Search results for "Potentials"
showing 10 items of 1072 documents
Optogenetically Controlled Activity Pattern Determines Survival Rate of Developing Neocortical Neurons
2021
A substantial proportion of neurons undergoes programmed cell death (apoptosis) during early development. This process is attenuated by increased levels of neuronal activity and enhanced by suppression of activity. To uncover whether the mere level of activity or also the temporal structure of electrical activity affects neuronal death rates, we optogenetically controlled spontaneous activity of synaptically-isolated neurons in developing cortical cultures. Our results demonstrate that action potential firing of primary cortical neurons promotes neuronal survival throughout development. Chronic patterned optogenetic stimulation allowed to effectively modulate the firing pattern of single ne…
Dithiothreitol Treatment of Madin-Darby Canine Kidney Cells Reversibly Blocks Export from the Endoplasmic Reticulum but Does Not Affect Vectorial Tar…
1995
Addition of dithiothreitol (DTT) to the culture medium of Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells blocks transport of newly synthesized gp80 (clusterin, apolipoprotein J), a soluble marker protein for apical exocytosis in this epithelial cell line. In cells treated with DTT during pulse labeling, gp80 is retained in the endoplasmic reticulum. After removal of the reducing agent, gp80 is posttranslationally oxidized and secreted at the apical surface of MDCK cell monolayers. This demonstrates that when folded and oxidized posttranslationally, gp80 can acquire a conformation that exhibits sorting signals for vectorial targeting. In the continuous presence of DTT, the transepithelial electrical…
Lévy flights and Lévy-Schrödinger semigroups
2010
We analyze two different confining mechanisms for L\'{e}vy flights in the presence of external potentials. One of them is due to a conservative force in the corresponding Langevin equation. Another is implemented by Levy-Schroedinger semigroups which induce so-called topological Levy processes (Levy flights with locally modified jump rates in the master equation). Given a stationary probability function (pdf) associated with the Langevin-based fractional Fokker-Planck equation, we demonstrate that generically there exists a topological L\'{e}vy process with the very same invariant pdf and in the reverse.
Amyloid Beta-Mediated Changes in Synaptic Function and Spine Number of Neocortical Neurons Depend on NMDA Receptors
2021
Onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology differs between brain regions. The neocortex, for example, is a brain region that is affected very early during AD. NMDA receptors (NMDARs) are involved in mediating amyloid beta (Aβ) toxicity. NMDAR expression, on the other hand, can be affected by Aβ. We tested whether the high vulnerability of neocortical neurons for Aβ-toxicity may result from specific NMDAR expression profiles or from a particular regulation of NMDAR expression by Aβ. Electrophysiological analyses suggested that pyramidal cells of 6-months-old wildtype mice express mostly GluN1/GluN2A NMDARs. While synaptic NMDAR-mediated currents are unaltered in 5xFAD …
A combined molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo study of the approach towards phase separation in colloid-polymer mixtures.
2011
A coarse-grained model for colloid-polymer mixtures is investigated where both colloids and polymer coils are represented as point-like particles interacting with spherically symmetric effective potentials. Colloid-colloid and colloid-polymer interactions are described by Weeks-Chandler-Andersen potentials, while the polymer-polymer interaction is very soft, of strength k(B)T/2 for maximum polymer-polymer overlap. This model can be efficiently simulated both by Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics methods, and its phase diagram closely resembles that of the well-known Asakura-Oosawa model. The static and dynamic properties of the model are presented for systems at critical colloid density, va…
Blocking of an ion channel by a highly charged drug: Modeling the effects of applied voltage, electrolyte concentration, and drug concentration
2005
We present a simple physical model to estimate the blocked pore probability of an ion channel that can be blocked by a highly charged drug in solution. The model is inspired by recent experimental work on the blocking of the ${\mathrm{PA}}_{63}$ channel, involved in the anthrax toxin infection, by a highly charged drug [Karginov et al. PNAS 102, 15075 (2005)]. The drug binding to the pore is highly specific but the strong dependence of blocking on the applied voltage and electrolyte concentration suggests that long range electrostatic interactions are important. Since basic electrostatic concepts rather than detailed molecular models are considered, the microscopic details of the channel bl…
Grasp-specific motor resonance is influenced by the visibility of the observed actor
2016
AbstractMotor resonance is the modulation of M1 corticospinal excitability induced by observation of others' actions. Recent brain imaging studies have revealed that viewing videos of grasping actions led to a differential activation of the ventral premotor cortex depending on whether the entire person is viewed versus only their disembodied hand. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and abductor digiti minimi (ADM) during observation of videos or static images in which a whole person or merely the hand was seen reaching and grasping a peanut (precision grip) or an apple (whole hand grasp). Part…
Event-related brain potentials of masked repetition and semantic priming while listening to sentences.
2012
We combined for the first time electrophysiological measures and masked priming technique in sentential context, by setting up a cross-modal masked priming paradigm involving the auditory presentation of sentences. ERPs were time-locked to an auditorily presented word that was preceded by a repeated, related or unrelated pattern masked prime. We registered a two-way N400-difference between unrelated and related/repeated primes, followed by a late positive component (LPC) for repetition priming. Related primes appear to facilitate the lexical-semantic processing of the target to the same extent repeated primes do (equally attenuated N400). Repetition priming exerts additional demands (LPC), …
Disruption of the retinitis pigmentosa 28 gene Fam161a in mice affects photoreceptor ciliary structure and leads to progressive retinal degeneration.
2014
Mutations in the FAM161A gene were previously identified as the cause for autosomal-recessive retinitis pigmentosa 28. To study the effects of Fam161a dysfunction in vivo, we generated gene-trapped Fam161a(GT/GT) mice with a disruption of its C-terminal domain essential for protein-protein interactions. We confirmed the absence of the full-length Fam161a protein in the retina of Fam161a(GT/GT) mice using western blots and showed weak expression of a truncated Fam161a protein by immunohistochemistry. Histological analyses demonstrated that photoreceptor segments were disorganized in young Fam161a(GT/GT) mice and that the outer retina was completely lost at 6 months of age. Reactive microglia…
EVALUATION OF AUDITORY CORTICAL PLASTICITY FROM FIRST AMPLIFICATION TO ONE YEAR OF HEARING AID USE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AIDED CORTICAL AUDITORY …
2021
Over the last decade, aided cortical auditory evoked potentials (ACAEPs) have continued to be a focus of interest due to the lack of adequate tools to objectively assess cortical auditory activity in response to amplified stimuli. The majority of authors have investigated the direct relationship between behavioral thresholds and ACAEPs and the evolution of ACAEP waves among children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) undergoing rehabilitation. In contrast, scarce data are available regarding changes in ACAEPs over time in adult hearing aid users, particularly in relation to speech perception outcomes. The main goal of this project was to investigate the relationship between ACAEPs and s…