Sex differences in resting-state functional networks in awake rats
AbstractSex-related differences can be found in many brain disorders and psychophysiological traits, highlighting the importance to systematically understand the sex differences in brain function in humans and animal models. Despite emerging effort to address sex differences in behaviors and disease models in rodents, how brain-wide functional connectivity (FC) patterns differ between male and female rats remains largely unknown. Here, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) to investigate regional and systems-level differences between female and male rats. Our data show that female rats displa...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - June 1, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Brain structural and functional correlates of the heterogenous progression of mixed transcortical aphasia
This study offers a fresh perspective of MTCA through the lens of modern neuroscience and unveils novel insights into the neural underpinnings of repetition. (Source: Anatomy and Embryology)
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 31, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Towards multi-modal, multi-species brain atlases: part one
(Source: Anatomy and Embryology)
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 25, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex as a hub of self-regulation: combining activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis and meta-analytic connectivity modeling analysis
AbstractSelf-regulation, which is an individual ’s ability to control their emotions and behaviors in pursuit of goals, is a complex cognitive function that relies on distributed brain networks. Here, we used activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to conduct two large-scale meta-analyses of brain imaging studies of emotional regulation and beha vioral regulation. We used single analysis of ALE to identify brain activation regions associated with behavioral regulation and emotion regulation. The conjunction results of the contrast analysis of the two domains showed that the crucial brain regions of dorsal anterior cingula...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 23, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Epigenetic modifications and obsessive –compulsive disorder: what do we know?
AbstractObsessive –Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a chronic, severe disabling neuropsychiatric disorder whose pathophysiology is not yet well defined. Generally, the symptom onset occurs during pre-adult life and affects subjects in different life aspects, including professional and social relationships. Although rob ust evidence indicates the presence of genetic factors in the etiopathology of OCD, the entirely mechanisms are not totally clarified. Thus, the possible interactions between genes and environmental risk factors mediated by epigenetic mechanisms should be sought. Therefore, we provide a review of ge netic and ...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 19, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Defining putative tertiary sulci in lateral prefrontal cortex in chimpanzees using human predictions
AbstractSimilarities and differences in brain structure and function across species are of major interest in systems neuroscience, comparative biology, and brain mapping. Recently, increased emphasis has been placed on tertiary sulci, which are shallow indentations of the cerebral cortex that appear last in gestation, continue to develop after birth, and are largely either human or hominoid specific. While tertiary sulcal morphology in lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) has been linked to functional representations and cognition in humans, it is presently unknown if small and shallow LPFC sulci also exist in non-human homino...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 17, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Emotion, motivation, decision-making, the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and the amygdala
AbstractThe orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala are involved in emotion and in motivation, but the relationship between these functions performed by these brain structures is not clear. To address this, a unified theory of emotion and motivation is described in which motivational states are states in which instrumental goal-directed actions are performed to obtain rewards or avoid punishers, and emotional states are states that are elicited when the reward or punisher is or is not received. This greatly simplifies our understanding of emotion and motivation, for the same set of genes and associated brain systems can define t...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 13, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Nucleus incertus projections to rat medial septum and entorhinal cortex: rare collateralization and septal-gating of temporal lobe theta rhythm activity
AbstractNucleus incertus (NI) neurons in the pontine tegmentum give rise to ascending forebrain projections and express the neuropeptide relaxin-3 (RLN3) which acts via the relaxin-family peptide 3 receptor (RXFP3). Activity in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex can be driven from the medial septum (MS), and the NI projects to all these centers, where a prominent pattern of activity is theta rhythm, which is related to spatial memory processing. Therefore, we examined the degree of collateralization of NI projections to the MS and the medial temporal lobe (MTL), comprising medial and lateral entorhinal cortex (MEnt, LEn...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 12, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
The brain of the silver fox (Vulpes vulpes): a neuroanatomical reference of cell-stained histological and MRI images
AbstractAlthough the silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) has been largely overlooked by neuroscientists, it has the potential to serve as a powerful model for the investigation of brain-behavior relationships. The silver fox is a melanistic variant of the red fox. Within this species, the long-running Russian farm-fox experiment has resulted in different strains bred to show divergent behavior. Strains bred for tameness, aggression, or without selection on behavior present an excellent opportunity to investigate neuroanatomical changes underlying behavioral characteristics. Here, we present a histological and MRI neuroanatomical re...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 9, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Brain compartmentalization based on transcriptome analyses and its gene expression in Octopus minor
This study will provide useful information for establishing a molecular atlas of cephalopod brain. (Source: Anatomy and Embryology)
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 4, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Changes in brain rhythms and connectivity tracking fear acquisition and reversal
This study aims to examine the temporal evolution of brain rhythms using electroencephalographic signals recorded in healthy volunteers during a protocol of Pavlovian fear conditioning and reversal. Power changes and Granger connectivity in theta, alpha, and gamma bands are investigated from neuroelectrical activity reconstructed on the cortex. Results show a significant increase in theta power in the left (contralateral to electrical shock) portion of the midcingulate cortex during fear acquisition, and a significant decrease in alpha power in a broad network over the left posterior-frontal and parietal cortex. These chan...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - May 2, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Identifying subcortical connectivity during brain tumor surgery: a multimodal study
AbstractBipolar direct electrical stimulation (DES) of an awake patient is the reference technique for identifying brain structures to achieve maximal safe tumor resection. Unfortunately, DES cannot be performed in all cases. Alternative surgical tools are, therefore, needed to aid identification of subcortical connectivity during brain tumor removal. In this pilot study, we sought to (i) evaluate the combined use of evoked potential (EP) and tractography for identification of white matter (WM) tracts under the functional control of DES, and (ii) provide clues to the electrophysiological effects of bipolar stimulation on n...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - April 29, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Inhibition of ventral tegmental area projections to the nucleus accumbens shell increases premature responding in the five-choice serial reaction time task in rats
AbstractExaggerated impulsivity and attentional impairments are hallmarks of certain disorders of behavioural control such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia and addiction. Pharmacological studies have implicated elevated dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcbS) in impulsive actions. The NAcbS receives its DA input from the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and we have previously shown that optogenetic activation of VTA-NAcbS projections impaired impulse control and attention in the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) in rats. To better understand the role of VTA-NA...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - April 29, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Social navigation modulates the anterior and posterior hippocampal circuits in the resting brain
This study aimed to investigate the role of hippocampal circuit in social navigation from a resting-state fMRI data. Here, resting-state fMRI data were acquired before and after participants performed a social navigation task. By taking the anterior and posterior hippocampus (HPC) as the seeds, we calculated their connectivity with the whole brain using the seed-based static functional connectivity (sFC) and dynamic FC (dFC) approaches. We found that the sFC and dFC between the anterior HPC and supramarginal gyrus, sFC or dFC between posterior HPC and middle cingulate cortex, inferior parietal gyrus, angular gyrus, posteri...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - April 29, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
Accurate localization and coactivation profiles of the frontal eye field and inferior frontal junction: an ALE and MACM fMRI meta-analysis
In this study, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) fMRI meta-analysis by selecting studies that employed standard paradigms to accurately infer the localization of these regions in stereotaxic space. For the FEF, we found the highest spatial convergence of activations for prosaccade and antisaccade paradigms at the junction of the precentral sulcus and superior frontal sulcus. For the IFJ, we found consistent activations across oddball/attention, working memory, task-switching and Stroop paradigms at the junction of the inferior precentral sulcus and inferior frontal sulcus. We related these clusters to ...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - April 24, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research
