scholarly journals Identification of LINE retrotransposons and long non-coding RNAs expressed in the octopus brain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Petrosino ◽  
Giovanna Ponte ◽  
Massimiliano Volpe ◽  
Ilaria Zarrella ◽  
Concetta Langella ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Octopus Vulgaris ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Non Coding Rnas ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Brain

AbstractBackgroundTransposable elements (TEs) widely contributed to the evolution of genomes allowing genomic innovations, generating germinal and somatic heterogeneity and giving birth to long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). These features have been associated to the evolution, functioning and complexity of the nervous system at such a level that somatic retrotransposition of long interspersed element (LINE) L1 has been proposed to be associated to human cognition. Among invertebrates, octopuses are fascinating animals whose nervous system reaches a high level of complexity achieving sophisticated cognitive abilities. The sequencing of the genome of the Octopus bimaculoides revealed a striking expansion of TEs which were proposed to have contributed to the evolution of its complex nervous system. We recently found a similar expansion also in the genome of Octopus vulgaris. However a specific search for the existence of full-length transpositionally competent TEs has not been performed in this genus.ResultsHere we report the identification of LINE elements competent for retrotransposition in Octopus vulgaris and Octopus bimaculoides and show evidence suggesting that they might be active driving germline polymorphisms among individuals and somatic polymorphisms in the brain. Transcription and translation measured for one of these elements resulted in specific signals in neurons belonging to areas associated with behavioral plasticity. We also report the transcription of thousands of lncRNAs and the pervasive inclusion of TE fragments in the transcriptomes of both Octopus species, further testifying the crucial activity of TEs in the evolution of the octopus genomes.ConclusionsThe neural transcriptome of the octopus shows the transcription of thousands of putative lncRNAs and of a full lenght LINE element belonging to the RTE class. We speculate that a convergent evolutionary process involving retrotransposons activity in the brain has been important for the evolution of sophisticated cognitive abilities in this genus.

Common problems and symptoms

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-174
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Muscle Weakness ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Disease Process ◽  
Signs And Symptoms ◽  
Complete Paralysis ◽  
Common Problems ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Neurological System

Any damage to the neurological system due to a disease process, infection, or injury frequently results in certain abnormal signs and symptoms. Depending on the degree of damage and the region of the brain or peripheral nervous system affected, neurological disorders can result in partial or complete paralysis, muscle weakness, pain and spasticity, seizures, and abnormal cognitive abilities. This chapter present some of the more commonly occurring problems with some management strategies.

scholarly journals High-Level Language Production in Parkinson's Disease: A Review

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori J. P. Altmann ◽  
Michelle S. Troche
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Discourse Production ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Brain

This paper discusses impairments of high-level, complex language production in Parkinson's disease (PD), defined as sentence and discourse production, and situates these impairments within the framework of current psycholinguistic theories of language production. The paper comprises three major sections, an overview of the effects of PD on the brain and cognition, a review of the literature on language production in PD, and a discussion of the stages of the language production process that are impaired in PD. Overall, the literature converges on a few common characteristics of language production in PD: reduced information content, impaired grammaticality, disrupted fluency, and reduced syntactic complexity. Many studies also document the strong impact of differences in cognitive ability on language production. Based on the data, PD affects all stages of language production including conceptualization and functional and positional processing. Furthermore, impairments at all stages appear to be exacerbated by impairments in cognitive abilities.

Florid or Virtuoso Études

2019 ◽  
pp. 204-212
Author(s):  
Christopher Berg
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Classical Guitar ◽  
High Speeds ◽  
Musical Texture ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Brain

Most of the music in The Classical Guitar Companion makes use of the same technique or musical texture throughout. High-level virtuoso playing requires that guitarists become adept at navigating ever-changing musical textures and the techniques required to produce them. Florid or virtuoso études present the challenges of combining and switching between various technical elements, such as arpeggios, scales, slurs, and shifts, at rapid tempi. Of special interest is the brief discussion of “latency” at high speeds, which is applicable to these studies, and how virtuoso players transcend the limits of the central nervous system when initiating a movement or series of movements that must occur in less time than it takes for the signal to move to get from the brain to the hands (100 milliseconds).

scholarly journals Type 3 Deiodinase Deficiency Causes Spatial and Temporal Alterations in Brain T3 Signaling that Are Dissociated from Serum Thyroid Hormone Levels

Endocrinology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 151 (11) ◽  
pp. 5550-5558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo Hernandez ◽  
Laure Quignodon ◽  
M. Elena Martinez ◽  
Frederic Flamant ◽  
Donald L. St. Germain
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Elevated Serum ◽  
Adult Brain ◽  
Neural Function ◽  
Peripheral Tissues ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Type 3 ◽  
The Brain

The type 3 deiodinase (D3) is an enzyme that inactivates thyroid hormones (TH) and is highly expressed during development and in the central nervous system. D3-deficient (D3KO) mice develop markedly elevated serum T3 level in the perinatal period. In adulthood, circulating T4 and T3 levels are reduced due to functional deficits in the thyroid axis and peripheral tissues (i.e. liver) show evidence of decreased TH action. Given the importance of TH for brain development, we aimed to assess TH action in the brain of D3KO mice at different developmental stages and determine to what extent it correlates with serum TH parameters. We used a transgenic mouse model (FINDT3) that expresses the reporter gene β-galactosidase (β-gal) in the central nervous system as a readout of local TH availability. Together with experiments determining expression levels of TH-regulated genes, our results show that after a state of thyrotoxicosis in early development, most regions of the D3KO brain show evidence of decreased TH action at weaning age. However, later in adulthood and in old age, the brain again manifests a thyrotoxic state, despite reduced serum TH levels. These region-specific changes in brain TH status during the life span of the animal provide novel insight into the important role of the D3 in the developing and adult brain. Our results suggest that, even if serum concentrations of TH are normal or low, impaired D3 activity may result in excessive TH action in multiple brain regions, with potential consequences of altered neural function that may be of clinical relevance to neurological and neuroendocrine disorders.

scholarly journals Caffeine Components Empower the Brain Potentiality

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-17
Author(s):  
Seyedeh Nasim Habibzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Standard Dose ◽  
Inhibitory Neurotransmitter ◽  
Nutritional Components ◽  
Dietary Component ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Brain

The brain requires certain fuels to function in high level. Literally, nutritional components can modulate the brain productivity. One of the right nutrition to enhance the brain power is dietary component of caffeine. Caffeine as a component of coffee, tea and chocolate is very popular. Although, depending on the dietary demands or conventional habits some people do not consume caffeine-containing substances (i.e. foods or beverage). Nonetheless, caffeine constituents maximize the brain potential via promoting the central nervous system (CNS) through blocking an inhibitory neurotransmitter (adenosine) and releasing some other specific neurotransmitters (noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin) in brain. The chemistry of caffeine in a standard dose in fact can affect the brain intelligence.

Space for Thought

Space ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 223-229
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Groh
Keyword(s):  
Brain Imaging ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Spatial Representations ◽  
Motor Processing ◽  
Level Of Activity ◽  
Spatial Environment ◽  
External Stimuli ◽  
The Brain

This Reflection concerns how the brain represents space and how such spatial representations may relate to our cognitive abilities. Space is central to how the brain encodes information, whether it concerns what we see, hear, or feel or how we move through our environment. Two different kinds of spatial signals have been observed in the brain: maps, in which different neurons are responsive to different locations of external stimuli, and meters, in which neurons are sensitive to a broad range of locations but can signal the position of a stimulus via an overall level of activity. These spatial codes may be recruited in the brain not only for processing the immediate spatial environment but also for thought and language. Evidence for this view comes from patterns of spatial sensory and motor metaphors in language and from brain-imaging studies suggesting a relationship between the neural substrates for language and those deployed for sensory and motor processing. Such parallels in functionality may have emerged in an evolutionary process of duplicating the brain’s primary sensory and motor areas and repurposing them for new tasks, i.e. our cognitive abilities.

Some Example Meta-Artifacts Inspired by Science and Nature

2012 ◽  
pp. 243-264
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Artificial Neural Networks ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Human Judgment ◽  
The Third ◽  
First Case ◽  
The Brain

Science reveals the workings of the mechanisms behind the natural phenomena. If one can entertain an idea of nature exhibiting definite features of design, then, perhaps human designers could learn from it some of its structures and methods to solve problems faced by human designers. Imitating the natural may be beneficial to tackle tough problems. The chapter provides few such examples. In the first case, the workings of the nervous system, including the brain as revealed by the science have been forward engineered by researchers in artificial neural networks. In the second case, the most versatile designer, i.e. the evolutionary process, has been employed to design solutions for problems in various areas of human activity. In the third case, the “non-scientific” vagueness inherent in human judgment has been harnessed in a fascinating way to provide useful solutions.

scholarly journals Molecular Inference of Wisdom

2017 ◽  
Vol 01 (01) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
G. Terry Sharrer
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Molecular Level ◽  
Cellular Organization ◽  
Learned Behavior ◽  
Human Trait ◽  
Evolutionary Pathways ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Brain

Wisdom is a human trait upon which natural selection creates evolutionary pathways from the molecular biology of the gene, to the cellular organization of nervous system, to the physical functioning of the brain — and the transit is a two way street. Wellness is a selection advantage at every level. Molecular wellness is innate, though often compromised because selection is blind; intellectual or high level wellness is learned behavior fed back to the molecular level as a kind of vision. The wisdom of this is that lifelong wellness — to the point of dying healthy — is a goal for every person and every society because it precedes and influences all other achievements.

scholarly journals Typological features of the brain in normal conditions and in cerebral hypoperfusion

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-353
Author(s):  
V. V. Chrishtop ◽  
T. A. Rumyantseva ◽  
V. G. Nikonorova
Keyword(s):  
Stress Resistance ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Recovery Period ◽  
Nervous Activity ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Cerebral Hypoperfusion ◽  
Rehabilitation Measures ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Brain

Relevance. Stress resistance and cognitive abilities of the patient, forming the personal component of the rehabilitation potential, have a significant impact on the course and recovery period after cerebral hypoxia of various origins. The adaptation of rehabilitation measures to the individual characteristics of the patient will significantly increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this work is to generalize experimental and clinical studies characterizing the influence of individual characteristics of higher nervous activity on the course of cerebral hypoperfusion. Materials and methods . The study of literary sources of scientometric scientific bases for the last 15 years has been carried out. Results . The level of stress resistance is based on alternative biochemical strategies of neuronal metabolism of macroergs and neurotransmitters. At the organismic level, this is realized in a greater base voltage of the stress-activating system and a smaller reserve capacity of the sympathoadrenal system. In general, this leads to more severe cerebral hypoperfusion in stress-resistant individuals and slower recovery and is correlated with a high baseline sympathetic nervous system tone, insulin and testosterone concentrations. At the same time, a low level of stress resistance determines a greater sensitivity to exogenous corrective influences in cerebral hypoperfusion. The level of cognitive ability is associated with astrocytic responses and the organization of synaptic ensembles. The participation of astrocytes in the regulation of glutamate levels probably has a combined effect on both the state of cognitive mechanisms and damage to the components of neuroglial assemblies during hypoxia. This is also due to the release of S100 +, which, in turn, enhances the coordinated oscillations of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus and may be the cause of greater damage to the cells of the cerebral hemispheres of the brain in animals with a high level of cognitive abilities in the cerebral hypoperfusion model.

Synaptic Plasticity

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof Koch
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Random Access ◽  
Processing Unit ◽  
Von Neumann ◽  
Central Processing ◽  
Retinal Adaptation ◽  
Specialized Form ◽  
High Level

Animals live in an ever-changing environment to which they must continuously adapt. Adaptation in the nervous system occurs at every level, from ion channels and synapses to single neurons and whole networks. It operates in many different forms and on many time scales. Retinal adaptation, for example, permits us to adjust within minutes to changes of over eight orders of magnitude of brightness, from the dark of a moonless night to high noon. High-level memory—the storage and recognition of a person's face, for example—can also be seen as a specialized form of adaptation (see Squire, 1987). The ubiquity of adaptation in the nervous system is a radical but often underappreciated difference between brains and computers. With few exceptions, all modern computers are patterned according to the architecture laid out by von Neumann (1956). Here the adaptive elements—the random access memory (RAM)—are both physically and conceptually distinct from the processing elements, the central processing unit (CPU). Even proposals to incorporate massive amounts of so-called intelligent RAM (IRAM) directly onto any future processor chip fall well short of the degree of intermixing present in nervous systems (Kozyrakis et al., 1997). It is only within the last few years that a few pioneers have begun to demonstrate the advantages of incorporating adaptive elements at all stages of the computation into electronic circuits (Mead, 1990; Koch and Mathur, 1996; Diorio et al.,1996). For over a century (Tanzi, 1893; Ramón y Cajal, 1909, 1991), the leading hypothesis among both theoreticians and experimentalists has been that synoptic plasticity underlies most long-term behavioral plasticity. It has nevertheless been extremely difficult to establish a direct link between behavioral plasticity and its biophysical substrate, in part because most biophysical research is conducted with in vitro preparations in which a slice of the brain is removed from the organism, while behavior is best studied in the intact animal. In mammalian systems the problem is particularly acute, but combined pharmacological, behavioral, and genetic approaches are yielding promising if as yet incomplete results (Saucier and Cain, 1995; Cain, 1997; Davis, Butcher, and Morris, 1992; Tonegawa, 1995; McHugh et al., 1996; Rogan, Stäubli, LeDoux, 1997).

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