Search results for "Cortex"
showing 10 items of 1827 documents
Metabolic and structural connectivity within the default mode network relates to working memory performance in young healthy adults.
2012
Abstract Studies of functional connectivity suggest that the default mode network (DMN) might be relevant for cognitive functions. Here, we examined metabolic and structural connectivity between major DMN nodes, the posterior cingulate (PCC) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), in relation to normal working memory (WM). DMN was captured using independent component analysis of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) data from 35 young healthy adults (27.1 ± 5.1 years). Metabolic connectivity, a correlation between FDG uptake in PCC and MPFC, was examined in groups of subjects with (relative to median) low (n = 18) and high (n = 17) performance on digit span backward te…
Tetanus Toxin Inhibits Neuroexocytosis Even When Its Zn2+-dependent Protease Activity Is Removed
1995
Tetanus toxin (TeTX) is a dichain protein that blocks neuroexocytosis, an action attributed previously to Zn(2+)-dependent proteolysis of synaptobrevin (Sbr) by its light chain (LC). Herein, its cleavage of Sbr in rat cerebrocortical synaptosomes was shown to be minimized by captopril, an inhibitor of certain metalloendoproteases, whereas this agent only marginally antagonized the inhibition of noradrenaline release, implicating a second action of the toxin. This hypothesis was proven by preparing three mutants (H233A, E234A, H237A) of the LC lacking the ability to cleave Sbr and reconstituting them with native heavy chain. The resultant dichains were found to block synaptosomal transmitter…
Characterization of Epileptic Spiking Associated With Brain Amyloidosis in APP/PS1 Mice
2019
Epileptic activity without visible convulsions is common in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and may contribute adversely to the disease progress and symptoms. Transgenic mice with amyloid plaque pathology also display epileptic seizures, but those are too infrequent to assess the effect of anti-epileptic treatments. Besides spontaneous seizures, these mice also display frequent epileptic spiking in epidural EEG recordings, and these have provided a means to test potential drug treatment to AD-related epilepsy. However, the origin of EEG spikes in transgenic AD model mice has remained elusive, which makes it difficult to relate electrophysiology with underlying pathology at the cellular and molecul…
The attentional blink demonstrates automatic deviance processing in vision.
2011
Rare deviations in serial visual stimulation are accompanied by an occipital N2 in the event-related potential [the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN)]. Recent research suggests that the vMMN reflects automatic processing of information on the sensory level as a basis for change detection. To directly test the hypothesis that the vMMN is independent from attention, a rapid-serial-visual-presentation paradigm was applied: Either 300 ms or 700 ms after the presentation of a target (T1) a rare position change was embedded in the stimulation which elicited a vMMN. In another condition participants had to detect a second target (T2) after T1: Importantly, within 300 ms after T1, T2 detection was …
Phosphodiesterase-4 inhibition improves corticosteroid insensitivity in pulmonary endothelial cells under oxidative stress.
2012
Several clinical studies have shown that smoking in asthmatics and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients is closely associated with corticosteroid refractoriness. In this work, we have analyzed glucocorticoid insensitivity in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAECs) under cigarette smoke extract (CSE) exposure as well as the possible additive effects of the combination therapy with a phosphodiesterase (PDE)-4 inhibitor. Interleukin (IL)-8 was measured in cell supernatants by ELISA. Histone deacetylase (HDAC), histone acetylase (HAT), and intracellular cAMP levels were measured by colorimetric assays and enzyme immunoassay, respectively. PDE4 isotypes and glucocorticoid rec…
Changes in the expression of cation-Cl- cotransporters, NKCC1 and KCC2, during cortical malformation induced by neonatal freeze-lesion.
2007
Focal cortical malformations comprise a heterogeneous group of disturbances in brain development, often associated with intractable epilepsy. A focal freeze-lesion of cerebral cortex in newborn rat produces a cortical malformation that resembles human polymicrogyria, clinical conditions that results from abnormal neuronal migration. The change in GABAergic functions that occurs during early brain development is induced by an alteration in Cl(-) homeostasis and plays important roles in neocortical development by modulating such events as laminar organization and synaptogenesis. We therefore investigated the relationship between pathogenesis of polymicrogyria and ontogeny of Cl(-) homeostasis…
The feeling of familiarity for music in patients with a unilateral temporal lobe lesion: A gating study
2015
International audience; Previous research has indicated that the medial temporal lobe (MTL), and more specifically the perirhinal cortex, plays a role in the feeling of familiarity for non-musical stimuli. Here, we examined contribution of the MTL to the feeling of familiarity for music by testing patients with unilateral MTL lesions. We used a gating paradigm: segments of familiar and unfamiliar musical excerpts were played with increasing durations (250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 ms and complete excerpts), and participants provided familiarity judgments for each segment. Based on the hypothesis that patients might need longer segments than healthy controls (HC) to identify excerpts as familia…
Dietary salt promotes ischemic brain injury and is associated with parenchymal migrasome formation
2018
Sodium chloride promotes vascular fibrosis, arterial hypertension, pro-inflammatory immune cell polarization and endothelial dysfunction, all of which might influence outcomes following stroke. But despite enormous translational relevance, the functional importance of sodium chloride in the pathophysiology of acute ischemic stroke is still unclear. In the current study, we show that high-salt diet leads to significantly worse functional outcomes, increased infarct volumes, and a loss of astrocytes and cortical neurons in acute ischemic stroke. While analyzing the underlying pathologic processes, we identified the migrasome as a novel, sodium chloride-driven pathomechanism in acute ischemic …
Neural discrimination of nonprototypical chords in music experts and laymen:an MEG study
2009
Abstract At the level of the auditory cortex, musicians discriminate pitch changes more accurately than nonmusicians. However, it is not agreed upon how sound familiarity and musical expertise interact in the formation of pitch-change discrimination skills, that is, whether musicians possess musical pitch discrimination abilities that are generally more accurate than in nonmusicians or, alternatively, whether they may be distinguished from nonmusicians particularly with respect to the discrimination of nonprototypical sounds that do not play a reference role in Western tonal music. To resolve this, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the change-related magnetic mismatch response…
Intrinsically determined cell death of developing cortical interneurons.
2009
The cell death of inhibitory neurons, which originate far from the cortical areas to which they migrate during embryonic development, is determined autonomously rather than by competition for trophic signals from other cell types. It has long been known that apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, eliminates young cells from developing tissues. In the field of neurobiology, it is widely believed that developmental neuronal-cell death results from cellular competition for environmentally derived survival signals that selects for an optimally sized and properly wired population of neurons. This study of developmental cell death in the mouse cortex in vivo, in vitro and after transplantati…