Behavioural brain research
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The deficits of white matter (WM) microstructure are involved during Parkinson's disease (PD) progression. Most current methods identify key WM tracts relying on cortical regions of interest (ROIs). However, such ROI methods can be challenged due to low diffusion anisotropy near the gray matter (GM), which could result in a low sensitivity of tract identification. ⋯ We found 13 hemisphere clusters and 8 commissural clusters had significant group difference (p < 0.05, corrected by FDR method) in local regions, which belonged to multiple fiber tracts including cingulum bundle (CB), inferior occipito-frontal fasciculus (IoFF), corpus callosum (CC), external capsule (EC), uncinate fasciculus (UF), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and thalamo front (TF). We also found clusters that had relevance with clinical indices of cognitive function (2 clusters), athletic function (6 clusters), and depressive state (2 clusters) in these significant clusters. From the experiment results, it confirmed the ability of the proposed method to identify potential WM microstructure abnormality.
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Dehydration-Induced Anorexia (DIA) is a murine model that reproduces weight loss and avoidance of food, despite its availability. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) integrates sensory inputs and updates associative learning to promote (hunger) or inhibit (satiety) food-seeking behavior. In this study we tested if anorexia induces a pro-inflammatory environment associated with microglia in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), specific subregions of the PFC involved in appetite. ⋯ Anorexia also increased the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β. This pro-inflammatory environment associated with microglia activation correlates with neuronal damage as revealed by Fluoro Jade C (FJC) and NeuN immunolabeling. We conclude that anorexia triggers a pro-inflammatory environment associated with microglia that correlates with neurodegeneration in the mPFC and OFC.
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Observations of hyperactive (/restless, agitated) behaviour as a consequence of mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) in sports are inconclusive as reduced or slowed movement behaviour is also commonly described post-concussion. This might be grounded in the fact that the movement behaviour of athletes has not been systematically investigated during standardized settings and with objective methods of nonverbal movement analysis. Thus, we investigate whether symptoms after mTBI in sports are characterized by a hyper- or hypoactive movement behaviour experimentally. ⋯ Athletes with increased symptoms after mTBI move their hands in a hyperactive and restless manner. Increased act apart hand movements, i.e., when both hands move simultaneously without touching each other, indicate a motoric destabilization in symptomatic athletes' behaviour that might be related to impaired inhibitory motor control systems. Future diagnoses should concern the systematic analysis of the nonverbal movement behaviour as a potential behavioural marker of symptoms after mTBI.
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Repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) impair cognitive abilities and increase risk of neurodegenerative disorders in humans. We developed two repetitive mild TBI models in rats with different time intervals between successive weight-drop injuries. Rats were subjected to repetitive Sham (no injury), single mild (mTBI), repetitive mild (rmTBI - 5 hits, 24 h apart), rapid repetitive mild (rapTBI - 5 hits, 5 min apart) or a single severe (sTBI) TBI. ⋯ Acute APP and RMO-14 immunohistochemistry showed axonal injury at the pontomedullary junction in the sTBI, but not in other groups. ELISA showed increased serum GFAP levels 8 weeks after sTBI, while no differences were found between the injury groups in the levels of phosphorylated-tau and S100β. Results suggest that the rmTBI protocol is the most suitable model for testing cognitive impairment after mild repetitive head injuries and that the prolonged cognitive impairment after repetitive mild TBI originates from different structural and molecular mechanisms compared to similar impairments after single sTBI.
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Structural networks in children with autism spectrum disorder with regression: A graph theory study.
Regression is frequently described in Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Limited comprehensive studies have been conducted in patients with ASD with regression. ⋯ The ASD-R children were different from the ASD-NR children in the distribution of hub regions, although there were no global network property differences between them. In ASD-R children, the right precuneus (PCUN.R) might play an important role and relate to autism symptom severity.