scholarly journals Multi-Level Processes and Retina–Brain Pathways of Photic Regulation of Mood

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 448
Author(s):  
Julia Maruani ◽  
Pierre A. Geoffroy

Light exerts powerful biological effects on mood regulation. Whereas the source of photic information affecting mood is well established at least via intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) secreting the melanopsin photopigment, the precise circuits that mediate the impact of light on depressive behaviors are not well understood. This review proposes two distinct retina–brain pathways of light effects on mood: (i) a suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)-dependent pathway with light effect on mood via the synchronization of biological rhythms, and (ii) a SCN-independent pathway with light effects on mood through modulation of the homeostatic process of sleep, alertness and emotion regulation: (1) light directly inhibits brain areas promoting sleep such as the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO), and activates numerous brain areas involved in alertness such as, monoaminergic areas, thalamic regions and hypothalamic regions including orexin areas; (2) moreover, light seems to modulate mood through orexin-, serotonin- and dopamine-dependent pathways; (3) in addition, light activates brain emotional processing areas including the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens, the perihabenular nucleus, the left hippocampus and pathways such as the retina–ventral lateral geniculate nucleus and intergeniculate leaflet–lateral habenula pathway. This work synthetizes new insights into the neural basis required for light influence mood

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 6043-2018
Author(s):  
Magdalena Prusik

In birds many life processes runs in diurnal (e.g. locomotor activity, feeding, melatonin secretion) and seasonal rhythms (e.g. reproduction, song, feathering, migration) depending on the environmental light and the activity of the central clock system (CCS). The structure and mechanisms of the activity of the avian CCS are the most complex among vertebrates. CCS consists of three oscillators (in the retina, SCN and pineal gland) possessing own sensory input system (photopigments) and effective output system (products for direct biological effects). So far in the CCS in birds 14 forms of photopigments (Opn1, Opn2, Opn3, TMT, Opn4x, Opn4m, Opn5, RGR, RRH, VA-opsins, pinopsin, Cry1, Cry2 i Cry4) and 12 clock genes making up oscillators (Bmal1, Bmal2, Clock, NPas2 called also Mop4 and Rorα – positive genes and Cry1, Cry2, Cry4, Per2, Per3, E4bp4 and Rev-erbα – negative genes) have been described. Photopigments are placed in all layers of the retina; in brain - mainly in regions of nuclei: septalis lateralis, premammillaris, habenularis and paraventricularis; in the pineal gland - in all kinds of pinealocytes. Most photopigments belonging to the opsin family are linked with nucleotide phototransduction path, typical for vertebrates, but in avian CCS also phosphoinositol phototransduction path, characteristic for invertebrates, is existing and concerns Opn4x and Opn5. Oscilators are placed in nuclei of cells of all layers of the retina, in mSCN and vSCN (with great species variability) and in pinealocytes. It is supposing, that all nonvisual photopigments have a direct role in the synchronization of the oscillator activity with the environmental light, but molecular mechanisms of the interaction between photopigments and the oscillator remain unknown. The impact of each of the three oscillators of CCS in generating of biological rhythms in birds show great species differentiation. The differences concern both the domination of one of oscillators over the others and the assignation of biological processes which individual oscillator synchronizes rhythmically with the environmental light..


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabina Baltruschat ◽  
Antonio Cándido ◽  
Antonio Maldonado ◽  
Carmen Verdejo-Lucas ◽  
Elvira Catena-Verdejo ◽  
...  

Dispositional mindfulness and emotion regulation are two psychological constructs closely interrelated, and both appear to improve with the long-term practice of mindfulness meditation. These constructs appear to be related to subcortical, prefrontal, and posterior brain areas involved in emotional processing, cognitive control, self-awareness, and mind wandering. However, no studies have yet discerned the neural basis of dispositional mindfulness that are minimally associated with emotion regulation. In the present study, we use a novel brain structural network analysis approach to study the relationship between structural networks and dispositional mindfulness, measured with two different and widely used instruments [Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)], taking into account the effect of emotion regulation difficulties. We observed a number of different brain regions associated with the different scales and dimensions. The total score of FFMQ and MAAS overlap with the bilateral parahippocampal and fusiform gyri. Additionally, MAAS scores were related to the bilateral hippocampus and the FFMQ total score to the right insula and bilateral amygdala. These results indicate that, depending on the instrument used, the characteristics measured could differ and could also involve different brain systems. However, it seems that brain areas related to emotional reactivity and semantic processing are generally related to Dispositional or trait mindfulness (DM), regardless of the instrument used.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Aleman

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe psychiatric disorder that affects all aspects of patients’ lives. Over the past decades, research applying methods from psychology and neuroscience has increasingly been zooming in on specific information processing abnormalities in schizophrenia. Impaired activation of and connectivity between frontotemporal, frontoparietal, and frontostriatal brain networks subserving cognitive functioning and integration of cognition and emotion has been consistently reported. Major issues in schizophrenia research concern the cognitive and neural basis of hallucinations, abnormalities in cognitive-emotional processing, social cognition (including theory of mind), poor awareness of illness, and apathy. Recent findings from cognitive neuroscience studies in these areas are discussed. The findings may have implications for treatment, for example, noninvasive neurostimulation of specific brain areas. Ultimately, a better understanding of the cognitive neuroscience of schizophrenia will pave the way for the development of effective treatment strategies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 135-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Wyczesany ◽  
Szczepan J. Grzybowski ◽  
Jan Kaiser

Abstract. In the study, the neural basis of emotional reactivity was investigated. Reactivity was operationalized as the impact of emotional pictures on the self-reported ongoing affective state. It was used to divide the subjects into high- and low-responders groups. Independent sources of brain activity were identified, localized with the DIPFIT method, and clustered across subjects to analyse the visual evoked potentials to affective pictures. Four of the identified clusters revealed effects of reactivity. The earliest two started about 120 ms from the stimulus onset and were located in the occipital lobe and the right temporoparietal junction. Another two with a latency of 200 ms were found in the orbitofrontal and the right dorsolateral cortices. Additionally, differences in pre-stimulus alpha level over the visual cortex were observed between the groups. The attentional modulation of perceptual processes is proposed as an early source of emotional reactivity, which forms an automatic mechanism of affective control. The role of top-down processes in affective appraisal and, finally, the experience of ongoing emotional states is also discussed.


Author(s):  
Yanlin Wang ◽  
Ping Jiang ◽  
Shi Tang ◽  
Lu Lu ◽  
Xuan Bu ◽  
...  

Abstract Anxiety and depressive symptoms may predispose individuals to sleep disturbance. Understanding how these emotional symptoms affect sleep quality, especially the underlying neural basis, could support the development of effective treatment. The aims of the present study were therefore to investigate potential changes in brain morphometry associated with poor sleep quality and whether this structure played a mediating role between the emotional symptoms and sleep quality. One hundred and forty-one healthy adults (69 women, mean age = 26.06 years, SD = 6.36 years) were recruited. A structural magnetic resonance imaging investigation was performed, and self-reported measures of anxiety, depressive symptoms and sleep quality were obtained for each participant. Whole-brain regression analysis revealed that worse sleep quality was associated with thinner cortex in left superior temporal sulcus (STS). Furthermore, the thickness of left STS mediated the association between the emotional symptoms and sleep quality. A subsequent commonality analysis showed that physiological component of the depressive symptoms had the greatest influence on sleep quality. In conclusion, thinner cortex in left STS may represent a neural substrate for the association between anxiety and depressive symptoms and poor sleep quality and may thus serve as a potential target for neuromodulatory treatment of sleep problems.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1427
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Solarska-Ściuk ◽  
Kinga Adach ◽  
Sylwia Cyboran-Mikołajczyk ◽  
Dorota Bonarska-Kujawa ◽  
Agnieszka Rusak ◽  
...  

Silicon dioxide, in the form of nanoparticles, possesses unique physicochemical properties (size, shape, and a large surface to volume ratio). Therefore, it is one of the most promising materials used in biomedicine. In this paper, we compare the biological effects of both mesoporous silica nanoparticles extracted from Urtica dioica L. and pyrogenic material. Both SEM and TEM investigations confirmed the size range of tested nanoparticles was between 6 and 20 nanometers and their amorphous structure. The cytotoxic activity of the compounds and intracellular ROS were determined in relation to cells HMEC-1 and erythrocytes. The cytotoxic effects of SiO2 NPs were determined after exposure to different concentrations and three periods of incubation. The same effects for endothelial cells were tested under the same range of concentrations but after 2 and 24 h of exposure to erythrocytes. The cell viability was measured using spectrophotometric and fluorimetric assays, and the impact of the nanoparticles on the level of intracellular ROS. The obtained results indicated that bioSiO2 NPs, present higher toxicity than pyrogenic NPs and have a higher influence on ROS production. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles show good hemocompatibility but after a 24 h incubation of erythrocytes with silica, the increase in hemolysis process, the decrease in osmotic resistance of red blood cells, and shape of erythrocytes changed were observed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (37) ◽  
pp. 4946-4967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna K. Kiss ◽  
Jakub P. Piwowarski

The popularity of food products and medicinal plant materials containing hydrolysable tannins (HT) is nowadays rapidly increasing. Among various health effects attributable to the products of plant origin rich in gallotannins and/or ellagitannins the most often underlined is the beneficial influence on diseases possessing inflammatory background. Results of clinical, interventional and animal in vivo studies clearly indicate the antiinflammatory potential of HT-containing products, as well as pure ellagitannins and gallotannins. In recent years a great emphasis has been put on the consideration of metabolism and bioavailability of natural products during examination of their biological effects. Conducted in vivo and in vitro studies of polyphenols metabolism put a new light on this issue and indicate the gut microbiota to play a crucial role in the health effects following their oral administration. The aim of the review is to summarize the knowledge about HT-containing products’ phytochemistry and their anti-inflammatory effects together with discussion of the data about observed biological activities with regards to the current concepts on the HTs’ bioavailability and metabolism. Orally administered HT-containing products due to the limited bioavailability of ellagitannins and gallotannins can influence immune response at the level of gastrointestinal tract as well as express modulating effects on the gut microbiota composition. However, due to the chemical changes being a result of their transit through gastrointestinal tract, comprising of hydrolysis and gut microbiota metabolism, the activity of produced metabolites has to be taken into consideration. Studies regarding biological effects of the HTs’ metabolites, in particular urolithins, indicate their strong and structure-dependent anti-inflammatory activities, being observed at the concentrations, which fit the range of their established bioavailability. The impact of HTs on inflammatory processes has been well established on various in vivo and in vitro models, while influence of microbiota metabolites on silencing the immune response gives a new perspective on understanding anti-inflammatory effects attributed to HT containing products, especially their postulated effectiveness in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and cardiovascular diseases.


2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (suppl) ◽  
pp. 86-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Costa

The impact of shift and night work on health shows a high inter- and intra-individual variability, both in terms of kind of troubles and temporal occurrence, related to various intervening factors dealing with individual characteristics, lifestyles, work demands, company organisation, family relations and social conditions. The way we define "health" and "well-being" can significantly influence appraisals, outcomes and interventions. As the goal is the optimisation of shiftworkers' health, it is necessary to go beyond the health protection and to act for health promotion. In this perspective, not only people related to medical sciences, but many other actors (ergonomists, psychologists, sociologists, educators, legislators), as well as shiftworkers themselves. Many models have been proposed aimed at describing the intervening variables mediating and/or moderating the effects; they try to define the interactions and the pathways connecting risk factors and outcomes through several human dimensions, which refer to physiology, psychology, pathology, sociology, ergonomics, economics, politics, and ethics. So, different criteria can be used to evaluate shiftworkers' health and well-being, starting from biological rhythms and ending in severe health disorders, passing through psychological strain, job dissatisfaction, family perturbation and social dis-adaptation, both in the short- and long-term. Consequently, it appears rather arbitrary to focus the problem of shiftworkers' health and tolerance only on specific aspects (e.g. individual characteristics), but a systemic approach appears more appropriate, able to match as many variables as possible, and aimed at defining which factors are the most relevant for those specific work and social conditions. This can support a more effective and profitable (for individuals, companies, and society) adoption of preventive and compensative measures, that must refer more to "countervalues" rather than to "counterweights".


2018 ◽  
Vol 400 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sybille Hasse ◽  
Marie-Christine Müller ◽  
Karin Uta Schallreuter ◽  
Thomas von Woedtke

Abstract Skin color is derived from epidermal melanocytes that contain specialized organelles in which melanin is formed. The formation of melanin is a well-orchestrated process, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a role in numerous enzymatic conversions, such as the reactions catalyzed by tyrosinase and tyrosine hydroxylase. Currently, there is ample evidence that cold plasma exerts biological effects on cells through the impact of ROS and reactive nitrogen species (RNS). Modulation of melanin biosynthesis by cold plasma has not yet been investigated. This study investigated melanin biosynthesis of human melanoma cell lines with different endogenous melanin contents (SK-Mel 28, G-361, FM-55-P and MNT-1) in response to cold plasma-derived reactive species. Initially, the distribution of melanosomes, via immunofluorescence, and the influence of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MiTF), as a key transcription factor, was investigated. In our experimental setup, all of the tested cell lines had an elevated melanin content after exposure to cold plasma. These promising results suggest a novel potential application of cold plasma for the regulation of melanogenesis and may be a useful tool for influencing skin color in the future.


Author(s):  
Judy A. Prasad ◽  
Aishwarya H. Balwani ◽  
Erik C. Johnson ◽  
Joseph D. Miano ◽  
Vandana Sampathkumar ◽  
...  

AbstractNeural cytoarchitecture is heterogeneous, varying both across and within brain regions. The consistent identification of regions of interest is one of the most critical aspects in examining neurocircuitry, as these structures serve as the vital landmarks with which to map brain pathways. Access to continuous, three-dimensional volumes that span multiple brain areas not only provides richer context for identifying such landmarks, but also enables a deeper probing of the microstructures within. Here, we describe a three-dimensional X-ray microtomography imaging dataset of a well-known and validated thalamocortical sample, encompassing a range of cortical and subcortical structures. In doing so, we provide the field with access to a micron-scale anatomical imaging dataset ideal for studying heterogeneity of neural structure.


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