Neurosciences Commons^™

Apigenin Alleviates Autistic-Like Stereotyped Repetitive Behaviors And Mitigates Brain Oxidative Stress In Mice, Petrilla Jayaprakash, Dmytro Isaev, Keun-Hang Susan Yang, Rami Beiram, Murat Oz, Bassem Sadek

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Studying the involvement of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), specifically α7-nAChRs, in neuropsychiatric brain disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has gained a growing interest. The flavonoid apigenin (APG) has been confirmed in its pharmacological action as a positive allosteric modulator of α7-nAChRs. However, there is no research describing the pharmacological potential of APG in ASD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the subchronic systemic treatment of APG (10–30 mg/kg) on ASD-like repetitive and compulsive-like behaviors and oxidative stress status in the hippocampus and cerebellum in BTBR mice, utilizing the reference drug aripiprazole (ARP, 1 …

Epileptic Seizure Classification Using Image-Based Data Representation, Amber Surles

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

Epilepsy is a recurrence of seizures caused by a disorder of the brain in over 3.4 million people nationwide. Some people are able to predict their seizures based off prodrome, which is an early sign or symptom that usually resembles mood changes or a euphoric feeling even days to an hour before occurrence. Consequently, the natural instincts of the body to react to an upcoming attack lends credence to the existence of a pre-ictal state that precedes seizure episodes. Physicians and researchers have thus sought for an automated approach for predicting or detecting seizures.

In this research, we evaluate the …

Anxiety-Like Behavior In C57bl/6j Mice Is Sexually Dimorphic And Altered By Buprenorphine, Ohm Sharma

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Mclena-1: A Phase Ii Clinical Trial For The Assessment Of Safety, Tolerability, And Efficacy Of Lenalidomide In Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment Due To Alzheimer's Disease; Trial Design And Rationale, Boris Decourt

Annual Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Emulating Future Neurotechnology Using Magic, Jay A. Olson, Mariève Cyr, Despina Z. Artenie, Thomas Strandberg, Lars Hall, Matthew L. Tompkins, Amir Raz, Petter Johansson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Recent developments in neuroscience and artificial intelligence have allowed machines to decode mental processes with growing accuracy. Neuroethicists have speculated that perfecting these technologies may result in reactions ranging from an invasion of privacy to an increase in self-understanding. Yet, evaluating these predictions is difficult given that people are poor at forecasting their reactions. To address this, we developed a paradigm using elements of performance magic to emulate future neurotechnologies. We led 59 participants to believe that a (sham) neurotechnological machine could infer their preferences, detect their errors, and reveal their deep-seated attitudes. The machine gave participants randomly assigned positive …

A Multiple Input Multiple Output Framework For The Automatic Optical Fractionator-Based Cell Counting In Z-Stacks Using Deep Learning, Palak Dave

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quantifying cells in a defined region of biological tissue is critical for many clinical and preclinical studies, especially in pathology, toxicology, cancer, and behavior. Unbiased stereology is the state-of-art method for quantification of the total number and other morphometric parameters of stained objects in a defined region of biological tissue. As part of a program to develop accurate, precise, and more efficient automatic approaches for quantifying morphometric changes in biological tissue, our group has shown that both deep learning-based and hand-crafted algorithms can estimate the total number of histologically stained cells at their maximal profile of focus in extended depth …

The Effects Of Paclitaxel On Cellular Migration And The Cytoskeleton, Ashley Salguero-Gonzalez

Thinking Matters Symposium

In a clinical setting, some patients are exposed to an anti-cancer chemotherapy agent, paclitaxel. Cancerous cells undergo rapid, continuous cell division without control. Chemotherapy treatments try to slow and stop the uncontrollable cell division cycles and eliminate cancerous cells in the process. Paclitaxel serves as a treatment for some types of cancers, including lung, melanoma, bladder, and esophageal. Because it targets the cytoskeleton, paclitaxel can also influence cell migration. This project utilizes a cellular migration assay and an immunohistochemistry assay to analyze the effects of paclitaxel on the movement of cells and on the cytoskeleton of neuroglia rat cells with …

Seizure Prediction In Epilepsy Patients, Gary Dean Cravens

NSU REACH and IPE Day

Purpose/Objective: Characterize rigorously the preictal period in epilepsy patients to improve the development of seizure prediction techniques. Background/Rationale: 30% of epilepsy patients are not well-controlled on medications and would benefit immensely from reliable seizure prediction. Methods/Methodology: Computational model consisting of in-silico Hodgkin-Huxley neurons arranged in a small-world topology using the Watts-Strogatz algorithm is used to generate synthetic electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals. ECoG data from 18 epilepsy patients is used to validate the model. Unsupervised machine learning is used with both patient and synthetic data to identify potential electrophysiologic biomarkers of the preictal period. Results/Findings: The model has shown states corresponding to …

Identifying Key Elements To Assess Patient’S Acceptability Of Neurorehabilitation In Stroke Survivors–A Delphi Method, Manonita Ghosh, Kaoru Nosaka, Lisa Whitehead, Kazunori Nosaka

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose:

Assessing patient acceptability of treatment is a clinical concern. No guidance exists to determine the best way to measure acceptability in stroke neurorehabilitation. This study identifies key elements to measure patient’s acceptance of stroke neurorehabilitation by establishing expert consensus.

Materials and methods:

A four-phase Delphi method with a three-round electronic-based survey was conducted. Experts were considered as stroke survivors or their caregivers and professionals in stroke neurorehabilitation. A twenty-five-item list was sourced from a literature review and discussion with a consumer panel (n = 22). In Round-1 (n = 118) and Round-2 (n = 80), experts …

3-Dimensional Agent-Based Model Of Neural Activity In The Central Nucleus Of The Amygdala During Pain, Carley Reith, Rachael Neilan, Benedict Kolber

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Medical Schools Ignore The Nature Of Consciousness At Great Cost, Anoop Kumar

Journal of Wellness

The essential question of the relationship between consciousness and matter is ignored in medical school curricula, leading to a machine-like view of the human being that contributes to physician burnout and intellectual dissatisfaction. The evidence suggesting that the brain may not be the seat of consciousness is generally ignored to preserve the worldview of the primacy of matter. By investigating new frameworks detailing the nature of consciousness at different levels of hierarchy, we can bring intellectual rigor to a once opaque subject that supports a fundamental reality about our experience: We are human beings, not only human bodies.

A Highly Predictive Microrna Panel For Determining Delayed Cerebral Vasospasm Risk Following Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Wang-Xia Wang, Joe E. Springer, Kevin Xie, David W. Fardo, Kevin W. Hatton

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Approximately one-third of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) patients develop delayed cerebral vasospasm (DCV) 3–10 days after aneurysm rupture resulting in additional, permanent neurologic disability. Currently, no validated biomarker is available to determine the risk of DCV in aSAH patients. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in virtually all human diseases, including aSAH, and are found in extracellular biofluids including plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). We used a custom designed TaqMan Low Density Array miRNA panel to examine the levels of 47 selected brain and vasculature injury related miRNAs in CSF and plasma specimens collected from 31 patients with or without DCV …

Neural Oscillatory Activity Serving Sensorimotor Control Is Regulated By The Mitochondrial Redox Environment In Health And Disease, Rachel Spooner

Theses & Dissertations

Despite effective regimens of combination antiretroviral therapy, individuals with HIV are still at higher risk for developing forms of cognitive impairment, with one of the most common behavioral abnormalities to manifest being motor dysfunction. This is an important consideration, as deficits in motor control likely contribute to higher-order cognitive impairments, which together, lead to functional dependencies in the ever-growing aging population of HIV-infected adults. While the neuroanatomical bases of motor dysfunction have recently been illuminated in people living with HIV (PLWH), there remains an open question regarding the molecular processes supporting the circuit-level neuronal dynamics that potentially serve these behavioral …

The Mechanism Of Β-N-Methylamino-L-Alanine Inhibition Of Trna Aminoacylation And Its Impact On Misincorporation, Nien-Ching Han, Tammy J. Bullwinkle, Kaeli F. Loeb, Kym F. Faull, Kyle Mohler, Jesse Rinehart, Michael Ibba

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) is a nonproteinogenic amino acid that has been associated with neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). BMAA has been found in human protein extracts; however, the mechanism by which it enters the proteome is still unclear. It has been suggested that BMAA is misincorporated at serine codons during protein synthesis, but direct evidence of its cotranslational incorporation is currently lacking. Here, using LC-MS–purified BMAA and several biochemical assays, we sought to determine whether any aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) utilizes BMAA as a substrate for aminoacylation. Despite BMAA's previously predicted misincorporation at serine …

Mitochondria Exert Age-Divergent Effects On Recovery From Spinal Cord Injury, Andrew N. Stewart, Katelyn E. Mcfarlane, Hemendra J. Vekaria, William M. Bailey, Stacey A. Slone, Lauren A. Tranthem, Bei Zhang, Samir P. Patel, Patrick G. Sullivan, John C. Gensel

Physiology Faculty Publications

The extent that age-dependent mitochondrial dysfunction drives neurodegeneration is not well understood. This study tested the hypothesis that mitochondria contribute to spinal cord injury (SCI)-induced neurodegeneration in an age-dependent manner by using 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) to uncouple electron transport, thereby increasing cellular respiration and reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. We directly compared the effects of graded DNP doses in 4- and 14-month-old (MO) SCI-mice and found DNP to have increased efficacy in mitochondria isolated from 14-MO animals. In vivo, all DNP doses significantly exacerbated 4-MO SCI neurodegeneration coincident with worsened recovery. In contrast, low DNP doses (1.0-mg/kg/day) improved tissue …

Therapeutic Potential Of Mitophagy-Inducing Microflora Metabolite, Urolithin A For Alzheimer’S Disease, Dona Pamoda W. Jayatunga, Eugene Hone, Harjot Khaira, Taciana Lunelli, Harjinder Singh, Gilles J. Guillemin, Binosha Fernando, Manohar L. Garg, Giuseppe Verdile, Ralph N. Martins

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Mitochondrial dysfunction including deficits of mitophagy is seen in aging and neuro-degenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Apart from traditionally targeting amyloid beta (Aβ), the main culprit in AD brains, other approaches include investigating impaired mitochondrial pathways for potential therapeutic benefits against AD. Thus, a future therapy for AD may focus on novel candidates that enhance optimal mitochondrial integrity and turnover. Bi-oactive food components, known as nutraceuticals, may serve as such agents to combat AD. Uro-lithin A is an intestinal microbe-derived metabolite of a class of polyphenols, ellagitannins (ETs). Urolithin A is known to exert many health benefits. Its antioxidant, …

Bypassing The Blood-Brain Barrier: A Physical And Pharmacological Approach For The Treatment Of Metastatic Brain Tumors, Samuel A. Sprowls

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation (a) provided an in depth literature review of methods to disrupt the BBB/BTB and improve therapeutic distribution to brain tumors, (b) evaluated the use of azacitidine as a single agent therapy for the treatment of brain metastasis of breast cancer and a potential molecular mechanism by which brain tropic cells are sensitized to hypomethylating agents, (c) determined the impact cannabidiol has on P-glycoprotein mediated efflux at the blood-brain barrier and its potential for use as a single agent treatment for metastatic brain tumors, (d) developed a preclinical radiation therapy protocol for use in small animals and in vitro …

The Bach1/Nrf2 Axis In Brain In Down Syndrome And Transition To Alzheimer Disease-Like Neuropathology And Dementia, Marzia Perluigi, Antonella Tramutola, Sara Pagnotta, Eugenio Barone, D. Allan Butterfield

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability that is associated with an increased risk to develop early-onset Alzheimer-like dementia (AD). The brain neuropathological features include alteration of redox homeostasis, mitochondrial deficits, inflammation, accumulation of both amyloid beta-peptide oligomers and senile plaques, as well as aggregated hyperphosphorylated tau protein-containing neurofibrillary tangles, among others. It is worth mentioning that some of the triplicated genes encoded are likely to cause increased oxidative stress (OS) conditions that are also associated with reduced cellular responses. Published studies from our laboratories propose that increased oxidative damage occurs early in life in …

Β-Amyloid And Tau Drive Early Alzheimer's Disease Decline While Glucose Hypometabolism Drives Late Decline, Tyler C. Hammond, Xin Xing, Chris Wang, David Ma, Kwangsik Nho, Paul K. Crane, Fanny Elahi, David A. Ziegler, Gongbo Liang, Qiang Cheng, Lucille M. Yanckello, Nathan Jacobs, Ai-Ling Lin

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Clinical trials focusing on therapeutic candidates that modify β-amyloid (Aβ) have repeatedly failed to treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD), suggesting that Aβ may not be the optimal target for treating AD. The evaluation of Aβ, tau, and neurodegenerative (A/T/N) biomarkers has been proposed for classifying AD. However, it remains unclear whether disturbances in each arm of the A/T/N framework contribute equally throughout the progression of AD. Here, using the random forest machine learning method to analyze participants in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative dataset, we show that A/T/N biomarkers show varying importance in predicting AD development, with elevated biomarkers of Aβ …

Brain Structure Changes Over Time In Normal And Mildly Impaired Aged Persons, Charles D. Smith, Linda J. Van Eldik, Gregory A. Jicha, Frederick A. Schmitt, Peter T. Nelson, Erin L. Abner, Richard J. Kryscio, Richard R. Murphy, Anders H. Andersen

Neurology Faculty Publications

Structural brain changes in aging are known to occur even in the absence of dementia, but the magnitudes and regions involved vary between studies. To further characterize these changes, we analyzed paired MRI images acquired with identical protocols and scanner over a median 5.8-year interval. The normal study group comprised 78 elders (25M 53F, baseline age range 70-78 years) who underwent an annual standardized expert assessment of cognition and health and who maintained normal cognition for the duration of the study. We found a longitudinal grey matter (GM) loss rate of 2.56 ± 0.07 ml/year (0.20 ± 0.04%/year) and a …

Learning In The Machine: To Share Or Not To Share?, Jordan Ott, Erik Linstead, Nicholas Lahaye, Pierre Baldi

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Weight-sharing is one of the pillars behind Convolutional Neural Networks and their successes. However, in physical neural systems such as the brain, weight-sharing is implausible. This discrepancy raises the fundamental question of whether weight-sharing is necessary. If so, to which degree of precision? If not, what are the alternatives? The goal of this study is to investigate these questions, primarily through simulations where the weight-sharing assumption is relaxed. Taking inspiration from neural circuitry, we explore the use of Free Convolutional Networks and neurons with variable connection patterns. Using Free Convolutional Networks, we show that while weight-sharing is a pragmatic optimization …

A Nwb-Based Dataset And Processing Pipeline Of Human Single-Neuron Activity During A Declarative Memory Task, N. Chandravadia, D. Liang, A. G. P. Schjetnan, A. Carlson, M. Faraut, J. M. Chung, C. M. Reed, B. Dichter, Uri Maoz, S. K. Kalia, T. A. Valiante, A. N. Mamelak, U. Rutishauser

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

A challenge for data sharing in systems neuroscience is the multitude of different data formats used. Neurodata Without Borders: Neurophysiology 2.0 (NWB:N) has emerged as a standardized data format for the storage of cellular-level data together with meta-data, stimulus information, and behavior. A key next step to facilitate NWB:N adoption is to provide easy to use processing pipelines to import/export data from/to NWB:N. Here, we present a NWB-formatted dataset of 1863 single neurons recorded from the medial temporal lobes of 59 human subjects undergoing intracranial monitoring while they performed a recognition memory task. We provide code to analyze and export/import …

Mechanisms Of Value-Biased Prioritization In Fast Sensorimotor Decision Making, Kivilcim Afacan-Seref

Dissertations and Theses

In dynamic environments, split-second sensorimotor decisions must be prioritized according to potential payoffs to maximize overall rewards. The impact of relative value on deliberative perceptual judgments has been examined extensively, but relatively little is known about value-biasing mechanisms in the common situation where physical evidence is strong but the time to act is severely limited. This research examines the behavioral and electrophysiological indices of how value biases split-second perceptual decisions and the possible mechanisms underlying the process. In prominent decision models, a noisy but statistically stationary representation of sensory evidence is integrated over time to an action-triggering bound, and value-biases …

Novel Random Forest Methods And Algorithms For Autism Spectrum Disorders Research, Afrooz Jahedi

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Random Forest (RF) is a flexible, easy to use machine learning algorithm that was proposed by Leo Breiman in 2001 for building a predictor ensemble with a set of decision trees that grow in randomly selected subspaces of data. Its superior prediction accuracy has made it the most used algorithms in the machine learning field. In this dissertation, we use the random forest as the main building block for creating a proximity matrix for multivariate matching and diagnostic classification problems that are used for autism research (as an exemplary application). In observational studies, matching is used to optimize the balance …

The Application Of Machine Learning Models In The Concussion Diagnosis Process, Sujit Subhash

Masters Theses

“Concussions represent a growing health concern and are challenging to diagnose and manage. Roughly four million concussions are diagnosed every year in the United States. Although research into the application of advanced metrics such as neuroimages and blood biomarkers has shown promise, they are yet to be implemented at a clinical level due to cost and reliability concerns. Therefore, concussion diagnosis is still reliant on clinical evaluations of symptoms, balance, and neurocognitive status and function. The lack of a universal threshold on these assessments makes the diagnosis process entirely reliant on a physician’s interpretation of these assessment scores. This study …

Inference Of Language Functional Network In Healthy, Cancerous And Bilingual Brains By Fmri And Network Modeling, Qiongge Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We study the underlying mechanism by which language processing occurs in the human brain using inference methods on functional magnetic resonance imaging data. The data analyzed stems from several cohorts of subjects; a monolingual group, a bilingual group, a healthy control group and one diseased case. We applied a complex statistical inference pipeline to determine the network structure of brain components involved with language. This healthy network reveals a fully connected triangular relationship between the pre-Supplementary Motor Area (pre-SMA), the Broca's Area (BA), and the ventral Pre-Motor Area (PreMA) in the left hemisphere. This "triangle'' shows consistently in all the …

Towards Human Retinal Cones Spatial Distribution Modeling, Matteo Paolo Lanaro, Hélène Perrier, David Coeurjolly, Victor Ostromoukhov, Alessandro Rizzi

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

A Hidden Markov Factor Analysis Framework For Seizure Detection In Epilepsy Patients, Mahboubeh Madadi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 1% of the world population suffers from epilepsy. Continuous long-term electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring is the gold-standard for recording epileptic seizures and assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with epilepsy. Detection of seizure from the recorded EEG is a laborious, time consuming and expensive task. In this study, we propose an automated seizure detection framework to assist electroencephalographers and physicians with identification of seizures in recorded EEG signals. In addition, an automated seizure detection algorithm can be used for treatment through automatic intervention during the seizure activity and on time triggering of the injection of a radiotracer to …

A U-Net Deep Learning Framework For High Performance Vessel Segmentation In Paitents With Cerebrovascular Disease, Michelle Livne, Jana Rieger, Orhun Utku Aydin, Abdel Aziz Taha, Ela Maria Akay, Tabea Kossen, Jan Sobesky, John D. Kelleher, Kristian Hildebrand, Dietmar Frey, Vince I. Madai

Articles

Brain vessel status is a promising biomarker for better prevention and treatment in cerebrovascular disease. However, classic rule-based vessel segmentation algorithms need to be hand-crafted and are insufficiently validated. A specialized deep learning method—the U-net—is a promising alternative. Using labeled data from 66 patients with cerebrovascular disease, the U-net framework was optimized and evaluated with three metrics: Dice coefficient, 95% Hausdorff distance (95HD) and average Hausdorff distance (AVD). The model performance was compared with the traditional segmentation method of graph-cuts. Training and reconstruction was performed using 2D patches. A full and a reduced architecture with less parameters were trained. We …

Using Fundamental Properties Of Light To Investigate Photonic Effects In Condensed Matter And Biological Tissues, Laura A. Sordillo

Dissertations and Theses

Light possesses characteristics such as polarization, wavelength and coherence. The interaction of light and matter, whether in a semiconductor or in a biological sample, can reveal important information about the internal properties of a system. My thesis focuses on two areas: photocarriers in gallium arsenide and biomedical optics. Varying the excitation wavelength can be used to study both biological tissue and condensed matter. I altered the excitation wavelengths to be in the longer near-infrared (NIR) optical windows, in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) range, a wavelength region previously thought to be unusable for medical imaging. With this method, I acquired high …