Vol 49, No 1 (2023)

In children aged 17–43 months (mean age 31 months), who differently evaluated pro- and antisocial actions performed by puppet characters (groups with high and low indices of moral evaluation – IME), there have been revealed the group-specific changes in the coherence of EEG activity in each group. In high IME children, the observation of a prosocial action facilitated intrahemispheric interactions in the α-frequency range. In the low IME group, changes in α-rhythm coherence were multidirectional. In the high IME group, the situation of decision making on how to distribute the reward between the two characters who demonstrated either pro- or antisocial behavior evoked an increase in α-activity coherence between the frontal, central, parietal and occipital regions in the right hemisphere. In the low IME children, on the contrary, it decreased. No significant modulations of the EEG coherence in θ-frequency range have been revealed. For β-activity, significant modulations were found only in children with low IME. The obtained findings are discussed in the context of the functionality of the brain control systems and the role of intrahemispheric cortical interconnections in moral behavior organization.

The aim was to study the oscillatory dynamics accompanying the processes of interaction with the virtual character and the localization of the revealed effects. 42 subjects (of which 25 are women) aged 18 to 41 years took part in the study. During the EEG recording, the subjects had to interact with the virtual character by choosing one of three options (“offer friendship”, “attack” or “avoid contact”). Faces with 5 types of emotional expressions (angry, happy, frightened, sad and neutral) were used. An analysis of equivalent dipoles revealed that the choice of active interaction (to attack or offer friendship), compared with the avoidance of interaction, was accompanied by a large decrease in α- and β-rhythms, which may be associated with the processes of understanding the virtual character’s intentions. The choice of friendship versus avoidance of interaction was accompanied by an increase in δ-rhythm, which may indicate the presence of a motivational component. The revealed effects were found in clusters of equivalent dipoles, the localization of which coincides with the structures of the mentalization network and the network of mirror neurons involved in the processes of people’s intent assessment.

The aim was to study the dependence of post stroke motor impairments of the paretic and the intact arm of lesion lateralization and paresis severity. The influence of lateralization of the lesion and the severity of paresis on the recovery of motor functions after rehabilitation using a hand exoskeleton controlled by a brain-computer interface was also studied. The study included 24 patients, 12 with left hemisphere involvement and 12 with right hemisphere involvement. Each group included 6 patients with moderate paresis and 6 patients with severe paresis. As motor tests, isolated movements in the joints of the paretic and intact hands were used before and after the rehabilitation course. Joint torque and motion isolation degree were used to assess motor function. It is shown that the muscle moments of the intact arm are greater in the case of damage to the left hemisphere; the asymmetry of the moments in the joints in this case was more pronounced than in the case of damage to the right hemisphere. This may be due to a greater imbalance in the activity of the hemispheres. The effectiveness of rehabilitation was manifested in: 1) an increase in moments in the joints in both paretic and intact hands; 2) an increase in the symmetry of the biomechanical parameters of the paretic and intact hands, which may indicate the restoration of the balance of the activity of the hemispheres. Biomechanical analysis of isolated movements allows suggests the pronation-supination in the vertical position of the arm as a sensitive indicator of motor function recovery after stroke.

The aim of the work was to study the neural basis of the synergetic interaction of the lower extremities’ skeletal muscles during locomotor activity. It was supposed to determine the relationship of the locomotor-related neuronal networks with the centers regulating the spatiotemporal modes of muscle interaction in the structure of the step cycle and its periods. The subjects walked the treadmill both, under normal conditions and during spinal cord percutaneous electrical stimulation. The parameters of the synergies extracted using the principal component method were analyzed. The reorganization of neuronal activity of spinal locomotor-related networks, similar to adaptive processes that compensate for motor deficits in people with pathologies of the nervous system, has been revealed. Percutaneous electrical stimulation changed the reciprocal relations of bilateral lower extremities muscles in the structure of synergetic modules, mainly during the swing phase. The synergy structure demonstrated combined temporal profiles with several peaks of activity. During stimulation, the formation of a basic profile with a clear outline of the main fluctuations was revealed. The spatiotemporal structure of muscle synergy patterns during stance phase turned out to be more stable, which is probably due to an increase in afferentation from the foot support-sensetive zones, which creates optimal conditions for initiating the central generators of locomotor pattern.

The article analysis the state of 24 eyes of 12 Russian cosmonauts who made long-term space flights to the ISS in the period from 2016 to 2021. The analysis was carried out by HRA and OCT images study, using the Display function included in the program of Spectralis OCT device. The thickness of the optic nerve head and retina was determined according to the hourly meridians, which allowed us to accurately diagnose and classify the optic disc edema according to the stages of the Frisen scale. By measuring the percentage ratio of the maximum thickness of the nerve disc within its boundaries to the minimum thickness of the retina outside the boundaries of the disc, we determined the digital value of prominence in each temporal hourly meridian, limited by the temporal sector of 95°. The presence of prominence in the extreme temporal meridians, or its absence at all, we regarded as a physiologically healthy state of the optic disc, corresponding to stage 0. This stage was established in 13 eyes (54.2%). Stage I (7 eyes (29.2%)) was diagnosed based on the absence of prominence in the horizontal temporal meridian. The defining feature of stage II is an increase in prominence in the temporal horizontal meridian by more than 10%. Subclinical stage II (prominence is increased, but less than 10%) was diagnosed in two eyes of two cosmonauts (8.3%). Clinically pronounced papilledema II–III stages was diagnosed in two eyes (8.3%) in one cosmonaut, where the maximum value of prominence was 70.1% in the right eye, and on the left – 40.1% in the horizontal meridian. The study shows that an increase in prominence up to 70% in the temporal horizontal meridian at stage III of edema leads to neurodegeneration of the optic nerve fibers in space flight. At stages II–III of edema, an increase in the minimum thickness of the neuroretinal rim compared with all other observations. At 0 – II subclinical stage, according to this indicator, it was impossible to differentiate the state of the optic disc.