Biology subjects

Garza-Villarreal, E. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Garza-Villarreal, E. A..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

Patterns of reduced cortical thickness and striatum pathological morphology in cocaine addiction.

Substance addiction is regarded as an important public health problem, perpetuated by fronto-striatal circuit pathology. A usual finding in neuroimaging human and murine studies is cortical thinning and lower volume when compared to healthy controls. In this study we wished to replicate cortical thinning findings and find if striatum morphology may explain the cortical pathology. For this we analyzed T1w neuroimaging data from an ongoing addiction Mexican dataset. This dataset includes cocaine addicts diagnosed by expert psychiatrists and healthy controls. For the analysis we used voxel-based morphometry, cortical thickness and volumetric analysis of the basal ganglia, and we correlated striatum volume with cortical thickness to find pathological patterns. Our group contrast showed cortical thinning and striatum volume differences in cocaine addicts correlated to their years of substance use, craving and age. Our correlation between striatum-cortex morphology showed higher significant correlations in healthy controls, not observed in cocaine addicts. The correlation between striatum volume and cortical thickness in healthy controls involved similar areas as those shown with less cortical thickness in cocaine addicts. We suggest that striatum morphological changes in addiction may explain the pattern of cortical thinning observed across several substances addiction studies.\n\nResearch Data Related to this SubmissionData set https://zenodo.org/record/1409808#.W5E3oCOZPIF Patterns of reduced cortical thickness and striatum pathological morphology in cocaine addiction\n\nThis dataset includes all the data and scripts needed to reproduce the analysis and results on the manuscript \"Patterns of reduced cortical thickness and striatum pathological morphology in cocaine addiction\" (link). The brain data is not raw, as T1w were not defaced. We will do so in the near future for version 2.0. Instead we include only the \"output/thickness\" files used in the final analysis. For the use of raw T1w images, please contact the main author EAGV.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Borderline personality disorder with cocaine dependence: impulsivity, emotional dysregulation and amygdala functional connectivity

Objective: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is present in 19% of cocaine dependence (CD) cases; however, this dual pathology (DP) is poorly understood. We assessed impulsivity, emotional dysregulation (ED) and amygdala functional connectivity in this DP.\n\nMethods. We recruited 69 participants divided into 4 groups: DP (n = 20), CD without BPD (n = 19), BPD without CD (n = 10) and healthy controls (HC, n = 20). We used self-reported instruments to measure impulsivity and ED. We acquired resting state fMRI and performed seed-based analyses of functional connectivity (FC) of bilateral amygdalas.\n\nResults. BPD and CD factors had opposing effects in impulsivity and ED, as well as on FC between left amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex. For the FC between right amygdala and left insula, the effect of having both disorders was additive, reducing FC strength. Significant FC clusters were correlated with impulsivity and ED.\n\nConclusions. In this preliminary study, we found that clinical scores of DP patients were closer to those of BPD without CD than to those of CD without BPD, while amygdala to medial prefrontal cortex FC patterns in DP patients were closer to HC than expected.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Similar clinical improvement and maintenance after rTMS at 5 Hz using a simple vs. complex protocol in Alzheimer’s disease

BrackgroundCurrent treatments for Alzheimers disease (AD) have a limited clinical response and methods, such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), are being studied as possible treatments for the clinical symptoms with positive results. However, there is still seldom information on the type of rTMS protocols that deliver the best clinical improvement in AD.\n\nObjetiveTo compare the clinical response between a simple stimulation protocol on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) against a complex protocol using six regions of interest.\n\nMethods19 participants were randomized to receive any of the protocols. The analysis of repeated measures evaluated the change.\n\nResultsBoth protocols were equally proficient at improving cognitive function, behavior and functionality after 3 weeks of treatment, and the effects were maintained for 4 weeks more without treatment.\n\nConclusionWe suggest rTMS on the lDLPFC could be enough to provide a clinical response, and the underlying mechanisms should be studied.

clinical trials↗

bioRxiv2017

Functional connectivity of music-induced analgesia in fibromyalgia

Listening to self-chosen, pleasant and relaxing music reduces pain in fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic central pain condition. However, the neural correlates of this effect are fairly unknown and could be regarded as a more direct measure of analgesia. In our study, we wished to investigate the neural correlates of music-induced analgesia (MIA) in fibromyalgia patients. To do this, we studied 20 FM patients and 20 matched healthy controls (HC) acquiring rs-fMRI with a 3T MRI scanner, and pain data before and after two 5-min auditory conditions: music and noise. We performed resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) seed-based correlation analyses (SCA) using pain and analgesia-related ROIs to determine the effects before and after the music intervention in FM and HC, and its correlation with pain reports. We found significant differences in baseline rs-FC between FM and HC. Both groups showed changes in rs-FC in several ROIs after the music condition between different areas, that were left lateralized in FM and right lateralized in HC. FM patients reported MIA that was significantly correlated with rs-FC decrease between the angular gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, and rs-FC increase between amygdala and middle frontal gyrus. These areas are related to autobiographical and limbic processes, and auditory attention, suggesting MIA may arise as a consequence of top-down modulation, probably originated by distraction, relaxation, positive emotion, or a combination of these mechanisms.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Music-induced analgesia in chronic pain conditions: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Music is increasingly used as an adjuvant for chronic pain management as it is not invasive, inexpensive, and patients usually report positive experiences with it. However, little is known about its clinical efficacy in chronic pain patients. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we investigated randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of adult patients that reported any type of music intervention for chronic pain, chosen by the researcher or patient, lasting for any duration. Searches were performed using PsycINFO, Scopus and PubMed for RTCs published until the end of May 2016. The primary outcome was reduction in self-reported pain using a standardized pain measurement instrument reported post-intervention. The secondary outcomes were: quality of life measures, depression and anxiety measures, among others. The study was pre-registered with PROSPERO (CRD42016039837) and the meta-analysis was done using RevMan. We identified 768 titles and abstracts, and we included 14 RTCs that fulfilled our criteria. The sample size of the studies varied between 25 and 200 participants. We found that music reduced chronic pain, and depression, with higher effect size on pain and depression. We also found music had a higher effect when the participant chose the music in contrast with researcher-chosen music. The sample size of RCTs was small and sometimes with different outcome measures. Our analysis suggests that music may be beneficial as an adjuvant for chronic pain patients, as it reduces self-reported pain and its common co-morbidities. Importantly, the analgesic effect of music appears higher with self-chosen over researcher-chosen music.

neuroscience↗