Narrow Results

Accumulating evidence indicates that the high blood pressure (BP) is a potent risk factor for dementia in the elderly. In line with this theory, we had found the mixture of Chinese herbs (TGD) which were traditionally used to treat hypertension, could enhance the cognitive function. The aim of this study was to decrease the number of herbs used from 11 (TGD) to 4 herbs (TGDS) and further to search the active constituents. After administering a dose of 10 g/kg of TGDS0 to ICR mice, no cholinergic symptoms of lacrimation, salivation, emesis, eyeclosure, increased respiration and fibrillation were observed. All the mice survived without any deaths after 24 hours and 7 days. No changes were observed in control and experimental groups on locomotor activity (no stimulant or sedative effects). It was also revealed that TGDS could prolong the step-through latency at the dose of 1.0 and 2.5 g/kg on passive avoidance tasks in mice. This result was the same as the previous study. The active constituents which enhanced the memory acquisition were discovered in the butanol layer and ethyl acetate layer after the extraction.

Tai Chi Chuan (TCC), a traditional Chinese martial art, is well-documented to result in beneficial consequences in physical and mental health. TCC is regarded as a mind-body exercise that is comprised of physical exercise and meditation. Favorable effects of TCC on body balance, gait, bone mineral density, metabolic parameters, anxiety, depression, cognitive function, and sleep have been previously reported. However, the underlying mechanisms explaining the effects of TCC remain largely unclear. Recently, advances in neuroimaging technology have offered new investigative opportunities to reveal the effects of TCC on anatomical morphologies and neurological activities in different regions of the brain. These neuroimaging findings have provided new clues for revealing the mechanisms behind the observed effects of TCC. In this review paper, we discussed the possible effects of TCC-induced modulation of brain morphology, functional homogeneity and connectivity, regional activity and macro-scale network activity on health. Moreover, we identified possible links between the alterations in brain and beneficial effects of TCC, such as improved motor functions, pain perception, metabolic profile, cognitive functions, mental health and sleep quality. This paper aimed to stimulate further mechanistic neuroimaging studies in TCC and its effects on brain morphology, functional homogeneity and connectivity, regional activity and macro-scale network activity, which ultimately lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the beneficial effects of TCC on human health.

Intelligence Science for Creating a Brain.

The Cognitive Neural Mechanism of Human Inductive Reasoning: A Brain Informatics Perspective.

Endogenous Indicators in Mitochondria.

Tocomin Tocotrienols Complex.

Emerging treatments for spinal cord damage.

Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s – Confusions, myths and tips.

An update on Alzheimer’s disease.

Integration of Traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine in cancer treatment.

TCM’s integration into modern health system.

As a nondrug complementary therapy and healthy leisure physiotherapy method, foot bath (FB) is gaining acceptance and popularity in many areas. The significance of this research is to study the close and complex connection between FB stimulation and the human brain using fNIRS neuroimaging techniques. Participants were placed under two different conditions (normal and foot bath) and instructed to perform Stroop task of color word matching. Research on the behavioral results of the subjects showed that FB can effectively regulate the efficiency of humans in the process of performing tasks in a natural state. The fNIRS findings showed that the PFC in the FB condition was weakly activated compared to the normal condition. FB can realize the natural and healthy regulation of human brain cognitive function, which will have an impact on many production activities in human daily life.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of functional games using neurofeedback on cognitive function and changes in brain waves of people with developmental disabilities. Toward this goal, the MiND RACER program developed by Minders Co., Ltd. in 2018 was used for 5 people with developmental disabilities enrolled in the continuing education course at D University in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. It was carried out once a week from October 13 to December 15, 2020; pre- and post-tests were conducted one week before the program execution and one week after the program execution. Electroencephalography measurements were performed 3 times as pre, intermediate, and posttest. As a result, the functional game using neurofeedback showed a remarkable change in the cognitive function of the person with developmental disabilities and significant changes in $\alpha$ waves.

Coherent cognition requires activity to be brought together across diverse brain networks. Synchronous, in-phase oscillations in the high-frequency (40 Hz) Gamma range are thought to be one mechanism underlying the functional integration of brain networks. While sex differences have been observed across a range of cognitive functions, their role in normal cortical synchronization has not been elucidated. We recorded Gamma phase synchrony in 500 male and 500 female subjects during an auditory oddball task, which taps discrimination of task-relevant signals. Results revealed a marked sex-linked dissociation in the spatio-temporal pattern of cortical synchronization. Females showed increased Gamma synchrony in the frontal brain, while males showed enhanced synchrony in the parieto-occipital region. These differences were not accounted for by sex differences in whole brain MRI volume. However, there were positive associations between Gamma synchrony and gray matter for females, while these relationships were negative for males. Sex differences in the profile of cortical synchronization may reflect distinct aspects of evolutionary advantage.

The neuronal cytoskeleton has been hypothesized to play a role in higher cognitive functions including learning, memory and consciousness. Experimental evidence suggests that both microtubules and actin filaments act as biological electrical wires that can transmit and amplify electric signals via the flow of condensed ion clouds. The potential transmission of electrical signals via the cytoskeleton is of extreme importance to the electrical activity of neurons in general. In this regard, the unique structure, geometry and electrostatics of microtubules are discussed with the expected impact on their specific functions within the neuron. Electric circuit models of ionic flow along microtubules are discussed in the context of experimental data, and the specific importance of both the tubulin C-terminal tail regions, and the nano-pore openings lining the microtubule wall is elucidated. Overall, these recent results suggest that ions, condensed around the surface of the major filaments of the cytoskeleton, flow along and through microtubules in the presence of potential differences, thus acting as transmission lines propagating intracellular signals in a given cell. The significance of this conductance to the functioning of the electrically active neuron, and to higher cognitive function is also discussed.

Background: Correct goal setting for patients is one of the most important aspects of physical therapy.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physical therapy using goal attainment scaling (GAS) scores to assess the gait function in patients with subacute stroke and related factors.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted using the medical records of 129 patients with subacute stroke who had been treated with intensive rehabilitation intervention. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Bundang Cha Hospital (2021-06-008). The functional ambulation category (FAC) was used to set goals with the involvement of patients and their caregivers after the initial assessment, and raw GAS scores were calculated according to whether the goals were achieved through assessment one month later based on the FAC score. The groups were then divided according to the raw GAS scores (−1, 0, 1, or 2), and the general characteristics and clinical assessment scores were statistically analysed.

Results: From our results, there were differences in clinical assessment scores based on raw scores on the GAS ($p<0.05$) and correlation between raw scores on the GAS and improvement scores on the clinical assessment items ($p<0.05$). Moreover, when the gait function measured by FAC was used as a GAS in subacute stroke patients, the better the function of Rivermead mobility index ($\beta =0.613$, $p<0.05$) and Korean-mini-mental state examination ($\beta =0.217$, $p<0.05$) than the other clinical factors, the higher the goal attainment raw score.

Conclusion: Functions, including cognitive function, should be included when setting goals to improve the gait function and should be considered when developing the neurological physiotherapy programmes. This study helps physicians and physical therapists who first apply functional gait assessment as a GAS to set the initial goals and improves patient and caregiver motivations by applying GAS to patients with lower initial cognitive levels.

The unprecedented increase in frequency, intensity, and severity of extreme heat events is one of the most sensitive manifestations of climate change. Unusually, high ambient temperatures have severe societal impacts, driven primarily by excess mortality and morbidity, loss of productivity, etc. Despite these alarming signs of a changing climate, most of us remain inactive, perhaps expecting a high degree of resilience to episodic heat spells. In an effort to understand the effects of extreme heat events on a population normally perceived as immune to elevated temperature, we studied the impacts of indoor temperature on cognitive function among young and healthy college-age students living in air-conditioned (AC) and non-air conditioned spaces (non-AC). We used a high-density array of environmental sensors to characterize residential indoor exposures, and wearable devices to track levels of physical activity, sleep, changes in heart rate, and skin perspiration. In addition, we administered daily color-word and arithmetic tests to assess changes in cognitive function before, during, and after a heat wave. Our study represents the first effort to understand the influence of indoor thermal conditions on cognitive function in a non-experimental setting, capturing the environmental and behavioral context with unequivocal validity. Moreover, the study design mimics an experimental study by comparing the effect between individuals with and without AC, and assuming that any difference between them would have remained constant if the heat wave did not take place. Therefore, the findings would suggest a causal effect of temperature on cognition, and their implications extend to building operational practices, climate preparedness plans, and strategies to retrofit and redesign buildings in a sustainable way.

The advent of simultaneously collected imaging-genetics data in large study cohorts provides an unprecedented opportunity to assess the causal effect of brain imaging traits on externally measured experimental results (e.g., cognitive tests) by treating genetic variants as instrumental variables. However, classic Mendelian Randomization methods are limited when handling high-throughput imaging traits as exposures to identify causal effects. We propose a new Mendelian Randomization framework to jointly select instrumental variables and imaging exposures, and then estimate the causal effect of multivariable imaging data on the outcome. We validate the proposed method with extensive data analyses and compare it with existing methods. We further apply our method to evaluate the causal effect of white matter microstructure integrity (WM) on cognitive function. The findings suggest that our method achieved better performance regarding sensitivity, bias, and false discovery rate compared to individually assessing the causal effect of a single exposure and jointly assessing the causal effect of multiple exposures without dimension reduction. Our application results indicated that WM measures across different tracts have a joint causal effect that significantly impacts the cognitive function among the participants from the UK Biobank.

Mind-body exercise, a form of physical exercise originating in the East with increasing popularity in the West, has a unique characteristic that requires conscious control of each body movement and concurrently maintaining a peaceful and relaxed state of mind during practice. With the ultimate goal of training both the body and the mind, there have been empirical findings supporting the positive effects of mind-body exercises on improving physical health condition (e.g., pulmonary function) as well as cognitive functions (e.g., learning and memory). This chapter will introduce a form of Chinese Chan-based mind-body exercise, namely Shaolin mind-body exercise or Chanwu, which was developed upon the traditional Shaolin Healing Approach. A brief description on some movements of Shaolin mind-body exercise will also be provided. Treatment outcomes based on both clinical observations and cumulative empirical evidence are so far encouraging. Specifically, intervention with the component of Shaolin mind-body exercise has been found to be able to foster a relaxed and attentive mind state of normal adults, significantly improve depressive mood and enhance bowel function and neurophysiological activity of both community-dwelling adults and patients with major depressive disorder. Some clinical cases with severe cognitive impairment have also been assessed to show significant enhancement in their attention, memory, language and executive functions. These positive findings have suggested potential clinical applicability of the Shaolin mind-body exercise as a possible neuropsychological intervention for improving cognitive function and psychological status of patients with various brain disorders or psychiatric illnesses.