Preprints

Data management and sample tracking in complex biological workflows are essential steps to ensure necessary documentation and guarantee the reusability of data and metadata. Currently, these steps pose challenges related to correct annotation and labeling, error detection, and safeguarding the quality of documentation. [...]

Head motion is an omnipresent confounder of magnetic resonance image (MRI) analyses as it systematically affects morphometric measurements, even when visual quality control is performed. In order to estimate subtle head motion, that remains undetected by experts, we introduce a deep learning method to predict in-scanner head motion directly from T1-weighted (T1w), T2-weighted (T2w) and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images using motion estimates from an in-scanner depth camera as ground truth. [...]

Thalamic brain areas play an important role in adaptive behaviors. Nevertheless, the population dynamics of thalamic relays during learning across sensory modalities remain mostly unknown. [...]

The noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) in the brainstem shows early signs of protein pathologies in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. As the LC’s small size (approximately 2.5 mm in width) presents a challenge for molecular imaging, the past decade has seen a steep rise in structural and functional Magnetic Resonance (MR) studies aiming to characterise the LC’s changes in ageing and neurodegeneration. [...]

The unique physicochemical properties of nanomaterials (NM) and engineered nanomaterials (ENM) have pushed their use in many applications ranging from medicine to the food industry, textiles, and many more fields. Thus, human exposure to NM and ENM is growing by the day. [...]

Multimodal lifestyle-based interventions that integrate physical, mental and social stimulation could promote mental health and brain resilience against dementia. This meta-analysis examined the efficacy of dance movement interventions (DMI) on psychological health in older adults. [...]

The regulated turnover of synaptic vesicle (SV) proteins is thought to involve the ubiquitin dependent tagging and degradation through endo-lysosomal and autophagy pathways. Yet, it remains unclear which of these pathways are used, when they become activated and whether SVs are cleared en-mass together with SV proteins or whether both are degraded selectively. [...]

Prediction of post-stroke outcome using the degree of subacute deficit or magnetic resonance imaging metrics is well studied in humans. While mice are the most commonly used animals in pre-clinical stroke research, systematic analysis of outcome predictors is lacking.Methods Data from a total of 13 studies that included 45 minutes of middle cerebral artery occlusion on 148 mice were pooled. [...]

This study applied a data-driven approach to explore whether being born during or around World War II affects the risk of morbidity later in life.Methods Incident diagnoses were explored for diabetes (ICD-10 code E10-E14; 75,487 persons/12,905 incident cases), cerebrovascular disease (CeVD; I6; 79,829/11,664), and coronary heart disease (CHD; I20-I25; 89,657/11,116) for birth cohorts 1935-1950, using German health-claims data from 2004-2015. The data include quarterly information of the inpatient and outpatient treatment. [...]

Little is known about factors correlated with this geographic spread of the first wave of COVID-19 infections in Germany. Given the lack of individual-level socioeconomic information on COVID-19 cases, we resorted to an ecological study design, exploring regional correlates of COVID-19 diagnoses.Data and Method We used data from the Robert-Koch-Institute on COVID-19 diagnoses by sex, age (age groups: 0-4, 5-14, 15-34, 35-59, 60-79, 80+), county (NUTS3 region) differentiating five periods (initial phase: through 15 March; 1st lockdown period: 16 March to 31 March; 2nd lockdown period: from 1 April to 15 April; easing period: 16 April to 30 April; post-lockdown period: 1 May through 23 July). [...]