[Purpose] There have been no investigations into the improvement of activities of daily living among patients suffering from post-stroke depression on admission to convalescent rehabilitation wards in Japan. This study aimed to assess the improvement of activities in daily living in patients with or without post-stroke depression at the time of admission to a convalescent rehabilitation ward. [Subjects and Methods] This retrospective study included 108 stroke patients divided into two groups according to their Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item short form scores. Activities of daily living were assessed using the Functional Independence Measure. The degree of improvement on the Functional Independence Measure was defined as the difference between scores on admission and at discharge. [Results] The Functional Independence Measure gain score was significantly different from the Functional Independence Measure total score. There was a significant interaction between time period and post-stroke depression factors for the Functional Independence Measure total score. A multiple regression analysis revealed a significant association between Geriatric Depression Scale score and Functional Independence Measure total score. [Conclusion] The present study suggests that post-stroke depression has a negative impact on recovery of activities of daily living and on rehabilitation outcomes in a convalescent rehabilitation ward setting.

PurposeAlthough acute bouts of exercise reportedly have beneficial effects on executive function, inactive people may find it difficult to start exercising. In this study, we focused on housework activities (HAs) that generate a sense of accomplishment and require a mild intensity of physical activity. We examined the impact of an acute bout of HA on executive function and oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) flow to related cortical regions.Materials and methodsTwenty-five participants (age, 18–21 years; mean, 19.88±0.60 years; six males and 19 females) underwent two experiments, ie, HA and control experiments, which were conducted on different days. Participants vacuumed a dirty floor in the HA experiment and mimicked the same motion with an unplugged vacuum cleaner on a clean floor in the control experiment.ResultsHeart rate recorded during the experiments showed no significant difference in the intensity of physical activity between control and HA groups. A questionnaire revealed a sense of accomplishment after completing the HA experiment. Participants performed the Stroop color–word task (SCWT) pre- and post-experiments; cortical hemodynamic changes were simultaneously monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Variation in Stroop interference scores for SCWT total response between pre- and post-experiments was signifi-cantly higher in the HA group than in the control group, and that for SCWT correct response showed a similar trend. Variation in the Stroop interference score for oxy-Hb flow to the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (R-VLPFC) showed the same trend.ConclusionThus, HAs may have a greater beneficial effect on executive function than other physical activities through the activation of PFC, including R-VLPFC.

Introduction: Previous studies have revealed that one-session focused attention meditation (FAM) can improve top-down attention control, which is one of the factors of working memory capacity (WMC). In addition, FAM shares various neural substrates, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), with WMC. Thus, we hypothesized that one-session FAM would improve WMC by activating the DLPFC evoked by the top-down attention control. In this study, we examined whether FAM modified WMC in individuals with little to no meditation experience. Methods:The participants were randomly assigned to either the FAM group (N = 13) or the control group (N = 17) who engaged in random thinking (i.e., mind-wandering).Before and after each 15-min intervention, the participants' WMC was measured according to the total number of correct answers in the Reading Span Test. During each intervention, functional near-infrared spectroscopy was employed to measure the blood flow in the participants' DLPFC and determine the top-down attention control effect.Results: In the FAM group, WMC increased, and the bilateral DLPFC was activated during the intervention. As for the control group, WMC decreased after the intervention, and the bilateral DLPFC was not activated during the intervention. A correlation was also found among all participants between the increase in WMC and the activation of the bilateral DLPFC. Conclusion:The study findings suggest that top-down attention control during FAM can activate the bilateral DLPFC and increase WMC among meditation novices. K E Y W O R D Sdorsolateral prefrontal cortex, focused attention meditation, near-infrared spectroscopy, working memory capacityThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs) convert adenosine residues to inosine specifically in double-stranded RNAs. In this study, we investigated the function of primary RNA editing enzyme ADAR1 in pluripotent stem cells and found that loss of ADAR1 in human iPS cells promotes caspase3-mediated cell death. However, ADAR1 knockdown (KD) did not alter cell morphology, alkaline phosphatase (AP) staining activities and the expression levels of pluripotent marker genes, indicating that ADAR1 is dispensable for maintenance of pluripotency. Furthermore, ADAR1-KD iPS cells did not change proliferation rate. These findings extended the role of ADAR1 and might open the road for understanding pluripotent state more deeply.

Individuals have a preferred pace at which they perform voluntary repetitive movements. Previous studies have reported that greater activation of the prefrontal cortex was observed during self-initiated movements than during externally triggered movements. The purpose of the present study is to compare the activation of the prefrontal cortex induced when the subjects performed a peg-board task at their preferred slow pace (PSP, the self-initiated condition) with that induced when they performed the same task at metronome slow pace (MSP, the externally triggered condition) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Healthy subjects performed the task while sitting in a chair. By assessing the activated channels individually, we confirmed that all of the prefrontal regions of interest were activated by both tasks. In the second-level analyses, we found that the activation detected in the frontopolar cortex (FPPFC; Brodmann area 10) was higher during the PSP task than during the MSP task. The FPPFC is known to be at the top of prefrontal hierarchy, and specifically involved in evaluating self-generated information. In addition, the FPPFC plays a role in coordinating lateral prefrontal cortex. In the present study, the subjects evaluated and managed the internally generated PSP by coordinating the activity of other lower level prefrontal regions.