Neuroscience
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The recent decade testified a tremendous increase in our knowledge on how cell-type-specific microcircuits process sensory information in the neocortex and on how such circuitry reacts to manipulations of the sensory environment. Experience-dependent plasticity has now been investigated with techniques endowed with cell resolution during both postnatal development and in adult animals. ⋯ I will also discuss on which scientific problems the debate and controversies are more pronounced. New technologies that allow to perturbate cell-type-specific subcircuits will certainly shine new light in the years to come at least on some of the still open questions.
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Age-related increases in right frontal cortex activation are a common finding in the neuroimaging literature. However, neurocognitive factors contributing to right frontal over-recruitment remain poorly understood. Here we investigated the influence of age-related reaction time (RT) slowing and white matter (WM) microstructure reductions as potential explanatory factors for age-related increases in right frontal activation during task switching. ⋯ In addition, the older adult group showed longer RT and decreased fractional anisotropy in regions of the corpus callosum with direct connections to the fMRI ROIs. Subsequent mediation analyses indicated that age-related increases in right insula activation were mediated by RT slowing and age-related increases in right DLPFC activation were mediated by WM microstructure. Our results suggest that age-related RT slowing and WM microstructure declines contribute to age-related increases in right frontal activation during cognitive task performance.
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In time processing, the role of different cortical areas is still under investigation. Event-related potentials (ERPs) represent valuable indices of neural timing mechanisms in the millisecond-to-second domain. We used an interference approach by repetitive TMS (rTMS) on ERPs and behavioral performance to investigate the role of different cortical areas in processing basic temporal information. ⋯ At the baseline, CNV amplitude was modulated by the duration of the probe interval. RTMS had no significant effect on behavioral or ERP measures. These preliminary data suggest that stimulated cortical areas are less crucially involved than other brain regions (e.g. subcortical structures) in the explicit discrimination of auditory time intervals in the range of hundreds of milliseconds.
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Reaction time (RT), a widely used measure of human performance in experimental psychology, has recently been included as a regressor of interest in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data analysis. Few studies reported RT-related brain regions, but the nature of this activity is not fully understood. We aimed at exploring this topic by implementing a simple saccadic task which evokes fast and homogeneous reactions that require only the basic neural processes. ⋯ The results provide evidence that even a small difference in RTs can be linked with significant increase of HDR in task-related areas. Moreover, this increase is not linear, but rather quadratic. Our findings highlight the importance of controlling for RT in fMRI data analysis when contrasting conditions that vary in RT to avoid the misinterpretation of results.
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Voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) is a mitochondrial protein abundantly found in neuronal lipid rafts. In these membrane domains, VDAC is associated with a complex of signaling proteins that trigger neuroprotective responses. Loss of lipid raft integrity may result in disruption of multicomplex association and alteration of signaling responses that may ultimately promote VDAC activation. ⋯ VDAC1 dephosphorylation was corroborated in lipid rafts of AD brains. These results demonstrate that Aβ is involved in alterations of the phosphorylation state of VDAC in neuronal lipid rafts. Modulation of this channel may contribute to the development and progression of AD pathology.