Biology subjects

Cruz-Almeida, Y.

Publications and source records attributed to Cruz-Almeida, Y..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Brain Aging Among Individuals with Classical Trigeminal Neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a complex orofacial neuropathic pain condition with limited understanding of underlying mechanisms and therapeutic options. Emerging evidence suggests the involvement of the brain in persons with TN including widespread brain changes when employing a widely used brain aging biomarker that estimates a predicted brain age difference or brain age gap. The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to assess the predicted brain age difference (brain-PAD) or brain age gap across two discrete TN subtypes (classical TN, and secondary/idiopathic TN) in comparison with age-and sex-matched pain-free controls and its association with several clinical and psychological characteristics. Thirty-four individuals diagnosed with Classical TN, 17 diagnosed with secondary/idiopathic TN were age- and sex-matched to pain-free controls (n=54). All participants underwent a T1 brain MRI and completed clinical and psychological measures. There were significant differences in brain-PAD among TN subtypes (ANCOVA p = 0.0078, effect size f2 = 0.282), with individuals diagnosed with Classical TN having a brain-PAD significantly greater than the controls by 3.87 years (p = 0.01, Bonferroni-corrected). There were no significant brain-PAD differences between secondary/idiopathic TN and pain-free controls. Brain-PAD had a significant positive association with both pain catastrophizing (p = 0.032) and pain-related anxiety (p = 0.041), but no significant association with disease duration (p = 0.519) or usual pain intensity (p = 0.443). We report here accelerated brain aging processes in patients with classical TN, but not in persons diagnosed with secondary/idiopathic TN. Our study replicates previous findings and adds to the literature that accelerated brain aging may not occur across all TN subtypes. Given the increased use of MRI for TN diagnostics, combined with our own recent work deriving our brain aging biomarker from clinical-grade scans, future studies within clinical settings are feasible and needed to understand this debilitating condition.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Electrical Brain Activity during Human Walking with Parametric Variations in Terrain Unevenness and Walking Speed

Mobile brain imaging with high-density electroencephalography (EEG) can provide insight into the cortical processes involved in complex human walking tasks. While uneven terrain is common in the natural environment and poses challenges to human balance control, there is limited understanding of the supraspinal processes involved with traversing uneven terrain. The primary objective of this study was to quantify electrocortical activity related to parametric variations in terrain unevenness for neurotypical young adults. We used high-density EEG to measure brain activity when thirty-two young adults walked on a novel custom-made uneven terrain treadmill surface with four levels of difficulty at a walking speed tailored to each participant. We identified multiple brain regions associated with uneven terrain walking. Alpha (8 - 13 Hz) and beta (13 - 30 Hz) spectral power decreased in the sensorimotor and posterior parietal areas with increasing terrain unevenness while theta (4 - 8 Hz) power increased in the mid/posterior cingulate area with terrain unevenness. We also found that within stride spectral power fluctuations increased with terrain unevenness. Our secondary goal was to investigate the effect of parametric changes in walking speed (0.25 m/s, 0.5m/s, 0.75 m/s, 1.0 m/s) to differentiate the effects of walking speed from uneven terrain. Our results revealed that electrocortical activities only changed substantially with speed within the sensorimotor area but not in other brain areas. Together, these results indicate there are distinct cortical processes contributing to the control of walking over uneven terrain versus modulation of walking speed on smooth, flat terrain. Our findings increase our understanding of cortical involvement in an ecologically valid walking task and could serve as a benchmark for identifying deficits in cortical dynamics that occur in people with mobility deficits.

neuroscience↗