Search results for " stimulation"
showing 10 items of 1644 documents
Mechanical activity of small and large intestine in normal and mdx mice: a comparative analysis.
1999
The aim of this study was to compare the motor pattern (recorded as changes in intraluminal pressure) of isolated duodenum and proximal colon between dystrophic mdx and normal mice. When duodenal recordings from control preparations were compared with mdx mice there was no significant difference in the spontaneous motor pattern, responses to electrical nerve stimulation or sensitivity to pharmacological agents. Colonic segments from mdx mice showed a more complex motor pattern, consisting of contractions with amplitude and frequency similar to those of controls and by additional contractions with lower amplitude and higher frequency. Moreover, 70% of the colonic preparations from mdx mice d…
Duodenal contractile activity in dystrophic (mdx) mice: reduction of nitric oxide influence.
2003
The present study was undertaken to analyse duodenal contractility in adult dystrophic (mdx) mice. The spontaneous changes of the isometric tension and the responses of longitudinal duodenal muscle to nonadrenergic, noncholinergic (NANC) nerve stimulation and to exogenous drugs were compared between normal and mdx mice. Duodenal segments from mdx mice displayed spontaneous contractions with higher frequency than normals. N omega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) increased the frequency of contractions in normals without affecting that in mdx mice. In normals, NANC nerve stimulation elicited a transient relaxation abolished by L-NAME. In mdx mice a frank relaxation was not observed, the…
Anatomy of the Sacral Roots and the Pelvic Splanchnic Nerves in Women Using the LANN Technique
2007
AIMS: To report on our anatomic and electrophysiologic findings about the sacral nerve roots and the pelvic splanchnic nerves during laparoscopic pelvic surgery. METHODS: The pelvic splanchnic nerves and the sacral nerve roots were dissected in 336 consecutive patients undergoing laparoscopy for pelvic pain syndrome or gynecologic diseases. Intraoperative assessment of the functionality of the exposed nerves was performed using the LAparoscopic Neuro-Navigation (LANN) technique. RESULTS: Dissection of the sacral roots and the splanchnic pelvic nerves lateral to the sacral hypogastric fascia was feasible without any complications in all patients in this series. The mean surgical time was 16 …
Hippocampal event-related potentials to pitch deviances in an auditory oddball situation in the cat: experiment I.
1995
Hippocampal event-related potentials (ERP) in the areas CA1, CA3, and dentate fascia (Df) were recorded in cats during an oddball situation when pitch deviant tones occurred in a series of standard tones. When difference waves were calculated by subtracting ERPs to the standard tones from those to the deviant tones, no clear N40d, corresponding to a cat analogue of the human mismatch negativity (MMN) observed in earlier studies, could be detected. Instead, a prominent later negativity (N130d) was observed. A possible extra-hippocampal source of the process reflected by the MMN-like negativity, and a relation between an orienting response (OR) and the N130d are discussed.
Chapter 31 Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies of contralesional space attention deficits
2002
Publisher Summary The power of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to disrupt and modulate the neural activity in focal brain regions has provided researchers in this field a promising tool to empirically test specific neuropsychological models and constructs of contralesional space attention deficits. A group of studies has used TMS to transiently disrupt the cortical activity of the focal brain areas in normal subjects to replicate the effects of neurological lesions. This chapter discusses a number of studies, using single-pulse, paired-TMS, and repetitive TMS (rTMS) and different experimental paradigms that show how this technique can be of fundamental importance, in elucidating the…
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Neuroimaging Coregistration
2013
The development of neuroimaging techniques is one of the most impressive advancements in neuroscience. The main reason for the widespread use of these instruments lies in their capacity to provide an accurate description of neural activity during a cognitive process or during rest. This important advancement is related to the possibility to selectively detect changes of neuronal activity in space and time by means of different biological markers. Specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and nearinfrared spectroscopy (NIRS) use metabolic markers of ongoing neuronal activity to provide a…
Brain Modulation by Electric Currents in Fibromyalgia: A Structured Review on Non-invasive Approach With Transcranial Electrical Stimulation
2018
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a complex disorder where widespread musculoskeletal pain is associated with many heterogenous symptoms ranging from affective disturbances to cognitive dysfunction and central fatigue. FMS is currently underdiagnosed and often very poorly responsive to pharmacological treatment. Pathophysiology of the disease remains still obscure even if in the last years fine structural and functional cerebral abnormalities have been identified, principally by neurophysiological and imaging studies delineating disfunctions in pain perception, processing and control systems. On such basis, recently, neurostimulation of brain areas involved in mechanism of pain processing and …
Effects of tDCS on Bimanual Motor Skills: A Brief Review.
2018
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that allows the modulation of cortical excitability as well as neuroplastic reorganization using a weak constant current applied through the skull on the cerebral cortex. TDCS has been found to improve motor performance in general and motor learning in particular. However, these effects have been reported almost exclusively for unimanual motor tasks such as serial reaction time tasks, adaptation tasks, or visuo-motor tracking. Despite the importance of bimanual actions in most activities of daily living, only few studies have investigated the effects of tDCS on bimanual motor skills. The objectives …
Modulation of Human Motor Cortical Excitability and Plasticity by Opuntia Ficus Indica Fruit Consumption: Evidence from a Preliminary Study through N…
2022
Indicaxanthin (IX) from Opuntia Ficus Indica (OFI) has been shown to exert numerous biological effects both in vitro and in vivo, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuro-modulatory activity in rodent models. Our goal was to investigate the eventual neuro-active role of orally assumed fruits containing high levels of IX at nutritionally-relevant amounts in healthy subjects, exploring cortical excitability and plasticity in the human motor cortex (M1). To this purpose, we applied paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) in basal conditions and followed the consumption of yellow cactus pear fruits containing IX or white ca…
Parietal Cortex Connectivity as a Marker of Shift in Spatial Attention Following Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation
2021
Non-invasive brain stimulation is a useful tool to probe brain function and provide therapeutic treatments in disease. When applied to the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of healthy participants, it is possible to temporarily shift spatial attention and mimic symptoms of spatial neglect. However, the field of brain stimulation is plagued by issues of high response variability. The aim of this study was to investigate baseline functional connectivity as a predictor of response to an inhibitory brain stimulation paradigm applied to the right PPC. In fourteen healthy adults (9 female, aged 24.8 ± 4.0 years) we applied continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to suppress activity in the …