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Persistent stuttering reflects atypical brain activity and connectivity, most notably within the left hemisphere speech production networks. Neef et al. link right frontal overactivations common to stuttering to structural networks that support right hemisphere specialisations. In particular, severe stuttering reflects increased activity in a global motor response inhibition network.

Presence of BB-specific antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with evidence of their intrathecal production in conjunction with the white cell count in the CSF and typical clinical symptoms is the traditional diagnostic gold standard of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB). Few data are available on the CSF lactate concentration in European adults with the diagnosis of acute LNB. The objective of the study was to investigate the CSF changes during acute LNB. Routine CSF parameters [leukocyte count, protein, lactate and albumin concentrations, CSF/serum quotients of albumin (QAlb), IgG, IgA and IgM, and oligoclonal IgG bands] and the Borrelia burgdorferi (BB)-specific antibody index were retrospectively studied in relation to the clinical presentation in patients diagnosed with acute LNB. A total of 118 patients with LNB were categorized into the following groups according to their symptoms at presentation; group 1: polyradiculoneuritis (Bannwarth’s syndrome), group 2: isolated facial palsy and group 3: predominantly meningitic course of the disease. In addition to the CSF of patients with acute LNB, CSF of 19 patients with viral meningitis (VM) and 3 with neurolues (NL) were analyzed. There were 97 patients classified with definite LNB, and 21 as probable LNB. Neck stiffness and fever were reported by 15.3% of patients. Most of these patients were younger than 50 years. Polyradiculoneuritis was frequently found in patients older than 50 years. Lymphopleocytosis was found in all patients. Only 5 patients had a CSF lactate ≥3.5 mmol/l, and the mean CSF lactate level was not elevated (2.1 ± 0.6 mmol/l). The patients with definite LNB had significantly higher lactate levels than patients with probable LNB. Elevated lactate levels were accompanied by fever and headache. In the Reiber nomograms, intrathecal immunoglobulin synthesis was found for IgM in 70.2% followed by IgG in 19.5%. Isoelectric focussing detected an intrathecal IgG synthesis in 83 patients (70.3%). Elevated BB AIs in the CSF were found in 97 patients (82.2%). Patients with VM showed lower CSF protein concentration and CSF/serum quotients of albumin than LNB patients. In acute LNB, all patients had elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leukocyte counts. In contrast to infections by other bacteria, CSF lactate was lower than 3.5 mmol/l in all but 5 patients. The CSF findings did not differ between polyradiculoneuritis, facial palsy, and meningitis. The CSF in LNB patients strongly differed from CSF in VM patients with respect to protein concentration and the CSF/serum albumin quotient.

Background: Chronic tinnitus affects 5 % of the population, 17 % suffer under the condition. This distress seems mainly to be dependent on negative cognitive-emotional evaluation of the tinnitus and selective attention to the tinnitus. A well-established paradigm to examine selective attention and emotional processing is the Emotional Stroop Task (EST). Recent models of tinnitus distress propose limbic, frontal and parietal regions to be more active in highly distressed tinnitus patients. Only a few studies have compared high and low distressed tinnitus patients. Thus, this study aimed to explore neural correlates of tinnitus-related distress.

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has emerged as a promising tool for manipulating ongoing brain oscillations. While previous studies demonstrated frequency‐specific effects of tACS on diverse cognitive functions, its effect on neural activity remains poorly understood. Here we asked how tACS modulates regional fMRI blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal as a function of frequency, current strength, and task condition. TACS was applied over the posterior cortex of healthy human subjects while the BOLD signal was measured during rest or task conditions (visual perception, passive video viewing and motor task). TACS was applied in a blockwise manner at different frequencies (10, 16, 60 and 80 Hz). The strongest tACS effects on BOLD activity were observed with stimulation at alpha (10 Hz) and beta (16 Hz) frequency bands, while effects of tACS at the gamma range were rather modest. Specifically, we found that tACS at 16 Hz induced BOLD activity increase in fronto‐parietal areas. Overall, tACS effects varied as a function of frequency and task, and were predominantly seen in regions that were not activated by the task. Also, the modulated regions were poorly predicted by current density modeling studies. Taken together, our results suggest that tACS does not necessarily exert its strongest effects in regions below the electrodes and that region specificity might be achieved with tACS due to varying susceptibility of brain regions to entrain to a given frequency. Hum Brain Mapp 37:94–121, 2016. © 2015 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc

The fear-avoidance model postulates that in chronic low back pain (CLBP) a fear of movement is acquired in the acute phase, which leads to subsequent avoidance of physical activity and contributes to the pain syndrome's becoming chronic. In the present event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of the neural correlates of the fear of movement, 60 women (30 CLBP patients, 15 healthy controls, and 15 women with spider phobia; mean age 46.8±9.8 years) participated. The CLBP patients were divided into a high and low fear-avoidant group on the basis of the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia. The participants viewed photographs depicting neutral and aversive (back-stressing) movements, generally fear-inducing and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System, and pictures of spiders while fMRI data were acquired. It was hypothesized that the high fear-avoidant CLBP patients would show fear-related activations when viewing the aversive movements and that they would differ from CLBP patients with low fear-avoidance and controls in this regard. No such activations were found for high or low fear-avoidant CLBP patients. The random-effects analysis showed no differences between high and low fear-avoidant CLBP patients or high fear-avoidant CLBP patients and controls. Normal fear-related activations were present in the high fear-avoidant CLBP patients for the generally fear-inducing pictures, demonstrating the validity of the stimulation paradigm and a generally unimpaired fear processing of the high fear-avoidant CLBP patients. Our findings do not support the fear component of the fear avoidance model.

Bilateral enlargement of the putamen may reflect dopaminergic dysfunction or neuroimmunologic alterations (PANDAS) underlying Tourette syndrome. The larger callosal motor subregion 3 might be a consequence of daily tic activity. Previous divergent volumetric findings might be ascribed to confounding variables like comorbid conditions or medication, or to different imaging methods.

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