Progress in neurobiology
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Progress in neurobiology · May 2013
ReviewPrevention of chronic postoperative pain: cellular, molecular, and clinical insights for mechanism-based treatment approaches.
Nearly every surgery can elicit a rather therapy-resistant chronic postoperative pain. Preventive medicine is therefore anticipated with hopeful eyes, but requires a better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the transition from acute to chronic pain. Spinal mechanisms of pain amplification are regarded as fundamental to pain chronification, but these mechanisms on their own are not at all likely to be sufficient. ⋯ In this review we elaborate on spinal pain amplification mechanisms in relation to pain chronification and the impact of vulnerability factors hereon. Moreover, these insights are incorporated within a clinical frame of treatment approaches currently used in surgical settings. As such, this review provides an integrated overview of mechanism-based treatment approaches in prevention of chronic postoperative pain.
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Progress in neurobiology · Apr 2013
ReviewBrain mechanisms for perceptual and reward-related decision-making.
Phenomenological models of decision-making, including the drift-diffusion and race models, are compared with mechanistic, biologically plausible models, such as integrate-and-fire attractor neuronal network models. The attractor network models show how decision confidence is an emergent property; and make testable predictions about the neural processes (including neuronal activity and fMRI signals) involved in decision-making which indicate that the medial prefrontal cortex is involved in reward value-based decision-making. ⋯ The stability of these systems is shown to be influenced in different ways by glutamatergic and GABAergic efficacy, leading to a new field of dynamical neuropsychiatry with applications to understanding schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The noise in these systems is shown to be advantageous, and to apply to similar attractor networks involved in short-term memory, long-term memory, attention, and associative thought processes.
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Progress in neurobiology · Aug 2011
ReviewDevelopment of hydrocephalus and classical hypothesis of cerebrospinal fluid hydrodynamics: facts and illusions.
According to the classical hypothesis of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) hydrodynamics, CSF is produced inside the brain ventricles, than it circulates like a slow river toward the cortical subarachnoid space, and finally it is absorbed into the venous sinuses. Some pathological conditions, primarily hydrocephalus, have also been interpreted based on this hypothesis. The development of hydrocephalus is explained as an imbalance between CSF formation and absorption, where more CSF is formed than is absorbed, which results in an abnormal increase in the CSF volume inside the cranial CSF spaces. ⋯ A recently proposed new working hypothesis suggests that osmotic and hydrostatic forces at the central nervous system microvessels are crucial for the regulation of interstial fluid and CSF volume which constitute a functional unit. Based on that hypothesis, the generally accepted mechanisms of hydrocephalus development are not plausible. Therefore, the recent understanding of the correlation between CSF physiology and the development of hydrocephalus has been thoroughly presented, analyzed and evaluated, and new insights into hydrocephalus etiopathology have been proposed, which are in accordance with the experimental data and the new working hypothesis.
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Progress in neurobiology · Apr 2011
ReviewThe rat perirhinal cortex: A review of anatomy, physiology, plasticity, and function.
The perirhinal cortex is located in a pivotal position to influence the flow of information into and out of the hippocampal formation. In this review, we examine the anatomical, physiological and functional properties of the rat perirhinal cortex. Firstly, we review the properties of the perirhinal cortex itself, we describe how it can be separated into two distinct subregions and consider how it differs from other neighbouring regions in terms of cell type, cellular organisation and its afferent and efferent projections. ⋯ Particular attention is paid the anatomical and electrophysiological properties of these projections. Thirdly, we review the main functions of the perirhinal cortex; its roles in perception, recognition memory, spatial and contextual memory and fear conditioning are explored. Finally, we discuss the idea of anatomical, electrophysiological and functional segregation within the perirhinal cortex itself and as part of a hippocampal-parahippocampal network and suggest that understanding this segregation is of critical importance in understanding the role and contributions made by the perirhinal cortex in general.
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Progress in neurobiology · Mar 2011
ReviewThe effect of pain on cognitive function: a review of clinical and preclinical research.
Cognitive impairment is commonly associated with the pain experience. This impairment represents a major obstacle to daily activities and rehabilitation, especially in the chronic pain population. Here we review clinical and preclinical studies that have investigated pain-related alterations in cognition. ⋯ We also examine the added complexity of cognitive impairment caused by analgesic medications and how this can further impact on morbidity in chronic pain patients. The need for a better understanding of the mechanisms of both pain-induced and treatment-related cognitive impairment is highlighted. Further research in this area will aid our understanding of patient symptoms and their underlying pathophysiology, ultimately leading to increased provision of guided therapy.