Academic Articles & Research Papers

Editorial: Task-Related Brain Systems Revealed by Human Imaging Experiments

Neural circuitry governing anxious individuals’ mis-allocation of working memory to threat

Abstract Dispositional anxiety is a trait-like phenotype that confers increased risk for a range of debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders. Like many patients with anxiety disorders, individuals with elevated levels of dispositional anxiet...

Functional MRI of Handwriting Tasks: A Study of Healthy Young Adults Interacting with a Novel Touch-Sensitive Tablet

Handwriting is a complex human activity that engages a blend of cognitive and visual motor skills. Current understanding of the neural correlates of handwriting has largely come from lesion studies of patients with impaired handwriting. Tas...

Graphene Oxide and Reduced Derivatives, as Powder or Film Scaffolds, Differentially Promote Dopaminergic Neuron Differentiation and Survival

Emerging scaffold structures made of carbon nanomaterials, such as graphene oxide (GO) have shown efficient bioconjugation with common biomolecules. Previous studies described that GO promotes the differentiation of neural stem cells and ma...

The Atr-Chek1 pathway inhibits axon regeneration in response to Piezo-dependent mechanosensation

The Atr-Check1 pathway is involved in cell cycle and the DNA damage response. Here, the authors show that the Atr-Check1 pathway can inhibit axon regeneration in response to Piezo-mediated mechanosensation, affecting functional recovery....

Alzheimer’s Disease as a Membrane Disorder: Spatial Cross-Talk Among Beta-Amyloid Peptides, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Lipid Rafts

Biological membranes show lateral and transverse asymmetric lipid distribution. Cholesterol (Chol) localizes in both hemilayers, but in the external one it is mostly condensed in lipid-ordered microdomains (raft domains), together with satu...

Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish

There is a public perception that relatively low doses of mercury found in seafood are harmful to the fetal brain but little consistent evidence to support this. In earlier publications we have shown no adverse associations between maternal...

Membrane Dysfunction as a Central Mechanism in LRRK2-Associated Parkinson’s Disease: Comparative Analysis of G2019S and I1371V Variants

Mutations in leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) are among the most common genetic causes of Parkinson’s disease (PD), yet substantial heterogeneity exists among pathogenic variants. How mutations in distinct functional domains of LRRK2 di...

Mouse hippocampal CA1 VIP interneurons detect novelty in the environment and support recognition memory

Summary: In the CA1 hippocampus, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-expressing interneurons (VIP-INs) play a prominent role in disinhibitory circuit motifs. However, the specific behavioral conditions that lead to circuit disinhibition remai...

Heterogeneous Cytoskeletal Force Distribution Delineates the Onset Ca2+ Influx Under Fluid Shear Stress in Astrocytes

Mechanical perturbations increase intracellular Ca2+ in cells, but the coupling of mechanical forces to the Ca2+ influx is not well understood. We used a microfluidic chamber driven with a high-speed pressure servo to generate defined fluid...

Timing of menarche and pubertal growth patterns using the QEPS growth model

ObjectivesTo explore the timing of menarche, postmenarcheal growth, and to investigate the impact of various variables on menarcheal age and postmenarcheal and pubertal growth.Study DesignThis longitudinal community population-based study a...

Phase 2a/b randomised placebo-controlled dose-escalation trial of triheptanoin for ataxia-telangiectasia: treating mitochondrial dysfunction with anaplerosisResearch in context

Summary: Background: Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a rare multisystem disease characterised by neurodegenerative cerebellar ataxia, lung disease, immune deficiency, high cancer risk, and mitochondrial dysfunction. A-T cells demonstrate de...

Transcriptomes Suggest That Pinniped and Cetacean Brains Have a High Capacity for Aerobic Metabolism While Reducing Energy-Intensive Processes Such as Synaptic Transmission

The mammalian brain is characterized by high energy expenditure and small energy reserves, making it dependent on continuous vascular oxygen and nutritional supply. The brain is therefore extremely vulnerable to hypoxia. While neurons of mo...

Caenorhabditis elegans Neurotoxicity Testing: Novel Applications in the Adverse Outcome Pathway Framework

Neurological hazard assessment of industrial and pesticidal chemicals demands a substantial amount of time and resources. Caenorhabditis elegans is an established model organism in developmental biology and neuroscience. It presents an idea...

<i>Escherichia coli</i> Phylogenetic and Antimicrobial Pattern as an Indicator of Anthropogenic Impact on Threatened Freshwater Mussels

Freshwater bivalves are widely used as accumulation indicators and monitoring tools for assessing contaminant effects on different levels of biological integration. This pilot study aimed to explore the phylogenetic diversity of Escherichia...

Exploring resilience among hospital workers: a Bayesian approach

Background and importanceHealthcare professionals face significant workloads, as their roles are among the most demanding and stressful. Resilience serves as a crucial factor in helping them cope with the challenges encountered in their wor...

The Cardiorespiratory Network in Healthy First-Degree Relatives of Schizophrenic Patients

Impaired heart rate- and respiratory regulatory processes as a sign of an autonomic dysfunction seems to be obviously present in patients suffering from schizophrenia. Since the linear and non-linear couplings within the cardiorespiratory s...

Epigenetic Age Acceleration and Hearing: Observations From the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging

Objectives: Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is highly prevalent among older adults, but the potential mechanisms and predictive markers for ARHL are lacking. Epigenetic age acceleration has been shown to be predictive of many age-associated...

Effective analysis of neurotoxicity and mechanisms of dioctyl terephthalate using network toxicology

ObjectiveDioctyl terephthalate (DOTP), a widely used plasticizer in food packaging and environmental materials, has raised concerns regarding its potential impact on human health. This study aims to investigate the neurotoxicity-related mec...

Types of Skin Afferent Fibers and Spinal Opioid Receptors that Contribute to Touch-Induced Inhibition of Heart Rate Changes Evoked by Noxious Cutaneous Heat Stimulation

Background In anesthetized rats and conscious humans, a gentle touch using a soft disc covered with microcones (with a texture similar to that of a finger), but not with a flat disc, inhibits nociceptive somatocardiac reflexes. Such an inhi...