Balance and walking are fundamental to support common daily activities. Relatively accurate characterizations of normal and impaired gait features were attained at the kinematic and muscular levels. Conversely, the neural processes underlying gait dynamics still need to be elucidated. To shed light on gait‐related modulations of neural activity, we collected high‐density electroencephalography (hdEEG) signals and ankle acceleration data in young healthy participants during treadmill walking. We used the ankle acceleration data to segment each gait cycle in four phases: initial double support, right leg swing, final double support, left leg swing. Then, we processed hdEEG signals to extract neural oscillations in alpha, beta, and gamma bands, and examined event‐related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) across gait phases. Our results showed that ERD/ERS modulations for alpha, beta, and gamma bands were strongest in the primary sensorimotor cortex (M1), but were also found in premotor cortex, thalamus and cerebellum. We observed a modulation of neural oscillations across gait phases in M1 and cerebellum, and an interaction between frequency band and gait phase in premotor cortex and thalamus. Furthermore, an ERD/ERS lateralization effect was present in M1 for the alpha and beta bands, and in the cerebellum for the beta and gamma bands. Overall, our findings demonstrate that an electrophysiological source imaging approach based on hdEEG can be used to investigate dynamic neural processes of gait control. Future work on the development of mobile hdEEG‐based brain–body imaging platforms may enable overground walking investigations, with potential applications in the study of gait disorders.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a respiratory disease associated with airways inflammation and lung parenchyma fibrosis. The primary goals of COPD treatment are to reduce symptoms and risk of exacerbations, therefore pulmonary rehabilitation is considered the key component of managing COPD patients. Oxidative airway damage, inflammation and reduction of endogenous antioxidant enzymes are known to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of COPD. Recently, also natural antioxidants have been considered as they play an important role in metabolism, DNA repair and fighting the effects of oxidative stress. In this paper we evaluated the response of 105 elderly COPD patients to pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), based on high or low vegetable consumption, by analyzing clinical parameters and biological measurements at baseline and after completion of the three weeks PR. We found that daily vegetable intake in normal diet, without any specific intervention, can increase the probability to successfully respond to rehabilitation (65.4% of responders ate vegetables daily vs. 40.0% of non-responders, p = 0.033). The association was especially evident in subjects ≥ 80 year of age (OR = 17.0; p < 0.019). Three weeks of pulmonary rehabilitation are probably too short to reveal a reduction of the oxidative stress and DNA damage, but are enough to show an improvement in the patient’s inflammatory state.

Objective. Electroencephalography (EEG) cleaning has been a longstanding issue in the research community. In recent times, huge leaps have been made in the field, resulting in very promising techniques to address the issue. The most widespread ones rely on a family of mathematical methods known as blind source separation (BSS), ideally capable of separating artefactual signals from the brain originated ones. However, corruption of EEG data still remains a problem, especially in real life scenario where a mixture of artefact components affects the signal and thus correctly choosing the correct cleaning procedure can be non trivial. Our aim is here to evaluate and score the plethora of available BSS-based cleaning methods, providing an overview of their advantages and downsides and of their best field of application. Approach. To address this, we here first characterized and modeled different types of artefact, i.e. arising from muscular or blinking activity as well as from transcranial alternate current stimulation. We then tested and scored several BSS-based cleaning procedures on semi-synthetic datasets corrupted by the previously modeled noise sources. Finally, we built a lifelike dataset affected by many artefactual components. We tested an iterative multistep approach combining different BSS steps, aimed at sequentially removing each specific artefactual component. Main results. We did not find an overall best method, as different scenarios require different approaches. We therefore provided an overview of the performance in terms of both reconstruction accuracy and computational burden of each method in different use cases. Significance. Our work provides insightful guidelines for signal cleaning procedures in the EEG related field.

Walking encompasses a complex interplay of neuromuscular coordination and cognitive processes. Disruptions in gait can impact personal independence and quality of life, especially among the elderly and neurodegenerative patients. While traditional biomechanical analyses and neuroimaging techniques have contributed to understanding gait control, they often lack the temporal resolution needed for rapid neural dynamics. This study employs a mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) platform with high-density electroencephalography (hd-EEG) to explore event-related desynchronization and synchronization (ERD/ERS) during overground walking. Simultaneous to hdEEG, we recorded gait spatiotemporal parameters. Participants were asked to walk under usual walking and dual-task walking conditions. For data analysis, we extracted ERD/ERS in α, β, and γ bands from 17 selected regions of interest encompassing not only the sensorimotor cerebral network but also the cognitive and affective networks. A correlation analysis was performed between gait parameters and ERD/ERS intensities in different networks in the different phases of gait. Results showed that ERD/ERS modulations across gait phases in the α and β bands extended beyond the sensorimotor network, over the cognitive and limbic networks, and were more prominent in all networks during dual tasks with respect to usual walking. Correlation analyses showed that a stronger α ERS in the initial double-support phases correlates with shorter step length, emphasizing the role of attention in motor control. Additionally, β ERD/ERS in affective and cognitive networks during dual-task walking correlated with dual-task gait performance, suggesting compensatory mechanisms in complex tasks. This study advances our understanding of neural dynamics during overground walking, emphasizing the multidimensional nature of gait control involving cognitive and affective networks.

Goal: Functional connectivity (FC) is an important indicator of the brain's state in different conditions, such as rest/task or health/pathology. Here we used high-density electroencephalography coupled to source reconstruction to assess frequency-specific changes of FC during resting state. Specifically, we computed the Small-World Propensity (SWP) index to characterize network small-world architecture across frequencies. Methods: We collected resting state data from healthy participants and built connectivity matrices maintaining the heterogeneity of connection strengths. For a subsample of participants, we also investigated whether the SWP captured FC changes after the execution of a working memory (WM) task. Results: We found that SWP demonstrated a selective increase in the alpha and low beta bands. Moreover, SWP was modulated by a cognitive task and showed increased values in the bands entrained by the WM task. Conclusions: SWP is a valid metric to characterize the frequency-specific behavior of resting state networks.

Cervical dystonia (CD) is characterized by involuntary neck muscle spasms that lead to abnormal head movements or postures. It is associated with somatosensory (tactile and proprioceptive) dysfunction. Here we tested whether vibro-tactile stimulation (VTS) of the cervical muscles constitutes a non-invasive form of neuromodulation of the somatosensory system that can provide temporary symptom relief for people with CD. In a multi-centre study, 67 CD patients (44 female) received VTS to sternocleidomastoid and/or trapezius muscles for up to 45 min under 9 different stimulation conditions. Retention was assessed 1, 5 and 20 min past VTS. Head angles and neck muscle EMG were recorded. The primary outcome measure was a head angle index (HAI), a composite measure reflecting the head deviation across the three axes of the head. After identifying the most effective VTS condition for each participant, analysis showed that 85 % (57/67) of participants experienced an improvement in HAI of at least 10 % during the application of VTS. HAI improved by 50 % or higher in 26/67 of participants. For those responding to VTS, the effects tended to decay within 20 min. For the different CD phenotypes several stimulation sites could induce similarly large relative improvements in head posture. The study provides first systematic evidence that cervical VTS can induce fast-acting improvements in abnormal head posture in patients with CD. It demonstrates that a stimulation of somatosensory afferent networks modulates the innervation of dystonic muscles. It highlights the potential of cervical VTS as an adjuvant, non-invasive neuromodulation treatment in CD.