Search results for "physiologic"

Lateral Habenula contribution in nicotine addiction: Focus on dopamine, GABA and serotonin interactions

2011

Compelling evidence has shown a pivotal role of dopaminergic function in drug addiction. Recently, the Habenula (Hb) has attracted a great deal of attention as another target for nicotine in the brain because of its role in regulating dopamine (DA), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and serotonin (5-HT) systems. Nicotine acts binding to acetylcholine receptors that are widely distributed in the brain. Interestingly, the receptor subtypes that mediate nicotine withdrawal responses are highly expressed in the Hb. Moreover, the block of habenular nicotinic receptors in animals chronically treated with nicotine enhances withdrawal responses once nicotine is discontinued. Furthermore, it has been s…

Social Housing Conditions Modulate the Long-Lasting Increase in Cocaine Reward Induced by Intermittent Social Defeat

2019

Social defeat is considered the most representative animal model for studying the consequences of social stress. Intermittent social defeat (ISD) has proved to enhance the response to cocaine hedonic properties. In the present research, we evaluated if different social housing conditions, as housing with a familiar conspecific or with a female, exert a protective effect modulating the negative consequences of ISD as the increased sensitivity to cocaine and the induction of anxiety-like behavior. To achieve this objective, non-stressed or ISD OF1 male mice were divided into five different experimental groups according to their social environment: standard housing (four adult males per cage);…

Sea urchin embryos as an in vivo model for the assessment of manganese toxicity: developmental and stress response effects.

2009

In the marine environment increasing concentrations of bio-available compounds often result from anthropogenic activities. Among metal ions, manganese represents a new emergent factor in environmental contamination. Here, we studied the effects of manganese on Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryos using biological and biochemical approaches for the analysis of impact on development, tissue accumulation and stress markers. Embryos were continuously exposed from fertilization to manganese at concentrations ranging from 1.0 to 61.6 mg l(-1), monitored for developmental abnormalities at 48 h after fertilization, and used for atomic spectrometric analysis at various times from 6 to 72 h. We f…

Sea urchin embryos as a model system for studying autophagy induced by cadmium stress

2011

It is well known that sea urchin embryos are able to activate different defense strategies against stress. We previously demonstrated that cadmium treatment triggers the accumulation of metal in embryonic cells and the activation of defense systems depending on concentration and exposure time, through the synthesis of heat shock proteins and/or the initiation of apoptosis. Here we show that Paracentrotus lividus embryos exposed to Cd adopt autophagy as an additional stratagem to safeguard the developmental program. At present, there are no data focusing on the role of this process in embryo development of marine organisms. In this paper we utilized different techniques to detect autophagy i…

Dorsal root ganglia neurite outgrowth measured as a function of changes in microelectrode array resistance

2017

Current research in prosthetic device design aims to mimic natural movements using a feedback system that connects to the patient's own nerves to control the device. The first step in using neurons to control motion is to make and maintain contact between neurons and the feedback sensors. Therefore, the goal of this project was to determine if changes in electrode resistance could be detected when a neuron extended a neurite to contact a sensor. Dorsal root ganglia (DRG) were harvested from chick embryos and cultured on a collagen-coated carbon nanotube microelectrode array for two days. The DRG were seeded along one side of the array so the processes extended across the array, contacting a…

A systematic review of maternal smoking during pregnancy and fetal measurements with meta-analysis

2017

Maternal smoking during pregnancy is linked to reduced birth weight but the gestation at onset of this relationship is not certain. We present a systematic review of the literature describing associations between maternal smoking during pregnancy and ultrasound measurements of fetal size, together with an accompanying meta-analysis. Studies were selected from electronic databases (OVID, EMBASE and Google Scholar) that examined associations between maternal smoking or smoke exposure and antenatal fetal ultrasound measurements. Outcome measures were first, second or third trimester fetal measurements. There were 284 abstracts identified, 16 papers were included in the review and the meta-anal…

Exploring relationships between audio features and emotion in music

2009

In this paper, we present an analysis of the associations between emotion categories and audio features automatically extracted from raw audio data. This work is based on 110 excerpts from film soundtracks evaluated by 116 listeners. This data is annotated with 5 basic emotions (fear, anger, happiness, sadness, tenderness) on a 7 points scale. Exploiting state-of-the-art Music Information Retrieval (MIR) techniques, we extract audio features of different kind: timbral, rhythmic and tonal. Among others we also compute estimations of dissonance, mode, onset rate and loudness. We study statistical relations between audio descriptors and emotion categories confirming results from psychological …

Interoception moderates the relation between alexithymia and risky-choices in a framing task: A proposal of two-stage model of decision-making.

2021

Decision-making depends on the context (frame) in which questions and alternatives are presented. Moreover, research has showed that the ability to detect bodily sensations (interoception) and being able to attribute these changes to emotions correctly (alexithymia) influence how we make decisions. The aim of the present research was to study how interoception and alexithymia might affect the Framing effect (FE), a cognitive bias closely related to emotional system. 42 healthy participants completed the Risky-choice Framing task and their interoception and alexithymia levels were measured. Results showed that the participants were more risk-taking under the negative frames in comparison to …

Differences Between Skin Resistance and Skin Conductance Responses with Respect to Change Over Trials: A Mathematical Explanation

1986

Emotional arousal modulates the encoding of crime-related details and corresponding physiological responses in the Concealed Information Test

2011

Previous studies demonstrated that concealed crime-related memories can be validly identified using the Concealed Information Test (CIT). However, its field applicability is still debated, and it is specifically unknown how emotional arousal during a crime would influence CIT results. In the current study, emotional arousal during a mock crime and the time delay between mock crime and CIT examination were manipulated. At the immediate and the delayed CIT occasion, central crime details were better remembered than peripheral ones and enhanced emotional arousal further reduced memory for peripheral information. Electrodermal, respiratory, and cardiovascular responses to central crime details …