scholarly journals Repetitive Blast Exposure Increases Appetitive Motivation and Behavioral Inflexibility in Male Mice

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britahny Baskin ◽  
Suhjung Janet Lee ◽  
Emma Skillen ◽  
Katrina Wong ◽  
Holly Rau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Executive Dysfunction ◽  
Male Mice ◽  
Performance Deficits ◽  
Reward Seeking ◽  
Blast Exposure ◽  
History Of ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Behavioral Mechanisms ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior

Blast exposure (via detonation of high explosives) represents a major potential trauma source for Servicemembers and Veterans, often resulting in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Executive dysfunction (e.g., alterations in memory, deficits in mental flexibility, difficulty with adaptability) is commonly reported by Veterans with a history of blast-related mTBI, leading to impaired daily functioning and decreased quality of life, but underlying mechanisms are not fully understood and have not been well studied in animal models of blast. To investigate potential underlying behavioral mechanisms contributing to deficits in executive functioning post-blast mTBI, here we examined how a history of repetitive blast exposure in male mice affects anxiety/compulsivity-like outcomes and appetitive goal-directed behavior using an established mouse model of blast mTBI. We hypothesized that repetitive blast exposure in male mice would result in anxiety/compulsivity-like outcomes and corresponding performance deficits in operant-based reward learning and behavioral flexibility paradigms. Instead, results demonstrate an increase in reward-seeking and goal-directed behavior and a congruent decrease in behavioral flexibility. We also report chronic adverse behavioral changes related to anxiety, compulsivity, and hyperarousal. In combination, these data suggest that potential deficits in executive function following blast mTBI are at least in part related to enhanced compulsivity/hyperreactivity and behavioral inflexibility and not simply due to a lack of motivation or inability to acquire task parameters, with important implications for subsequent diagnosis and treatment management.

scholarly journals Circuit-dependent striatal PKA and ERK signaling underlies rapid behavioral shift in mating reaction of male mice

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (21) ◽  
pp. 6718-6723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akihiro Goto ◽  
Ichiro Nakahara ◽  
Takashi Yamaguchi ◽  
Yuji Kamioka ◽  
Kenta Sumiyama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
D2 Receptor ◽  
Resonance Energy Transfer ◽  
Resonance Energy ◽  
Signaling Cascades ◽  
Male Mice ◽  
Indirect Pathway ◽  
Dynamic Activity ◽  
Reward Seeking ◽  
Electric Shocks

The selection of reward-seeking and aversive behaviors is controlled by two distinct D1 and D2 receptor-expressing striatal medium spiny neurons, namely the direct pathway MSNs (dMSNs) and the indirect pathway MSNs (iMSNs), but the dynamic modulation of signaling cascades of dMSNs and iMSNs in behaving animals remains largely elusive. We developed an in vivo methodology to monitor Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) of the activities of PKA and ERK in either dMSNs or iMSNs by microendoscopy in freely moving mice. PKA and ERK were coordinately but oppositely regulated between dMSNs and iMSNs by rewarding cocaine administration and aversive electric shocks. Notably, the activities of PKA and ERK rapidly shifted when male mice became active or indifferent toward female mice during mating behavior. Importantly, manipulation of PKA cascades by the Designer Receptor recapitulated active and indifferent mating behaviors, indicating a causal linkage of a dynamic activity shift of PKA and ERK between dMSNs and iMSNs in action selection.

scholarly journals Mesolimbic dopamine projections mediate cue-motivated reward seeking but not reward retrieval in rats

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Briac Halbout ◽  
Andrew T Marshall ◽  
Ali Azimi ◽  
Mimi Liljeholm ◽  
Stephen V Mahler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Suppressive Effect ◽  
Maladaptive Behavior ◽  
Dopamine Neurons ◽  
Action Sequence ◽  
Reward Seeking ◽  
Fixed Action ◽  
Dopamine Circuits ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior

Efficient foraging requires an ability to coordinate discrete reward-seeking and reward-retrieval behaviors. We used pathway-specific chemogenetic inhibition to investigate how rats’ mesolimbic and mesocortical dopamine circuits contribute to the expression and modulation of reward seeking and retrieval. Inhibiting ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons disrupted the tendency for reward-paired cues to motivate reward seeking, but spared their ability to increase attempts to retrieve reward. Similar effects were produced by inhibiting dopamine inputs to nucleus accumbens, but not medial prefrontal cortex. Inhibiting dopamine neurons spared the suppressive effect of reward devaluation on reward seeking, an assay of goal-directed behavior. Attempts to retrieve reward persisted after devaluation, indicating they were habitually performed as part of a fixed action sequence. Our findings show that complete bouts of reward seeking and retrieval are behaviorally and neurally dissociable from bouts of reward seeking without retrieval. This dichotomy may prove useful for uncovering mechanisms of maladaptive behavior.

855 Sexsomnia: A Case Series Looking at a Rare Parasomnia

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A332-A333
Author(s):  
Brian Ku ◽  
Cephas Mujuruki ◽  
Abha Patel ◽  
Gregory Carter
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Activity ◽  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Sleep Latency ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Obstructive Sleep ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alcohol Cessation ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior ◽  
Epilepsy Monitoring

Abstract Introduction Sexsomnia is a male predominant, rare subset of NREM parasomnia involving sleep-related sexual activity. Symptoms can range from individual sexual acts, such as masturbation, to acts involving bed partners, often without recollection. Sexsomnia results in profound personal, social, and legal ramifications. Though typically treated with benzodiazepines, here we present three patients that were managed nontraditionally. Report of case(s) Case 1 A 34-year-old man with a history of optimized obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), alcohol abuse, and bipolar disorder reported eight-years of parasomnia characterized by fondling, sexual intercourse, and aggressive sexual acts, despite treatment with benzodiazepines. His fiancé noted that his advances when sleeping were atypical for their normal intimate interactions. He was observed to have frequent arousals from N3 sleep during PSG. The patient denied current substance use, but did report bilateral foot discomfort leading to sleep disturbance. His ferritin was 38 ng/mL, and he was started on oral iron and vitamin C. Case 2 A 41-year-old woman with a history of anxiety, psoriatic arthritis, insomnia and childhood somnambulism presented with parasomnia ranging from fondling to sexual intercourse. Her husband noted that during the episodes, her mannerisms and speech pattern were vastly different from normal. She endorsed difficulty initiating sleep, with a sleep latency of one hour and frequent arousals despite using trazodone nightly. She consumed two to five glasses of whiskey in the evenings several nights a week. Parasomnia events were more prevalent on nights that she partook in alcohol and improved with alcohol cessation. Case 3 A 44-year-old man with a history of optimized mild OSA presented with parasomnias characterized by somnambulism with goal-directed behavior and sexual activity, with a family history of violent parasomnias. Given the atypical nature of his events, he was referred to the epilepsy monitoring unit, which was ultimately nondiagnostic. Benzodiazepine therapy was ineffective. He chose to defer further medical management, leading the patient to pursue cognitive behavioral therapy, with moderate benefit. He reports infrequent parasomnias off medications. Conclusion Sexsomnia remains a rare, and likely under reported phenomenon. In each of the highlighted cases, the patients responded to treatment without the use of standard benzodiazepine therapy. Support (if any):

Everyday creativity and bipolar and unipolar affective disorder: preliminary study of personal and family history

1992 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Richards ◽  
DK Kinney ◽  
H Daniels ◽  
K Linkins
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Family History ◽  
Affective Disorder ◽  
Affective Disorders ◽  
Bipolar Disorders ◽  
Data Support ◽  
History Of ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Everyday Creativity ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

SummaryPreliminary new data support the enhancement of ‘everyday’ creativity among those persons with bipolar disorders who manifest milder rather than more severe mood elevations, and among certain individuals who are likely to carry bipolar liability but themselves show no clinical mood elevations – in this case, unipolar depressives with a family history of bipolar disorder, when compared with depressives lacking this history. Creativity was assessed using the lifetime creativity scales (Richards el al, 1988). Underlying mechanisms may be multifactorial and complex. Results suggest that both personal and family history should be considered when making predictions concerning creativity and affective disorders.

The history of the quasi-auxiliary use(d) to

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Neels
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Representation ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Time Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Aspect Marker ◽  
Feeding Process ◽  
Discourse Frequency ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

This article is a corpus-based study on the grammaticalization of the quasi-auxiliary use(d) to. It describes and seeks to explain the historical process whereby use(d) to, starting from the Middle English source construction use ‘be in the habit of’ + to + verb, grammaticalized into a habitual aspect marker with idiosyncratic morphosyntactic properties. A detailed corpus study is presented, based on four historical English corpora, which together cover a time period from 1410 to 2009. The results of the corpus analysis are interpreted within the theoretical framework of usage-based grammar, with the aim of uncovering the mechanisms that propelled the gradual grammaticalization of use(d) to on the semantic, morphological, syntactic and phonological dimensions. Among the underlying mechanisms and processes identified are semantic generalization via host-class expansion and habituation, pragmatic enrichment, analogy, chunking, loss of analyzability and internal structure, as well as phonological reduction through neuromotor automation. Supported by the quantitative empirical evidence from the corpus analysis and drawing on findings from usage-based research on language change, the present study depicts the grammaticalization of use(d) to as a self-feeding process driven by frequency effects, i.e. by the effects that the increasingly high discourse frequency of the use(d) to construction had on its cognitive representation.

Sickle Cell Anemia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eboni I Lance ◽  
Andrew W. Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Sickle Cell Disease ◽  
Sickle Cell ◽  
Blood Cells ◽  
Marrow Transplant ◽  
Neurologic Complications ◽  
Cell Disease ◽  
Transfusion Therapy ◽  
Hematological Disorder ◽  
History Of ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Sickle cell disease is a genetic hematological disorder involving red blood cells that become deformed when stressed. Patients with homozygous hemoglobin SS disease often have multiple systemic and neurologic complications, particularly stroke. Intellectual disability is commonly seen in the population, in patients with and without a history of stroke, attributed to different underlying mechanisms of brain injury. Autism is rare and not described in sickle cell disease in the literature to date. Many treatments (chronic transfusion therapy, hydroxyurea, bone marrow transplant) are in trials at this time to see if risk of stroke and other neurologic complications can be reduced (ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers: NCT01425307, NCT01389024, NCT00152113).

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