Neuroscience letters
-
Neuroscience letters · Jan 2010
Perspective taking modulates event-related potentials to perceived pain.
Recent event-related brain potential (ERP) study disentangled an early automatic component and a late top-down controlled component of neural activities to perceived pain of others. This study assessed the hypothesis that perspective taking modulates the top-down controlled component but not the automatic component of empathy for pain by recording ERPs from 24 subjects who performed pain judgments of pictures of hands in painful or non-painful situations from either self-perspective or other-perspective. ⋯ Neural response to perceived pain over the central-parietal area was significantly reduced at 370-420 ms when performing the pain judgment task from other-perspective compared to self-perspective. The results suggest that shifting between self-perspectives and other-perspectives modulates the late controlled component but not the early automatic component of neural responses to perceived pain.
-
Neuroscience letters · Jan 2010
Gamma-secretase inhibitor (GSI1) attenuates morphological cerebral vasospasm in 24h after experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage in rats.
Notch signaling plays an important role in the arteriogenesis. We hypothesized that the Notch inhibitor--gamma-secretase inhibitor (GSI1) exerted its effects on the vasospasm via regulation of NF-kappaB and MMP-9. In this study, 160 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly assigned into four groups: Sham, subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), SAH treated with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and SAH treated with GSI1. ⋯ Severe morphological vasospasm in the basilar artery was observed in SAH and DMSO treated rats. GSI1 significantly effected on neurological deficits, but not on mortality; significantly reduced morphological vasospasm, blood-brain barrier permeability, brain water content; significantly decreased the protein level of Notch1, NF-kappaB p50 and MMP-9, as well as the DNA-binding activity of NF-kappaB (EMSA) and the activity of MMP-9 (Zymography). These findings suggest that GSI1 plays a critical role in the attenuation of acute cerebral vasospasm, which may provide a novel therapeutic target for cerebral vasospasm after SAH insult.
-
Neuroscience letters · Jan 2010
Insufficient sleep impairs driving performance and cognitive function.
Cumulative sleep deprivation may increase the risk of psychiatric disorders, other disorders, and accidents. We examined the effect of insufficient sleep on cognitive function, driving performance, and cerebral blood flow in 19 healthy adults (mean age 29.2 years). All participants were in bed for 8h (sufficient sleep), and for <4h (insufficient sleep). ⋯ The brake reaction time in a harsh-braking test was significantly longer after insufficient sleep than after sufficient sleep (546.2+/-23.0 vs. 478.0+/-51.2 ms, P<0.05). Whereas there were no significant correlations between decrease in oxyHb and the changes of cognitive function or driving performance between insufficient sleep and sufficient sleep. One night of insufficient sleep affects daytime cognitive function and driving performance and this was accompanied by the changes of cortical oxygenation response.
-
Neuroscience letters · Jan 2010
Synaptic plasticity in the substantia gelatinosa in a model of chronic neuropathic pain.
Chronic neuropathic pain (CNP) is common after peripheral nerve injuries (PNI), but is rather refractory to available anti-pain medication. Advances in neuropathic pain research have identified cellular and molecular cues triggering the onset of neuropathic pain, but the mechanisms responsible for maintenance of chronic pain states are largely unknown. Structural changes such as sprouting of injured A-fibres into the substantia gelatinosa of the dorsal horn in the spinal cord have been proposed to relate to neuropathic pain in partial PNI models. ⋯ Mechanical allodynia was measured up to 84 days after injury, after which synaptic changes were studied in the lumbar substantia gelatinosa. The numbers of larger sized synaptophysin-immunoreactive presynaptic boutons were found to be increased in the substantia gelatinosa ipsilateral to the nerve injury. From these data we conclude that structural synaptic changes within the substantia gelatinosa are present months after complete nerve injury and that this plasticity may be involved in maintaining neuropathic pain states.
-
Neuroscience letters · Jan 2010
Comparative StudyIsobolographic analysis of caramiphen and lidocaine on spinal anesthesia in rats.
The aims of the study were to evaluate the spinal anesthetic effect of caramiphen and also assess spinal anesthetic interactions of caramiphen with lidocaine. Lidocaine, a common local anesthetic, was used as control. Dose-dependent responses of intrathecal caramiphen on spinal anesthesia were compared with lidocaine in rats. ⋯ Co-administration of caramiphen with lidocaine produced an additive effect. Caramiphen and lidocaine are known to have local anesthetic effects as spinal anesthesia in rats. The spinal anesthetic effects of adding caramiphen to lidocaine are similar to the combinations of other anesthetics with lidocaine.