Yong-Jun Liu, Kim N Green, Todd C Holmes, Xiangmin Xu
{"title":"Commentary: How Do Microglia Regulate Neural Circuit Connectivity and Activity in the Adult Brain?","authors":"Yong-Jun Liu, Kim N Green, Todd C Holmes, Xiangmin Xu","doi":"10.1177/26331055211071124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211071124","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microglia are the primary immune cells in CNS. Recent work shows that microglia are also essential for proper brain development through synaptic pruning and remodeling during early life development. But the question of whether and how microglia regulate synaptic connectivity in the adult brain remains open. Our recently published study provides new insights into the functional roles of microglia in the adult mouse brain. We find that chronic depletion of microglia via CSF1R inhibitors in the visual cortex in adult mice induces a dramatic increase in perineuronal nets, and enhances neural activities of both excitatory neurons and parvalbumin interneurons. These findings highlight new potential therapeutic avenues to enhance adult neural plasticity by manipulating microglia.</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":"17 ","pages":"26331055211071124"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/23/bc/10.1177_26331055211071124.PMC8796061.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10327168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Katherine Hankinson, A. Shaykevich, A. Vallence, J. Rodger, Michael A. Rosenberg, C. Etherton-Beer
{"title":"A Tailored Music-Motor Therapy and Real-Time Biofeedback Mobile Phone App (‘GotRhythm’) to Promote Rehabilitation Following Stroke: A Pilot Study","authors":"Katherine Hankinson, A. Shaykevich, A. Vallence, J. Rodger, Michael A. Rosenberg, C. Etherton-Beer","doi":"10.1177/26331055221100587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055221100587","url":null,"abstract":"Background: Stroke persists as an important cause of long-term disability world-wide with the need for rehabilitation strategies to facilitate plasticity and improve motor function in stroke survivors. Rhythm-based interventions can improve motor function in clinical populations. This study tested a novel music-motor software application ‘GotRhythm’ on motor function after stroke. Methods: Participants were 22 stroke survivors undergoing inpatient rehabilitation in a subacute stroke ward. Participants were randomised to the GotRhythm intervention (combining individualised music and augmented auditory feedback along with wearable sensors to deliver a personalised rhythmic auditory stimulation training protocol) or usual care. Intervention group participants were offered 6-weeks of the GotRhythm intervention, consisting of a supervised 20-minute music-motor therapy session using GotRhythm conducted 3 times a week for 6 weeks. The primary feasibility outcomes were adherence to the intervention and physical function (change in the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Motor Recovery score) measured at baseline, after 3-weeks and at end of the intervention period (6-weeks). Results: Three of 10 participants randomised to the intervention did not receive any of the GotRhythym music-motor therapy. Of the remaining 7 intervention group participants, only 5 completed the 3-week mid-intervention assessment and only 2 completed the 6-week post-intervention assessment. Participants who used the intervention completed 5 (IQR 4,7) sessions with total ‘dose’ of the intervention of 70 (40, 201) minutes. Conclusion: Overall, adherence to the intervention was poor, highlighting that application of technology assisted music-based interventions for stroke survivors in clinical environments is challenging along with usual care, recovery, and the additional clinical load.","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44197673","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}
Neuroscience InsightsPub Date : 2021-12-16eCollection Date: 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/26331055211065497
Kristin Marie Rusch
{"title":"Combining fMRI and Eye-tracking for the Study of Social Cognition.","authors":"Kristin Marie Rusch","doi":"10.1177/26331055211065497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211065497","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The study of social cognition with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) affords the use of complex stimulus material. Visual attention to distinct aspects of these stimuli can result in the involvement of remarkably different neural systems. Usually, the influence of gaze on neural signal is either disregarded or dealt with by controlling gaze of participants through instructions or tasks. However, behavioral restrictions like this limit the study's ecological validity. Thus, it would be preferable if participants freely look at the stimuli while their gaze traces are measured. Yet several impediments hamper a combination of fMRI and eye-tracking. In our recent work on neural Theory of Mind processes in alexithymia, we propose a simple way of integrating dwell time on specific stimulus features into general linear models of fMRI data. By parametrically modeling fixations, we were able to distinguish neural processes asssociated with specific stimulus features looked at. Here, I discuss opportunities and obstacles of this approach in more detail. My goal is to motivate a wider use of parametric models - usually implemented in common fMRI software packages - to combine fMRI and eye-tracking data.</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":" ","pages":"26331055211065497"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/c9/c0/10.1177_26331055211065497.PMC8689432.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39761107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Neuroscience InsightsPub Date : 2021-11-25eCollection Date: 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/26331055211058687
Simran Rastogi, Komal Rani, Saroj Kumar
{"title":"Progression of Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer's Disease: Through the Lens of Salivary Extracellular Vesicles.","authors":"Simran Rastogi, Komal Rani, Saroj Kumar","doi":"10.1177/26331055211058687","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211058687","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The elusiveness encircling around the domain of cognition, its impairment, and the poor prognosis of Alzheimer's disease has made early diagnosis a necessity. The noticeable symptoms in these conditions appear years later after the neuropathological changes occur in the brain. Exosomes, a small-sized extracellular vesicle facilitate intercellular communication of disease pathologies and their cargo can provide molecular information about its place of origin. The study titled \"A novel approach to correlate the salivary exosomes and their protein cargo in the progression of cognitive impairment into Alzheimer's disease\" was an attempt toward understanding the role of salivary small-sized extracellular vesicular (EV's) cargo in monitoring the progression. Outcomes of the study represent, that the salivary small-sized EV's (ssEV's) levels were higher in the cognitively impaired and Alzheimer's diseased as well the differential expression of the protein in the cargo correlates well with the disease severity staging. Thus, it can help in the development of an early non-invasive screening method.</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":" ","pages":"26331055211058687"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/c4/d9/10.1177_26331055211058687.PMC8637705.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39696530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Neuroscience InsightsPub Date : 2021-10-26eCollection Date: 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/26331055211049778
Alicia García-Falgueras, Dick F Swaab
{"title":"The Spanish Composer Manuel de Falla and His Eyes: The Musical Brain.","authors":"Alicia García-Falgueras, Dick F Swaab","doi":"10.1177/26331055211049778","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211049778","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Manuel de Falla was a Spanish musician of the XIXth and XXth centuries who had international recognition likely due to his musical fusion talent. His knowledge about Spanish musical traditions gave to his early compositions a new and fresh intellectual interpretation for the typical Spanish folk music. However, in the middle of his musical career, he suffered a strange disease of his eyes named recurrent acute iridocyclitis. This eye flushing is caused by an inflammation of 2 structures of the anterior pole of the ocular globe, the iris, and the ciliary body. It is usually a symptom of another disease and it causes many psychological impairments and disabilities (severe eye pain in bright light, blurry vision, headache, stress for organization (orderliness), and depression in some cases). This soreness of his eyes had an effect over Falla's compositions and marked an inflection point in his line of musical creations. Eyes in music have been so relevant in another composers and musicians throughout history.</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":" ","pages":"26331055211049778"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/e3/b2/10.1177_26331055211049778.PMC8552372.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39581236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Neuroscience InsightsPub Date : 2021-07-20eCollection Date: 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/26331055211033847
Jamie Peters, David E Olson
{"title":"Engineering Safer Psychedelics for Treating Addiction.","authors":"Jamie Peters, David E Olson","doi":"10.1177/26331055211033847","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211033847","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Addiction is best described as a disorder of maladaptive neuroplasticity involving the simultaneous strengthening of reward circuitry that drives compulsive drug seeking and weakening of circuits involved in executive control over harmful behaviors. Psychedelics have shown great promise for treating addiction, with many people attributing their therapeutic effects to insights gained while under the influence of the drug. However, psychedelics are also potent psychoplastogens-molecules capable of rapidly re-wiring the adult brain. The advent of non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens with anti-addictive properties raises the intriguing possibility that hallucinations might not be necessary for all therapeutic effects of psychedelic-based medicines, so long as the underlying pathological neural circuitry can be remedied. One of these non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens, tabernanthalog (TBG), appears to have long-lasting therapeutic effects in preclinical models relevant to alcohol and opioid addiction. Here, we discuss the implications of these results for the development of addiction treatments, as well as the next steps for advancing TBG and related non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens as addiction therapeutics.</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":" ","pages":"26331055211033847"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/26331055211033847","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39277625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Neuroscience InsightsPub Date : 2021-05-28eCollection Date: 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/26331055211018456
Lavanya Venkatasamy, Damir Nizamutdinov, Jaclyn Jenkins, Lee A Shapiro
{"title":"Vagus Nerve Stimulation Ameliorates Cognitive Impairment and Increased Hippocampal Astrocytes in a Mouse Model of Gulf War Illness.","authors":"Lavanya Venkatasamy, Damir Nizamutdinov, Jaclyn Jenkins, Lee A Shapiro","doi":"10.1177/26331055211018456","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211018456","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Gulf war illness (GWI), is a chronic multi-symptom illness that has impacted approximately one-third of the veterans who served in the 1990 to 1991 Gulf War. GWI symptoms include cognitive impairments (eg, memory and concentration problems), headaches, migraines, fatigue, gastrointestinal and respiratory issues, as well as emotional deficits. The exposure to neurological chemicals such as the anti-nerve gas drug, pyridostigmine bromide (PB), and the insecticide permethrin (PER), may contribute to the etiologically related factors of GWI. Various studies utilizing mouse models of GWI have reported the interplay of these chemical agents in increasing neuroinflammation and cognitive dysfunction. Astrocytes are involved in the secretion of neuroinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in pathological conditions and have been implicated in GWI symptomology. We hypothesized that exposure to PB and PER causes lasting changes to hippocampal astrocytes, concurrent with chronic cognitive deficits that can be reversed by cervical vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). GWI was induced in CD1 mice by injecting the mixture of PER (200 mg/kg) and PB (2 mg/kg), i.p. for 10 consecutive days. VNS stimulators were implanted at 33 weeks after GWI induction. The results show age-related cognitive alterations at approximately 9 months after exposure to PB and PER. The results also showed an increased number of GFAP-labeled astrocytes in the hippocampus and dentate gyrus that was ameliorated by VNS.</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":" ","pages":"26331055211018456"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/26331055211018456","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39076275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Neuroscience InsightsPub Date : 2021-05-27eCollection Date: 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/26331055211018709
Christopher D Link
{"title":"Is There a Brain Microbiome?","authors":"Christopher D Link","doi":"10.1177/26331055211018709","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211018709","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Numerous studies have identified microbial sequences or epitopes in pathological and non-pathological human brain samples. It has not been resolved if these observations are artifactual, or truly represent population of the brain by microbes. Given the tempting speculation that resident microbes could play a role in the many neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases that currently lack clear etiologies, there is a strong motivation to determine the \"ground truth\" of microbial existence in living brains. Here I argue that the evidence for the presence of microbes in diseased brains is quite strong, but a compelling demonstration of resident microbes in the healthy human brain remains to be done. Dedicated animal models studies may be required to determine if there is indeed a \"brain microbiome.\"</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":" ","pages":"26331055211018709"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/26331055211018709","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38995912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Neuroscience InsightsPub Date : 2021-05-25eCollection Date: 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/26331055211018458
Aurore Nkiliza, Utsav Joshi, James E Evans, Ghania Ait-Ghezala, Megan Parks, Fiona Crawford, Michael Mullan, Laila Abdullah
{"title":"Adaptive Immune Responses Associated with the Central Nervous System Pathology of Gulf War Illness.","authors":"Aurore Nkiliza, Utsav Joshi, James E Evans, Ghania Ait-Ghezala, Megan Parks, Fiona Crawford, Michael Mullan, Laila Abdullah","doi":"10.1177/26331055211018458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211018458","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Gulf War Illness is a multisymptomatic condition which affects 30% of veterans from the 1991 Gulf War. While there is evidence for a role of peripheral cellular and humoral adaptive immune responses in Gulf War Illness, a potential role of the adaptive immune system in the central nervous system pathology of this condition remains unknown. Furthermore, many of the clinical features of Gulf War Illness resembles those of autoimmune diseases, but the biological processes are likely different as the etiology of Gulf War Illness is linked to hazardous chemical exposures specific to the Gulf War theatre. This review discusses Gulf War chemical-induced maladaptive immune responses and a potential role of cellular and humoral immune responses that may be relevant to the central nervous system symptoms and pathology of Gulf War Illness. The discussion may stimulate investigations into adaptive immunity for developing novel therapies for Gulf War Illness.</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":" ","pages":"26331055211018458"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/26331055211018458","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38995911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Neuroscience InsightsPub Date : 2021-05-24eCollection Date: 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/26331055211020289
Sean X Naughton, Wayne D Beck, Zhe Wei, Guangyu Wu, Peter W Baas, Alvin V Terry
{"title":"The Carbamate, Physostigmine does not Impair Axonal Transport in Rat Cortical Neurons.","authors":"Sean X Naughton, Wayne D Beck, Zhe Wei, Guangyu Wu, Peter W Baas, Alvin V Terry","doi":"10.1177/26331055211020289","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055211020289","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Among the various chemicals that are commonly used as pesticides, organophosphates (OPs), and to a lesser extent, carbamates, are most frequently associated with adverse long-term neurological consequences. OPs and the carbamate, pyridostigmine, used as a prophylactic drug against potential nerve agent attacks, have also been implicated in Gulf War Illness (GWI), which is often characterized by chronic neurological symptoms. While most OP- and carbamate-based pesticides, and pyridostigmine are relatively potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), this toxicological mechanism is inadequate to explain their long-term health effects, especially when no signs of acute cholinergic toxicity are exhibited. Our previous work suggests that a potential mechanism of the long-term neurological deficits associated with OPs is impairment of axonal transport (AXT); however, we had not previously evaluated carbamates for this effect. Here we thus evaluated the carbamate, physostigmine (PHY), a highly potent AChEI, on AXT using an <i>in vitro</i> neuronal live imaging assay that we have previously found to be very sensitive to OP-related deficits in AXT. We first evaluated the OP, diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) (concentration range 0.001-10.0 µM) as a reference compound that we found previously to impair AXT and subsequently evaluated PHY (concentration range 0.01-100 nM). As expected, DFP impaired AXT in a concentration-dependent manner, replicating our previously published results. In contrast, none of the concentrations of PHY (including concentrations well above the threshold for impairing AChE) impaired AXT. These data suggest that the long-term neurological deficits associated with some carbamates are not likely due to acute impairments of AXT.</p>","PeriodicalId":36527,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience Insights","volume":" ","pages":"26331055211020289"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2021-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/26331055211020289","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38996339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}