Search results for "Neural"
showing 10 items of 2783 documents
Speech perception outcomes after cochlear implantation in prelingually deaf infants: The Western Sicily experience
2013
Objectives: To describe audiometric characteristics and speech perception performances of prelingually deaf Sicilian children after cochlear implantation; to identify the influence of cochlear implant (CI) user and family's characteristics on speech recognition and intelligibility outcomes. Methods: Twenty-eight infants with a congenital or acquired hearing impairment and implanted before the 3rd year of life were studied; all children suffered from bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) with evidence of lack of hearing aids benefit and no evidence of intellectual disability. The study of the main characteristics associated with CI user and family's profile was performed with a clinica…
Inhibition processes are dissociable and lateralized in human prefrontal cortex
2016
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is known to make fundamental contributions to executive functions. However, the precise nature of these contributions is incompletely understood. We focused on a specific executive function, inhibition, the ability to suppress a pre-potent response. Functional imaging and animal studies have studied inhibition. However, there are only few lesion studies, typically reporting discrepant findings. For the first time, we conducted cognitive and neuroimaging investigations on patients with focal unilateral PFC lesions across two widely used inhibitory tasks requiring a verbal response: The Hayling Part 2 and Stroop Colour-Word Tests. We systematically explored the rel…
Thalamic relay or cortico-thalamic processing? Old question, new answers.
2013
Ascending and descending information is relayed through the thalamus via strong, “driver” pathways. According to our current knowledge, different driver pathways are organized in parallel streams and do not interact at the thalamic level. Using an electron microscopic approach combined with optogenetics and in vivo physiology, we examined whether driver inputs arising from different sources can interact at single thalamocortical cells in the rodent somatosensory thalamus (nucleus posterior, POm). Both the anatomical and the physiological data demonstrated that ascending driver inputs from the brainstem and descending driver inputs from cortical layer 5 pyramidal neurons converge and interac…
Postnatal increases in axonal conduction velocity of an identified Drosophila interneuron require fast sodium, L-type calcium and shaker potassium ch…
2019
Abstract During early postnatal life, speed up of signal propagation through many central and peripheral neurons has been associated with an increase in axon diameter or/and myelination. Especially in unmyelinated axons postnatal adjustments of axonal membrane conductances is potentially a third mechanism but solid evidence is lacking. Here, we show that axonal action potential (AP) conduction velocity in the Drosophila giant fiber (GF) interneuron, which is required for fast long-distance signal conduction through the escape circuit, is increased by 80% during the first day of adult life. Genetic manipulations indicate that this postnatal increase in AP conduction velocity in the unmyelina…
Effects of cromakalim on acetylcholine release and smooth muscle contraction in guinea-pig small intestine
1989
The effects of the potassium channel opener cromakalim on smooth muscle contraction and 3H-acetyl-choline release were studied simultaneously in guinea-pig longitudinal muscle myenteric plexus preparations which had been preincubated with 3H-choline. Cromakalim (10 mumol/l) inhibited more markedly the smooth muscle contractions caused by the release of endogenous acetylcholine (via electrical stimulation or via activation of nicotine- and 5-HT3-receptors) than contractions induced by pilocarpine. Cromakalim (10 mumol/l) did not affect the release of 3H-acetylcholine evoked by electrical stimulation or by stimulation of nicotine- and 5-HT3-receptors. In contrast, the release of 3H-acetylchol…
Discrimination of retinal images containing bright lesions using sparse coded features and SVM
2015
Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a chronic progressive disease of the retinal microvasculature which is among the major causes of vision loss in the world. The diagnosis of DR is based on the detection of retinal lesions such as microaneurysms, exudates and drusen in retinal images acquired by a fundus camera. However, bright lesions such as exudates and drusen share similar appearances while being signs of different diseases. Therefore, discriminating between different types of lesions is of interest for improving screening performances. In this paper, we propose to use sparse coding techniques for retinal images classification. In particular, we are interested in discriminating between retina…
Cross-frequency coupling between gamma oscillations and deep brain stimulation frequency in Parkinson's disease.
2020
Abstract The disruption of pathologically enhanced beta oscillations is considered one of the key mechanisms mediating the clinical effects of deep brain stimulation on motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. However, a specific modulation of other distinct physiological or pathological oscillatory activities could also play an important role in symptom control and motor function recovery during deep brain stimulation. Finely tuned gamma oscillations have been suggested to be prokinetic in nature, facilitating the preferential processing of physiological neural activity. In this study, we postulate that clinically effective high-frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus imposes cross-…
Chronic stress induces changes in the structure of interneurons and in the expression of molecules related to neuronal structural plasticity and inhi…
2011
Chronic stress in experimental animals, one of the most accepted models of chronic anxiety and depression, induces structural remodeling of principal neurons in the amygdala and increases its excitation by reducing inhibitory tone. These changes may be mediated by the polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM), a molecule related to neuronal structural plasticity and expressed by interneurons in the adult CNS, which is downregulated in the amygdala after chronic stress. We have analyzed the amygdala of adult mice after 21 days of restraint stress, studying with qRT-PCR the expression of genes related to general and inhibitory neurotransmission, and of PSA synthesizi…
The dendritic spines of interneurons are dynamic structures influenced by PSA-NCAM expression.
2013
Excitatory neurons undergo dendritic spine remodeling in response to different stimuli. However, there is scarce information about this type of plasticity in interneurons. The polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM) is a good candidate to mediate this plasticity as it participates in neuronal remodeling and is expressed by some mature cortical interneurons, which have reduced dendritic arborization, spine density, and synaptic input. To study the connectivity of the dendritic spines of interneurons and the influence of PSA-NCAM on their dynamics, we have analyzed these structures in a subpopulation of fluorescent spiny interneurons in the hippocampus of glutamic …
PSA-NCAM expression in the piriform cortex of the adult rat. Modulation by NMDA receptor antagonist administration.
2002
Administration of NMDA receptor antagonists upregulates the expression of the polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM) in the adult hippocampus. Since the piriform cortex is also populated by PSA-NCAM immunoreactive neurons during adulthood, we sought to characterize them in detail and to test whether NMDA receptor antagonists also modulate PSA-NCAM in this cortical region. PSA-NCAM immunoreactivity is located mainly in layer II, where many neurogliaform and some pyramidal-semilunar transitional neurons are labeled. Many large neurons in layer III and endopiriform nucleus also express PSA-NCAM. Interestingly, some small labeled cells resembling migratory neuroblas…