Search results for "Cortex"

The role of small airways in monitoring the response to asthma treatment: what is beyond FEV1?

2009

The definition of asthma has evolved from that of an episodic disease characterized by reversible airways constriction to a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, with at least partially reversible airway constriction. Increasing evidence supports the notion that small and large airways play a central role in asthma pathophysiology with regard to inflammation, remodeling and symptoms. The contribution of the distal airways to the asthma phenotype carries implications for the delivery of inhaled medications to the appropriate areas of the lung and for the monitoring of the response to asthma treatment. Asthma control is evaluated on the basis of symptoms, lung function and exacerbation…

Age-related changes of NADPH-diaphorase-positive neurons in the rat inferior colliculus and auditory cortex

2007

Nitric oxide (NO) has been implied in age-related changes of the central nervous system (CNS) and the central auditory pathway. The present study was conducted to investigate whether the number of NO-producing cells and their morphometric characteristics in the inferior colliculus (IC) and the auditory cortex (AC) are changed with the increasing age of the subjects. IC and AC sections of adult and senile Wistar rats were studied using the histochemical detection of NADPH-diaphorase activity (NADPH-d), a marker for neurons containing nitric oxide synthase (NOS). Our results showed a decreased area of the somas of NADPH-d-positive neurons in the dorsal cortex (DC) of the IC and a diffuse loss…

Bidirected Information Flow in the High-Level Visual Cortex

2021

Understanding the brain function requires investigating information transfer across brain regions. Shannon began the remarkable new field of information theory in 1948. It basically can be divided into two categories: directed and undirected information-theoretical approaches. As we all know, neural signals are typically nonlinear and directed flow between brain regions. We can use directed information to quantify feed-forward information flow, feedback information, and instantaneous influence in the high-level visual cortex. Moreover, neural signals have bidirectional information flow properties and are not captured by the transfer entropy approach. Therefore, we used directed information …

Causal brain-heart information transfer during visual emotional elicitation in healthy subjects: Preliminary evaluations and future perspectives

2017

Complex heartbeat dynamics is known to reflect subject's emotional state, thanks to numerous links to brain cortical and subcortical regions. Likewise, specific brain regions are deeply involved in vagally-mediated emotional processing and regulation. Nevertheless, although the brain-heart interplay has been studied during visual emotion elicitation, directional interactions have not been investigated so far. To fill this gap, in this study we investigate brain-heart dynamics during emotional elicitation in healthy subjects through measures of Granger causality (GC) between the two physiological systems. Data were gathered from 22 healthy volunteers who underwent pleasant/ unpleasant affect…

Compensating for instantaneous signal mixing in transfer entropy analysis of neurobiological time series

2013

The transfer entropy (TE) has recently emerged as a nonlinear model-free tool, framed in information theory, to detect directed interactions in coupled processes. Unfortunately, when applied to neurobiological time series TE is biased by signal cross-talk due to volume conduction. To compensate for this bias, in this study we introduce a modified TE measure which accounts for possible instantaneous effects between the analyzed time series. The new measure, denoted as compensated TE (cTE), is tested on simulated time series reproducing conditions typical of neuroscience applications, and on real magnetoencephalographic (MEG) multi-trial data measured during a visuo-tactile cognitive experime…

Early Social Isolation Stress and Perinatal NMDA Receptor Antagonist Treatment Induce Changes in the Structure and Neurochemistry of Inhibitory Neuro…

2017

AbstractThe exposure to aversive experiences during early life influences brain development and leads to altered behavior. Moreover, the combination of these experiences with subtle alterations in neurodevelopment may contribute to the emergence of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. Recent hypotheses suggest that imbalances between excitatory and inhibitory (E/I) neurotransmission, especially in the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, may underlie their etiopathology. In order to understand better the neurobiological bases of these alterations, we studied the impact of altered neurodevelopment and chronic early-life stress on these two brain regions. Transgenic mice displaying fl…

Plasticity Molecule Reveals Interneuronal Alterations in Alzheimer’s Disease

2017

A Golgi study of the short-axon interneurons of the cell layer and inner plexiform layer of the medial cortex of the lizardPodarcis hispanica

1997

The medial cortex of lizards is a three-layered brain region displaying cyto- and chemoarchitectonical, connectional, and ontogenetic characteristics that relate it to the hippocampal fascia dentata of mammals. Three interneuron types located in the cell layer and ten others in the inner plexiform layer (six in the juxtasomatic zone and four in the deep zone) are described in this study. The granuloid neurons, web-axon neurons, and deep-fusiform neurons lay within the cell layer. These neurons were scarce; they were probably gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-, and parvalbumin-immunoreactive and presumably participated in feed forward as well as in feed back inhibition of the principal projecti…

Parvalbumin Interneurons and Perineuronal Nets in the Hippocampus and Retrosplenial Cortex of Adult Male Mice After Early Social Isolation Stress and…

2021

Both early life aversive experiences and intrinsic alterations in early postnatal neurodevelopment are considered predisposing factors for psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. The prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus have protracted postnatal development and are affected in schizophrenic patients. Interestingly, similar alterations have been observed in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC). Studies in patients and animal models of schizophrenia have found alterations in cortical parvalbumin (PV) expressing interneurons, making them good candidates to study the etiopathology of this disorder. Some of the alterations observed in PV+ interneurons may be mediated by perineuronal nets (PNNs)…

PSA-NCAM is expressed in immature, but not recently generated, neurons in the adult cat cerebral cortex layer II

2011

Neuronal production persists during adulthood in the dentate gyrus and the olfactory bulb, where substantial numbers of immature neurons can be found. These cells can also be found in the paleocortex layer II of adult rodents, but in this case most of them have been generated during embryogenesis. Recent reports have described the presence of similar cells, with a wider distribution, in the cerebral cortex of adult cats and primates and have suggested that they may develop into interneurons. The objective of this study is to verify this hypothesis and to explore the origin of these immature neurons in adult cats. We have analyzed their distribution using immunohistochemical analysis of the …