by Vjollca Ndreu  , Yllka Themeli  , Ilirjana Zekja  and Fatjona Kamberi

Received: 02 April 2022;  Published: 06 July 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2203126

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11th, 2020. The pandemic had significantly affected public health, and the mental health of people was compromised regardless of age or socioeconomic status. In this study, we measured the psychological distress caused by the pandemic and determined the associated factors. An online survey was conducted from November 16th (2020) to January 31st (2021). The participants were Albanian adults (≥18 years old). The call to participate was posted on so [...]

by Félix Neto  and Maria da Conceição Pinto

Received: 23 January 2022;  Published: 08 June 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202125

This study analyzed the degree of loneliness, as well as acculturation and adaptation factors related to it among African migrants. The study sample consisted of 759 migrants (48.5% females) from four ethnocultural groups (Angolans, Cape Verdeans, Guineans, and Mozambicans) living in Portugal. Participants’ mean age was 37 years, and the mean length of sojourn in this country was 21 years. Participants completed self-reported questionnaires to evaluate social contacts, language proficiency, ethnic identity, perceiv [...]

by Rail M. Shamionov  , Marina V. Grigoryeva  , Elena S. Grinina  and Aleksey V. Sozonnik

Received: 25 March 2022;  Published: 01 June 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202124

In an age when publicity is the norm, human loneliness is a significant socio-psychological problem. Objective loneliness (e.g., as experienced during the pandemic) does not always result in subjective loneliness. Subjective loneliness directly influences various aspects of the human psyche and activities. Analysis of satisfaction with social life, as a marker of social well-being and academic adaptation of students with different loneliness types, allows determining the magnitude of subjective loneliness and how i [...]

by Mark Jaradeh  , Mark deBettencourt  , Edgar Yap  , Yesha Patel  , April Alcantara  , Conrad Stasieluk  and Edwin S. Meresh

Received: 02 March 2022;  Published: 23 May 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202123

Catatonia, particularly malignant catatonia (MC), continues to manifest in severe sequalae such as hyperthermia, rhabdomyolysis, cardiovascular collapse and failure, and even death as, although identification of the syndrome has significantly improved once its developed, several precarious factors continue to inhibit prompt and efficacious treatment. In this context, we evaluated the cases of six patients who were treated at our center for eventual MC manifestation with the aim of elucidating a pre-MC sensitive pre [...]

by Igor Val Danilov  and Sandra Mihailova

Received: 24 January 2022;  Published: 18 May 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202122

Studies in the field of neuroscience have shown that the neural network responsible for numeracy overlaps with the visual and spatial processing regions. Other studies in psychology also highlighted an association of visual-spatial processing with mathematical competence at the early stages of development. These findings suggest that research on the size of the focal area of attention (consciousness) can contribute to understanding the development of numeracy. In this case study, we verified the hypothesis of devel [...]

by Ashley Schumaker  , Rachel Klauber  , Margaret Aasen  , Michael Padua  and Edwin Meresh

Received: 07 December 2021;  Published: 24 April 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202121

Catatonia and malignant catatonia may result in devastating and life-threatening complications like pulmonary embolisms, pneumonia, deep venous thrombosis, rhabdomyolysis, and even death. There have been documented cases implicating alcohol withdrawal as a significant culprit in catatonia. Here, we provide a unique case report of a patient with a complicated medical course, who subsequently developed malignant catatonia secondary to severe alcohol withdrawal, and was successfully treated using both first line treat [...]

by Joshua A Vova

Received: 21 February 2022;  Published: 20 April 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202120

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most frequent cause of childhood disability. CP occurs in 1 out of every 345 children in the United States. CP is primarily a motor disease that is the result of an insult to the brain that occurs during the prenatal or early postnatal period when the brain is still developing. CP is not a single disease but a physical description of motor impairments that originate from multiple etiologies. This article briefly discusses the etiologies, classification and management of the neurologic med [...]

by Kory Floyd  , Nathan Woo  , Benjamin Custer  , Dana Dinsmore  , Kaylin Duncan  and Jeannette Maré

Received: 07 January 2022;  Published: 19 April 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202119

Loneliness is a common condition that poses substantial risks to morbidity and mortality. Cacioppo and Cacioppo’s [1] evolutionary theory of loneliness (ETL) provides that loneliness serves a social signaling function and also manifests in hypervigilance to threat, which we propose can influence person perception. In this experiment, 480 observers evaluated videotaped self-presentation messages from speakers who scored either high or low on a measure of loneliness. On the basis of ETL, we hypothesized that observer [...]

by OBM Neurobiology Editorial Office

Received: 02 April 2022;  Published: 07 April 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202118

by Joseph S. D'Arrigo

Received: 08 December 2021;  Published: 29 March 2022;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2201117

Cerebrovascular atherosclerosis, and several other cardiovascular (or "inflamm-aging" type) diseases, are more frequent and advanced in subjects with Alzheimer's disease compared with normal aging. In addition, the observed pathogenic link to dementia (and its associated cerebral microvascular damage) is readily explained by alterations of arterial elasticity. A therapeutic strategy to delay dementia could be based upon localized drug delivery, using lipid nanocarriers (i.e., biobased nanoemulsion technology), targ [...]