{"title":"Inflammatory Signals and Sexual Differentiation of the Brain","authors":"M. McCarthy","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.254","url":null,"abstract":"Sex differences in the brain are established by the differential gonadal steroid hormonal milieu experienced by developing male and female fetuses and newborns. Androgen production by the testis starts in males prior to birth resulting in a brief developmental window during which the brain is exposed to high levels of steroid. Androgens and aromatized estrogens program the developing brain toward masculinized physiology and behavior that is then manifest in adulthood. In rodents, the perinatal programming of sex-specific adult mating behavior provides a model system for exploring the mechanistic origins of brain sex differences.\u0000 Microglia are resident in the brain and provide innate immunity. Previously considered restricted to response to injury, these cells are now thought to be major contributors to the sculpting of developing neural circuits. This role extends to being an important component of the sexual differentiation process and has opened the door for exploration into myriad other aspects of neuroimmunity and inflammation as possible determinants of sex differences. In humans, males are at greater risk for more frequent and/or more severe neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders of development, many of which include prenatal inflammation as an additional risk factor. Emerging clinical and preclinical evidence suggests male brains experience a higher inflammatory tone early in development, and this may have its origins in the maternal immune system. Collectively, these disparate observations coalesce into a coherent picture in which brain development diverges in males versus females due to a combination of gonadal steroid action and neuroinflammation, and the latter increases the risk to males of developmental disorders.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116426039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Crustacean Visual Circuits Underlying Behavior","authors":"D. Tomsic, J. Sztarker","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.210","url":null,"abstract":"Decapod crustaceans, in particular semiterrestrial crabs, are highly visual animals that greatly rely on visual information. Their responsiveness to visual moving stimuli, with behavioral displays that can be easily and reliably elicited in the laboratory, together with their sturdiness for experimental manipulation and the accessibility of their nervous system for intracellular electrophysiological recordings in the intact animal, make decapod crustaceans excellent experimental subjects for investigating the neurobiology of visually guided behaviors. Investigations of crustaceans have elucidated the general structure of their eyes and some of their specializations, the anatomical organization of the main brain areas involved in visual processing and their retinotopic mapping of visual space, and the morphology, physiology, and stimulus feature preferences of a number of well-identified classes of neurons, with emphasis on motion-sensitive elements. This anatomical and physiological knowledge, in connection with results of behavioral experiments in the laboratory and the field, are revealing the neural circuits and computations involved in important visual behaviors, as well as the substrate and mechanisms underlying visual memories in decapod crustaceans.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125356211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regulation of Chloride Gradients and Neural Plasticity","authors":"Jimena Perez-Sanchez, Y. Koninck","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.238","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most remarkable properties of neural circuits is the ability to restructure their synaptic connections throughout life. This synaptic plasticity allows neurons to structurally reorganize and adapt their function in response to experience. Among the multiple mechanisms that can modulate this property is synaptic inhibition by gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) and/or glycine ionotropic receptors, which allow the flow of chloride and bicarbonate ions through the membrane. Neurons rely upon tight regulation of intracellular chloride for efficient inhibition through these receptors. The maintenance of chloride gradients is important not only to determine the strength of synaptic inhibition but also to determine its nature. Indeed, this inhibition can be hyperpolarizing or depolarizing, or with no outright change in the membrane potential. Despite the fact that membrane depolarization is commonly associated with excitation, depolarizing GABA/glycine can also produce inhibition, thereby highlighting the dual action of these neurotransmitters. Several considerations must be taken into account in order to allow depolarizing GABA/glycine responses to be excitatory. On the other hand, chloride homeostasis is never steady-state and even small changes of chloride across the membrane can impact the strength of inhibition. This dynamic effect has a direct impact on neuronal excitability and makes its regulation by changes in chloride gradients a highly tunable mechanism. Furthermore, increased excitability may also open a window for system refinement changes, such as synaptic plasticity. Indeed, the regulation of chloride homeostasis may underlie periods of enhanced plasticity, such as during early development. Finally, disruption of chloride gradients arises as a hub for pathology, which is evidenced in multiple disorders in the central nervous system.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116844226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Hypocretin Arousal Network","authors":"J. Borniger, L. Lecea","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.29","url":null,"abstract":"The hypocretins (also known as orexins) are selectively expressed in a subset of lateral hypothalamic neurons. Since the reports of their discovery in 1998, they have been intensely investigated in relation to their role in sleep/wake transitions, feeding, reward, drug abuse, and motivated behavior. This research has cemented their role as a subcortical relay optimized to tune arousal in response to various salient stimuli. This article reviews their discovery, physiological modulation, circuitry, and integrative functionality contributing to vigilance state transitions and stability. Specific emphasis is placed on humoral and neural inputs regulating hcrt neural function and new evidence for an autoimmune basis of the sleep disorder narcolepsy. Future directions for this field involve dissection of the heterogeneity of this neural population using single-cell transcriptomics, optogenetic, and chemogenetics, as well as monitoring population and single cell activity. Computational models of the hypocretin network, using the “flip-flop” or “integrator neuron” frameworks, provide a fundamental understanding of how this neural population influences brain-wide activity and behavior.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129179110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enhancing the Regeneration of Neurons in the Central Nervous System","authors":"Romain Cartoni, F. Bradke, Zhigang He","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.217","url":null,"abstract":"Injured axons fail to regenerate in the adult mammalian central nervous system, representing a major barrier for effective neural repair. Both extrinsic inhibitory environments and neuron-intrinsic mechanisms contribute to such regeneration failure. In the past decade, there has been an explosion in our understanding of neuronal injury responses and regeneration regulations. As a result, several strategies have been developed to promote axon regeneration with the potential of restoring functions after injury. This article will highlight these new developments, with an emphasis on cellular and molecular mechanisms from a neuron-centric perspective, and discuss the challenges to be addressed toward developing effective functional restoration strategies.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125612673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mechanisms of Behavioral Changes After Spinal Cord Injury","authors":"K. Fouad, A. Torres-Espín, Keith K. Fenrich","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.245","url":null,"abstract":"Spinal cord injury results in a wide range of behavioral changes including impaired motor and sensory function, autonomic dysfunction, spasticity, and depression. Currently, restoring lost motor function is the most actively studied and sought-after goal of spinal cord injury research. This research is rooted in the fact that although self-repair following spinal cord injury in adult mammals is very limited, there can be some recovery of motor function. This recovery is strongly dependent on the lesion size and location as well as on neural activity of denervated networks activated mainly through physical activity (i.e., rehabilitative training). Recovery of motor function is largely due to neuroplasticity, which includes adaptive changes in spared and injured neural circuitry. Neuroplasticity after spinal cord injury is extensive and includes mechanisms such as moderate axonal sprouting, the formation of new synaptic connections, network remapping, and changes to neuron cell properties. Neuroplasticity after spinal cord injury has been described at various physiological and anatomical levels of the central nervous system including the brain, brainstem, and spinal cord, both above and below injury sites. The growing number of mechanisms underlying postinjury plasticity indicate the vast complexity of injury-induced plasticity. This poses important opportunities to further enhance and harness plasticity in order to promote recovery. However, the diversity of neuroplasticity also creates challenges for research, which is frequently based on mechanistically driven approaches. The appreciation of the complexity of neuronal plasticity and the findings that recovery is based on a multitude and interlinked adaptations will be essential in developing meaningful new treatment avenues.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130207554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Physiology of Color Vision in Primates","authors":"R. Shapley","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.74","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.74","url":null,"abstract":"Color perception in macaque monkeys and humans depends on the visually evoked activity in three cone photoreceptors and on neuronal post-processing of cone signals. Neuronal post-processing of cone signals occurs in two stages in the pathway from retina to the primary visual cortex. The first stage, in in P (midget) ganglion cells in the retina, is a single-opponent subtractive comparison of the cone signals. The single-opponent computation is then sent to neurons in the Parvocellular layers of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN), the main visual nucleus of the thalamus. The second stage of processing of color-related signals is in the primary visual cortex, V1, where multiple comparisons of the single-opponent signals are made. The diversity of neuronal interactions in V1cortex causes the cortical color cells to be subdivided into classes of single-opponent cells and double-opponent cells. Double-opponent cells have visual properties that can be used to explain most of the phenomenology of color perception of surface colors; they respond best to color edges and spatial patterns of color. Single opponent cells, in retina, LGN, and V1, respond to color modulation over their receptive fields and respond best to color modulation over a large area in the visual field.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"62 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114052559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Anatomy, Physiology, and Neurochemistry","authors":"R. Silver","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.27","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.27","url":null,"abstract":"We live in an approximately 24-hour world and circadian rhythms have evolved to adapt organisms to the opportunities presented by Earth’s 24-hour cycle of light and dark. A “master clock” located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the brain orchestrates daily rhythms in all manner of behavioral, endocrine, metabolic, autonomic, and homeostatic systems in our bodies. The SCN is comprised of about 20,000 neurons and about one third as many astroglia. How can so few neurons and astroglia guide so many rhythms? How do neurons time out an interval as long as a day? The answers are a case study in understanding how genes within cells, and cells within circuits, function together to perform complex activities and optimize bodily functions. While individual clock cells are found in virtually all bodily tissues, the unique connectome of the SCN, its specialized afferent inputs from the retinohypothalamic tract, and its neural and humoral outputs enable its “babel” of neuronal types to synchronize their activity and signal time to the rest of the body.\u0000 At the molecular-cellular level, circadian rhythms are regulated by a 24-hour transcriptional–translational feedback loop. At the SCN tissue level, individual SCN neurons coordinate their gene expression and electrical activity, working together in circuits that sustain coherent rhythms. The SCN has many distinct cell types based on their neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and afferent and efferent connections. There has been much progress in unraveling the dynamic network organization that underlies the SCN network’s communications. Though the precise anatomical connections underlying interneuronal communication in the SCN are not completely understood, key signaling mechanisms that sustain the SCN’s intrinsic rhythmicity have been tackled using intersectional genomic tools. Transgenic animals that permit the visualization of clock gene–protein expression have enabled analysis of SCN network activity over time. Availability of animals bearing mutations in clock genes or proteins enable the determination of changes within neurons, among neurons in networks, and their impact on behavior. The use of continuous readouts of circadian activity that track behavior, or clock gene expression, or electrical activity changes over time, within an SCN or a single neuron, leads the way to unraveling mechanisms sustaining the circadian timing system. Because the results of circadian studies generate huge amounts of data, the entry of mathematical modelers and statisticians into the field has begun to yield useful and testable predictions on how these multiplexed systems work to adapt to our 24-hour world.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129856895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Autonomic Thermoregulation","authors":"T. Wilson, K. Metzler-Wilson","doi":"10.1093/acrefore/9780190264086.013.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264086.013.15","url":null,"abstract":"Thermoregulation is a key physiologic homeostatic process and is subdivided into autonomic, behavioral, and adaptive divisions. Autonomic thermoregulation is a neural process related to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Autonomic thermoregulation is controlled at the subcortical level to alter physiologic processes of heat production and loss to maintain internal temperature. Mammalian, including human, autonomic responses to acute heat or cold stresses are dependent on environmental conditions and species genotype and phenotype, but many similarities exist. Responses to an acute heat stress begin with the sensation of heat, leading to central processing of the information and sympathetic responses via end organs, which can include sweat glands, vasculature, and airway and cardiac tissues. Responses to an acute cold stress begin with the sensation of cold, which leads to central processing of the information and sympathetic responses via end organs, which can include skeletal and piloerector muscles, brown adipose tissue, vasculature, and cardiac tissue. These autonomic responses allow homeostasis of internal temperature to be maintained across a wide range of external temperatures for most mammals, including humans. At times, uncompensable thermal challenges occur that can be maintained for only limited periods of time before leading to pathophysiologic states of hyperthermia or hypothermia.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114527475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neuroendocrine Mechanisms of Circadian Rhythms in Diurnal Species","authors":"Lily Yan, L. Smale, A. Núñez","doi":"10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACREFORE/9780190264086.013.264","url":null,"abstract":"Circadian rhythms are endogenous daily rhythms evident in behavior and physiology. In mammals, these rhythms are controlled by a hierarchical network of oscillators showing a coherent circadian coordination or coupling. The hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) sits on top of the hierarchy and coordinates the phase of oscillators in other brain regions and in peripheral organs, including endocrine glands. The phase of the SCN oscillator, in reference to the daily light-dark cycle, is identical across mammalian species regardless of whether they are most active during the day or night, that is, diurnal or nocturnal. However, the extra-SCN or peripheral oscillators are out of phase and are often reversed by 180° across diurnal and nocturnal mammals. In the endocrine system, with the notable exception of the pattern of pineal melatonin secretion, which features elevated levels at night regardless of the activity profile of the species, most endocrine rhythms show a 180° reversal when diurnal and nocturnal species are compared. There is also evidence of differences between nocturnal and diurnal species with respect to their rhythms in sensitivity or responsiveness to hormonal stimulation. One of the major unanswered questions in the field of comparative endocrinology relates to the mechanism responsible for the differential coupling in diurnal and nocturnal mammals of extra-SCN oscillators and overt circadian rhythms with the SCN oscillator and the light dark cycle. Viable hypotheses include species-specific switches from excitation to inhibition at key nodes between the SCN and its targets, the presence of extra-SCN signals that converge on SCN targets and reverse the outcome of SCN signals, and changes in oscillatory parameters between the oscillator of the SCN and those outside the SCN resulting in an anti-phase coupling among key oscillators.","PeriodicalId":216585,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130982340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}