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Cortex 2021 Mar 19;139:134-151. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

IMPACT Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, UMR5292, University of Lyon, Bron Cedex, France. Electronic address:

Optimally collecting information and controlling behaviour require that we constantly scan our visual environment through eye movements. How the dynamic interaction between short-lived retinal images and extra-retinal signals of eye motion results in our subjective experience of visual stability remains a major issue in Cognitive Neuroscience. The present study aimed to assess and determine the nature of the contribution of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) to the saccadic remapping mechanisms which contribute to such perceptual visual constancy. Read More

Neurobiol Learn Mem 2021 Apr 13:107439. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Department of Psychology, Durham University, DH1 3LE, UK; Centre for Learning and Memory Processes, Durham University, DH1 3LE, UK.

Spontaneous object recognition (SOR) is a widely used task of recognition memory in rodents which relies on their propensity to explore novel (or relatively novel) objects. Network models typically define perirhinal cortex as a region required for recognition of previously seen objects largely based on findings that lesions or inactivations of this area produce SOR deficits. However, relatively little is understood about the relationship between the activity of cells in the perirhinal cortex that signal novelty and familiarity and the behavioural responses of animals in the SOR task. Read More

Cell 2021 Apr 13. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA. Electronic address:

Cognitive flexibility, the ability to alter strategy according to changing stimulus-response-reward relationships, is critical for updating learned behavior. Attentional set-shifting, a test of cognitive flexibility, depends on the activity of prefrontal cortex (PFC). It remains unclear, however, what role PFC neurons play to support set-shifting. Read More

IBRO Neurosci Rep 2021 Jun 3;10:8-16. Epub 2021 Feb 3.

Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London SW15 4JD, UK.

Serotonin (5-HT), via its receptors expressed in discrete brain regions, modulates aversion and reward processing and is implicated in various psychiatric disorders including depression. Stressful experiences affect central serotonergic activity and act as a risk factor for depression; this can be modelled preclinically. In adult male C57BL/6J mice, 15-day chronic social stress (CSS) leads to depression-relevant behavioural states, including increased aversion and reduced reward sensitivity. Read More

Cereb Cortex 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.

The self-face advantage has been demonstrated not only at the supraliminal level, but also at the subliminal level. However, it remains unclear whether subliminal self-face processing involves the same neural networks as those for supraliminal self-face processing. Here, we show that the ventral tegmental area, a center of the dopamine reward pathway, exhibited greater activation to subliminal presentations of the self-face than those of the others' faces, whereas subliminal presentations of the others' faces induced activation in the amygdala, which generally responds to unfamiliar information. Read More

Alzheimers Dement (N Y) 2021 9;7(1):e12162. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York New York USA.

Introduction: Synaptic damage is a key pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The mechanism underlying synaptic vulnerability in AD remains elusive.

Methods: Using a large-scale transcriptomic dataset, we analyzed the neurogranin-centered integrative gene network and assessed the correlation of neurogranin () gene expression with AD pathology in brains. Read More

Acta Pharmacol Sin 2021 Apr 15. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Beijing Key Laboratory of Drug Targets Identification and Drug Screening, Centre for Pharmaceutical Screening, Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100050, China.

Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) is a common serious complication of stroke after thrombolysis treatment, which limits the clinical use of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA). Since early diagnosis and treatment for HT is important to improve the prognosis of stroke patients, it is urgent to discover the potential biomarkers and therapeutic drugs. Recent evidence shows that pinocembrin, a natural flavonoid compound, exerts anti-cerebral ischemia effect and expands the time window of t-PA. Read More

Nat Commun 2021 04 15;12(1):2278. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Face-processing occurs across ventral and lateral visual streams, which are involved in static and dynamic face perception, respectively. However, the nature of spatial computations across streams is unknown. Using functional MRI and population receptive field (pRF) mapping, we measured pRFs in face-selective regions. Read More

Psychol Med 2021 Apr 16:1-7. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-Universität Marburg and University Hospital Marburg, UKGM, Rudolf-Bultmann-Str. 8, 35039Marburg, Germany.

Background: Two prominent risk factors for major depressive disorder (MDD) are childhood maltreatment (CM) and familial risk for MDD. Despite having these risk factors, there are individuals who maintain mental health, i.e. Read More

Brain Connect 2021 Apr 15. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Georgia State University, 1373, Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, Atlanta, Georgia, United States;

Assessments of functional connectivity of default mode network (DMN) and positively task-related networks (TRNs) using independent component analysis (ICA) may help describe long-term effects of childhood brain tumors and adjuvant treatments. Aiming to identify potential neuronal markers that may aid in prognosis and inform interventions to optimize outcomes, the present study used ICA to evaluate the presence of functional connectivity networks and their recruitment during a letter n-back task in 23 adult survivors of childhood posterior fossa tumors (9 low grade, 14 high grade) at least 5 years past diagnosis compared to 40 age- and sex-matched healthy peers. DMN components generally demonstrated increasing disengagement as task difficulty increased, and relationships between effective DMN disengagement and improved performance were observed in healthy controls (HC). Read More

Neuroimage Clin 2021 Mar 22;30:102636. Epub 2021 Mar 22.

Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioural & Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Electronic address:

Gender-related differences in the susceptibility, progression and clinical outcomes of alcohol dependence are well-known. However, the neurobiological substrates underlying such differences remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate gender differences in the neuroanatomy (i. Read More

Neuropsychologia 2021 Apr 12:107857. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education; School of Psychology, South China Normal University, 510631, Guangzhou, China; Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, 510631, Guangzhou, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, 510631, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address:

Language production is a vital process of communication. Although many studies have devoted to the neural mechanisms of language production in bilinguals, they mainly focused on the mechanisms of cognitive control during language switching. Therefore, it is not clear how naming context influences the neural representations of linguistic information during language production in bilinguals. Read More

Curr Biol 2021 Apr 13. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Controlling aggression is a crucial skill in social species like rodents and humans and has been associated with anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Here, we directly link the failed regulation of aggression in BALB/cJ mice to ACC hypofunction. We first show that ACC in BALB/cJ mice is structurally degraded: neuron density is decreased, with pervasive neuron death and reactive astroglia. Read More

PLoS One 2021 15;16(4):e0247100. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.

Bilingual language experience, such as switching between languages, has been shown to shape both cognitive and neural mechanisms of non-linguistic cognitive control. However, the neural adaptations induced by language switching remain unclear. Using fMRI, the current study examined the impact of short-term language switching training on the neural network of domain-general cognitive control for unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals. Read More

Neurocase 2021 Apr 15:1-10. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Department of Neurology, Gaffrée e Guinle University Hospital, the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

A 65-year-old right-handed man gradually became socially indifferent and less active. Four years later, he was indicted for molesting children on multiple occasions. Psychomotor slowness and executive impairment contrasted with sparing of language, semantic memory, visuospatial perception, construction praxis, and right-left orientation. Read More

Behav Neurosci 2021 Feb;135(1):24-31

Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University.

Adult neurogenesis increases in mammals when they are exposed to an enriched environment or given the opportunity to exercise. In this experiment, we investigated whether turtles would show differences in the number of new neurons in the telencephalon when they were exposed to deep water, conspecifics, and plants and logs (EE group), compared to a group of animals housed in individual cages with shallow water (IN group). A control group (EX) was given deep water and conspecifics but no plants and logs. Read More

J Comp Neurol 2021 Apr 15. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States.

The genetic profile of vertebrate pallia has long driven debate on homology across distantly related clades. Based on an expression profile of the orphan nuclear receptor NR4A2 in mouse and chicken brains, Puelles et al. (2016) concluded that the avian lateral mesopallium is homologous to the mammalian claustrum, and the medial mesopallium homologous to the insula cortex. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 04 14;11(1):8100. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department Psychiatry at BIDMC, Harvard Medical School, 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.

Respiratory rhythm (RR) during sniffing is known to couple with hippocampal theta rhythm. However, outside of the short sniffing bouts, a more stable ~ 2 Hz RR was recently shown to rhythmically modulate non-olfactory cognitive processes, as well. The underlying RR coupling with wide-spread forebrain activity was confirmed using advanced techniques, creating solid premise for investigating how higher networks use this mechanism in their communication. Read More

Transl Psychiatry 2021 Apr 14;11(1):218. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Although trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) is the frontline treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), up to one half of patients do not respond optimally to this treatment. Inhibitory functions are important for successful management of PTSD, yet there is a dearth of knowledge regarding the extent to which neural mechanisms unpinning response inhibition are associated with TF-CBT response. Treatment-seeking PTSD patients (n = 40) were assessed during a response inhibition task (the Go/No-Go task) while undergoing functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) and event-related potentials (ERP) in separate sessions. Read More

Mol Pain 2021 Jan-Dec;17:17448069211008697

Hamamatsu Pharma Research Inc., Hamamatsu, Japan.

In vivo neuroimaging could be utilized as a noninvasive tool for elaborating the CNS mechanism of chronic pain and for elaborating mechanisms of potential analgesic therapeutics. A model of unilateral peripheral neuropathy was developed in the cynomolgus macaque, a species that is phylogenetically close to humans. Nerve entrapment was induced by placing a 4 mm length of polyvinyl cuff around the left common sciatic nerve. Read More

Cortex 2021 Mar 15;139:116-133. Epub 2021 Mar 15.

Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Osaka University, Suita, Japan; Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita, Japan. Electronic address:

The superior longitudinal fascicle/fasciculus (SLF) is a major white matter tract connecting the frontal and parietal cortices in humans. Although the SLF has often been analyzed as a single entity, several studies have reported that the SLF is segregated into three distinct branches (SLF I, II, and III). They have also reported the right lateralization of the SLF III volume and discussed its relationship with lateralized cortical functions in the fronto-parietal network. Read More

Toxicon 2021 Apr 11. Epub 2021 Apr 11.

Large Animal Veterinary Teaching Hospital, College of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, Universidade de Brasília, Galpão 4, Granja do Torto, Brasília, DF 70636-200, Brazil. Electronic address:

The present report describes the clinical and pathological changes induced by the consumption of oats contaminated with Crotalaria spectabilis seeds by horses. Eighty horses were exposed to oats containing 10 g/kg of C. spectabilis seeds with 0. Read More

Brain Res 2021 Apr 11:147479. Epub 2021 Apr 11.

Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience/MINDLab, Danish Neuroscience Center, Aarhus University Hospital, Nørrebrogade 44, Building 1A, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark; Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET-Centre, Aarhus University Hospital, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, Indgang J, Plan 2, J220, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark.

Background: Disorders of substance and behavioral addiction are believed to be associated with a myopic bias towards the incentive salience of addiction-related cues away from general rewards in the environment. In non-treatment seeking gambling disorder patients, neural activity to anticipation of monetary rewards is enhanced relative to erotic rewards. Here we focus on the balance between anticipation of reward types in active treatment gamblers relative to healthy volunteers. Read More

World J Nucl Med 2021 Jan-Mar;20(1):82-89. Epub 2021 Jan 20.

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey.

Various studies have reported to the superiority of semiquantitative (SQ) analysis over visual analysis in detecting metabolic changes in the brain. In this study, we aimed to determine the limitations of SQ analysis programs and the current status of F- fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) scan in dementia. F- FDG-PET/computed tomography (CT) brain images of 39 patients with a history of dementia were analyzed both visually and semiquantitatively. Read More

J Neurosci 2021 Apr 13. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Proaction Lab, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Human object recognition is dependent on occipito-temporal cortex, but a complete understanding of the complex functional architecture of this area must account for how it is connected to the wider brain. Converging functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence shows that univariate responses to different categories of information (e.g. Read More

J Psychiatr Res 2021 Mar 29;138:117-124. Epub 2021 Mar 29.

School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX, USA. Electronic address:

Background: Paranoia significantly contributes to social impairments across clinical diagnoses, and amygdala dysfunction has been identified as a neurobiological marker of paranoia among individuals with schizophrenia. Therefore, we aimed to investigate amygdala functional connectivity (FC) in paranoia across diagnoses.

Methods: Forty-five patients with recent history of clinically significant paranoid ideation and a current DSM-5 diagnosis of any disorder underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging either in a paranoid (N = 23) or non-paranoid (N = 22) state. Read More

Environ Pollut 2021 Apr 5;283:117086. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Laboratory of Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Kita 18 Nishi 9, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0818, Japan.

Lead poisoning of wild birds by ingestion of lead ammunition occurs worldwide. Histopathological changes in organs of lead-intoxicated birds are widely known, and lead concentration of each organ is measurable using mass spectrometry. However, detailed lead localization at the suborgan level has remained elusive in lead-exposed birds. Read More

J Affect Disord 2021 Apr 3;288:107-113. Epub 2021 Apr 3.

Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.

Background: Panic disorder (PD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent panic attacks whose aetiology might be associated with alterations of the prefrontal-amygdala circuitry. The prefrontal cortex is a key region involved in executive functioning (EF) whose disturbance may imply harsh consequences over personal, social, and working aspects of PD patients. Indeed, defining the real involvement of EF in PD could lead to early assessment, better treatment, and rehabilitation options. Read More

Cortex 2021 Mar 18;139:86-98. Epub 2021 Mar 18.

Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.

Objective: Functional alterations of the visual attention networks in a setting of impaired visual information processing have a role in the genesis of visual hallucinations (VH) in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). This multimodal MRI study aims at exploring structural and functional basis of VH.

Methods: 23 DLB patients (10 with and 13 without VH) and 13 healthy controls were studied. Read More