Neuroscience
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Allergic asthma is a common chronic inflammatory condition associated with psychiatric comorbidities. Notably depression, correlated with adverse outcomes in asthmatic patients. Peripheral inflammation's role in depression has been shown previously. ⋯ Moreover, mPFC and vHipp activity were altered in asthmatic animals. Allergen disrupted the strength and direction of functional connectivity in the mPFC-vHipp circuit so that, unlike normal conditions, mPFC causes and modulates vHipp activity. Our results provide new insight into the underlying mechanism of allergic inflammation-induced psychiatric disorders, aiming to develop new interventions and therapeutic approaches for improving asthma complications.
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The Stroop test is a widely used neuropsychological test measuring attention and conflict resolution, which shows sensitivity across a range of diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. A rodent analogue of the Stroop test, the Response-Conflict task (rRCT), allows for systematic investigation of the neural systems underpinning performance in this test. Little is known about the involvement of the basal ganglia in this neural process. ⋯ Involvement of the basal ganglia in this neural process has not previously been reported. These data demonstrate that the cognitive process of conflict resolution requires not only prefrontal cortical regions, but also recruits the dysgranular retrosplenial cortex and the medial region of the neostriatum. These data have implications for understanding the neuroanatomical changes that underpin impaired Stroop performance in people with neurological disorders.
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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a novel non-invasive neuromodulation technique with neuroprotective properties and is used to treat depression. However, the underlying mechanism of action remains unclear. In this study, we examined the possible mechanism mediating the antidepressant effect of rTMS using animal experiments. ⋯ These results indicated that neuron damage occurred in the depression-like rats. After rTMS intervention, the depression-like behavior was alleviated significantly, and the numbers of NSCs and astrocytes, as well as the expression of GFAP and nestin proteins, returned to normal levels. Overall, it is likely that attenuation of NSC proliferation and differentiation into astrocytes produced a neuroprotective effect on hippocampal neurons, which might partly explain the mechanism by which rTMS alleviates depression.
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Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a convolution of latent neural activity and the hemodynamic response function (HRF). According to prior studies, the neurodegenerative process in idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (PD) interacts significantly with neuromuscular abnormalities. Although these underlying neuromuscular changes might influence the temporal characteristics of HRF and fMRI signals, relatively few studies have explored this possibility. ⋯ The results suggested that neglecting HRF variability may cultivate false-positive and false-negative FC group differences. Furthermore, HRF was related to dopamine receptor type 2 (DRD2) gene expression (P < 0.001, t = -7.06, false discover rate-corrected). Taken together, these findings reveal HRF variation and its possible underlying molecular mechanism in PD, and suggest that deconvolution could reduce the impact of HRF variation on FC group differences.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by decreased learning ability and memory deficits. Our previous findings suggested that benzene, 1,2,4-trimethoxy-5-(2-methyl-1-propen-1-yl) (BTY) can ameliorate the dysfunction of GABAergic inhibitory neurons associated with neurological diseases. On this basis, we investigated the neuroprotective effect of BTY on AD and explored the underlying mechanism. ⋯ Besides, histopathological experiments indicated that BTY could maintain the morphology and function of neurons, reduce amyloid β-protein 42 (Aβ42) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) accumulation, and decrease the levels of inflammatory cytokines. Finally, western blot experiments showed that BTY could inhibit the expression of apoptosis-related proteins and promote the expression of memory-related proteins. In conclusion, this study indicated that BTY may be a promising drug candidate for AD.