A computational network dynamical modeling for abnormal oscillation and deep brain stimulation control of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Self-Inflicted Head Injury in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia with Compulsive Behaviors: A Case Report

Here we present the case of a 56-year-old right-handed White male who developed osteomyelitis and empyema after repetitive compulsive excoriation rituals. His recent history included profound personality changes, apathy, loss of empathy, limited insight, behavioral agitation, and episodic memory loss. In addition to these progressive behavioral deficits, he had significant difficulties with executive functioning, leading to the loss of his job and inability to independently perform instrumental activities of daily living. Brain MRI showed asymmetric enlargement of the right lateral ventricle and mild asymmetric parenchymal volume loss in the right hippocampus. 18F-FDG PET imaging revealed severe hypometabolism in the right hemisphere. Based on this individual's clinical presentation, reported history, and neuroimaging findings, we concluded that his condition was most consistent with a diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), rather than another psychiatric diagnosis. This case illustrates the importance of differentiating between bvFTD and other psychiatric disorders, as well as the need for further studies to improve clinicians' ability to do so at earlier stages.

The deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii) as a model organism to explore the naturalistic psychobiological mechanisms contributing to compulsive-like rigidity: A narrative overview of advances and opportunities

Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii), a wildtype species native to North America, have been investigated for their spontaneous compulsive-like behaviour. The repetitive and persistence nature of three unique compulsive-like phenotypes in deer mice, i.e., high stereotypy (HS), large nesting behaviour (LNB) and high marble burying (HMB), are characterized by behavioural and cognitive rigidity. In this narrative review, we summarize key advances in the model's application to study obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), emphasizing how it may be used to investigate neurobiological and neurocognitive aspects of rigidity. Indeed, deer mice provide the field with a unique naturalistic and spontaneous model system of behavioural and cognitive rigidity that is useful for investigating the psychobiological mechanisms that underpin a range of compulsive-like phenotypes. Throughout the review, we highlight new opportunities for future research.

Break-up and recovery of harmony between direct and indirect pathways in the basal ganglia: Huntington's disease and treatment

The basal ganglia (BG) in the brain exhibit diverse functions for motor, cognition, and emotion. Such BG functions could be made via competitive harmony between the two competing pathways, direct pathway (DP) (facilitating movement) and indirect pathway (IP) (suppressing movement). As a result of break-up of harmony between DP and IP, there appear pathological states with disorder for movement, cognition, and psychiatry. In this paper, we are concerned about the Huntington's disease (HD), which is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder causing involuntary movement and severe cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. For the HD, the number of D2 SPNs ( N D 2 ) is decreased due to degenerative loss, and hence, by decreasing x D 2 (fraction of N D 2 ), we investigate break-up of harmony between DP and IP in terms of their competition degree C d , given by the ratio of strength of DP ( S DP ) to strength of IP ( S IP ) (i.e.,C d = S DP / S IP ). In the case of HD, the IP is under-active, in contrast to the case of Parkinson's disease with over-active IP, which results in increase in C d (from the normal value). Thus, hyperkinetic dyskinesia such as chorea (involuntary jerky movement) occurs. We also investigate treatment of HD, based on optogenetics and GP ablation, by increasing strength of IP, resulting in recovery of harmony between DP and IP. Finally, we study effect of loss of healthy synapses of all the BG cells on HD. Due to loss of healthy synapses, disharmony between DP and IP increases, leading to worsen symptoms of the HD.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11571-024-10125-w.

Quantifying harmony between direct and indirect pathways in the basal ganglia: healthy and Parkinsonian states

The basal ganglia (BG) show a variety of functions for motor and cognition. There are two competitive pathways in the BG; direct pathway (DP) which facilitates movement and indirect pathway (IP) which suppresses movement. It is well known that diverse functions of the BG may be made through "balance" between DP and IP. But, to the best of our knowledge, so far no quantitative analysis for such balance was done. In this paper, as a first time, we introduce the competition degree C d between DP and IP. Then, by employing C d , we quantify their competitive harmony (i.e., competition and cooperative interplay), which could lead to improving our understanding of the traditional "balance" so clearly and quantitatively. We first consider the case of normal dopamine (DA) level ofϕ ∗ = 0.3 . In the case of phasic cortical input (10 Hz), a healthy state withC d ∗ = 2.82 (i.e., DP is 2.82 times stronger than IP) appears. In this case, normal movement occurs via harmony between DP and IP. Next, we consider the case of decreased DA level, ϕ = ϕ ∗ ( = 0.3 ) x DA ( 1 > x DA ≥ 0 ). With decreasing x DA from 1, the competition degree C d between DP and IP decreases monotonically from C d ∗ , which results in appearance of a pathological Parkinsonian state with reduced C d . In this Parkinsonian state, strength of IP is much increased than that in the case of normal healthy state, leading to disharmony between DP and IP. Due to such break-up of harmony between DP and IP, impaired movement occurs. Finally, we also study treatment of the pathological Parkinsonian state via recovery of harmony between DP and IP.

Spike-spindle coupling during sleep and its mechanism explanation in childhood focal epilepsy

Childhood focal epilepsy (CFE) is a serious neurological disorder characterized by epileptic seizures arising from a focal or multi-focal zone of the brain in clinics. During non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep stage, epileptiform discharges become frequent, and sleep spindles are generated through local interaction between thalamic neurons for CFE patients. Recent research has shown that epileptiform spikes significantly induce spindle oscillations within 1 s (say, spike-spindle coupling) during NREM sleep in focal epilepsy, which might damage cognitive function of epilepsy patients. However, the temporal interaction mechanism between spikes and spindles is lack of understanding. In this paper, we first develop a new thalamocortical model of CFE (CFE-TCM) by integrating M-type potassium current, persistent sodium current and NMDAR current into Costa model, where the three types of currents are important for modulating the excitability of thalamocortical system. Then we demonstrate in simulations that: (1) the temporal spike-spindle coupling oscillatory patterns do exist in real CFE-EEGs recorded in clinics; (2) the constructed model CFE-TCM has a capacity of generating spike-spindle coupling discharges, and the corresponding statistical results are consistent with those obtained from real EEGs; (3) the spike-spindle coupling discharges are mediated by the strength of long-range thalamus-cortex connections where the excitable projection from thalamocortical neuron in thalamus to pyramidal neuron in cortex takes a great role. The obtained results reveal that pathological spike-spindle coupling may be a potential marker of thalamocortical circuit dysfunction, which will provide a possible treatment strategy for disease progression and cognition impairment in focal epilepsy.

Hybrid computational model depicts the contribution of non-significant lobes of human brain during the perception of emotional stimuli

Emotions are synchronizing responses of human brain while executing cognitive tasks. Earlier studies had revealed strong correlation between specific lobes of the brain to different types of emotional valence. In the current study, a comprehensive three-dimensional mapping of human brain for executing emotion specific tasks had been formulated. A hybrid computational machine learning model customized from Custom Weight Allocation Model (CWAM) and defined as Custom Rank Allocation Model (CRAM). This regression-based hybrid computational model computes the allocated tasks to different lobes of the brain during their respective executive stage. Event Related Potentials (ERP) were obtained with significant effect at P1, P2, P3, N170, N2, and N4. These ERPs were configured at Pz, Cz, F3, and T8 regions of the brain with maximal responses; while regions like Cz, C4 and F4 were also found to make effective contributions to elevate the responses of the brain, and thus these regions were configured as augmented source regions of the brain. In another circumstance of frequent -deviant - equal (FDE) presentation of the emotional stimuli, it was observed that the brain channels C3, C4, P3, P4, O1, O2, and Oz were contributing their emotional quotient to the overall response of the brain regions; whereas, the interaction effect was found presentable at O2, Oz, P3, P4, T8 and C3 regions of brain. The proposed computational model had identified the potential neural pathways during the execution of emotional task.