Life Sciences Commons^™

The New York Head—A Precise Standardized Volume Conductor Model For Eeg Source Localization And Tes Targeting, Yu Huang, Lucas C. Parra, Stefan Haufe

Publications and Research

In source localization of electroencephalograpic (EEG) signals, as well as in targeted transcranial electric current stimulation (tES), a volume conductor model is required to describe the flow of electric currents in the head. Boundary element models (BEM) can be readily computed to representmajor tissue compartments, but cannot encode detailed anatomical information within compartments. Finite element models (FEM) can capture more tissue types and intricate anatomical structures, but with the higher precision also comes the need for semiautomated segmentation, and a higher computational cost. In either case, adjusting to the individual human anatomy requires costlymagnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and thus head …

Cell Type Specificity Of Tissue Plasminogen Activator In The Mouse Barrel Cortex, Philip Chu, Eric Chen, Adesh Bajnath, Joshua C. Brumberg

Publications and Research

It has been suggested that tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), a serine protease, plays a key role in regulating the extracellular matrix core proteins, thereby impacting the structural plasticity in the cerebral cortex. Much is known about its role in regulating plasticity in the visual cortex. However, its permissive role has not been demonstrated to generalize to other cerebral cortical areas. By utilizing a combination of immunofluorescent histochemistry and confocal microscopy, we demonstrate that endogenous tPA is indeed present in the somatosensory cortex, and its expression is experience-dependent. Chronic sensory deprivation induced by whisker trimming from birth for one month leads …

Behavioral And Cognitive Changes After Early Postnatal Lesions Of The Rat Mediodorsal Thalamus, Zakaria Ouhaz, Saadua B-M'Hamed, Anna S. Mitchell, Abdeslem Elidrissi, Mohamed Bennis

Publications and Research

Early insults to the thalamus result in functional and/or structural abnormalities in the cerebral cortex. However, differences in behavioral and cognitive changes after early insult are not well characterized. The present study assessed whether early postnatal damage to mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (MD), reciprocally interconnected with the prefrontal cortex, causes behavioral and cognitive alterations in young adult rats. Rat pups at postnatal day 4 received bilateral electrolytic lesion of MD, or aMD Sham lesion or were anesthetized controls; on recovery they were returned to their mothers until weaning. Seven weeks later, all rats were tested with the following behavioral …

Autonomic And Brain Responses Associated With Empathy Deficits In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Xiaosi Gu, Tehila Eilam-Stock, Thomas Zhou, Evdokia Anagnostou, Alexander Kolevzon, Latha Soorya, Patrick R. Hof, Karl J. Friston, Jin Fan

Publications and Research

Accumulating evidence suggests that autonomic signals and their cortical representations are closely linked to emotional processes, and that related abnormalities could lead to social deficits. Although socio-emotional impairments are a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), empirical evidence directly supporting the link between autonomic, cortical, and socio-emotional abnormalities in ASD is still lacking. In this study, we examined autonomic arousal indexed by skin conductance responses (SCR), concurrent cortical responses measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging, and effective brain connectivity estimated by dynamic causal modeling in seventeen unmedicated high-functioning adults with ASD and seventeen matched controls while they performed an …

Recent Studies On Nutrition And Parkinson’S Disease Prevention: A Systematic Review, Ann Gaba

Publications and Research

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic progressive movement disorder, affecting primarily people over sixty years of age. With aging populations, some estimates indicate as many as nine million people will be impacted by this disease by 2030. Thus it is imperative to identify means of prevention, delay of onset, and management of symptoms. Many elements of diet and nutrition have been investigated to accomplish these goals. This review will examine recent studies of potential diet and nutrition factors and PD incidence.

Methods: A PubMed Search was conducted using the keywords “Parkinson, prevention and nutrition”, and “Parkinson, prevention, and diet.” …

Death Associated Protein Kinase (Dapk) -Mediated Neurodegenerative Mechanisms In Nematode Excitotoxicity, John S. Del Rosario, Katherine Genevieve Feldmann, Towfiq Ahmed, Uzair Amjad, Bakkeung Ko, Junhyung An, Tauhid Mahmud, Maha Salama, Shirley Mei, Daniel Asemota, Itzhak Mano

Publications and Research

Background: Excitotoxicity (the toxic overstimulation of neurons by the excitatory transmitter Glutamate) is a central process in widespread neurodegenerative conditions such as brain ischemia and chronic neurological diseases. Many mechanisms have been suggested to mediate excitotoxicity, but their significance across diverse excitotoxic scenarios remains unclear. Death Associated Protein Kinase (DAPK), a critical molecular switch that controls a range of key signaling and cell death pathways, has been suggested to have an important role in excitotoxicity. However, the molecular mechanism by which DAPK exerts its effect is controversial. A few distinct mechanisms have been suggested by single (sometimes contradicting) studies, and …

Multidisciplinary Intensive Rehabilitation Treatment Improves Sleep Quality In Parkinson's Disease, Giuseppe Frazzitta, Roberto Maestri, Davide Ferrazzoli, Giulio Riboldazzi, Rossana Bera, Cecilia Fontanesi, Roger P. Rossi, Gianni Pezzoli, Maria Felice Ghilardi

Publications and Research

Background Sleep disturbances are among the most common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD), greatly interfering with daily activities and diminishing life quality. Pharmacological treatments have not been satisfactory because of side effects and interactions with anti-parkinsonian drugs. While studies have shown that regular exercise improves sleep quality in normal aging, there is no definitive evidence in PD.

Methods In a retrospective study, we determined whether an intense physical and multidisciplinary exercise program improves sleep quality in a large group of patients with PD.

We analyzed the scores of PD Sleep Scale (PDSS), which was administered twice, 28 days apart, …

Glycine And Gabaa Receptors Mediate Tonic And Phasic Inhibitory Processes That Contribute To Prepulse Inhibition In The Goldfish Startle Network, Paul C.P. Curtin, Thomas Preuss

Publications and Research

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is understood as a sensorimotor gating process that attenuates sensory flow to the startle pathway during early stages (20--1000 ms) of information processing. Here, we applied in vivo electrophysiology and pharmacology to determine if PPI is mediated by glycine receptors (GlyRs) and/or GABAA receptors (GABAARs) in the goldfish auditory startle circuit. Specifically, we used selective antagonists to dissect the contributions of target receptors on sound-evoked postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) recorded in the neurons that initiate startle, the Mauthner-cells (M-cell). We found that strychnine, a GlyR antagonist, disrupted a fast-activated (5 ms) and rapidly (<50 >ms) decaying (feed-forward) inhibitory …

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation In Psychiatric Disorders, Gabriel Tortella, Roberta Casati, Luana V M Aparicio, Antonio Mantovani, Natasha Senço, Giordano D'Urso, Jerome Brunelin, Fabiana Guarienti, Priscila Mara Lorencini Selingardi, Débora Muszkat, Bernardo De Sampaio Pereira Junior, Leandro Valiengo, Adriano H. Moffa, Marcel Simis, Lucas Borrione, Andre R. Brunoni

Publications and Research

The interest in non-invasive brain stimulation techniques is increasing in recent years. Among these techniques, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been the subject of great interest among researchers because of its easiness to use, low cost, benign profile of side effects and encouraging results of research in the field. This interest has generated several studies and randomized clinical trials, particularly in psychiatry. In this review, we provide a summary of the development of the technique and its mechanism of action as well as a review of the methodological aspects of randomized clinical trials in psychiatry, including studies in affective …

Corticospinal And Reciprocal Inhibition Actions On Human Soleus Motoneuron Activity During Standing And Walking, Berthe Hanna-Boutros, Sina Sangari, Louis-Solal Giboin, Mohamed-Mounir El Mendili, Alexandra Lackmy-Vallée, Véronique Marchand-Pauvert, Maria Knikou

Publications and Research

Reciprocal Ia inhibition constitutes a key segmental neuronal pathway for coordination of antagonist muscles. In this study, we investigated the soleus H-reflex and reciprocal inhibition exerted from flexor group Ia afferents on soleus motoneurons during standing and walking in 15 healthy subjects following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The effects of separate TMS or deep peroneal nerve (DPN) stimulation and the effects of combined (TMS + DPN) stimuli on the soleus H-reflex were assessed during standing and at mid- and late stance phases of walking. Subthreshold TMS induced short-latency facilitation on the soleus H-reflex that was present during standing and at …

Neuroinflammation And J2 Prostaglandins: Linking Impairment Of The Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway And Mitochondria To Neurodegeneration, Maria E. Figueiredo-Pereira, Patricia Rockwell, Thomas Schmidt-Glenewinkel, Peter Serrano

Publications and Research

The immune response of the CNS is a defense mechanism activated upon injury to initiate repair mechanisms while chronic over-activation of the CNS immune system (termed neuroinflammation) may exacerbate injury. The latter is implicated in a variety of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, HIV dementia, and prion diseases. Cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and COX-2), which are key enzymes in the conversion of arachidonic acid into bioactive prostanoids, play a central role in the inflammatory cascade. J2 prostaglandins are endogenous toxic products of cyclooxygenases, and because their levels are significantly …

Orbitofrontal 18f-Dopa Uptake And Movement Preparation In Parkinson’S Disease, Lucio Marinelli, Arnoldo Piccardo, Laura Mori, Silvia Morbelli, Nicola Girtler, Antonio Castaldi, Agnese Picco, Carlo Trompetto, Maria Felice Ghilardi, Giovanni Abbruzzese, Flavio Nobili

Publications and Research

In Parkinson’s disease (PD) degeneration of mesocortical dopaminergic projections may determine cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Choice reaction time task is related to attention, working memory, and goal-directed behavior. Such paradigm involves frontal cortical circuits receiving mesocortical dopamine which are affected early in PD. The aim of this study is to characterize the role of dopamine on the cognitive processes that precede movement in a reaction time paradigm in PD.We enrolled 16 newly diagnosed and untreated patientswith PDwithout cognitive impairment or depression and 10 control subjectswith essential tremor. They performed multiple-choice reaction time task with the right upper limb and brain …

Nosh-Aspirin (Nbs-1120), A Dual Nitric Oxide And Hydrogen Sulfide-Releasing Hybrid, Reduces Inflammatory Pain, Miriam D. Fonseca, Fernando Q. Cunha, Khosrow Kashfi, Thiago M. Cunha

Publications and Research

The development of nitric oxide (NO)- and hydrogen sulfide (H2S)-releasing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has generated more potent anti-inflammatory drugs with increased safety profiles. A new hybrid molecule incorporating both NO and H2S donors into aspirin (NOSH-aspirin) was recently developed. In the present study, the antinociceptive activity of this novel molecule was compared with aspirin in different models of inflammatory pain. It was found that NOSH-aspirin inhibits acetic acid-induced writhing response and carrageenan (Cg)-induced inflammatory hyperalgesia in a dosedependent (5–150 lmol/kg, v.o.) manner, which was superior to the effect of the same doses of aspirin. NOSH-aspirin’s antinociceptive effect was also …

A Principle Of Economy Predicts The Functional Architecture Of Grid Cells, Xue-Xin Wei, Jason Prentice, Vijay Balasubramanian

Publications and Research

Grid cells in the brain respond when an animal occupies a periodic lattice of ‘grid fields’ during navigation. Grids are organized in modules with different periodicity. We propose that the grid system implements a hierarchical code for space that economizes the number of neurons required to encode location with a given resolution across a range equal to the largest period. This theory predicts that (i) grid fields should lie on a triangular lattice, (ii) grid scales should follow a geometric progression, (iii) the ratio between adjacent grid scales should be √e for idealized neurons, and lie between 1.4 and 1.7 …

An Epigenetic Hypothesis For The Genomic Memory Of Pain, Sebastian Alvarado, Maral Tajerian, Matthew Suderman, Ziv Machnes, Stephanie Pierfelice, Magali Millecamps, Laura S. Stone, Moshe Szyf

Publications and Research

Chronic pain is accompanied with long-term sensory, affective and cognitive disturbances. What are the mechanisms that mediate the long-term consequences of painful experiences and embed them in the genome? We hypothesize that alterations in DNA methylation, an enzymatic covalent modification of cytosine bases in DNA,serve as a “genomic” memory of pain in the adult cortex. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism for long-term regulation of gene expression. Neuronal plasticity at the neuroanatomical, functional, morphological, physiological and molecular levels has been demonstrated throughout the neuroaxis in response to persistent pain, including in the adult prefrontal cortex (PFC). We have previously reported …

Acute Cocaine Differentially Induces Pka Phosphorylation Substrates In Male And Female Rats, Wei-Lun Sun, Luyi Zhou, Arbi Nazarian, Vanya Quinones-Jenab, Shirzad Jenab

Publications and Research

Background: Sex differences in intracellular dopamine pathways may contribute to the known sex differences in psychomotor responses to cocaine and differential development of dependence. This study aimed to determine whether there are sex differences in the activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2, or p44/p42 MAPK) and PKA phosphorylation-dependent substrates in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) of male and female rats at baseline or after acute cocaine administration.

Methods: 60-day-old male and female Fischer rats were injected with saline or cocaine (30 mg/kg) and sacrificed 5, 15, 30, 45 or 90 minutes later. Total locomotor activity, Stereotypic, rearing, and ambulatory behaviors …