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    Item type:Publication,
    Structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia in adverse environments: examining the effect of poverty and violence in six Latin American cities
    (2020)
    Nicolas A. Crossley
    ;
    Andre Zugman
    ;
    Francisco Reyes-Madrigal
    ;
    Leticia S. Czepielewski
    ;
    Mariana N. Castro
    <jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a1"><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Social and environmental factors such as poverty or violence modulate the risk and course of schizophrenia. However, how they affect the brain in patients with psychosis remains unclear.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a2"><jats:title>Aims</jats:title><jats:p>We studied how environmental factors are related to brain structure in patients with schizophrenia and controls in Latin America, where these factors are large and unequally distributed.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a3" sec-type="methods"><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>This is a multicentre study of magnetic resonance imaging in patients with schizophrenia and controls from six Latin American cities. Total and voxel-level grey matter volumes, and their relationship with neighbourhood characteristics such as average income and homicide rates, were analysed with a general linear model.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a4" sec-type="results"><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>A total of 334 patients with schizophrenia and 262 controls were included. Income was differentially related to total grey matter volume in both groups (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.006). Controls showed a positive correlation between total grey matter volume and income (<jats:italic>R</jats:italic> = 0.14, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.02). Surprisingly, this relationship was not present in patients with schizophrenia (<jats:italic>R</jats:italic> = −0.076, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.17). Voxel-level analysis confirmed that this interaction was widespread across the cortex. After adjusting for global brain changes, income was positively related to prefrontal cortex volumes only in controls. Conversely, the hippocampus in patients with schizophrenia, but not in controls, was relatively larger in affluent environments. There was no significant correlation between environmental violence and brain structure.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a5" sec-type="conclusions"><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Our results highlight the interplay between environment, particularly poverty, and individual characteristics in psychosis. This is particularly important for harsh environments such as low- and middle-income countries, where potentially less brain vulnerability (less grey matter loss) is sufficient to become unwell in adverse (poor) environments.</jats:p></jats:sec>
    Scopus© Citations 10  1
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    Neonatal Mesenchymal Stem Cell Treatment Improves Myelination Impaired by Global Perinatal Asphyxia in Rats
    (2021)
    Andrea Tapia-Bustos
    ;
    Carolyne Lespay-Rebolledo
    ;
    Valentina Vío
    ;
    Ronald Pérez-Lobos
    ;
    Emmanuel Casanova-Ortiz
    <jats:p>The effect of perinatal asphyxia (PA) on oligodendrocyte (OL), neuroinflammation, and cell viability was evaluated in telencephalon of rats at postnatal day (P)1, 7, and 14, a period characterized by a spur of neuronal networking, evaluating the effect of mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs)-treatment. The issue was investigated with a rat model of global PA, mimicking a clinical risk occurring under labor. PA was induced by immersing fetus-containing uterine horns into a water bath for 21 min (AS), using sibling-caesarean-delivered fetuses (CS) as controls. Two hours after delivery, AS and CS neonates were injected with either 5 μL of vehicle (10% plasma) or 5 × 104 MSCs into the lateral ventricle. Samples were assayed for myelin-basic protein (MBP) levels; Olig-1/Olig-2 transcriptional factors; Gglial phenotype; neuroinflammation, and delayed cell death. The main effects were observed at P7, including: (i) A decrease of MBP-immunoreactivity in external capsule, corpus callosum, cingulum, but not in fimbriae of hippocampus; (ii) an increase of Olig-1-mRNA levels; (iii) an increase of IL-6-mRNA, but not in protein levels; (iv) an increase in cell death, including OLs; and (v) MSCs treatment prevented the effect of PA on myelination, OLs number, and cell death. The present findings show that PA induces regional- and developmental-dependent changes on myelination and OLs maturation. Neonatal MSCs treatment improves survival of mature OLs and myelination in telencephalic white matter.</jats:p>
    Scopus© Citations 7  2
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    Moral Emotions and Their Brain Structural Correlates Across Neurodegenerative Disorders
    (2023)
    Sandra Baez
    ;
    Catalina Trujillo-Llano
    ;
    Leonardo Cruz de Souza
    ;
    Patricia Lillo
    ;
    Gonzalo Forno
    <jats:p>Background: Although social cognition is compromised in patients with neurodegenerative disorders such as behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), research on moral emotions and their neural correlates in these populations is scarce. No previous study has explored the utility of moral emotions, compared to and in combination with classical general cognitive state tools, to discriminate bvFTD from AD patients. Objective: To examine self-conscious (guilt and embarrassment) and other-oriented (pity and indignation) moral emotions, their subjective experience, and their structural brain underpinnings in bvFTD (n = 31) and AD (n = 30) patients, compared to healthy controls (n = 37). We also explored the potential utility of moral emotions measures to discriminate bvFTD from AD. Methods: We used a modified version of the Moral Sentiment Task measuring the participants’ accuracy scores and their emotional subjective experiences. Results: bvFTD patients exhibited greater impairments in self-conscious and other-oriented moral emotions as compared with AD patients and healthy controls. Moral emotions combined with general cognitive state tools emerged as useful measures to discriminate bvFTD from AD patients. In bvFTD patients, lower moral emotions scores were associated with lower gray matter volumes in caudate nucleus and inferior and middle temporal gyri. In AD, these scores were associated with lower gray matter volumes in superior and middle frontal gyri, middle temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule and supramarginal gyrus. Conclusion: These findings contribute to a better understanding of moral emotion deficits across neurodegenerative disorders, highlighting the potential benefits of integrating this domain into the clinical assessment.</jats:p>
      24Scopus© Citations 3
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    Item type:Publication,
    Multidimensional inhibitory signatures of sentential negation in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia
    (2022)
    Mariano N Díaz-Rivera
    ;
    Agustina Birba
    ;
    Sol Fittipaldi
    ;
    Débora Mola
    ;
    Yurena Morera
    <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>Processing of linguistic negation has been associated to inhibitory brain mechanisms. However, no study has tapped this link via multimodal measures in patients with core inhibitory alterations, a critical approach to reveal direct neural correlates and potential disease markers.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>Here we examined oscillatory, neuroanatomical, and functional connectivity signatures of a recently reported Go/No-go negation task in healthy controls and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients, typified by primary and generalized inhibitory disruptions. To test for specificity, we also recruited persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD), a disease involving frequent but nonprimary inhibitory deficits.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>In controls, negative sentences in the No-go condition distinctly involved frontocentral delta (2–3 Hz) suppression, a canonical inhibitory marker. In bvFTD patients, this modulation was selectively abolished and significantly correlated with the volume and functional connectivity of regions supporting inhibition (e.g. precentral gyrus, caudate nucleus, and cerebellum). Such canonical delta suppression was preserved in the AD group and associated with widespread anatomo-functional patterns across non-inhibitory regions.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Discussion</jats:title> <jats:p>These findings suggest that negation hinges on the integrity and interaction of spatiotemporal inhibitory mechanisms. Moreover, our results reveal potential neurocognitive markers of bvFTD, opening a new agenda at the crossing of cognitive neuroscience and behavioral neurology.</jats:p> </jats:sec>
    Scopus© Citations 18  4
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    Item type:Publication,
    Dysconnectivity in Schizophrenia Revisited: Abnormal Temporal Organization of Dynamic Functional Connectivity in Patients With a First Episode of Psychosis
    (2022)
    Juan P Ramirez-Mahaluf
    ;
    Ángeles Tepper
    ;
    Luz Maria Alliende
    ;
    Carlos Mena
    ;
    Carmen Paz Castañeda
    <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Background and Hypothesis</jats:title> <jats:p>Abnormal functional connectivity between brain regions is a consistent finding in schizophrenia, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. Recent studies have highlighted that connectivity changes in time in healthy subjects. We here examined the temporal changes in functional connectivity in patients with a first episode of psychosis (FEP). Specifically, we analyzed the temporal order in which whole-brain organization states were visited.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Study Design</jats:title> <jats:p>Two case-control studies, including in each sample a subgroup scanned a second time after treatment. Chilean sample included 79 patients with a FEP and 83 healthy controls. Mexican sample included 21 antipsychotic-naïve FEP patients and 15 healthy controls. Characteristics of the temporal trajectories between whole-brain functional connectivity meta-states were examined via resting-state functional MRI using elements of network science. We compared the cohorts of cases and controls and explored their differences as well as potential associations with symptoms, cognition, and antipsychotic medication doses.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Study Results</jats:title> <jats:p>We found that the temporal sequence in which patients’ brain dynamics visited the different states was more redundant and segregated. Patients were less flexible than controls in changing their network in time from different configurations, and explored the whole landscape of possible states in a less efficient way. These changes were related to the dose of antipsychotics the patients were receiving. We replicated the relationship with antipsychotic medication in the antipsychotic-naïve FEP sample scanned before and after treatment.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>We conclude that psychosis is related to a temporal disorganization of the brain’s dynamic functional connectivity, and this is associated with antipsychotic medication use.</jats:p> </jats:sec>
    Scopus© Citations 17  1