Neuroscience
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Spatiotemporal patterns of forebrain neural activity associated with auditory perception of biologically relevant complex acoustic stimuli can be conveniently studied in the songbird zebra finch. Here we present a time-frequency analysis of averaged slow auditory-evoked potentials (sAEPs) obtained at electrode locations overlying the main song control nucleus, high vocal center. ⋯ Since the state of alertness of birds modulates these parameters along a similar continuum, these findings suggest that modulation of sAEP frequency profile may be dependent on attentional mechanisms. The presence and modulation of neurobiologically ubiquitous dominant frequency components also implicate the possible role of induced cerebral neuronal circuit oscillations in songbird auditory perception.
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Retinoic acid (RA) is a potent regulator of morphogenesis, growth and cell differentiation. Incubation with RA causes arrest of proliferation and neurite extension in SH-SY5Y cells, a neuroblastoma cell line of human origin. ⋯ These responses require long periods of exposition to the ligand, thus suggesting a nondirect effect of the RA receptors on the APP gene. Also in these cells, RA induces the expression of TrkB, the tyrosine kinase receptor for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and 4 days of pretreatment with retinoic acid confers BDNF responsiveness to the APP promoter.
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Comparative Study
Song activation by testosterone is associated with an increased catecholaminergic innervation of the song control system in female canaries.
In canaries, singing and a large number of morphological features of the neural system that mediates the learning, perception and production of song exhibit marked sex differences. Although these differences have been mainly attributed to sex-specific patterns of the action of testosterone and its metabolites, the mechanisms by which sex steroids regulate brain and behavior are far from being completely understood. Given that the density of immunoreactive catecholaminergic fibers that innervate telencephalic song nuclei in canaries is higher in males, which sing, than in females, which usually do not sing, we hypothesized that some of the effects induced by testosterone on song behavior are mediated through the action of the steroid on the catecholaminergic neurons which innervate the song control nuclei. ⋯ By contrast, testosterone did not affect the catecholaminergic innervation of the telencephalic areas adjacent to HVC and RA. Together these data demonstrate that, in parallel to its effects on song behavior and on the morphology of the song control system, testosterone also regulates the catecholaminergic innervation of most telencephalic song control nuclei in canaries. The endocrine regulation of singing may thus involve the neuromodulatory action of specialized dopaminergic and/or noradrenergic projections onto several key parts of the song control system.
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Comparative Study
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy protects against mitochondrial dysfunction and delays onset of motor neuron disease in Wobbler mice.
The Wobbler mouse is a model of human motor neuron disease. Recently we reported the impairment of mitochondrial complex IV in Wobbler mouse CNS, including motor cortex and spinal cord. The present study was designed to test the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on (1) mitochondrial functions in young Wobbler mice, and (2) the onset and progression of the disease with aging. ⋯ These data indicate that the onset of disease in untreated Wobbler mice averaged 36+/-4.3 days in terms of walking and 40+/-5.7 days in terms of paw condition. HBOT significantly delayed (P<0.001 for both paw condition and walking) the onset of disease to 59+/-8.2 days (in terms of walking) and 63+/-7.6 days (in terms of paw condition). Our data suggest that HBOT significantly ameliorates mitochondrial dysfunction in the motor cortex and spinal cord and greatly delays the onset of the disease in an animal model of motor neuron disease.
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Comparative Study
A 14-day period of hindpaw sensory deprivation enhances the responsiveness of rat cortical neurons.
Hypodynamia-hypokinesia (HH) is a model of hindpaw sensory deprivation. It is obtained by unloading of the hindquarters during 14 days. In this situation, the feet are not in contact with the ground and as a consequence, the cutaneous receptors are not activated; the sensory input to the primary somatosensory cortex (SmI) is thus reduced. ⋯ Thin-spike cells were less frequently encountered in HH than in control rats. The analysis of regular cells revealed that after HH (1) spontaneous activity was unchanged and (2) cortical somatosensory neurons were more responsive: the cutaneous threshold was reduced and the response magnitude increased. Taken together, these results suggest a down-regulation of GABAergic function.