Cannabidiol Has a Unique Effect on Global Brain Activity: A Pharmacological, Functional MRI Study in Awake Mice 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aymen Sadaka ◽  
Ana Ozuna ◽  
Richard Ortiz ◽  
Praveen Kulkarni ◽  
Clare Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Stress Disorders ◽  
Functional Coupling ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Dose Dependent ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Background: The phytocannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) is a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorders. How does CBD interact with the brain to alter behavior? We hypothesized that CBD would produce a dose-dependent reduction in brain activity and functional coupling in neural circuitry associated with fear and defense. Methods: During the scanning session awake mice were given vehicle or CBD (3, 10, or 30 mg/kg I.P.) and imaged for 10 min post treatment. Mice were also treated with the 10 mg/kg dose of CBD and imaged one hr later for resting state BOLD functional connectivity (rsFC). Imaging data were registered to a 3D MRI mouse atlas providing site-specific information on 138 different brain areas. Blood samples were collected for CBD measurements.Results: CBD produced a dose-dependent polarization of activation along the rostral-caudal axis of the brain. The olfactory bulb and prefrontal cortex showed an increase in positive BOLD whereas the brainstem and cerebellum showed a decrease in BOLD signal. This negative BOLD affected many areas connected to the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS). The ARAS was decoupled to much of the brain but was hyperconnected to the olfactory system and prefrontal cortex. The pattern of ARAS connectivity closely overlapped with brain areas showing high levels N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamines-specific phospholipase D (NAPE-PLD) messenger RNA.Conclusion: The CBD-induced decrease in ARAS activity is consistent with an emerging literature suggesting that CBD reduces autonomic arousal under conditions of emotional and physical stress. The putative target and mechanism of action is NAPE-PLD the enzyme responsible for the biosynthesis of lipid signaling molecules like anandamide.

scholarly journals Cannabidiol has a unique effect on global brain activity: a pharmacological, functional MRI study in awake mice

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aymen H. Sadaka ◽  
Ana G. Ozuna ◽  
Richard J. Ortiz ◽  
Praveen Kulkarni ◽  
Clare T. Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Stress Disorders ◽  
Functional Coupling ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Mri Study ◽  
Dose Dependent ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Background The phytocannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) exhibits anxiolytic activity and has been promoted as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorders. How does CBD interact with the brain to alter behavior? We hypothesized that CBD would produce a dose-dependent reduction in brain activity and functional coupling in neural circuitry associated with fear and defense. Methods During the scanning session awake mice were given vehicle or CBD (3, 10, or 30 mg/kg I.P.) and imaged for 10 min post treatment. Mice were also treated with the 10 mg/kg dose of CBD and imaged 1 h later for resting state BOLD functional connectivity (rsFC). Imaging data were registered to a 3D MRI mouse atlas providing site-specific information on 138 different brain areas. Blood samples were collected for CBD measurements. Results CBD produced a dose-dependent polarization of activation along the rostral-caudal axis of the brain. The olfactory bulb and prefrontal cortex showed an increase in positive BOLD whereas the brainstem and cerebellum showed a decrease in BOLD signal. This negative BOLD affected many areas connected to the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS). The ARAS was decoupled to much of the brain but was hyperconnected to the olfactory system and prefrontal cortex. Conclusion The CBD-induced decrease in ARAS activity is consistent with an emerging literature suggesting that CBD reduces autonomic arousal under conditions of emotional and physical stress.

scholarly journals Treatment of fear memories: interactions between extinction and reconsolidation

2011 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 1363-1372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natália G. Fiorenza ◽  
Dagieli Sartor ◽  
Jociane C. Myskiw ◽  
Iván Izquierdo
Keyword(s):  
Protein Synthesis ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorders ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Traumatic Stress Disorders ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Dependent Processes

Retrieval labilizes memory traces and these gates two protein synthesis-dependent processes in the brain: extinction, which inhibits further retrieval, and reconsolidation, which may enhance retrieval or change its content. Extinction may itself suffer reconsolidation. Interactions among these processes may be applied to treatments of fear memories, such as those underlying post-traumatic stress disorders.

scholarly journals Experimental Model for Studying the Prefrontal EEG Biomarkers in Correlation with Food Intake Behavior: Neurofeedback Platform

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Isam Al-Hiyali ◽  
Asnor Juraiza Ishak ◽  
Hafiz Harun ◽  
Siti Anom Ahmad ◽  
Wan Aliaa Sulaiman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Food Intake ◽  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Significant Decrement ◽  
Positive Treatment ◽  
Eeg Neurofeedback ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

Background: This study aims to investigate the effects of visual neurofeedback stimulation on the brain activity in overweight cases. The neuroscience studies indicated the personal decision about eating under the impact of environmental factors such as (visually, smelling, tasting) is related to neural activity of the prefrontal lobe of the brain. Therefore, there were many attempts to modify the food intake behavior in overweight cases through the stimulation of the prefrontal cortex. However, the empirical viewing of EEG-neurofeedback experiments has not explicated the details about the effect of the EEG-NF, the specificity of positive treatment effects remains in a challenging scope.Methods: This study is a cue-exposure EEG-NF experiment to verify the hypothesis of effecting the EEG-NF on the electrical activity of PFC and modifying the general symptoms of food intake behavior in overweight cases. Twenty-four individuals were recruited as participants for this study. These participants were assigned randomly into two groups; the EX-Group (N=12) enrolled in 8 sessions of the EEG-NF experiment, and the C-Group (N=12) was listed in no EEG-NF sessions. The participants provided researchers with a self-report questionnaire relating to their observation of general symptoms of food intake behavior, and EEG signals recordings into the pre and posts stimulation phase. The power spectral density (PSD) method was applied for EEG parameters extraction.Results: The results of a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) explained that a significant variation in variables between the two groups after the EEG-NF experiment. The analysis of the quantitative variables indicated that the effect of EEG-NF experiment was a significant decrement in EEG power bands which significantly influenced changing the median of self-report questionnaire responses that is related to general symptoms of food intake behavior.Conclusions: This study provides preliminary support for the therapeutic potential of EEG-NF experiment that targets the prefrontal cortex, to influence neural processes underlying food intake behavior in overweight cases.

scholarly journals Resting-state connectivity studies as a marker of the acute and delayed effects of subanaesthetic ketamine administration in healthy and depressed individuals: A systematic review

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 239821282110554
Author(s):  
Vasileia Kotoula ◽  
Toby Webster ◽  
James Stone ◽  
Mitul A Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Delayed Effects ◽  
Treatment Naïve ◽  
Resting State Connectivity ◽  
The Brain

Acute ketamine administration has been widely used in neuroimaging research to mimic psychosis-like symptoms. Within the last two decades, ketamine has also emerged as a potent, fast-acting antidepressant. The delayed effects of the drug, observed 2–48 h after a single infusion, are associated with marked improvements in depressive symptoms. At the systems’ level, several studies have investigated the acute ketamine effects on brain activity and connectivity; however, several questions remain unanswered around the brain changes that accompany the drug’s antidepressant effects and how these changes relate to the brain areas that appear with altered function and connectivity in depression. This review aims to address some of these questions by focusing on resting-state brain connectivity. We summarise the studies that have examined connectivity changes in treatment-naïve, depressed individuals and those studies that have looked at the acute and delayed effects of ketamine in healthy and depressed volunteers. We conclude that brain areas that are important for emotional regulation and reward processing appear with altered connectivity in depression whereas the default mode network presents with increased connectivity in depressed individuals compared to healthy controls. This finding, however, is not as prominent as the literature often assumes. Acute ketamine administration causes an increase in brain connectivity in healthy volunteers. The delayed effects of ketamine on brain connectivity vary in direction and appear to be consistent with the drug normalising the changes observed in depression. The limited number of studies however, as well as the different approaches for resting-state connectivity analysis make it very difficult to draw firm conclusions and highlight the importance of data sharing and larger future studies.

scholarly journals Synchronization in the connectome: Metastable oscillatory modes emerge from interactions in the brain spacetime network

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Cabral ◽  
Francesca Castaldo ◽  
Jakub Vohryzek ◽  
Vladimir Litvak ◽  
Christian Bick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coupled Oscillators ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Power Spectra ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Neural Mass ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Weakly Stable ◽  
Human Brains ◽  
The Brain

A rich repertoire of oscillatory signals is detected from human brains with electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG/MEG). However, the principles underwriting coherent oscillations and their link with neural activity remain unclear. Here, we hypothesise that the emergence of transient brain rhythms is a signature of weakly stable synchronization between spatially distributed brain areas, occurring at network-specific collective frequencies due to non-negligible conduction times. We test this hypothesis using a phenomenological network model to simulate interactions between neural mass potentials (resonating at 40Hz) in the structural connectome. Crucially, we identify a critical regime where metastable oscillatory modes emerge spontaneously in the delta (0.5-4Hz), theta (4-8Hz), alpha (8-13Hz) and beta (13-30Hz) frequency bands from weak synchronization of subsystems, closely approximating the MEG power spectra from 89 healthy individuals. Grounded in the physics of delay-coupled oscillators, these numerical analyses demonstrate the role of the spatiotemporal connectome in structuring brain activity in the frequency domain.

scholarly journals Balance between Transmitter Availability and Dopamine D2 Receptors in Prefrontal Cortex Influences Memory Functioning

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 989-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goran Papenberg ◽  
Nina Karalija ◽  
Alireza Salami ◽  
Anna Rieckmann ◽  
Micael Andersson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
D2 Receptors ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data ◽  
Memory Functioning ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Dopaminergic Tone

Abstract Insufficient or excessive dopaminergic tone impairs cognitive performance. We examine whether the balance between transmitter availability and dopamine (DA) D2 receptors (D2DRs) is important for successful memory performance in a large sample of adults (n = 175, 64–68 years). The Catechol-O-Methyltransferase polymorphism served as genetic proxy for endogenous prefrontal DA availability, and D2DRs in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) were measured with [11C]raclopride-PET. Individuals for whom D2DR status matched DA availability showed higher levels of episodic and working-memory performance than individuals with insufficient or excessive DA availability relative to the number of receptors. A similar pattern restricted to episodic memory was observed for D2DRs in caudate. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired during working-memory performance confirmed the importance of a balanced DA system for load-dependent brain activity in dlPFC. Our data suggest that the inverted-U–shaped function relating DA signaling to cognition is modulated by a dynamic association between DA availability and receptor status.

Imaging Imagination: Brain Scanning of the Imagined Future

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
MORTEN L. KRINGELBACH ◽  
JOHN G. GEAKE
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Real World ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Counterfactual Thinking ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Interacting Networks ◽  
The Brain

Imagination is believed to be made-up of two components. The first one suggests that acts of imagination engage similar networks in the brain to those used for motor and sensory processing during interactions with the real world. The second component purports that the selection processes used in the subcomponents of imagination such as mindedness, anticipation, and counterfactual thinking rely on the subcortical and cortical networks of the brain which consist of components such as the cerebellum, orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and cingulate cortex. This chapter reviews the emerging literature on neuroimaging of various components of imagination. Imaging and other neuroscientific techniques offer various possibilities in the architecture of the imaginative mind. It shows how the neural bases of the imaginative activities are organized. Imaginative processes are distributed activities which recruit several brain areas and networks. These complex relations within and between these various networks are illustrated by the Dynamic Workspace Hypothesis. However it is expected that the precise functional roles of these interacting networks can be accurately defined through the advent of brain scanning and neuroimaging, particularly through the technical breakthroughs imagined in a Coda.

The Neurobiology of Sleep

2013 ◽  
pp. 1127-1143
Author(s):  
Giulio Tononi ◽  
Chiara Cirelli
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Environmental Stimuli ◽  
Essential Function ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Dreamless Sleep

Sleep is a state of reduced responsiveness to environmental stimuli, usually associated with immobility and stereotyped postures. It is universal and tightly regulated, suggesting that it is likely to serve some essential function. However, that function remains unclear. In this chapter we examine how sleep is traditionally subdivided into different stages that alternate in the course of the night, discuss the brain areas that determine whether we are asleep or awake, and summarize the negative consequences of sleep deprivation. We then discuss how brain activity changes between sleep and wakefulness and consider how this leads to the characteristic modifications of consciousness experienced during dreaming and dreamless sleep. Finally, we turn to the paramount but still mysterious question of sleep function.

scholarly journals The modular and integrative functional architecture of the human brain

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (49) ◽  
pp. E6798-E6807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell A. Bertolero ◽  
B. T. Thomas Yeo ◽  
Mark D’Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Topic Model ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Modular Function ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Functional Architecture ◽  
Brain Imaging Data ◽  
The Brain

Network-based analyses of brain imaging data consistently reveal distinct modules and connector nodes with diverse global connectivity across the modules. How discrete the functions of modules are, how dependent the computational load of each module is to the other modules’ processing, and what the precise role of connector nodes is for between-module communication remains underspecified. Here, we use a network model of the brain derived from resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data and investigate the modular functional architecture of the human brain by analyzing activity at different types of nodes in the network across 9,208 experiments of 77 cognitive tasks in the BrainMap database. Using an author–topic model of cognitive functions, we find a strong spatial correspondence between the cognitive functions and the network’s modules, suggesting that each module performs a discrete cognitive function. Crucially, activity at local nodes within the modules does not increase in tasks that require more cognitive functions, demonstrating the autonomy of modules’ functions. However, connector nodes do exhibit increased activity when more cognitive functions are engaged in a task. Moreover, connector nodes are located where brain activity is associated with many different cognitive functions. Connector nodes potentially play a role in between-module communication that maintains the modular function of the brain. Together, these findings provide a network account of the brain’s modular yet integrated implementation of cognitive functions.

scholarly journals Source Space Analysis of Event-Related Dynamic Reorganization of Brain Networks

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas A. Ioannides ◽  
Stavros I. Dimitriadis ◽  
George A. Saridis ◽  
Marotesa Voultsidou ◽  
Vahe Poghosyan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Clinical Applications ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Typical Subject ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
Neuroimaging Techniques

How the brain works is nowadays synonymous with how different parts of the brain work together and the derivation of mathematical descriptions for the functional connectivity patterns that can be objectively derived from data of different neuroimaging techniques. In most cases static networks are studied, often relying on resting state recordings. Here, we present a quantitative study of dynamic reconfiguration of connectivity for event-related experiments. Our motivation is the development of a methodology that can be used for personalized monitoring of brain activity. In line with this motivation, we use data with visual stimuli from a typical subject that participated in different experiments that were previously analyzed with traditional methods. The earlier studies identified well-defined changes in specific brain areas at specific latencies related to attention, properties of stimuli, and tasks demands. Using a recently introduced methodology, we track the event-related changes in network organization, at source space level, thus providing a more global and complete view of the stages of processing associated with the regional changes in activity. The results suggest the time evolving modularity as an additional brain code that is accessible with noninvasive means and hence available for personalized monitoring and clinical applications.

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