Search results for "neurophysiolog"
showing 10 items of 228 documents
Alterations of perineuronal nets in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of neuropsychiatric patients
2019
Abstract Background Alterations in the structure and physiology of interneurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are important factors in the etiopathology of different psychiatric disorders. Among the interneuronal subpopulations, parvalbumin (PV) expressing cells appear to be specially affected. Interestingly, during development and adulthood the connectivity of these interneurons is regulated by the presence of perineuronal nets (PNNs), specialized regions of the extracellular matrix, which are frequently surrounding PV expressing neurons. Previous reports have found anomalies in the density of PNNs in the PFC of schizophrenic patients. However, although some studies have described alterat…
Active behaviour during early development shapes glucocorticoid reactivity.
2019
AbstractGlucocorticoids are the final effectors of the stress axis, with numerous targets in the central nervous system and the periphery. They are essential for adaptation, yet currently it is unclear how early life events program the glucocorticoid response to stress. Here we provide evidence that involuntary swimming at early developmental stages can reconfigure the cortisol response to homotypic and heterotypic stress in larval zebrafish (Danio rerio), also reducing startle reactivity and increasing spontaneous activity as well as energy efficiency during active behaviour. Collectively, these data identify a role of the genetically malleable zebrafish for linking early life stress with …
Machine learning–XGBoost analysis of language networks to classify patients with epilepsy
2017
Our goal was to apply a statistical approach to allow the identification of atypical language patterns and to differentiate patients with epilepsy from healthy subjects, based on their cerebral activity, as assessed by functional MRI (fMRI). Patients with focal epilepsy show reorganization or plasticity of brain networks involved in cognitive functions, inducing ‘atypical’ (compared to ‘typical’ in healthy people) brain profiles. Moreover, some of these patients suffer from drug-resistant epilepsy, and they undergo surgery to stop seizures. The neurosurgeon should only remove the zone generating seizures and must preserve cognitive functions to avoid deficits. To preserve functions, one sho…
Mapping effective connectivity between the frontal and contralateral primary motor cortex using dual-coil transcranial magnetic stimulation
2019
AbstractCytoarchitectonic, anatomical and electrophysiological studies have divided the frontal cortex into distinct functional subdivisions. Many of these subdivisions are anatomically connected with the contralateral primary motor cortex (M1); however, effective neurophysiological connectivity between these regions is not well defined in humans. Therefore, we aimed to use dual-coil transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to map, with high spatial resolution, the effective connectivity between different frontal regions of the right hemisphere and contralateral M1 (cM1). TMS was applied over the left M1 alone (test pulse) or after a conditioning pulse was applied to different grid points co…
Focal Cortical Lesions Induce Bidirectional Changes in the Excitability of Fast Spiking and Non Fast Spiking Cortical Interneurons
2014
A physiological brain function requires neuronal networks to operate within a well-defined range of activity. Indeed, alterations in neuronal excitability have been associated with several pathological conditions, ranging from epilepsy to neuropsychiatric disorders. Changes in inhibitory transmission are known to play a key role in the development of hyperexcitability. However it is largely unknown whether specific interneuronal subpopulations contribute differentially to such pathological condition. In the present study we investigated functional alterations of inhibitory interneurons embedded in a hyperexcitable cortical circuit at the border of chronically induced focal lesions in mouse …
Synaptic scaling generically stabilizes circuit connectivity
2011
Neural systems regulate synaptic plasticity avoiding overly strong growth or shrinkage of the connections, thereby keeping the circuit architecture operational. Accordingly, several experimental studies have shown that synaptic weights increase only in direct relation to their current value, resulting in reduced growth for stronger synapses [1]. It is, however, difficult to extract from these studies unequivocal evidence about the underlying biophysical mechanisms that control weight growth. The theoretical neurosciences have addressed this problem by exploring mechanisms for synaptic weight change that contain limiting factors to regulate growth [2]. The effectiveness of these mechanisms i…
Flexible switching of feedback control mechanisms allows for learning of different task dynamics.
2013
To produce skilled movements, the brain flexibly adapts to different task requirements and movement contexts. Two core abilities underlie this flexibility. First, depending on the task, the motor system must rapidly switch the way it produces motor commands and how it corrects movements online, i.e. it switches between different (feedback) control policies. Second, it must also adapt to environmental changes for different tasks separately. Here we show these two abilities are related. In a bimanual movement task, we show that participants can switch on a movement-by-movement basis between two feedback control policies, depending only on a static visual cue. When this cue indicates that the …
Short and long latency reflex responses elicited by electrical and mechanical stimulation in human hand muscle
1986
The relationship between electrically and mechanically induced reflex responses in the rectified, averaged surface electromyogram of the first interosseus dorsalis muscle was examined in 18 healthy human subjects. Both methods evoked identifiable short and long latency reflex responses. The onset latencies for short latency reflexes with electrical and mechanical stimulations were 30.6 ms (+/- 2.2 ms) and 28.9 ms (+/- 2.2 ms) and for long latency reflexes 50.0 ms (+/- 2.8 ms) and 51.2 ms (+/- 5.2 ms), respectively. The correlation of the onset latencies of the reflexes revealed significant correspondence between the electrical and mechanical methods implying at least partly mutual mechanism…
Prismatic Adaptation as a Novel Tool to Directionally Modulate Motor Cortex Excitability: Evidence From Paired-pulse TMS
2014
Abstract Background The prismatic adaptation (PA) is a visuo-motor procedure that has captured the attention of neuroscientists in the last decades, hence it seems to affect high-order cognition. However, the basic neural processes related to PA and its effects on cortical plasticity are not clear yet. Objective/hypothesis The aim of the present study is to explore whether PA induces a direct effect on the motor cortices (M1) excitability. Methods Fourteen healthy participants were submitted to paired-pulse TMS to measure short-intracortical-inhibition (SICI) and intracortical-facilitation (ICF) on both the left and the right M1, before and after PA, that could induce a leftward or rightwar…
The Temporal Structure of Vertical Arm Movements
2011
Import JabRef | WosArea Life Sciences and Biomedicine - Other Topics; International audience; The present study investigates how the CNS deals with the omnipresent force of gravity during arm motor planning. Previous studies have reported direction-dependent kinematic differences in the vertical plane; notably, acceleration duration was greater during a downward than an upward arm movement. Although the analysis of acceleration and deceleration phases has permitted to explore the integration of gravity force, further investigation is necessary to conclude whether feedforward or feedback control processes are at the origin of this incorporation. We considered that a more detailed analysis of…