Search results for "Motor Activity"
showing 10 items of 486 documents
Trail-following pheromones in basal termites, with special reference to Mastotermes darwiniensis
2007
0098-0331 (Print) Journal Article; In the framework of an evolutionary study, trail pheromones have been studied in the most basal extant termite, Mastotermes darwiniensis (Mastotermitidae), and two other basal termites, the Termopsidae Porotermes adamsoni (Porotermitinae) and Stolotermes victoriensis (Stolotermitinae). Although workers of M. darwiniensis do not walk in single file while exploring a new environment under experimental conditions and are unable to follow artificial trails in 'open field' experiments, they do secrete a trail-following pheromone from their sternal glands. This unique behavior might reflect a primitive function of communication of the sternal gland. The major co…
Long-term physical activity modulates brain processing of somatosensory stimuli: Evidence from young male twins.
2016
Leisure-time physical activity is a key contributor to physical and mental health. Yet the role of physical activity in modulating cortical function is poorly known. We investigated whether precognitive sensory brain functions are associated with the level of physical activity. Physical activity history (3-yr-LTMET), physiological measures and somatosensory mismatch response (sMMR) in EEG were recorded in 32 young healthy twins. In all participants, 3-yr-LTMET correlated negatively with body fat%, r = −0.77 and positively with VO2max, r = 0.82. The fat% and VO2max differed between 15 physically active and 17 inactive participants. Trend toward larger sMMR was seen in inactive compared to ac…
Having your cake and eating it: Faster responses with reduced muscular activation while learning a temporal interval
2019
International audience; We examined how motor responses to a stimulus evolve as individuals learn to predict when a stimulus will appear, by comparing responses to a regular versus irregular stimulus train. The study was conducted with two groups of adults — one responded to the regular appearance of a visual stimulus every 3 s (R group) and the second responded to the irregular presentation of the same stimulus (IR group) at intervals varying between 2 and 4 s. Participants responded to the appearance of the stimulus by bending over to press a button that was slightly out of reach. This whole body reach requires muscular activation at the ankles. Over the course of 50 consecutive responses…
Does telomere length predict decline in physical functioning in older twin sisters during an 11-year follow-up?
2016
Background: Leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is known to be associated with mortality, but its association with age-related decline in physical functioning and the development of disability is less clear. This study examined the associations between LTL and physical functioning, and investigated whether LTL predicts level of physical functioning over an 11- year follow-up. Methods: Older mono- (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin sisters (n=386) participated in the study. Relative LTL was measured by qPCR at baseline. Physical functioning was measured by 6-min walking distance and level of physical activity (PA). Walking distance was measured at baseline and at 3-year follow-up. PA was assessed by q…
Behavioral fragmentation in the D1CT-7 mouse model of Tourette's syndrome.
2017
Aim The transgenic D1CT-7 mouse is one of the best-characterized animal models of Tourette's syndrome (TS), exhibiting spontaneous tic-like Head-Body Twitches (HBT) and deficits in sensorimotor gating. This study is aimed at evaluating the behavioral dynamics of these mutants and their potential relevance to TS. Methods The behavior of D1CT-7 and Wild Type littermates was firstly assessed by considering frequencies and durations. To detect recurrent real-time behavioral sequences, the multivariate T-pattern analysis was employed. Analyses of transition probabilities among behaviors further provided an overall picture of the behavioral dynamics. Results T-patterns and transition matrices rev…
Restricted vs. unrestricted wheel running in mice: Effects on brain, behavior and endocannabinoids.
2016
Beneficial effects of voluntary wheel running on hippocampal neurogenesis, morphology and hippocampal-dependent behavior have widely been studied in rodents, but also serious side effects and similarities to stereotypy have been reported. Some mouse strains run excessively when equipped with running wheels, complicating the comparability to human exercise regimes. Here, we investigated how exercise restriction to 6h/day affects hippocampal morphology and metabolism, stereotypic and basal behaviors, as well as the endocannabinoid system in wheel running C57BL/6 mice; the strain most commonly used for behavioral analyses and psychiatric disease models. Restricted and unrestricted wheel runnin…
Functional hypoxia drives neuroplasticity and neurogenesis via brain erythropoietin.
2020
Erythropoietin (EPO), named after its role in hematopoiesis, is also expressed in mammalian brain. In clinical settings, recombinant EPO treatment has revealed a remarkable improvement of cognition, but underlying mechanisms have remained obscure. Here, we show with a novel line of reporter mice that cognitive challenge induces local/endogenous hypoxia in hippocampal pyramidal neurons, hence enhancing expression of EPO and EPO receptor (EPOR). High-dose EPO administration, amplifying auto/paracrine EPO/EPOR signaling, prompts the emergence of new CA1 neurons and enhanced dendritic spine densities. Single-cell sequencing reveals rapid increase in newly differentiating neurons. Importantly, i…
A screen for constituents of motor control and decision making in Drosophila reveals visual distance-estimation neurons
2016
AbstractClimbing over chasms larger than step size is vital to fruit flies, since foraging and mating are achieved while walking. Flies avoid futile climbing attempts by processing parallax-motion vision to estimate gap width. To identify neuronal substrates of climbing control, we screened a large collection of fly lines with temporarily inactivated neuronal populations in a novel high-throughput assay described here. The observed climbing phenotypes were classified; lines in each group are reported. Selected lines were further analysed by high-resolution video cinematography. One striking class of flies attempts to climb chasms of unsurmountable width; expression analysis guided us to C2 …
Sex-based differences after a single bout of exercise on PGC1α isoforms in skeletal muscle: A pilot study
2020
To date, there are limited and incomplete data on possible sex-based differences in fiber-types of skeletal muscle and their response to physical exercise. Adult healthy male and female mice completed a single bout of endurance exercise to examine the sex-based differences of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC1α), heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60), interleukin 6 (IL-6) expression, as well as the Myosin Heavy Chain (MHC) fiber-type distribution in soleus and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles. Our results showed for the first time that in male soleus, a muscle rich of type IIa fibers, endurance exercise activates specifically genes involved in mito…
Dopamine, Noradrenaline and Serotonin Receptor Densities in the Striatum of Hemiparkinsonian Rats following Botulinum Neurotoxin-A Injection.
2017
Abstract Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by a degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) that causes a dopamine (DA) deficit in the caudate-putamen (CPu) accompanied by compensatory changes in other neurotransmitter systems. These changes result in severe motor and non-motor symptoms. To disclose the role of various receptor binding sites for DA, noradrenaline, and serotonin in the hemiparkinsonian (hemi-PD) rat model induced by unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) injection, the densities of D1, D2/D3, α1, α2, and 5HT2A receptors were longitudinally visualized and measured in the CPu of hemi-PD rats by quantitative in vitro receptor autorad…