Article
Substance Abuse
Eva M. Mueller-Oehring, Tilman Schulte, Adolf Pfefferbaum, Edith V. Sullivan
Summary: The disruption of neural communication between the cerebellum and cortical brain regions contributes to ataxia in individuals with alcohol use disorder. The severity of ataxia is correlated with the degree of aberrant neural connectivity, which is influenced by lifetime alcohol consumption. Long-term sobriety may help restore normal neural communication and alleviate ataxia.
DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology
Derek M. Smith, Devin B. Terhune
Summary: Mounting evidence suggests an association between abnormal sleep phenomena and dissociative experiences. However, there is currently no theory that can clearly explain dissociation and identify its physiological basis. This study presents a theoretical model that integrates various research findings on the domain of dissociation and the regulation of REM sleep. The model suggests that individual differences in the circuitry of the brain regions controlling REM sleep promotion determine the similarity in cortical connectivity patterns between wakefulness and REM sleep. The proposed model provides insights into the relationship between REM sleep and dissociation.
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW
(2023)
Article
Anesthesiology
Hauke Basedau, Arne May, Jan Mehnert
Summary: This study investigates the role of the cerebellum in processing somato-motoric and nociceptive input, with a focus on trigeminal and occipital nerves. The results demonstrate the dominant effect of the first trigeminal branch in the cerebellum and provide insights into the somatotopic organization of the trigemino-cervical complex.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PAIN
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Anne-Kathrin Gellner, Aileen Sitter, Michal Rackiewicz, Marc Sylvester, Alexandra Philipsen, Andreas Zimmer, Valentin Stein
Summary: Chronic stress is a leading cause of neuropsychiatric conditions, such as depression and motor retardation, as well as neurodegenerative disorders. Through experiments on mice, we found that susceptible and resilient phenotypes exhibit differences in symptom load and motor learning abilities, and stress affects spine density and dynamics in the motor cortex based on the stress phenotype.
TRANSLATIONAL PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lukas Brenner, Leah Zerlin, Linette Liqi Tan
Summary: Visceral pain, a complex experience commonly seen in patients with inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders, involves aberrant neural processing within the gut-brain axis. A study found that suppressing the activity of MCC in an acute colitis model could alleviate visceral hypersensitivity and anxiety-related behaviors, providing insight into central cortical circuits underlying painful visceral manifestations.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
D. Kraushar, J. Molad, H. Hallevi, N. M. Bornstein, E. Ben-Assayag, E. Auriel
Summary: The study revealed that small cerebral microinfarcts (CMI) have a prolonged influence on cortical thickness in remote brain areas, suggesting the presence of numerous lesions even when a single CMI is detected. Therefore, the cumulative impact of these widely distributed lesions may play a significant role in the development of vascular cognitive impairment.
JOURNAL OF THE NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Kristoffer D. Feher, Masahito Nakataki, Yosuke Morishima
Summary: This study investigates the causal role of tACS-induced oscillatory cross-network phase relations in modulating signaling efficacy across human cortical networks. The results show that tACS-induced phase relations affect TMS-evoked potentials in a phase-dependent manner and that the induced oscillatory phase relation across the frontoparietal network affects the propagation of phase-dependent TEPs. The study demonstrates the importance of inter-nodal oscillatory coherence in routing cortico-cortical information flow.
BRAIN CONNECTIVITY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Edmund T. Rolls, Josef P. Rauschecker, Gustavo Deco, Chu-Chung Huang, Jianfeng Feng
Summary: Study investigated effective connectivity between auditory cortical regions and other cortical regions using data from 171 Human Connectome Project participants. A hierarchy of auditory cortical processing was identified, from core regions to belt regions and onward to higher-level regions. The study also found connections between auditory regions, visual regions, and language-related semantic regions, suggesting the involvement of multimodal processing in object identification and language comprehension.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Maurizio S. Riga, Veronica Paz, Michael Didriksen, Pau Celada, Francesc Artigas
Summary: This study found that Lu AF35700, a D1-R>D2-R antagonist, could reverse the abnormal thalamo-cortical activity induced by PCP. In addition, it was found that the D2-R antagonist haloperidol could reverse the effects of PCP on thalamic discharge rate and LFO, and the combination of D1-R antagonist SCH-23390 and haloperidol fully reversed the effects of PCP on thalamo-cortical LFO.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Valeria Oliva, Rob Gregory, Wendy-Elizabeth Davies, Lee Harrison, Rosalyn Moran, Anthony E. Pickering, Jonathan C. W. Brooks
Summary: Pain can be alleviated by shifting attention elsewhere, and the brainstem regions including locus coeruleus, rostral ventromedial medulla, and periaqueductal grey are involved in attentional analgesia. Functional interactions between these regions and the cortex modulate nociceptive input to reduce pain, particularly in situations requiring conflicting attentional demands.
Article
Anesthesiology
Astrid Mayr, Pauline Jahn, Bettina Deak, Anne Stankewitz, Vasudev Devulapally, Viktor Witkovsky, Olaf Dietrich, Enrico Schulz
Summary: This study investigated the cortical connectivity and its relationship with fluctuating endogenous pain in chronic pain patients. The results showed that periods of high pain were associated with low cortical connectivity. The change of pain intensity in chronic back pain was related to connections in specific brain regions, while the change of pain intensity direction in chronic migraine was reflected by decreased connectivity between certain brain regions.
Article
Neurosciences
Sara A. Sims, Pinar Demirayak, Simone Cedotal, Kristina M. Visscher
Summary: Functional and structural connectivity between central and peripheral visual representations differ, with central portions of V1 showing stronger connections to frontal regions. The relationship between central V1 and frontal areas is built upon direct connections via the IFOF, emphasizing the importance of understanding how the human brain processes visual information.
Article
Neurosciences
Philipp Haueis
Summary: Recent multimodal studies have revealed gradients in the cortical organization of the brain, impacting abstraction and information processing. These studies highlight the importance of considering cortical gradients in understanding hierarchical information processing.
Article
Cell Biology
Lida Kanari, Hugo Dictus, Athanassia Chalimourda, Alexis Arnaudon, Werner Van Geit, Benoit Coste, Julian Shillcock, Kathryn Hess, Henry Markram
Summary: Neuronal morphologies play a crucial role in the electrical behavior of neurons, connectomes, and brain dynamics. This paper proposes a synthesis algorithm based on a topological descriptor of neurons, allowing the rapid reconstruction of entire brain regions from a few reference cells. The synthesized morphologies exhibit statistical similarity to biological reconstructions in terms of their morpho-electrical and connectivity properties, providing a valuable opportunity to study the relationship between neuronal morphology and brain function across different spatial and temporal scales.
Article
Neurosciences
Edmund T. Rolls, Gustavo Deco, Chu-Chung Huang, Jianfeng Feng
Summary: Using the HCP-MMP atlas, the effective connectivity between visual cortical regions in human brain was investigated. Different visual streams were found to be involved in object recognition, scene representations, language systems, and social behavior. These streams are connected hierarchically and interact with reward systems and memory systems.