Neuroscience
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Anxiety disorders are prevalent chronic psychological disease with complex pathogenic mechanisms. Current anxiolytics have limited efficacy and numerous side effects in many anxiety patients, highlighting the urgent need for new therapies. Recent research has been focusing on nutritional supplements, particularly amino acids, as potential therapies for anxiety disorders. ⋯ Long-term administration of L-Cysteine has anxiolytic, antidepressant, and memory-improving effects. L-Cysteine depletion can lead to increased oxidative stress in the brain. This review delves into the potential mechanisms of L-Cysteine and its main products, glutathione (GSH) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the management of anxiety and related diseases.
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The present study explored visually induced vertical vergence (VIVV) as non-specific motion processing response. Healthy participants (7 male, mean age 28.57 ± 2.30; 9 female, mean age 27.67 ± 3.65) were exposed to optokinetic stimuli in an HTC VIVE virtual reality headset while VIVV, pupil-size, and postural sway was recorded. The methodology was shown to produce VIVV in the roll plane at 30 deg/s. ⋯ VIVV magnitudes were universally correlated with pupil-size and body sway. In conclusion, VIVV was expressed in all tested dimensions and may consequently serve as a visual motion processing biomarker. Failing to support binocularity while responding to optokinetic directionality, VIVV may reflect an eye-movement response associated with increased postural instability and stress, similar to a dorsal light reflex.
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The perirhinal cortex (PRC) and parahippocampal cortex (PHC) are core regions along the visual dual-stream. The specific functional roles of the PRC and PHC and their interactions with the downstream hippocampus cortex (HPC) are crucial for understanding visual memory. Our research used human intracranial EEGs to study the neural mechanism of the PRC, PHC, and HPC in visual object encoding. ⋯ Inter-regional analyses showed strong bidirectional interactions of the PRC with both the PHC and HPC in the low-frequency band, whereas the interactions between the PHC and HPC were not significant. These findings demonstrated the core role of the PRC in encoding visual object information and supported the hypothesis of PRC-HPC-ventral object pathway. The recruitment of the PHC and its interaction with the PRC in visual object encoding also provide new insights beyond the traditional dorsal-stream hypothesis.
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We recently showed that vestibular stimulation can produce a long-lasting alleviation of motor features in Parkinson's disease. Here we investigated whether components of the motor related cortical response that are commonly compromised in Parkinson's - the Bereitschaftspotential and mu-rhythm event-related desynchronization - are modulated by concurrent, low frequency galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) during repetitive limb movement amongst 17 individuals with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Relative to sham, GVS was favourably associated with higher amplitudes during the late and movement phases of the Bereitschaftspotential and with a more pronounced decrease in spectral power within the mu-rhythm range during finger-tapping. These data increase understanding of how GVS interacts with the preparation and execution of voluntary movement and give added impetus to explore its therapeutic effects on Parkinsonian motor features.
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Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by mutant ataxin-3 with an abnormally expanded polyQ tract and is the most common dominantly inherited ataxia worldwide. There are no suitable therapeutic options for this disease. Autophagy, a defense mechanism against the toxic effects of aggregation-prone misfolded proteins, has been shown to have beneficial effects on neurodegenerative diseases. ⋯ Western blot and total antioxidant capacity assays suggested that trehalose had great therapeutic potential for treating SCA3, likely through its antioxidant activity. Our data indicate that trehalose plays a neuroprotective role in SCA3 by inhibiting the aggregation and reducing the protein level of ataxin-3, which is also known to protect against oxidative stress. These findings provide a new insight into the possibility of treating SCA3 with trehalose and highlight the importance of inducing autophagy in SCA3.