فصلنامه علوم اعصاب شفای خاتم
سال دهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 50، زمستان 1400)

The main purpose of this study is to provide a method for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The disease reduces memory function by destroying nerve cells in the nervous system and reducing nerve connections and interactions.

The level of the disease should be diagnosed according to the association of the disease with various features in the brain signal and medical images. First, with proper preprocessing, nonlinear properties such as phase diagram, correlation dimension, entropy and Lyapunov exponent are extracted and Elman neural network is used for classification. Then, the correctness of the function of Elman neural network is compared with channel neural network. The use of deep learning methods, including channel neural network, can have more appropriate and accurate results among other classification methods.

In the case of using two CNN networks and one MLP network, the accuracy of the results was %98 in healthy individuals, %97.7 in mild patients and %97.5 in severely ill patients. In the case of using a CNN network with a combination of features, brain signal and medical images, in the case of stimulation, the accuracy of the results is %95 in healthy individuals, %92.5 in mild patients and %97.5 in severe patients. As a recall, the accuracy of the results is %75 in healthy individuals, %72.5 in mild patients and %87.5 in severe patients. The accuracy of the results in Elman neural network with the combination of brain signal features and medical images is %94.4 and in the case without combination of features, the accuracy of the results is %92.2.

Among the processing methods proposed to classify the three classes of healthy, mild patient and severe patient, the method of combining brain signal characteristics and medical images has increased the accuracy of CNN and Elman classifier results.

The style of children's education, especially children with intellectual disabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic has changed. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of face-to-face and virtual training of basic cognitive skills in mental rehabilitation daycare centers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The method of the present study is a longitudinal study of the trend. The statistical population was all children in rehabilitation centers in Tabriz, Iran. 30 children undergoing training and rehabilitation at the age of 6 to 12 years were selected by availability and the scores of these children in the field of cognitive abilities related to basic skills were examined. The instrument used in this study was a checklist for assessing basic skills and the Wechsler IQ scale for children.

The results showed that in the first three seasons, the scores obtained by these children after receiving educational and rehabilitation services in a face-to-face course significantly increased. However, with the global prevalence of coronavirus and the virtualization of the training course, scores significantly decreased. Finally, with the combination of face-to-face and virtual education, the trend has risen again, but the slope and speed of increasing scores are still lower than face-to-face courses.

Face-to-face education compared to virtual education and the combination of the two, was more effective in improving cognitive abilities related to children's basic skills. The abilities of educators and parents in the field of virtual education and the production of electronic content should be tailored to the special needs of these children.

The purpose of this study was a comparison of environmental constraints changes on quiet eye factors during performance skill of throw targeting between various athletes with three different levels of skill.

Thirty athletes (22-28 years) were selected in three levels; elite, expert, and novice. The interaction of regulatory conditions (stationary/in motion) and intertrial variability (present/absent) created four target conditions and recorded characteristics related to gaze behavior continuously in any scenario. Using an eye-tracking device, gaze behavior was recorded and analyzed by an information processing system.

Athletes at the elite level had significantly quiet eye onset and longer quiet eye periods compared to athletes with semi-skilled and beginner levels.

The results of the present study emphasized the importance of quiet eye characters on the successful performance of athletes with earlier onset and longer duration of the quiet eye, particularly when presented assignment-related information in different shapes and regions in the wide field of vision.

Lateralization is one of the indicators of the natural evolution of the brain. The relationship between lateralization and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been the focus of some studies. The aim of this study was to compare lateralization in students with and without ADHD.

The population of this study included 130 students (57 girls and 73 boys) aged 6 to 12 years in Tehran, Iran.  With initial screening by the teacher, suspicious students were selected, and by the Connors’s Children's Behavioral Problem Scale Parent Form and Teacher Form (1999), as well as a clinical interview based on the criteria of the fifth edition of the DSM, 65 people with ADHD were selected. Moreover, 65 regular students from the same grade and schools were randomly placed in the control group. Subjects were divided into 4 groups, control, ADD, HD, and a combination of ADHD. Their lateralization was assessed using Edinburgh (1970) and Chapman (1987), Waterloo (1998), and eye superiority questionnaires.

Data analysis using the chi-square test showed that there was a significant difference between the ADHD and normal groups in all three components of hand, eye, and foot superiority. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the group of ADD and normal and also between the group of HD and normal in the components of the superiority of hand and eye but this difference was not significant in the superiority of foot component.

There is a significant difference between lateralization in students with ADHD compared with their normal peers.

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is one of the most common destructive behavioral disorders. Today, non-invasive methods, such as transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), to control and improve the symptoms of various disorders have found a special place and may have advantages over drug treatments. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of tDCS on empathy and moral assessment of children with ODD.

The research design is semi-experimental with a post-test pre-test with the control group. The statistical population of the study was all 8-11 years old boys with ODD in primary schools in Urmia, Iran in 2019-2020. Out of the total target population, by multistage cluster sampling, 30 students with ODD were selected using ODD Rating Scale (Hommersen et al, 2006), and randomly assigned into two experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups, then Griffith Empathy Measure (Bryant, 1982) and Moral Judgment Test (Synha & Warma, 1998) were completed by the participants. Descriptive statistics and univariate Analysis of Variance were used to analyze the data.

The results of this study showed that the application of tDCS significantly improved empathy and moral judgment compared to the control group.

The study implies that psychologists and therapists may use tDCS along with other treatments to improve empathy and moral judgment of children with ODD.

Certainty is one of the parameters of hierarchical decisions. In hierarchical decisions, decisions at different levels are generally accompanied by uncertainty. After decision-making, the response can be positive or negative feedback. The reason for the negative feedback is unclear. Humans try to resolve this ambiguity by evaluating their certainty, so calculations of hierarchical decisions based on certainty are debatable. The complexity of computation for these types of decisions has made it more important to use other types of information in addition to behavioral data. Since decision processes are mapped to eye responses, this study analyzes the pupil diameter, in addition to behavioral data in the context of hierarchical decisions. In this research, pupil diameter size has been used as a valuable source for predicting hierarchical decision certainty.

In a hierarchical experiment, the subjects were asked to repeat the direction of the displayed moving points (left or right) at the top or bottom of the screen (top/bottom of the environment), as well as their certainty relative to the selected points, simultaneously. Subjects received auditory positive feedback when they reported both the direction of moving points and the environment correctly. During the experiment, the subjects' eye data were recorded by an eye-tracker device.

In hierarchical decisions, high-level decisions depend on the subject's degree of certainty in low-level decisions, and changes in pupil diameter are significantly associated with certainty.

This study revealed that in high-level decisions, the average size of the pupil diameter predicts the certainty of decisions and reflects the subject's strategy in complex conditions.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most common mental disorders, which its core features represent basic elements of a wide variety of psychopathology categories. GAD has unknown aspects and neurocognitive accounts consider deficits in cognitive control as a basis for etiology and maintenance of this disorder. Cognitive control consists of three components; shifting, updating, and inhibition. The present study investigated inhibition as a facet of cognitive control in people with GAD.

Using the voluntary sampling method, 80 students of the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad participated in this retrospective study. Via announcement on the campus of the university, normal students and those who had GAD symptoms contacted researchers. Based on the scores of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and structured diagnostic interview, participants were divided into two groups; control and GAD. Finally, the stop-signal task (SST) was used to assess reactive and proactive inhibition.

There was a significant positive correlation between reactive and proactive inhibition. The GAD group had significantly higher performance than the normal group in reactive and proactive inhibition. The GAD group also had more omission errors as well as fewer commission errors than the normal group.

Inhibitory control plays a major role in GAD and explains several behavioral problems in this population. Excessive inhibition in GAD might be linked to behaviors, like freezing, procrastination, and threat detection in anxiety. Therefore, focusing on deficits in cognitive control and inhibition plays a major role in neurocognitive interventions of this disorder.

In various studies, balance defects have been reported in deaf children compared to normal individuals. Static and dynamic balance tasks and different sports have different dependencies on the sensory systems with different control mechanisms, including open or closed-loop control. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of yoga and table tennis exercises on the static and dynamic balance of deaf children.

This study was a quasi-experimental investigation. The statistical population of the present study was all deaf 12- year- old boys (n=30) in Kermanshah, Iran. Initially, static and dynamic balance and anthropometric characteristics of children were recorded using stork and star balance tests. Then, Subjects were randomly assigned into two groups of open control loop exercises (table tennis) and closed control loop exercises (yoga). Participants in both groups performed their training program for 8 weeks and three sessions per week.

The results showed that open and closed control loop exercises had different effects on the static and dynamic balance of deaf children. Participation in yoga exercises significantly improved static balance with closed eyes compared to participation in table tennis exercises. On the other hand, table tennis exercises had a significant effect on improving the dynamic balance of deaf children compared to yoga exercises.

Yoga exercises (closed control loop exercises) had a greater effect on static balance, whereas table tennis exercises (open control loop exercises) lead to a better dynamic balance in deaf children.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) is a global epidemic and emergency that has caused significant changes in health care systems. The previous studies have reported an increased risk of thromboembolic events, including stroke, in patients with COVID-19. This systematic review was performed to describe the frequency, clinical features, and cognitive function of patients with thrombotic stroke and COVID-19 infection.

The articles were searched based on the search strategy considered in the main databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct for the relevant manuscripts in the period from November 2019 to July 2021. The selected articles were considered based on criteria such as patient's age, time of onset of stroke, previous disease history, symptoms, inflammatory markers, drugs used, and final fate of patients.

Out of 1672 articles obtained from the initial search, 26 articles had inclusion criteria and were therefore included in the final analysis. The results of the study showed that the frequency of stroke and mortality in older people with COVID-19 infection is higher than in other ages. However, when systemic symptoms are severe, young people are prone to neurological complications. The Previous history of underlying diseases increased the severity and frequency of the disease. The onset of stroke varied from 2 hours to 4 weeks after the first symptoms of COVID-19. Furthermore, the symptoms of the disease appear in patients in more or less various forms, which are somewhat improved by the use of SARS- COV-2 suppressive drugs, prophylactic and anti-clotting drugs. Finally, the increased risk of ischemic stroke is probably multifactorial and is reflected by activation of coagulation and inflammatory pathways, increased levels of D- dimer, C- reactive protein, thrombin, fibrin, red blood cell deposition, lactate dehydrogenase, and lymphopenia.

Although most patients with COVID-19 have a predominantly respiratory infection, some patients develop venous and arterial thromboembolic complications that can lead to stroke. However, further studies are needed to provide stronger estimates of the increased risk of stroke due to COVID-19 infection and to elucidate the exact pathophysiology of the SARS- COV-2 association with the risk of thrombotic stroke.

Addiction is a chronic and progressive disease that is associated with dysfunction and changes in the function of the nervous system. Novel advances in non-invasive brain stimulation techniques open a new horizon in this field. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on reducing craving in people with substance use disorder.

The present study was a meta-analysis. The statistical population of the study included master's and doctoral theses, studies published in scientific and research journals, and research indexed by Iranian writers abroad. After stipulating the inclusion and exclusion criteria, interventions based on tDCS on craving in people with substance use disorder between 2011 and 2021 were selected from databases, and among them, 18 studies with 31 effect sizes were selected for final analysis. The steps of the meta-analysis were based on Howitt and Kramer Meta-Analysis Method (2005).

The results showed that the obtained effect size was 0.74. The combined significance level of the studies was obtained, indicating that the total effect size of tDCS studies was significant in the regulation of craving in people with substance use disorder.

The results showed that the effect size of interventions based on the treatment of tDCS on reducing drug craving is high based on Cohen's interpretation table. Therefore, applying this new therapeutic approach, as an effective method in reducing craving, can improve the performance of people with substance use disorder.