Neuroscience
-
Previous studies reported that long-term nociceptive stimulation could result in neurovascular coupling (NVC) dysfunction in brain, but these studies were based mainly on unimodal imaging biomarkers, thus could not comprehensively reflect NVC dysfunction. We investigated the potential NVC dysfunction in chronic migraine by exploring the relationship between neuronal activity and cerebral perfusion maps. The Pearson correlation coefficients between these 2 maps were defined as the NVC biomarkers. ⋯ These brain regions were located mainly in parietal or occipital lobes and were related to visual or sensory information processing. ALFF-CBF in right SPG was positively correlated with disease history and that in right precuneus was negatively correlated with migraine persisting time. fALFF-CBF in left SMG and AG were negatively related to headache frequency and positively related to health condition and disease history. In conclusion, multi-modal MRI could be used to detect NVC dysfunction in chronic migraine patients, which is a new method to assess the impact of chronic pain on the brain.
-
The current evidence suggests that aerobic fitness is associated with inhibitory control of executive functioning in children and older adults. However, the relative contributions of different neurophysiological mechanisms to this relation remain unclear and have not yet been examined in young adults. The present study aimed to compare inhibitory control between high and low-fit young adult men, and to investigate a possible mediation of fitness effects by conflict monitoring (N450 component of event-related potentials) and lateralized oxygenation difference (LOD) in the DLPFC. ⋯ In contrast, LOD was inversely correlated with Stroop interference, but did not explain the relation of aerobic fitness with behavioral performance. The present findings indicate that greater inhibitory control in high- compared to low-fit young men can be explained by more effective conflict monitoring. Moreover, young adults with left-lateralizedDLPFC oxygenation also show higher inhibitory control, but this oxygenation pattern is not influenced by aerobic fitness.
-
Studies have shown that a certain dose of dexamethasone can improve the survival rate of patients with sepsis, and in sepsis associated encephalopathy (SAE), autophagy plays a regulatory role in brain function. Here, we proved for the first time that small-dose dexamethasone (SdDex) can regulate the autophagy of cerebral cortex neurons in SAE rats and plays a protective role. Cortical neurons were cultured in vitro in a septic microenvironment and a sepsis rat model was established. ⋯ Furthermore, the HdDex group exhibited the most obvious apoptosis. SdDex can regulate autophagy of cortical neurons by inhibiting the mTOR signaling pathway and plays a protective role. Brain damage induced by HdDex may be related to the activation of apoptosis.