scholarly journals What Neuroscientific Studies Tell Us about Inhibition of Return

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Satel ◽  
Nicholas R. Wilson ◽  
Raymond M. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Direct Methods ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Unit Recording ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Lesion Studies

An inhibitory aftermath of orienting, inhibition of return (IOR), has intrigued scholars since its discovery about 40 years ago. Since then, the phenomenon has been subjected to a wide range of neuroscientific methods and the results of these are reviewed in this paper. These include direct manipulations of brain structures (which occur naturally in brain damage and disease or experimentally as in TMS and lesion studies) and measurements of brain activity (in humans using EEG and fMRI and in animals using single unit recording). A variety of less direct methods (e.g., computational modeling, developmental studies, etc.) have also been used. The findings from this wide range of methods support the critical role of subcortical and cortical oculomotor pathways in the generation and nature of IOR.

scholarly journals Consciousness, decision making, and volition: freedom beyond chance and necessity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Liljenström
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Neural Information ◽  
Neural Information Processing ◽  
Stochastic Population Model ◽  
The Brain

AbstractWhat is the role of consciousness in volition and decision-making? Are our actions fully determined by brain activity preceding our decisions to act, or can consciousness instead affect the brain activity leading to action? This has been much debated in philosophy, but also in science since the famous experiments by Libet in the 1980s, where the current most common interpretation is that conscious free will is an illusion. It seems that the brain knows, up to several seconds in advance what “you” decide to do. These studies have, however, been criticized, and alternative interpretations of the experiments can be given, some of which are discussed in this paper. In an attempt to elucidate the processes involved in decision-making (DM), as an essential part of volition, we have developed a computational model of relevant brain structures and their neurodynamics. While DM is a complex process, we have particularly focused on the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for its emotional, and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) for its cognitive aspects. In this paper, we present a stochastic population model representing the neural information processing of DM. Simulation results seem to confirm the notion that if decisions have to be made fast, emotional processes and aspects dominate, while rational processes are more time consuming and may result in a delayed decision. Finally, some limitations of current science and computational modeling will be discussed, hinting at a future development of science, where consciousness and free will may add to chance and necessity as explanation for what happens in the world.

scholarly journals Development of cancer metabolism as a therapeutic target: new pathways, patient studies, stratification and combination therapy

2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian L. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Pathways ◽  
Trial Design ◽  
Cancer Metabolism ◽  
Aerobic Glycolysis ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Preclinical Models ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Patient Studies

AbstractCancer metabolism has undergone a resurgence in the last decade, 70 years after Warburg described aerobic glycolysis as a feature of cancer cells. A wide range of techniques have elucidated the complexity and heterogeneity in preclinical models and clinical studies. What emerges are the large differences between tissues, tumour types and intratumour heterogeneity. However, synergies with inhibition of metabolic pathways have been found for many drugs and therapeutic approaches, and a critical role of window studies and translational trial design is key to success.

Wildlife management and the debate on the ethics of animal use. II. A challenge for the animal protection movement.

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lunney
Keyword(s):  
Wildlife Management ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Animal Liberation ◽  
Ethical Imperative ◽  
Animal Protection ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Animal Use

How people coexist and interact with animals has become an intensely debated issue in recent times, particularly with the rise of the animal protection movement following the publication of Peter Singer’s book Animal Liberation in 1975. This paper discusses some shortcomings of the philosophical positions taken in this complex debate. Singer has helped put animals on a new footing as a group that cannot morally be ignored, but his focus is mainly on individual, familiar animals that are used or abused by humans. The argument of this paper is that the ethics of managing wildlife hinges on a broader view of animals, and their contexts, than is apparent from Singer’s text. Wildlife managers aim to conserve populations of a wide range of species, and their habitats, but some mechanisms for achieving these aims, such as research and the control of invasive animals, are frequently opposed by elements of the animal protection movement. We need to adapt our attitude to animals, particularly wildlife, away from the traditional legacy of a few familiar species to embrace an ethic that is more ecological and relevant to Australian contexts. The case argued here has been to see the critical role of context — geographical, ecological, historical, relational — as a basis for a degree of reconciliation between conservation-oriented wildlife managers and the rising interest in the ethics of animal use. There is much to be gained for zoologists, wildlife managers and conservation biologists by framing key elements of their case in ethical arguments. Conversely, the challenge for those in the animal protection movement is to expand their philosophical ideas to include the ethical imperative of the conservation of populations of wildlife.

scholarly journals Multi-shanks SiNAPS Active Pixel Sensor CMOS probe: 1024 simultaneously recording channels for high-density intracortical brain mapping

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Boi ◽  
Nikolas Perentos ◽  
Aziliz Lecomte ◽  
Gerrit Schwesig ◽  
Stefano Zordan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
High Density ◽  
Single Neurons ◽  
Electrode Arrays ◽  
Unit Recording ◽  
Recording Channels

AbstractThe advent of implantable active dense CMOS neural probes opened a new era for electrophysiology in neuroscience. These single shank electrode arrays, and the emerging tailored analysis tools, provide for the first time to neuroscientists the neurotechnology means to spatiotemporally resolve the activity of hundreds of different single-neurons in multiple vertically aligned brain structures. However, while these unprecedented experimental capabilities to study columnar brain properties are a big leap forward in neuroscience, there is the need to spatially distribute electrodes also horizontally. Closely spacing and consistently placing in well-defined geometrical arrangement multiple isolated single-shank probes is methodologically and economically impractical. Here, we present the first high-density CMOS neural probe with multiple shanks integrating thousand’s of closely spaced and simultaneously recording microelectrodes to map neural activity across 2D lattice. Taking advantage from the high-modularity of our electrode-pixels-based SiNAPS technology, we realized a four shanks active dense probe with 256 electrode-pixels/shank and a pitch of 28 µm, for a total of 1024 simultaneously recording channels. The achieved performances allow for full-band, whole-array read-outs at 25 kHz/channel, show a measured input referred noise in the action potential band (300-7000 Hz) of 6.5 ± 2.1µVRMS, and a power consumption <6 µW/electrode-pixel. Preliminary recordings in awake behaving mice demonstrated the capability of multi-shanks SiNAPS probes to simultaneously record neural activity (both LFPs and spikes) from a brain area >6 mm2, spanning cortical, hippocampal and thalamic regions. High-density 2D array enables combining large population unit recording across distributed networks with precise intra- and interlaminar/nuclear mapping of the oscillatory dynamics. These results pave the way to a new generation of high-density and extremely compact multi-shanks CMOS-probes with tunable layouts for electrophysiological mapping of brain activity at the single-neurons resolution.

scholarly journals Shared and Unique Roles of Cap23 and Gap43 in Actin Regulation, Neurite Outgrowth, and Anatomical Plasticity

2000 ◽  
Vol 149 (7) ◽  
pp. 1443-1454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dunja Frey ◽  
Thorsten Laux ◽  
Lan Xu ◽  
Corinna Schneider ◽  
Pico Caroni
Keyword(s):  
Actin Cytoskeleton ◽  
Neurite Outgrowth ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Calmodulin Binding ◽  
Essentially Normal ◽  
Anatomical Plasticity ◽  
Nerve Sprouting

CAP23 is a major cortical cytoskeleton–associated and calmodulin binding protein that is widely and abundantly expressed during development, maintained in selected brain structures in the adult, and reinduced during nerve regeneration. Overexpression of CAP23 in adult neurons of transgenic mice promotes nerve sprouting, but the role of this protein in process outgrowth was not clear. Here, we show that CAP23 is functionally related to GAP43, and plays a critical role to regulate nerve sprouting and the actin cytoskeleton. Knockout mice lacking CAP23 exhibited a pronounced and complex phenotype, including a defect to produce stimulus-induced nerve sprouting at the adult neuromuscular junction. This sprouting deficit was rescued by transgenic overexpression of either CAP23 or GAP43 in adult motoneurons. Knockin mice expressing GAP43 instead of CAP23 were essentially normal, indicating that, although these proteins do not share homologous sequences, GAP43 can functionally substitute for CAP23 in vivo. Cultured sensory neurons lacking CAP23 exhibited striking alterations in neurite outgrowth that were phenocopied by low doses of cytochalasin D. A detailed analysis of such cultures revealed common and unique functions of CAP23 and GAP43 on the actin cytoskeleton and neurite outgrowth. The results provide compelling experimental evidence for the notion that CAP23 and GAP43 are functionally related intrinsic determinants of anatomical plasticity, and suggest that these proteins function by locally promoting subplasmalemmal actin cytoskeleton accumulation.

scholarly journals LSD1, a double-edged sword, confers dynamic chromatin regulation but commonly promotes aberrant cell growth

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan M Kozub ◽  
Ryan M Carr ◽  
Gwen L Lomberk ◽  
Martin E Fernandez-Zapico
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Chromatin Remodeling ◽  
Cellular Differentiation ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Histone Demethylase ◽  
Epigenetic Changes ◽  
Lysine Specific Demethylase ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Histone Modifying Enzymes

Histone-modifying enzymes play a critical role in chromatin remodeling and are essential for influencing several genome processes such as gene expression and DNA repair, replication, and recombination. The discovery of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), the first identified histone demethylase, dramatically revolutionized research in the field of epigenetics. LSD1 plays a pivotal role in a wide range of biological operations, including development, cellular differentiation, embryonic pluripotency, and disease (for example, cancer). This mini-review focuses on the role of LSD1 in chromatin regulatory complexes, its involvement in epigenetic changes throughout development, and its importance in physiological and pathological processes.

scholarly journals Building a functional connectome of the Drosophila central complex

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Franconville ◽  
Celia Beron ◽  
Vivek Jayaraman
Keyword(s):  
Light Microscopy ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Central Complex ◽  
Connectivity Matrix ◽  
Insect Brain ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Functional Connectome ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Microscopy Images

The central complex is a highly conserved insect brain region composed of morphologically stereotyped neurons that arborize in distinctively shaped substructures. The region is implicated in a wide range of behaviors and several modeling studies have explored its circuit computations. Most studies have relied on assumptions about connectivity between neurons based on their overlap in light microscopy images. Here, we present an extensive functional connectome of Drosophila melanogaster’s central complex at cell-type resolution. Using simultaneous optogenetic stimulation, calcium imaging and pharmacology, we tested the connectivity between 70 presynaptic-to-postsynaptic cell-type pairs. We identified numerous inputs to the central complex, but only a small number of output channels. Additionally, the connectivity of this highly recurrent circuit appears to be sparser than anticipated from light microscopy images. Finally, the connectivity matrix highlights the potentially critical role of a class of bottleneck interneurons. All data are provided for interactive exploration on a website.

scholarly journals Η ανάπτυξη της ενσυναίσθησης στους διδύμους

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 415
Author(s):  
Μαρία Μαρκοδημητράκη
Keyword(s):  
School Context ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Family Context ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Unsolved Issue

In this article we discuss the currently unsolved issue of empathy in twins. In the first chapter we briefly describe some definitions, its differentiation from several other related concepts and representative psychological theories on empathy. In the second chapter, we give a brief description of the psychological studies on twins’ empathy. In particular, we present some findings from fetal, infant, child, adolescent and adult life. These findings derived from comparative twin - non twin studies. Some of them are clinical studies focusing on the role of heredity and environment in empathy’s development and some other are developmental studies based on a psychoanalytical approach of empathy and its approach in light of the Theory of Innate Intersubjectivity. In the Discussion section, we summarize all the above, we detect the gaps in research on twins’ empathy and we make a brief reference to the value of empathy’s development in a family context during the first months of life and in a school context later in life. Finally, we highlight the need to investigate further the wide range of the associated terms.

scholarly journals Inflammaging and Complement System: A Link Between Acute Kidney Injury and Chronic Graft Damage

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rossana Franzin ◽  
Alessandra Stasi ◽  
Marco Fiorentino ◽  
Giovanni Stallone ◽  
Vincenzo Cantaluppi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acute Kidney Injury ◽  
Complement System ◽  
Kidney Diseases ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Graft Function ◽  
Kidney Injury ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Renal Aging

The aberrant activation of complement system in several kidney diseases suggests that this pillar of innate immunity has a critical role in the pathophysiology of renal damage of different etiologies. A growing body of experimental evidence indicates that complement activation contributes to the pathogenesis of acute kidney injury (AKI) such as delayed graft function (DGF) in transplant patients. AKI is characterized by the rapid loss of the kidney’s excretory function and is a complex syndrome currently lacking a specific medical treatment to arrest or attenuate progression in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Recent evidence suggests that independently from the initial trigger (i.e., sepsis or ischemia/reperfusions injury), an episode of AKI is strongly associated with an increased risk of subsequent CKD. The AKI-to-CKD transition may involve a wide range of mechanisms including scar-forming myofibroblasts generated from different sources, microvascular rarefaction, mitochondrial dysfunction, or cell cycle arrest by the involvement of epigenetic, gene, and protein alterations leading to common final signaling pathways [i.e., transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), p16ink4a, Wnt/β-catenin pathway] involved in renal aging. Research in recent years has revealed that several stressors or complications such as rejection after renal transplantation can lead to accelerated renal aging with detrimental effects with the establishment of chronic proinflammatory cellular phenotypes within the kidney. Despite a greater understanding of these mechanisms, the role of complement system in the context of the AKI-to-CKD transition and renal inflammaging is still poorly explored. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent findings describing the role of complement in AKI-to-CKD transition. We will also address how and when complement inhibitors might be used to prevent AKI and CKD progression, therefore improving graft function.

scholarly journals The Role of Free/Libre and Open Source Software in Learning Health Systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
C. Paton ◽  
T. Karopka
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Patient Data ◽  
It Infrastructure ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Wide Range

Summary Objective: To give an overview of the role of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) in the context of secondary use of patient data to enable Learning Health Systems (LHSs). Methods: We conducted an environmental scan of the academic and grey literature utilising the MedFLOSS database of open source systems in healthcare to inform a discussion of the role of open source in developing LHSs that reuse patient data for research and quality improvement. Results: A wide range of FLOSS is identified that contributes to the information technology (IT) infrastructure of LHSs including operating systems, databases, frameworks, interoperability software, and mobile and web apps. The recent literature around the development and use of key clinical data management tools is also reviewed. Conclusions: FLOSS already plays a critical role in modern health IT infrastructure for the collection, storage, and analysis of patient data. The nature of FLOSS systems to be collaborative, modular, and modifiable may make open source approaches appropriate for building the digital infrastructure for a LHS.

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