Neuroscience Journal of Shefaye Khatam
Year:2020 | Volume:8 | Issue:4|Papers Count:10

Introduction: Perinatal seizure with inducing oxidative stress causes serious damage to the fetal central nervous system and leads to cognitive-behavioral deficits. This study evaluates the effect of Hesperidin (HES) on cognitive and behavioral deficits in rats following perinatal seizures. Materials and Method: 30 Wistar pregnant rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: control, pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) + NS, PTZ + HES 25, PTZ + HES50, and PTZ + HES 100. Animals were treated with repeated PTZ administration (40 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) from gestation day 14 for 5 consecutive days. Two hours before PTZ injection, the PTZ+NS group and the PTZ+HES groups were gavaged with either normal saline or HES (25, 50, or 100 mg/kg), respectively. The severity of seizure, delay in onset of a seizure in mothers, working and avoidance memory, and anxiety-like behaviors were assessed in one-month-old male infants. Results: A significant increase in seizure severity and a decrease in seizure delay were seen in PTZ-treated mothers. On the other hand, a significant decrease in behavior changes, avoidance memory, and hippocampal cell density was observed with increased anxiety levels in the infant of the PTZ+NS group compared to the control rats. However, HES-treated groups showed a significant increase in working and passive avoidance memory with a decreasing level of anxiety compared to the PTZ+NS group. Conclusion: HES has anticonvulsant, anxiolytic, and memory-enhancing effects in the perinatal seizures in rats.

Introduction: Low back pain is one of the most common causes of health care visits and has many health-economic consequences for individuals and society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the cognitive-behavioral intervention on pain perception and mental well-being in patients with chronic low back pain. Materials and Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with the pre-test and post-test design. 30 patients with chronic low back pain referred to Karaj medical centers were selected. Research tools, including the McGill pain questionnaire and subjective well-being questionnaire, were used for this study. In the intervention group, the cognitive-behavioral program was administered in 10 sessions (1 session per week for 1 hour), and then the post-test was taken. Results: The results showed that cognitive-behavioral intervention had a significant and positive effect on perceived pain and mental well-being in the experimental group. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that cognitive-behavioral intervention can be effective in reducing chronic pain and improving mental well-being in patients with chronic low back pain. Therapists can use this approach to improve community-based health promotion behaviors and rehabilitation for patients with chronic pain.

Introduction: The purpose of the present research was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on executive functions of war survivors with post-traumatic stress (PTSD). Materials and Methods: It was semi-experimental research with pre-test, post-test, experiment, and control groups. The population of the research includes all injured people of Kermanshah City. 30 subjects were selected by purposeful sampling (15 per group). Barkley's psychological executive functions disorder scale (BDEFS) and Wooders et al. Traumatic Stress Disorder List (1994) were used to collecting data. Results: The results showed that cognitive rehabilitation increased self-control/inhibition, self-motivation, and total score of executive performances in the experimental group compared with the control group. The same findings were observed in the follow-up tests, which indicated the persistent effect of cognitive rehabilitation on mentioned structures. Conclusion: Cognitive rehabilitation can be used as an effective therapeutic approach to reduce psychological and physical dysfunctions as well as to improve executive performances in people with war-related injuries and PTSD.

Introduction: One of the most common concerns of patients who suffer from multiple sclerosis (MS) is to delay the beginning of the secondary progressive phase. Psychological factors play a role in the exacerbation or recurrence of symptoms of the disease. The current study aimed to explore the psychological antecedent factors of the transition to secondary progressive MS. Materials and Methods: In this qualitative study, 13 participants who were suffering from secondary progressive MS selected by the convenience sampling method in Sina hospital, Tehran, Iran. The current study was conducted based on a thematic analysis approach. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview. Results: The main theme, "Fundamental Mechanisms", which were included two sub-themes, "Core Beliefs" and "Personality Traits" and 10 concepts. Fundamental mechanisms are an abstract concept and this theme can bring the categories together to explain the whole results. Core beliefs sub-theme was included believe in being worthless and unlovable, believe in chance and fate, believe in a dangerous world, believe in being helpless, and self-sacrifice schema. Besides, the personality traits sub-theme was included self-devaluation, dependent personality, narcissistic personality, impulsivity, and intolerance of ambiguity. Conclusion: Outcomes revealed antecedent factors of the transition to secondary progressive MS is based on core beliefs. Furthermore, personality traits are complex, inclusive, and multi-dimensional factors.

Introduction: The executive function is a set of higher-level cognitive abilities that control a high level of behavior. The executive function acts in a variety of contexts differently, including the function of the hot type that evoked in areas that are influenced by emotion, motivation, and reward. The present study was performed to investigate the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on hot executive function. Materials and Methods: The study was a single-blind experimental study performed on 30 healthy adults. In this study, subjects were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, anodal stimulation over the left DLPFC and cathodal stimulation over the right OFC were performed at 2 mA. The tasks used were computer versions of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and the Iowa Gambling Task for evaluating decision making and risk-taking. Results: A significant difference was observed between the experimental and control groups in the Bart test. There was difference between the two groups in the Iowa test. Conclusion: tDCS anodic stimulation can increase the hot executive functions in decision making.

Introduction: One of the most important challenges facing the anesthesiologist before performing painful procedures, such as spinal anesthesia, is the anxiety and fear of patients due to the pain of needle entry into the skin and the consequent lack of cooperation. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of 10% lidocaine spray on patient satisfaction in spinal anesthesia. Material and methods: In this double-blind clinical trial, patients were referred to a general surgery ward for spinal anesthesia. Patients were randomly divided into two groups. Patients in the first group (lidocaine group) received 10% lidocaine as anesthesia and patients in the second group received an equal volume of normal saline. Then, based on the Visual Analogue Scale, patients were asked about the extent of pain during needle insertion into the skin and the degree of patient satisfaction was noted. Results: Our data revealed a significant reduction of pain and improvement of fear in patients who received the local application of lidocaine. Conclusion: There was a significant relationship between analgesia, satisfaction, lack of cooperation, and anxiety at the time of needle insertion.

Introduction: Personality disorders are one of the most important causes of drug abuse and improvement that is crucial for the treatment of subjects with addiction. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of group psychotherapy based on schema therapy versus acceptance and commitment therapy on symptoms of borderline personality disorder among patients with substance abuse. Materials and Methods: The study was a semi-experimental investigation with a pretest-posttest and follow-up and control groups. The population included all addicted residing in two addiction treatment campuses in Gonbad-e-Kavoos city, Iran, in the first half of 2018, among which a sample of 30 individuals was selected by available sampling methods which were assigned into two experimental groups and one control group randomly. Instruments were Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III). The first experimental group received the schema therapy intervention and the second experimental group received acceptance and commitment therapy in twelve 90-minute sessions in groups The control group did not receive any intervention. A follow-up test was performed one-month after the post-test. Results: The data indicated that both therapeutic interventions were effective in reducing the symptoms of borderline personality disorders, while the control group did not change significantly. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the effectiveness of schema therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy at the end of the treatment and in a one-month follow-up. Schema therapy was more effective in reduction of the symptoms of borderline personality disorder compared to the other groups. Conclusion: The results of this study can inspire addiction specialists to use the aforementioned psychotherapy for treatment of borderline personality disorder of substance abusers and improving their psychological ability to successfully quit and prevent their relapse.

Introduction: The basic human decision involves several stages of consecutive decisions. In the presence of multi-stage decisions, to avoid interruption in the sequence of decisions, there is no possibility to request a confidence report on the middle stages. This inevitably makes to estimate the confidence of the decision. The challenges involved in applying behavioral data to determine confidence, make it more important to use other types of data. Since eye data is associated with the decision process, this study examined the dynamics of involuntary information, in the context of multi-stage decisions. The pupil size was applied as a valuable source to estimate the decision confidence. Material and Methods: A two-stage psychophysical experiment was designed. In this experiment, participants were instructed to decide about the direction of moving dots in two successive stimuli (right or left for the first stage and up or down for the second stage). Participants were received correct feedback in a trial when they reported the correct direction of both stimuli. During the experiment, the eye movement data of the participants were recorded by an eye-tracking device. Results: The latency of the pupil diameter signal positive peak and pupil diameter at the time of response were meaningfully associated with decision confidence. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that pupil size was altered in the current decision based on the confidence of the previous decision. Conclusion: This research establishes that in the multistage decision making, the confidence of a decision is represented in involuntary information that can reflect the individual's strategy in complex situations. In addition, the confidence of the previous decision can significantly change voluntary and involuntary behaviors in the same manner.

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder is a sort of disorder which has been vastly spreaded in recent years thus a set of expanded researches is carried out toward determining its different aspects. Sampling and Autism spectrum disorder diagnosis have always been of the basic needs in this scope. This study aims to investigate the efficiency of GARS globally. Materials and Methods: Using the method of systematic review and the key words including Gilliam Autism Rating scale and Autism spectrum disorders screening tools in data sources such as googlescholar, scopus, springer, sciencedirect, magiran and SID in years 1995 to 2019, 135 essays have been written among which 52 were on psychometric properties of other diagnostic tools, 34 out of 83 considered as diagnosis tools, 32 were about the discoveries of the researches and17 were on the psychometric findings of GARS. Results: Results indicated that various editions of GARS have been translated into Jordanian, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish, Arabic and Persian languages among which the second edition has been greatly investigated, taking this point into attention that the third edition was published in 2014. Some findings in psychometric components including sensitivity (0/48 to 0/99) and Specificity (0/48 to 1) have been also investigated. Conclusion: Results prove that GARS and its various versions have been used in a large number of researches; showing the significance. According to what mentioned above, investigation of GARS psychometric scale features which has been collected based on DSM, plays an important role for using the scale in diagnosis process.

Introduction: Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes inflammation by activating innate immune responses. The process of secondary spinal cord injury involves oligodendrocyte apoptosis, myelin sheath degradation, axonal degeneration, and nerve cell death. The inflammatory microenvironment created by SCI affects nerve repair and recovery. In SCI, macrophage activation, accumulation, and persistent inflammation occur. Macrophages are heterogeneous cells with variable and extensive functions that some of their phenotypes play an important role in decreasing post-nerve injury recovery. After neurodegeneration, resident and peripheral immune cell-derived microglia participate in the inflammatory process and upregulate inflammatory cytokines. Other important issues include the role of monocytes as a source of macrophages in the process of spinal cord injury. Understanding the aspect and function of these cells can be helpful to design novel therapeutic strategies. Conclusion: Rapid infiltration of leukocytes into the injured spinal cord is involved in the pathogenesis of secondary spinal cord injury. Therapeutic approaches to inhibit leukocyte infiltration into the injured site enhance the recovery of nerve and white matter injuries after SCI. The first cells to invade the spinal cord are monocytes and neutrophils. Monocytes are the source of cytokines, inflammatory chemokines, and oxidative stress that infiltrate the injured site within the first 24 hours after SCI and reach their peak within 4 to 7 days after injury. This article reviews the different roles of macrophages and monocytes and their potential impacts in adopting novel therapeutic approaches in patients with SCI.