• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.389-398
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• 2011

Purpose: This study of this study was to identify factors influencing the burden of main family caregivers who take care of elderly patients with brain and spinal diseases. Methods: This was conducted as descriptive research and data were collected from 255 main family caregivers who were taking care of elderly patients with brain and spinal diseases from 4 hospitals in Daegu and Gyeongbuk Province. Stepwise-multiple regression was used to identify the influencing factors of burden felt. Results: As the score of burden felt by the main family, economic, social, physical, interdependent and emotional burdens were high in order. Factors influencing burden felt by main family care givers taking care of elderly patients with brain and spinal diseases were changed relation with patient after hospitalization, daily life ability, marital status, education and family caregiver's personality (explanatory power of 24.6%). Family caregivers felt a heavier burden when their relation with the patient was changed negatively or when the patient's activity of daily living was low. Conclusion: Based on these results, we need to develop coping measures and interventional programs for reducing the burden felt by the main family caregivers of elderly patients with brain and spinal diseases.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.84-92
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• 2022

To understand the microcircuitry of the brain, the anatomical and functional connectivity among neurons must be resolved. One of the technical hurdles to achieving this goal is that the anatomical connections, or synapses, are often smaller than the diffraction limit of light and thus are difficult to resolve by conventional microscopy, while the microcircuitry of the brain is on the scale of 1 mm or larger. To date, the gold standard method for microcircuit reconstruction has been electron microscopy (EM). However, despite its rapid development, EM has clear shortcomings as a method for microcircuit reconstruction. The greatest weakness of this method is arguably its incompatibility with functional and molecular analysis. Fluorescence microscopy, on the other hand, is readily compatible with numerous physiological and molecular analyses. We believe that recent advances in various fluorescence microscopy techniques offer a new possibility for reliable synapse detection in large volumes of neural circuits. In this minireview, we summarize recent advances in fluorescence-based microcircuit reconstruction. In the same vein as these studies, we introduce our recent efforts to analyze the long-range connectivity among brain areas and the subcellular distribution of synapses of interest in relatively large volumes of cortical tissue with array tomography and superresolution microscopy.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.613-618
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• 2000

This study was to investigate the effect of dietary protein and fiber on the antioxidant enzyme activities of brain in acute or chronic ethanol-treated rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed on diets containing two levels of protein(7%, 20%) with two levels of fiber (5%, 10%) Rats were administered 40%(v/v) ethanol(5g/kg body weight)orally 90min before decaptiation in acute ethanol-treated groups and 25%(v/v) ethanol(5g/kg body weight) once a day for 5 weeks in chronic ethanol treated-groups. The rats were sacrificed after 5 weeks of feeding periods. Superoxide dismutase and gluthathione S-transferase activities were lower in chronic ethanol-treated groups than acute ethanol-treated groups whereas catalase and glutathuone peroxidase activities were significantly increased by chronic ethanol treatment. Low protein supplement accelerated to change of their activities however dietary fiber levels did not affect antioxidant enzyme activities. Chronic ethanol treatment and/or low protein supplement results in increasing the brain lipid peroxide content but in lowering glutathione level. (Korean J Nutrition 33(6) ; 613~618, 2000)

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2005

Objectives : This study is to investigate the effects of oriental medical treatment of traumatic brain injury. Methods : We treated the patient with Herb medicine, acupuncture, moxa, fumigation, rubdown and negative and occupational therapy. And we evaluated the case with Modified Bathel Index, Activity Index, Jebsen Test. Results : There is improvement in his symptom (manual muscle power, finger apraxia, memory loss, dysarthria, urinary frequency), after oriental medical treatment. Conclusions : We report the good result of oriental medical treatment on this case. The more clinical study of oriental medical treatment for traumatic brain injury is needed.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.154-159
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• 1999

Magnetoencephalography (MEG), the measurement of magnetic fields produced by neuronal current associated with normal and pathologic brain activities, is a totally noninvasive method for localizing functional regions of the brain. During the past several years, many clinical research centers are working to expand various fundamental functional brain regions, which can be easily localized, as well as to characterize magnetic abnormalities which accompany a wide variety of cerebral disease. At present, MEG is used in a number of clinical centers throughout the world for the presurgical functional localization of eloquent cortex, and for the non-invasive localization of epileptiform activity. And also, non-invasiveness means that it can be used for screening and repetitive follow-up measurement without concern for adverse effects. As procedures for activating various functional brain regions are standardized, and as the effects of specific cerebral diseases on the MEG are carefully documented in controlled studies, the number of routine neurological applications for MEG will increase significantly. In this paper, the basic principles of MEG are reviewed briefly with its clinical application to neurologic disease.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.87-104
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• 2024

Most functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in resting state have assumed that the functional connectivity (FC) between time series from distinct brain regions is constant. However, increased interest has recently been in quantifying possible dynamic changes in FC during fMRI experiments. FC study may provide insight into the fundamental workings of brain networks to brain activity. In this work, we focus on the specific problem of estimating the dynamic behavior of pairwise correlations between time courses extracted from two different brain regions. We compare the sliding-window techniques such as moving average (MA) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), dynamic causality with vector autoregressive (VAR) model, dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) based on volatility, and the proposed alternative methods to use differencing and recursive residuals. We investigate the properties of those techniques in a series of simulation studies. We also provide an application with major depressive disorder (MDD) patient fMRI data to demonstrate studying dynamic correlations.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2012

Classification of human thought is an emerging research field that may allow us to understand human brain functions and further develop advanced brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. In the present study, we introduce a new approach to classify various mental states from noninvasive electrophysiological recordings of human brain activity. We utilized the full spatial and spectral information contained in the electroencephalography (EEG) signals recorded while a subject is performing a specific mental task. For this, the EEG data were converted into a 2D spatiospectral pattern map, of which each element was filled with 1, 0, and -1 reflecting the degrees of event-related synchronization (ERS) and event-related desynchronization (ERD). We evaluated the similarity between a current (input) 2D pattern map and the template pattern maps (database), by taking the inner-product of pattern matrices. Then, the current 2D pattern map was assigned to a class that demonstrated the highest similarity value. For the verification of our approach, eight participants took part in the present study; their EEG data were recorded while they performed four different cognitive imagery tasks. Consistent ERS/ERD patterns were observed more frequently between trials in the same class than those in different classes, indicating that these spatiospectral pattern maps could be used to classify different mental states. The classification accuracy was evaluated for each participant from both the proposed approach and a conventional mental state classification method based on the inter-hemispheric spectral power asymmetry, using the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV). An average accuracy of 68.13% (${\pm}9.64%$) was attained for the proposed method; whereas an average accuracy of 57% (${\pm}5.68%$) was attained for the conventional method (significance was assessed by the one-tail paired $t$-test, $p$ < 0.01), showing that the proposed simple classification approach might be one of the promising methods in discriminating various mental states.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.245-256
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• 2002

This studt was investigated to prove the effect of SPBST on the hypertension, the thrombosis and the brain damage. The results were as follows; 1. SPBST affected the htpertension as adepressant, but insignificant. 2. SPBST decreased significantly dopamine, aldosterone but ineffective on the epinephrine, norepinephrine and renin activity. 3. SPBST increased the NO product but insignificant. 4. SPBST had a death suppression effect by 50% in pulmonary thrombosis inducement experiment and activated slightly on the fibrinolytic activity. 5. SPBST suppressed significantly platelet diminution and prolonged insignificantly PT and APTT. 6. On the measure of the blood flow rate induced by the thrombus, in vivo SPBST accelerated the blood flow rate, in vitro insignificant. 7. SPBST had no toxicity on the PC12 cell and B103 cell induced by amyloid β protein (-35) and a protective effect, in proportion to the density. 8. SPBST decreased significantly coma duration time in a Infatal dose of KCN and showed 50% of survival rate in a fatal dose. 9. SPBST decreased significantly ischemic area and edema incited by the MCA blood flow block. These results indicate that SPBST can be used in hypertension, the thrombosis, the brain damage, the ischemic cerebral infarction and the acute stage of the brain damage. Further study will be needed about the functional mechanism and etc.

• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.162-169
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• 1995

Rat brain succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.24 SSADH) activity was detected in mitochondrial, cytosolic and microsomal fractions. Brain mitochondrial soluble SSADH was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE Sephacel, and 5'-AMP Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography. The purified enzyme was shown to consist of four identical subunits, and the molecular weight of a subunit was 55 kD. The $K_m$ for short chain aliphatic aldehydes and aromatic aldehydes were at the $10^{-3}M$ level but that for succinic semialdehyde was 2.2 ${\mu}M$. Either $NAD^+$ or $NADP^+$ can be used as a cofactor but the affinity for $NAD^+$ was 10 times higher than that for $NADP^+$. The brain cytosolic SSADH was also purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE Sephacel, Blue Sepharose CL-6B and 5'-AMP Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography and its Km for short chain aliphatic aldehydes was at the $10^{-3}$ level but that for succinic semialdehyde was 3.3 ${\mu}M$. $NAD^+$ can be used as a cofactor for this enzyme. We suppose that both enzyme might participate in the oxidation of succinic semialdehyde, which is produced during GABA metabolism. The activity of both cytosolic and mitochondrial SSADH was markedly inhibited when the concentration of succinic semialdehyde was high. The reciprocal plot pattern of product inhibition and initial velocity indicated a sequential ordered mechanism for mitochondrial matrix SSADH. Chemical modification data suggested that amino acid residues such as cysteine, serine and lysine might participate in the SSADH reaction.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.297-310
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• 2014

Objectives: This study is designed to investigate the effects of Banhahubak-Tang Extract (BHTe) on stress. Methos: BHTe was fed to ICR male mice ($20{\pm}2g$) orally with the dose of 100 mg/kg/day for five days. Mice were then exposed to sociopsychological stress by observing foot shock stressed mice for one hour for five days while restrained. Results: 1) The BHTe-administered group showed a tendency of decreasing of serum corticosterone secretion compared with the control group. 2) The BHTe-administered group showed an increase in noradrenalin secretions in the dorsal cortex of the brain, but it was not significant. 3) BHTe administration had no effect on the brain level of lipid peroxidation. 4) BHTe administration decreased the serum level of lipid peroxidation. 5) BHTe administration decreased the Cu,Zn-SOD in the brain. 6) BHTe administration had no effect on catalase activity in the brain. 7) BHTe administration had no effect on the brain level of GSH. 8) BHTe administration increased the serum level of DPPH free radical scavenging activity, but not significantly enough to make a comparison with BHT. 9) The elevated plus-maze test is designed to detect the effect of anxiolytic drugs. The BHTe group showed a significant increase in latency time. Conclusions: These results suggest that BHTe can effectively rid the subject of the effects of sociopsychological stress.