Article
Neurosciences
Alina C. Zacher, Kiara Hohaus, Felix Felmy, Christina Paetz-Warncke
Summary: Microglia play an important role in brain development by proliferating and maturing to provide coverage to surrounding tissues. This study investigates the distribution and morphological changes of microglia during early and late postnatal development in the superior olivary complex of Mongolian gerbils, finding transient increases in cell density and complexity to support tissue coverage.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lauren N. Miterko, Tao Lin, Joy Zhou, Meike E. van der Heijden, Jaclyn Beckinghausen, Joshua J. White, Roy Sillitoe
Summary: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) shows potential in improving motor function in a mouse model of ataxia, with the combination of cerebellar nuclei DBS and physical activity being particularly effective.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Biology
Magda Dubois, Johanna Habicht, Jochen Michely, Rani Moran, Ray J. Dolan, Tobias U. Hauser
Summary: The exploration-exploitation trade-off between sampling a lesser-known option against a known rich option has traditionally been solved using computationally demanding algorithms. However, research shows that humans may also deploy cheaper strategies, such as value-free random exploration and novelty exploration. A drug study involving dopamine and noradrenaline suggests that value-free random exploration is under noradrenergic control, highlighting the presence of distinct computationally cheap exploration strategies in humans.
Article
Biology
Kelly M. Martyniuk, Arturo Torres-Herraez, Daniel C. Lowes, Marcelo Rubinstein, Marie A. Labouesse, Christoph Kellendonk
Summary: In the striatum, the activity of acetylcholine neurons is regulated by dopamine release, and this regulation is mediated by dopamine D2 receptors. Through experiments on mice, it was found that D2 receptors affect the duration of acetylcholine level changes and regulate the temporal correlation between the two signals. These results suggest an important role of D2 receptors in motivation to initiate actions.
Article
Immunology
Ayla Batu Ozturk, Nail Can Ozturk, Furkan Ayaz
Summary: Many neurodegenerative diseases show neuroinflammation and impaired neuron production in the hippocampus. Immunotherapeutic strategies targeting microglia may be problematic. Instructing monocytes/macrophages from the periphery could be a less invasive strategy. However, the interaction between CNS neurons and macrophages is poorly understood.
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Clinical Neurology
Sayed Ausim Azizi
Summary: Monoamines play important roles in regulating brain function and have both physiological and pathological significance in influencing perception and behavior.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Shawn Zheng Kai Tan, Chi Him Poon, Ying-Shing Chan, Lee Wei Lim
Summary: The study identified the critical time point during memory consolidation stage to disrupt fear memory via prelimbic cortex deep brain stimulation. The disruption was partially modulated by the inactivation of the ventral hippocampus and the transient changes in ventral hippocampus dopamine (D-2) receptors expression upon prelimbic cortex deep brain stimulation. Wide-scale changes of various neurotransmitters and their metabolites in ventral hippocampus were also observed, confirming its important role in response to prelimbic cortex deep brain stimulation.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Timon Merk, Victoria Peterson, Witold J. Lipski, Benjamin Blankertz, Robert S. Turner, Ningfei Li, Andreas Horn, Robert Mark Richardson, Wolf-Julian Neumann
Summary: This study developed an invasive brain signal decoding approach using intraoperative sensorimotor electrocorticography (ECoG) and subthalamic LFP to predict grip-force in Parkinson's disease patients undergoing DBS. The results showed that ECoG outperformed subthalamic LFP for accurate grip-force decoding, and gradient boosted decision trees (XGBOOST) showed the best performance. ECoG based decoding performance negatively correlated with motor impairment, highlighting the impact of PD pathophysiology on movement encoding capacity.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jason R. Borgus, Ying Wang, Dana J. DiScenza, B. Jill Venton
Summary: The study found that most dopamine transients in mice were coincident with adenosine, indicating a simultaneous release pattern. Adenosine receptors were identified as potential targets for modulating simultaneous release of adenosine and dopamine. Regulating adenosine and dopamine cotransmission could be crucial for developing treatments for dopamine-related diseases like Parkinson's or addiction.
ACS CHEMICAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Clement Solie, Alessandro Contestabile, Pedro Espinosa, Stefano Musardo, Sebastiano Bariselli, Chieko Huber, Alan Carleton, Camilla Bellone
Summary: This study shows that the pathway from superior colliculus to ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays a key role in encoding orienting behavior and modulating social interaction. The researchers found that this pathway affects VTA dopamine neurons projecting onto dorsolateral striatum, and the stimulation or inhibition of this pathway can influence social interaction in mice.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mara Yone D. Fernandes, Fernando Dobrachinski, Henrique B. Silva, Joao Pedro Lopes, Francisco Q. Goncalves, Felix A. A. Soares, Lisiane O. Porciuncula, Geanne M. Andrade, Rodrigo A. Cunha, Angelo R. Tome
Summary: The study demonstrates that chlorogenic acids do not directly affect synaptic transmission and plasticity, but can indirectly correct synaptic dysfunction by affecting other cellular targets. Therefore, chlorogenic acids may serve as a novel neuroprotective strategy, offering new opportunities for therapeutic interventions.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Mechanical
Hossein Salahshoor, Hongsun Guo, Mikhail G. Shapiro, Michael Ortiz
Summary: Ultrasound neuromodulation (UNM) is a promising technique for excitation or inhibition of neural activity, but its off-target sensory effects and their dependence on stimulation frequency are still unclear. Research shows that the brain is largely insulated by the skull, and shear waves are carried away from the skull by the vertebral column, forming a frequency-dependent waveguide mechanism that may contribute to the frequency dependence of UNM effects.
EXTREME MECHANICS LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Ya-tang Li, Markus Meister
Summary: The superior colliculus in the brain is a crucial visual processing station that receives input from various types of retinal ganglion cells. Through recording mouse superficial SC neurons, we identified 24 functional types using an unsupervised clustering algorithm. These types can be grouped into two categories: one that responds similarly to retinal ganglion cells and another with more diverse and specialized stimulus selectivity. Cells of the same functional type tend to cluster together in anatomical space, and the visual representation in the SC has lower dimensionality compared to the retina, suggesting a sifting process along the visual pathway.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Milos Stanojlovic, Jean Pierre Pallais, Catherine M. Kotz
Summary: This study indicates that Parkinson's disease is associated with damage to orexin neurons and behavioral impairments. By using the A53T mouse model of Parkinson's, measuring various parameters, and evaluating neuronal disruptions, the researchers further confirmed this idea.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Dennis J. Weingarten, Eva Sebastian, Jennifer Winkelhoff, Nadine Patschull-Keiner, Alexander U. Fischer, Simon L. Wadle, Eckhard Friauf, Jan J. Hirtz
Summary: This study reveals a glycinergic projection from the ipsilateral cochlear nucleus to principal neurons in the lateral superior olive, providing inhibitory synaptic input to mediate sidebands of neural response.
FRONTIERS IN NEURAL CIRCUITS
(2023)