest Foxp1 plays a specific role in the development of communicative systems, and phenotypic expression of disruptions may interact with sex. Robust motor deficits associated with Foxp1 protein loss may particularly affect vocalizations based on significant orofacial motor deficits in cKO subjects could also contribute to vocalization anomalies. In summary, the current study provides key insights into the role of Foxp1 in cerebellar function and associated behaviors in mice, with implications for an improved understanding of communicative and motor-based neurodevelopmental disabilities in humans., (© 2024 The Author(s). Genes, Brain and Behavior published by International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: Neuroimaging studies of dyskinetic cerebral palsy (CP) are scarce and the neuropathological underpinnings are not fully understood. We delineated the corticospinal tract (CST) and cortico-striatal-thalamocortical (CSTC) pathways with probabilistic tractography to assess their (1) integrity and (2) association with motor functioning in people with dyskinetic CP., Methods: Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance images were obtained for 33 individuals with dyskinetic CP and 33 controls. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) for the CST and the CSTC pathways were compared between groups. Correlation analyses were performed between tensor metric values and motor function scores of participants with dyskinetic CP as assessed by the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), the Bimanual Fine Motor Function (BFMF), and the Manual Ability Classification System (MACS)., Results: White matter integrity in both the CST and the CSTC pathways was reduced in people with dyskinetic CP. The GMFCS, MACS and, less commonly, the BFMF were associated with FA and, particularly, MD in most portions of these pathways., Interpretation: The present study advances our understanding of the involvement of white matter microstructure in sensorimotor pathways and its relationship with motor impairment in people with dyskinetic CP. Our results are consistent with well-described relationships between upper limb function and white matter integrity in the CST and CSTC pathways in other forms of CP. This knowledge may ultimately help prognosis and therapeutic programmes., (© 2024 The Author(s). Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Neurological Association.)

Objective: To determine whether an accelerated protocol of 48 Hz cerebellar repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation results in improved motor function in individuals with Parkinson's disease., Methods: In this double-blind randomized sham-controlled study, 35 individuals with Parkinson's disease and stable medical treatment were randomized to either sham or verum transcranial magnetic stimulation. The stimulation was applied bilaterally and medial over the cerebellum and comprised a novel accelerated protocol encompassing two sessions per day on 5 consecutive days. Patients were assessed at baseline, on day 5 after the last stimulation and 1 month post intervention. Measurements included dynamic posturography, UPDRS III, 8-Meter walk test, and Timed Up and Go test., Results: The accelerated protocol was safe and feasible in an outpatient setting. Patients in the verum group showed significant improvement (p < 0.001) of motor symptoms as measured in the UPDRS III. Improvement was mainly carried by the domains rigor, bradykinesia, and gait and persisted after 1 month (p = 0.009), whereas tremor remained unchanged., Interpretation: The effect of a high-dose transcranial magnetic stimulation in patients with Parkinson's disease is encouraging and comparable to other studies using much longer stimulation protocols. This short-term intervention of 5 days facilitates the future application in an outpatient setting. Reduction in hospitalization rates directly benefits patients with motor impairment., (© 2024 The Author(s). Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Neurological Association.)

Objective: Advancements in neuroimaging technologies have significantly deepened our understanding of the neural physiopathology associated with stroke. Nevertheless, the majority of studies ignored the characteristics of dynamic changes in brain networks. The relationship between dynamic changes in brain networks and the severity of motor dysfunction after stroke needs further investigation. From the perspective of multilayer network module reconstruction, we aimed to explore the dynamic reorganization of the brain and its relationship with motor function in subcortical stroke patients., Methods: We recruited 35 healthy individuals and 50 stroke patients with unilateral limb motor dysfunction (further divided into mild-moderate group and severe group). Using dynamic multilayer network modularity analysis, we investigated changes in the dynamic modular reconfiguration of brain networks. Additionally, we assessed longitudinal clinical scale changes in stroke patients. Correlation and regression analyses were employed to explore the relationship between characteristic dynamic indicators and impairment and recovery of motor function, respectively., Results: We observed increased temporal flexibility in the Default Mode Network (DMN) and decreased recruitment of module reconfiguration in the Attention Network (AN), Sensorimotor Network (SMN), and DMN after stroke. We also observed reduced module loyalty following stroke. Additionally, correlation analysis showed that hyper-flexibility of the DMN was associated with better lower limb motor function performance in stroke patients with mild-to-moderate impairment. Regression analysis indicated that increased flexibility within the DMN and decreased recruitment coefficient within the AN may predict good lower limb function prognosis in patients with mild to moderate motor impairment., Conclusions: Our study revealed more frequent modular reconfiguration and hyperactive interaction of brain networks after stroke. Notably, dynamic modular remodeling was closely related to the impairment and recovery of motor function. Understanding the temporal module reconfiguration patterns in multilayer networks after stroke can provide valuable information for more targeted treatments., (© 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)

Background: The natural light environment is far more complex than that experienced by animals under laboratory conditions. As a burrowing species, wild mice are able to self-modulate their light exposure, a concept known as light environment sampling behaviour. By contrast, under laboratory conditions mice have little opportunity to exhibit this behaviour. To address this issue, here we introduce a simple nestbox paradigm to allow mice to self-modulate their light environment. Dark nestboxes fitted with passive infrared sensors were used to monitor locomotor activity, circadian entrainment, decision making and light environment sampling behaviour., Results: Under these conditions, mice significantly reduce their light exposure to an average of just 0.8 h across a 24 h period. In addition, mice show a distinct pattern of light environment sampling behaviour, with peaks at dawn and dusk under a ramped light dark cycle. Furthermore, we show that the timing of light environment sampling behaviour depends upon endogenous circadian rhythms and is abolished in mice lacking a circadian clock, indicating a feedback loop between light, the circadian clock and behaviour., Conclusions: Our results highlight the important role of behaviour in modifying the light signals available for circadian entrainment under natural conditions., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Muscle mass and phase angle (PhA) can be measured using multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Osteoarthritis of the hip (OAhip) causes decreased muscle mass and PhA in the deformed lower limb. However, previous studies have not accounted for the influence of sex, and thus, the relationship between muscle mass, PhA, and motor function remains unclear. This study aimed to elucidate the relationship between PhA, an index of muscle mass and quality measured using BIA, and motor function during gait and standing in female patients with OAhip., Methods: Muscle mass and PhA of patients with OAhip were measured using BIA. Motor function was evaluated using the Timed Up and Go test, ground reaction/weight, rate of force development/weight, and load ratio between the osteoarthritic (OA) and contralateral sides when standing up. The difference between the OA side and the contralateral lower limb was tested to clarify the characteristics of the deformed lower limb. The relationship between each motor function was determined using a partial correlation coefficient with age as a control variable and multiple regression analysis with each motor function as the dependent variable and age, OA-side muscle mass/body weight ratio, and PhA as independent variables., Results: This study involved 60 patients with OAhip (age 65.6 ± 7.6 years, height 154.2 ± 6.0 cm, weight 56.8 ± 10.5 kg) scheduled for unilateral total hip arthroplasty. Muscle mass, PhA, and lower limb load ratio were significantly decreased in the lower limbs on the OA side. Furthermore, using a partial correlation coefficient with age as a control variable, PhA showed significant correlations with motor functions related to standing up and walking, and multiple regression analysis revealed that PhA was independently related to each motor function., Conclusions: Evaluation and interventions that consider muscle quality rather than muscle mass are important., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Associative learning affects many areas of human behavior. Recently, we showed that the neural response to monetary reward is enhanced by performing an action, suggesting interactions between neural systems controlling motor behavior and reward processing. Given that many psychiatric disorders are associated with social anhedonia, a key open question is whether such effects generalize to social rewards, and in how far they affect associative learning. We developed a novel task in which participants (n = 66) received social reward feedback and social punishment either by pressing a button or waiting. Predictive cues were linked to feedback valence with 80% accuracy. Using EEG, we measured the neural response to both predictive cues and social feedback. We found enhanced reward positivity for social reward preceded by an action, and an enhanced N2 for cues predicting negative feedback. Cue-locked P3 amplitude was reduced for cues associated with negative feedback in passive trials only, showing a modulation of outcome anticipation by performing a motor action. This was supported by connectivity analyses showing stronger directed theta synchronization, in line with increased top-down modulation of attention, in active compared with passive trials. These findings suggest that actively obtaining social feedback enhances reward sensitivity and modulates outcome anticipation., (© 2024 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.)

Background: Frequent and objective monitoring of motor recovery progression holds significant importance in stroke rehabilitation. Despite extensive studies on wearable solutions in this context, the focus has been predominantly on evaluating limb activity. This study aims to address this limitation by delving into a novel measure of wrist kinematics more intricately related to patients' motor capacity., Objective: To explore a new wearable-based approach for objectively and reliably assessing upper-limb motor ability in stroke survivors using a single inertial sensor placed on the stroke-affected wrist., Methods: Seventeen stroke survivors performed a series of daily activities within a simulated home setting while wearing a six-axis inertial measurement unit on the wrist affected by stroke. Inertial data during point-to-point upper-limb movements were decomposed into movement segments, from which various kinematic variables were derived. A data-driven approach was then employed to identify a kinematic variable demonstrating robust internal reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity., Results: We have identified a key kinematic variable, namely the 90th percentile of movement segment distance during point-to-point movements. This variable exhibited robust reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient of .93) and strong correlations with established clinical measures of motor capacity (Pearson's correlation coefficients of .81 with the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper-Extremity; .77 with the Functional Ability component of the Wolf Motor Function Test; and -.68 with the Performance Time component of the Wolf Motor Function Test)., Conclusions: The findings underscore the potential for continuous, objective, and convenient monitoring of stroke survivors' motor progression throughout rehabilitation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) during pregnancy has numerous benefits, which may be mediated via effects on the immune system. However, supportive evidence is inconsistent and is mainly from studies in high-risk groups. We estimated the effect of PA during pregnancy on systemic inflammatory markers and cytokines in mothers recruited in the Barwon infant study., Material and Methods: The Barwon infant study is a prebirth cohort of 1064 mothers recruited in the Barwon Region of Victoria, Australia. Participants reported their previous week's PA at their 28-week antenatal appointment using the International PA Questionnaire. Women were grouped into low, moderate, and high PA categories based on daily duration and weekly frequency of walking, moderate- or vigorous-intensity PA. Women reporting moderate levels of PA, consistent with current recommendations, served as the comparison group. Markers of systemic inflammation, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), glycoprotein acetyls (GlycA), and 17 cytokines were measured at 28 weeks gestation and log transformed as appropriate. Regression analyses adjusted for maternal smoking, gestational diabetes mellitus, prepregnancy BMI, and household size were performed., Results: Compared to women in the moderate group (n = 371, 42%), women reporting low PA (n = 436, 50%) had 10.1% higher hsCRP (95% CI (3.7% to 16.6%), p < 0.01) while women in high PA (n = 76, 9%) had a 14% higher hsCRP (95% CI (3.1% to 24.8%), p = 0.01). Women in the high PA category had higher interleukin (IL)-4 (q = 0.03) and IL-9 (q = 0.03) levels compared to those in moderate category. Each vigorous MET minute/week was associated with lower GlycA (β = -0.004, 95% CI (-0.044 to 0.035); p = 0.03)., Conclusions: Low and high PA are each associated with higher hsCRP than moderate PA, suggesting that undertaking the recommended moderate PA during pregnancy decreases systemic inflammation. High PA affects T cell-associated cytokines during pregnancy. Evidence from our study suggests that PA can modulate the immune responses during pregnancy. Studies are now required to assess whether PA during pregnancy impacts maternal and infant clinical outcomes by modifying inflammatory responses., (© 2024 The Author(s). Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology (NFOG).)

Background: Stroke is a heterogeneous condition, making choice of treatment, and determination of how to structure rehabilitation outcomes difficult. Individualized goal-directed and repetitive physical practice is an important determinant of motor learning. Yet, many investigations of motor learning after stroke deliver task practice without consideration of individual capability of the learner., Objective: We developed a gamified arm rehabilitation task for people with stroke that is personalized to individual capacity for paretic arm movement, provides a high dose of practice, progresses through increasingly difficulty levels that are dependent on the performance of the individual, and is practiced in an engaging environment. The objectives of the current study were to determine if 10 days of gamified, object intercept training using the paretic arm would improve arm movement speed and clinical outcome measures of impairment or function., Methods: Individuals with chronic stroke and age-matched controls engaged in 10 days of gamified, skilled motor practice of a semi-immersive virtual reality-based intercept and release task. The paretic arm was assessed using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (motor impairment) and Wolf Motor Function Test (motor function) before and after training., Results: Both groups showed faster arm movement speed with practice; individuals with stroke demonstrated reduced paretic arm motor impairment and increased function after the intervention. Age and sex (for both groups), and time post-stroke were not related to changes in movement speed., Conclusions: Findings indicate that gamified motor training positively affects paretic arm motor behavior in individuals with mild to severe chronic stroke., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: We previously demonstrated that deep brain stimulation (DBS) of lateral cerebellar nucleus (LCN) can enhance motor recovery and functional reorganization of perilesional cortex in rodent models of stroke or TBI., Objective: Considering the treatment-related neuroplasticity observed at the perilesional cortex, we hypothesize that chronic LCN DBS-enhanced motor recovery observed will carry-over even after DBS has been deactivated., Methods: Here, we directly tested the enduring effects of LCN DBS in male Long Evans rats that underwent controlled cortical impact (CCI) injury targeting sensorimotor cortex opposite their dominant forepaw followed by unilateral implantation of a macroelectrode into the LCN opposite the lesion. Animals were randomized to DBS or sham treatment for 4 weeks during which the motor performance were characterize by behavioral metrics. After 4 weeks, stimulation was turned off, with assessments continuing for an additional 2 weeks. Afterward, all animals were euthanized, and tissue was harvested for further analyses., Results: Treated animals showed significantly greater motor improvement across all behavioral metrics relative to untreated animals during the 4-week treatment, with functional gains persisting across 2-week post-treatment. This motor recovery was associated with the increase in CaMKIIα and BDNF positive cell density across perilesional cortex in treated animals., Conclusions: LCN DBS enhanced post-TBI motor recovery, the effect of which was persisted up to 2 weeks beyond stimulation offset. Such evidence should be considered in relation to future translational efforts as, unlike typical DBS applications, treatment may only need to be provided until such time as a new function plateau is achieved., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Drs. Machado and Baker have intellectual property and distribution rights in Enspire DBS Therapy, Inc., which is a spin-off of the Cleveland Clinic. Drs. Machado and Baker serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of Enspire DBS Therapy, Inc. Dr. Machado holds a patent titled as “Methods of treating medical conditions by neuromodulation of the cerebellar pathways.” US 7,640,063.

Aim: To establish consensus among adolescents with a physical disability regarding their priorities for enhancing participation in physical activity and help inform the design of future interventions for participation in physical activity., Method: We conducted a national multi-round Delphi study involving adolescents with a physical disability aged 13 to 17 years. Round 1 of the initial survey consisted of open-ended questions. Free-text responses were then analysed thematically, creating items categorized according to the family of participation-related constructs (fPRC). In round 2, participants rated the perceived importance of these items using a 5-point Likert scale. The top 10 priorities were constructed from the highest-ranked items., Results: One hundred and sixteen participants (mean age = 14 years 7 months, range = 13-17 years; 66 males; 58 with cerebral palsy; 43 wheelchair users) completed round 1; 108 items were included in round 2. Fifty-eight items were rated as either 'important' or 'really important' by 70% of participants. The top 10 priorities were rated as important or really important by 82% to 94% of participants with a mean Likert score of 4.40 (range = 4.25-4.63). Seven of the top 10 priorities were related to the environmental context of the fPRC. The other three were related to involvement and the related concept of preference., Interpretation: The priorities identified will help inform future physical activity interventions for adolescents with a physical disability., (© 2024 The Author(s). Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Mac Keith Press.)

Unpredictable deviations from an otherwise regular auditory sequence, as well as rare sounds following a period of silence, are detected automatically. Recent evidence suggests that the latter also elicit quick involuntary modulations of ongoing motor activity emerging as early as 100 ms following sound onset, which was attributed to supramodal processing. We explored such force modulations for both rare and deviant sounds. Participants (N = 29) pinched a force sensitive device and maintained a force of 1-2 N for periods of 1 min. Task-irrelevant tones were presented under two conditions. In the Rare condition, 4000 Hz tones were presented every 8-to-16 s. In the Roving condition, 4000 Hz and 2996 Hz tones were presented at rate of 1 s, with infrequent (p = 1/12) frequency changes. In the Rare condition, transient force modulations were observed with a significant increase at ~ 234 ms, and a decrease at ~ 350 ms. In the Roving condition with low frequency deviant tones, an increase in force was observed at ~ 277 ms followed by a decrease at ~ 413 ms. No significant modulations were observed during perception of high frequency deviants. These results suggest that both rare silence-breaking sounds and low-pitched deviants evoke automatic fluctuations of motor responses, which opens up the possibility that these force modulations are triggered by stimulus-specific change-detection processes., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The adoption of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for decoding electroencephalogram (EEG)-based motor imagery (MI) in brain-computer interfaces has significantly increased recently. The effective extraction of motor imagery features is vital due to the variability among individuals and temporal states., Methods: This study introduces a novel network architecture, 3D-convolutional neural network-generative adversarial network (3D-CNN-GAN), for decoding both within-session and cross-session motor imagery. Initially, EEG signals were extracted over various time intervals using a sliding window technique, capturing temporal, frequency, and phase features to construct a temporal-frequency-phase feature (TFPF) three-dimensional feature map. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) were then employed to synthesize artificial data, which, when combined with the original datasets, expanded the data capacity and enhanced functional connectivity. Moreover, GANs proved capable of learning and amplifying the brain connectivity patterns present in the existing data, generating more distinctive brain network features. A compact, two-layer 3D-CNN model was subsequently developed to efficiently decode these TFPF features., Results: Taking into account session and individual differences in EEG data, tests were conducted on both the public GigaDB dataset and the SHU laboratory dataset. On the GigaDB dataset, our 3D-CNN and 3D-CNN-GAN models achieved two-class within-session motor imagery accuracies of 76.49% and 77.03%, respectively, demonstrating the algorithm's effectiveness and the improvement provided by data augmentation. Furthermore, on the SHU dataset, the 3D-CNN and 3D-CNN-GAN models yielded two-class within-session motor imagery accuracies of 67.64% and 71.63%, and cross-session motor imagery accuracies of 58.06% and 63.04%, respectively., Conclusions: The 3D-CNN-GAN algorithm significantly enhances the generalizability of EEG-based motor imagery brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Additionally, this research offers valuable insights into the potential applications of motor imagery BCIs., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)

The fruit fly Drosophila is a major discovery platform in the biology of ageing due to its balance of relatively short lifespan and relatively complex physiology and behaviour. Previous studies have suggested that some important phenotypes of ageing, for instance increasingly fragmented sleep, are shared from humans to Drosophila and can be useful measures of behavioural change with age: these phenotypes therefore hold potential as readouts of healthy ageing for genetic or pharmacological interventions aimed at the underpinning biology of ageing. However, some age-related phenotypes in Drosophila show differing results among studies, leading to questions regarding the source of discrepancies among experiments. In this study, I have tested females and males from three common laboratory strains of Drosophila to determine the extent to which sex and background strain influence age-related behavioural changes in sleep and activity patterns. Surprisingly, I find that some phenotypes-including age-related changes in total activity, total sleep, and sleep fragmentation-depend strongly on sex and strain, to the extent that some phenotypes show opposing age-related changes in different sexes or strains. Conversely, I identify other phenotypes, including age-related decreases in morning and evening anticipation, that are more uniform across sexes and strains. These results reinforce the importance of controlling for background strain in both behavioural and ageing experiments, and they imply that caution should be used when drawing conclusions from studies on a single sex or strain of Drosophila. At the same time, these findings also offer suggestions for behavioural measures that merit further investigation as potentially more consistent phenotypes of ageing., Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Nathan Woodling. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Parcellation of human cerebellar pathways is essential for advancing our understanding of the human brain. Existing diffusion magnetic resonance imaging tractography parcellation methods have been successful in defining major cerebellar fibre tracts, while relying solely on fibre tract structure. However, each fibre tract may relay information related to multiple cognitive and motor functions of the cerebellum. Hence, it may be beneficial for parcellation to consider the potential importance of the fibre tracts for individual motor and cognitive functional performance measures. In this work, we propose a multimodal data-driven method for cerebellar pathway parcellation, which incorporates both measures of microstructure and connectivity, and measures of individual functional performance. Our method involves first training a multitask deep network to predict various cognitive and motor measures from a set of fibre tract structural features. The importance of each structural feature for predicting each functional measure is then computed, resulting in a set of structure-function saliency values that are clustered to parcellate cerebellar pathways. We refer to our method as Deep Multimodal Saliency Parcellation (DeepMSP), as it computes the saliency of structural measures for predicting cognitive and motor functional performance, with these saliencies being applied to the task of parcellation. Applying DeepMSP to a large-scale dataset from the Human Connectome Project Young Adult study (n = 1065), we found that it was feasible to identify multiple cerebellar pathway parcels with unique structure-function saliency patterns that were stable across training folds. We thoroughly experimented with all stages of the DeepMSP pipeline, including network selection, structure-function saliency representation, clustering algorithm, and cluster count. We found that a 1D convolutional neural network architecture and a transformer network architecture both performed comparably for the multitask prediction of endurance, strength, reading decoding, and vocabulary comprehension, with both architectures outperforming a fully connected network architecture. Quantitative experiments demonstrated that a proposed low-dimensional saliency representation with an explicit measure of motor versus cognitive category bias achieved the best parcellation results, while a parcel count of four was most successful according to standard cluster quality metrics. Our results suggested that motor and cognitive saliencies are distributed across the cerebellar white matter pathways. Inspection of the final k = 4 parcellation revealed that the highest-saliency parcel was most salient for the prediction of both motor and cognitive performance scores and included parts of the middle and superior cerebellar peduncles. Our proposed saliency-based parcellation framework, DeepMSP, enables multimodal, data-driven tractography parcellation. Through utilising both structural features and functional performance measures, this parcellation strategy may have the potential to enhance the study of structure-function relationships of the cerebellar pathways., (© 2024 The Author(s). Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Contextual information may shape motor resonance and support intention understanding during observation of incomplete, ambiguous actions. It is unclear, however, whether this effect is contingent upon kinematics ambiguity or contextual information is continuously integrated with kinematics to predict the overarching action intention. Moreover, a differentiation between the motor mapping of the intention suggested by context or kinematics has not been clearly demonstrated. In a first action execution phase, 29 participants were asked to perform reaching-to-grasp movements towards big or small food objects with the intention to eat or to move; electromyography from the First Dorsal Interosseous (FDI) and Abductor Digiti Minimi (ADM) was recorded. Depending on object size, the intentions to eat or to move were differently implemented by a whole-hand or a precision grip kinematics, thus qualifying an action-muscle dissociation. Then, in a following action prediction task, the same participants were asked to observe an actor performing the same actions and to predict his/her intention while motor resonance was assessed for the same muscles. Of note, videos were interrupted at early or late action phases, and actions were embedded in contexts pointing toward an eating or a moving intention, congruently or incongruently with kinematics. We found greater involvement of the FDI or ADM in the execution of precision or whole-hand grips, respectively. Crucially, this pattern of activation was mirrored during observation of the same actions in congruent contexts, but it was cancelled out or reversed in the incongruent ones, either when videos were interrupted at either early or long phases of action deployment. Our results extend previous evidence by showing that contextual information shapes motor resonance not only under conditions of perceptual uncertainty but also when more informative kinematics is available., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Introduction: The motor system undergoes significant development throughout childhood and adolescence. The contingent negative variation (CNV), a brain response reflecting preparation for upcoming actions, offers valuable insights into these changes. However, previous CNV studies of motor preparation have primarily focused on adults, leaving a gap in our understanding of how cortical activity related to motor planning and execution matures in children and adolescents., Methods: The study addresses this gap by investigating the maturation of motor preparation, pre-activation, and post-processing in 46 healthy, right-handed children and adolescents aged 5-16 years. To overcome the resolution limitations of previous studies, we combined 64-electrode high-density Electroencephalography (EEG) and advanced analysis techniques, such as event-related potentials (ERPs), mu-rhythm desynchronization as well as source localization approaches. The combined analyses provided an in-depth understanding of cortical activity during motor control., Results: Our data showed that children exhibited prolonged reaction times, increased errors, and a distinct pattern of cortical activation compared to adolescents. The findings suggest that the supplementary motor area (SMA) plays a progressively stronger role in motor planning and response evaluation as children age. Additionally, we observe a decrease in sensory processing and post-movement activity with development, potentially reflecting increased efficiency. Interestingly, adolescent subjects, unlike young adults in previous studies, did not yet show contralateral activation of motor areas during the motor preparation phase (late CNV)., Conclusion: The progressive increase in SMA activation and distinct cortical activation patterns in younger participants suggest immature motor areas. These immature regions might be a primary cause underlying the age-related increase in motor action control efficiency. Additionally, the study demonstrates a prolonged maturation of cortical motor areas, extending well into early adulthood, challenging the assumption that motor control is fully developed by late adolescence. This research, extending fundamental knowledge of motor control development, offers valuable insights that lay the foundation for understanding and treating motor control difficulties., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The KOJI AWARENESS (KA) screening test assesses motor function in humans. We aimed to analyze the correlation between age and KA screening scores and to identify the specific age at which a significant decline occurs. A total of 793 healthy participants (234 females) were interviewed for basic information on age and sex and completed the KA screening test. In addition to calculating the total score from the KA test, the scores were calculated for the neck-scapula-upper extremity-complex (NSU), trunk, and lower extremity (LE) segments. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to assess the validity of the test. Additionally, Bayesian linear regression was employed to estimate the change point in KA scores, facilitating the identification of a critical age associated with a notable decline in motor function. KA screening total and separate body segment scores were negatively correlated with age in both gender (for female and male, KA total score, ρ = - 0.443, ρ = - 0.344; NSU segment, ρ = - 0.431, ρ = - 0.427; trunk segment, ρ = - 0.210, ρ = - 0.473; LE segment: ρ = - 0.43, ρ = - 0.507). Furthermore, a change-point analysis using linear regression analysis showed that KA screening total scores declined sharply at the age of 49.1(95% credible interval: 37.503, 68.366). The result show that total KA scores decrease - 0.196 (95% credible interval: - 0.335,  - 0.049) for every 1 year of age increase, and for ages over 49.1, total KA scores additionally decrease - 0.255 (95% credible interval: - 0.485, - 0.054) for every 1 year of age increase. In the NSU segment, females showed a more rapid decline than males from the age of 50 years. KA screening test total scores declined sharply at the age of 49.1. These results may be useful in setting treatment goals, exercise, and lifestyle programs for age-related decline in motor function., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: AGEs, their receptor (RAGE), and the extracellular newly identified receptor for AGEs product-binding protein (EN-RAGE) are implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammation., Aim: We analyzed serum EN-RAGE, soluble RAGE (sRAGE), and their isoforms: endogenous secretory - esRAGE and cleaved - cRAGE concentrations in lean controls (n = 74) and in patients with obesity (n = 71) treated for three weeks with moderate calorie restriction (CR) combined with physical activity in a hospital condition., Methods: Using the ELISA method, serum sRAGE, esRAGE, and EN-RAGE were measured before and after CR., Results: The serum level of sRAGE and esRAGE in patients with obesity was lower than that in non-obese individuals, contrary to cRAGE. EN-RAGE concentration was about three times higher in obese patients. Gradually, a rise in BMI resulted in sRAGE, esRAGE reduction, and EN-RAGE increase. The sRAGE concentration was sex-dependent, indicating a higher value in lean men. A moderate negative correlation was observed between BMI and all RAGE isoforms, whereas EN-RAGE displays a positive correlation. CR resulted in an expected decrease in anthropometric, metabolic, and proinflammatory parameters and EN-RAGE, but no RAGE isoforms. The ratio EN-RAGE/sRAGE was higher in obese humans than in control and was not modified by CR., Conclusion: Obesity decreases sRAGE and esRAGE and increases EN-RAGE concentration. Moderate CR and physical activity by decreasing inflammation reduces EN-RAGE but is insufficient to increase sRAGE and esRAGE to the extent observed in lean patients. EN-RAGE instead of sRAGE could be helpful to indicate a better outcome of moderate dietary intervention in obese subjects., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Attention lapses (ALs) are complete lapses of responsiveness in which performance is briefly but completely disrupted and during which, as opposed to microsleeps, the eyes remain open. Although the phenomenon of ALs has been investigated by behavioural and physiological means, the underlying cause of an AL has largely remained elusive. This study aimed to investigate the underlying physiological substrates of behaviourally identified endogenous ALs during a continuous visuomotor task, primarily to answer the question: Were the ALs during this task due to extreme mind-wandering or mind-blanks? The data from two studies were combined, resulting in data from 40 healthy non-sleep-deprived subjects (20M/20F; mean age 27.1 years, 20-45). Only 17 of the 40 subjects were used in the analysis due to a need for a minimum of two ALs per subject. Subjects performed a random 2-D continuous visuomotor tracking task for 50 and 20 min in Studies 1 and 2, respectively. Tracking performance, eye-video, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were recorded simultaneously. A human expert visually inspected the tracking performance and eye-video recordings to identify and categorise lapses of responsiveness as microsleeps or ALs. Changes in neural activity during 85 ALs (17 subjects) relative to responsive tracking were estimated by whole-brain voxel-wise fMRI and by haemodynamic response (HR) analysis in regions of interest (ROIs) from seven key networks to reveal the neural signature of ALs. Changes in functional connectivity (FC) within and between the key ROIs were also estimated. Networks explored were the default mode network, dorsal attention network, frontoparietal network, sensorimotor network, salience network, visual network, and working memory network. Voxel-wise analysis revealed a significant increase in blood-oxygen-level-dependent activity in the overlapping dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and supplementary motor area region but no significant decreases in activity; the increased activity is considered to represent a recovery-of-responsiveness process following an AL. This increased activity was also seen in the HR of the corresponding ROI. Importantly, HR analysis revealed no trend of increased activity in the posterior cingulate of the default mode network, which has been repeatedly demonstrated to be a strong biomarker of mind-wandering. FC analysis showed decoupling of external attention, which supports the involuntary nature of ALs, in addition to the neural recovery processes. Other findings were a decrease in HR in the frontoparietal network before the onset of ALs, and a decrease in FC between default mode network and working memory network. These findings converge to our conclusion that the ALs observed during our task were involuntary mind-blanks. This is further supported behaviourally by the short duration of the ALs (mean 1.7 s), which is considered too brief to be instances of extreme mind-wandering. This is the first study to demonstrate that at least the majority of complete losses of responsiveness on a continuous visuomotor task are, if not due to microsleeps, due to involuntary mind-blanks., (© 2024 The Author(s). Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Gephyrin is thought to play a critical role in clustering glycine receptors at synapses within the central nervous system (CNS). The main in vivo evidence for this comes from Gephyrin (Gphn)-null mice, where glycine receptors are depleted from synaptic regions. However, these mice die at birth, possibly due to impaired molybdenum cofactor (MoCo) synthesis, an essential role Gephyrin assumes throughout an animal. This complicates the interpretation of synaptic phenotypes in Gphn-null mice and raises the question whether the synaptic and enzymatic functions of Gephyrin can be investigated separately. Here, we generated a gephyrinb zebrafish mutant, vo84, that almost entirely lacks Gephyrin staining in the spinal cord. gephyrinb vo84 mutants exhibit normal gross morphology at both larval and adult stages. In contrast to Gphn-null mice, gephyrinb vo84 mutants exhibit normal motor activity and MoCo-dependent enzyme activity. Instead, gephyrinb vo84 mutants display impaired rheotaxis and increased mortality in late development. To investigate what may mediate these defects in gephyrinb vo84 mutants, we examined the cell density of neurons and myelin in the spinal cord and found no obvious changes. Surprisingly, in gephyrinb vo84 mutants, glycine receptors are still present in the synaptic regions. However, their abundance is reduced, potentially contributing to the observed defects. These findings challenge the notion that Gephyrin is absolutely required to cluster glycine receptors at synapses and reveals a new role of Gephyrin in regulating glycine receptor abundance and rheotaxis. They also establish a powerful new model for studying the mechanisms underlying synaptic, rather than enzymatic, functions of Gephyrin., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Presurgical planning prior to brain tumor resection is critical for the preservation of neurologic function post-operatively. Neurosurgeons increasingly use advanced brain mapping techniques pre- and intra-operatively to delineate brain regions which are "eloquent" and should be spared during resection. Functional MRI (fMRI) has emerged as a commonly used non-invasive modality for individual patient mapping of critical cortical regions such as motor, language, and visual cortices. To map motor function, patients are scanned using fMRI while they perform various motor tasks to identify brain networks critical for motor performance, but it may be difficult for some patients to perform tasks in the scanner due to pre-existing deficits. Connectome fingerprinting (CF) is a machine-learning approach that learns associations between resting-state functional networks of a brain region and the activations in the region for specific tasks; once a CF model is constructed, individualized predictions of task activation can be generated from resting-state data. Here we utilized CF to train models on high-quality data from 208 subjects in the Human Connectome Project (HCP) and used this to predict task activations in our cohort of healthy control subjects (n = 15) and presurgical patients (n = 16) using resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data. The prediction quality was validated with task fMRI data in the healthy controls and patients. We found that the task predictions for motor areas are on par with actual task activations in most healthy subjects (model accuracy around 90%-100% of task stability) and some patients suggesting the CF models can be reliably substituted where task data is either not possible to collect or hard for subjects to perform. We were also able to make robust predictions in cases in which there were no task-related activations elicited. The findings demonstrate the utility of the CF approach for predicting activations in out-of-sample subjects, across sites and scanners, and in patient populations. This work supports the feasibility of the application of CF models to presurgical planning, while also revealing challenges to be addressed in future developments. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Precision motor network prediction using connectome fingerprinting. Carefully trained models' performance limited by stability of task-fMRI data. Successful cross-scanner predictions and motor network mapping in patients with tumor., (© 2024 The Author(s). Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Whether in performing arts, sporting, or everyday contexts, when we watch others move, we tend to enjoy bodies moving in synchrony. Our enjoyment of body movements is further enhanced by our own prior experience with performing those movements, or our 'embodied experience'. The relationships between movement synchrony and enjoyment, as well as embodied experience and movement enjoyment, are well known. The interaction between enjoyment of movements, synchrony, and embodiment is less well understood, and may be central for developing new approaches for enriching social interaction. To examine the interplay between movement enjoyment, synchrony, and embodiment, we asked participants to copy another person's movements as accurately as possible, thereby gaining embodied experience of movement sequences. Participants then viewed other dyads performing the same or different sequences synchronously, and we assessed participants' recognition of having performed these sequences, as well as their enjoyment of each movement sequence. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure cortical activation over frontotemporal sensorimotor regions while participants performed and viewed movements. We found that enjoyment was greatest when participants had mirrored the sequence and recognised it, suggesting that awareness of embodiment may be central to enjoyment of synchronous movements. Exploratory analyses of relationships between cortical activation and enjoyment and recognition implicated the sensorimotor cortices, which subserve action observation and aesthetic processing. These findings hold implications for clinical research and therapies seeking to foster successful social interaction., (© 2024 The Author(s). Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Evaluations of treatment efficacy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disease that results in progressive muscle wasting, require an understanding of the 'meaningfulness' of changes in functional measures. We estimated the minimal detectable change (MDC) for selected motor function measures in ambulatory DMD, i.e., the minimal degree of measured change needed to be confident that true underlying change has occurred rather than transient variation or measurement error. MDC estimates were compared across multiple data sources, representing >1000 DMD patients in clinical trials and real-world clinical practice settings. Included patients were ambulatory, aged ≥4 to <18 years and receiving steroids. Minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) for worsening were also estimated. Estimated MDC thresholds for >80% confidence in true change were 2.8 units for the North Star Ambulatory Assessment (NSAA) total score, 1.3 seconds for the 4-stair climb (4SC) completion time, 0.36 stairs/second for 4SC velocity and 36.3 meters for the 6-minute walk distance (6MWD). MDC estimates were similar across clinical trial and real-world data sources, and tended to be slightly larger than MCIDs for these measures. The identified thresholds can be used to inform endpoint definitions, or as benchmarks for monitoring individual changes in motor function in ambulatory DMD., Competing Interests: We have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Francesco Muntoni is a member of the Rare Disease Scientific Advisory Group for Pfizer and of Dyne Therapeutics SAB, and has participated to SAB meetings for PTC, Sarepta, Santhera, Wave Therapeutics. UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital are recipient of grants from Pfizer, Italfarmaco, Wave, Santhera, Sarepta regarding clinical trials. James Signorovitch co-founded the collaborative Trajectory Analysis Project (cTAP) and is an employee of Analysis Group, Inc., a consulting firm that received funding from the membership of cTAP to conduct this study. Gautam Sajeev, Nicolae Done, and Henry Lane are employees of Analysis Group, Inc., a consulting firm that received funding from the membership of cTAP to conduct this study. Ibrahima Dieye and Zhiwen Yao were employees of Analysis Group, Inc. at the time this study was conducted. Nathalie Goemans has served on clinical steering committees and/or as a consultant and received compensation from Eli Lilly, Italfarmaco, PTC Therapeutics, and BioMarin Pharmaceutical; has served as site investigator for GlaxoSmithKline, Prosensa, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Italfarmaco, Roche, and Eli Lilly. Craig McDonald has served as a consultant for PTC Therapeutics, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Sarepta Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, Pfizer Inc, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, Cardero Therapeutics, Inc, Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Capricor Therapeutics, Astellas Pharma (Mitobridge), and FibroGen, Inc; serves on external advisory boards related to DMD for PTC Therapeutics, Sarepta Therapeutics, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, and Capricor Therapeutics; and reports grants from US Department of Education/National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, US NIH/National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, NIH/National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, US Department of Defense, and Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy US. Eugenio Mercuri has served on clinical steering committees and/or as a consultant for Eli Lilly, Italfarmaco, PTC Therapeutics, Sarepta, Santhera, and Pfizer; has served as PI for GlaxoSmithKline, Prosensa, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Italfarmaco, Roche, PTC, Pfizer, Sarepta, Santhera, Wave, NS and Eli Lilly. EM reports personal fees as consultant, PI or member on advisory board form BIOGEN S.R.L. outside the submitted work; EM reports personal fees consultant, PI or member on advisory board from ROCHE; EM reports personal fees consultant, PI or member on advisory board form AVEXIS outside the submitted work; EM reports personal fees consultant, PI or member on advisory board from SCHOLAR ROCK outside the submitted work; EM is part of an institution that receives funding from Biogen for a SMA disease registry (ISMAR). Erik H. Niks is a member of the European Reference Network for Rare Neuromuscular Diseases (ERN EURO‐NMD). EN report grants from Duchenne Parent Project, ZonMW and AFM, consultancies for BioMarin and Summit, and worked as local investigator of clinical trials of BioMarin, GSK, Lilly, Santhera, Givinostat, and Roche outside the submitted work. E.H.N. reports ad hoc consultancies for WAVE, Santhera, Regenxbio, and PTC, and he worked as investigator of clinical trials of Italfarmaco, NS Pharma, Reveragen, Roche, WAVE, and Sarepta outside the submitted work. Brenda Wong has participated in advisory committee meetings for Prosensa and Biomarin and has received compensation for consultancy services for Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, GSK, RegenXBio, and PepGen. Krista Vandenborne has received grants from NIH National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases/National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. She has also received funding from ltalfarmaco SpA, Sarepta Therapeutics, Summit Therapeutics plc, Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Inc, ldera Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Eli Lilly through grant awards to the University of Florida. Volker Straub has participated in advisory boards for Audentes Therapeutics, Biogen, Exonics Therapeutics, Italfarmaco S.p.A., Roche, Sanofi Genzyme, Sarepta Therapeutics, Summit Therapeutics, UCB, and Wave Therapeutics. He has research collaborations with Ultragenyx and Sanofi Genzyme. Imelda JM de Groot has no disclosures. Cuixia Tian has participated as the site principal investigator for trials sponsored by PTC Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, GSK, Prosensa/Biomarin, Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche, Pfizer. Santhera, Sarepta, Fibrogen, Capricor, Pfizer, Avexis, and Catabasis. Adnan Manzur has no disclosures. Susan J. Ward co-founded and manages the collaborative Trajectory Analysis Project and has received funding from the membership of cTAP to facilitate this study. Laurent Servais is member of the SAB or has performed consultancy for Sarepta, Dynacure, Santhera, Avexis, Biogen, Cytokinetics and Roche, Audentes Therapeutics and Affinia Therapeutics; LS has given lectures and has served as a consultant for Roche, Biogen, Avexis, and Cytokinetics. LS is the project leader of the newborn screening in Southern Belgium funded by Avexis, Roche, and Biogen.]. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials., (Copyright: © 2024 Muntoni et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Body weight unloaded treadmill training has shown limited efficacy in further improving functional capacity after subacute rehabilitation of ischemic stroke patients. Dynamic robot assisted bodyweight unloading is a novel technology that may provide superior training stimuli and continued functional improvements in individuals with residual impairments in the chronic phase after the ischemic insult. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of dynamic robot-assisted versus standard training, initiated 6 months post-stroke, on motor function, physical function, fatigue, and quality of life in stroke-affected individuals still suffering from moderate-to-severe disabilities after subacute rehabilitation., Methods: Stroke-affected individuals with moderate to severe disabilities will be recruited into a prospective cohort with measurements at 3-, 6-, 12- and 18-months post-stroke. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) will be nested in the prospective cohort with measurements pre-intervention (Pre), post-intervention (Post) and at follow-up 6 months following post-intervention testing. The present RCT will be conducted as a multicentre parallel-group superiority of intervention study with assessor-blinding and a stratified block randomisation design. Following pre-intervention testing, participants in the RCT study will be randomised into robot-assisted training (intervention) or standard training (active control). Participants in both groups will train 1:1 with a physiotherapist two times a week for 6 months (groups are matched for time allocated to training). The primary outcome is the between-group difference in change score of Fugl-Meyer Lower Extremity Assessment from pre-post intervention on the intention-to-treat population. A per-protocol analysis will be conducted analysing the differences in change scores of the participants demonstrating acceptable adherence. A priori sample size calculation allowing the detection of the minimally clinically important between-group difference of 6 points in the primary outcome (standard deviation 6 point, α = 5% and β = 80%) resulted in 34 study participants. Allowing for dropout the study will include 40 participants in total., Discussion: For stroke-affected individuals still suffering from moderate to severe disabilities following subacute standard rehabilitation, training interventions based on dynamic robot-assisted body weight unloading may facilitate an appropriate intensity, volume and task-specificity in training leading to superior functional recovery compared to training without the use of body weight unloading., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT06273475., Trial Status: Recruiting. Trial identifier: NCT06273475. Registry name: ClinicalTrials.gov. Date of registration on ClinicalTrials.gov: 22/02/2024., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe condition with an extremely high disability rate. It is mainly manifested as the loss of motor, sensory and autonomic nerve functions below the injury site. High-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation, a recently developed neuromodulation method, can increase motor function in mice with spinal cord injury. This study aimed to explore the possible mechanism by which transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) restores motor function after SCI. A complete T8 transection model of the spinal cord was established in mice, and the mice were treated daily with 15 Hz high-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation. The BMS was used to evaluate the motor function of the mice after SCI. Western blotting and immunofluorescence were used to detect the expression of Connexin43 (CX43) and autophagy-related proteins in vivo and in vitro, and correlation analysis was performed to study the relationships among autophagy, CX43 and motor function recovery after SCI in mice. Western blotting was used to observe the effect of magnetic stimulation on the expression of mTOR pathway members. In the control group, the expression of CX43 was significantly decreased, and the expression of microtubule-associated protein 1 A/1b light chain 3 (LC3II) and P62 was significantly increased after 4 weeks of spinal cord transection. After high-frequency magnetic stimulation, the level of CX43 decreased, and the levels of LC3II and P62 increased in primary astrocytes. The BMS of the magnetic stimulation group was greater than that of the control group. High-frequency magnetic stimulation can inhibit the expression of CX43, which negatively regulates autophagic flux. HF-rTMS increased the expression levels of mTOR, p-mTOR and p-S6. Our experiments showed that rTMS can restore hindlimb motor function in mice after spinal cord injury via regulation of the Cx43-autophagy loop and activation of the mTOR signalling pathway., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Vision and proprioception have fundamental sensory mismatches in delivering locational information, and such mismatches are critical factors limiting the efficacy of motor learning. However, it is still not clear how and to what extent this mismatch limits motor learning outcomes. To further the understanding of the effect of sensory mismatch on motor learning outcomes, a reinforcement learning algorithm and the simplified biomechanical elbow joint model were employed to mimic the motor learning process in a computational environment. By applying a reinforcement learning algorithm to the motor learning of elbow joint flexion task, simulation results successfully explained how visual-proprioceptive mismatch limits motor learning outcomes in terms of motor control accuracy and task completion speed. The larger the perceived angular offset between the two sensory modalities, the lower the motor control accuracy. Also, the more similar the peak reward amplitude of the two sensory modalities, the lower the motor control accuracy. In addition, simulation results suggest that insufficient exploration rate limits task completion speed, and excessive exploration rate limits motor control accuracy. Such a speed-accuracy trade-off shows that a moderate exploration rate could serve as another important factor in motor learning.

Background: High-frequency repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) stimulating the primary motor cortex (M1) is an alternative, adjunctive therapy for improving the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, whether the high frequency of rTMS positively correlates to the improvement of motor symptoms of PD is still undecided. By controlling for other parameters, a disease animal model may be useful to compare the neuroprotective effects of different high frequencies of rTMS., Objective: The current exploratory study was designed to compare the protective effects of four common high frequencies of rTMS (5, 10, 15, and 20 Hz) and iTBS (a special form of high-frequency rTMS) and explore the optimal high-frequency rTMS on an animal PD model., Methods: Following high frequencies of rTMS application (twice a week for 5 weeks) in a MPTP/probenecid-induced chronic PD model, the effects of the five protocols on motor behavior as well as dopaminergic neuron degeneration levels were identified. The underlying molecular mechanisms were further explored., Results: We found that all the high frequencies of rTMS had protective effects on the motor functions of PD models to varying degrees. Among them, the 10, 15, and 20 Hz rTMS interventions induced comparable preservation of motor function through the protection of nigrostriatal dopamine neurons. The enhancement of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), dopamine transporter (DAT), and vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT-2) and the suppression of TNF-α and IL-1β in the nigrostriatum were involved in the process. The efficacy of iTBS was inferior to that of the above three protocols. The effect of 5 Hz rTMS protocol was weakest., Conclusions: Combined with the results of the present study and the possible side effects induced by rTMS, we concluded that 10 Hz might be the optimal stimulation frequency for preserving the motor functions of PD models using rTMS treatment., (© 2024 The Author(s). Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Adaptive motor behavior depends on the coordinated activity of multiple neural systems distributed across the brain. While the role of sensorimotor cortex in motor learning has been well established, how higher-order brain systems interact with sensorimotor cortex to guide learning is less well understood. Using functional MRI, we examined human brain activity during a reward-based motor task where subjects learned to shape their hand trajectories through reinforcement feedback. We projected patterns of cortical and striatal functional connectivity onto a low-dimensional manifold space and examined how regions expanded and contracted along the manifold during learning. During early learning, we found that several sensorimotor areas in the dorsal attention network exhibited increased covariance with areas of the salience/ventral attention network and reduced covariance with areas of the default mode network (DMN). During late learning, these effects reversed, with sensorimotor areas now exhibiting increased covariance with DMN areas. However, areas in posteromedial cortex showed the opposite pattern across learning phases, with its connectivity suggesting a role in coordinating activity across different networks over time. Our results establish the neural changes that support reward-based motor learning and identify distinct transitions in the functional coupling of sensorimotor to transmodal cortex when adapting behavior., Competing Interests: QN, CA, AD, JN, JW, TZ, RF, JS No competing interests declared, DG, JG is an employee of Voxel AI Inc. This funding source had no role in the design, management, data analysis, presentation, or interpretation and write-up of the data, (© 2023, Nick et al.)

We used a step-wheel system to examine the activity of striatal projection neurons as mice practiced stepping on complexly arranged foothold pegs in this Ferris-wheel-like device to receive reward. Sets of dorsolateral striatal projection neurons were sensitive to specific parameters of repetitive motor coordination during the runs. They responded to combinations of the parameters of continuous movements (interval, phase, and repetition), forming "chunking responses"-some for combinations of these parameters across multiple body parts. Recordings in sensorimotor cortical areas exhibited notably fewer such responses but were documented for smaller neuron sets whose heterogeneity was significant. Striatal movement encoding via chunking responsivity could provide insight into neural strategies governing effective motor control by the striatum. It is possible that the striking need for external rhythmic cuing to allow movement sequences by Parkinson's patients could, at least in part, reflect dysfunction in such striatal coding., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To examine the association between physical activity, neck circumference, and cardiovascular disease risk in older wheelchair users., Design: A cross-sectional study., Subjects/patients: Sixty-one Korean wheelchair users aged 50 years and older., Methods: Physical activity was assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Neck circumference was measured with a tape ruler. Cardiovascular disease risk was evaluated by calculating the Framingham risk score (FRS) for estimating 10-year cardiovascular disease risk, which was classified as low-moderate (19% or less) or high risk (20% or more)., Results: The FRS for 10-year cardiovascular disease risk was inversely related to physical activity (beta [SE] = -0.213 (0.103), p = 0.043) and positively related to neck circumference (beta [SE] = 1.331 ± 0.419, p = 0.003). Binary logistic regression showed that those with low physical activity (odds ratio [95% confidence interval] = 4.256 (1.188~15.243), p = 0.026) or a large neck circumference (odds ratio [95% confidence interval] = 3.645 (1.172~11.338), p = 0.025) had a higher risk for high cardiovascular disease risk compared with those with high physical activity or normal neck circumference., Conclusion: The current study findings suggest that an intervention targeting physical inactivity and upper-body obesity should be implemented to reduce cardiovascular disease risk in older wheelchair users.

Accelerometers, devices that measure body movements, have become valuable tools for studying the fragmentation of rest-activity patterns, a core circadian rhythm dimension, using metrics such as inter-daily stability (IS), intradaily variability (IV), transition probability (TP), and self-similarity parameter (named α ). However, their use remains mainly empirical. Therefore, we investigated the mathematical properties and interpretability of rest-activity fragmentation metrics by providing mathematical proofs for the ranges of IS and IV, proposing maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimators for TP, introducing the activity balance index (ABI) metric, a transformation of α , and describing distributions of these metrics in real-life setting. Analysis of accelerometer data from 2,859 individuals (age=60-83 years, 21.1% women) from the Whitehall II cohort (UK) shows modest correlations between the metrics, except for ABI and α . Sociodemographic (age, sex, education, employment status) and clinical (body mass index (BMI), and number of morbidities) factors were associated with these metrics, with differences observed according to metrics. For example, a difference of 5 units in BMI was associated with all metrics (differences ranging between -0.261 (95% CI -0.302, -0.220) to 0.228 (0.18, 0.268) for standardised TP rest to activity during the awake period and TP activity to rest during the awake period, respectively). These results reinforce the value of these rest-activity fragmentation metrics in epidemiological and clinical studies to examine their role for health. This paper expands on a set of methods that have previously demonstrated empirical value, improves the theoretical foundation for these methods, and evaluates their empirical use in a large dataset., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: Pathological, age-related loss of muscle function, commonly referred to as sarcopenia, contributes to loss of mobility, impaired independence, as well as increased risk of adverse health events. Sarcopenia has been attributed to changes in both neural and muscular integrity during aging. Current treatment options are primarily limited to exercise and dietary protein fortification, but the therapeutic impact of these approaches are often inadequate. Prior work has suggested that a ketogenic diet (KD) might improve healthspan and lifespan in aging mice. Thus, we sought to investigate the effects of a KD on neuromuscular indices of sarcopenia in aged C57BL/6 mice., Design: A randomized, controlled pre-clinical experiment consisting of longitudinal assessments performed starting at 22-months of age (baseline) as well as 2, 6 and 10 weeks after the start of a KD vs. regular chow intervention., Setting: Preclinical laboratory study., Sample Size: Thirty-six 22-month-old mice were randomized into 2 dietary groups: KD [n = 22 (13 female and 9 male)], and regular chow [n = 15 (7 female and 8 male)]., Measurements: Measures included body mass, hindlimb and all limb grip strength, rotarod for motor performance, plantarflexion muscle contractility, motor unit number estimations (MUNE), and repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS) as an index of neuromuscular junction transmission efficacy recorded from the gastrocnemius muscle. At end point, muscle wet weight and blood samples were collected to assess blood beta-hydroxybutyrate levels., Statistical Analysis: Primary analyses were two-way mixed effects ANOVA (diet and time × diet) to determine the effect of a KD on indices of motor function (grip, rotarod) and indices of motor unit (MUNE) and muscle (contractility) function., Results: Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) was significantly higher at 10 weeks in mice on a KD vs control group (0.83 ± 0.44 mmol/l versus 0.42 ± 0.21 mmol/l, η 2 = 0.265, unpaired t-test, p = 0.0060). Mice on the KD intervention demonstrated significantly increased hindlimb grip strength (diet, p = 0.0001; time × diet, p = 0.0030), all limb grip strength (diet, p = 0.0005; time × diet, p = 0.0523), and rotarod latency to fall (diet, p = 0.0126; time × diet, p = 0.0021). Mice treated with the KD intervention also demonstrated increased MUNE (diet, p = 0.0465; time × diet, p = 0.0064), but no difference in muscle contractility (diet, p = 0.5248; time × diet, p = 0.5836) or RNS (diet, p = 0.3562; time × diet, p = 0.9871)., Conclusion: KD intervention improved neuromuscular and motor function in aged mice. This pre-clinical work suggests that further research is needed to assess the efficacy and physiological effects of a KD on indices of sarcopenia., (Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)

The nutrient artery provides ~50%-70% of the total blood volume to long bones in mammals. Studying the functional characteristics of this artery in vivo can be difficult and expensive, so most researchers have measured the nutrient foramen, an opening on the outer surface of the bone that served as the entry point for the nutrient artery during development and bone ossification. Others have measured the nutrient canal (i.e., the passage which the nutrient artery once occupied), given that the external dimensions of the foramen do not necessarily remain uniform from the periosteal surface to the medullary cavity. The nutrient canal, as an indicator of blood flow to long bones, has been proposed to provide a link to studying organismal activity (e.g., locomotor behavior) from skeletal morphology. However, although external loading from movement and activity causes skeletal remodeling, it is unclear whether it affects the size or configuration of nutrient canals. To investigate whether nutrient canals can exhibit phenotypic plasticity in response to physical activity, we studied a mouse model in which four replicate high runner (HR) lines have been selectively bred for high voluntary wheel-running behavior. The selection criterion is the average number of wheel revolutions on days 5 and 6 of a 6-day period of wheel access as young adults (~6-8 weeks old). An additional four lines are bred without selection to serve as controls (C). For this study, 100 female mice (half HR, half C) from generation 57 were split into an active group housed with wheels and a sedentary group housed without wheels for 12 weeks starting at ~24 days of age. Femurs were collected, soft tissues were removed, and femora were micro-computed tomography scanned at a resolution of 12 μm. We then imported these scans into AMIRA and created 3D models of femoral nutrient canals. We tested for evolved differences in various nutrient canal traits between HR and C mice, plastic changes resulting from chronic exercise, and the selection history-by-exercise interaction. We found few differences between the nutrient canals of HR versus C mice, or between the active and sedentary groups. We did find an interaction between selection history and voluntary exercise for the total number of nutrient canals per femur, in which wheel access increased the number of canals in C mice but decreased it in HR mice. Our results do not match those from an earlier study, conducted at generation 11, which was prior to the HR lines reaching selection limits for wheel running. The previous study found that mice from the HR lines had significantly larger total canal cross-sectional areas compared to those from C lines. However, this discrepancy is consistent with studies of other skeletal traits, which have found differences between HR and C mice to be somewhat inconsistent across generations, including the loss of some apparent adaptations with continued selective breeding after reaching a selection limit for wheel-running behavior., (© 2024 Anatomical Society.)

Background and Objectives: Maternal hypoxia disrupts neural development and subsequently leads to cerebral palsy and epilepsy in newborns. Hypoxia plays a role in neurodegeneration by increasing oxidative stress. Pistacia atlantica is known as an important antioxidant, and its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects have been shown in various studies. This study aims to investigate the effects of methanolic extract of P. atlantica leaves (MEPaLs) on the oxidative parameters in the serum of rats affected by maternal hypoxia., Material and Methods: In this study, eight pregnant rats were used. The newborns were divided into four groups, including the control and the hypoxia groups, which are affected by maternal hypoxia, hypoxia + MEPaL 100 mg/kg, and hypoxia + MEPaL 150 mg/kg. MEPaL was injected (i.p) for 21 days into the neonatal rats after the lactation period. Hypoxia was induced by keeping pregnant rats in a hypoxic chamber with 7% oxygen and 93% nitrogen intensity for 3 h on the 20th day of pregnancy. Behavioral changes were measured using open-field and rotarod tests. Finally, biomarkers of oxidative stress, nitric oxide (NO), glutathione (GSH), GSSG, TAS, TOS, and oxidative stress index (OSI) were measured in the experimental groups., Results: Behavioral results showed that the anxiety behavior in the hypoxia group increased, but the motor activity (moved distance and movement speed) decreased. Moreover, the amount of time spent maintaining balance on the rotarod rod was significantly decreased in the hypoxia group. The concentration of NO in the group of hypoxia + MEPaL 100 mg/kg showed a significant decrease, and MEPaL 100, and 150 mg/kg + hypoxia also increased the concentration of GSH and decreased GSSG. In addition, MEPaL100 and 150 mg/kg caused a significant increase in the ratio of GSH to GSSG and decreased OSI and total oxidant capacity., Conclusions: Oxidative stress increased in the rats affected by maternal hypoxia and may be the main mechanism for motor activity impairment and balance disturbance, whereas MELaL improved motor performance by decreasing oxidative stress., (© 2024 The Author(s). Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The sleep-wake cycle represents a crucial physiological process essential for maintaining homeostasis and promoting individual growth. In dogs, alterations in sleep patterns associated with age and dog's correlation with temperament factors, such as nervousness, have been reported, and there is an increasing demand for precise monitoring of sleep and physical activity in dogs. The present study aims to develop an analysis method for measuring sleep-wake patterns and physical activity in dogs by utilizing an accelerometer and a smartphone. By analyzing time series data collected from the accelerometer attached to the dog's collar, a comprehensive sleep and activity analysis model was constructed. This model classified the activity level into seven classes and effectively highlighted the variations in sleep-activity patterns. Two classes with lower activity levels were considered as sleep, while other five levels were regarded as wake based on the rate of occurrence. This protocol of data acquisition and analysis provides a methodology that enables accurate and extended evaluation of both sleep and physical activity in dogs.

Implantable electrode arrays are powerful tools for directly interrogating neural circuitry in the brain, but implementing this technology in the spinal cord in behaving animals has been challenging due to the spinal cord's significant motion with respect to the vertebral column during behavior. Consequently, the individual and ensemble activity of spinal neurons processing motor commands remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that custom ultraflexible 1-μm-thick polyimide nanoelectronic threads can conduct laminar recordings of many neuronal units within the lumbar spinal cord of unrestrained, freely moving mice. The extracellular action potentials have high signal-to-noise ratio, exhibit well-isolated feature clusters, and reveal diverse patterns of activity during locomotion. Furthermore, chronic recordings demonstrate the stable tracking of single units and their functional tuning over multiple days. This technology provides a path for elucidating how spinal circuits compute motor actions., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The striatum plays a crucial role in providing input to the basal ganglia circuit and is implicated in the pathological process of Parkinson's disease (PD). Disruption of the dynamic equilibrium in the basal ganglia loop can be attributed to the abnormal functioning of the medium spiny neurons (MSNs) within the striatum, potentially acting as a trigger for PD. Exercise has been shown to mitigate striatal neuronal dysfunction through neuroprotective and neurorestorative effects and to improve behavioral deficits in PD model mice. In addition, this effect is offset by the activation of MSNs expressing dopamine D2 receptors (D2-MSNs). In the current study, we investigated the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this effect. Our findings indicated that exercise reduces the power spectral density of the beta-band in the striatum and decreases the overall firing frequency of MSNs, particularly in the case of striatal D2-MSNs. These observations were consistent with the results of molecular biology experiments, which revealed that aerobic training specifically enhanced the expression of striatal dopamine D2 receptors (D 2 R). Taken together, our results suggest that aerobic training aimed at upregulating striatal D 2 R expression to inhibit the functional activity of D2-MSNs represents a potential therapeutic strategy for the amelioration of motor dysfunction in PD., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The accuracy of decoding fine motor imagery (MI) tasks remains relatively low due to the dense distribution of active areas in the cerebral cortex., Methods: To enhance the decoding of unilateral fine MI activity in the brain, a weight-optimized EEGNet model is introduced that recognizes six types of MI for the right upper limb, namely elbow flexion/extension, wrist pronation/supination and hand opening/grasping. The model is trained with augmented electroencephalography (EEG) data to learn deep features for MI classification. To address the sensitivity issue of the initial model weights to classification performance, a genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to determine the convolution kernel parameters for each layer of the EEGNet network, followed by optimization of the network weights through backpropagation., Results: The algorithm's performance on the three joint classification is validated through experiment, achieving an average accuracy of 87.97%. The binary classification recognition rates for elbow joint, wrist joint, and hand joint are respectively 93.92%, 90.2%, and 94.64%. Thus, the product of the two-step accuracy value is obtained as the overall capability to distinguish the six types of MI, reaching an average accuracy of 81.74%. Compared to commonly used neural networks and traditional algorithms, the proposed method outperforms and significantly reduces the average error of different subjects., Conclusions: Overall, this algorithm effectively addresses the sensitivity of network parameters to initial weights, enhances algorithm robustness and improves the overall performance of MI task classification. Moreover, the method is applicable to other EEG classification tasks; for example, emotion and object recognition., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. QC, CL are with the Yunnan Zhongheng Construction Co., ltd., which declare the academic paper has no conflict with the commercial company. This company is in the information technology device and service area., (© 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)