Neuroscience

Sevoflurane (Sev) anesthesia is associated with cognitive deficits and neurotoxicity. This study explores the epigenetic mechanism of SET domain containing 1B (SETD1B) in Sev-induced cognitive impairment in neonatal mice. Neonatal mice (C57BL, n=72) were exposed to 3% Sev for 2 h per day at P6, 7, and 8, and the control neonatal mice were only separated from the mother for 2 h. The mice were divided into groups of 12 individuals, with an equal number of male and female mice in each group. Mice were intraperitoneally injected with adenovirus-packaged SETD1B overexpression vector...

In Robo3cKO mice, midline crossing defects of the trigeminothalamic projections from the trigeminal principal sensory nucleus result in bilateral whisker maps in the somatosensory thalamus and consequently in the face representation area of the primary somatosensory (S1) cortex (Renier et al., 2017; Tsytsarev et al., 2017). We investigated whether this bilateral sensory representation in the whisker-barrel cortex is also reflected in the downstream projections from the S1 to the primary motor (M1) cortex. To label these projections, we injected anterograde viral axonal tracer in S1 cortex...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Previous research has mapped out the brain regions that respond to semantic stimuli presented visually and auditorily, but there is debate about whether semantic representation is modality-specific (only written or only spoken) or modality-invariant (both written and spoken). The mechanism of semantic representation underlying native (L1) and second language (L2) comprehension in different modalities as well as how this mechanism is influenced by L2 proficiency, remains unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from the OpenNEURO database to calculate neural pattern similarity across native and second languages (Spanish and English) for different input modalities (written and spoken) and learning sessions (before and after training)...

The landscape of scientific publishing has changed considerably in the few short decades since the three of us first engaged in neuroscience. Back then, articles for reference had to be sourced at the actual library (you know, the building with the books). Some of you may remember going to the library to manually check the weekly "Current Contents", which reported title pages from several hundred journals. Our very first papers were carefully printed in triplicate on heavy paper and posted off for review. And woe betide if there was a smudge on your photomicrograph - you'd have to wait 12 days for a new version to be captured and sent away to the developer to be printed...

In natural viewing conditions, the brain can optimally integrate retinal and extraretinal signals to maintain a stable visual perception. These mechanisms, however, may fail in circumstances where extraction of a motion signal is less viable such as impoverished visual scenes. This can result in a phenomenon known as autokinesis in which one may experience apparent motion of a small visual stimulus in an otherwise completely dark environment. In this study, we examined the effect of autokinesis on visual perception of motion in human observers...

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are bioactive lipids that are released into the colon as a metabolite of bacterial fermentation of dietary fibers. Beyond their function in the gastrointestinal tract, SCFAs can also have effects inthe brain, as a part of the gut-brain axis. Recent investigations into potential therapeutic interventions via the manipulation of the gut microbiome-and thus their SCFA metabolites-has been emerging as a new branch of personalized medicine,especially for mental health conditions. The current study sought to measure and localize SCFA receptors in the mouse brain...

Neuregulin receptor degradation protein 1 (Nrdp1) is a ring finger E3 ubiquitin ligase involved in some inflammation through ubiquitination, including macrophage polarization following cerebral hemorrhage. However, there is limited understanding regarding the mechanisms through which Nrdp1 modulates macrophage polarization and the potential impact of this modulation on neurological function. Using stereotactic injection and adenoviral transfection techniques, the corresponding animal models were constructed through injecting adenovirus, saline, or blood into the mouse striatum at different periods of time in this research...

Recent researches have noted many changes of short-term dynamic modalities in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients' brain functional networks. In this study, the dynamic functional brain networks of 82 MCI patients and 85 individuals in the normal control (NC) group were constructed using the sliding window method and Pearson correlation. The window size was determined using single-scale time-dependent (SSTD) method. Subsequently, k-means was applied to cluster all window samples, identifying three dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) states...

Whether patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) exhibit cognitive impairment is controversial. Also the underlying mechanisms are unknown. We aimed to investigate alterations in cognitive function, neurometabolite levels, and brain function in patients with MG and to explore the associations between abnormal regional brain functional activity, neurometabolite concentrations in the MPFC and left thalamus, and cognitive activity in patients with MG. Neuropsychological tests, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were performed on 41 patients with MG and 45 race-, sex-, age-, and education-matched healthy controls (HCs)...

Alcohol hangover is the combination of negative mental and physical symptoms which can be experienced after a single episode of alcohol consumption, starting when blood alcohol concentration approaches zero. We previously demonstrated that hangover provokes mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, imbalance in antioxidant defenses, and impairment in cellular bioenergetics. Chronic and acute ethanol intake induces neuroapoptosis but there are no studies which evaluated apoptosis at alcohol hangover. The aim of the present work was to study alcohol residual effects on intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic signaling pathways in mice brain cortex...

The cytoskeleton must be remodeled during neurite outgrowth, and Superior Cervical Ganglion 10 (SCG10) plays a critical role in this process by depolymerizing Microtubules (MTs), conferring highly dynamic properties to the MTs. However, the precise mechanism of action of SCG10 in the repair of injured neurons remains largely uncertain. Using transcriptomic identification, we discovered that SCG10 expression was downregulated in neurons after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Additionally, through mass spectrometry identification, immunoprecipitation, and pull-down assays, we established that SCG10 could interact with Adenosine Kinase (ADK)...

Our previous study revealed that acupuncture may exhibit therapeutic effects on Alzheimer's disease (AD) through the activation of metabolism in memory-related brain regions. However, the underlying functional mechanism remains poorly understood and warrants further investigation. In this study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) to explore the potential effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on the 5xFAD mouse model of AD. We found that the EA group exhibited significant improvements in the number of platforms crossed and the time spent in the target quadrant when compared with the model group (p＜0...

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) are serine/threonine-selective proteins and ERK1/2 can be phosphorylated in peripheral and central brain regions after cortical spreading depolarization (CSD) and calcitonin gene-related peptide; However, it remains unclear about whether and how ERK activity modulates CSD that correlates to migraine aura. Here, we determined the role of ERK in regulating CSD and explored the underlying mechanism involving transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), a stress-sensing cation channel...

In males but not in females, brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an obligatory role in the onset and maintenance of neuropathic pain. Afferent terminals of injured peripheral nerves release colony stimulating factor (CSF-1) and other mediators into the dorsal horn. These transform the phenotype of dorsal horn microglia such that they express P2X4 purinoceptors. Activation of these receptors by neuron-derived ATP promotes BDNF release. This microglial-derived BDNF increases synaptic activation of excitatory dorsal horn neurons and decreases that of inhibitory neurons...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Attention, an important index of cognitive function, can be affected amidst colored lights. This work investigated the effects of colored lights on the performance in attention task. Participants (N=42) performed in one, two, and three letter cancellation task (LCT) during four lighting conditions. The order of LCT and the colored light sessions were randomized. The performance in LCT was evaluated through % accuracy, % omission, and % error. A repeated measures ANOVA showed a statistically significant difference in % accuracy in one LCT (F(2...

The aim was to investigate the long-term effects of a single episode of immature Status Epilepticus (SE) on the excitability of the septal and temporal hippocampus in vitro, by studying the relationship between interictal-like epileptiform discharges (IEDs) and high-frequency oscillations (HFOs; Ripples, Rs and Fast Ripples, FRs). A pentylenetetrazol-induced Status Epilepticus-(SE)-like generalized seizure was induced at postnatal day 20 in 22 male and female juvenile rats, sacrificed >40 days later to prepare hippocampal slices...

Clinical investigations showed that individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) have worse Neurological Disease (ND) development, pointing to possible pathogenic relationships between AUD and NDs. It remains difficult to identify risk factors that are predisposing between AUD and NDs. In order to fix these issues, we created the bioinformatics pipeline and network-based approaches for employing unbiased methods to discover genes abnormally stated in both AUD and NDs and to pinpoint some of the common molecular pathways that might underlie AUD and ND interaction...

Abnormal cognitive and sensorial properties have been reported in patients with psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD patients exhibit impaired dopaminergic signaling and plasticity in brain areas related to cognitive and sensory processing. The spontaneous hypertensive rat (SHR), in comparison to the Wistar Kyoto rat (WKY), is the most used genetic animal model to study ADHD. Brain neurotrophic factor (BDNF), critical for midbrain and hippocampal dopaminergic neuron survival and differentiation, is reduced in both ADHD subjects and SHR...