scholarly journals Locus coeruleus phasic discharge is essential for stimulus-induced gamma oscillations in the prefrontal cortex

2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 904-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo M. Neves ◽  
Silvia van Keulen ◽  
Mingyu Yang ◽  
Nikos K. Logothetis ◽  
Oxana Eschenko
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Phasic Response ◽  
Population Activity ◽  
Power Increase ◽  
Gamma Power ◽  
Sensory Responses ◽  
The Impact

The locus coeruleus (LC) noradrenergic (NE) neuromodulatory system is critically involved in regulation of neural excitability via its diffuse ascending projections. Tonic NE release in the forebrain is essential for maintenance of vigilant states and increases the signal-to-noise ratio of cortical sensory responses. The impact of phasic NE release on cortical activity and sensory processing is less explored. We previously reported that LC microstimulation caused a transient desynchronization of population activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), similar to noxious somatosensory stimuli. The LC receives nociceptive information from the medulla and therefore may mediate sensory signaling to its forebrain targets. Here we performed extracellular recordings in LC and mPFC while presenting noxious stimuli in urethane-anesthetized rats. A brief train of foot shocks produced a robust phasic response in the LC and a transient change in the mPFC power spectrum, with the strongest modulation in the gamma (30–90 Hz) range. The LC phasic response preceded prefrontal gamma power increase, and cortical modulation was proportional to the LC excitation. We also quantitatively characterized distinct cortical states and showed that sensory responses in both LC and mPFC depend on the ongoing cortical state. Finally, cessation of the LC firing by bilateral local iontophoretic injection of clonidine, an α2-adrenoreceptor agonist, completely eliminated sensory responses in the mPFC without shifting cortex to a less excitable state. Together, our results suggest that the LC phasic response induces gamma power increase in the PFC and is essential for mediating sensory information along an ascending noxious pathway. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our study shows linear relationships between locus coeruleus phasic excitation and the amplitude of gamma oscillations in the prefrontal cortex. Results suggest that the locus coeruleus phasic response is essential for mediating sensory information along an ascending noxious pathway.

scholarly journals Synchronous spiking associated with high gamma oscillations in prefrontal cortex exerts top-down control over a 5Hz-rhythmic modulation of spiking in locus coeruleus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson K. Totah ◽  
Nikos K. Logothetis ◽  
Oxana Eschenko
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Neuronal Population ◽  
Excitatory Input ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Population Activity ◽  
Oscillation Analysis ◽  
High Gamma

AbstractThe brainstem noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) is reciprocally connected with the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Strong coupling between LC spiking and depolarizing phase of slow (1 – 2 Hz) waves in the PFC field potentials during sleep and anesthesia suggests that the LC drives cortical state transition. Reciprocal LC-PFC connectivity should also allow interactions in the opposing (top-down) direction, but prior work has only studied prefrontal control over LC activity using direct electrical (or optogenetic) stimulation paradigms. Here, we describe the physiological characteristics of naturally occurring top-down prefrontal-coerulear interactions. Specifically, we recorded LC multi-unit activity (MUA) simultaneously with PFC single unit and local field potential (LFP) activity in urethane-anesthetized rats. We observed cross-regional coupling between the phase of ~5 Hz oscillations in LC population spike rate and the power of PFC LFP oscillations within the high Gamma (hGamma) range (60 – 200 Hz). Specifically, transient increases in PFC hGamma power preceded peaks in the ~5 Hz LC-MUA oscillation. Analysis of cross-regional transfer entropy demonstrated that the PFC hGamma transients were predictive of a transient increase in LC-MUA. A ~29 msec delay between these signals was consistent with the conduction velocity from the PFC to the LC. Finally, we showed that PFC hGamma transients are associated with synchronized spiking of a subset (27%) of PFC single units. Our data suggest that, PFC hGamma transients may indicate the timing of the top-down excitatory input to LC, at least under conditions when LC neuronal population activity fluctuates rhythmically at ~5 Hz. Synchronized PFC neuronal spiking that occurs during hGamma transients may provide a previously unknown mode of top-down control over the LC.

scholarly journals Human ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions enhance expectation-related pain modulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
JC Motzkin ◽  
J Hiser ◽  
I Carroll ◽  
R Wolf ◽  
MK Baskaya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Damage ◽  
Pain Sensitivity ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Pain Processing ◽  
Expectancy Effects ◽  
Cognitive Representations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pain Unpleasantness

AbstractPain is strongly modulated by expectations and beliefs. Research across species indicates that subregions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) play a fundamental role in learning and generating predictions about valued outcomes. Consistent with this overarching framework, neuroimaging studies of experimental pain indicate that VMPFC activation tracks expectations of pain relief and statistically mediates expectation-related reductions in responses to painful stimuli across a distributed pain processing network. However, lesion studies in preclinical models and in humans with refractory chronic pain suggest that VMPFC may play a more general role in representing the affective and motivational qualities of pain that contribute to its strong aversive drive. To test whether VMPFC is necessary for pain processing in general, or instead plays a more specific role in the modulation of pain by expectations, we studied responses to experimental heat pain in five adults with bilateral surgical lesions of VMPFC and twenty healthy adults without brain damage.All participants underwent quantitative sensory testing (QST) to characterize pain sensitivity, followed by a pain expectancy task. Participants were instructed that auditory cues would be followed by heat calibrated to elicit low or high pain. Following a conditioning phase, each cue was intermittently paired with a single temperature calibrated to elicit moderate pain. We compared ratings of moderate heat stimuli and subjective expectancy ratings as a function of cue to evaluate whether VMPFC lesions impact cue-based expectancy and expectancy effects on pain intensity and unpleasantness. We also analyzed QST measures to evaluate whether VMPFC lesions were associated with overall shifts in pain sensitivity.Compared to adults without brain damage, individuals with VMPFC lesions reported larger differences in expectations as a function of pain-predictive cues, and stronger cue-based modulation of pain ratings, particularly for ratings of pain unpleasantness. There were no group differences in pain sensitivity, nor in the relationship between pain and autonomic arousal, indicating that the impact of VMPFC lesions is specific to expectancy-based modulation of pain unpleasantness.Our findings suggest that the VMPFC is not essential for basic subjective and physiological responses to painful stimuli. Rather, our findings of significantly enhanced cue- related expectancy effects may suggest that VMPFC plays an important role in updating expectations or integrating sensory information with expectations to guide subjective judgements about pain. Taken together, these results expand our understanding VMPFC’s contribution to pain and highlight the role of VMPFC in integrating cognitive representations with sensory information to yield affective responses.

scholarly journals Strong gamma frequency oscillations in the adolescent prefrontal cortex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengyang Wang ◽  
Balbir Singh ◽  
Xin Zhou ◽  
Christos Constantinidis
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Adolescent Development ◽  
Adult Stage ◽  
Delay Period ◽  
Local Network ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Gamma Frequency ◽  
Power Increase ◽  
Gamma Power

AbstractWorking memory ability continues to mature into adulthood in both humans and non-human primates. At the single neuron level, adolescent development is characterized by increased prefrontal firing rate in the delay period, but less is known about how coordinated activity between neurons is altered. Local field potentials (LFP) provide a window into the computation carried out by the local network. To address the effects of adolescent development on LFP activity, three male rhesus monkeys were trained to perform an oculomotor delayed response task and tested at both the adolescent and adult stage. Simultaneous single-unit and LFP signals were recorded from areas 8a and 46 of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). In both the cue and delay period, power relative to baseline increased in the gamma frequency range (32 - 128 Hz). In the adult stage, high-firing neurons were also more likely to reside at sites with strong gamma power increase from baseline. For both stages, the gamma power increase in the delay was selective for sites with neuron encoding stimulus information in their spiking. Gamma power and neuronal firing did not show stronger temporal correlations. Our results establish gamma power decrease to be a feature of prefrontal cortical maturation.Significance StatementGamma-frequency oscillations in extracellular field recordings (such as LFP or EEG) are a marker of normal interactions between excitatory and inhibitory neurons in neural circuits. Abnormally low gamma power during working memory is seen in conditions such as schizophrenia. We sought to examine whether the immature prefrontal cortex similarly exhibits lower power in the gamma frequency range during working memory, in a non-human primate model of adolescence. Contrary to this expectation, the adolescent PFC exhibited stronger gamma power during the maintenance of working memory. Our findings reveal an unknown developmental maturation trajectory of gamma band oscillations and raise the possibility that schizophrenia represent an excessive state of prefrontal maturation.

scholarly journals A 1-Month Ketogenic Diet Increased Mitochondrial Mass in Red Gastrocnemius Muscle, but not in the Brain or Liver of Middle-Aged Mice

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2533
Author(s):  
Zeyu Zhou ◽  
Jocelyn Vidales ◽  
José A González-Reyes ◽  
Bradley Shibata ◽  
Keith Baar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Gastrocnemius Muscle ◽  
Left Lobe ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Mitochondrial Content ◽  
Mitochondrial Mass ◽  
Aged Mice ◽  
Fractional Area ◽  
Ketogenic Diets ◽  
The Impact

Alterations in markers of mitochondrial content with ketogenic diets (KD) have been reported in tissues of rodents, but morphological quantification of mitochondrial mass using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the gold standard for mitochondrial quantification, is needed to further validate these findings and look at specific regions of interest within a tissue. In this study, red gastrocnemius muscle, the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the liver left lobe were used to investigate the impact of a 1-month KD on mitochondrial content in healthy middle-aged mice. The results showed that in red gastrocnemius muscle, the fractional area of both subsarcolemmal (SSM) and intermyofibrillar (IMM) mitochondria was increased, and this was driven by an increase in the number of mitochondria. Mitochondrial fractional area or number was not altered in the liver, prefrontal cortex, or hippocampus following 1 month of a KD. These results demonstrate tissue-specific changes in mitochondrial mass with a short-term KD and highlight the need to study different muscle groups or tissue regions with TEM to thoroughly determine the effects of a KD on mitochondrial mass.

scholarly journals The effect of water immersion on vection in virtual reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Géraldine Fauville ◽  
Anna C. M. Queiroz ◽  
Erika S. Woolsey ◽  
Jonathan W. Kelly ◽  
Jeremy N. Bailenson
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Motion Sickness ◽  
Water Immersion ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Visually Induced Motion Sickness ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Induced Motion ◽  
Ground Condition ◽  
The Impact

AbstractResearch about vection (illusory self-motion) has investigated a wide range of sensory cues and employed various methods and equipment, including use of virtual reality (VR). However, there is currently no research in the field of vection on the impact of floating in water while experiencing VR. Aquatic immersion presents a new and interesting method to potentially enhance vection by reducing conflicting sensory information that is usually experienced when standing or sitting on a stable surface. This study compares vection, visually induced motion sickness, and presence among participants experiencing VR while standing on the ground or floating in water. Results show that vection was significantly enhanced for the participants in the Water condition, whose judgments of self-displacement were larger than those of participants in the Ground condition. No differences in visually induced motion sickness or presence were found between conditions. We discuss the implication of this new type of VR experience for the fields of VR and vection while also discussing future research questions that emerge from our findings.

scholarly journals Developmental up-regulation of NMDA receptors in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of mGlu5 receptor knock-out mice

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiziana Imbriglio ◽  
Remy Verhaeghe ◽  
Nico Antenucci ◽  
Stefania Maccari ◽  
Giuseppe Battaglia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Nmda Receptor ◽  
Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Developmental Time ◽  
Postnatal Life ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Knock Out ◽  
Nmda Receptor Subunits ◽  
The Impact

AbstractmGlu5 metabotropic glutamate receptors are highly expressed and functional in the early postnatal life, and are known to positively modulate NMDA receptor function. Here, we examined the expression of NMDA receptor subunits and interneuron-related genes in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of mGlu5−/− mice and wild-type littermates at three developmental time points (PND9, − 21, and − 75). We were surprised to find that expression of all NMDA receptor subunits was greatly enhanced in mGlu5−/− mice at PND21. In contrast, at PND9, expression of the GluN2B subunit was enhanced, whereas expression of GluN2A and GluN2D subunits was reduced in both regions. These modifications were transient and disappeared in the adult life (PND75). Changes in the transcripts of interneuron-related genes (encoding parvalbumin, somatostatin, vasoactive intestinal peptide, reelin, and the two isoforms of glutamate decarboxylase) were also observed in mGlu5−/− mice across postnatal development. For example, the transcript encoding parvalbumin was up-regulated in the prefrontal cortex of mGlu5−/− mice at PND9 and PND21, whereas it was significantly reduced at PND75. These findings suggest that in mGlu5−/− mice a transient overexpression of NMDA receptor subunits may compensate for the lack of the NMDA receptor partner, mGlu5. Interestingly, in mGlu5−/− mice the behavioral response to the NMDA channel blocker, MK-801, was significantly increased at PND21, and largely reduced at PND75. The impact of adaptive changes in the expression of NMDA receptor subunits should be taken into account when mGlu5−/− mice are used for developmental studies.

P3-411: THE 5-HT6 RECEPTOR ANTAGONIST LU AE58054 ALONE AND IN COMBINATION WITH DONEPEZIL POTENTIATES GAMMA OSCILLATIONS IN RAT MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. P780-P781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Amat Foraster ◽  
Kjartan Frisch Herrik ◽  
Nelly Richard ◽  
Jesper Frank Bastlund ◽  
Inge E.M. de Jong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Receptor Antagonist ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Gamma Oscillations

scholarly journals Frontal eye field microstimulation induces task-dependent gamma oscillations in the lateral intraparietal area

2012 ◽  
Vol 108 (5) ◽  
pp. 1392-1402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsie Premereur ◽  
Wim Vanduffel ◽  
Pieter R. Roelfsema ◽  
Peter Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Electrical Microstimulation ◽  
Gamma Power

Macaque frontal eye fields (FEF) and the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) are high-level oculomotor control centers that have been implicated in the allocation of spatial attention. Electrical microstimulation of macaque FEF elicits functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations in area LIP, but no study has yet investigated the effect of FEF microstimulation on LIP at the single-cell or local field potential (LFP) level. We recorded spiking and LFP activity in area LIP during weak, subthreshold microstimulation of the FEF in a delayed-saccade task. FEF microstimulation caused a highly time- and frequency-specific, task-dependent increase in gamma power in retinotopically corresponding sites in LIP: FEF microstimulation produced a significant increase in LIP gamma power when a saccade target appeared and remained present in the LIP receptive field (RF), whereas less specific increases in alpha power were evoked by FEF microstimulation for saccades directed away from the RF. Stimulating FEF with weak currents had no effect on LIP spike rates or on the gamma power during memory saccades or passive fixation. These results provide the first evidence for task-dependent modulations of LFPs in LIP caused by top-down stimulation of FEF. Since the allocation and disengagement of spatial attention in visual cortex have been associated with increases in gamma and alpha power, respectively, the effects of FEF microstimulation on LIP are consistent with the known effects of spatial attention.

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