<b><i>Background:</i></b> Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neuroinflammatory, neurodegenerative, demyelinating disease that causes cognitive, olfactory, and other neurological dysfunctions. Radiologically Isolated Syndrome (RIS), in which only radiological findings are monitored, is accepted as the preclinical stage of demyelinating disease and is considered an important period for disease pathology. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to evaluate the olfactory and cognitive functions and their clinical correlation in RIS and Relapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS) patients and a healthy control group. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Our study included 10 RRMS patients, 10 RIS patients, and 10 healthy controls. We conducted an olfactor evaluation via the “Sniffin’ Sticks” test. The subjects underwent a neuropsychometric test battery to evaluate cognitive functions, including memory, visuospatial, and executive functions. Depression was evaluated using the Beck depression scale. Fatigue and daily life activity were evaluated using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and the 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36), respectively. Disability assessment was done with the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). <b><i>Results:</i></b> RRMS and RIS patients’ olfactory test scores were significantly different from those in the control group (<i>p</i> < 0.05). There was a significant difference between the odor threshold scores of patients in the RRMS and RIS groups. There was a significant correlation between memory-oriented cognitive tests and olfactory tests in the RRMS and RIS groups. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Olfactory dysfunction can be seen in RIS patients, like in RRMS patients. Cognitive and olfactory dysfunction may be together a sign of degeneration in demyelinating diseases.
IntroductionAlzheimer's disease (AD) is neurodegenerative dementia that causes neurovascular dysfunction and cognitive impairment. Currently, 50 million people live with dementia worldwide, and there are nearly 10 million new cases every year. There is a need for relatively less costly and more objective methods of screening and early diagnosis.MethodsFunctional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) systems are a promising solution for the early Detection of AD. For a practical clinically relevant system, a smaller number of optimally placed channels are clearly preferable. In this study, we investigated the number and locations of the best-performing fNIRS channels measuring prefrontal cortex activations. Twenty-one subjects diagnosed with AD and eighteen healthy controls were recruited for the study.ResultsWe have shown that resting-state fNIRS recordings from a small number of prefrontal locations provide a promising methodology for detecting AD and monitoring its progression. A high-density continuous-wave fNIRS system was first used to verify the relatively lower hemodynamic activity in the prefrontal cortical areas observed in patients with AD. By using the episode averaged standard deviation of the oxyhemoglobin concentration changes as features that were fed into a Support Vector Machine; we then showed that the accuracy of subsets of optical channels in predicting the presence and severity of AD was significantly above chance. The results suggest that AD can be detected with a 0.76 sensitivity score and a 0.68 specificity score while the severity of AD could be detected with a 0.75 sensitivity score and a 0.72 specificity score with ≤5 channels.DiscussionThese scores suggest that fNIRS is a viable technology for conveniently detecting and monitoring AD as well as investigating underlying mechanisms of disease progression.
Background In clinical routine and research, abstract thinking difficulties are often tested by assessing the Alzheimer disease (AD) patient’s ability to understand nonliteral languages. The goal of the present study was to test more specifically the processing of metaphors in AD patients to establish links between clinical observations and measures of brain activity. Method Participants: Twelve right‐handed Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and eleven right‐handed healthy volunteers took part in the study. Healthy vounteers were matched with the patients on age and academic level. All of the participants were right‐handed, corrected‐to‐normal vision, and native speakers of Turkish. EEG recording; Brain Vision Analyzer 2.1 Software (Brainproducts, Munich, Germany) was used for EEG data processing. 13 channels EEG active electrodes were placed on a cap (Acticap, Germany) according to the international 10‐20 system (Fp1, Fp2, F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz, P4). Electrode impedance was maintained at below 10 kΩ. EEG was amplified and digitized at a sampling frequency of 500 Hz (BrainAmp). The continuous EEG was filtered off‐line with a band pass filter of 0.01‐15 Hz filter. Epochs of interest were selected time‐locked to the target stimulus onset (−200 to 1200 ms) and baseline correction was applied ‐200 to 0 ms. We measured the amplitude of N400 time locked to the onset of critical word, which was also the sentence final‐word. Result Repeated measure ANOVA with three repeated variables: 3(electrode site:frontal/central/parietal) 3(electrode laterality: left/middle/right) 4(condition: literal/ conventional/ novel/anormal) and one between variable (group: AS/control) revealed no significant main effect of group, F(1, 21) = 2.596, p > .05. Condition effect was significan F(3,63) = 3.193, p < .05. Moreover, condition type by group interaction was significant F(1,21) = 5.565, p < .05. The pattern of N400 elicited for the only conventional metaphor was different between the two groups. Conclusion Large N400 amplitudes for conventional metaphors demonstrated the difficulties in metaphor comprehension in the AD participants as compared to controls. Findings suggest that differences in linguistic information processing cause difficulties in metaphor comprehension in AD. This study was supported financially by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK; project number: 117S470).
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