Neuroanatomy

Interactions between feedback connections from higher cortical areas and local horizontal connections within primary visual cortex (V1) were shown to play a role in contextual processing in different behavioral states. Layer 1 (L1) is an important part of the underlying network. This cell-sparse layer is a target of feedback and local inputs, and nexus for contacts onto apical dendrites of projection neurons in the layers below. Importantly, L1 is a site for coupling inputs from the outside world with internal information...

Attention deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and working memory deficits. Social dysfunction is one of the major challenges faced by children with ADHD. It's found that children with ADHD perform less well than typically developing children on facial expression recognition (FER) tasks. Generally, children with ADHD have some difficulties in FER, while some researches suggest that they have no significant differences in accuracy of specific emotion recognition with typically developing children...

BACKGROUND: Extrapyramidal syndromes (EPS) represent neurological side effects of antipsychotic medications, characterized by motor disturbances. While previous studies have indicated the neuroprotective effects of vitamin D and A against EPS, the underlying mechanisms of this protection remain unclear. METHODS: Twenty-four adult mice were categorized into four groups: positive and negative control groups, one receiving a dopamine antagonist, and the other receiving both a dopamine antagonist and vitamins D and A...

The brain contains thousands of millions of synapses, exhibiting diverse structural, molecular, and functional characteristics. However, synapses can be classified into two primary morphological types: Gray's type I and type II, corresponding to Colonnier's asymmetric (AS) and symmetric (SS) synapses, respectively. AS and SS have a thick and thin postsynaptic density, respectively. In the cerebral cortex, since most AS are excitatory (glutamatergic), and SS are inhibitory (GABAergic), determining the distribution, size, density, and proportion of the two major cortical types of synapses is critical, not only to better understand synaptic organization in terms of connectivity, but also from a functional perspective...

GABAergic neurons represent 10-15% of the neuronal population of the cortex but exert a powerful control over information flow in cortical circuits. The largest GABAergic class in the neocortex is represented by the parvalbumin-expressing fast-spiking neurons, which provide powerful somatic inhibition to their postsynaptic targets. Recently, the density of parvalbumin interneurons has been shown to be lower in associative areas of the mouse cortex as compared with sensory and motor areas. Modelling work based on these quantifications linked the low-density of parvalbumin interneurons with specific computations of associative cortices...

OBJECTIVE: During radical pelvic surgeries fibers of the autonomic pelvic nervous network can be accidentally damaged leading to significant visceral sequelae, which dramatically affect women's quality of life because of urinary, anorectal, and sexual postoperative dysfunctions.1 , 2 Direct visualization is one way to preserve hypogastric nerves(HNs), pelvic splanchnic nerves(PSNs), and the bladder branches from the inferior hypogastric plexus(IHP). However, the literature lacks critical photos and/or illustrations that are necessary to understand the precise anatomy needed to preserve the pelvic autonomic fibers...

Dogs are increasingly used as a model for neuroscience due to their ability to undergo functional MRI fully awake and unrestrained, after extensive behavioral training. Still, we know rather little about dogs' basic functional neuroanatomy, including how basic perceptual and motor functions are localized in their brains. This is a major shortcoming in interpreting activations obtained in dog fMRI. The aim of this preregistered study was to localize areas associated with somatosensory processing. To this end, we touched N = 22 dogs undergoing fMRI scanning on their left and right flanks using a wooden rod...

Mediterranean diets may be neuroprotective and prevent cognitive decline relative to Western diets, however the underlying biology is poorly understood. We assessed the effects of Western versus Mediterranean-like diets on RNAseq-generated transcriptional profiles in lateral temporal cortex and their relationships with longitudinal changes in neuroanatomy, circulating monocyte gene expression, and observations of social isolation and anxiety in 38 socially-housed, middle-aged female cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis)...

Three-dimensional stacks acquired with confocal or two-photon microscopy are crucial for studying neuroanatomy. However, high-resolution image stacks acquired at multiple depths are time-consuming and susceptible to photobleaching. In vivo microscopy is further prone to motion artifacts. In this work, we suggest that deep neural networks with sine activation functions encoding implicit neural representations (SIRENs) are suitable for predicting intermediate planes and correcting motion artifacts, addressing the aforementioned shortcomings...

The New World suboscines (Passeriformes and Tyrannides) are one of the biggest endemic vertebrate radiations in South America, including the families Furnariidae and Tyrannidae. Avian brain morphology is a reliable proxy to study their evolution. The aim of this work is to elucidate whether the brains of these families reflect the ecological differences (e.g., feeding behavior) and to clarify macroevolutionary aspects of their neuroanatomy. Our hypotheses are as follows: Brain size is similar between both families and with other Passeriformes; brain morphology in Tyrannides is the result of the pressure of ecological factors; and brain disparity is low since they share ecological traits...

BACKGROUND: Neuro-ophthalmology, bridging neurology and ophthalmology, highlights the nervous system's crucial role in vision, encompassing afferent and efferent pathways. The evolution of this field has emphasized the importance of neuroanatomy for precise surgical interventions, presenting educational challenges in blending complex anatomical knowledge with surgical skills. This review examines the interplay between neuroanatomy and surgical practices in neuro-ophthalmology, aiming to identify educational gaps and suggest improvements...

Protein aggregation is a pathological feature in various neurodegenerative diseases and is thought to play a crucial role in the onset and progression of neurological disorders. This pathological phenomenon has attracted increasing attention from researchers, but the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated yet. Researchers are increasingly interested in identifying chemicals or methods that can effectively detect protein aggregation or maintain protein stability to prevent aggregation formation. To date, several methods are available for detecting protein aggregates, including fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and molecular detection methods...

OBJECTIVES: Generativity, the desire and action to improve the well-being of younger generations, is associated with purpose in life among older adults. However, the neurobehavioral factors supporting the relationship between generativity and purpose in life remain unknown. This study aims to identify the functional neuroanatomy of generativity and mechanisms linking generativity with purpose in life in at-risk older adults. METHODS: Fifty-eight older adults (mean age = 70...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of fatality and disability worldwide. From minutes to months following damage, injury can result in a complex pathophysiology that can lead to temporary or permanent deficits including an array of neurodegenerative symptoms. These changes can include behavioral dysregulation, memory dysfunctions, and mood changes including depression. The nature and severity of impairments resulting from TBIs vary widely given the range of injury type, location, and extent of brain tissue involved...

BACKGROUND: RASopathies are a group of disorders characterized by pathogenic mutations in the Ras-mitogen-activated protein kinase (Ras/MAPK) signaling pathway. Distinct pathogenic variants in genes encoding proteins in the Ras/MAPK pathway cause Noonan syndrome (NS) and neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), which are associated with increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: This study examines the effect RASopathies (NS and NF1) has on human neuroanatomy, specifically on surface area (SA), cortical thickness (CT), and subcortical volumes...

"The history of the world is the biography of the great man. And I said: the great man always acts like a thunder. He storms the skies, while others are waiting to be stormed," said Thomas Carlyle. In this historical vignette, we study the contribution to neuroanatomy, of greats from the past. What led them to find the basis of topography and anatomical localization? How did they unravel the pathways of cerebrospinal fluid and cortical structure of the human brain? To understand this, we study the paths of Pierre Paul Broca, Richard L...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with abnormalities in the processing and regulation of emotion as well as cognitive deficits. This study evaluated the differential brain activation patterns associated with cognitive and emotional distractors during working memory (WM) maintenance for human faces between patients with PTSD and healthy controls (HCs) and assessed the relationship between changes in the activation patterns by the opposing effects of distraction types and gray matter volume (GMV)...

The chapter reviews certain topics in outline. It starts with a brief account of the nature of surgery. This is followed by a short account of modern management of cranial trauma including the evolution of notions of anatomy and pathophysiology. It is emphasized that these principles are and must be irrelevant to the management of cranial trauma in the period covered in this book from Hippocrates to the end of the 18th century. Historical errors arising from assuming modern principles applied in historical practice are mentioned...

Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary condition characterized by the gradual deterioration of nerve cells in the striatum. Recent scientific investigations have revealed the promising potential of Extracellular vesicles (EVs) as a therapy to mitigate inflammation and enhance motor function. This study aimed to examine the impact of administering EVs derived from human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) on the motor abilities and inflammation levels in a rat model of HD. After ultracentrifugation to prepare EVs from HUCB to determine the nature of the obtained contents, the expression of CD markers 81 and 9, the average size and also the morphology of its particles were investigated by DLS and scanning electron microscope (SEM)...

INTRODUCTION: The presence of a widespread cortical synucleinopathy is the main neuropathological hallmark underlying clinical entities such as Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). There currently is a pressing need for the development of non-human primate (NHPs) models of PDD and DLB to further overcome existing limitations in drug discovery. METHODS: Here we took advantage of a retrogradely-spreading adeno-associated viral vector serotype 9 coding for the alpha-synuclein A53T mutated gene (AAV9-SynA53T) to induce a widespread synucleinopathy of cortical and subcortical territories innervating the putamen...