Have Sexual Pheromones Their Own Reward System in the Brain of Female Mice?

Chapter 7 takes the investigation of the aesthetic impulse into the human brain to understand, first, why only we—and not our closest relatives among the primates—express ourselves aesthetically; and second, how the brain reacts when presented with aesthetic material. Brain scans are less useful when you are interested in the Why of aesthetic behavior rather than the How. Nevertheless, some brain studies have been ground-breaking, and neuroaesthetics offers a pivotal argument for the key function of the aesthetic impulse in human lives; it shows us that the brain’s reward circuit is activated when we are presented with aesthetic objects and stimuli. For why reward a perception or an activity that is evolutionarily useless and worthless in relation to human existence?

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Learning of food preferences: mechanisms and implications for obesity & metabolic diseases

International Journal of Obesity ◽

10.1038/s41366-021-00894-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hans-Rudolf Berthoud ◽

Christopher D. Morrison ◽

Karen Ackroff ◽

Anthony Sclafani

Keyword(s):

Metabolic Diseases ◽

Food Preferences ◽

Reward System ◽

Nutrient Sensing ◽

Vagal Afferents ◽

Dietary Knowledge ◽

Ongoing Work ◽

Brain Reward ◽

The Brain ◽

Vagal Function

AbstractOmnivores, including rodents and humans, compose their diets from a wide variety of potential foods. Beyond the guidance of a few basic orosensory biases such as attraction to sweet and avoidance of bitter, they have limited innate dietary knowledge and must learn to prefer foods based on their flavors and postoral effects. This review focuses on postoral nutrient sensing and signaling as an essential part of the reward system that shapes preferences for the associated flavors of foods. We discuss the extensive array of sensors in the gastrointestinal system and the vagal pathways conveying information about ingested nutrients to the brain. Earlier studies of vagal contributions were limited by nonselective methods that could not easily distinguish the contributions of subsets of vagal afferents. Recent advances in technique have generated substantial new details on sugar- and fat-responsive signaling pathways. We explain methods for conditioning flavor preferences and their use in evaluating gut–brain communication. The SGLT1 intestinal sugar sensor is important in sugar conditioning; the critical sensors for fat are less certain, though GPR40 and 120 fatty acid sensors have been implicated. Ongoing work points to particular vagal pathways to brain reward areas. An implication for obesity treatment is that bariatric surgery may alter vagal function.

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Post-Stroke Social Isolation Reduces Cell Proliferation in the Dentate Gyrus and Alters miRNA Profiles in the Aged Female Mice Brain

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms22010099 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 99

Author(s):

Aleah Holmes ◽

Yan Xu ◽

Juneyoung Lee ◽

Michael E. Maniskas ◽

Liang Zhu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cell Proliferation ◽

Dentate Gyrus ◽

Social Isolation ◽

Census Data ◽

Elderly Women ◽

Stroke Recovery ◽

Tissue Loss ◽

Female Mice ◽

Post Stroke ◽

The Brain

Social isolation and loneliness are risk factors for stroke. Elderly women are more likely to be isolated. Census data shows that in homeowners over the age of 65, women are much more likely to live alone. However, the underlying mechanisms of the detrimental effects of isolation have not been well studied in older females. In this study, we hypothesized that isolation impairs post-stroke recovery in aged female mice, leading to dysregulated microRNAs (miRNAs) in the brain, including those previously shown to be involved in response to social isolation (SI). Aged C57BL/6 female mice were subjected to a 60-min middle cerebral artery occlusion and were randomly assigned to either single housing (SI) or continued pair housing (PH) immediately after stroke for 15 days. SI immediately after stroke led to significantly more brain tissue loss after stroke and higher mortality. Furthermore, SI significantly delayed motor and sensory recovery and worsened cognitive function, compared to PH. A decrease in cell proliferation was seen in the dentate gyrus of SI mice assessed by bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling. miRNAome data analysis revealed changes in several miRNAs in the brain, such as miR-297a-3p and miR-200c-3p, which are known to regulate pathways involved in cell proliferation. In conclusion, our data suggest that SI can lead to a poor post-stroke recovery in aged females and dysregulation of miRNAs and reduced hippocampal cell proliferation.

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Repeated social defeat in female mice induces anxiety-like behavior associated with enhanced myelopoiesis and increased monocyte accumulation in the brain

Brain Behavior and Immunity ◽

10.1016/j.bbi.2019.01.015 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 78 ◽

pp. 131-142 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Wenyuan Yin ◽

Natalie R. Gallagher ◽

Caroline M. Sawicki ◽

Daniel B. McKim ◽

Jonathan P. Godbout ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Defeat ◽

Female Mice ◽

The Brain

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Functional opposition between habenula metabolism and the brain reward system

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2013.00662 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Jason Shumake ◽

F. Gonzalez-Lima

Keyword(s):

Reward System ◽

Brain Reward ◽

The Brain ◽

Brain Reward System

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How Intelligence is Understood Today

Artificial Societies ◽

10.18254/s207751800016769-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 0

Author(s):

Rustam Khasanov

Keyword(s):

Animal Behavior ◽

Learning Algorithms ◽

Cognitive Activity ◽

Reward System ◽

Assessment System ◽

New Developments ◽

Intellectual Abilities ◽

Complex Adaptive ◽

The Brain ◽

Adaptive Abilities

The article is devoted to understanding the ways of explaining intellectual abilities in the light of new developments in the field of artificial intelligence and discoveries related to the study of complex adaptive animal behavior based on the reward system. The paper reviews the latest advances in the development of biologically plausible learning algorithms, the purpose of which is to explain the large amount of accumulated data from the field of neuroscience. Within the framework of this approach, reinforcement learning algorithms are proposed as the basis for any kind of cognitive activity. Understanding intelligence as a set of flexible adaptive abilities to achieve a goal provides a new conceptual framework for explaining how the brain works at a functional level. The formation of forecasts for the future, the construction of time steps and the existence of an internal assessment system in such systems is psychologically and biologically plausible and can potentially become a new milestone in the study of intelligence.

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Stroke Increases G Protein-Coupled Estrogen Receptor Expression in the Brain of Male but Not Female Mice

Neurosignals ◽

10.1159/000338019 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 21 (3-4) ◽

pp. 229-239 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Brad R.S. Broughton ◽

Vanessa H. Brait ◽

Elizabeth Guida ◽

Seyoung Lee ◽

Thiruma V. Arumugam ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Estrogen Receptor ◽

G Protein ◽

Receptor Expression ◽

Estrogen Receptor Expression ◽

Female Mice ◽

G Protein Coupled ◽

The Brain

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Involvement of NMDA receptors containing the GluN2C subunit in the psychotomimetic and antidepressant-like effects of ketamine

Translational Psychiatry ◽

10.1038/s41398-020-01110-y ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mireia Tarrés-Gatius ◽

Lluís Miquel-Rio ◽

Leticia Campa ◽

Francesc Artigas ◽

Anna Castañé

Keyword(s):

Motor Coordination ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Wild Type ◽

Thalamic Nuclei ◽

Treatment Resistant ◽

Cortical Networks ◽

Male And Female ◽

Female Mice ◽

Antidepressant Effects ◽

The Brain

AbstractAcute ketamine administration evokes rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant patients. However, ketamine also produces transient perceptual disturbances similarly to those evoked by other non-competitive NMDA-R antagonists like phencyclidine (PCP). Although the brain networks involved in both ketamine actions are not fully understood, PCP and ketamine activate thalamo-cortical networks after NMDA-R blockade in GABAergic neurons of the reticular thalamic nucleus (RtN). Given the involvement of thalamo-cortical networks in processing sensory information, these networks may underlie psychotomimetic action. Since the GluN2C subunit is densely expressed in the thalamus, including the RtN, we examined the dependence of psychotomimetic and antidepressant-like actions of ketamine on the presence of GluN2C subunits, using wild-type and GluN2C knockout (GluN2CKO) mice. Likewise, since few studies have investigated ketamine’s effects in females, we used mice of both sexes. GluN2C deletion dramatically reduced stereotyped (circling) behavior induced by ketamine in male and female mice, while the antidepressant-like effect was fully preserved in both genotypes and sexes. Despite ketamine appeared to induce similar effects in both sexes, some neurobiological differences were observed between male and female mice regarding c-fos expression in thalamic nuclei and cerebellum, and glutamate surge in prefrontal cortex. In conclusion, the GluN2C subunit may discriminate between antidepressant-like and psychotomimetic actions of ketamine. Further, the abundant presence of GluN2C subunits in the cerebellum and the improved motor coordination of GluN2CKO mice after ketamine treatment suggest the involvement of cerebellar NMDA-Rs in some behavioral actions of ketamine.

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