Search results for "Prefrontal Cortex"
showing 10 items of 323 documents
Fronto-parietal homotopy in resting-state functional connectivity predicts task-switching performance
2021
Homotopic functional connectivity reflects the degree of synchrony in spontaneous activity between homologous voxels in the two hemispheres. Previous studies have associated increased brain homotopy and decreased white matter integrity with performance decrements on different cognitive tasks across the life-span. Here, we correlated functional homotopy, both at the whole-brain level and specifically in fronto-parietal network nodes, with task-switching performance in young adults. Cue-to-target intervals (CTI: 300 vs. 1200 ms) were manipulated on a trial-by-trial basis to modulate cognitive demands and strategic control. We found that mixing costs, a measure of task-set maintenance and moni…
Altered brain levels of arachidonic acid-derived inflammatory eicosanoids in a rodent model of anorexia nervosa
2019
Increasing evidence underline the role of inflammation in the behavioral, emotional and cognitive dysregulations displayed in anorexia nervosa (AN). Among the inflammatory mediators acting at both peripheral and central levels, growing attention receives a class of lipids derived from arachidonic acid (AA), called eicosanoids (eiCs), which exert a complex, multifaceted role in a wide range of neuroinflammatory processes, peripheral inflammation, and generally in immune system function. To date, little is known about their possible involvement in the neurobiological underpinnings of AN. The present study evaluated whether the activity-based model of AN (ABA) may alter AA-metabolic pathways b…
Progression of adverse effects over consecutive sessions of transcranial direct current stimulation
2017
final draft
Gene expression of neuregulin-1 isoforms in different brain regions of elderly schizophrenia patients
2010
One important risk gene in schizophrenia is neuregulin-1 (NRG1), which is expressed in different isoforms in the brain. To determine if alterations of NRG1 are present in schizophrenia, we measured gene expression of NRG1 and its main isoforms as well as the impact of genetic variation of NRG1 in an exploratory study examining three brain regions instead of only one as published so far. In all, we examined post-mortem samples from 11 schizophrenia patients and eight normal subjects. We investigated gene expression of total NRG1 and isoforms I, II and III by real-time PCR in the prefrontal cortex (Brodmann areas 9 and 10) and right hippocampal tissue. For the genetic study, we genotyped the …
Effects of the Enriched Sports Activities-Program on Executive Functions in Italian Children.
2020
Physical activity (PA) during childhood plays an important role in brain development. This role is played in both the structural domain, prefrontal cortex area, and in the functional domain, involving the higher cognitive functions, including the executive functions (EF). Working memory (WM), inhibition, and switching as fundamental EF were investigated in an Italian children sample before and after four months of an Enriched Sports Activities-Program (ESA-Program). EFs were assessed at pre-test and post-test using, respectively, the digit span test, the color word Stroop test, and the trail making test derived from Millisecond Software. The Italian sample was composed of 141 children aged …
Behavioural and neurochemical effects after repeated administration of N-ethylpentylone (ephylone) in mice
2022
N-ethyl-pentylone (NEP), also known as "ephylone" and N-ethylnorpentylone, has been identified as one of the most recent novel psychostimulants to emerge into the illicit drug market and it has been associated with some intoxications and even fatalities. However, little is known about the consequences of its repeated consumption as well as the role of the monoaminergic system in such consequences. Thus, the aim of our study was to investigate the neurochemical profile and the behavioural effects after both acute and repeated NEP exposure. Male OF1 mice were acutely (1, 3, 10 mg/kg, i.p.) or repeatedly (1, 3, 10 mg/kg, i.p., 5 days, twice/day) exposed to NEP, and anxiety-like behaviour, aggr…
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…
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…
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)…
Transcranial direct current stimulation over left and right DLPFC: Lateralized effects on planning performance and related eye movements.
2014
Left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) were recently found to be differentially affected by unilateral continuous theta-burst stimulation, reflected in an oppositional alteration of initial thinking time (ITT) in the Tower of London planning task. Here, we further explored this finding using bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and simultaneous tracking of eye movements. Results revealed a decrease in ITT during concurrent cathodal tDCS of left dlPFC and anodal tDCS of right dlPFC. Eye-movement analyses showed that this facilitating tDCS effect was associated with the actual planning phase, thus reflecting a planning-specific impact of stimulation. For the…