scholarly journals Contemporary approaches to neural circuit manipulation and mapping: focus on reward and addiction

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1677) ◽  
pp. 20140210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin T. Saunders ◽  
Jocelyn M. Richard ◽  
Patricia H. Janak
Keyword(s):  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Great Insight ◽  
Midbrain Dopamine ◽  
Insight Into

Tying complex psychological processes to precisely defined neural circuits is a major goal of systems and behavioural neuroscience. This is critical for understanding adaptive behaviour, and also how neural systems are altered in states of psychopathology, such as addiction. Efforts to relate psychological processes relevant to addiction to activity within defined neural circuits have been complicated by neural heterogeneity. Recent advances in technology allow for manipulation and mapping of genetically and anatomically defined neurons, which when used in concert with sophisticated behavioural models, have the potential to provide great insight into neural circuit bases of behaviour. Here we discuss contemporary approaches for understanding reward and addiction, with a focus on midbrain dopamine and cortico-striato-pallidal circuits.

scholarly journals Neural Circuits Underlying Behavioral Flexibility: Insights From Drosophila

2022 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita V. Devineni ◽  
Kristin M. Scaplen
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Environmental Context ◽  
Behavioral State ◽  
Insight Into

Behavioral flexibility is critical to survival. Animals must adapt their behavioral responses based on changes in the environmental context, internal state, or experience. Studies in Drosophila melanogaster have provided insight into the neural circuit mechanisms underlying behavioral flexibility. Here we discuss how Drosophila behavior is modulated by internal and behavioral state, environmental context, and learning. We describe general principles of neural circuit organization and modulation that underlie behavioral flexibility, principles that are likely to extend to other species.

scholarly journals A Mechanism for Synaptic Copy Between Neural Circuits

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1964-1984
Author(s):  
Yuxiu Shao ◽  
Binxu Wang ◽  
Andrew T. Sornborger ◽  
Louis Tao
Keyword(s):  
Information Transfer ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Transfer Mechanism ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Memory Transfer ◽  
Significant Evidence ◽  
Cortical Oscillations ◽  
Neural Populations

Cortical oscillations are central to information transfer in neural systems. Significant evidence supports the idea that coincident spike input can allow the neural threshold to be overcome and spikes to be propagated downstream in a circuit. Thus, an observation of oscillations in neural circuits would be an indication that repeated synchronous spiking may be enabling information transfer. However, for memory transfer, in which synaptic weights must be being transferred from one neural circuit (region) to another, what is the mechanism? Here, we present a synaptic transfer mechanism whose structure provides some understanding of the phenomena that have been implicated in memory transfer, including nested oscillations at various frequencies. The circuit is based on the principle of pulse-gated, graded information transfer between neural populations.

scholarly journals A mechanism for synaptic copy between neural circuits

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxiu Shao ◽  
Binxu Wang ◽  
Andrew T. Sornborger ◽  
Louis Tao
Keyword(s):  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Cortical Oscillations ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Putative Mechanism

The brain has a central, short-term learning module, the hippocampus, which transfers what it has learned to long-term memory in cortex during non-REM sleep. The putative mechanism responsible for this type of memory consolidation invokes hierarchically nested hippocampal ripples (100-250 Hz), thalamo-cortical spindles (7-15 Hz), and cortical slow oscillations (< 1 Hz) to enable transfer. Suppression of, for instance, thalamic spindles has been shown to impair hippocampus-dependent memory consolidation. Cortical oscillations are central to information transfer in neural systems. Significant evidence supports the idea that coincident spike input can allow the neural threshold to be overcome, and spikes to be propagated downstream in a circuit. Thus, an observation of oscillations in neural circuits would be an indication that repeated synchronous spiking is enabling information transfer. However, for memory transfer, in which synaptic weights must be being transferred from one neural circuit (region) to another, what is the mechanism? Here, we present a synaptic transfer mechanism whose structure provides some understanding of the phenomena that have been implicated in memory transfer, including the nested oscillations at various frequencies. The circuit is based on the principle of pulse-gated, graded information transfer between neural populations.PACS numbers: 87.18.Sn,87.19.lj,87.19.lm,87.19.lq

scholarly journals Trans-Axonal Signaling in Neural Circuit Wiring

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 5170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Spead ◽  
Fabienne E. Poulain
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Synaptic Connectivity ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Circuit Formation

The development of neural circuits is a complex process that relies on the proper navigation of axons through their environment to their appropriate targets. While axon–environment and axon–target interactions have long been known as essential for circuit formation, communication between axons themselves has only more recently emerged as another crucial mechanism. Trans-axonal signaling governs many axonal behaviors, including fasciculation for proper guidance to targets, defasciculation for pathfinding at important choice points, repulsion along and within tracts for pre-target sorting and target selection, repulsion at the target for precise synaptic connectivity, and potentially selective degeneration for circuit refinement. This review outlines the recent advances in identifying the molecular mechanisms of trans-axonal signaling and discusses the role of axon–axon interactions during the different steps of neural circuit formation.

Nucleosome dynamics

2006 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Stockdale ◽  
Michael Bruno ◽  
Helder Ferreira ◽  
Elisa Garcia-Wilson ◽  
Nicola Wiechens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Chromatin Structure ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Dynamic Properties ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Nucleosome Dynamics ◽  
Sharp Focus ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Chromatin Structure And Dynamics

In the 30 years since the discovery of the nucleosome, our picture of it has come into sharp focus. The recent high-resolution structures have provided a wealth of insight into the function of the nucleosome, but they are inherently static. Our current knowledge of how nucleosomes can be reconfigured dynamically is at a much earlier stage. Here, recent advances in the understanding of chromatin structure and dynamics are highlighted. The ways in which different modes of nucleosome reconfiguration are likely to influence each other are discussed, and some of the factors likely to regulate the dynamic properties of nucleosomes are considered.

scholarly journals Integrating the Roles of Midbrain Dopamine Circuits in Behavior and Neuropsychiatric Disease

Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 647
Author(s):  
Allen PF Chen ◽  
Lu Chen ◽  
Thomas A. Kim ◽  
Qiaojie Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Selective Vulnerability ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Memory Processing ◽  
Systems Neuroscience ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Diseases ◽  
Midbrain Dopamine ◽  
Dopamine Circuits

Dopamine (DA) is a behaviorally and clinically diverse neuromodulator that controls CNS function. DA plays major roles in many behaviors including locomotion, learning, habit formation, perception, and memory processing. Reflecting this, DA dysregulation produces a wide variety of cognitive symptoms seen in neuropsychiatric diseases such as Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia, addiction, and Alzheimer’s disease. Here, we review recent advances in the DA systems neuroscience field and explore the advancing hypothesis that DA’s behavioral function is linked to disease deficits in a neural circuit-dependent manner. We survey different brain areas including the basal ganglia’s dorsomedial/dorsolateral striatum, the ventral striatum, the auditory striatum, and the hippocampus in rodent models. Each of these regions have different reported functions and, correspondingly, DA’s reflecting role in each of these regions also has support for being different. We then focus on DA dysregulation states in Parkinson’s disease, addiction, and Alzheimer’s Disease, emphasizing how these afflictions are linked to different DA pathways. We draw upon ideas such as selective vulnerability and region-dependent physiology. These bodies of work suggest that different channels of DA may be dysregulated in different sets of disease. While these are great advances, the fine and definitive segregation of such pathways in behavior and disease remains to be seen. Future studies will be required to define DA’s necessity and contribution to the functional plasticity of different striatal regions.

Gotta catch ‘em all: the microscale quest to understand cancer biology

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1203-1207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenwei Ma ◽  
Christopher Moraes
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Biology ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Cancer Initiation ◽  
Insight Into

We highlight recent advances in the innovative use of microscale engineered technologies to gain new insight into the integrative biophysical mechanisms that drive cancer initiation and progression.

Filling in the holes: The reproductive biology of the understudied Mahali mole-rat (Cryptomys hottentotus mahali)

2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (9) ◽  
pp. 801-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.W. Hart ◽  
K. Medger ◽  
B. van Jaarsveld ◽  
N.C. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Tract ◽  
Breeding Strategy ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Reproductive Suppression ◽  
Mole Rat ◽  
Evolution Of Sociality ◽  
Great Insight ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Insight Into

African mole-rats have provided great insight into mammalian evolution of sociality and reproductive strategy. However, some species have not received attention, and these may provide further insights into these evolutionary questions. The cooperatively breeding Mahali mole-rat (Cryptomys hottentotus mahali (Roberts, 1913)) is one such species. Body mass, reproductive-tract morphometrics, gonad histology, and plasma reproductive hormone concentrations were studied for breeding and non-breeding males and females over 1 year. This study aimed to discern if this species exhibits a seasonal or aseasonal breeding pattern and whether there is a relaxation of reproductive suppression at any point in the year in non-breeding animals. The pattern of reproductive relaxation during the wetter months is similar to other African mole-rat species. Interestingly, births and pregnant breeding females were recorded throughout the year, thus indicating an aseasonal breeding strategy, despite inhabiting a region that experiences seasonal rainfall. However, there were periods of the year favouring increased reproduction to enable an increased likelihood of offspring survival. This suggests that the Mahali mole-rat may be an opportunistic breeder possibly brought about by the benefits of living in a cooperatively breeding group and potentially moving into more arid environments that were previously unexploited by the genus Cryptomys Gray, 1864.

scholarly journals A Mini Review: Recent Advances in Surface Modification of Porous Silicon

Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seo Lee ◽  
Jae Kang ◽  
Dokyoung Kim
Keyword(s):  
Surface Modification ◽  
Porous Silicon ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Developed Surface ◽  
The Many ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Biomedical Fields

Porous silicon has been utilized within a wide spectrum of industries, as well as being used in basic research for engineering and biomedical fields. Recently, surface modification methods have been constantly coming under the spotlight, mostly in regard to maximizing its purpose of use. Within this review, we will introduce porous silicon, the experimentation preparatory methods, the properties of the surface of porous silicon, and both more conventional as well as newly developed surface modification methods that have assisted in attempting to overcome the many drawbacks we see in the existing methods. The main aim of this review is to highlight and give useful insight into improving the properties of porous silicon, and create a focused description of the surface modification methods.

scholarly journals On the effects produced upon the air cells of the lungs when the pulmonary circulation is too much increased

1833 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 321-321
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Circulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Great Insight ◽  
Morbid Anatomy ◽  
Air Cells ◽  
Insight Into

In examining the air cells of the lungs of a hare that had been coursed, the author found the superficial large cells filled with colourless coagulable lymph, forming white specks, and the smaller, more interior ones filled with coagula of red blood. No such appearance was seen in the lungs of hares, snared or shot. A run of fifteen minutes with greyhounds so exhausts the hare, that it is frequently known to die from over exertion before the dogs are able to reach it. To examine the state of the lungs, in which the white specks were seen, they were injected with mercury through the bronchiæ, and then immersed in rectified spirits to prevent them from collapsing, and in this state examined microscopically and drawn by Mr. Bauer. The drawings accompany the paper. The white specks appear to be portions of coagulable lymph, separated from the circulating blood in consequence of its disturbed state, and the author considers them as giving great insight into the nature of that destructive disease called tubercles in the lungs; and in support of this idea quotes Dr. Baillie’s description, and refers to his plates of them in his Morbid Anatomy.

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