Dominance analysis demonstrated that among SVD markers, WMH was the strongest predictor of PSMD. Furthermore, PSMD was more closely associated to WMH than with GM and WM volumes. PSMD was associated with WMH across all regions, and correlations were not significantly stronger in corresponding regions (e.g., frontal PSMD and frontal WMH) compared to non-corresponding regions. PSMD outperformed all four conventional SVD markers and MD in predicting cognition, but was comparable to GM and WM volumes. Discussion PSMD was robustly associated with established SVD markers. This new measure appears to be a marker of diffuse brain injury, largely due to vascular pathology, and may be a useful and convenient metric of overall cerebrovascular burden. Copyright © 2020 Low, Mak, Stefaniak, Malpetti, Nicastro, Savulich, Chouliaras, Markus, Rowe and O’Brien.Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that altered activity in somatosensory and motor cortices play a key role in pain chronification. Neurofeedback training of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) is a tool which allow individuals to self-modulate their brain activity and to produce significant changes over somatomotor brain areas. Several studies have further shown that neurofeedback training may reduce pain and other pain-related symptoms in chronic pain patients. The goal of the present study was to analyze changes in SMR power and brain functional connectivity of the somatosensory and motor cortices elicited by neurofeedback task designed to both synchronize and desynchronize the SMR power over motor and somatosensory areas in fibromyalgia patients. Seventeen patients were randomly assigned to the SMR training (n = 9) or to a sham protocol (n = 8). All participants were trained during 6 sessions, and fMRI and EEG power elicited by synchronization and desynchronization trials were analyzed. In the SMR training groat neurofeedback training is a promising tool for a better understanding of brain mechanisms involved in pain chronification. Copyright © 2020 Terrasa, Barros-Loscertales, Montoya and Muñoz.Pollen nutrition is necessary for proper growth and development of adult honey bees. Yet, it is unclear how pollen affects the honey bee brain and behavior. We investigated whether pollen affects amino acids in the brains of caged, nurse-aged bees, and what the behavioral consequences might be. We also tested whether parasitic stress altered this relationship by analyzing bees infected with prevalent stressor, Nosema ceranae. Levels of 18 amino acids in individual honey bee brains were measured using Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry at two different ages (Day 7 and Day 11). click here We then employed the proboscis extension reflex to test odor learning and memory. We found that the honey bee brain was highly responsive to pollen. Many amino acids in the brain were elevated and were present at higher concentration with age. The majority of these amino acids were non-essential. Without pollen, levels of amino acids remained consistent, or declined. Nosema-infected bees showed a different profile. Infection altered amino acid levels in a pollen-dependent manner. The majority of amino acids were lower when pollen was given, but higher when pollen was deprived. Odor learning and memory was not affected by feeding pollen to uninfected bees; but pollen did improve performance in Nosema-infected bees. These results suggest that pollen in early adulthood continues to shape amino acid levels in the brain with age, which may affect neural circuitry and behavior over time. Parasitic stress by N. ceranae modifies this relationship revealing an interaction between infection, pollen nutrition, and behavior. Copyright © 2020 Gage, Calle, Jacobson, Carroll and DeGrandi-Hoffman.Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a metabolic disease with impact on brain function through mechanisms that include glucose toxicity, vascular damage and blood-brain barrier (BBB) impairments, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, brain insulin resistance, synaptic failure, neuroinflammation, and gliosis. Rodent models have been developed for investigating T2D, and have contributed to our understanding of mechanisms involved in T2D-induced brain dysfunction. Namely, mice or rats exposed to diabetogenic diets that are rich in fat and/or sugar have been widely used since they develop memory impairment, especially in tasks that depend on hippocampal processing. Here we summarize main findings on brain energy metabolism alterations underlying dysfunction of neuronal and glial cells promoted by diet-induced metabolic syndrome that progresses to a T2D phenotype. Copyright © 2020 Garcia-Serrano and Duarte.We have applied a novel and integrative analysis framework for next-generation sequencing (NGS) data to 503 human subjects provided by the Religious Orders Study and Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP) to examine changes in transcriptomic organization and common variants in association with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). Our framework identified seven reproducible, co-regulated modules after quality control (QC), clinical segregation, preservation filtering, and functional ontology analysis. These modules were specifically enriched in several innate and adaptive immune system processes, the synaptic vesicle cycle, and Hippo signaling. Topological and functional erosion of these modules due to shedding of genes and loss of in-module connectivity was diagnostic of disease progression. Perturbation analysis revealed that only 1% of eQTLs overlapped genes participating in these co-regulated modules. Common variants nevertheless identified components of the immune systems like human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex and microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) regions in association with LOAD. Our results implicate microglial function, adaptive immune response, and the structural degeneration of neurons as contributors to the transcriptional deregulation observed along with common genetic variants in the progression of LOAD. Copyright © 2020 Malamon and Kriete.The tongue performs movements in all directions to subserve its diverse functions in chewing, swallowing, and speech production. Using task-based functional MRI in a group of 17 healthy young participants, we studied (1) potential differences in the cerebral control of frontal (protrusion), horizontal (side to side), and vertical (elevation) tongue movements and (2) inter-individual differences in tongue motor control. To investigate differences between different tongue movements, we performed voxel-wise multiple linear regressions. To investigate inter-individual differences, we applied a novel approach, spatio-temporal filtering of independent components. For this approach, individual functional data were decomposed into spatially independent components and corresponding time courses using independent component analysis. A temporal filter (correlation with the expected brain response) was used to identify independent components time-locked to the tongue motor tasks. A spatial filter (cross-correlation with established neurofunctional systems) was used to identify brain activity not time-locked to the tasks.