Cuprizone (CPZ) is a widely used toxin that induces demyelinating diseases in animal models, producing multiple sclerosis (MS)-like pathology in rodents. CPZ is one of the few toxins that triggers demyelination and subsequent remyelination following the cessation of its application. This study examines the functional consequences of CPZ-induced demyelination and the subsequent recovery of neural communication within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), with a particular focus on inter-hemispheric connectivity via the corpus callosum. By employing wide-field, high-speed, voltage-sensitive dye imaging, we were able to provide real-time mapping of neural activity in the ACC of CPZ-fed mice. Although we could not record physiological signals from the corpus callosum, the results demonstrated a notable impairment in inter-hemispheric connections within the ACC via the corpus callosum, with the most pronounced loss observed in a specific coronal slice among a series of slices examined. Notably, the latency of ne...

The social environment has long been recognized to play an important role in substance use, which is often modeled in rodents using operant conditioning. However, most operant chambers only accommodate one rodent at a time. We present PeerPub - a unique social operant chamber. PeerPub employs touch sensors to track the licking behavior on drinking spouts. When the number of licks meets a set reinforcement schedule, it dispenses a drop of solution with a fixed volume as a reward at the tip of the spout. A radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip implanted on each rat's skull identifies it throughout the experiment. The system is managed by a Raspberry Pi computer. We evaluated PeerPub using Sprague Dawley rats in daily one-hour sessions, where supersac (a glucose and saccharin solution) was provided under a fixed ratio 5 schedule. We discovered that male rats consumed more supersac in dual rat conditions compared to single rat conditions. These findings illustrate PeerPub's effectiveness in modeling the i...

Epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures, significantly impacts patient quality of life. Current classification methods focus primarily on clinical observations and electroencephalography (EEG) analysis, often overlooking the underlying dynamics driving seizures. This study uses surface EEG data to identify seizure transitions using a dynamical systems–based framework—the taxonomy of seizure dynamotypes—previously examined only in invasive data. We applied principal component and independent component analysis to surface EEG recordings from 1,177 seizures in 158 patients with focal epilepsy, decomposing the signals into independent components (ICs). The ICs were visually labeled for clear seizure transitions and bifurcation morphologies, which were then examined using Bayesian multilevel modeling in the context of clinical factors. Our analysis reveals that certain onset bifurcations (SNIC and SupH) are more prevalent during wakefulness compared to their reduced rat...

Psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and depression, are highly comorbid in people with epilepsy. However, the mechanisms mediating the shared pathophysiology are currently unknown. There is considerable evidence implicating the basolateral amygdala (BLA) in the network communication of anxiety and fear, a process demonstrated to involve parvalbumin-positive (PV) interneurons. The loss of PV interneurons has been well described in the hippocampus of chronically epileptic mice and in postmortem human tissue of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). We hypothesize that a loss of PV interneurons in the BLA may contribute to comorbid mood disorders in epilepsy. To test this hypothesis, we employed a ventral intrahippocampal kainic acid (vIHKA) model of temporal lobe epilepsy in mice, which exhibits profound behavioral deficits associated with chronic epilepsy. We demonstrate a loss of PV interneurons and dysfunction of remaining PV interneurons in the BLA of chronically epileptic mice. Further, we dem...

The subjective visual vertical (VV), the visually estimated direction of gravity, is essential for assessing vestibular function and visuospatial cognition. In this study, we aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying altered VV perception in stroke participants with unilateral spatial neglect (USN), specifically by examining their eye movement patterns during VV judgment tasks. Participants with USN demonstrated limited eye movement scanning along a rotating bar, often fixating on prominent ends, such as the top or bottom. This suggests a reflexive response to visually salient areas, potentially interfering with accurate VV perception. In contrast, participants without USN showed broader scanning around the center of the bar. Notably, participants with USN without frontal lobe lesions occasionally exhibited extended scanning that included the bar’s center, which was associated with accurate VV judgments. These findings suggest that (1) a tendency to fixate on peripheral, prominent areas and (2) fronta...

Halfway through my second year in a neuroscience graduate program this winter, I encountered a new challenge in the lab.

Do you have questions about how to thoughtfully respond to reviews you may not agree with, making recommendations to editors as a reviewer, and other topics related to the peer review process?

Throughout the primate visual cortex, individual neurons and clusters of neurons respond quite strongly to specific features within a viewed image.

Short-term motor adaptation to novel movement dynamics has been shown to involve at least two concurrent learning processes: a slow process that responds weakly to error but retains information well and a fast process that responds strongly to error but has poor retention. This modeling framework can explain several properties of motion-dependent motor adaptation (e.g., 24 h retention). An important assumption of this computational framework is that learning is only based on the experienced movement error, and the effect of noise (either internally generated or externally applied) is not considered. We examined the respective error sensitivity by quantifying adaptation in three subject groups distinguished by the noise added to the motion-dependent perturbation. We assessed the feedforward adaptive changes in motor output and examined the adaptation rate, retention, and decay of learning. Applying a two-state modeling framework showed that the applied noise during training mainly affected the fast learning...

Status epilepticus (SE) links to high mortality and morbidity. Considering the neuroprotective property of baicalein (BA), we investigated its effects on post-SE neuronal injury via the NLRP3/GSDMD pathway. Mice were subjected to SE modeling and BA interference, with seizure severity and learning and memory abilities evaluated. The histological changes, neurological injury and neuron-specific enolase (NSE)-positive cell number in hippocampal CA1 region, and cell death were assessed. Levels of the NOD-, LRR-, and pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3)/gasdermin-D (GSDMD) pathway-related proteins, inflammatory factors, and Iba-1 + NLRP3+ and Iba-1 + GSDMD-N+ cells were determined. BA ameliorated post-SE cognitive dysfunction and neuronal injury in mice, as evidenced by shortened escape latency, increased number of crossing the target quadrant within 60 s and the time staying in the target quadrant, alleviated hippocampal damage, increased viable cell number, decreased neuronal injury, and increased NSE-positive c...