Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
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Neurosci Biobehav Rev · Jul 2004
ReviewMotor and cognitive function evaluation following experimental traumatic brain injury.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans may cause extensive sensorimotor and cognitive dysfunction. As a result, many TBI researchers are beginning to assess behavioral correlates of histologically determined damage in animal models. ⋯ The ability to reliably test treatments across laboratories and multiple injury models will close the gap between treatment success in the lab and success in the clinic. The goal of this review is to describe and evaluate the tests employed to assess functional outcome after TBI and to overview aspects of cognitive, sensory, and motor function that may be suitable targets for therapeutic intervention.
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Neurosci Biobehav Rev · Jul 2004
ReviewStatistical and conceptual issues in defining post-operative cognitive dysfunction.
The occurrence of post-operative cognitive dysfunction is a distressing complication following surgery. In an effort to gain a more complete understanding of patients' cognitive recovery following surgical procedures common neuropsychological assessment tools have been adopted in a repeated measures design. It is widely regarded that this represents the most comprehensive method of determining cognitive status in this population but it has resulted in a number of statistical and conceptual difficulties in attempting to infer significant change. The current paper outlines these core difficulties and provides some potential methods to overcome these.
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Neurosci Biobehav Rev · Jan 2004
ReviewVentral striatal control of appetitive motivation: role in ingestive behavior and reward-related learning.
The nucleus accumbens is a brain region that participates in the control of behaviors related to natural reinforcers, such as ingestion, sexual behavior, incentive and instrumental learning, and that also plays a role in addictive processes. This paper comprises a review of work from our laboratory that focuses on two main research areas: (i). the role of the nucleus accumbens in food motivation, and (ii). its putative functions in cellular plasticity underlying appetitive learning. First, work within a number of different behavioral paradigms has shown that accumbens neurochemical systems play specific and dissociable roles in different aspects of food seeking and food intake, and part of this function depends on integration with the lateral hypothalamus and amygdala. ⋯ This receptor stimulation triggers intracellular cascades that involve protein phosphorylation and new protein synthesis. It is hypothesized that activity in this distributed network (including D1 receptor activity) computes coincident events and thus enhances the probability that temporally related actions and events (e.g. lever pressing and delivery of reward) become associated. Such basic mechanisms of plasticity within this reinforcement learning network also appear to be profoundly affected in addiction.
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Age-graded decrements in accuracies and maximum speed of fine motor movements observed in numerous experimental studies have nurtured general factor explanations like the assumption of general age-related slowing of central cognitive processes. This review focuses on two domains of investigation that yielded challenges to general factor models. ⋯ It is argued that the process dissociations observed at the behavioral level in developmental (i.e. age and expertise) studies reflect individuals' long-term adaptations to internal and external performance constraints. The outcomes of these adaptation processes are stable interindividual differences in component processes.
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Neurosci Biobehav Rev · Jun 2000
ReviewSex-related hormonal influences on pain and analgesic responses.
Considerable evidence indicates sex-related differences in pain responses and in the effectiveness of various analgesic agents. Specifically, females are at greater risk for experiencing many forms of clinical pain and are more sensitive to experimentally induced pain relative to males. Regarding analgesic responses, nonhuman animal studies indicate greater opioid analgesia for males, while a limited human literature suggests the opposite. ⋯ Next, human studies regarding gonadal hormonal influences on experimental pain responses are reviewed. Several potential mechanisms underlying hormonal effects on nociceptive processing are discussed, including hormonal effects to both peripheral and central nervous system pathways involved in pain transmission. Finally, based on these findings we draw several conclusions and make specific recommendations that will guide future research as it attempts to elucidate the magnitude and importance of sex-related hormonal effects on the experience of pain.