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Brain Sciences, Volume 8, Issue 12

2018 December - 26 articles

Cover Story: Targeted treatment development in fragile X syndrome (FXS) has experienced significant interest and associated resources allocation in the last decade. Despite this, no treatments are yet approved for FXS. This issue addresses many lessons learned from past efforts with an eye towards future approaches that will de-risk the FXS translational medicine pipeline. Such efforts will likely span new target identification, improved synchrony of preclinical to clinical evaluation of target engagement, improved treatment effect detection, and overall enhanced broad stakeholder input in the conduct of in particular large-scale trial efforts. The field remains hopeful that meaningful and significant treatment development opportunities remain and with improved development approaches overall success will be enhanced. View Paper here.
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Articles (26)

  • Review
  • Open Access
23 Citations
7,222 Views
12 Pages

19 December 2018

The Neuron Restrictive Silencer Factor (NRSF) is the well-known master transcriptional repressor of the neuronal phenotype. Research to date has shown that it is an important player in the growth and development of the nervous system. Its role in the...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Mechanisms and Strategies for Neural Repair)
  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
6,584 Views
20 Pages

19 December 2018

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is one of the brain regions with more prominent changes in human aging. The molecular processes related to the cognitive decline and mood changes during aging are not completely understood. To improve our knowledge, we int...

(This article belongs to the Section Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience)
  • Review
  • Open Access
13 Citations
5,348 Views
11 Pages

A Homeostatic Model of Subjective Cognitive Decline

  • Akiko Mizuno,
  • Maria Ly and
  • Howard J. Aizenstein

19 December 2018

Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) is possibly one of the earliest detectable signs of dementia, but we do not know which mental processes lead to elevated concern. In this narrative review, we will summarize the previous literature on the biomarkers...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Aging)
  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
5,172 Views
12 Pages

Alterations in Motor Cortical Representation of Muscles Following Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury in Humans

  • Hunter J. Fassett,
  • Claudia V. Turco,
  • Jenin El-Sayes and
  • Aimee J. Nelson

16 December 2018

(1) Background: The primary motor cortex (M1) experiences reorganization following spinal cord injury (SCI). However, there is a paucity of research comparing bilateral M1 organization in SCI and questions remain to be answered. We explored the prese...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Collection on Clinical Neuroscience)
  • Commentary
  • Open Access
38 Citations
7,857 Views
9 Pages

Best Practices in Fragile X Syndrome Treatment Development

  • Craig A. Erickson,
  • Walter E. Kaufmann,
  • Dejan B. Budimirovic,
  • Ave Lachiewicz,
  • Barbara Haas-Givler,
  • Robert M. Miller,
  • Jayne Dixon Weber,
  • Leonard Abbeduto,
  • David Hessl and
  • Elizabeth Berry-Kravis
  • + 1 author

15 December 2018

Preclinical studies using animal models of fragile X syndrome have yielded several agents that rescue a wide variety of phenotypes. However, translation of these treatments to humans with the disorder has not yet been successful, shedding light on a...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Mechanism-based Treatments for Fragile X Syndrome)
  • Editorial
  • Open Access
29 Citations
5,674 Views
3 Pages

13 December 2018

Over the last decade, the emergence of a vast range of new/novel/emerging psychoactive substances (NPS) has progressively changed drug market scenarios, which have shifted from the ‘street’ to a ‘virtual’/online environment. [...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Changes in Drug Abuse Scenario: The Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) Phenomenon)
  • Review
  • Open Access
39 Citations
8,729 Views
18 Pages

13 December 2018

Genetics has led to a new focus regarding approaches to the most prevalent diseases today. Ascertaining the molecular secrets of neurodegenerative diseases will lead to developing drugs that will change natural history, thereby affecting the quality...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diagnosis of Neurogenetic Disorders: Contribution of Next Generation Sequencing and Deep Phenotyping)
  • Review
  • Open Access
32 Citations
8,469 Views
19 Pages

13 December 2018

Sleep disturbance after traumatic brain injury (TBI) has received growing interest in recent years, garnering many publications. Insomnia is highly prevalent within the mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) population and is a subtle, frequently persist...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Insomnia: Beyond Hyperarousal)
  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
5,643 Views
15 Pages

11 December 2018

The researcher employed personal belief system (PBS) theory as the theoretical foundation for this study because it holds that teachers’ PBSs may influence their teaching behaviours, teaching styles, and pedagogies in classroom practice due to...

  • Feature Paper
  • Review
  • Open Access
54 Citations
13,397 Views
12 Pages

Nutrition, Energy Expenditure, Dysphagia, and Self-Efficacy in Stroke Rehabilitation: A Review of the Literature

  • Adam C. Lieber,
  • Estee Hong,
  • David Putrino,
  • Dominic A. Nistal,
  • Jonathan S. Pan and
  • Christopher P. Kellner

7 December 2018

While significant research has been performed regarding the use of thrombolytic agents and thrombectomy in the setting of acute stroke, other factors, such as nutritional status of stroke patients, is a less explored topic. The topic of nutrition is...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Collection on Clinical Neuroscience)
  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
4,546 Views
19 Pages

Facial Sadness Recognition is Modulated by Estrogen Receptor Gene Polymorphisms in Healthy Females

  • Mayra Gutiérrez-Muñoz,
  • Martha E. Fajardo-Araujo,
  • Erika G. González-Pérez,
  • Victor E. Aguirre-Arzola and
  • Silvia Solís-Ortiz

7 December 2018

Polymorphisms of the estrogen receptor ESR1 and ESR2 genes have been linked with cognitive deficits and affective disorders. The effects of these genetic variants on emotional processing in females with low estrogen levels are not well known. The aim...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
6,967 Views
13 Pages

Peripheral Anti-Angiogenic Imbalance during Pregnancy Impairs Myogenic Tone and Increases Cerebral Edema in a Rodent Model of HELLP Syndrome

  • Cynthia Bean,
  • Shauna-Kay Spencer,
  • Mallikarjuna R. Pabbidi,
  • Jamie Szczepanski,
  • Sarah Araji,
  • Sellena Dixon and
  • Kedra Wallace

6 December 2018

Using an animal model of hemolysis elevated liver enzymes low platelets (HELLP) that has systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation we wanted to determine if blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability, cerebral edema, vascular tone, and occludin express...

(This article belongs to the Section Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience)
  • Article
  • Open Access
5,028 Views
15 Pages

Striatal Neurodegeneration that Mimics Huntington’s Disease Modifies GABA-induced Currents

  • Jorge Flores-Hernández,
  • Jeanette A. Garzón-Vázquez,
  • Gustavo Hernández-Carballo,
  • Elizabeth Nieto-Mendoza,
  • Evelyn A. Ruíz-Luna and
  • Elizabeth Hernández-Echeagaray

6 December 2018

Huntington’s Disease (HD) is a degenerative disease which produces cognitive and motor disturbances. Treatment with GABAergic agonists improves the behavior and activity of mitochondrial complexes in rodents treated with 3-nitropropionic acid t...

  • Review
  • Open Access
33 Citations
7,375 Views
15 Pages

Clinical Development of Targeted Fragile X Syndrome Treatments: An Industry Perspective

  • Anna W. Lee,
  • Pamela Ventola,
  • Dejan Budimirovic,
  • Elizabeth Berry-Kravis and
  • Jeannie Visootsak

5 December 2018

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the leading known cause of inherited intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder. It is caused by a mutation of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene, resulting in a deficit of fragile X mental retardatio...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Mechanism-based Treatments for Fragile X Syndrome)
  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
4,518 Views
12 Pages

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting in a Pentylenetetrazole-Induced Epilepsy Model in the Rat

  • Ahmad Almahozi,
  • Maan Alsaaid,
  • Saeed Bin Jabal and
  • Amer Kamal

5 December 2018

The selective retrieval of some information may lead to the forgetting of related, but non-retrieved information. This memory phenomenon is termed retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). Active inhibition is thought to function to resolve interference fr...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Collection on Cognitive Neuroscience)
  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
6,257 Views
22 Pages

Multi-Study Proteomic and Bioinformatic Identification of Molecular Overlap between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)

  • Darija Šoltić,
  • Melissa Bowerman,
  • Joanne Stock,
  • Hannah K. Shorrock,
  • Thomas H. Gillingwater and
  • Heidi R. Fuller

4 December 2018

Unravelling the complex molecular pathways responsible for motor neuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) remains a persistent challenge. Interest is growing in the potential molecular similarities...

(This article belongs to the Section Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience)
  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
4,819 Views
16 Pages

Design of Linear and Cyclic Mutant Analogues of Dirucotide Peptide (MBP82–98) against Multiple Sclerosis: Conformational and Binding Studies to MHC Class II

  • George Deraos,
  • Eftichia Kritsi,
  • Minos-Timotheos Matsoukas,
  • Konstantina Christopoulou,
  • Hubert Kalbacher,
  • Panagiotis Zoumpoulakis,
  • Vasso Apostolopoulos and
  • John Matsoukas

4 December 2018

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system. MS is a T cell-mediated disease characterized by the proliferation, infiltration, and attack of the myelin sheath by immune cells. Previous studies have show...

  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
6,813 Views
9 Pages

30 November 2018

Although ageing is known to affect memory, the precise nature of its effect on retrieval and encoding processes is not well understood. Here, we examine the effect of ageing on the free recall of word lists, in which the semantic structure of word se...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Aging)
  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
6,518 Views
13 Pages

Decreased Neuron Density and Increased Glia Density in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (Brodmann Area 25) in Williams Syndrome

  • Linnea Wilder,
  • Kari L. Hanson,
  • Caroline H. Lew,
  • Ursula Bellugi and
  • Katerina Semendeferi

29 November 2018

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a deletion of 25–28 genes on chromosome 7 and characterized by a specific behavioral phenotype, which includes hypersociability and anxiety. Here, we examined the density of neur...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Multi-Dimensional Contributions of Prefrontal Circuits to Emotion Regulation during Adulthood and Critical Stages of Development)
  • Communication
  • Open Access
13 Citations
6,959 Views
13 Pages

29 November 2018

Recent evidence suggests the existence of shared neural resources for rhythm processing in language and music. Such overlaps could be the basis of the facilitating effect of regular musical rhythm on spoken word processing previously reported for typ...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Neurocognition of Music and Language)
  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
4,222 Views
18 Pages

Audiovisual Lexical Retrieval Deficits Following Left Hemisphere Stroke

  • Brenda Hanna-Pladdy,
  • Hyun Choi,
  • Brian Herman and
  • Spenser Haffey

28 November 2018

Binding sensory features of multiple modalities of what we hear and see allows formation of a coherent percept to access semantics. Previous work on object naming has focused on visual confrontation naming with limited research in nonverbal auditory...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
7,355 Views
13 Pages

28 November 2018

Poor comparability of social groups is one of the major methodological problems that threatens the validity of health disparities (HD) research findings. We illustrate a methodological solution that can additionally unpack the mechanisms behind diffe...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
6,123 Views
21 Pages

Sex Differences in Context-Driven Reinstatement of Methamphetamine Seeking is Associated with Distinct Neuroadaptations in the Dentate Gyrus

  • Yoshio Takashima,
  • Joyee Tseng,
  • McKenzie J. Fannon,
  • Dvijen C. Purohit,
  • Leon W. Quach,
  • Michael J. Terranova,
  • Khush M. Kharidia,
  • Robert J. Oliver and
  • Chitra D. Mandyam

28 November 2018

The present study examined differences in operant responses in adult male and female rats during distinct phases of addiction. Males and females demonstrated escalation in methamphetamine (0.05 mg/kg, i.v.) intake with females showing enhanced latenc...

(This article belongs to the Section Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience)
  • Review
  • Open Access
22 Citations
5,929 Views
21 Pages

On the Design of Broad-Based Neuropsychological Test Batteries to Assess the Cognitive Abilities of Individuals with Down Syndrome in the Context of Clinical Trials

  • Ines A. Basten,
  • Richard Boada,
  • Hudson G. Taylor,
  • Katherine Koenig,
  • Veridiana L. Barrionuevo,
  • Ana C. Brandão and
  • Alberto C. S. Costa

26 November 2018

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetically-defined cause of intellectual disability. Neurodevelopmental deficits displayed by individuals with DS are generally global, however, disproportionate deficits in cognitive processes that depend heavi...

(This article belongs to the Section Developmental Neuroscience)
  • Concept Paper
  • Open Access
20 Citations
5,875 Views
11 Pages

Augmentation of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid Treatment of Glioblastoma by Adding Ciprofloxacin, Deferiprone, 5-Fluorouracil and Febuxostat: The CAALA Regimen

  • Richard E. Kast,
  • Nicolas Skuli,
  • Iacopo Sardi,
  • Felix Capanni,
  • Martin Hessling,
  • Guido Frosina,
  • Anton P. Kast,
  • Georg Karpel-Massler and
  • Marc-Eric Halatsch

22 November 2018

The CAALA (Complex Augmentation of ALA) regimen was developed with the goal of redressing some of the weaknesses of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) use in glioblastoma treatment as it now stands. 5-ALA is approved for use prior to glioblastoma surgery...

  • Article
  • Open Access
34 Citations
8,118 Views
12 Pages

The Benefits of Closed-Loop Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Subjective Sleep Quality

  • Charles S. H. Robinson,
  • Natalie B. Bryant,
  • Joshua W. Maxwell,
  • Aaron P. Jones,
  • Bradley Robert,
  • Melanie Lamphere,
  • Angela Combs,
  • Hussein M. Al Azzawi,
  • Benjamin C. Gibson and
  • Vincent P. Clark
  • + 3 authors

22 November 2018

Background: Poor sleep quality is a common complaint, affecting over one third of people in the United States. While sleep quality is thought to be related to slow-wave sleep (SWS), there has been little investigation to address whether modulating sl...

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Brain Sci. - ISSN 2076-3425