Neuroscience Letters

Extracranial waste transport from the brain interstitial fluid to the deep cervical lymph node (dCLN) is not extensively understood. The present study aims to show the cranial nerves that have a role in the transport of brain lymphatics vessels (LVs), their localization, diameter, and number using podoplanin (PDPN) and CD31 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blotting. Cranial nerve samples from 6 human cases (3 cadavers, and 3 autopsies) were evaluated for IHC and 3 autopsies for Western blotting. The IHC staining showed LVs along the optic, olfactory, oculomotor, trigeminal, facial, glossopharyngeal, accessory, and vagus nerves...

The Postural Instability/Gait Difficulty (PIGD) subtype of Parkinson's disease (PD) has a faster disease progression, a higher risk of cognitive and motor decline, yet the alterations of structural topological organization remain unknown. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and 3D-TI scanning were conducted on 31 PD patients with PIGD (PD-PIGD), 30 PD patients without PIGD (PD-non-PIGD) and 35 Healthy Controls (HCs). Structural networks were constructed using DTI brain white matter fiber tractography. A graph theory approach was applied to characterize the topological properties of complex structural networks, and the relationships between significantly different network metrics and motor deficits were analyzed within the PD-PIGD group...

Patients with post-stroke hemiplegia often exhibit reduced ability to maintain sitting balance, a crucial factor for predicting prognosis. Galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) influences postural control by stimulating vestibular organ. Although several studies have focused on GVS in static postures, no studies have demonstrated the influence of GVS on righting reactions. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effects of GVS on postural righting reactions in seated patients with stroke-induced hemiplegia. Using a vertical board (VB), righting reactions were induced by tilting the VB at 10° after patients sat for 1 min...

Identifying additional noninvasive biomarkers for affective disorders, such as unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD), could aid in the diagnosis and treatment of these prevalent and debilitating neuropsychiatric conditions. One such candidate biomarker is the loudness dependence of the auditory evoked potential (LDAEP), an event-related potential that measures responsiveness of the auditory cortex to different intensities of sound. The LDAEP has been associated with MDD and BD, including therapeutic response to particular classes of antidepressant drugs, while also correlating with several other neuropsychiatric disorders...

Etomidate (ET) is a widely used intravenous imidazole general anesthetic, which depresses the cerebellar neuronal activity by modulating various receptors activity and synaptic transmission. In this study, we investigated the effects of ET on the cerebellar climbing fiber-Purkinje cells (CF-PC) plasticity in vitro in mice using whole-cell recording technique and pharmacological methods. Our results demonstrated that CF tetanic stimulation produced a mGluR1-dependent long-term depression (LTD) of CF-PC excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs), which was enhanced by bath application of ET (10 µM)...

In healthy subjects, the Error Negativity (Ne) was initially reported on errors and on partial errors, only. Later on, application of the Laplacian transformation to EEG data unmasked a Ne-like wave (Nc) that shares a main generator with the Ne, suggesting that the Nc is just a small Ne. However, the reason why a small Ne would persist on correct responses remains unclear. Now, sometimes, subthreshold EMG activations in the muscles corresponding to correct responses (not strong enough to reach the response threshold) can precede full-blown correct responses...

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the primary reason for disability of the elderly. This article studied the diagnostic possibility of TUG1 and its potential mechanism in the regulation of aerobic exercise (AE) on AD. METHODS: 77 AD patients undertook a three-month-long cycling exercise, and 77 healthy controls were recruited. Polymerase Chain Reaction amplification was applied to assess the expression of TUG1 and miR-129-5p. The diagnostic possibility was manifested by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve...

PURPOSE: Considering that the combination of dasatinib and quercetin (D + Q) demonstrated a neuroprotective, as well as that females experience a decline in hormonal levels during aging and this is linked to increased susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease, in this study we evaluated the effect of D + Q on inflammatory and oxidative stress markers and on acetylcholinesterase and Na+ , K+ -ATPase activities in brain of female mice. METHODS: Female C57BL/6 mice were divided in Control and D (5 mg/kg) + Q (50 mg/kg) treated...

Social isolation, a known stressor, can have detrimental effects on both physical and mental health. Recent scientific attention has been drawn to the gut-brain axis, a bidirectional communication system between the central nervous system and gut microbiota, suggesting that gut microbes may influence brain function. This study aimed to explore the impact of social isolation on the intestinal barrier and gut microbiota. 40 male BALB/c mice were either individually housed or kept in groups for 8 and 15 weeks...

Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound derived from the cannabis plant, has been confirmed to induce anxiolytic-like and antipsychotic-like effects. However, the exact mechanisms remain unclear. This study substantiated CBD's interaction with the 5-HT1A receptor (5-HT1A R) in vitro (CHO cells expressing human 5-HT1A R) and in vivo (rat lower lip retraction test, LLR test). We then assessed the impact of CBD in mice using the stress-induced hyperthermia (SIH) model and the phencyclidine (PCP)-induced negative symptoms of schizophrenia model, respectively...

Dorsal root avulsion injuries lead to loss of sensation and to reorganization of blood vessels (BVs) in the injured area. The inability of injured sensory axons to re-enter the spinal cord results in permanent loss of sensation, and often also leads to the development of neuropathic pain. Approaches that restore connection between peripheral sensory axons and their CNS targets are thus urgently need. Previous research has shown that sensory axons from peripherally grafted human sensory neurons are able to enter the spinal cord by growing along BVs which penetrate the CNS from the spinal cord surface...

Oligodendrocytes develop through sequential stages and understanding pathways regulating their differentiation remains an important area of investigation. Zinc is required for the function of enzymes, proteins and transcription factors, including those important in myelination and mitosis. Our previous studies using the ratiometric zinc sensor chromis-1 demonstrated a reduction in intracellular free zinc concentrations in mature MBP + oligodendrocytes compared with earlier stages (Bourassa et al...

Adolescents face constant exams and often experience severe test anxiety. Previous studies suggested that test anxiety impairs individuals' inhibitory control. Neurophysiological evidence suggests that anxiety interferes with the recruitment of the prefrontal region of the brain, which modulates top-down attentional control during the completion of inhibitory control tasks. However, there is little neurophysiological evidence regarding how test anxiety impairs inhibitory control in adolescents. This study used the flanker task to measure individuals' inhibitory control ability, and both event-related potential and electroencephalography indicators were used to measure neurophysiological processes...

Tinnitus remains a notoriously difficult to treat clinical entity. 1-2% of the entire population report relevant emotional distress due to tinnitus, and causal treatments are lacking. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), most commonly of auditory cortical areas, has shown mixed results in the past. Prefrontal rTMS, including intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) has shown more promising results in the treatment of depression, and clinical data suggests a meaningful overlap between tinnitus and depression...

MOTS-c, a mitochondrial-derived peptide, acts as a systemic hormone and MOTS-c level is inversely correlated with markers of obesity. Obesity is a risk factor for male reproductive physiology and is expressed as an important cause of infertility. In this study, we aimed to determine the effects of MOTS-c, which has been proven in the hypothalamus and testicles, on the actors involved in the reproductive axis. In the study, 80 male Wistar-Albino rats were divided into two main groups, obese and non-obese (n = 40)...

The striatum, an essential component of the brain's motor and reward systems, plays a pivotal role in a wide array of cognitive processes. Its dysfunction is a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD), leading to profound motor and cognitive deficits. These conditions are often related to excitotoxicity, primarily due to overactivation of NMDA receptors (NMDAR). In the synaptic cleft, glycine transporter type 1 (GlyT1) controls the glycine levels, a NMDAR co-agonist, which modulates NMDAR function...

Emotional states can influence how people use meaningful context to make predictions about what comes next. To measure whether state anxiety influences such prediction, we used the N400 event-related brain potential (ERP) response to semantic stimuli, whose amplitude is smaller (less negative) when the stimulus is more predicted based on preceding context. Participants (n = 28) were randomized to one of two groups, who underwent either an "anxious-uncertainty" procedure previously shown to increase anxiety, or a control procedure...

Glaucoma is a kind of neurodegenerative disorder characterized by irreversible loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and permanent visual impairment. It is reported that resveratrol (RES) is a promising drug for neurodegenerative diseases. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms underlying its protective potential have not yet been fully elucidated. The present study sought to investigate whether resveratrol could protect RGCs and retinal function triggered by acute ocular hypertension injury through the SIRT1/NF-κB pathway...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Dehydroeffusol, a major phenanthrene in Juncus effusus, protects neurodegeneration induced by intracellular Zn2+ ferried by extracellular amyloid β1-42 (Aβ1-42 ). Here we focused on adrenaline β receptor activation and the induction of metallothioneins (MTs), intracellular Zn2+ -binding proteins to test the protective mechanism of dehydroeffusol. Isoproterenol, an agonist of adrenergic β receptors elevated the level of MTs in the dentate granule cell layer 1 day after intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection...