Neuroscience
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It has been suggested that the brain adopts a simplified strategy to coordinate a large number of degrees of freedom in motor control. Synergies have been proposed as a strategy to produce movements by recruitment of a small number of fixed modular patterns. However, there is no direct support for a synergistic organization of the brain itself. ⋯ The synergy amplitudes for each unit were significantly correlated with the corresponding neuron's firing rate. In addition, we also observed synergies shared between tasks and task-specific synergies, as shown before for muscle synergies. Altogether, we demonstrated that neural synergies are effective in describing neural population activity during reach to grasp movements and provide a new tool for interpreting neural data for movement control.
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Structural connections among the hubs of the revised Papez circuit remain to be elucidated in the human brain. As the original Papez circuit failed to explain functional imaging findings, a more detailed investigation is needed to delineate connections among the circuit's key hubs. Here we acquired diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) from eight normal subjects and used data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) to elucidate connections among hubs in the retrosplenial gyrus, hippocampus, mammillary bodies, and anterior thalamic nuclei. ⋯ Thalamic fibers were observed to connect with both the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and retrosplenial cortex (RSC). The RSC was mainly responsible for direct hippocampal connections, while the PCC was not. This indicates that the RSC and PCC represent separate functional hubs in humans, as also shown by previous primate axonal tracing studies and functional magnetic resonance imaging observations.
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The use of botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) for various clinical therapeutic applications is increasing. It is widely believed that peripheral therapeutic or toxic effects of BTX-A are exclusively mediated by SNAP-25 cleavage. ⋯ Our results show that (1) BTX-A can undergo retrograde axonal transport to the dorsal horn after peripheral application; (2) Peripheral pretreatment with BTX-A decreases the expression and function of AMPA receptors in the spinal cord dorsal horn neurons; (3) Peripheral pretreatment with BTX-A does not change basal glutamate release, but decreases the effect of formalin-evoked release of glutamate in spinal cord dorsal horn neurons. These results suggest that peripheral application of BTX-A can change AMPA receptor expression in, and glutamate release from, spinal dorsal horn neurons, which may have significance in its central antinociceptive effects.
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During postnatal development, neural circuits are extremely dynamic and develop precise connection patterns that emerge as a result of the elimination of synaptic terminals, a process instructed by molecular cues and patterns of electrical activity. In the rodent visual system, this process begins during the first postnatal week and proceeds during the second and third postnatal weeks as spontaneous retinal activity and finally use-dependent fine tuning takes place. Reelin is a large extracellular matrix glycoprotein able to affect several steps of brain development, from neuronal migration to the maturation of dendritic spines and use-dependent synaptic development. ⋯ Blocking reelin signaling with a neutralizing antibody (CR-50) from PND 7 to PND 14 induced a non-specific sprouting of ipsilateral retinocollicular axons outside their typical distribution of discrete patches of axon terminals. Also we found that reelin blockade resulted in reduced levels of phospho-GAP43, increased GluN1 and GluN2B-NMDA subunits and decreased levels of GAD65 content in the visual layers of the superior colliculus. The results suggest that reelin signaling is associated with the maturation of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic machinery influencing the development and fine tuning of topographically organized neural circuits during postnatal development.
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The molecular mechanism of individual response of susceptibility and resilience under psychological stress remains controversial and unclear. The present study aimed to explore the relationship of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) with glucocorticoid receptor (GR) or cannabinoid receptor (CB1) and further indicate the molecular mechanism of susceptibility and resilience to acute stress (AS) and chronic mild stress (CMS). Sucrose preference test and open field test were used to evaluate the response of susceptibility and resilience under stress in rats. ⋯ Hippocampal mGluR5 mRNA and protein levels were increased in the susceptible rats. Pharmacological testing showed that GR was positively associated with mGluR5 in susceptible rats in the CMS group, while CB1 was negatively related to mGluR5 in susceptible rats in the AS group. The results suggested that GR and CB1 in the hippocampus might regulate mGluR5 protein and mRNA levels, which might be related to individual responses of susceptibility and resilience under AS and CMS.