Journal of neuroscience methods
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J. Neurosci. Methods · Nov 2010
Refinement of the use of food and fluid control as motivational tools for macaques used in behavioural neuroscience research: report of a Working Group of the NC3Rs.
This report provides practical guidance on refinement of the use of food and fluid control as motivational tools for macaques used in behavioural neuroscience research. The guidance is based on consideration of the scientific literature and, where data are lacking, expert opinion and professional experience, including that of the members of a Working Group convened by the United Kingdom National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). ⋯ The report provides a framework for refinement that can be tailored to meet local requirements. It also identifies data gaps and areas for future research and sets out the Working Group's recommendations on contemporary best practice.
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Applications based on eye-blink detection have increased, as a result of which it is essential for eye-blink detection to be robust and non-intrusive irrespective of the changes in the user's facial pose. However, most previous studies on camera-based blink detection have the disadvantage that their performances were affected by the facial pose. They also focused on blink detection using only frontal facial images. ⋯ Thirdly, the accuracy of determining the eye state - open or closed - is increased by combining the above two features on the basis of the support vector machine (SVM). Finally, the SVM classifier for determining the eye state is adaptively selected according to the facial rotation. Experimental results using various databases showed that the blink detection by the proposed method is robust to various facial poses.
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J. Neurosci. Methods · Oct 2010
Nerve conduction block using combined thermoelectric cooling and high frequency electrical stimulation.
Conduction block of peripheral nerves is an important technique for many basic and applied neurophysiology studies. To date, there has not been a technique which provides a quickly initiated and reversible "on-demand" conduction block which is both sustainable for long periods of time and does not generate activity in the nerve at the onset of the conduction block. In this study we evaluated the feasibility of a combined method of nerve block which utilizes two well established nerve blocking techniques in a rat and cat model: nerve cooling and electrical block using high frequency alternating currents (HFAC). ⋯ The conduction block was initiated using nerve cooling, a technique which does not produce nerve "onset response" firing, a prohibitive drawback of HFAC electrical block. The conduction block was then readily transitioned into an electrical block. A long-term electrical block is likely preferential to a long-term nerve cooling block because nerve cooling block generates large amounts of exhaust heat, does not allow for fiber diameter selectivity and is known to be unsafe for prolonged delivery.
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J. Neurosci. Methods · Oct 2010
A novel animal model of graded neuropathic pain: utility to investigate mechanisms of population heterogeneity.
The mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain are not well understood, resulting in unsatisfactory treatment outcomes for many patients. Animal models underpin much of the current understanding of pain mechanisms due to their perceived ability to mimic pain hypersensitivities; however, are limited by their binomial approach (pain vs. control), which does not reflect the clinical heterogeneity in nociceptive hypersensitivity. We modified the chronic constriction injury model by varying the number of sciatic nerve chromic gut sutures. ⋯ Astrocyte GFAP expression was positively associated with graded allodynia in the ipsilateral dorsal horn (P=0.18, r(2)>0.6) and ipsilateral DLF (P<0.05, r(2)>0.9). DLF glial activation may represent a contributor to contralateral pain. Our novel graded model has a dynamic range, allowing sensitive detection of interactions and subtle influences on neuropathic pain processing.
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Independent component analysis (ICA) is one of the most valuable explorative methods for analyzing resting-state networks (RSNs) in fMRI, representing a data-driven approach that enables decomposition of high-dimensional data into discrete components. Extensions to a group-level suffer from the drawback of evaluating single-subject resting-state components of interest either using a predefined spatial template or via visual inspection. FENICA introduced in the context of group ICA methods is based solely on spatially consistency across subjects directly reflecting similar networks. ⋯ In this study FENICA was applied to fMRI resting-state data from 28 healthy subjects resulting in eight group RSNs. These RSNs resemble the spatial patterns of the following previously described networks: (1) visual network, (2) default mode network, (3) sensorimotor network, (4) dorsolateral prefrontal network, (5) temporal prefrontal network, (6) basal ganglia network, (7) auditory processing network, and (8) working memory network. This novel analysis approach for identifying spatially consistent networks across a group of subjects does not require manual or template-based selection of single-subject components and, therefore, offers a truly explorative procedure of assessing RSNs.