Search results for "STIMULATION"
showing 10 items of 2192 documents
Neurophysiological mechanisms of motor imagery : effects of associated somatosensory stimulation
2018
Mental training, which involves mentally simulating an action without motor output, is an effective stimulus to improve the maximal voluntary contraction. If only the motor pathway is activated, an activation of the somatosensory cortex is observed despite the lack of afferent feedback. Indeed, the motor imagery task efficiency is based in part on an interaction between motor and sensory pathway. Thus, it’s seems reasonable to think that the addition of sensory afferent feedback during motor imagery could potentiate the motor imagery effects and thus improve motor performance. In our first study, we showed that the addition of somatosensory stimulation of Ia-afferents during a motor imagery…
Recognising a hand by grasp.
2000
The present study aimed to demonstrate that motor representations are used to recognise biological stimuli. In three experiments subjects were required to judge laterality of hands and forearms presented by pictures. The postures of the hands were those assumed when holding a small, medium and large sphere. In experiment 1, the sphere held in hand was presented, whereas in experiment 2 it was absent. In experiment 3, the same images, showing holding-a-sphere hands, as in experiment 1 were presented, but without forearm. In all experiments one finger of each hand could be absent. In experiment 1 recognition time was longer for those hand postures for which the corresponding grasping motor ac…
Heat-induced action potential discharges in nociceptive primary sensory neurons of rats.
2009
Although several transducer molecules for noxious stimuli have been identified, little is known about the transformation of the resulting generator currents into action potentials (APs). Therefore we investigated the transformation process for stepped noxious heat stimuli (42-47 degrees C, 3-s duration) into membrane potential changes and subsequent AP discharges using the somata of acutely dissociated small dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons (diameteror=32.5 microm) of adult rats as a model for their own peripheral terminals. Three types of heat-induced membrane potential changes were differentiated: type 1, heat-induced AP discharges (approximately 37% of the neurons); type 2, heat-induce…
Enhancement of Nitro Reduction in Rat Liver Microsomes by Haemin and Haemoproteins
1978
1. Reductive metabolism of p-nitrobenzoic acid and neoprontosil in rat liver microsomes was studied in the presence of haemin, haemoglobin and myoglobin. 2. Microsomal nitro reduction is enhanced 4-fold in the presence of haemoglobin, whereas azo reduction is not affected. 3. Microsomal nitro reduction is enhanced to a similar extent by haemoglobin, haemin and boiled haemoglobin, whereas myoglobin is about half as active. 4. Maximal enhancement of microsomal nitro reductase activity by haemoglobin is achieved at high substrate concentration (6 mM) and low microsomal protein concentration (0.5--1.0 mg/ml). 5. Control microsomal nitro reduction as well as the haemoglobin-enhanced microsomal n…
Gene expression specificity of the mussel antifungal mytimycin (MytM)
2011
Abstract We previously reported the nucleotide sequences and diversity of mytimycin (MytM) from the Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis. Using real-time PCR (q-PCR), we observed that the MytM gene was mainly expressed in circulating hemocytes and to a less extent in the mantle. In vivo challenge with bacteria or with the yeast, Candida albicans, did not increase the expression as measured by q-PCR in hemocytes. By contrast, injection of the filamentous fungus, Fusarium oxysporum, induced a sudden and strong increase of expression at 9h p.i. (stimulation index of 25.7 ± 2.1). Optimum stimulating dose was 104 spores of F. oxysporum per mussel. In the same samples, AMP mytilin and …
Smart materials meet multifunctional biomedical devices:Current and prospective implications for nanomedicine
2017
With the increasing advances in the fabrication and in monitoring approaches of nanotechnology devices, novel materials are being synthesized and tested for the interaction with biological environments. Among them, smart materials in particular provide versatile and dynamically tunable platforms for the investigation and manipulation of several biological activities with very low invasiveness in hardly accessible anatomical districts. In the following, we will briefly recall recent examples of nanotechnology-based materials that can be remotely activated and controlled through different sources of energy, such as electromagnetic fields or ultrasounds, for their relevance to both basic scien…
Engagement of the periesophageal ring during Holothuria polii response to erythrocyte injection.
2009
In Holothuria polii, the periesophageal ring is an important organ supplying spherule cells after stimulation with foreign material. In animals injected with formalinized sheep erythrocytes, in fact, a depletion of spherule cells is observed in the periesophageal ring, whereas in the connective tissue, in the external epithelium and around the antigen- injected site, small, transparent cells can be visualized. It is supposed that the latter are stem cells of spherule cells.
STN area detection using K-NN classifiers for MER recordings in Parkinson patients during neurostimulator implant surgery
2016
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) applies electric pulses into the subthalamic nucleus (STN) improving tremor and other symptoms associated to Parkinson's disease. Accurate STN detection for proper location and implant of the stimulating electrodes is a complex task and surgeons are not always certain about final location. Signals from the STN acquired during DBS surgery are obtained with microelectrodes, having specific characteristics differing from other brain areas. Using supervised learning, a trained model based on previous microelectrode recordings (MER) can be obtained, being able to successfully classify the STN area for new MER signals. The K Nearest Neighbours (K-NN) algorithm has bee…
Effects of Anandamide and Noxious Heat on Intracellular Calcium Concentration in Nociceptive DRG Neurons of Rats
2007
As an endogenous agonist at the cannabinoid receptor CB1 and the capsaicin-receptor TRPV1, anandamide may exert both anti- and pronociceptive actions. Therefore we studied the effects of anandamide and other activators of both receptors on changes in free cytosolic calcium ([Ca2+]i) in acutely dissociated small dorsal root ganglion neurons (diameter: ≤30 μm). Anandamide (10 μM) increased [Ca2+]iin 76% of the neurons. The EC50was 7.41 μM, the Hill slope was 2.15 ± 0.43 (mean ± SE). This increase was blocked by the competitive TRPV1-antagonist capsazepine (10 μM) and in Ca2+-free extracellular solution. Neither exclusion of voltage-gated sodium channels nor additional blockade of voltage-gate…
Intrapulpal temperature changes during root surface irradiation with an 809-nm GaAlAs laser
2002
The aim of this study was to explore, in vitro, whether the irradiation of human root surfaces with a diode laser might induce nonphysiologic intrapulpal temperature elevations and, therefore, jeopardize pulp vitality.The pulps were removed from human maxillary and mandibular incisors extracted for periodontal reasons. The root canals were enlarged to an apical size #60 file. The teeth were radiographed with standard dental films and a millimeter grid to determine root thickness. The thickness of dentin between the root surface and the pulp in the irradiation areas was 1, 2, and 3 mm. To determine intrapulpal temperature changes during laser irradiation, 0.5-mm K-type thermocouples were ins…