Claudio Babiloni

Sapienza University of Rome | la sapienza · Department of Physiology and Pharmacology "Vittorio Erspamer"

Background: Patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (ADMCI) typically show a "slowing" of cortical resting-state eyes-closed electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms. Some of them also show subclinical, non-convulsive, and epileptiform EEG activity (EEA) with an unclear relationship with that "slowing." Objective...

Using a mirror adequately oriented, the motion of just one hand induces the illusion of the movement with the other hand. Here, we tested the hypothesis that such a mirror phenomenon may be underpinned by an electroencephalographic (EEG) event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) of central alpha rhythms (around 10 Hz) as a neurophys...

Alzheimer's disease dementia (ADD) is the most diffuse neurodegenerative disorder belonging to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in old persons. This disease is provoked by an abnormal accumulation of amyloid-beta and tauopathy proteins in the brain. Very recently, the first disease-modifying drug has been licensed with reserve (i.e., Ad...

Here we tested if the reactivity of posterior resting-state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) alpha rhythms from the eye-closed to eyes-open condition may differ in patients with dementia due to Lewy Bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (ADD), as a functional probe of the dominant cortical neural synchronization mechanisms regulating the vigilance in...

Introduction Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) may represent a diagnostic challenge, since its clinical picture overlaps with other dementia. Two toolkits have been developed to aid the clinician to diagnose DLB: the Lewy Body Composite Risk Score (LBCRS) and the Assessment Toolkit for DLB (AT-DLB). We aim to evaluate the reliability of these two que...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent cause of dementia in people > 60 years. This white paper summarizes the current standards of AD diagnosis, treatment, care, and prevention. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and positron emission tomography (PET) measures of cerebral amyloidosis and tauopathy allow the diagnosis of AD even before dementia (prod...

Previous evidence showed abnormal parietal sources of resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) delta (< 4 Hz) and alpha (8-12 Hz) rhythms in treatment-Naïve HIV (Naïve HIV) subjects, as cortical neural synchronization markers in quiet wakefulness. Here, we tested the hypothesis that these local abnormalities may be related to functional cortical...

The BDNF Val66Met gene polymorphism is a relevant factor explaining inter-individual differences to TMS responses in studies of the motor system. However, whether this variant also contributes to TMS-induced memory effects, as well as their underlying brain mechanisms, remains unexplored. In this investigation, we applied rTMS during encoding of a...

Noninvasive brain stimulation techniques (NiBS) have gathered substantial interest in the study of dementia, considered their possible role in help defining diagnostic biomarkers of altered neural activity for early disease detection and monitoring of its pathophysiological course, as well as for their therapeutic potential of boosting residual cog...

Cortical sources of resting state eyes‐closed electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms are abnormal in patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (ADMCI). In the present exploratory and retrospective study, we tested whether those abnormalities may be stronger in ADMCI with (ADMCI‐EEA) than without (ADMCI‐noEEA) epile...

Here we tested the hypothesis that gender may diversely affect resting state eyes‐closed electroencephalographic (rsEEG) alpha (8‐12 Hz) rhythms recorded in normal elderly (Nold) seniors and patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment (ADMCI). Clinical and rsEEG datasets in 69 ADMCI and 57 Nold individuals ‐ matched as demograph...

The cognitive reserve (CR) moderate the effect of brain pathophysiology on cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) continuum. In a previous study on individuals with subjective memory complaint (SMCs), a condition at risk for AD, from the INSIGHT‐preAD cohort, we found that CR altered the association of amyloid load with neurophysiological m...

Keeping in mind Başar’s theory of event‐related EEG oscillations, here we hypothesize that transient increases in delta rhythms in quiet wakefulness may enhance global cortical arousal as revealed by the desynchronization of alpha rhythms in normal (Nold) seniors with some derangement in Alzheimer’s disease dementia (ADD). Clinical and EEG datasets...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the first‐most common neurodegenerative disorder due to an abnormal accumulation of amyloid and tau proteins in the brain and explains about 60‐70% of 50 million of patients with dementia worldwide (WHO report, www.who.int). Disease with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is emerging as another important cause of dementia with visual hal...

The rsEEG alpha rhythms reflect cortical neural synchronization mechanisms underpinning the inhibition of sensory, cognitive, and motor areas in parietal, temporal, and occipital cortex during a condition of low vigilance. Here we tested the hypothesis that age may diversely affect rsEEG alpha (8‐12 Hz) rhythms recorded in normal elderly (Nold) sen...

In normal old (Nold) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) persons, a high cognitive reserve makes them more resistant and resilient to brain neuropathology and neurodegeneration. Here we tested whether these effects may affect neurophysiological oscillatory mechanisms generating dominant resting state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) alpha rhythms in Nold a...

Cortical network modularity underpins cognitive functions, so we hypothesized its progressive derangement along the course of frontotemporal (FTD) and Alzheimer's (AD) dementing diseases. EEG was recorded in 18 FTD, 18 AD, and 20 healthy controls (HC). In the FTD and AD patients, the EEG recordings were performed at the prodromal stage of dementia,...

Background Early differentiation between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is important for accurate prognosis, as DLB patients typically show faster disease progression. Cortical neural networks, necessary for human cognitive function, may be disrupted differently in DLB and AD patients, allowing diagnostic differentiati...

In the present retrospective and exploratory study, we tested the hypothesis that sex may affect cortical sources of resting state eyes-closed electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms recorded in normal elderly (Nold) seniors and patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment (ADMCI). Datasets in 69 ADMCI and 57 Nold individuals wer...

Background and aims: Cortical brain network modularity underpins cognitive functions. We hypothesized its progressive derangement along the course of two neurodegenerative conditions: frontotemporal (FTD) and Alzheimer's (AD) dementing diseases. Methods: EEG was recorded in 18 FTD, 18 AD, and 20 healthy control (HC) matched for age, gender and educ...

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) research has seen a significant growth in international collaboration over the last three decades. However, researchers face a challenge in identifying large and diverse samples capable of powering longitudinal studies and clinical trials. The DLB research community has begun to focus efforts on supporting the develo...

Microglia, the brain's resident macrophages, actively contributes to the homeostasis of cerebral parenchyma by sensing neuronal activity and supporting synaptic remodeling and plasticity. While several studies demonstrated different roles for astrocytes in sleep, the contribution of microglia in the regulation of sleep/wake cycle and in the modulat...

The loss of functional living skills (FLS) is an essential feature of major neurocognitive disorders (M-NCD); virtual reality training (VRT) offers many possibilities for improving FLS in people with M-NCD. The aim of our study was to verify the effectiveness of a non-immersive VRT on FLS for patients with M-NCD. VRT was carried out for 10 to 20 se...

Cerebrospinal and structural-molecular neuroimaging in-vivo biomarkers are recommended for diagnostic purposes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias; however, they do not explain the effects of AD neuropathology on neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning cognitive processes. Here, an Expert Panel from the Electrophysiology Professional...

Background: In relaxed adults, staying in quiet wakefulness at eyes closed is related to the so-called resting state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms, showing the highest amplitude in posterior areas at alpha frequencies (8-13 Hz). Objective: Here we tested the hypothesis that age may affect rsEEG alpha (8-12 Hz) rhythms recorded in norma...

There is substantial experimental evidence for dysregulation of several microRNA (miRNA) expression levels in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). MiRNAs modulate critical brain intracellular signaling pathways and are associated with AD core pathophysiological mechanisms. First, we conducted a real-time quantitative PCR-based pilot study to identify a set of...

Recent evidence suggests that about 30%of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) without a known diagnosis of epilepsy may display epileptiform spikes during electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings. These abnormal discharges occur predominantly during sleep and may be associated with accelerated disease progression. Subclinical sp...

The Electrophysiology Professional Interest Area (EPIA) and Global Brain Consortium endorsed recommendations on candidate electroencephalography (EEG) measures for Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical trials. The Panel reviewed the field literature. As most consistent findings, AD patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia showed abnormaliti...

Vascular contribution to cognitive impairment (VCI) and dementia is related to etiologies that may affect the neurophysiological mechanisms regulating brain arousal and generating electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. A multidisciplinary expert panel reviewed the clinical literature and reached consensus about the EEG measures consistently found...

Extending Başar's theory of event-related EEG oscillations, here we hypothesize that even in quiet wakefulness, transient increases in delta rhythms may enhance global cortical arousal as revealed by the desynchronization of alpha rhythms in normal (Nold) seniors with some derangement in Alzheimer's disease dementia (ADD). Clinical and EEG datasets...

The European PharmaCog study (www.pharmacog.org) has reported a reduction in delta (1‐6 Hz) electroencephalographic (EEG) power (density) during cage exploration (active condition) compared with quiet wakefulness (passive condition) in PDAPP mice (hAPP Indiana V717F mutation) modeling Alzheimer’s disease (AD) amyloidosis and cognitive deficits. Her...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second‐most common neurodegenerative disorder that affects 2–3% of the population ≥ 65 years of age and may belong to cognitive deficits and dementia in 50% of cases. Disease with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is emerging as another important cause of dementia in pathological aging. PD and DLB are both due to intra‐neuronal Lewy...

The TAUPS2APP Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mouse model expresses mutant APPSWE, PSEN2N141I and TAUP301L mutations and displays age‐dependent accumulation of Aβ plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. In humans, abnormal protein accumulation and spreading are related to neurodegenerative processes, most stereotypically in the hippocampus and medial tempora...

Despite epilepsy has been associated with cognitive decline, neuropsychological, neurobiological and neurophysiological features in patients with late‐onset epilepsy of unknown etiology (LOEU) are still unknown. This cross‐sectional study aims at investigating neuropsychological profile, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (...

Cognitive reserve (CR) is present in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) seniors with high education attainment making them clinically resilient to extended brain neuropathology and neurodegeneration. Here we tested whether subjective memory complaint (SMC) seniors with AD neuropathology and high education attainment may present abnormal eyes‐closed resting s...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second‐most common neurodegenerative disorder that affects 2–3% of the population ≥ 65 years of age and may belong to cognitive deficits and dementia in 50% of cases. Disease with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is emerging as another important cause of dementia in pathological aging. PD and DLB are both due to intra‐neuronal Lewy...

Previous evidence has shown that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients exhibited an increased risk of overt epileptic seizures or subclinical, non‐convulsive, epileptiform‐like electroencephalographic (EEG) signatures (i.e., spike‐sharp wave discharges, giant spikes, etc.) due to temporal and frontal lobe dysfunctions and aberrant cortical neural synch...

Neuroinflammation, a key early pathomechanistic alteration of Alzheimer's disease, may represent either a detrimental or a compensatory mechanism or both (according to the disease stage). YKL-40, a glycoprotein highly expressed in differentiated glial cells, is a candidate biomarker for in vivo tracking neuroinflammation in humans. We performed a l...

In normal old (Nold) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) persons, a high cognitive reserve (CR) makes them more resistant and resilient to brain neuropathology and neurodegeneration. Here, we tested whether these effects may affect neurophysiological oscillatory mechanisms generating dominant resting state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) alpha rhythms in...

Objective: In this exploratory study, we tested whether electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms may reflect the effects of a chronic administration (4 weeks) of an anti-amyloid β-site amyloid precursor protein (APP) cleaving enzyme 1 inhibitor (BACE-1; ER-901356; Eisai Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) in TASTPM (double mutation in APP KM670/671NL and PSEN1...

Objective Here we tested if cortical sources of resting state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms may differ in sub-groups of patients with prodromal and overt dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) as a function of relevant clinical symptoms. Methods We extracted clinical, demographic and rsEEG datasets in matched DLB patients (N = 60) and control A...

In the present exploratory and retrospective study, we hypothesized that cortical sources of resting state eyes-closed electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms might be more abnormal in patients with epileptiform EEG activity (spike-sharp wave discharges, giant spikes) and amnesic mild cognitive impairment not due to Alzheimer's disease (noADMCI-EEA...

β-Secretase1 (BACE1) protein concentrations and rates of enzyme activity, analyzed in human bodily fluids, are promising candidate biological markers for guidance in clinical trials investigating BACE1 inhibitors to halt or delay the dysregulation of the amyloid-β pathway in Alzheimer's disease (AD). A robust body of evidence demonstrates an associ...

Objective This retrospective and exploratory study tested the accuracy of artificial neural networks (ANNs) at detecting Alzheimer’s disease patients with dementia (ADD) based on input variables extracted from resting-state electroencephalogram (rsEEG), structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) or both. Methods For the classification exercise,...

Introduction The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected the economy, daily life, and mental/physical health. The latter includes the use of electroencephalography (EEG) in clinical practice and research. We report a survey of the impact of COVID-19 on the use of clinical EEG in practice and research in several countries, and the recommendations of a...

Background: The European PharmaCog study (http://www.pharmacog.org) has reported a reduction in delta (1-6 Hz) electroencephalographic (EEG) power (density) during cage exploration (active condition) compared with quiet wakefulness (passive condition) in PDAPP mice (hAPP Indiana V717F mutation) modeling Alzheimer's disease (AD) amyloidosis and cog...

Background: Research investigating treatments and interventions for cognitive decline fail due to difficulties in accurately recognizing behavioral signatures in the presymptomatic stages of the disease. For this validation study, we took our previously constructed digital biomarker-based prognostic models and focused on generalizability and robus...

We investigated in a longitudinal multicenter cohort study functional cortical connectivity changes along the course of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) from the prodromal stage of the diseases. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in 18 FTD and 18 AD patients at the prodromal stage of dementia, at dementia onset, and...

We investigated in a longitudinal multicenter cohort study functional cortical connectivity changes along the course of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from the prodromal stage of the diseases. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in 18 FTD and 18 AD patients at the prodromal stage of dementia, at dementia onset, and...

Once first Alzheimer's disease (AD) disease-modifying therapies will become available, global healthcare systems will be challenged by a large-scale demand for clinical and biological screening. Validation and qualification of globally accessible, minimally-invasive, and time-, cost-saving blood-based biomarkers needs to be advanced. Besides establ...

Introduction: Despite the fact that epilepsy has been associated with cognitive decline, neuropsychological, neurobiological, and neurophysiological features in patients with late-onset epilepsy of unknown etiology (LOEU) are still unknown. This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the neuropsychological profile, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biom...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease among the elderly with a progressive decline in cognitive function significantly affecting quality of life. Both the prevalence and emotional and financial burdens of AD on patients, their families, and society are predicted to grow significantly in the near future, due to a prol...

Compared with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) shows peculiar clinical manifestations related to vigilance (i.e., executive cognitive deficits and visual hallucinations) that may be reflected in resting state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms. To test this hypothesis, clinical and rsEEG rhythms in age-, sex-, and education-m...

Cognitive reserve is present in Alzheimer's disease (AD) seniors with high education attainment making them clinically resilient to extended brain neuropathology and neurodegeneration. Here, we tested whether subjective memory complaint (SMC) seniors with AD neuropathology and high education attainment of the prospective INSIGHT-preAD cohort (Paris...

Amyloid and tau pathological accumulation should be considered for Alzheimer's disease (AD) definition and before subjects' enrollment in disease-modifying trials. Although age, APOEε4, and sex influence cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker levels, none of these variables are considered by current normality/abnormality cutoffs. Using baseline CSF da...

Polymorphic variants of the gene encoding for metabotropic glutamate receptor 3 (mGlu3) are linked to schizophrenia. Because abnormalities of cortical GABAergic interneurons lie at the core of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, we examined whether mGlu3 receptors influence the developmental trajectory of cortical GABAergic transmission in the po...

Introduction: Successful development of effective β-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1)-targeted therapies for early stages of Alzheimer's disease requires biomarker-guided intervention strategies. Methods: We investigated whether key biological factors such as sex, apolipoprotein E (APOE ε4) allele, and age affect longitudi...

In 1999, the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (IFCN) published "IFCN Guidelines for topographic and frequency analysis of EEGs and EPs" (Nuwer et al., 1999). Here a Workgroup of IFCN experts presents unanimous recommendations on the following procedures relevant for the topographic and frequency analysis of resting state EEGs (r...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00890.].

The treatment of Major and Mild NeuroCognitive Disorder (M-NCD, m-NCD) include pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies, including cognitive training, recreational therapies, exercise, and interventions using technological tools. Proper cognitive training could be effective in preventing the evolution towards more severe cognitive impairme...

Background Previous evidence showed abnormal sources of resting-state delta (<4 Hz) and alpha (8–12 Hz) rhythms in patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), as cortical neural synchronization markers in quiet wakefulness. Here, we tested the hypothesis of additional abnormalities in functional cortical connectivity computed in those sources...

Background This retrospective study aimed to check whether the resting state eyes-closed electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms might reflect brain arousal in patients with Alzheimer’s disease dementia (ADD) at the group and the individual level. Methods Our dataset was an international archive of Clinical and rsEEG data of 42 ADD and 40 healthy...