Search results for "Cerebral cortex"
showing 10 items of 529 documents
Glutathione metabolism in primary astrocyte cultures: flow cytometric evidence of heterogeneous distribution of GSH content.
1993
The time-course of intracellular glutathione (GSH) values after incubation with L-buthionine-(S,R)-sulfoximine (BSO), a selective inhibitor of gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase, showed that glutathione turns over with a half-life of 5 h. Intracellular GSH was assayed by flow cytometry using three different methods. Astrocytes showed a narrow range of cellular size but a wide range of intracellular GSH. This heterogeneity was resolved into three distinct subpopulations which represent 20%, 35% and 45% of the total astrocyte number. The less abundant subpopulation had the lower GSH content, while the most abundant was the subpopulation with the higher content. Over 95% of astrocytes were in t…
Amyloid-β toxicity and tau hyperphosphorylation are linked via RCAN1 in Alzheimer's disease.
2011
Amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) toxicity and tau hyperphosphorylation are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). How their molecular relationships may affect the etiology, progression, and severity of the disease, however, has not been elucidated. We now report that incubation of foetal rat cortical neurons with Aβ up-regulates expression of the Regulator of Calcineurin gene RCAN1, and this is mediated by Aβ-induced oxidative stress. Calcineurin (PPP3CA) is a serine-threonine phosphatase that dephosphorylates tau. RCAN1 proteins inhibit this phosphatase activity of calcineurin. Increased expression of RCAN1 also causes up-regulation of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK3β), a tau kinase. Thus, incr…
Opposite vascular activity of (R)-apomorphine and its oxidised derivatives. Endothelium-dependent vasoconstriction induced by the auto-oxidation meta…
2003
We have synthetised a series of oxidised apomorphine derivatives (orto and para quinones 2-5), in order to analyse their vascular activity. We have performed radioligand binding assays on rat cortical membranes and functional studies on rat aortic rings. Instead the relaxant activity exhibited by (R)-apomorphine, o-quinones 2, 4, show contractile activity dependent on endothelium in rat aortic rings. Compound 2, the main metabolite of (R)-apomorphine auto-oxidation, was the product which showed enhanced contractile activity by a complex mechanism related to activation of Ca(2+) channels through release and/or inhibition of endothelial factors. Moreover, this compound disrupts the endothelia…
Vascular Activity of (-)-Anonaine, (-)-Roemerine and (-)-Pukateine, Three Natural 6a(R)-1,2-Methylenedioxyaporphines with Different Affinities for α1…
2004
We have studied the mechanism of action of three 6a( R)-1,2-methylenedioxyaporphines as vasorelaxant compounds. The alkaloids assayed showed different affinities for the three human cloned alpha (1)-adrenoceptor (AR) subtypes stably expressed in rat-1 fibroblasts, showing lower affinity for alpha(1B)-AR with regard to the alpha(1A)- or alpha(1D)-subtypes. These three natural compounds are more potent inhibitors of [ (3)H]-prazosin binding than of [ (3)H]-diltiazem binding to rat cerebral cortical membranes. As all these alkaloids inhibited noradrenaline (NA)-induced [ (3)H]-inositol phosphate formation in cerebral cortex and rat tail artery, they may be safely viewed as alpha (1)-AR antagon…
A possible structural determinant of selectivity of boldine and derivatives for the alpha 1A-adrenoceptor subtype.
1996
1. The selectivity of action of boldine and the related aporphine alkaloids, predicentrine (9-O-methylboldine) and glaucine (2,9-O-dimethylboldine) and alpha 1-adrenoceptor subtypes was studied by examining [3H]-prazosin competition binding in rat cerebral cortex. WB 4101 and benoxathian were used as selective alpha 1A-adrenoceptor antagonists. 2. In the competition experiments [3H]-prazosin (0.2 nM) binding was inhibited by WB 4101 and benoxathian. The inhibition curves displayed shallow slopes which could be subdivided into high and low affinity components (pKi = 9.92 and 8.29 for WB 4101, 9.35 and 7.94 for benoxathian). The two antagonists recognized approximately 37% of the sites with h…
The "ticktock" of our internal clock: direct brain evidence of subjective accents in isochronous sequences.
2003
The phenomenon commonly known as subjective accenting refers to the fact that identical sound events within purely isochronous sequences are perceived as unequal. Although subjective accenting has been extensively explored using behavioral methods, no physiological evidence has ever been provided for it. In the present study, we tested the notion that these perceived irregularities are related to the dynamic deployment of attention. We disrupted listeners' expectancies in different positions of auditory equitone sequences and measured their responses through brain event-related potentials (ERPs). Significant differences in a late parietal (P3-like) ERP component were found between the resp…
Event-related brain responses while listening to entire pieces of music
2017
Brain responses to discrete short sounds have been studied intensively using the event-related potential (ERP) method, in which the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal is divided into epochs time-locked to stimuli of interest. Here we introduce and apply a novel technique which enables one to isolate ERPs in human elicited by continuous music. The ERPs were recorded during listening to a Tango Nuevo piece, a deep techno track and an acoustic lullaby. Acoustic features related to timbre, harmony, and dynamics of the audio signal were computationally extracted from the musical pieces. Negative deflation occurring around 100 milliseconds after the stimulus onset (N100) and positive deflation occ…
Distraction and reorientation in children: A behavioral and ERP study
2004
In the context of distraction, involuntary orienting to task-irrelevant deviations and the following reorienting to task-relevant stimulus information were studied in children aged 5-6 years. In an auditory distraction paradigm, reaction times were prolonged by 51 ms in trials including a task-irrelevant stimulus deviancy. Event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed a mismatch response (MMR) at 252 ms and a reorienting negativity (RON) 476 ms post-stimulus in response to deviating sounds. These behavioral and ERP effects resemble those reported for adults. We conclude that kindergarten children are prone to distraction, although they can quite effectively but not fully shield working memory op…
An investigation of prototypical and atypical within-category vowels and non-speech analogues on cortical auditory evoked related potentials (AERPs) …
2011
The present study examined cortical auditory evoked related potentials (AERPs) for the P1-N250 and MMN components in children 9 years of age. The first goal was to investigate whether AERPs respond differentially to vowels and complex tones, and the second goal was to explore how prototypical language formant structures might be reflected in these early auditory processing stages. Stimuli were two synthetic within-category vowels (/y/), one of which was preferred by adult German listeners ("prototypical-vowel"), and analogous complex tones. P1 strongly distinguished vowels from tones, revealing larger amplitudes for the more difficult to discriminate but phonetically richer vowel stimuli. P…
Combined spike-related functional MRI and multiple source analysis in the non-invasive spike localization of benign rolandic epilepsy.
2007
Abstract Objective To localize the irritative zone in children by combined spike-related fMRI and EEG multiple source analysis (MSA) in children with benign rolandic epilepsy. Methods Interictal spikes were averaged and localized using MSA, and source locations were displayed in the anatomical 3D-MRI in 11 patients (5–12 yrs, median 10). Interictal spikes were additionally recorded during the fMRI acquisition (EEG-fMRI), and the fMRI sequences were correlated off-line with the EEG spikes. Results MSA revealed an initial central dipole in all patients, including the face or hand area. A second dipolar source was mostly consistent with propagated activity. BOLD activations from EEG-fMRI, cons…