scholarly journals Understanding the development of amblyopia using macaque monkey models

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (52) ◽  
pp. 26217-26223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Kiorpes
Keyword(s):  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Visual Motor ◽  
Perceptual Abilities ◽  
High Level ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into

Amblyopia is a sensory developmental disorder affecting as many as 4% of children around the world. While clinically identified as a reduction in visual acuity and disrupted binocular function, amblyopia affects many low- and high-level perceptual abilities. Research with nonhuman primate models has provided much needed insight into the natural history of amblyopia, its origins and sensitive periods, and the brain mechanisms that underly this disorder. Amblyopia results from abnormal binocular visual experience and impacts the structure and function of the visual pathways beginning at the level of the primary visual cortex (V1). However, there are multiple instances of abnormalities in areas beyond V1 that are not simply inherited from earlier stages of processing. The full constellation of deficits must be taken into consideration in order to understand the broad impact of amblyopia on visual and visual–motor function. The data generated from studies of animal models of the most common forms of amblyopia have provided indispensable insight into the disorder, which has significantly impacted clinical practice. It is expected that this translational impact will continue as ongoing research into the neural correlates of amblyopia provides guidance for novel therapeutic approaches.

scholarly journals Reconstructing feedback representations in ventral visual pathway with a generative adversarial autoencoder

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haider Al-Tahan ◽  
Yalda Mohsenzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Ventral Visual Pathway ◽  
High Level ◽  
Feedback Connections ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractWhile vision evokes a dense network of feedforward and feedback neural processes in the brain, visual processes are primarily modeled with feedforward hierarchical neural networks, leaving the computational role of feedback processes poorly understood. Here, we developed a generative autoencoder neural network model and adversarially trained it on a categorically diverse data set of images. We hypothesized that the feedback processes in the ventral visual pathway can be represented by reconstruction of the visual information performed by the generative model. We compared representational similarity of the activity patterns in the proposed model with temporal (magnetoencephalography) and spatial (functional magnetic resonance imaging) visual brain responses. The proposed generative model identified two segregated neural dynamics in the visual brain. A temporal hierarchy of processes transforming low level visual information into high level semantics in the feedforward sweep, and a temporally later dynamics of inverse processes reconstructing low level visual information from a high level latent representation in the feedback sweep. Our results append to previous studies on neural feedback processes by presenting a new insight into the algorithmic function and the information carried by the feedback processes in the ventral visual pathway.Author summaryIt has been shown that the ventral visual cortex consists of a dense network of regions with feedforward and feedback connections. The feedforward path processes visual inputs along a hierarchy of cortical areas that starts in early visual cortex (an area tuned to low level features e.g. edges/corners) and ends in inferior temporal cortex (an area that responds to higher level categorical contents e.g. faces/objects). Alternatively, the feedback connections modulate neuronal responses in this hierarchy by broadcasting information from higher to lower areas. In recent years, deep neural network models which are trained on object recognition tasks achieved human-level performance and showed similar activation patterns to the visual brain. In this work, we developed a generative neural network model that consists of encoding and decoding sub-networks. By comparing this computational model with the human brain temporal (magnetoencephalography) and spatial (functional magnetic resonance imaging) response patterns, we found that the encoder processes resemble the brain feedforward processing dynamics and the decoder shares similarity with the brain feedback processing dynamics. These results provide an algorithmic insight into the spatiotemporal dynamics of feedforward and feedback processes in biological vision.

Restoring the Memory of the Forgotten Dutch Embroidery Designer Nellie van Rijsoort

Costume ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-96
Author(s):  
Marta Kargól
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Second World ◽  
Insight Into

In 1932, Nellie van Rijsoort (1910–1996), the Dutch embroidery maker and designer, opened her atelier in Rotterdam. Among her clients were prestigious fashion stores in the Netherlands as well as wealthy middle-class customers. After the Second World War, van Rijsoort left Rotterdam and continued her career in Melbourne in the rapidly developing fashion network of Australia. Today, samples of embroidered fabrics and fashion drawings by Nellie van Rijsoort are part of the collections of the Museum Rotterdam and the National Trust of Australia in Melbourne. These collections provide insight into half a century of history of embroidered fabrics. This article illustrates the largely forgotten career of the embroidery designer. The first part of the article outlines the position and meaning of van Rijsoort's atelier in the fashion networks of the Netherlands and Australia, while the second part provides an analysis of embroidery samples and drawings, which reveal the place and function of embroideries as dress decorations.

Die Landesversicherungsanstalten Berlin und Brandenburg in der NS-Zeit

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-192
Author(s):  
Carolin Wiethoff
Keyword(s):  
Social Insurance ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Deutsche Rentenversicherung ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nazi Era ◽  
Insight Into

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag bietet einen ersten Einblick in ein laufendes Forschungsprojekt zur Geschichte der Deutschen Rentenversicherung Berlin-Brandenburg. Im Fokus des Artikels steht die personelle Umgestaltung der Landesversicherungsanstalten Berlin und Brandenburg in der NS-Zeit. Bei beiden Anstalten fand – neben der insgesamt innerhalb der Sozialversicherung vollzogenen Zerschlagung der Selbstverwaltung – ein Wandel an der Spitze statt, indem leitende Beamte durch Nationalsozialisten ersetzt wurden. Entlassungen trafen aber auch die Belegschaft, insbesondere jüdische Ärzte bei der LVA Berlin. Untersucht wird ferner das konkrete Verwaltungshandeln der Landesversicherungsanstalten in der NS-Zeit anhand des Ruhens von Renten aus politischen Gründen und der Kontrolle von Versicherten und Arbeitgebern. Abstract Regional insurance institutions Berlin and Brandenburg during the Nazi Era The article offers a first insight into an ongoing research project about the history of the “Deutsche Rentenversicherung Berlin-Brandenburg”. The article is focused on personnel restructuring within the regional insurance institutions (LVA) Berlin and Brandenburg during the Nazi Era. While self-governing structures were eliminated in all of the German social insurance sector, both insurance institutions underwent changes in their top management when senior officials were replaced by Nazis. The entire workforce was hit by dismissals, especially Jewish doctors working at the LVA in Berlin lost their jobs. The article also investigates administrate action of both insurance institutions based on different examples: the suspension of pension due to political reasons and the control over insured persons and employers.

Die Landesversicherungsanstalten Berlin und Brandenburg in der NS-Zeit

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 175-192
Author(s):  
Carolin Wiethoff
Keyword(s):  
Social Insurance ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Deutsche Rentenversicherung ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nazi Era ◽  
Insight Into

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag bietet einen ersten Einblick in ein laufendes Forschungsprojekt zur Geschichte der Deutschen Rentenversicherung Berlin-Brandenburg. Im Fokus des Artikels steht die personelle Umgestaltung der Landesversicherungsanstalten Berlin und Brandenburg in der NS-Zeit. Bei beiden Anstalten fand – neben der insgesamt innerhalb der Sozialversicherung vollzogenen Zerschlagung der Selbstverwaltung – ein Wandel an der Spitze statt, indem leitende Beamte durch Nationalsozialisten ersetzt wurden. Entlassungen trafen aber auch die Belegschaft, insbesondere jüdische Ärzte bei der LVA Berlin. Untersucht wird ferner das konkrete Verwaltungshandeln der Landesversicherungsanstalten in der NS-Zeit anhand des Ruhens von Renten aus politischen Gründen und der Kontrolle von Versicherten und Arbeitgebern. Abstract Regional insurance institutions Berlin and Brandenburg during the Nazi Era The article offers a first insight into an ongoing research project about the history of the “Deutsche Rentenversicherung Berlin-Brandenburg”. The article is focused on personnel restructuring within the regional insurance institutions (LVA) Berlin and Brandenburg during the Nazi Era. While self-governing structures were eliminated in all of the German social insurance sector, both insurance institutions underwent changes in their top management when senior officials were replaced by Nazis. The entire workforce was hit by dismissals, especially Jewish doctors working at the LVA in Berlin lost their jobs. The article also investigates administrate action of both insurance institutions based on different examples: the suspension of pension due to political reasons and the control over insured persons and employers.

scholarly journals How to Improve the Antioxidant Defense in Asphyxiated Newborns—Lessons from Animal Models

Antioxidants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 898
Author(s):  
Hanna Kletkiewicz ◽  
Maciej Klimiuk ◽  
Alina Woźniak ◽  
Celestyna Mila-Kierzenkowska ◽  
Karol Dokladny ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antioxidant Enzymes ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Iron Chelation ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Protective Capacity ◽  
Neonatal Asphyxia ◽  
New Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into

Oxygen free radicals have been implicated in brain damage after neonatal asphyxia. In the early phase of asphyxia/reoxygenation, changes in antioxidant enzyme activity play a pivotal role in switching on and off the cascade of events that can kill the neurons. Hypoxia/ischemia (H/I) forces the brain to activate endogenous mechanisms (e.g., antioxidant enzymes) to compensate for the lost or broken neural circuits. It is important to evaluate therapies to enhance the self-protective capacity of the brain. In animal models, decreased body temperature during neonatal asphyxia has been shown to increase cerebral antioxidant capacity. However, in preterm or severely asphyxiated newborns this therapy, rather than beneficial seems to be harmful. Thus, seeking new therapeutic approaches to prevent anoxia-induced complications is crucial. Pharmacotherapy with deferoxamine (DFO) is commonly recognized as a beneficial regimen for H/I insult. DFO, via iron chelation, reduces oxidative stress. It also assures an optimal antioxidant protection minimizing depletion of the antioxidant enzymes as well as low molecular antioxidants. In the present review, some aspects of recently acquired insight into the therapeutic effects of hypothermia and DFO in promoting neuronal survival after H/I are discussed.

scholarly journals Soul searching: a brief history of the mind/body debate in the neurosciences

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Dolan
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
The Self ◽  
History Of Neuroscience ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Way

✓Anatomical and physiological understandings of the structure and function of the brain have worked to establish it as the “seat of the soul.” As an organ of reflection, meditation, and memory, the brain becomes synonymous with what defines the “self” through the existence of consciousness—of mind. Thus, the brain has been associated with a range of transcendent concepts—the soul, spirit, mind, and consciousness—that all relate in fundamental ways to each other both in terms of their perceived location within the brain and because of the way each works ultimately to define the person to whom the brain belongs. In this article, the author provides a brief exploration of how interrelated these categories have been when seen in the context of ancient, Renaissance, early modern, and modern philosophical and medical concerns; how the brain has variously been perceived as home to these intimate states of being; and how practitioners from the neurosciences have reflected on these questions. The author provides novel insights into the interrelationships of philosophy, theology, and medicine by examining these issues through the lens of the history of neuroscience.

scholarly journals Occurrence of Two Distinct Urotensin II-Related Peptides in Zebrafish Provides New Insight into the Evolutionary History of the Urotensin II Gene Family

Endocrinology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 152 (6) ◽  
pp. 2330-2341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Parmentier ◽  
Emilie Hameury ◽  
Christophe Dubessy ◽  
Feng B. Quan ◽  
Damien Habert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Ventral Side ◽  
Pcr Analysis ◽  
Urotensin Ii ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into

The urotensin II (UII) family is currently known to consist of two paralogous peptides, namely UII and UII-related peptide (URP). In contrast to UII, which has been identified in all vertebrate classes so far, URP has only been characterized in tetrapods. We report here the occurrence of two distinct URP genes in teleosts, which we have named URP1 and URP2. Synteny analysis revealed that teleost URP1 and URP2 genes and tetrapod URP genes represent three distinct paralog genes that, together with the UII gene, probably arose from the two rounds of tetraploidization, which took place early in vertebrate evolution. The absence of URP in fish indicates that the corresponding gene has been lost in the teleost lineage, whereas it is likely that both the URP1 and URP2 genes have been lost in the tetrapod lineage. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that the URP2 gene is mainly expressed in the spinal cord and the brain in adult zebrafish. In situ hybridization experiments showed that in zebrafish embryos, URP2 mRNA-containing cells are located in the floor plate of the neural tube. In adult, URP2-expressing cells occur in close contact with the ventral side of the ependymal canal along the whole spinal cord, whereas in the brain, they are located below the fourth ventricle. These URP-expressing cells may correspond to cerebrospinal fluid-contacting neurons. In conclusion, our study reveals the occurrence of four distinct UII paralogous systems in vertebrates that may exert distinct functions, both in tetrapods and teleosts.

scholarly journals Novel Insight Into the Development and Function of Hypopharyngeal Glands in Honey Bees

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saboor Ahmad ◽  
Shahmshad Ahmed Khan ◽  
Khalid Ali Khan ◽  
Jianke Li
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Hypopharyngeal Glands ◽  
And Function ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Made In

Hypopharyngeal glands (HGs) are the most important organ of hymenopterans which play critical roles for the insect physiology. In honey bees, HGs are paired structures located bilaterally in the head, in front of the brain between compound eyes. Each gland is composed of thousands of secretory units connecting to secretory duct in worker bees. To better understand the recent progress made in understanding the structure and function of these glands, we here review the ontogeny of HGs, and the factors affecting the morphology, physiology, and molecular basis of the functionality of the glands. We also review the morphogenesis of HGs in the pupal and adult stages, and the secretory role of the glands across the ages for the first time. Furthermore, recent transcriptome, proteome, and phosphoproteome analyses have elucidated the potential mechanisms driving the HGs development and functionality. This adds a comprehensive novel knowledge of the development and physiology of HGs in honey bees over time, which may be helpful for future research investigations.

scholarly journals Quantifying the dynamics of nearly 100 years of dominance hierarchy research

2022 ◽  
Vol 377 (1845) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
General View ◽  
Dominance Hierarchies ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
Current State ◽  
Community Boundaries ◽  
History Of ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
High Level ◽  
Insight Into

Dominance hierarchies have been studied for almost 100 years. The science of science approach used here provides high-level insight into how the dynamics of dominance hierarchy research have shifted over this long timescale. To summarize these patterns, I extracted publication metadata using a Google Scholar search for the phrase ‘dominance hierarchy’, resulting in over 26 000 publications. I used text mining approaches to assess patterns in three areas: (1) general patterns in publication frequency and rate, (2) dynamics of term usage and (3) term co-occurrence in publications across the history of the field. While the overall number of publications per decade continues to rise, the percent growth rate has fallen in recent years, demonstrating that although there is sustained interest in dominance hierarchies, the field is no longer experiencing the explosive growth it showed in earlier decades. Results from title term co-occurrence networks and community structure show that the different subfields of dominance hierarchy research were most strongly separated early in the field’s history while modern research shows more evidence for cohesion and a lack of distinct term community boundaries. These methods provide a general view of the history of research on dominance hierarchies and can be applied to other fields or search terms to gain broad synthetic insight into patterns of interest, especially in fields with large bodies of literature. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.

Therapeutic Advancement in Alzheimer Disease: New Hopes on the Horizon?

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 571-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajeet Singh ◽  
Abshar Hasan ◽  
Sakshi Tiwari ◽  
Lalit M. Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer Disease ◽  
Mitochondrial Dysfunction ◽  
Amyloid Fibrils ◽  
Antioxidant Response ◽  
Synaptic Activity ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Target Molecules ◽  
Developed World ◽  
The Brain

Background & Objective: Over the last two decades, Alzheimer disease (AD) associated research has accomplished an overwhelming momentum, as it is one of the major current healthcare issues in the developed world. AD is characterized by the presence of Aβ mediated extracellular amyloid fibrils and tau-mediated intracellular neurofibrillar tangles and reports have highlighted their subsequent effects on neuronal synaptic activity, antioxidant response and recently explored mitochondrial dysfunction. Additionally, recent reports have demonstrated the mitochondrial dysfunction and associated physiological as well as cellular alterations triggered by fibrillar structures inside the brain tissue. Accumulated evidence indicated that mitochondrial dysfunction also plays a detrimental role in AD pathogenesis and reduction in mitochondrial dysfunction may provide an additional beneficial effect in AD patients. Currently available drugs are ineffective in disease progression and more symptomatic while mechanism oriented drug explorations have been intensively investigated. Therefore, search for effective therapeutic approaches in Alzheimer disease has directed the ongoing research more towards specific biomarker selection, physicochemical properties of drugs and its subsequent interaction with target molecules. Conclusion: In present review, we have comprised an overview of the therapeutic advancement in Alzheimer disease with a prevalent hypothesis and current ongoing putative therapeutic approaches to provide recent insights in AD pathogenesis.

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