Search results for " Prefrontal Cortex"
showing 10 items of 111 documents
Different Brain Circuitries Mediating Controllable and Uncontrollable Pain.
2015
Uncontrollable, compared with controllable, painful stimulation can lead to increased pain perception and activation in pain-processing brain regions, but it is currently unknown which brain areas mediate this effect. When pain is controllable, the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) seems to inhibit pain processing, although it is unclear how this is achieved. Using fMRI in healthy volunteers, we examined brain activation during controllable and uncontrollable stimulation to answer these questions. In the controllable task, participants self-adjusted temperatures applied to their hand of pain or warm intensities to provoke a constant sensation. In the uncontrollable task, the temperature time …
Enhanced Prefrontal Neuronal Activity and Social Dominance Behavior in Postnatal Forebrain Excitatory Neuron-Specific Cyfip2 Knock-Out Mice
2020
The cytoplasmic fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1)-interacting protein 2 (CYFIP2) gene is associated with epilepsy, intellectual disability (ID), and developmental delay, suggesting its critical role in proper neuronal development and function. CYFIP2 is involved in regulating cellular actin dynamics and also interacts with RNA-binding proteins. However, the adult brain function of CYFIP2 remains unclear because investigations thus far are limited to Cyfip2 heterozygous (Cyfip2+/- ) mice owing to the perinatal lethality of Cyfip2-null mice. Therefore, we generated Cyfip2 conditional knock-out (cKO) mice with reduced CYFIP2 expression in postnatal forebrain excitatory neurons (CaMKIIα-Cre…
Chronic Stress Modulates Interneuronal Plasticity: Effects on PSA-NCAM and Perineuronal Nets in Cortical and Extracortical Regions.
2018
Chronic stress has an important impact on the adult brain. However, most of the knowledge on its effects is focused on principal neurons and less on inhibitory neurons. Consequently, recent reports have begun to describe stress-induced alterations in the structure, connectivity and neurochemistry of interneurons. Some of these changes appear to be mediated by certain molecules particularly associated to interneurons, such as the polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM) and components of the perineuronal nets (PNN), specialized regions of the extracellular matrix. These plasticity-related molecules modulate interneuronal structure and connectivity, particularly of …
Proteomic Analysis of Brain Region and Sex-Specific Synaptic Protein Expression in the Adult Mouse Brain
2020
Genetic disruption of synaptic proteins results in a whole variety of human neuropsychiatric disorders including intellectual disability, schizophrenia or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In a wide range of these so-called synaptopathies a sex bias in prevalence and clinical course has been reported. Using an unbiased proteomic approach, we analyzed the proteome at the interaction site of the pre- and postsynaptic compartment, in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, striatum and cerebellum of male and female adult C57BL/6J mice. We were able to reveal a specific repertoire of synaptic proteins in different brain areas as it has been implied before. Additionally, we found a region-specific set…
Acute and chronic nicotine exposures differentially affect central serotonin 2A receptor function : focus on the lateral habenula
2020
Nicotine addiction is a serious public health problem causing millions of deaths worldwide. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine
Alterations of perineuronal nets in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of neuropsychiatric patients
2019
Abstract Background Alterations in the structure and physiology of interneurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are important factors in the etiopathology of different psychiatric disorders. Among the interneuronal subpopulations, parvalbumin (PV) expressing cells appear to be specially affected. Interestingly, during development and adulthood the connectivity of these interneurons is regulated by the presence of perineuronal nets (PNNs), specialized regions of the extracellular matrix, which are frequently surrounding PV expressing neurons. Previous reports have found anomalies in the density of PNNs in the PFC of schizophrenic patients. However, although some studies have described alterat…
Primary Sensorimotor Cortex Drives the Common Cortical Network for Gamma Synchronization in Voluntary Hand Movements
2018
Background: Gamma synchronization (GS) may promote the processing between functionally related cortico-subcortical neural populations. Our aim was to identify the sources of GS and to analyze the direction of information flow in cerebral networks at the beginning of phasic movements, and during medium-strength isometric contraction of the hand. Methods: We measured 64-channel electroencephalography in 11 healthy volunteers (age: 25 ± 8 years; four females); surface electromyography detected the movements of the dominant hand. In Task 1, subjects kept a constant medium-strength contraction of the first dorsal interosseus muscle, and performed a superimposed repetitive voluntary self-paced br…
Dysregulation of C-X-C motif ligand 10 during aging and association with cognitive performance
2017
International audience; Chronic low-grade inflammation during aging (inflammaging) is associated with cognitive decline and neurodegeneration; however, the mechanisms underlying inflammaging are unclear. We studied a population (n = 361) of healthy young and old adults from the MyoAge cohort. Peripheral levels of C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10 (CXCL10) was found to be higher in older adults, compared with young, and negatively associated with working memory performance. This coincided with an age-related reduction in blood DNA methylation at specific CpGs within the CXCL10 gene promoter. In vitro analysis supported the role of DNA methylation in regulating CXCL10 transcription. A polymorph…
Effects of PSA Removal from NCAM on the Critical Period Plasticity Triggered by the Antidepressant Fluoxetine in the Visual Cortex.
2016
Neuronal plasticity peaks during critical periods of postnatal development and is reduced towards adulthood. Recent data suggests that windows of juvenile-like plasticity can be triggered in the adult brain by antidepressant drugs such as Fluoxetine. Although the exact mechanisms of how Fluoxetine promotes such plasticity remains unknown, several studies indicate that inhibitory circuits play an important role. The polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecules (PSA-NCAM) has been suggested to mediate the effects of Fluoxetine and it is expressed in the adult brain by mature interneurons. Moreover, the enzymatic removal of PSA by neuroaminidase-N not only affects the structure of…
Is there evidence for a rostral-caudal gradient in fronto-striatal loops and what role does dopamine play?
2018
Research has shown that the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) may be hierarchically organized along a rostral-caudal functional gradient such that control processing becomes progressively more abstract from caudal to rostral frontal regions. Here, we briefly review the most recent functional MRI, neuropsychological, and electrophysiological evidence in support of a hierarchical LPFC organization. We extend these observations by discussing how such a rostral-caudal gradient may also exist in the striatum and how the dopaminergic system may play an important role in the hierarchical organization of fronto-striatal loops. There is evidence indicating that a rostral-caudal gradient of dopamine r…