Behavioural brain research
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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.