Ionizing Radiation: Neural Function and Behavior D. J. Kimeldorf E. L. Hunt

BioScience ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 427-428
Author(s):  
Roberts Rugh
Author(s):  
Dale Purves

Brains as Engines of Association seeks an operating principle of the human brain and is divided into four parts. The first part (“What Nervous Systems Do for Animals”) is intended to set the stage for understanding the emergence of neural systems as promoting what all organisms must accomplish: survival and reproduction. The second part (“Neural Systems as Engines of Association”) lays out the general argument that biological sensing systems face a daunting problem: they cannot measure the parameters of the world in the way physical instruments can. As a result, nervous systems must make and update associations (synaptic connections) on the basis of empirical success or failure over both evolutionary and individual time. The third part (“Evidence that Neural Systems Operate Empirically”) reviews evidence accumulated over the past 20 years that supports this interpretation in vision and audition, the sensory systems that have been most studied from this or any other perspective. Finally, the fourth part (“Alternative Concepts of Neural Function”) considers the pros and cons of other interpretations of how brains operate. The overarching theme is that the nervous systems of humans and every other animal operate on the basis associations between stimuli and behavior made by trial and error over species and lifetime experience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Gardella ◽  
Olivier Marre ◽  
Thierry Mora

The principles of neural encoding and computations are inherently collective and usually involve large populations of interacting neurons with highly correlated activities. While theories of neural function have long recognized the importance of collective effects in populations of neurons, only in the past two decades has it become possible to record from many cells simultaneously using advanced experimental techniques with single-spike resolution and to relate these correlations to function and behavior. This review focuses on the modeling and inference approaches that have been recently developed to describe the correlated spiking activity of populations of neurons. We cover a variety of models describing correlations between pairs of neurons, as well as between larger groups, synchronous or delayed in time, with or without the explicit influence of the stimulus, and including or not latent variables. We discuss the advantages and drawbacks or each method, as well as the computational challenges related to their application to recordings of ever larger populations.


BIOPHYSICS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 660-665
Author(s):  
I. I. Poletaeva ◽  
O. V. Perepelkina ◽  
G. M. Nikolaev ◽  
I. B. Fedotova ◽  
M. G. Pleskacheva ◽  
...  

PLoS ONE ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. e773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Dawson-Scully ◽  
Gary A. B. Armstrong ◽  
Clement Kent ◽  
R. Meldrum Robertson ◽  
Marla B. Sokolowski

Genes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Pizzorusso ◽  
Paola Tognini

Gene expression in the brain is dramatically regulated by a variety of stimuli. While the role of neural activity has been extensively studied, less is known about the effects of metabolism and nutrition on transcriptional control mechanisms in the brain. Extracellular signals are integrated at the chromatin level through dynamic modifications of epigenetic marks, which in turn fine-tune gene transcription. In the last twenty years, it has become clear that epigenetics plays a crucial role in modulating central nervous system functions and finally behavior. Here, we will focus on the effect of metabolic signals in shaping brain DNA methylation, both during development and adulthood. We will provide an overview of maternal nutrition effects on brain methylation and behavior in offspring. In addition, the impact of different diet challenges on cytosine methylation dynamics in the adult brain will be discussed. Finally, the possible role played by the metabolic status in modulating DNA hydroxymethylation, which is particularly abundant in neural tissue, will be considered.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1511 ◽  
pp. 46-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth E. Steinberg ◽  
Patricia H. Janak
Keyword(s):  

eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia E Hawkins ◽  
Ana C Takakura ◽  
Ashley Trinh ◽  
Milene R Malheiros-Lima ◽  
Colin M Cleary ◽  
...  

Cerebral blood flow is highly sensitive to changes in CO2/H+ where an increase in CO2/H+ causes vasodilation and increased blood flow. Tissue CO2/H+ also functions as the main stimulus for breathing by activating chemosensitive neurons that control respiratory output. Considering that CO2/H+-induced vasodilation would accelerate removal of CO2/H+ and potentially counteract the drive to breathe, we hypothesize that chemosensitive brain regions have adapted a means of preventing vascular CO2/H+-reactivity. Here, we show in rat that purinergic signaling, possibly through P2Y2/4 receptors, in the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN) maintains arteriole tone during high CO2/H+ and disruption of this mechanism decreases the CO2ventilatory response. Our discovery that CO2/H+-dependent regulation of vascular tone in the RTN is the opposite to the rest of the cerebral vascular tree is novel and fundamentally important for understanding how regulation of vascular tone is tailored to support neural function and behavior, in this case the drive to breathe.


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