Brain Sciences最新文献

{"title":"The Roots of Problematic Polydrug Use in Emotional Problems and Suicide Behavior: A Cross-Sectional Study.","authors":"Tania E Martinez, Alejandro De la Torre-Luque, Anna Pedrola-Pons, Elizabeth Suarez-Soto","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090940","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090940","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background/Objectives</b>: Problematic polydrug use represents a relevant public health concern, with strong relationships with mental health problems and suicide behavior. Existing studies have just focused on problematic use, overlooking the potentially cumulative effect of coexisting substance use and addictive behaviors. This study aims to analyze the association between the polydrug use profile (no problematic use, problematic use of a single drug, and polydrug use) and mental health outcomes, specifically anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and suicide behavior. <b>Methods</b>: A sample of 1307 Spanish young adults (66.2% male; <i>M</i> = 21.2 years, <i>SD</i> = 3.31) were assessed for problematic use of substances and behavioral addictions as well as for the internalizing symptoms and suicide behavior. Participants were categorized into three groups: no problematic drug use (<i>n</i> = 880), problematic single drug use (<i>n</i> = 316), and polydrug use (<i>n</i> = 111). <b>Results</b>: Results showed an increasing level in depressive symptoms and suicide behavior with polydrug use, with significant differences between groups (<i>p</i> < 0.05). Moreover, both groups of problematic use presented higher levels of anxiety than no-use participants, regardless of the number of use modalities. <b>Conclusions</b>: These findings suggest that problematic polydrug use is associated with greater clinical severity, particularly in terms of depressive symptoms and suicide behavior, while anxiety remains elevated even when a problematic single drug pattern is observed. This study highlights the importance of considering polydrug use in dual diagnosis and the need for an integrative clinical approach.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12468127/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diffusion Tensor Tractography Studies for Causes of Dysphagia After Stroke: A Systematic Review.","authors":"Woo-Hyuk Jang, Seon-Hee Lee, Sang-Hyeok Lee","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090925","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090925","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background/Objectives</b>: This systematic review aimed to investigate the causes of dysphagia after stroke through diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) studies. <b>Methods</b>: This review used databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and ScienceDirect. Keywords related to stroke, dysphagia, and diffusion tensor tractography were utilized. Seven studies were selected and analyzed. <b>Results</b>: The analysis identified that damage to the corticobulbar tract (CBT) was the most frequently reported cause of dysphagia. Additionally, some studies suggested that damage to the vestibulospinal tract (VST) and the core vestibular pathway (CVP) contributed to dysphagia. Moreover, a significant negative correlation was found between dysphagia severity and key DTT-derived metrics, such as lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and tract volume (TV), indicating that reduced FA and TV values are associated with more severe dysphagia symptoms. <b>Conclusions</b>: DTT provides valuable insights into the neural mechanisms underlying dysphagia after stroke. Identifying the affected tracts can help diagnose dysphagia more accurately and develop targeted rehabilitation strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12468423/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Call for Conceptual Clarity: \"Emotion\" as an Umbrella Term Did Not Work-Let's Narrow It Down.","authors":"Peter Walla, Angelika Wolman, Georg Northoff","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090929","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090929","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To cut a long story short, the term \"emotion\" is predominantly employed as a comprehensive designation, encompassing phenomena such as feelings, affective processing, experiences, expressions, and, on occasion, cognitive processes. This has given rise to a plethora of schools of thought that diverge in their inclusion of these phenomena, not to mention the discordance regarding what emotions belong to the so-called set of discrete emotions in the first place. This is a problem, because clear and operational definitions are paramount for ensuring the comparability of research findings across studies and also across different disciplines. In response to this disagreement, it is here proposed to simplify the definition of the term \"emotion\", instead of using it as an umbrella term overarching an unclear set of multiple phenomena, which is exactly what left all of us uncertain about the question what an emotion actually is. From an etymological perspective, the simplest suggestion is to understand an emotion as behavior (from the Latin verb 'emovere', meaning to move out, and thus the noun 'emotion' meaning out-movement). This suggests that an emotion should not be understood as something felt, nor as a physiological reaction, or anything including cognition. Instead, emotions should be understood as behavioral outputs (not as information processing), with their connection to feelings being that they convey them. Consider fear, which should not be classified as an emotion, it should be understood as a feeling (fear is felt). The specific body posture, facial expression, and other behavioral manifestations resulting from muscle contractions should be classified as emotions with their purpose being to communicate the felt fear to conspecifics. The underlying causative basis for all that exists is affective processing (i.e., neural activity), and it provides evaluative information to support decision-making. The essence of this model is that if affective processing responds above a certain threshold, chemicals are released, which leads to a feeling (e.g., felt fear) if the respective organism is capable of conscious experience. Finally, the communication of these feelings to conspecifics is happening by emotion-behavior (i.e., emotions). In summary, affective processing guides behavior, and emotions communicate feelings. This perspective significantly simplifies the concept of an emotion and will prevent interchangeable use of emotion-related terms. Last but not least, according to the current model, emotions can also be produced voluntarily in order to feign a certain feeling, which is performed in various social settings. Applications of this model to various fields, including clinical psychology, show how beneficial it is.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12467906/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173396","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dopamine D2 Receptors and Its Downstream Signaling in Compulsive Eating.","authors":"Caden Leung, Kabirullah Lutfy","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090923","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090923","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Obesity has become a major public health crisis and serves as an underlying condition for other chronic metabolic diseases. The dysregulation of the inhibitory and regulatory mechanisms of the mesolimbic dopamine system, particularly dopamine D2 receptors (D2Rs), plays a critical role in driving excessive food consumption and compulsive eating habits. Based on the current literature, chronic consumption of high-fat foods elicits hedonic sensations and has the potential to downregulate and desensitize D2Rs, impairing their signaling and inhibitory action. This impairment thereby alters the downstream signaling of the D2Rs, involving the inhibition of adenylyl cyclase and the associated cascade. Although individual components of this proposed pathway have been studied, a comprehensive synthesis has not been established. This review aims to explore the relationship between D2R downregulation and desensitization and their effects on the downstream signaling cascade. We hypothesize that alterations in this pathway may lead to the dysregulation of the expression of orexigenic and anorexigenic neuropeptides, contributing to binge-eating behaviors.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12468011/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Plasma Neurofilament Light Chain in Patients Affected by Alzheimer's Disease with Different Rate of Progression: A Retrospective Study on an ADNI Cohort.","authors":"Giuseppe Virga, Bruno Di Marco, Valeria Blandino, Tommaso Piccoli","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090924","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090924","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background:</b> Alzheimer's disease (AD) shows highly variable progression rates among individuals. Plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL) has emerged as a potential biomarker of neurodegeneration. <b>Objectives:</b> this study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of plasma NfL in estimating the rate of clinical progression (RoP) in AD. <b>Methods:</b> we retrospectively analyzed 87 AD patients from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. We stratified patients into two groups based on the median RoP, which was calculated from longitudinal Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score evaluations: slow decliners (SD) and fast decliners (FD). We then compared plasma NfL levels between the two groups and examined their relationship with the progression rate. <b>Results:</b> patients with faster decline rates had higher levels of NfL. Logistic regression (LR) analysis revealed a strong correlation between plasma NfL levels and disease progression rates. Furthermore, a multivariate model incorporating Aβ42 levels improved predictive accuracy. <b>Conclusions:</b> these findings suggest that plasma NfL could serve as a valuable biomarker for monitoring the progression of Alzheimer's disease, identifying patients at greater risk of rapid decline, and optimizing therapeutic strategies and clinical management. Future studies on larger cohorts will be essential to confirm and further explore these observations.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12468065/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multidisciplinary Innovation in Neurosurgery and Neuroscience: Advancing Frontiers in Diagnosis, Therapy, and Neurological Rehabilitation.","authors":"Delia Cannizzaro, Roberto Stefini, Kenan Arnautovic, Franco Servadei","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090926","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090926","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In recent years, neurosurgery and clinical neuroscience have undergone a profound transformation, driven by an increasingly interdisciplinary approach that integrates technological innovation, the refinement of therapeutic protocols, and novel rehabilitative paradigms [...].</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12468365/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decoding Encoded Cravings: Epigenetic Drivers of Addiction.","authors":"Tousif Ahmed Hediyal, Omar Shukri, Elizabeth Stone, Amin Foroughi, Thangavel Samikkannu, Gurudutt Pendyala","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090927","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090927","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Drug abuse is a chronic, relapsing disorder marked by compulsive drug-seeking behavior and profound neurobiological consequences. Each year, millions of individuals face serious social and legal repercussions due to addiction. This review synthesizes findings from both preclinical and clinical studies to examine how chronic exposure to substances such as alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, and opioids affects the central nervous system. Specifically, it explores the epigenetic modifications induced by these substances, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and noncoding RNA regulation. The literature was selected using a thematic approach, emphasizing substance-specific mechanisms and their effects on gene expression, synaptic plasticity, and the brain's reward circuitry. Emerging evidence links these epigenetic changes to long-term behavioral adaptations and even transgenerational inheritance. This review underscores the complex molecular pathways contributing to addiction, vulnerability, and relapse, offering insights into potential therapeutic targets.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12467654/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Deep Learning Method Based on Multivariate Variational Mode Decomposition for Classification of Epileptic Signals.","authors":"Shang Zhang, Guangda Liu, Shiqing Sun, Jing Cai","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090933","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090933","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background/Objectives</b>: Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that severely impacts patients' quality of life. In clinical practice, specific pharmacological and surgical interventions are tailored to distinct seizure types. The identification of the epileptogenic zone enables the implementation of surgical procedures and neuromodulation therapies. Consequently, accurate classification of seizure types and precise determination of focal epileptic signals are critical to provide clinicians with essential diagnostic insights for optimizing therapeutic strategies. Traditional machine learning approaches are constrained in their efficacy due to limited capability in autonomously extracting features. <b>Methods</b>: This study proposes a novel deep learning framework integrating temporal and spatial information extraction to address this limitation. Multivariate variational mode decomposition (MVMD) is employed to maintain inter-channel mode alignment during the decomposition of multi-channel epileptic signals, ensuring the synchronization of time-frequency characteristics across channels and effectively mitigating mode mixing and mode mismatch issues. <b>Results</b>: The Bern-Barcelona database is employed to classify focal epileptic signals, with the proposed framework achieving an accuracy of 98.85%, a sensitivity of 98.75%, and a specificity of 98.95%. For multi-class seizure type classification, the TUSZ database is utilized. Subject-dependent experiments yield an accuracy of 96.17% with a weighted F1-score of 0.962. Meanwhile, subject-independent experiments attain an accuracy of 87.97% and a weighted F1-score of 0.884. <b>Conclusions</b>: The proposed framework effectively integrates temporal and spatial domain information derived from multi-channel epileptic signals, thereby significantly enhancing the algorithm's classification performance. The performance on unseen patients demonstrates robust generalization capability, indicating the potential clinical applicability in assisting neurologists with epileptic signal classification.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12468264/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neurodetector: EEG-Based Cognitive Assessment Using Event-Related Potentials as a Virtual Switch.","authors":"Ryohei P Hasegawa, Shinya Watanabe","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090931","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090931","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background/Objectives:</b> Motor decline in older adults can hinder cognitive assessments. To address this, we developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) as a motor-independent EEG Switch. ERPs reflect attention-related neural activity and may serve as biomarkers for cognitive function. This study evaluated the feasibility of using ERP-based task success rates as indicators of cognitive abilities. The main goal of this article is the development and baseline evaluation of the Neurodetector system (incorporating the EEG Switch) as a motor-independent tool for cognitive assessment in healthy adults. <b>Methods:</b> We created a system called Neurodetector, which measures cognitive function through the ability to perform tasks using a virtual one-button EEG Switch. EEG data were collected from 40 healthy adults, mainly under 60 years of age, during three cognitive tasks of increasing difficulty. <b>Results:</b> The participants controlled the EEG Switch above chance level across all tasks. Success rates correlated with task difficulty and showed individual differences, suggesting that cognitive ability influences performance. In addition, we compared the pattern-matching method for ERP decoding with the conventional peak-based approaches. The pattern-matching method yielded a consistently higher accuracy and was more sensitive to task complexity and individual variability. <b>Conclusions:</b> These results support the potential of the EEG Switch as a reliable, non-motor-dependent cognitive assessment tool. The system is especially useful for populations with limited motor control, such as the elderly or individuals with physical disabilities. While Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is an important future target for application, the present study involved only healthy adult participants. Future research should examine the sources of individual differences and validate EEG switches in clinical contexts, including clinical trials involving MCI and dementia patients. Our findings lay the groundwork for a novel and accessible approach for cognitive evaluation using neurophysiological data.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12467680/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Personal Values and Psychological Well-Being Among Emerging Adults: The Mediating Role of Meaning in Life.","authors":"Marianna Chmiel, Zdzisław Kroplewski","doi":"10.3390/brainsci15090930","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci15090930","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background/objectives: </strong>Emerging adulthood involves identity exploration, instability, and a sense of being \"in-between\" adolescence and full adulthood. This study examined whether growth-oriented values (openness to change and self-transcendence) are associated with psychological well-being among emerging adults, and whether meaning in life (presence and search) is related to these variables.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The study included 200 participants (M = 21.90, SD = 2.48). The following measures were used: the Psychological Well-Being Scales, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>All key variables (psychological well-being, presence of meaning, search for meaning, openness to change, and self-transcendence) were significantly positively correlated (r = 0.27-0.74, <i>p</i> < 0.01). The presence of meaning explained the associations between both openness to change (β = 0.22, 95% CI [0.50, 1.26]) and self-transcendence (β = 0.20, 95% CI [0.36, 0.91]) with psychological well-being, whereas the search for meaning was not a significant intervening variable in either model.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings highlight the relevance of growth-oriented values and the presence of meaning in understanding psychological well-being among emerging adults. Longitudinal research is needed to clarify the directionality of these relationships.</p>","PeriodicalId":9095,"journal":{"name":"Brain Sciences","volume":"15 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12468039/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145173699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}