scholarly journals The Participation of Hormones in the Processes of Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Aging

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 97-129
Author(s):  
S. Bulgakova ◽  
N. Romanchuk
Keyword(s):  
Sex Hormones ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Functioning ◽  
Progesterone Receptors ◽  
Endocrine System ◽  
Neurite Growth ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Adult Brain ◽  
Brain Functions

Aging is associated with generally accepted changes in brain functions, including cognitive ones. In addition, age makes its own adjustments to the work of the endocrine system. In turn, a change in the hormonal background during the aging process imprints the work of brain cells, cognitive functions, and socio-emotional functioning. Investigated, the relationship between sex hormones, cortisol, oxytocin and cognitive and socio-emotional functioning. Sex hormones are involved in neurite growth, synaptogenesis, dendritic branching, myelination, and other important mechanisms of neural plasticity. Physiological and pathological conceptualized theories suggest how sex hormones potentially cause neuroplasticity changes through four neurochemical neurotransmitter systems: serotonin, dopamine, GABA and glutamate. Many brain regions express high density estrogen and progesterone receptors such as the amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus. The hippocampus is of particular importance in the context of mediating structural plasticity in the adult brain, differences in behavior, neurochemical patterns and structure of the hippocampus with a changing hormonal environment have been investigated. There is a significant association between emotion dysregulation and symptoms of depression, anxiety, eating pathology, and substance abuse. Higher levels of emotion regulation are associated with a high level of social competence.

scholarly journals Sex in the brain: hormones and sex differences

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-383 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Sex Hormones ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Motor Coordination ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
New Era ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Opioid Sensitivity ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
The Brain

Contrary to popular belief, sex hormones act throughout the entire brain of both males and females via both genomic and nongenomic receptors. Many neural and behavioral functions are affected by estrogens, including mood, cognitive function, blood pressure regulation, motor coordination, pain, and opioid sensitivity. Subtle sex differences exist for many of these functions that are developmentally programmed by hormones and by not yet precisely defined genetic factors, including the mitochondrial genome. These sex differences, and responses to sex hormones in brain regions and upon functions not previously regarded as subject to such differences, indicate that we are entering a new era in our ability to understand and appreciate the diversity of gender-related behaviors and brain functions.

scholarly journals Dynamic Changes of Brain Cilia Transcriptomes across the Human Lifespan

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (19) ◽  
pp. 10387
Author(s):  
Siwei Chen ◽  
Wedad Alhassen ◽  
Roudabeh Vakil Monfared ◽  
Benjamin Vachirakorntong ◽  
Surya M. Nauli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Cilia ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Adult Brain ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Human Lifespan ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Functional Components

Almost all brain cells contain primary cilia, antennae-like microtubule sensory organelles, on their surface, which play critical roles in brain functions. During neurodevelopmental stages, cilia are essential for brain formation and maturation. In the adult brain, cilia play vital roles as signaling hubs that receive and transduce various signals and regulate cell-to-cell communications. These distinct roles suggest that cilia functions, and probably structures, change throughout the human lifespan. To further understand the age-dependent changes in cilia roles, we identified and analyzed age-dependent patterns of expression of cilia’s structural and functional components across the human lifespan. We acquired cilia transcriptomic data for 16 brain regions from the BrainSpan Atlas and analyzed the age-dependent expression patterns using a linear regression model by calculating the regression coefficient. We found that 67% of cilia transcripts were differentially expressed genes with age (DEGAs) in at least one brain region. The age-dependent expression was region-specific, with the highest and lowest numbers of DEGAs expressed in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, respectively. The majority of cilia DEGAs displayed upregulation with age in most of the brain regions. The transcripts encoding cilia basal body components formed the majority of cilia DEGAs, and adjacent cerebral cortices exhibited large overlapping pairs of cilia DEGAs. Most remarkably, specific α/β-tubulin subunits (TUBA1A, TUBB2A, and TUBB2B) and SNAP-25 exhibited the highest rates of downregulation and upregulation, respectively, across age in almost all brain regions. α/β-tubulins and SNAP-25 expressions are known to be dysregulated in age-related neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Our results support a role for the high dynamics of cilia structural and functional components across the lifespan in the normal physiology of brain circuits. Furthermore, they suggest a crucial role for cilia signaling in the pathophysiological mechanisms of age-related psychiatric/neurological disorders.

scholarly journals Early life nutrition and neural plasticity

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Georgieff ◽  
Katya E. Brunette ◽  
Phu V. Tran
Keyword(s):  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Exposures ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Adult Brain ◽  
Fetal Life ◽  
Biological Mechanisms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Opening And Closing ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Developmental Maturation

AbstractThe human brain undergoes a remarkable transformation during fetal life and the first postnatal years from a relatively undifferentiated but pluripotent organ to a highly specified and organized one. The outcome of this developmental maturation is highly dependent on a sequence of environmental exposures that can have either positive or negative influences on the ultimate plasticity of the adult brain. Many environmental exposures are beyond the control of the individual, but nutrition is not. An ever-increasing amount of research demonstrates not only that nutrition shapes the brain and affects its function during development but also that several nutrients early in life have profound and long-lasting effects on the brain. Nutrients have been shown to alter opening and closing of critical and sensitive periods of particular brain regions. This paper discusses the roles that various nutrients play in shaping the developing brain, concentrating specifically on recently explicated biological mechanisms by which particularly salient nutrients influence childhood and adult neural plasticity.

scholarly journals Regulation of Central Nervous System Myelination in Higher Brain Functions

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Nickel ◽  
Chen Gu
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Lipid Membranes ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Experimental Systems ◽  
And Function ◽  
Higher Brain Functions

The hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex are interconnected brain regions, playing central roles in higher brain functions, including learning and memory, planning complex cognitive behavior, and moderating social behavior. The axons in these regions continue to be myelinated into adulthood in humans, which coincides with maturation of personality and decision-making. Myelin consists of dense layers of lipid membranes wrapping around the axons to provide electrical insulation and trophic support and can profoundly affect neural circuit computation. Recent studies have revealed that long-lasting changes of myelination can be induced in these brain regions by experience, such as social isolation, stress, and alcohol abuse, as well as by neurological and psychiatric abnormalities. However, the mechanism and function of these changes remain poorly understood. Myelin regulation represents a new form of neural plasticity. Some progress has been made to provide new mechanistic insights into activity-independent and activity-dependent regulations of myelination in different experimental systems. More extensive investigations are needed in this important but underexplored research field, in order to shed light on how higher brain functions and myelination interplay in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

Neuroplasticity

2019 ◽  
pp. 230-260
Author(s):  
Judy S. Reilly ◽  
Lara R. Polse
Keyword(s):  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Late Onset ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Developing Brain ◽  
Perinatal Stroke ◽  
Alternative Pathways ◽  
Affective Expression ◽  
Unilateral Brain ◽  
Irreparable Damage

With respect to language, it has long been observed that children who experience early unilateral brain injury do not show the same irreparable damage as do adults with homologous late-onset strokes. Neural plasticity has been proposed as the explanation for such differential linguistic profiles; that is, the plasticity of the young, developing brain allows the possibility for extensive adaptation and organization following a neural insult. Recent research, however, suggests that there are limits to this ability to adapt and organize. Results from a another communicative system, affect, suggest that children with unilateral pre- or perinatal stroke show similar (albeit subtler) effects to adults with homologous late-onset injuries. This chapter presents findings on language development in children who sustained a pre- or perinatal unilateral stroke, and complements these studies with a discussion of affective expression in these same children. These prospective studies of children with perinatal stroke provide a unique window into the development of the neural substrates for language and affect. Specifically, they afford a context to investigate the degree to which particular brain regions may be privileged for specific behavioral functions, as well as how the developing brain adapts to organize alternative pathways in the wake of an early insult.

scholarly journals An architectonic type principle in the development of laminar patterns of cortico-cortical connections

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah F. Beul ◽  
Alexandros Goulas ◽  
Claus C. Hilgetag
Keyword(s):  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Adult Brain ◽  
Mammalian Brain ◽  
Cortical Connections ◽  
Cortical Projections ◽  
Structural Connections ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Brain

AbstractStructural connections between cortical areas form an intricate network with a high degree of specificity. Many aspects of this complex network organization in the adult mammalian cortex are captured by an architectonic type principle, which relates structural connections to the architectonic differentiation of brain regions. In particular, the laminar patterns of projection origins are a prominent feature of structural connections that varies in a graded manner with the relative architectonic differentiation of connected areas in the adult brain. Here we show that the architectonic type principle is already apparent for the laminar origins of cortico-cortical projections in the immature cortex of the macaque monkey. We find that prenatal and neonatal laminar patterns correlate with cortical architectonic differentiation, and that the relation of laminar patterns to architectonic differences between connected areas is not substantially altered by the complete loss of visual input. Moreover, we find that the degree of change in laminar patterns that projections undergo during development varies in proportion to the relative architectonic differentiation of the connected areas. Hence, it appears that initial biases in laminar projection patterns become progressively strengthened by later developmental processes. These findings suggest that early neurogenetic processes during the formation of the brain are sufficient to establish the characteristic laminar projection patterns. This conclusion is in line with previously suggested mechanistic explanations underlying the emergence of the architectonic type principle and provides further constraints for exploring the fundamental factors that shape structural connectivity in the mammalian brain.

scholarly journals Functional network topology of the right insula affects emotion dysregulation in hyperactive-impulsive attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammo Viering ◽  
Pieter J. Hoekstra ◽  
Alexandra Philipsen ◽  
Jilly Naaijen ◽  
Andrea Dietrich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Network Topology ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Adult Adhd ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Graph Analysis ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
The Right

AbstractEmotion dysregulation is common in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is highly prevalent in young adult ADHD and related to reduced well-being and social impairments. Neuroimaging studies reported neural activity changes in ADHD in brain regions associated with emotion processing and regulation. It is however unknown whether deficits in emotion regulation relate to changes in functional brain network topology in these regions. We used a combination of graph analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyze resting-state functional connectivity in 147 well-characterized young adults with ADHD and age-matched healthy controls from the NeuroIMAGE database. Emotion dysregulation was gauged with four scales obtained from questionnaires and operationalized through a latent variable derived from SEM. Graph analysis was applied to resting-state data and network topology measures were entered into SEM models to identify brain regions whose local network integration and connectedness differed between subjects and was associated with emotion dysregulation. The latent variable of emotion dysregulation was characterized by scales gauging emotional distress, emotional symptoms, conduct symptoms, and emotional lability. In individuals with ADHD characterized by prominent hyperactivity-impulsivity, the latent emotion dysregulation variable was related to an increased clustering and local efficiency of the right insula. Thus, in the presence of hyperactivity-impulsivity, clustered network formation of the right insula may underpin emotion dysregulation in young adult ADHD.

scholarly journals Npas4a expression in the teleost forebrain is associated with stress coping style differences in fear learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Baker ◽  
Ryan Y. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Coping Style ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Coping Styles ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Contextual Fear Conditioning ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Stress Coping ◽  
Contextual Fear

AbstractLearning to anticipate potentially dangerous contexts is an adaptive behavioral response to coping with stressors. An animal’s stress coping style (e.g. proactive–reactive axis) is known to influence how it encodes salient events. However, the neural and molecular mechanisms underlying these stress coping style differences in learning are unknown. Further, while a number of neuroplasticity-related genes have been associated with alternative stress coping styles, it is unclear if these genes may bias the development of conditioned behavioral responses to stressful stimuli, and if so, which brain regions are involved. Here, we trained adult zebrafish to associate a naturally aversive olfactory cue with a given context. Next, we investigated if expression of two neural plasticity and neurotransmission-related genes (npas4a and gabbr1a) were associated with the contextual fear conditioning differences between proactive and reactive stress coping styles. Reactive zebrafish developed a stronger conditioned fear response and showed significantly higher npas4a expression in the medial and lateral zones of the dorsal telencephalon (Dm, Dl), and the supracommissural nucleus of the ventral telencephalon (Vs). Our findings suggest that the expression of activity-dependent genes like npas4a may be differentially expressed across several interconnected forebrain regions in response to fearful stimuli and promote biases in fear learning among different stress coping styles.

scholarly journals Quantitative RT-PCR analyses of five evolutionary conserved genes in Alligator brains during development

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Wilson ◽  
Tianli Zhu ◽  
Rajesh Khanna ◽  
Michael Pritz
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Adult Brain ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Conserved Genes ◽  
Mrna Gene ◽  
Alligator Mississipiensis ◽  
Mrna Gene Expression ◽  
Present Gene

AbstractGene expression was investigated in the major brain subdivisions (telencephalon, diencephalon, midbrain and hindbrain) in a representative reptile, Alligator mississipiensis, during the later stages of embryonic development. The following genes were examined: voltage-gated sodium channel isoforms: NaV1.1 and NaV1.2; synaptic vesicle 2a (SV2a); synaptophysin; and calbindin 2. With the exception of synaptophysin, which was only expressed in the telencephalon, all genes were expressed in all brain regions sampled at the time periods examined. For NaV1.1, gene expression varied according to brain area sampled. When compared with NaV1.1, the pattern of NaV1.2 gene expression differed appreciably. The gene expression of SV2a was the most robust of any of the genes examined. Of the other genes examined, although differences were noted, no statistically significant changes were found either between brain part or time interval. Although limited, the present analysis is the first quantitative mRNA gene expression study in any reptile during development. Together with future experiments of a similar nature, the present gene expression results should determine which genes are expressed in major brain areas at which times during development in Alligator. When compared with other amniotes, these results will prove useful for determining how gene expression during development influences adult brain structure.

scholarly journals Relationships between dietary macronutrients and adult neurogenesis in the regulation of energy metabolism – CORRIGENDUM

2013 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-755
Author(s):  
Marianne A. Yon ◽  
Suzanna L. Mauger ◽  
Lucy C. Pickavance
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Energy Metabolism ◽  
Adult Neurogenesis ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Adult Brain ◽  
Metabolic Dysfunction ◽  
Neurogenic Niche ◽  
Normal Limits ◽  
Simple Carbohydrates

Of the environmental factors which have an impact on body weight, nutrients are most influential. Within normal limits, hypothalamic and related neuronal populations correct perturbations in energy metabolism, to return the body to its nutritional set-point, either through direct response to nutrients or indirectly via peripheral appetite signals. Excessive intake of certain macronutrients, such as simple carbohydrates and SFA, can lead to obesity and attendant metabolic dysfunction, also reflected in alterations in structural plasticity, and, intriguingly, neurogenesis, in some of these brain regions. Neurogenesis, previously thought to occur only in the embryo, is now known to take place in the adult brain, dependent on numerous stimulating and inhibiting factors, including dietary components. Because of classic associations between neurogenesis and the hippocampus, in learning and cognition, this brain region has also been the focus of attention in the study of links between diet and neurogenesis. Recently, however, a more complete picture of this relationship has been building: not only has the hypothalamus been shown to satisfy the criteria for a neurogenic niche, but appetite-related mediators, including circulating hormones, such as leptin and ghrelin, pro-inflammatory cytokines and the endocannabinoid intracellular messengers, are also being examined for their potential role in mediating neurogenic responses to macronutrients. The present review draws together these observations and investigates whether n-3 PUFA may exert their attenuating effects on body weight through the stimulation of adult neurogenesis. Exploration of the effects of nutraceuticals on neurogenic brain regions may encourage the development of new rational therapies in the fight against obesity.

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