Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Meizhu Huang, Dapeng Li, Xinyu Cheng, Qing Pei, Zhiyong Xie, Huating Gu, Xuerong Zhang, Zijun Chen, Aixue Liu, Yi Wang, Fangmiao Sun, Yulong Li, Jiayi Zhang, Miao He, Yuan Xie, Fan Zhang, Xiangbing Qi, Congping Shang, Peng Cao
Summary: Appetitive locomotion is important for animals to approach rewards, but the neuronal circuitry controlling it is still unclear. Researchers discovered an excitatory brain circuit from the superior colliculus to the substantia nigra that enhances appetitive locomotion in mice during predatory hunting, depending on the activity of SNc dopamine neurons.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Martina Fusaro, Matteo P. Lisi, Gaetano Tieri, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Summary: The experiment with IVR virtual body touch demonstrates differences in people's reactions to touches on intimate areas by different genders on virtual bodies, with the highest skin conductance response to taboo touches delivered by female avatars.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Hidehiro Watanabe, Shoji Ogata, Nonoka Nodomi, Kosuke Tateishi, Hiroshi Nishino, Ryosuke Matsubara, Mamiko Ozaki, Fumio Yokohari
Summary: To maintain eusociality, ants can recognize subtle differences in cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs). It is debated whether peripheral or central neural mechanisms are responsible for CHC discrimination. In this study, single basiconic sensilla in Japanese carpenter ants were recorded to determine how CHCs are processed. The results showed that sensory neurons in the sensilla were electrically coupled and had the potential to discriminate different CHCs based on activated neuron patterns.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Takaya Ogasawara, Fatih Sogukpinar, Kaining Zhang, Yang-Yang Feng, Julia Pai, Ahmad Jezzini, Ilya E. Monosov
Summary: Researchers discovered that novelty seeking behavior in primates is regulated by the zona incerta (ZI). ZI neurons are activated by predictions of novel objects before monkeys shift their gaze, and low-intensity ZI stimulation facilitates gaze shifts while ZI inactivation reduces novelty seeking.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biology
Teisha King, Emily J. Ray, Brandon Tramontana, Karen Maruska
Summary: Animals evolve mechanisms to communicate through multiple sensory channels, but knowledge about sender signals and receiver responses remains limited. This study uses the African cichlid to explore how unimodal and multimodal signals are processed in the female brain. The findings suggest that visual-acoustic signaling is non-redundant, but vision dominates. The study also identifies specific brain nuclei and neural co-activation networks associated with different sensory contexts. Overall, this research provides insights into context-dependent behavior and neural decision making in non-redundant multimodal communication.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Noelia Sofia de Leon Reyes, Paula Sierra Diaz, Ramon Nogueira, Antonia Ruiz-Pino, Yuki Nomura, Christopher A. de Solis, Jay Schulkin, Arun Asok, Felix Leroy
Summary: Adult rodents prefer to interact with novel members of the same species rather than familiar ones. This study identifies neurons in the infra limbic area (ILA) of the mouse prefrontal cortex that express corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and project to the dorsal region of the rostral lateral septum (rLS). The release of CRH during familiar encounters disinhibits rLS neurons, suppressing social interactions with familiar mice and contributing to the preference for social novelty.
Article
Cell Biology
Jie Ren, Yu Sang, Alejandro Aballay
Summary: This study reveals the important role of the gut-brain-microbial axis in controlling immune activation caused by alterations in intestinal homeostasis, through neural cholinergic signaling and the Wnt pathway.
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Shani Haskal de la Zerda, Shai Netser, Hen Magalnik, Mayan Briller, Dan Marzan, Sigal Glatt, Yasmin Abergel, Shlomo Wagner
Summary: This study demonstrates that social recognition in rodents relies on the integration of olfactory, auditory, and somatosensory cues, requiring active behavior in response to social stimuli. Impairment of olfactory, somatosensory, or auditory systems prevents behavioral recognition of familiar stimuli.
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Dongyu Wei, Takuya Osakada, Zhichao Guo, Takashi Yamaguchi, Avni Varshneya, Rongzhen Yan, Yiwen Jiang, Dayu Lin
Summary: Wei et al. have found that Esr1 cells in the mouse cMPOA encode the fighting capability of male opponents and suppress aggression towards superior opponents by inhibiting attack-mediating ventromedial hypothalamus cells. This study identifies the pathway from cMPOA(Esr1) cells to the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHvl) as essential for modulating aggression in male mice. The activation of this pathway suppresses natural intermale aggression, while inactivating it increases aggression.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Pu Wang, Yongguo Jiang
Summary: This paper introduces a novel transportation mode detection algorithm, DFTrans, based on Temporal Block and Attention Block. Low- and high-frequency components of traffic sequences are obtained using discrete wavelet transforms, and a two-channel encoder is designed to capture the temporal and spatial correlation. Experimental results show promising performance on real-world datasets.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jing Ning, Zhou Li, Xingjiang Zhang, Junlong Wang, Dandan Chen, Qiong Liu, Yi Sun
Summary: This study developed unbiased machine learning tools to quantify the behavior of fruit flies and discovered that fruit flies can extract higher-order features from conspecifics during courtship and select appropriate actions. The findings lay the foundation for understanding the mechanism of conspecific recognition in fruit flies.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Kunyin Jiang, Hongtao Nie, Zhihui Yin, Xiwu Yan, Qi Li
Summary: In this study, an apextrin (Rpape) was identified and characterized in Ruditapes philippinarum, and it was found to be significantly induced under bacterial challenges. The Rpape protein showed significant inhibitory activity against gram-positive bacteria and was able to bind with certain bacteria. In addition, Rpape protein positively activated the NF-kappa B signaling cascade and increased nitric oxide activity.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Mohamed Z. Amrani, Christoph W. Borst, Nouara Achour
Summary: This study introduces and evaluates a multi-sensory hand pattern recognizer that utilizes MLP and DT classifiers to achieve optimal hand shape detection. By integrating LM controllers, VIVE Pro Eye camera, and MYO armband, the study successfully reaches an average classification accuracy of 98.31%.
BIOMEDICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING AND CONTROL
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Kengo Inada, Mitsue Hagihara, Kazuko Tsujimoto, Takaya Abe, Ayumu Konno, Hirokazu Hirai, Hiroshi Kiyonari, Kazunari Miyamichi
Summary: The adult brain can adapt behaviors according to specific life stage demands. This study reveals that hypothalamic oxytocin neurons play a crucial role in regulating parental caregiving behaviors in male mice. The excitatory neural connections originating from the lateral hypothalamus to the oxytocin neurons are strengthened when male mice become fathers, and their activation suppresses pup-directed aggression in virgin males. These findings demonstrate the plasticity of neural connections in the hypothalamus.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Chengzhang Yu, Wenxia Bao
Summary: With the exponential growth of video data, action recognition has become increasingly important. DenseGCN is a lightweight network developed to optimize accuracy and efficiency. It utilizes a unique three-level feature fusion system and outperforms other methods on large-scale datasets, achieving an accuracy of 92.7% on the X-View benchmark of the NTU RGB+D 60 dataset.
IET IMAGE PROCESSING
(2023)