Cortex

Soup, including dried bonito broth, is customarily consumed as an umami taste during meals in Japan. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated neuronal activation following human exposure to carbohydrates and umami substances. However, neuronal activity following ingestion of dried bonito soup has not been investigated. Additionally, recent progress in fMRI has enabled us to investigate the functional connectivity between two anatomically separated regions, such as the default mode network...

Chronic pain is a complex disease. It seriously affects patients' quality of life and imposes a significant economic burden on society. Santacruzamate A (SCA) is a natural product isolated from marine cyanobacteria in Panama. In this study, we first demonstrated that SCA could alleviate chronic inflammatory pain, pain-related anxiety, and depression emotions induced by complete Freund's adjuvant in mice while inhibiting microglial activation in the anterior cingulate cortex. Moreover, SCA treatment attenuated lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory response by downregulating interleukin 1β and 6 (IL-1β and IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels in BV2 cells...

BACKGROUND: Several studies have confirmed the direct relationship between extracellular acidification and the occurrence of pain. As an effective pain management approach, the mechanism of electroacupuncture (EA) treatment of acidification-induced pain is not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to assess the analgesic effect of EA in this type of pain and to explore the underlying mechanism(s). METHODS: We used plantar injection of the acidified phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; pH 6...

We describe coordinate systems adapted for the space between two surfaces, such as those delineating the highly folded cortex in mammalian brains. These systems are estimated in order to satisfy geometric priors, including streamline normality or equivolumetric conditions on layers. We give a precise mathematical formulation of these problems, and present numerical simulations based on diffeomorphic registration methods, comparing them with recent approaches. Our method involves•Diffeomorphic registration of inner and outer folded folded surfaces...

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a complex condition associated with adverse health consequences that affect millions of individuals worldwide. Epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation (5 mC), have been associated with AUD and other alcohol-related traits. Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) have identified differentially methylated genes associated with AUD in human peripheral and brain tissue. More recently, epigenetic studies of AUD have also evaluated DNA hydroxymethylation (5 hmC) in the human brain...

OBJECTIVES: Traditional Chinese medicine Cortex Eucommiae has been used to treat bone fracture for hundreds of years, which exerts a significant improvement in fracture healing. Aucubin, a derivative isolated from Cortex Eucommiae , has been demonstrated to possess anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory, and antioxidative potential. In the present study, our aim was to explore its function in bone regeneration and elucidate the underlying mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effects of Aucubin on osteoblast and osteoclast were examined in mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) and RAW 264...

BACKGROUND: The existence of chronic pain increases susceptibility to virus and is now widely acknowledged as a prominent feature recognized as a major manifestation of long-term coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to explore the genetic associations between chronic pain and predisposition to COVID-19. METHODS: We conducted genetic analysis at the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), gene, and molecular levels using summary statistics of genome-wide association study (GWAS) and analyzed the drug targets by summary data-based Mendelian randomization analysis (SMR) to alleviate the multi-site chronic pain in COVID-19...

Cerebral blood flow velocity is one of the most essential parameters related to brain functions and diseases. However, most existing mapping methods suffer from either inaccuracy or lengthy sampling time. In this study, we propose a particle-size-related calibration method to improve the measurement accuracy and a random-access strategy to suppress the sampling time. Based on the proposed methods, we study the long-term progress of cortical vasculopathy and abnormal blood flow caused by glioma, short-term variations of blood flow velocity under different anesthetic depths, and cortex-wide connectivity of the rapid fluctuation of blood flow velocities during seizure onset...

BACKGROUND: Treatment effects of conventional approaches with antipsychotics or psychosocial interventions are limited when it comes to reducing negative and cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia. While there is emerging clinical evidence that new, augmented protocols based on theta-burst stimulation can increase rTMS efficacy dramatically in depression, data on similar augmented therapies are limited in schizophrenia. The different patterns of network impairments in subjects may underlie that some but not all patients responded to given stimulation locations...

When striking a balance between commitment to a goal and flexibility in the face of better options, people often demonstrate strong goal perseveration. Here, using functional MRI (n = 30) and lesion patient (n = 26) studies, we argue that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) drives goal commitment linked to changes in goal-directed selective attention. Participants performed an incremental goal pursuit task involving sequential decisions between persisting with a goal versus abandoning progress for better alternative options...

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are principally diagnosed by three core behavioural symptoms, such as stereotyped repertoire, communication impairments and social dysfunctions. This complex pathology has been linked to abnormalities of corticostriatal and limbic circuits. Despite experimental efforts in elucidating the molecular mechanisms behind these abnormalities, a clear etiopathogenic hypothesis is still lacking. To this aim, preclinical studies can be really helpful to longitudinally study behavioural alterations resembling human symptoms and to investigate the underlying neurobiological correlates...

OBJECTIVE: This study explored electrophysiological changes in the laryngeal motor neuropathway and determined whether lesions in the laryngeal motor cortex (LMC) and its descending tract contribute to voice deterioration and peripheral nerve palsy in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) postradiotherapy (RT). STUDY DESIGNS: Prospective cohort study. METHODS: Twenty-two patients with NPC at 2 to 4years post-RT (8 female and 14 male), 22 patients with NPC at 8 to 10years post-RT (8 female and 14 male), and 22 healthy individuals (9 female and 13 male) were selected to test their magnetic evoked potentials (MEP), motor nerve conduction, and voice quality using transcranial magnetic stimulation, laryngeal electromyography, and the XION DiVAS acoustic analysis software...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Transient hypofunction of the NMDA receptor represents a convergence point for the onset and further development of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. Although the cumulative evidence indicates dysregulation of the hippocampal formation in schizophrenia, the integrity of the synaptic transmission and plasticity conveyed by the somatosensorial inputs to the dentate gyrus, the perforant pathway synapses, have barely been explored in this pathological condition...

Excessive gaming can impair both mental and physical health, drawing widespread public and clinical attention, especially among young generations. People are now more exposed to gaming-related content on social media than before, and this exposure may have a significant impact on their behavior. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this effect remain unexplored. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study aimed to investigate the neural activity induced by gaming-related content on social media among young adults casually playing online games...

BACKGROUND: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) has a complex, bi-directional relationship with metabolic dysfunction, yet the neural correlates of this association are not well understood. METHOD: In this cross-sectional investigation, we employed a two-step 'discovery and confirmatory' strategy, utilizing two independent samples (Sample 1: 288 participants, Sample 2: 196 participants) to examine the association between circulating indicators of metabolic health (leptin and adiponectin) and brain structures in individuals with MDD...

BACKGROUND: Notwithstanding advances with low-intensity transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), there remain questions about the efficacy of clinically realistic electric fields on neuronal function. OBJECTIVE: To measure electric fields magnitude and their effects on neuronal firing rate of hippocampal neurons in freely moving rats, and to establish calibrated computational models of current flow. METHODS: Current flow models were calibrated on electric field measures in the motor cortex (n=2 anesthetized rats) and hippocampus...

While medial frontal cortex (MFC) and subthalamic nucleus (STN) have been implicated in conflict monitoring and action inhibition, respectively, an integrated understanding of the spatiotemporal and spectral interaction of these nodes and how they interact with motor cortex (M1) to definitively modify motor behavior during conflict is lacking. We recorded neural signals intracranially across presupplementary motor area (preSMA), M1, STN, and globus pallidus internus (GPi), during a flanker task in 20 patients undergoing deep brain stimulation implantation surgery for Parkinson disease or dystonia...

Learning to discriminate overlapping gustatory stimuli that predict distinct outcomes-a feat known as discrimination learning-can mean the difference between ingesting a poison or a nutritive meal. Despite the obvious importance of this process, very little is known about the neural basis of taste discrimination learning. In other sensory modalities, this form of learning can be mediated by either the sharpening of sensory representations or the enhanced ability of "decision-making" circuits to interpret sensory information...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Structural imaging can offer insights into the cortical morphometry of migraine, which might reflect adaptations to recurring nociceptive messaging. This study compares cortical morphometry between a large sample of people with migraine and healthy controls, as well as across migraine subtypes. METHODS: Adult participants with migraine and age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls attended a single MRI session with magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences at 3T...

The role of the cortex in shaping automatic whole-body motor behaviors such as walking and balance is poorly understood. Gait and balance are typically mediated through subcortical circuits, with the cortex becoming engaged as needed on an individual basis by task difficulty and complexity. However, we lack a mechanistic understanding of how increased cortical contribution to whole-body movements shapes motor output. Here we use reactive balance recovery as a paradigm to identify relationships between hierarchical control mechanisms and their engagement across balance tasks of increasing difficulty in young adults...