Search results for "brain"
showing 10 items of 3997 documents
Modulating disease-relevant tau oligomeric strains by small molecules
2020
The pathological aggregation of tau plays an important role in Alzheimer's disease and many other related neurodegenerative diseases, collectively referred to as tauopathies. Recent evidence has demonstrated that tau oligomers, small and soluble prefibrillar aggregates, are highly toxic due to their strong ability to seed tau misfolding and propagate the pathology seen across different neurodegenerative diseases. We previously showed that novel curcumin derivatives affect preformed tau oligomer aggregation pathways by promoting the formation of more aggregated and nontoxic tau aggregates. To further investigate their therapeutic potential, we have extended our studies o disease-relevant bra…
Methods for assessing the severity of perinatal asphyxia and early prognostic tools in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy treated with the…
2020
Despite the progress in perinatal care, perinatal asphyxia (PA) remains a significant problem in neonatology. The development of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has improved the prognosis, but it still remains uncertain in hypoxic neonates. The evaluation of the severity of ischemia/hypoxia after birth is crucial to the choice of treatment, and with accurate long-term prognosis, appropriate further patient care can be planned. This article presents various methods for the preliminary assessment of brain damage and prognosis in newborns with PA treated with TH. The importance of assessing the neurological condition and the usefulness of laboratory and electrophysiological testing and imaging ar…
Re-thinking the effects of body size on the study of brain size evolution
2018
Body size correlates with most structural and functional components of an organism’s phenotype – brain size being a prime example of allometric scaling with animal size. Therefore, comparative studies of brain evolution in vertebrates rely on controlling for the scaling effects of body size variation on brain size variation by calculating brain weight/body weight ratios. Differences in the brain size-body size relationship between taxa are usually interpreted as differences in selection acting on the brain or its components, while selection pressures acting on body size, which are among the most prevalent in nature, are rarely acknowledged, leading to conflicting and confusing conclusions. …
Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neuronal Networks:Their Electrical Functionality and Usability for Modelling and Toxicology
2011
Micro electrode array (MEA)-based platforms have been used to study neuronal networks for decades. The used cells have, for the most part, been rodent primary neurons. The gained knowledge has indeed increased the understanding of neuronal network development and maturation both in vitro and in vivo. If aiming to understand the development of human brain, however, the used cell type should preferably be of human origin due to difficult interpolation from the rodent cell data. In addition, the development of functional human neuronal networks would open up a new era for, e.g., toxicology testing, drug screening and disease modelling. The use of MEA with bioelectrically active cells was first…
Swift light sheet volumetric charting of large human brain portions
2020
Using a custom light sheet fluorescence microscope, we image large stained human brain portions, labelled for NeuN and GAD67 neuronal markers, discerning the inhibitory population via neural-network based image analysis and exposing the brain connectivity.
Human POMC processing in vitro and in vivo revealed by quantitative peptidomics
2018
ABSTRACTHuman obesity can result from the aberrant production or processing of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) in hypothalamic neurons, but it is unclear which human POMC-derived peptides are most relevant to body weight regulation. To address this question, we analysed both hypothalamic neurons derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and primary human hypothalamic tissue using quantitative liquid chromatography tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS). In both in vitro- and in vivo-derived samples, we found that POMC was processed into β-melanocyte stimulating hormone (β-MSH), whose existence in the human brain has been controversial. β-MSH and desacetyl α-MSH (d-α-MSH) were produced at ro…
Normative vs. patient-specific brain connectivity in Deep Brain Stimulation
2020
AbstractBrain connectivity profiles seeding from deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes have emerged as informative tools to estimate outcome variability across DBS patients. Given the limitations of acquiring and processing patient-specific diffusion-weighted imaging data, most studies have employed normative atlases of the human connectome. To date, it remains unclear whether patient-specific connectivity information would strengthen the accuracy of such analyses. Here, we compared similarities and differences between patient-specific, disease-matched and normative structural connectivity data and retrospective estimation of clinical improvement that they may generate.Data from 33 patien…
The cholinergic system in Down's syndrome
2006
The cholinergic system is one of the most important modulatory neurotransmitter systems in the brain. Alterations of the transmission communicators are accompanied by reduction of the cortical activity, which is associated with a learning and memory deficit. Down's syndrome is a pathological condition characterized by a high number of abnormalities that involve the brain.The cholinergic system is involved in alterations of the neurological system such as severe learning difficulties.To explain these alterations, important results are obtained from studies about murine trisomy 16 (animal model of Down's syndrome).The results obtained provide useful elements in the improvement of knowledge ab…
Low-Cost Robotic Guide Based on a Motor Imagery Brain–Computer Interface for Arm Assisted Rehabilitation
2020
Motor imagery has been suggested as an efficient alternative to improve the rehabilitation process of affected limbs. In this study, a low-cost robotic guide is implemented so that linear position can be controlled via the user&rsquo
Contributions to the history of psychology: CXIX. The Spanish Neurohistological School's legacy: Cajal and Lorente de Nó.
2003
Santiago Ramón y Cajal made his mark in the history of science as a brilliant researcher of the histology of the nervous system. His bold efforts and the international recognition he received during his lifetime played an important role in the consolidation of the Spanish Neurohistological School which is composed of a large number of eminent disciples. Amongst these, and of outstanding repute, is Rafael Lorente de Nó whose research had a significant influence on the work of Canadian psychologist Donald O. Hebb and, consequently, on the development of neurophysiological theory. This paper analyses some of the contributions of Cajal and his disciple Lorente de Nó which formed the anatomical…