Neurosciences Commons^™

Mass Spectrometry Discovery-Based Proteomics To Examine Anti-Aging Effects Of The Nutraceutical Nt-020 In Rat Serum, Samantha M. Portis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Aging is a complex physiological process that leads to the deterioration of all cells and tissues throughout the body. Aging is a major risk factor for the onset of many degenerative diseases in both the central nervous system (CNS) and the periphery, but even nonpathological aging (“normal” aging) is associated with chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and decreased stem cell proliferation and regenerative capacity. This decreased regenerative capacity in stem cell niches is thought to be a key component underlying the aging process and many disease states associated with aging.

While the exact biological mechanisms underlying impaired stem cell proliferation and …

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 …

Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation-Paired Rehabilitation For Oromotor Feeding Problems In Newborns: An Open-Label Pilot Study, Bashar W. Badran, Dorothea D. Jenkins, Daniel Cook, Sean Thompson, Morgan Darcy, William H. Devries, Georgia Mappin, Philipp Summers, Marom Bikson, Mark S. George

Publications and Research

Neonates born premature or who suffer brain injury at birth often have oral feeding dysfunction and do not meet oral intake requirements needed for discharge. Low oral intake volumes result in extended stays in the hospital (>2 months) and can lead to surgical implant and explant of a gastrostomy tube (G-tube). Prior work suggests pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with motor activity accelerates functional improvements after stroke, and transcutaneous auricular VNS (taVNS) has emerged as promising noninvasive form of VNS. Pairing taVNS with bottle-feeding rehabilitation may improve oromotor coordination and lead to improved oral intake volumes, ultimately avoiding the …

Quench Assisted (Quest) Mri Used As A Novel Approach To Identify Reactive Oxygen Species As A Result Of Experimental Tbi, Ethan M. Cohen, Eric Chang, Michael C. Schneider, Abigail Teitelbaum, Alexander R. Woznicki, Rachel E. Godfrey, Robert H. Podolsky, Karen L. Childers, Robin Roberts, Bruce A. Berkowitz, Kelly E. Bosse, Alana C. Conti

Medical Student Research Symposium

Introduction:

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) generates reactive oxygen species (ROS), promoting inflammatory processes and impeding TBI recovery. Within the VA population, over 70% of military personnel that sustain a TBI receive opioid-based pain relief, however, opiates may actually exacerbate post-TBI complications through its documented recruitment of oxidative and inflammatory systems. Thus, we hypothesize that TBI and opioid treatment act synergistically to worsen post-TBI oxidative stress.

Methods:

Mice were exposed to either TBI or sham injury and administered morphine or saline in the acute post-injury period. Afterwards, neuroimaging was conducted using a novel technique, QUEnch assiSTed (QUEST) MRI, which compares standard …

Novel Rvd6 Stereoisomer Induces Corneal Nerve Regeneration And Wound Healing Post-Injury By Modulating Trigeminal Transcriptomic Signature, Thang L. Pham, Azucena H. Kakazu, Jiucheng He, Bokkyoo Jun, Nicolas G. Bazan, Haydee E.P. Bazan

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

The high-density corneal innervation plays a pivotal role in sustaining the integrity of the ocular surface. We have previously demonstrated that pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) plus docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) promotes corneal nerve regeneration; here, we report the mechanism involved and the discovery of a stereospecific Resolvin D6-isomer (RvD6si) that drives the process. RvD6si promotes corneal wound healing and functional recovery by restoring corneal innervation after injury. RvD6si applied to the eye surface elicits a specific transcriptome signature in the trigeminal ganglion (TG) that includes Rictor, the rapamycin-insensitive complex-2 of mTOR (mTORC2), and genes involved in axon growth, whereas genes related …

Longitudinal Analysis Of Gait In People With Parkinson’S Disease To Improve The Detection Of Risk Of Falls, Ryan Meidinger

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Within 3 years of diagnosis, more than 85% of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) develop gait problems, which may lead to falls resulting in serious injury and reduced quality of life. The evolution of gait impairments with PD progression and the relationship between locomotor performance and falls in PD are unclear. In addition, large individual variations exist at the level of gait performances corresponding to specific levels of disease severity. Deficits in cognitive and sensory-motor functions in PD also impair the ability to walk while doing another task (i.e., dual-tasking). When attentional resources in PD patients are allocated to more …

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 …

Transcriptomic Evidence That Von Economo Neurons Are Regionally Specialized Extratelencephalic-Projecting Excitatory Neurons., Rebecca D Hodge, Jeremy A Miller, Mark Novotny, Brian E Kalmbach, Jonathan T Ting, Trygve E Bakken, Brian D Aevermann, Eliza R Barkan, Madeline L Berkowitz-Cerasano, Charles Cobbs, Francisco Diez-Fuertes, Song-Lin Ding, Jamison Mccorrison, Nicholas J Schork, Soraya I Shehata, Kimberly A Smith, Susan M Sunkin, Danny N Tran, Pratap Venepally, Anna Marie Yanny, Frank J Steemers, John W Phillips, Amy Bernard, Christof Koch, Roger S Lasken, Richard H Scheuermann, Ed S Lein

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

von Economo neurons (VENs) are bipolar, spindle-shaped neurons restricted to layer 5 of human frontoinsula and anterior cingulate cortex that appear to be selectively vulnerable to neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, although little is known about other VEN cellular phenotypes. Single nucleus RNA-sequencing of frontoinsula layer 5 identifies a transcriptomically-defined cell cluster that contained VENs, but also fork cells and a subset of pyramidal neurons. Cross-species alignment of this cell cluster with a well-annotated mouse classification shows strong homology to extratelencephalic (ET) excitatory neurons that project to subcerebral targets. This cluster also shows strong homology to a putative ET cluster in …

Evidence That Brain-Reactive Autoantibodies Contribute To Chronic Neuronal Internalization Of Exogenous Amyloid-Β1-42 And Key Cell Surface Proteins During Alzheimer's Disease Pathogenesis, Eric L Goldwaser, Nimish K Acharya, Hao Wu, George A Godsey, Abhirup Sarkar, Cassandra A Demarshall, Mary C Kosciuk, Robert G Nagele

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability is a recognized early feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, we examined consequences of increased BBB permeability on the development of AD-related pathology by tracking selected leaked plasma components and their interactions with neurons in vivo and in vitro. Histological sections of cortical regions of postmortem AD brains were immunostained to determine the distribution of amyloid-β1-42 (Aβ42), cathepsin D, IgG, GluR2/3, and alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR). Results revealed that chronic IgG binding to pyramidal neurons coincided with internalization of Aβ42, IgG, GluR2/3, and α7nAChR as well as lysosomal compartment expansion in these …

Basal Forebrain Volume Reliably Predicts The Cortical Spread Of Alzheimer's Degeneration, Sara Fernández-Cabello, Martin Kronbichler, Koene R.A. Van Dijk, James A. Goodman, R. Nathan Spreng, Taylor W. Schmitz

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© The Author(s) (2020). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. Alzheimer's disease neurodegeneration is thought to spread across anatomically and functionally connected brain regions. However, the precise sequence of spread remains ambiguous. The prevailing model used to guide in vivo human neuroimaging and non-human animal research assumes that Alzheimer's degeneration starts in the entorhinal cortices, before spreading to the temporoparietal cortex. Challenging this model, we previously provided evidence that in vivo markers of neurodegeneration within the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NbM), a subregion of the basal forebrain heavily populated by cortically projecting cholinergic neurons, …

Do Infants Have A Sense Of Numerosity? A P-Curve Analysis Of Infant Numerosity Discrimination Studies, Rachael E. Smyth, Daniel Ansari

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Research demonstrating that infants discriminate between small (e.g., 1 vs. 3 dots) and large numerosities (e.g., 8 vs. 16 dots) is central to theories concerning the origins of human numerical abilities. To date, there has been no quantitative meta-analysis of the infant numerical competency data. Here, we quantitatively synthesize the evidential value of the available literature on infant numerosity discrimination using a meta-analytic tool called p-curve. In p-curve the distribution of available p-values is analyzed to determine whether the published literature examining particular hypotheses contains evidential value. p-curves demonstrated evidential value for the hypotheses that infants can discriminate between both …

Comparison Of Outcomes Following Minimally Invasive And Open Posterior Cervical Foraminotomy: Description Of Minimally Invasive Technique And Review Of Literature., Andrew Platt, Carter S Gerard, John E O'Toole

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Although minimally invasive posterior cervical foraminotomy (MIS-PCF) is frequently employed in the treatment of cervical radiculopathy, there are very few studies directly comparing outcomes between MIS-PCF and open posterior cervical foraminotomy and between MIS-PCF and percutaneous endoscopic (full-endoscopic) posterior cervical foraminotomy (FE-PCF). This study includes a description of technique and systematic review of literature and analysis of clinical studies comparing outcomes between MIS-PCF and open posterior cervical foraminotomy and between MIS-PCF and FE-PCF. Six comparative studies, including one randomized controlled trial were included in analysis. Average operative time ranged from 60.5 to 171 minutes in the open group and 77.65 …

Dissociable Posterior And Anterior Insula Activations In Processing Negative Stimulus Before And After The Application Of Cognitive Reappraisals, Ze Zhang, Tingting Guo, Jin Fan, Xiaofei Wu, Tengteng Tan, Jing Luo

Publications and Research

Although the role of the insular cortex in representing bodily and emotional feelings has been recognized, whether the mid-posterior and anterior parts of the insula act differentially in the encoding and regulation of emotional feelings is still unclear. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined the effects of the creative cognitive reappraisals versus the non-creative ordinary reappraisals on the activation pattern of the mid-posterior and anterior insular cortex during the processing of unpleasant pictures by comparing the neural correlates for processing these pictures before and after the application of cognitive reappraisals. We found significant anterior insular activation …

Acute Blockade Of Pacap-Dependent Activity In The Ventromedial Nucleus Of The Hypothalamus Disrupts Leptin-Induced Behavioral And Molecular Changes In Rats, Matthew M. Hurley, Eden M. Anderson, Christopher Chen, Brian Maunze, Evan Michael Hess, Megan E. Block, Neerali Patel, Zane Cooper, Riley Mccoy, Tanya Dabra, William Conley, Michael J. Reilly, Matthew C. Hearing, Sujean Choi

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Leptin signaling pathways, stemming primarily from the hypothalamus, are necessary for maintaining normal energy homeostasis and body weight. In both rodents and humans, dysregulation of leptin signaling leads to morbid obesity and diabetes. Since leptin resistance is considered a primary factor underlying obesity, understanding the regulation of leptin signaling could lead to therapeutic tools and provide insights into the causality of obesity. While leptin actions in some hypothalamic regions such as the arcuate nuclei have been characterized, less is known about leptin activity in the hypothalamic ventromedial nuclei (VMN). Recently, pituitary adenylate cyclase activating-polypeptide (PACAP) has been shown to reduce …

Longitudinal Basal Forebrain Degeneration Interacts With Trem2/C3 Biomarkers Of Inflammation In Presymptomatic Alzheimer’S Disease, Taylor W. Schmitz, Hermona Soreq, X. Judes Poirier, X. R. Nathan Spreng

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2020 the authors Cholinergic inputs originating from the peripheral nervous system regulate the inflammatory immune responses of macrophages during clearance of blood-based pathogens. Because microglia are involved in clearing amyloid and tau pathology from the central nervous system, we hypothesized that cholinergic input originating from the basal forebrain might similarly regulate inflammatory immune responses to these pathologies in the aging brain. To explore this hypothesis, we leveraged the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative dataset. Cognitively normal older male and female human adults were differentiated according to the relative concentration of phosphorylated tau and amyloid in their cerebrospinal fluid, yielding …

Corrigendum: Saccade Latency Provides Evidence For Reduced Face Inversion Effects With Higher Autism Traits (Frontiers In Human Neuroscience, (2020), 13, 10.3389/Fnhum.2019.00470), Robin Laycock, Kylie Wood, Andrea Wright, Sheila G. Crewther, Melvyn A. Goodale

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2020 Laycock, Wood, Wright, Crewther and Goodale. In the original article, there was a mistake in the published legend for Figure 2. The results for the high and low Autism Trait (AT) groups were mistakenly interchanged. The correct legend appears below. Figure 2. (A) Average saccade onset times (SOTs) to detect the photograph containing a face or a car in the upright and inverted tasks for high and low Autism Trait (AT) Groups. (B) Face and car inversion effects, calculated as the difference in mean SOTs between upright and inverted tasks for high and low AT Groups. Error …

Antagonistic Regulation Of Circadian Output And Synaptic Development By Jetlag And The Dyschronic-Slowpoke Complex, Angelique Lamaze, James E.C. Jepson, Oghenerukevwe Akpoghiran, Kyunghee Koh

Department of Neuroscience Faculty Papers

Circadian output genes act downstream of the clock to promote rhythmic changes in behavior and physiology, yet their molecular and cellular functions are not well understood. Here we characterize an interaction between regulators of circadian entrainment, output, and synaptic development in Drosophila that influences clock-driven anticipatory increases in morning and evening activity. We previously showed the JETLAG (JET) E3 ubiquitin ligase resets the clock upon light exposure, whereas the PDZ protein DYSCHRONIC (DYSC) regulates circadian locomotor output and synaptic development. Surprisingly, we find that JET and DYSC antagonistically regulate synaptic development at the larval neuromuscular junction, and reduced JET activity …

Multi-Domain Cognitive Assessment Of Male Mice Shows Space Radiation Is Not Harmful To High-Level Cognition And Actually Improves Pattern Separation, Cody W. Whoolery, Sanghee Yun, Ryan P. Reynolds, Melanie J. Lucero, Ivan Soler, Fionya H. Tran, Naoki Ito, Rachel L. Redfield, Devon R. Richardson, Hung-Ying Shih, Phillip D. Rivera, Benjamin P. C. Chen, Shari G. Birnbaum, Ann M. Stowe, Amelia J. Eisch

Neurology Faculty Publications

Astronauts on interplanetary missions - such as to Mars - will be exposed to space radiation, a spectrum of highly-charged, fast-moving particles that includes ⁵⁶Fe and ²⁸Si. Earth-based preclinical studies show space radiation decreases rodent performance in low- and some high-level cognitive tasks. Given astronaut use of touchscreen platforms during training and space flight and given the ability of rodent touchscreen tasks to assess functional integrity of brain circuits and multiple cognitive domains in a non-aversive way, here we exposed 6-month-old C57BL/6J male mice to whole-body space radiation and subsequently assessed them on a touchscreen battery. Relative to …

A Native Function For Ran Translation And Cgg Repeats In Regulating Fragile X Protein Synthesis, Caitlin M. Rodriguez, Shannon E. Wright, Michael G. Kearse, Jill M. Haenfler, Brittany N. Flores, Yu Liu, Marius F. Ifrim, M. Rebecca Glineburg, Amy Krans, Paymaan Jafar-Nejad, Michael A. Sutton, Gary J. Bassell, Jack M. Parent, Frank Rigo, Sami J. Barmada, Peter K. Todd

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Repeat-associated non-AUG-initiated translation of expanded CGG repeats (CGG RAN) from the FMR1 5′-leader produces toxic proteins that contribute to neurodegeneration in fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome. Here we describe how unexpanded CGG repeats and their translation play conserved roles in regulating fragile X protein (FMRP) synthesis. In neurons, CGG RAN acts as an inhibitory upstream open reading frame to suppress basal FMRP production. Activation of mGluR5 receptors enhances FMRP synthesis. This enhancement requires both the CGG repeat and CGG RAN initiation sites. Using non-cleaving antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), we selectively blocked CGG RAN. This ASO blockade enhanced endogenous FMRP expression in human …

A Decerebrating Female: A Rare Presentation Of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis Due To Measles, Natasha Del Rio, Yordan Orive, Andres Sobrado, Ruben Cabrera, Ilde Manuel Lee, Troy Hoang, Sherard Lacaille, Ricardo Garcia-Rivera, Robert Hernandez

Internal Medicine

No abstract provided.