scholarly journals Striosome–dendron bouquets highlight a unique striatonigral circuit targeting dopamine-containing neurons

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (40) ◽  
pp. 11318-11323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill R. Crittenden ◽  
Paul W. Tillberg ◽  
Michael H. Riad ◽  
Yasuyuki Shima ◽  
Charles R. Gerfen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Connexin 43 ◽  
Retrograde Tracing ◽  
Nigrostriatal Pathway ◽  
Related Function ◽  
Human Disorders ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Cholinergic Markers

The dopamine systems of the brain powerfully influence movement and motivation. We demonstrate that striatonigral fibers originating in striosomes form highly unusual bouquet-like arborizations that target bundles of ventrally extending dopamine-containing dendrites and clusters of their parent nigral cell bodies. Retrograde tracing showed that these clustered cell bodies in turn project to the striatum as part of the classic nigrostriatal pathway. Thus, these striosome–dendron formations, here termed “striosome–dendron bouquets,” likely represent subsystems with the nigro–striato–nigral loop that are affected in human disorders including Parkinson’s disease. Within the bouquets, expansion microscopy resolved many individual striosomal fibers tightly intertwined with the dopamine-containing dendrites and also with afferents labeled by glutamatergic, GABAergic, and cholinergic markers and markers for astrocytic cells and fibers and connexin 43 puncta. We suggest that the striosome–dendron bouquets form specialized integrative units within the dopamine-containing nigral system. Given evidence that striosomes receive input from cortical regions related to the control of mood and motivation and that they link functionally to reinforcement and decision-making, the striosome–dendron bouquets could be critical to dopamine-related function in health and disease.

scholarly journals Distributed context-dependent choice information in mouse dorsal-parietal cortex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Orlandi ◽  
Mohammad Adbolrahmani ◽  
Ryo Aoki ◽  
Dmitry Lyamzin ◽  
Andrea Benucci
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Variable ◽  
Visual Stream ◽  
Posterior Cortex ◽  
Neural Data ◽  
Context Dependent ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Low Dimensional ◽  
Independent Decision ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Choice information appears in the brain as distributed signals with top-down and bottom-up components that together support decision-making computations. In sensory and associative cortical regions, the presence of choice signals, their strength, and area specificity are known to be elusive and changeable, limiting a cohesive understanding of their computational significance. In this study, examining the mesoscale activity in mouse posterior cortex during a complex visual discrimination task, we found that broadly distributed choice signals defined a decision variable in a low-dimensional embedding space of multi-area activations, particularly along the ventral visual stream. The subspace they defined was near-orthogonal to concurrently represented sensory and motor-related activations, and it was modulated by task difficulty and contextually by the animals’ attention state. To mechanistically relate choice representations to decision-making computations, we trained recurrent neural networks with the animals’ choices and found an equivalent decision variable whose context-dependent dynamics agreed with that of the neural data. In conclusion, our results demonstrated an independent decision variable broadly represented in the posterior cortex, controlled by task features and cognitive demands. Its dynamics reflected decision computations, possibly linked to context-dependent feedback signals used for probabilistic-inference computations in variable animal-environment interactions.

scholarly journals Distributed context-dependent choice information in mouse dorsal-parietal cortex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier G. Orlandi ◽  
Mohammad Abdolrahmani ◽  
Ryo Aoki ◽  
Dmitry R. Lyamzin ◽  
Andrea Benucci
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Variable ◽  
Visual Stream ◽  
Posterior Cortex ◽  
Neural Data ◽  
Context Dependent ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Low Dimensional ◽  
Independent Decision ◽  
The Brain

Choice information appears in the brain as distributed signals with top-down and bottom-up components that together support decision-making computations. In sensory and associative cortical regions, the presence of choice signals, their strength, and area specificity are known to be elusive and changeable, limiting a cohesive understanding of their computational significance. In this study, examining the mesoscale activity in mouse posterior cortex during a complex visual discrimination task, we found that broadly distributed choice signals defined a decision variable in a low-dimensional embedding space of multi-area activations, particularly along the ventral visual stream. The subspace they defined was near-orthogonal to concurrently represented sensory and motor-related activations, and it was modulated by task difficulty and contextually by the animals’ attention state. To mechanistically relate choice representations to decision-making computations, we trained recurrent neural networks with the animals’ choices and found an equivalent decision variable whose context-dependent dynamics agreed with that of the neural data. In conclusion, our results demonstrated an independent decision variable broadly represented in the posterior cortex, controlled by task features and cognitive demands. Its dynamics reflected decision computations, possibly linked to context-dependent feedback signals used for probabilistic-inference computations in variable animal-environment interactions.

scholarly journals DNA Methylation Profiles of Tph1A and BDNF in Gut and Brain of L. Rhamnosus-Treated Zebrafish

Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 142
Author(s):  
Mariella Cuomo ◽  
Luca Borrelli ◽  
Rosa Della Monica ◽  
Lorena Coretti ◽  
Giulia De Riso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
The Past ◽  
Targeted Analysis ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
High Resolution Power ◽  
Resolution Level ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
High Doses ◽  
The Brain

The bidirectional microbiota–gut–brain axis has raised increasing interest over the past years in the context of health and disease, but there is a lack of information on molecular mechanisms underlying this connection. We hypothesized that change in microbiota composition may affect brain epigenetics leading to long-lasting effects on specific brain gene regulation. To test this hypothesis, we used Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) as a model system. As previously shown, treatment with high doses of probiotics can modulate behavior in Zebrafish, causing significant changes in the expression of some brain-relevant genes, such as BDNF and Tph1A. Using an ultra-deep targeted analysis, we investigated the methylation state of the BDNF and Tph1A promoter region in the brain and gut of probiotic-treated and untreated Zebrafishes. Thanks to the high resolution power of our analysis, we evaluated cell-to-cell methylation differences. At this resolution level, we found slight DNA methylation changes in probiotic-treated samples, likely related to a subgroup of brain and gut cells, and that specific DNA methylation signatures significantly correlated with specific behavioral scores.

Neuroscience: The New English Major?

2021 ◽  
pp. 107385842110039
Author(s):  
Kristin F. Phillips ◽  
Harald Sontheimer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Graduate Education ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
Virginia Tech ◽  
Bachelor's Degree ◽  
State University ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
English Major ◽  
The Brain

Once strictly the domain of medical and graduate education, neuroscience has made its way into the undergraduate curriculum with over 230 colleges and universities now offering a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. The disciplinary focus on the brain teaches students to apply science to the understanding of human behavior, human interactions, sensation, emotions, and decision making. In this article, we encourage new and existing undergraduate neuroscience programs to envision neuroscience as a broad discipline with the potential to develop competencies suitable for a variety of careers that reach well beyond research and medicine. This article describes our philosophy and illustrates a broad-based undergraduate degree in neuroscience implemented at a major state university, Virginia Tech. We highlight the fact that the research-centered Experimental Neuroscience major is least popular of our four distinct majors, which underscores our philosophy that undergraduate neuroscience can cater to a different audience than traditionally thought.

scholarly journals Reactive Oxygen Species: Beyond Their Reactive Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
Arnaud Tauffenberger ◽  
Pierre J. Magistretti
Keyword(s):  
Reactive Oxygen Species ◽  
Second Messengers ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Complex Function ◽  
Reactive Oxygen ◽  
High Reactivity ◽  
Oxygen Species ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Cellular Dysfunction ◽  
The Brain

AbstractCellular homeostasis plays a critical role in how an organism will develop and age. Disruption of this fragile equilibrium is often associated with health degradation and ultimately, death. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been closely associated with health decline and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. ROS were first identified as by-products of the cellular activity, mainly mitochondrial respiration, and their high reactivity is linked to a disruption of macromolecules such as proteins, lipids and DNA. More recent research suggests more complex function of ROS, reaching far beyond the cellular dysfunction. ROS are active actors in most of the signaling cascades involved in cell development, proliferation and survival, constituting important second messengers. In the brain, their impact on neurons and astrocytes has been associated with synaptic plasticity and neuron survival. This review provides an overview of ROS function in cell signaling in the context of aging and degeneration in the brain and guarding the fragile balance between health and disease.

scholarly journals Consciousness, decision making, and volition: freedom beyond chance and necessity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Liljenström
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Neural Information ◽  
Neural Information Processing ◽  
Stochastic Population Model ◽  
The Brain

AbstractWhat is the role of consciousness in volition and decision-making? Are our actions fully determined by brain activity preceding our decisions to act, or can consciousness instead affect the brain activity leading to action? This has been much debated in philosophy, but also in science since the famous experiments by Libet in the 1980s, where the current most common interpretation is that conscious free will is an illusion. It seems that the brain knows, up to several seconds in advance what “you” decide to do. These studies have, however, been criticized, and alternative interpretations of the experiments can be given, some of which are discussed in this paper. In an attempt to elucidate the processes involved in decision-making (DM), as an essential part of volition, we have developed a computational model of relevant brain structures and their neurodynamics. While DM is a complex process, we have particularly focused on the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for its emotional, and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) for its cognitive aspects. In this paper, we present a stochastic population model representing the neural information processing of DM. Simulation results seem to confirm the notion that if decisions have to be made fast, emotional processes and aspects dominate, while rational processes are more time consuming and may result in a delayed decision. Finally, some limitations of current science and computational modeling will be discussed, hinting at a future development of science, where consciousness and free will may add to chance and necessity as explanation for what happens in the world.

scholarly journals Thyroid Hormone and the Neuroglia: Both Source and Target

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Mohácsik ◽  
Anikó Zeöld ◽  
Antonio C. Bianco ◽  
Balázs Gereben
Keyword(s):  
Thyroid Hormone ◽  
Cell Function ◽  
Hormone Regulation ◽  
Mediobasal Hypothalamus ◽  
Iodothyronine Deiodinase ◽  
Neuronal Gene ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain

Thyroid hormone plays a crucial role in the development and function of the nervous system. In order to bind to its nuclear receptor and regulate gene transcription thyroxine needs to be activated in the brain. This activation occurs via conversion of thyroxine to T3, which is catalyzed by the type 2 iodothyronine deiodinase (D2) in glial cells, in astrocytes, and tanycytes in the mediobasal hypothalamus. We discuss how thyroid hormone affects glial cell function followed by an overview on the fine-tuned regulation of T3 generation by D2 in different glial subtypes. Recent evidence on the direct paracrine impact of glial D2 on neuronal gene expression underlines the importance of glial-neuronal interaction in thyroid hormone regulation as a major regulatory pathway in the brain in health and disease.

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