Search results for " Physiological"

Improving the Effect of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS): A Systematic Review

2021

With the development of electrical stimulation technology, traditional transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) technology has been found to have the drawback of not targeting a specific area accurately. Studies have shown that optimizing the number and position of electrodes during electrical stimulation has a very good effect on enhancing brain stimulation accuracy. At present, an increasing number of laboratories have begun to optimize tACS. However, there has been no study summarizing the optimization methods of tACS. Determining whether different optimization methods are effective and the optimization approach could provide information that could guide future tACS research. …

The Effects of Transcutaneous Spinal Direct Current Stimulation on Neuropathic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis: Clinical and Neurophysiological Assessment

2019

Background: Central neuropathic pain represents one of the most common symptoms in multiple sclerosis (MS) and it seriously affects quality of life. Spinal mechanisms may contribute to the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain in MS. Converging evidence from animal models and neurophysiological and clinical studies in humans suggests a potential effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tc-DCS) on neuropathic pain. Spinal application of DCS, i.e., transcutaneous spinal DCS (ts-DCS), may modulate nociception through inhibition of spinal reflexes. Therefore, ts-DCS could represents an effective, safe and well-tolerated treatment for neuropathic pain in MS, a largely unexplored topic. This…

Sole coloration as an unusual aposematic signal in a Neotropical toad

2019

Many animals have evolved remarkable strategies to avoid predation. In diurnal, toxic harlequin toads (Atelopus) from the Amazon basin, we find a unique colour signal. Some Atelopus populations have striking red soles of the hands and feet, visible only when walking. When stationary, the toads are hard to detect despite their yellow-black dorsal coloration. Consequently, they switch between high and low conspicuousness. Interestingly, some populations lack the extra colour display of the soles. We found comprehensive support that the red coloration can act as an aposematic signal directed towards potential predators: red soles are significantly more conspicuous than soles lacking red colora…

The role of lipid metabolism in the acquisition of desiccation tolerance inCraterostigma plantagineum: a comparative approach

2013

Summary Dehydration leads to different physiological and biochemical responses in plants. We analysed the lipid composition and the expression of genes involved in lipid biosynthesis in the desiccation-tolerant plant Craterostigma plantagineum. A comparative approach was carried out with Lindernia brevidens (desiccation tolerant) and two desiccation-sensitive species, Lindernia subracemosa and Arabidopsis thaliana. In C. plantagineum the total lipid content remained constant while the lipid composition underwent major changes during desiccation. The most prominent change was the removal of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) from the thylakoids. Analysis of molecular species composition rev…

The interplay between the host microbiome and pathogenic viral infections

2021

The microorganisms associated with an organism, the microbiome, have a strong and wide impact in their host biology. In particular, the microbiome modulates both the host defense responses and immunity, thus influencing the fate of infections by pathogens. Indeed, this immune modulation and/or interaction with pathogenic viruses can be essential to define the outcome of viral infections. Understanding the interplay between the microbiome and pathogenic viruses opens future venues to fight viral infections and enhance the efficacy of antiviral therapies. An increasing number of researchers are focusing on microbiome-virus interactions, studying diverse combinations of microbial communities, …

Enhancement of hepatitis C virus RNA replication by cell culture-adaptive mutations.

2001

ABSTRACT Studies of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication cycle have been made possible with the development of subgenomic selectable RNAs that replicate autonomously in cultured cells. In these replicons the region encoding the HCV structural proteins was replaced by the neomycin phosphotransferase gene, allowing the selection of transfected cells that support high-level replication of these RNAs. Subsequent analyses revealed that, within selected cells, HCV RNAs had acquired adaptive mutations that increased the efficiency of colony formation by an unknown mechanism. Using a panel of replicons that differed in their degrees of cell culture adaptation, in this study we show that adaptive…

Translocation of the nuclear autoantigen La to the cell surface of herpes simplex virus type 1 infected cells.

1992

Recently we developed a procedure to translocalize one of the extractable nuclear antigens (ENAs), the La protein, to the cell surface of CV-1 cells. Here we report that herpes simplex virus type 1 infection can also induce a translocation of the autoantigen to the cell surface. On the cell surface we detected La protein assembled with large protrusions. Within these protrusions La protein colocalized with virus particles. These protrusions are known to be released from the cell after virus infections. Such complexes consisting of self and virus could provide helper determinants for an anti-self response, and therefore be important in generation of autoimmunity.

Visual Contrast Modulates Operant Learning Responses in Larval Zebrafish.

2018

The larval zebrafish is a promising vertebrate model organism to study neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory due to its small brain and rich behavioral repertoire. Here, we report on a high-throughput operant conditioning system for zebrafish larvae, which can simultaneously train 12 fish to associate a visual conditioned pattern with electroshocks. We find that the learning responses can be enhanced by the visual contrast, not the spatial features of the conditioned patterns, highlighted by several behavioral metrics. By further characterizing the learning curves as well as memory extinction, we demonstrate that the percentage of learners and the memory length increase as the co…

Editorial : Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) : A unique tool in investigating automatic processing

2022

Explicit behavioral detection of visual changes develops without their implicit neurophysiological detectability

2011

Change blindness is a failure of reporting major changes across consecutive images if separated, e.g., by a brief blank interval. Successful change detection across interrupts requires focal attention to the changes. However, findings of implicit detection of visual changes during change blindness have raised the question of whether the implicit mode is necessary for development of the explicit mode. To this end, we recorded the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) of the event-related potentials (ERPs) of the brain, an index of implicit pre-attentive visual change detection, in adult humans performing an oddball-variant of change blindness flicker task. Images of 500 ms in duration were prese…