Browsing by Author "Matoso, Ana"
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- Involvement of the cerebellum in structural connectivity enhancement in episodic migrainePublication . Matoso, Ana; Fouto, Ana R.; Esteves, Inês; Ruiz-Tagle, Amparo; Caetano, Gina; Silva, Nuno A. da; Vilela, Pedro; Gil-Gouveia, Raquel; Nunes, Rita G.; Figueiredo, PatríciaBackground: The pathophysiology of migraine remains poorly understood, yet a growing number of studies have shown structural connectivity disruptions across large-scale brain networks. Although both structural and functional changes have been found in the cerebellum of migraine patients, the cerebellum has barely been assessed in previous structural connectivity studies of migraine. Our objective is to investigate the structural connectivity of the entire brain, including the cerebellum, in individuals diagnosed with episodic migraine without aura during the interictal phase, compared with healthy controls. Methods: To that end, 14 migraine patients and 15 healthy controls were recruited (all female), and diffusion-weighted and T1-weighted MRI data were acquired. The structural connectome was estimated for each participant based on two different whole-brain parcellations, including cortical and subcortical regions as well as the cerebellum. The structural connectivity patterns, as well as global and local graph theory metrics, were compared between patients and controls, for each of the two parcellations, using network-based statistics and a generalized linear model (GLM), respectively. We also compared the number of connectome streamlines within specific white matter tracts using a GLM. Results: We found increased structural connectivity in migraine patients relative to healthy controls with a distinct involvement of cerebellar regions, using both parcellations. Specifically, the node degree of the posterior lobe of the cerebellum was greater in patients than in controls and patients presented a higher number of streamlines within the anterior limb of the internal capsule. Moreover, the connectomes of patients exhibited greater global efficiency and shorter characteristic path length, which correlated with the age onset of migraine. Conclusions: A distinctive pattern of heightened structural connectivity and enhanced global efficiency in migraine patients compared to controls was identified, which distinctively involves the cerebellum. These findings provide evidence for increased integration within structural brain networks in migraine and underscore the significance of the cerebellum in migraine pathophysiology.
- O manto de palavras de Anna AkhmátovaPublication . Matoso, Ana
- “Um peixe é um peixe”, ou a escada de TolstóiPublication . Matoso, AnaEste artigo debruça-se sobre a versão dos evangelhos de Tolstói, explorando os seus procedimentos interpretativos e metodológicos. Visa mostrar que esta obra singular procede em larga medida das experiências pedagógicas de Tolstói nas décadas de 1860-70 e que nela se jogam muitas das questões que iriam mais tarde surgir na filosofia de Wittgenstein.
- Would you experience me?: art as a means of communionPublication . Matoso, AnaAfter more than 15 years reflecting on artistic practice, Lev Tolstoy finally finished his polemic treatise What is Art? (1897). Since its publication, the theory of art expounded in this work has been either subsumed under the general name of ‘expression theory’ or rejected for the extreme consequences of its arguments (i.e. the dismissal of almost all of the Western artistic canon). However, despite the question in its title, What is Art? is notoriously amiss in providing any (objective) definition of art. Its author is more interested in disputing the validity of any ‘science of beauty’, i.e., Aesthetics, in order to put forward a new approach to art. In the author’s words: ‘Art, all art, has in itself the property of uniting people. All art causes those who perceive the feeling conveyed by the artist to unite in soul, first with the artist, and secondly with all who have received the same impression’ (Tolstoy: 120-129). In the framework of What is Art?, art – intentional communication through feeling and emotions – becomes a means of communion among people. In the broad sense of ‘art’ employed in this work, this ‘affective’ category can accommodate not only works of architecture, poetry, folk tales, drama, music, but also jokes, riddles, rhymes, sermons, processions and church services. It is in the inherent pervasiveness of artistic communication that Tolstoy finds a crucial argument against Plato’s verdict, in his Republic, that the artist is persona non grata in the city. This paper will focus on the specificity of the process of communicating through art as described in What is Art? and will argue that in its invitation to share a community of feeling, art becomes a project of experienced values, of conviviality. Tolstoy’s description of art, it turns out, is unexpectedly modern.