Neuroscience
-
Psychogenic erectile dysfunction (pED) is often accompanied by abnormal brain activities. This study aimed to develop an automaticclassifier to distinguish pED from healthy controls (HCs) by identified brain-basedcharacteristics. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from 45 pED patients and 43 HCs. ⋯ This study identified altered regional activity and FC in specific brain regions of pED patients, which might be related to the development of pED. The application of machine learning confirmed the distinctive characteristics of these functional changes in the brain. The high accuracy of our diagnostic model suggested a promising direction for developing objective diagnostic tools for psychological disorders.
-
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder potentially influenced by factors such as stress and inflammation. Chronic stress can lead to maladaptive brain changes that may trigger immune hyperactivation, contributing to MDD's pathogenesis. While the involvement of inflammation in MDD is well established, the effects of inflammatory preconditioning in animals subsequently exposed to chronic stress remain unclear. ⋯ A trend toward elevated IL-17 levels was also observed at the peripheral level. These findings indicate that inflammatory preconditioning contributes significantly to behaviors phenotypically associated with MDD. Furthermore, the study suggests that these behavioral changes are linked to a dysfunctional immune response and impaired neuroplasticity.
-
Due to the increasing prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders in youth, a growing interest in the endocannabinoid system (ECS) as a potential alternative target point for treatment arised. This study aimed to investigate whether chronic administration of escitalopram reverses behavioral changes induced by maternal separation in male adolescent Wistar rats and explore the corresponding neurochemical changes in the ECS. The pups were separated from their dams for 360 min daily from postnatal day (PND) 2 until PND 15. ⋯ Escitalopram reversed anxiety-like behavior and attenuated signs of despair behavior. The escitalopram administration has been followed by a decrease in the studied genes expression in the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the hippocampus, what might suggest that the endocannabinoid system is involved in the mechanism of its action in adolescents. However Western blot analysis did not indicate significant alterations in the protein levels, so more detailed studies are needed to verify this hypothesis.
-
Estrogens and progesterone can have rapid effects on neuronal function and can modify the use of spatial navigation strategies dependent upon the prefrontal cortex, striatum, and hippocampus. Here, we assessed the effects of 17β-estradiol (E2), progesterone, and its metabolite allopregnanolone, on evoked excitatory postsynaptic potentials in the infralimbic region of the female rat prefrontal cortex. Field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) evoked by stimulation of layer I were first characterized by recording responses at multiple depths between the cortical surface and the underlying white matter. ⋯ The effects of progesterone were not blocked by the nuclear progesterone receptor antagonist RU486 (1 µM). Both progesterone and allopregnanolone are known to activate membrane progesterone receptors, and we found that the membrane progesterone receptor agonist Org OD 02-0 facilitated EPSPs, and also occluded further increases induced by either progesterone or allopregnanolone. These results provide evidence that both progesterone and allopregnanolone facilitate synaptic responses in layer I of the infralimbic cortex by activating membrane progesterone receptors.