Fullerene-Filtered Light Spectrum and Fullerenes Modulate Emotional and Pain Processing in Mice

The most symmetric molecule, Buckminster fullerene C60, due to its unique properties, has been intensively studied for various medical and technological advances. Minimally invasive and minimally toxic treatments hold great promise for future applications. With this in mind, this research exploited the physical properties of fullerene molecules for potential therapeutic effects. Pristine fullerenes have peak absorbance in the 380–500 nm range, making them an attractive violet-blue light filter. Since spectral quality of light can affect behavior, this research used resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs fMRI) and behavioral testing to directly evaluate the effects of fullerene-filtered light on brain processing and behavior in mice. The same method was used to study if hydroxyl fullerene water complexes (3HFWC), with or without fullerene-filtered light, modulated brain processing. A month-long, daily exposure to fullerene-filtered light led to decreased activation of the brain area involved in emotional processing (amygdala). Water supplemented with 3HFWC resulted in an activation of brain areas involved in pain modulation and processing (periaqueductal gray), and decreased latency to first reaction when tested with a hot plate. The combination of fullerene-filtered light with 3HFWC in drinking water led to restored sensitivity to a hot plate and activation of brain areas involved in cognitive functions (prelimbic, anterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortex). These results uncovered the potential of fullerene-filtered light to impact emotional processing and modulate pain perception, indicating its further use in stress and pain management.

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Ketamine modulates subgenual cingulate connectivity with the memory-related neural circuit – a mechanism of relevance to resistant depression?

10.7287/peerj.preprints.1436v1 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Jing J Wong ◽

Owen O'Daly ◽

Mitul A Mehta ◽

James M Stone

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Neural Circuit ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Retrosplenial Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Acute Administration ◽

Seed Region ◽

Resistant Depression

Background: Ketamine has been reported to have efficacy as an antidepressant in several studies of treatment-resistant depression. In this study, we investigate whether an acute administration of ketamine leads to reductions in the functional connectivity of subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) with other brain regions. Methods: Thirteen right-handed healthy male subjects underwent a 15 minute resting state fMRI with an infusion of intravenous ketamine (target blood level=150ng/ml) starting at 5 minutes. We used a seed region centred on the sgACC and assessed functional connectivity before and during ketamine administration. Results: Before ketamine administration, positive coupling with the sgACC seed region was observed in a large cluster encompassing the anterior cingulate and negative coupling was observed with the anterior cerebellum. Following ketamine administration, sgACC coupling decreased with the brainstem, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, retrosplenial cortex, and thalamus. Discussion: Ketamine reduced functional connectivity of the sgACC with brain regions implicated in emotion, memory and mind wandering. It is possible the therapeutic effects of ketamine may be mediated via this mechanism, although further work is required to test this hypothesis.

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Ketamine modulates subgenual cingulate connectivity with the memory-related neural circuit – a mechanism of relevance to resistant depression?

10.7287/peerj.preprints.1436 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Jing J Wong ◽

Owen O'Daly ◽

Mitul A Mehta ◽

James M Stone

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Neural Circuit ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Retrosplenial Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Acute Administration ◽

Seed Region ◽

Resistant Depression

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Ketamine modulates subgenual cingulate connectivity with the memory-related neural circuit—a mechanism of relevance to resistant depression?

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.1710 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. e1710 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Jing J. Wong ◽

Owen O’Daly ◽

Mitul A. Mehta ◽

Allan H. Young ◽

James M. Stone

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Neural Circuit ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Retrosplenial Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Acute Administration ◽

Seed Region ◽

Resistant Depression

Background.Ketamine has been reported to have efficacy as an antidepressant in several studies of treatment-resistant depression. In this study, we investigate whether an acute administration of ketamine leads to reductions in the functional connectivity of subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) with other brain regions.Methods.Thirteen right-handed healthy male subjects underwent a 15 min resting state fMRI with an infusion of intravenous ketamine (target blood level = 150 ng/ml) starting at 5 min. We used a seed region centred on the sgACC and assessed functional connectivity before and during ketamine administration.Results.Before ketamine administration, positive coupling with the sgACC seed region was observed in a large cluster encompassing the anterior cingulate and negative coupling was observed with the anterior cerebellum. Following ketamine administration, sgACC activity became negatively correlated with the brainstem, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, retrosplenial cortex, and thalamus.Discussion.Ketamine reduced functional connectivity of the sgACC with brain regions implicated in emotion, memory and mind wandering. It is possible the therapeutic effects of ketamine may be mediated via this mechanism, although further work is required to test this hypothesis.

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Lack of effect of lesions in the anterior cingulate cortex and retrosplenial cortex on certain tests of spatial memory in the rat

Behavioural Brain Research ◽

10.1016/0166-4328(94)90077-9 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 65 (1) ◽

pp. 89-101 ◽

Cited By ~ 65

Author(s):

N. Neave ◽

S. Lloyd ◽

A. Sahgal ◽

J.P. Aggleton

Keyword(s):

Spatial Memory ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Retrosplenial Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate

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Engineering Safer Psychedelics for Treating Addiction

Neuroscience Insights ◽

10.1177/26331055211033847 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 ◽

pp. 263310552110338

Author(s):

Jamie Peters ◽

David E Olson

Keyword(s):

Executive Control ◽

Neural Circuitry ◽

Opioid Addiction ◽

Adult Brain ◽

Great Promise ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Preclinical Models ◽

Drug Seeking ◽

Reward Circuitry

Addiction is best described as a disorder of maladaptive neuroplasticity involving the simultaneous strengthening of reward circuitry that drives compulsive drug seeking and weakening of circuits involved in executive control over harmful behaviors. Psychedelics have shown great promise for treating addiction, with many people attributing their therapeutic effects to insights gained while under the influence of the drug. However, psychedelics are also potent psychoplastogens—molecules capable of rapidly re-wiring the adult brain. The advent of non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens with anti-addictive properties raises the intriguing possibility that hallucinations might not be necessary for all therapeutic effects of psychedelic-based medicines, so long as the underlying pathological neural circuitry can be remedied. One of these non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens, tabernanthalog (TBG), appears to have long-lasting therapeutic effects in preclinical models relevant to alcohol and opioid addiction. Here, we discuss the implications of these results for the development of addiction treatments, as well as the next steps for advancing TBG and related non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens as addiction therapeutics.

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Mental travel in the social domain

10.1101/849497 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Mordechai Hayman ◽

Shahar Arzy

Keyword(s):

Social Network ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Retrosplenial Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Significant Other ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

The Social ◽

Famous Person

“Mental travel” is the ability to imagine oneself in different places and times and to adopt other people’s point of view (POV), also termed “Theory of Mind (ToM)”. While ToM has been extensively investigated, self-projection with respect to ones’ own and others’ social networks has yet to be systematically studied.Here we asked participants to “project” themselves to four different POVs: a significant other, a non-significant other, a famous-person, and their own-self. From each POV they were asked to rate the level of affiliation (closeness) to different individuals in the respective social network while undergoing functional MRI.Participants were always faster making judgments from their own POV compared to other POVs (self-projection effect) and for people who were personally closer to their adopted POV (self-reference effect). Brain activity at the medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex in the self POV condition was found to be higher compared to all other conditions. Activity at the right temporoparietal junction and medial parietal cortex was found to distinguish between the personally related (self, significant- and non-significant others) and unrelated (famous-person) individuals within the social network. Regardless of the POV, the precuneus, anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, and temporoparietal junction distinguished between relatively closer and distant people. Representational similarity analysis (RSA) implicated the left retrosplenial cortex as crucial for social distance processing across all POVs.

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Psychology of attention

New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry ◽

10.1093/med/9780199696758.003.0031 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 245-249

Author(s):

Elizabeth Coulthard ◽

Masud Husain

Keyword(s):

Human Brain ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Good Deal ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Frontal Eye Field ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Flexible Control ◽

Eye Field ◽

Brain Processing

Attention is generally taken to be the process by which people are able to concentrate on certain information or processes, while ignoring other events. It appears to be a fundamental attribute of human brain processing, although difficult to pin down in terms of mechanism. Psychologists have attempted to fractionate attention in many different ways, using ingenious behavioural paradigms. In this section we, too, will consider different aspects of attention: selective, phasic and sustained, divided and executive control of attention. However, it would be fair to say that all these aspects of attention do not normally operate in isolation. Instead they interact, and deficiencies in one aspect of attention, for example, in a patient population, often to do not occur in isolation. Functional imaging and lesion studies of attention have proliferated in recent years, attempting to place a neurobiological framework to these varied processes. In general, these studies also tend to confirm the view that attention is likely an emergent property of widespread brain networks, with a special emphasis on frontal and parietal regions of the human brain (Fig. 2.5.2.1). In this discussion we illustrate several aspects of attention with examples particularly from literature on visual attention, which is the most widely studied area, but it should be appreciated that many of the concepts discussed here extend to other domains. In fact, there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that several aspects of attention operate at a supra- or cross-modal level allowing integration of information from different sources. Recent studies suggest there are two fronto-parietal networks: (Fig. 2.5.2.1) a dorsal parieto-frontal network involving the superior parietal lobe (SPL) and dorsal frontal regions such as the frontal eye field (FEF); and a ventral network involving the inferior parietal lobe (IPL), temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). In addition, dorsomedial frontal areas, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and pre-supplementary area (pre-SMA) may play a key role in flexible control of attention for strategic behaviour.

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Manganese-enhanced MRI depicts a reduction in brain responses to nociception upon mTOR inhibition in chronic pain rats

Molecular Brain ◽

10.1186/s13041-020-00687-1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Myeounghoon Cha ◽

Songyeon Choi ◽

Kyeongmin Kim ◽

Bae Hwan Lee

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Nerve Injury ◽

Pain Perception ◽

Imaging Techniques ◽

Insular Cortex ◽

Pain Modulation ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Related Area ◽

Mtor Inhibition ◽

The Brain

AbstractNeuropathic pain induced by a nerve injury can lead to chronic pain. Recent studies have reported hyperactive neural activities in the nociceptive-related area of the brain as a result of chronic pain. Although cerebral activities associated with hyperalgesia and allodynia in chronic pain models are difficult to represent with functional imaging techniques, advances in manganese (Mn)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) could facilitate the visualization of the activation of pain-specific neural responses in the cerebral cortex. In order to investigate the alleviation of pain nociception by mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) modulation, we observed cerebrocortical excitability changes and compared regional Mn2+ enhancement after mTOR inhibition. At day 7 after nerve injury, drugs were applied into the intracortical area, and drug (Vehicle, Torin1, and XL388) effects were compared within groups using MEMRI. Therein, signal intensities of the insular cortex (IC), primary somatosensory cortex of the hind limb region, motor cortex 1/2, and anterior cingulate cortex regions were significantly reduced after application of mTOR inhibitors (Torin1 and XL388). Furthermore, rostral-caudal analysis of the IC indicated that the rostral region of the IC was more strongly associated with pain perception than the caudal region. Our data suggest that MEMRI can depict pain-related signal changes in the brain and that mTOR inhibition is closely correlated with pain modulation in chronic pain rats.

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Neurochemical Correlates of Brain Atrophy in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Cortical Thickness Study

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10060395 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 395

Author(s):

Paola Feraco ◽

Salvatore Nigro ◽

Luca Passamonti ◽

Alessandro Grecucci ◽

Maria Eugenia Caligiuri ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Resonance ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Pain Modulation ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Resonance Spectroscopy ◽

Dependent Manner ◽

Cingulate Gyrus ◽

Concentration Dependent Manner ◽

The Right

(1) Background: Recently, a series of clinical neuroimaging studies on fibromyalgia (FM) have shown a reduction in cortical volume and abnormally high glutamate (Glu) and glutamate + glutamine (Glx) levels in regions associated with pain modulation. However, it remains unclear whether the volumetric decreases and increased Glu levels in FM are related each other. We hypothesized that higher Glu levels are related to decreases in cortical thickness (CT) and volume in FM patients. (2) Methods: Twelve females with FM and 12 matched healthy controls participated in a session of combined 3.0 Tesla structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and single-voxel MR spectroscopy focused on the thalami and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices (VLPFC). The thickness of the cortical and subcortical gray matter structures and the Glu/Cr and Glx/Cr ratios were estimated. Statistics included an independent t-test and Spearman’s test. (3) Results: The Glu/Cr ratio of the left VLPFC was negatively related to the CT of the left inferior frontal gyrus (pars opercularis (p = 0.01; r = −0.75) and triangularis (p = 0.01; r = −0.70)). Moreover, the Glx/Cr ratio of the left VLPFC was negatively related to the CT of the left middle anterior cingulate gyrus (p = 0.003; r = −0.81). Significantly lower CTs in FM were detected in subparts of the cingulate gyrus on both sides and in the right inferior occipital gyrus (p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: Our findings are in line with previous observations that high glutamate levels can be related, in a concentration-dependent manner, to the morphological atrophy described in FM patients.

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0761 Independent Components Analysis And Graph Theoretical Analysis In Patients With Narcolepsy

SLEEP ◽

10.1093/sleep/zsaa056.757 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 43 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. A289-A289

Author(s):

F Xiao ◽

L Zhao ◽

F Han

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Partial Correlation ◽

Sleep Latency ◽

Small World ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Topological Properties ◽

Partial Correlation Analysis ◽

Brain Areas ◽

Independent Components

Abstract Introduction To evaluate resting state functional connectivity and topological properties of brain network in narcolepsy compared with healthy controls. Methods Resting state fMRI was performed in 26 adult narcolepsy patients and 30 matched healthy controls. MRI data was first analyzed by group independent component analysis, then a graph theoretical method was applied to evaluate topological properties within whole brain. Small-world network parameters and nodal topological properties were measured. Altered topological properties in brain areas between groups were selected as ROI-seeds, then functional connectivity among these ROI-seeds were compared between groups. Partial correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between sleepiness severity and functional connectivity or topological properties in the narcolepsy. Results 21 independent components out of 48 components were obtained. Compared with healthy controls, narcolepsy exhibited a significant decreased functional connectivity within the executive and salience network, while increased functional connectivity in bilateral frontal lobe within executive network can be detected in narcolepsy. There were no differences in small-world network properties between narcolepsy and healthy controls. The altered brain areas in nodal topological properties were mainly located in inferior frontal cortex, basal ganglia, anterior cingulate, sensory cortex, supplementary motor cortex and visual cortex between groups. In the partial correlation analysis, nodal topological properties in putamen, anterior cingulate and sensory cortex as well as functional connectivity between these brain regions were correlated with the severity of sleepiness (sleep latency, REM sleep latency and ESS) among narcolepsy. Conclusion Altered connectivity within executive network and salience network were found in narcolepsy. Functional connection changes between left frontal cortex and left caudate nucleus may be one of the parameters describing the severity of narcolepsy. Nodal topological properties alterations in left putamen and left posterior cingulate, changes in functional connectivity between left supplementary motor area and right occipital as well as changes in functional connectivity between left anterior cingulate gyrus and bilateral postcentral gyrus can be considered to be a specific indicator for evaluating the severity of narcolepsy. Support National Natural Science Foundation of China (81700088)National Program on Key Basic Research Project of China (973 Program, 2015CB856405)

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