Rapid acquisition of new words and construction of large vocabularies is a unique capacity of developing human brain. This process is to a large degree mediated by a neurocognitive mechanism known as «fast mapping» (FM) which allows the child to quickly map new words onto neural representations after even a single exposure to them, using context-driven inference. However, the neurophysiological bases of this mechanism are still poorly understood. To address this open question, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate brain dynamics elicited by novel words following a single-shot audiovisual semantic learning task and to estimate cortical underpinnings of this process in healthy preschool children. We found that a single presentation of novel words in association with novel objects leads to a decrease in the brain’s activation, registered as an early N400 effect for newly learnt word forms, indicating rapid lexicosemantic memory trace formation in the developing brain. Interestingly, source analysis indicated this effect to be chiefly underpinned by activity modulations in the right-hemispheric temporal cortices, indicating their involvement in speech processing at an early age (known to be diminished later in life). Overall, current findings provide the electrophysiological evidence of the specific mechanism in the developing brain that promotes rapid integration of novel word representations into neocortical lexicosemantic networks after a single exposure, subserving efficient native word acquisition and mastering the mother tongue.

Влияние анксиолитика и антидепрессанта буспирона (агонист серотонинергического 5-HT1A рецептора), используемого для лечения тревожно-депрессивного состояния женщин во время беременности, на адаптивное поведение потомства является вопросом дискуссии. Изучение внутриутробного влияния сочетания буспирона и гипоксии, имеющего место в неонатальной клинике, на когнитивную сферу и стрессорный ответ, особенно у взрослых разнополых особей, важно для неонатологов в прогностическом аспекте. Мы впервые исследовали эффект хронического введения буспирона, умеренной острой нормобарической гипоксии и их взаимодействия в пренатальный период развития на пространственное обучение, память и реактивность гипоталамо-гипофизарно- адренокортикальной системы (ГГАКС), а также массу тела у взрослых самцов и самок крыс. Каждый пренатальный фактор в отдельности не ухудшил способность к пространственному обучению и память у крыс обоего пола. Взаимодействие буспирона и гипоксии ослабило выявленное улучшенное влияние гипоксии на пространственное обучение у самцов и эффективность пространственной долговременной памяти у самок, что сочеталось у последних со снижением стрессорного ответа кортикостерона в плазме крови. У самцов во влиянии пренатальных воздействий не было обнаружено изменений в эффективности пространственной памяти и реактивности ГГАКС. У крыс обоего пола совместное действие пренатальных факторов снизило эффективность пространственной долговременной памяти по сравнению с эффективностью пространственной памяти в первый день тестирования. Пренатальный буспирон вызвал снижение массы тела у крыс обоего пола. Обнаруженный половой диморфизм в действии пренатальных факторов на когнитивную сферу и реактивность ГГАКС у взрослых крыс может указывать на различные изменения нейрональной пластичности в областях гиппокампа, участвующих в пространственном обучении и памяти, в зависимости от половой принадлежности.

The question of the activity of muscles that provide the realization of imaginary movement is essential in the rehabilitation of motor disorders using neurointerfaces. The literature data on this issue are contradictory. The paper analyzes the EMG activity of the shin and thigh muscles of 40 healthy volunteers when working with a neurointerface based on kinesthetic motor imagery of walking in place and supplemented with the << Biokin >> robotic limb movement device (mechanotherapy), activated in case of successful motor imagery. It is shown that working with a neurointerface, on average for subjects, leads to an increase in muscle activity when motor imagery of walking compared to rest, and activation of the mechanical training device (AM) further increases muscle activity, with its effect being more pronounced in the muscles of the leg from which motor imagery of walking begins. The nature of muscle reactions to the task of motor imagery of walking is individual. AM when working with a neurointerface, the number of subjects with pronounced EMG activity increases, as does the number of significant correlations between the activity of the muscles of the lower limbs. Thus, the use of neurointerfaces based on motor imagery of walking and the addition of AM as feedback allows activating the muscles of the lower extremities, which is important in clinical practice in the rehabilitation of movements.

Spatial learning, memory, and reactivity of the hypothalamic—pituitary—adrenocortical system (HPA axis) were studied in adult male rats, whose mothers during pregnancy were subjected to acute moderate normobaric hypoxia, or repeated injections of buspirone, an agonist of type 1A serotonergic receptors (5HT1A), or their combination. Prenatal treatment with buspirone in rats with prenatal hypoxia impaired learning ability during the first day of 5-day training. A decrease in the effectiveness of long-term memory in comparison with short-term memory was revealed in two groups of rats: prenatal treatment with buspirone in combination with hypoxia and injection of physiological saline without hypoxia. The effectiveness of long-term memory and the level of corticosterone in response to stress did not differ between the groups, which can indicate adaptation of the 5HT1A receptor and the HPA axis to the prenatal buspirone and normobaric hypoxia during ontogeny.

The study is focused on the emotional state and stress of mothers of prematurely born infants with structural intracranial changes during the first year of their life. Study participants were 77 mothers of infants born at 28.3 ± 3.1 weeks of gestation with intraventricular cerebral hemorrhage, divided in 3 groups: those who received surgical neurosurgical treatment of posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus (N = 33), conservative treatment for hydrocephalic syndrome (N = 26), and in the intraventricular cerebral hemorrhage group of 1st degree without hydrocephalic syndrome (intraventricular cerebral hemorrhage comparison group, N = 18). The study used measures of depression (BDI-II, 1996) and anxiety (1983), and the Heidelberg Family Stress Scale (2007). The examination of mothers was carried out longitudinally at three age stages: 1) during the neonatal period while in the intensive care unit; 2) at the age of 3 corrected months at the department of pathology of newborns and the department of pathology of young children; 3) at the age of 12 corrected months at home. Results indicate that in the group of mothers of prematurely born infants with intraventricular cerebral hemorrhage, regardless of group membership, the values of depressive experiences and reactive anxiety are higher at the 1st stage of the examination, compared to 2 and 3. In the group of families with infants with posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus there were no significant changes observed in stress indicators during the first years of life of children, while the values of certain individual indicators are higher compared to the indicators in groups of families of children with hydrocephalic syndrome and intraventricular cerebral hemorrhage. The results are discussed from the perspective of possible mental health disorders among mothers of infants with intraventricular cerebral hemorrhage, its additional negative impact on the development of children, and the need of families for early, during the first trimester of the child’s life, beginning of family-centered intervention program and psychological support for mothers. Keywords: preterm infants, intraventricular hemorrhages, caregivers, emotional state, depression, anxiety, stress, early intervention.

The effectiveness of control using a brain–computer interface (BCI) and the success of motor imagery of the upper and lower limbs was assessed in terms of the accuracy of recognition of brain EEG signals (classification accuracy) on hand, foot, and locomotion motor imagery during 10 days of training in 10 volunteers. On training day 1, mean classification accuracy was higher for locomotion imagery than foot movement imagery, while accuracy on day 2 was better for hand imagery than locomotion imagery and accuracy on day 5 was better for foot imagery than hand imagery. On average, there was a significant increase in group mean classification accuracy by training day 3 in motor imagery of the hands and feet; as training continued, classification accuracy then decreased and again increased. Classification accuracy did not change significantly during training to locomotion imagery. Assessment of the dynamics of individual changes in classification accuracy using linear trend analysis showed that training led to increased classification accuracy for three participants (hand movements and locomotion in one, feet in two) and to decreased classification accuracy in three (hand movements and locomotion in one, locomotion in the second, and foot movements in the third). Four participants – like the group mean – showed no significant changes. These results are discussed in terms of changes in the activity of brain structures during training in relation to types of motor imagery.

The appearance of two-component utterances in children’s speech is one of the key stages of speech ontogenesis. The transition from separate lexemes to sentences is a cardinal event associated not only with the development of speech skills, but also with cognitive development. Previous studies based on longitudinal data have shown that two-word utterances appear from the age of one and a half to two years. Gender differences in the acquisition of this skill have never been considered. What is new in this study is that the results are based on an analysis of a representative database of children of both sexes, as well as separately boys and girls. For the first time, the norms of syntactic development were statistically substantiated and risk groups were identified. The material of the study was a database based on 1037 MacArthur questionnaires completed by parents (487 boys and 550 girls aged 18 to 36 months). The main results confirmed the age of appearance of utterances from one and a half to two years, but important nuances were revealed. Number of girls of 19 months, whose speech contains phrases, is twice the number of boys, and the differences are statistically significant). However, at the age of 20 months the boys are chasing the girls. Then the girls are slightly ahead, but we only observe significance at 23-month age. Girls, whose results refer to the median, say utterances at 20 months, and «median» boys - about 22-month age. The risk groups are different: we see a significant delay (children in the 5th percentile) in boys at the age of 25 months and in girls at 23-month age: they do not combine words into sentences. Comparison of the results of Russian-speaking children with the results of children speaking several other languages (according to scientific literature) confirmed the opinion about the typical age of the appearance of double-syntaxemic sentences. The results obtained are valid and reliable, therefore they are valuable in diagnosing the speech development of young children, as well as in conducting scientific research at this stage.

To address the problem of neonatal pain-related stress effects on spatial learning, memory and the stress reactivity of the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal axis (the HPA) in adolescent and adult rats we gave male and female rats an intraplantar injection of moderate concentration of formalin (2.5 0.5 µL) (Formalin rats) on postnatal days (P1 and P2). Adolescent male Formalin rats showed expressed impairments in both learning and memory. Adult male and female Formalin rats displayed better spatial learning than the adolescent Formalin rats; males, regardless of age, revealed better ability in learning than females. Adult Formalin males showed higher HPA axis reactivity, which was combined with a higher performance of long-term memory compared with the corresponding data in adult females. The data demonstrate that the consequences of moderate neonatal pain-related stress manifested themselves in later life differently depending on the age and sex. Moreover, the results testify to an unconventional adaptive potential of pain-related stress, which, when interacting with behavioral plasticity, improved the functioning of neurobiological systems in adult rats. The identified sex differences in effects of pain-related stress on the cognitive functions in rats of both ages, as well as the stress reactivity of hormonal response in adult rats, suggest sexual dimorphism in neonatal pain-triggered synaptic plasticity of structures involved in spatial learning and memory.

Neurorehabilitation of post-stroke patients with motor impairments is a significant and yet unresolved issue in restorative medicine. We propose a novel approach to rehabilitating such patients using transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation (scTS), which targets the neural locomotor networks of the lumbar enlargement of the human spinal cord [1]. The Spinal Neuroprosthesis device was developed to control stimulation, providing noninvasive and phase-dependent activation of motoneuronal pools of flexors and extensors during a certain phase of the stepping cycle, combined with the activation of neuronal locomotor networks [2]. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of Spinal Neuroprosthesis in regulating locomotor functions among post-stroke patients with motor disorders. The study is designed to provide an objective evaluation of the medical device’s effectiveness. The study was conducted at the Russian Research Institute of Neurosurgery named after Prof. A.L. Polenov. The study enrolled 20 patients who had been experiencing severe motor disorders of the lower extremities in the form of hemiparesis. The duration of stroke among these patients ranged from 3 to 12 months. They were divided into two groups: control and experimental. The control group underwent sham (scTS-) stimulation during a motor rehabilitation session, while the experimental group received real scTS, establishing the difference between the groups. The rehabilitation program comprised 15 sessions of stimulation to the spinal cord. The treatment protocol comprised an initial evaluation of patients’ neurological and rehabilitation status and an investigation of spatial-temporal and kinematic parameters of walking. Subsequently, patients participated in rehabilitation sessions, which entailed walking on the treadmill and over-ground stepping with scTS. Finally, patients underwent a follow-up examination that included a re-evaluation of their neurological and rehabilitation status, as well as an investigation of spatial-temporal and kinematic parameters of walking. At the beginning of the program, the distance traveled by patients in the control and experimental groups during a six-minute walk test, according to the study results, did not differ significantly. However, following the treatment, patients in the experimental group demonstrated a substantially lengthier distance covered during the 6-minute test than the control group. Both groups of patients in the 10-meter walk test demonstrated an increase in distance walking speed, although the patients in the experimental group had a greater increase in speed compared to those in the control group. These improvements were more pronounced in patients from the experimental group. The results from neurological scales indicated an increase in muscular strength, improvement in balance functions, and an increase in functional independence in both groups. The findings provide evidence that the Spinal Neuroprosthesis effectively regulates stepping movements and restores locomotor function in patients post-stroke. Clinically significant improvements are observed within two weeks of neuroprosthesis use. Additionally, training increases patients’ exercise tolerance while walking, speed of movement, and functional independence.

Personality traits (PTs) are predictors of the success of control of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs); however, it is unknown how the PTs that are optimal for BCI control changes during training. The paper for the first time analyzes the correlations between PTs and the accuracy of the classification (AC) of brain states in imagining the movements of the hands, feet, and locomotion during 10-day training of ten volunteers in BCI control. In the first 3 days of training, the AC is higher for more stressed and anxious volunteers; in the last days, for calmer ones. In the middle of the training period, AC is higher in low-demonstrativeness persons, it is more pronounced when imagining foot movements. Correlations of low demonstrativeness, as well as of foresight and self-control with AC when imagining foot movements are revealed significantly more often than when imagining hand movements and locomotions. During almost the entire period of training, AC with locomotion imagination is higher in individualists. The results make it possible to propose individually-oriented recommendations for the use of BCI based on the imagination of movements for the rehabilitation of patients with motor disorders.

A brain-spine neurointerface based on the kinesthetic imagination of foot dorsiflexion with additional activation of foot movement by Biokin robotic device (mechanotherapy), and transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation (TESCS) has been developed. Accuracy of classification of EEG-signals during the neurointerface control was on average 68% and significantly increases with the addition of mechanotherapy and TESCS by 9%. The EMG activity of the tibialis anterior (TA) – the muscle, which performs dorsiflexion of the foot, significantly increased during the instruction to imagine movement compared to that during the instruction to be at rest. The addition of mechanotherapy and TESCS during the neurointerface control has a greater effect not on the increase in TA activity when imagining the movement of the ipsilateral foot, but on the decrease in TA activity at rest. The revealed effects are apparently important for the formation of adequate coordination patterns of control signals from the CNS and of muscle activity during the implementation of movements and can be used in the clinical rehabilitation of motor activity using the cortico-spinal neurointerface.

The effectiveness of brain-computer interface (BCI) control and the success of imagination of movement of the upper and lower extremities were evaluated by the accuracy of recognition of EEG signals (classification accuracy) when imagining movements of the hands, feet and locomotion during 10-day training of 10 volunteers. Averaged data of all the volunteers revealed, that, on the first day of training, the classification accuracy is higher when imagining locomotion than foot movements, on the second day – hands than locomotion, on the fifth day – feet than hands. The average values of classification accuracy when imagining movements of the hands and feet increase by the 3rd day of training, further changes are specific depending on which movement is imagined. When learning the imagination of locomotion, the accuracy of classification does not significantly change. An assessment of the dynamics of individual changes in the accuracy of classification according to linear trends showed that in three participants, training led to an increase in the accuracy of classification (of the hand movements and locomotion – in one subject, of feet – in two subjects); in other three participants – to decrease (of the movements of the hands and locomotion – in one subject, of the locomotion – in the second subject, of feet – in the third). The four participants, as well as the sample average, had no significant changes. The results are discussed in terms of changes in the activity of brain structures during learning and depending on the type of imaginary movements.

Neural networks in the spinal cord can generate the walking pattern and control posture in the absence of supraspinal influences. A technology using transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) was created. During walking, tSCS activated spinal locomotor networks, as well as leg flexor/extensor motor pools in the swing/stance phases, respectively. It was assumed that the use of this technology in subjects with locomotion disorders would improve walking. Patients with hemiparesis were studied 3–11 months after stroke, the duration of the course was 2 weeks. Patients of the main and control groups received standard therapy and rehabilitation using the technology; in the control group, sham tSCS was used. After the course, minimal clinically important differences in walking parameters were achieved in the main group, in contrast to the control group. The developed technology is an effective means of restoring walking in patients with hemiparesis.

One of the features of the work of the brain of people suffering from schizophrenia is changes in the activity of their brain during visual categorization of animate and inanimate objects. The purpose of this study was to analyze the brain activity of people with schizophrenia and their visual categorization of objects with different semantic and physical characteristics. It was assumed that the patterns of brain activity in individuals with schizophrenia would differ from the group of healthy individuals both in the early and late stages of visual processing. Using the method of visual evoked potentials, we studied the features of brain activity in 25 people suffering from schizophrenia from 1 to 7 years old, when they categorized images of animate and inanimate nature, low and high spatial frequency. It was found that the amplitudes of P170 (N170) in the left and right posterior and central leads, as well as the amplitudes of P300 in the central lead in people with schizophrenia do not differ during categorization of animate and inanimate objects, which does not correspond to the data obtained earlier from the people without mental health abnormalities. The revealed result is important for a better understanding of the restructuring of the brain during visual perception of objects of different categories, which occurs during the development of schizophrenia.

We performed the analysis of electrophysiological markers of visual information processing in schizophre-nia. The relevance of this work is determined by the advantages of combining of the method of cognitive visual evoked potentials and the method of spatial-frequency filtering of images with different semantics in order to detect disorders. This method allows assessing of the functional state of the visual system in the early stages of cognitive impairment, based on the objective electrophysiological methods. We studied the nature of changes in the amplitudes of the components of evoked potentials in response to the presentation of a combination of stimuli with different spatial-frequency and semantic characteristics (objects of animate and inanimate nature) in patients with schizophrenia in the early stages. The obtained data indicated a predominant decrease in the activ-ity of the "high-frequency" parvo system, which manifests itself in a perception disorder and the abnormality of processing of small images and their details. Also, we obtained data in patients with schizophrenia that signifies an abnormality of the involuntary classification of images of objects of animate and inanimate nature. The obtained result is important for the understanding of the features of visual information processing in patients with schizo-phrenia in the early stages of the disease and the development of methods of cognitive impairments measuring.

A corticospinal neural interface was developed on the basis of kinesthetic imagery of dorsiflexion of the foot complemented by the Biokin robotic limb movement device and transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the spinal cord (TESSC). The classification accuracy (CA – the proportion of correct responses) of EEG brain signals while working with the neural interface was found to average 68

It is known that the molecules of innate and adaptive immunity can influence the synaptic activity of the central nervous system (CNS). Interferons (IFNs) are commonly used to treat viral and oncological diseases, although they are classified as ototoxic substances and their impact on the synaptic activity of the inner ear is not yet fully understood. In this study, the effect of interferon α2b (IFN-α2b) on the function of afferent glutamatergic synapse in the presence of drug application to the synaptic zone has been analyzed. The study was performed on the isolated vestibular apparatus of a frog (Rana temporaria) using the multiunit recording. Results showed that IFN-α2b (0.2–40 ng/mL) caused an increase in the background pulse activity of afferent fibers, followed by a decrease in the frequency of discharges, especially at high concentrations of IFN-α2b. Additionally, IFN-α2b reduced the glutamate (L-Glu) evoked response and influenced the level of afferent fiber activity restored by L-Glu when the glutamate release from hair cells was blocked in hyper-Mg2+ and hypo-Ca2+ solution. This indicates that IFN-α2b has a postsynaptic effect. Overall, the findings suggest that IFN has a neuromodulating effect on the synaptic activity of the afferent synapse of the vestibular apparatus.

The study investigated the effects of 1) acute normobaric hypoxia with a reduced oxygen concentration in inhaled air and 2) the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine in newborn female rat pups on spatial learning, the performance of spatial short-term and long-term memory and reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (the HPA axis) in adult rats. The newly obtained data indicate a deterioration in the ability for spatial learning only in the first out of five training days. Hypoxia did not change the performance of memory in the test “recognition of a new object” and caused an improvement in long-term memory in the Morris water maze. This was combined with a higher content of corticosterone in blood plasma after testing long-term memory. Fluoxetine did not change the performance indicators of memory or hormonal indicators in either control or hypoxic adult rats. Fluoxetine normalized the latent period of reaching the platform in hypoxic rats when testing learning, and did not reduce the indicator of long-term memory improved by hypoxia. The obtained results suggest that neonatal normobaric hypoxia under certain conditions helps improving memory, while fluoxetine has a protective effect on cognitive abilities and the HPA axis in adult female rats.