Background: Early intervention of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) may be the most promising way for delaying or even preventing the progression to Alzheimer’s disease. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that has been recognized as a promising approach for the treatment of aMCI. Objective: In this paper, we aimed to investigate the modulating mechanism of tDCS on the core neurocognitive networks of brain. Methods: We used repeated anodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and assessed the effect on cognition and dynamic functional brain network in aMCI patients. We used a novel method called temporal variability to depict the characteristics of the dynamic brain functional networks. Results: We found that true anodal stimulation significantly improved cognitive performance as measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment after simulation. Meanwhile, the Mini-Mental State Examination scores showed a clear upward trend. More importantly, we found significantly altered temporal variability of dynamic functional connectivity of regions belonging to the default mode network, central executive network, and the salience network after true anodal stimulation, indicating anodal HD-tDCS may enhance brain function by modulating the temporal variability of the brain regions. Conclusion: These results imply that ten days of anodal repeated HD-tDCS over the LDLPFC exerts beneficial effects on the temporal variability of the functional architecture of the brain, which may be a potential neural mechanism by which HD-tDCS enhances brain functions. Repeated HD-tDCS may have clinical uses for the intervention of brain function decline in aMCI patients.
Objective: The thalamus is a key node for sleep-wake pathway gate switching during acute sleep deprivation (ASD), and studies have shown that it plays a certain role in emotion changes. However, there are no studies on the association between the thalamus and emotion changes in ASD. In this study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) to explore whether changes in the functional connections between the thalamus and other brain regions are related to emotion changes and further explored the function of the thalamus under total ASD conditions.Method: Thirty healthy, right-handed adult men underwent emotional assessment according to the Profile of Mood States Scale and R-fMRI scans before and after ASD. The correlations between changes in functional connectivity between the thalamus and other brain regions and emotion changes were then studied.Results: Positive emotions and psychomotor performance were reduced, and negative emotions were increased following ASD. The functional connections between the left thalamus and left middle temporal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, right thalamus, right inferior temporal gyrus, left middle temporal pole gyrus, right calcarine, left cuneus, left rectus and left medial superior frontal gyrus were significantly altered. Decreased functional connectivity between left thalamus and left inferior frontal gyrus related to emotion changes following ASD.Conclusion: This study finds that functional changes in the thalamus are associated with emotion changes during ASD, suggesting that the left thalamus probably plays an essential role in emotion changes under ASD conditions.
HPV DNA testing is receiving increasing popularity in cervical cancer screening. There is a lack of universal guidelines on HPV testing. Our study aimed to assess age-specific and year-on-year trend of HPV positivity and incidence and HPV retesting among 26,457 individual women attending the gynecological department at the First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province (FPHY) who had an HPV testing between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014. HPV 16, HPV 52, and cp8304 ranked among top 5 with regard to positivity in each year and overall incidence. The positivity of various HPV types peaked among women aged 15-19 years, then sharply decreased with age, stabilized among women aged 25-49 years and then surged again among women aged 50 years and older. The positivity of high-risk (HR) HPV types, including HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 56 and 58, were on the rise during the time period (P < 0.05 for all). HR HPV types tended to be more likely to persist than LR HPV types (P < 0.05). Additionally, the incidence rate for any HR HPV type was also significantly higher than that for any LR HPV type (42.8 vs. 12.6 per 100 person-years, P < 0.001). The majority (57.3-77.5%) of women detected with HR HPV types did not retest within 12 months. Clinical guidelines on HPV DNA testing are needed and education, and counseling about HPV infection and its implications for women detected with HPV at clinical settings, are warranted.
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