Neuroreport
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Social neuroscience has made considerable progress in revealing the mechanisms underlying empathy. We focused on the mechanism of perspective taking, which is one aspect of the empathic process that includes the emotional inhibitory mechanism, a function of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex using the near-infrared spectroscopy. As a pretreatment, 19 participants played a game with confederates playing either fairly or unfairly. ⋯ The data showed that taking the other perspective of an unfair player activated the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in participants with high PT ability. In contrast, the behavioral data showed no differences between those participants with high and low-perspective taking abilities. These results suggest that different types of empathic features can produce different perspective taking strategies.
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Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a tumor suppressor gene that controls neural stem cell renewal and differentiation and is a potential target for regeneration in the optic nerve. Here we show that it has a critical pattern of expression in the mammalian developing auditory system. ⋯ By postnatal day 7, PTEN was downregulated in hair cells and subsequently in the neurons. This very specific, transient expression pattern suggests that PTEN plays a crucial role in the differentiation of the sensory neurons and hair cells and that it is a potential therapeutic target for hearing regeneration.
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We investigated the P2X4 receptor (P2X4R) expression in the cervical spinal cord, trigeminal ganglion, and infraorbital nerve (ION), after a chronic constriction injury of unilateral ION and a treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). A recent study has showed that SSRI inhibits P2X4R expression. Injured rats had significantly lower pain thresholds. ⋯ Nonetheless, P2X4R expression in the ipsilateral ION remained high. Immunostaining showed that macrophages are the source of P2X4R. Our results suggest that the expression of P2X4R in our model is modulated not by neuropathic pain, but by slight nerve injury.
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This study explores the electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of emotional experience during music listening. Independent component analysis and analysis of variance were used to separate statistically independent spectral changes of the EEG in response to music-induced emotional processes. ⋯ Specifically, the emotional valence was associated with δ-power decreases and θ-power increases in the frontal-central area, whereas the emotional arousal was accompanied by increases in both δ and θ powers. The resultant emotion-related component activations that were less interfered by the activities from other brain processes complement previous EEG studies of emotion perception to music.
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Itch is thought to be signaled by pruritogen-responsive neurons in the superficial spinal dorsal horn. Many neurons here express the substance P NK-1 receptor. We investigated whether neurotoxic destruction of spinal NK-1-expressing neurons affected itch-related scratching behavior. ⋯ SAP controls exhibited dose-related hindlimb scratching, which was significantly attenuated in SP-SAP-treated rats. There was a virtual absence of NK-1 immunoreactive neurons in superficial laminae of the upper cervical and medullary dorsal horn in SP-SAP-treated rats. These results indicate that superficial dorsal horn neurons expressing NK-1 receptors play a key role in spinal itch transmission.