Psychotic drugs such as ketamine induce symptoms close to schizophrenia, and stimulate the production of gamma oscillations, as also seen in patients, but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Here, we have used computational models of cortical networks generating gamma oscillations, and have integrated the action of drugs such as ketamine to partially block n-methyl-d-Aspartate (NMDA) receptors. The model can reproduce the paradoxical increase of gamma oscillations by NMDA-receptor antagonists, assuming that antagonists affect NMDA receptors with higher affinity on inhibitory interneurons. We next used the model to compare the responsiveness of the network to external stimuli, and found that when NMDA channnels are blocked, an increase of gamma power is observed altogether with an increase of network responsiveness. However, this responsiveness increase applies not only to gamma states, but also to asynchronous states with no apparent gamma. We conclude that NMDA antagonists induce an increased exc...

Extracting common patterns of neural circuit computations in the autism spectrum and confirming them as a cause of specific core traits of autism is the first step towards identifying cell- and circuit-level targets for effective clinical intervention. Studies in humans with autism have identified functional links and common anatomical substrates between core restricted behavioral repertoire, cognitive rigidity, and over-stability of visual percepts during visual rivalry. To study these processes with single-cell precision and comprehensive neuronal population coverage, we developed the visual bi-stable perception paradigm for mice based on ambiguous moving plaid patterns consisting of two transparent gratings drifting at an angle of 120°. This results in spontaneous reversals of the perception between local component motion (plaid perceived as two separate moving grating components) and integrated global pattern motion (plaid perceived as a fused moving texture). This robust paradigm doesn’t depend on the...

Electro-acupuncture (EA) is widely applied in clinical therapy for spinal cord injury (SCI). However, the associated molecular mechanism has yet to be elucidated. The current study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanism of EA in neurological repair after SCI. Firstly, we investigated the role of EA in the neurological repair of the SCI rat model. The expression levels of Human antigen R (HuR) and Kruppel-like factor 9 (KLF9) in spinal cord tissues were quantified after EA treatment. Secondly, we carried out bioinformatics analysis, RNA pull-down assay, RNA immunoprecipitation, and luciferase reporter gene assay to verify the binding of HuR and KLF9 mRNA for mRNA stability. Lastly, HuR inhibitor CMLD-2 was used to verify the enhanced effect of EA on neurological repair after SCI via the HuR/KLF9 axis. Our data provided convincing evidence that EA facilitated the recovery of neuronal function in SCI rats by reducing apoptosis and inflammation of neurons. We found that EA significantly diminished the S...

Migratory locusts enter a reversible hypometabolic coma to survive environmental anoxia, wherein the cessation of central nervous system (CNS) activity is driven by spreading depolarization (SD). While glycolysis is recognized as a crucial anaerobic energy source contributing to animal anoxia tolerance, its influence on the anoxic SD trajectory and recovery outcomes remains poorly understood. We investigated the effects of varying glycolytic capacity on adult female locust anoxic SD parameters, using glucose or the glycolytic inhibitors 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) or monosodium iodoacetate (MIA). Surprisingly, 2DG treatment shared similarities with glucose yet had opposite effects compared to MIA. Specifically, though SD onset was not affected, both glucose and 2DG expedited the recovery of CNS electrical activity during reoxygenation, whereas MIA delayed it. Additionally, glucose and MIA, but not 2DG, increased tissue damage and neural cell death following anoxia-reoxygenation. Notably, glucose-induced injuri...

SQUID-based magnetoencephalography has been shown to improve the diagnosis and surgical treatment decision for presurgical evaluation of drug-resistant epilepsy. Still, its use remains limited due to several constraints such as cost, fixed helmet size and obligation of immobility. A new generation of sensors, the optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs), could overcome these limitations. In this study, we validate the ability of Helium-based OPM (4He-OPM) sensors to record epileptic brain activity thanks to simultaneous recordings with intracerebral EEG (stereotactic EEG, SEEG). We recorded simultaneous SQUIDs-SEEG and 4He-OPM-SEEG signals in one patient during two sessions. We show that epileptic activities on intracerebral EEG can be recorded by OPMs with a better signal-to noise ratio than classical SQUIDs. The OPM sensors open new venues for the widespread application of magnetoencephalography in the management of epilepsy and other neurological diseases and fundamental neuroscience. Significance Stateme...

Objectives: Converging evidence indicates beneficial effects of aerobic exercise on motor learning performance. Underlying mechanisms might be an impact of aerobic exercise on neuroplasticity and cortical excitability. Evidence suggests that motor learning and cortical excitability alterations correlate with the intensity of aerobic exercise and the activity level of participants. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effects of different aerobic exercise intensities on motor learning and cortical excitability in sedentary individuals. Methods : The study was conducted in a cross-over and double-blind design. 26 healthy sedentary individuals (13 women and 13 men) performed a motor learning task and received cortical excitability assessment before and after a single session of low-, moderate-, high-intensity aerobic exercise or a control intervention. Results : The study revealed that motor learning performance and cortical excitability were significantly enhanced in the moderate-intensity aerobic exerci...

Most human navigation studies in MRI rely on virtual navigation. However, the necessary supine position in MRI makes it fundamentally different from daily ecological navigation. Nonetheless, until now, no study has assessed whether differences in physical body orientation (BO) affect participants’ experienced BO during virtual navigation. Here, combining an immersive virtual reality (VR) navigation task with subjective BO measures and implicit behavioral measures, we demonstrate that physical BO (either standing or supine) modulates experienced BO. Also, we show that standing upright BO is preferred during spatial navigation: participants were more likely to experience a standing BO and were better at spatial navigation when standing upright. Importantly, we report that showing a supine virtual agent reduces the conflict between the preferred BO and physical supine BO. Our study provides critical, but missing, information regarding experienced BO during virtual navigation, which should be considered cautio...

Animals exhibit context-dependent behavioral decisions that are mediated by specific motor circuits. In social species these decisions are often influenced by social status. Although social status-dependent neural plasticity of motor circuits has been investigated in vertebrates, little is known of how cellular plasticity translates into differences in motor activity. Here, we used zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) as a model organism to examine how social dominance influences the activation of swimming and the Mauthner mediated startle escape behaviors. We show that the status-dependent shift in behavior patterns whereby dominants increase swimming and reduce sensitivity of startle escape while subordinates reduce their swimming and increase startle sensitivity is regulated by the synergistic interactions of dopaminergic, glycinergic and GABAergic inputs to shift the balance of activation of the underlying motor circuits. This shift is driven by socially induced differences in expression of dopaminergic receptor ...

It has been suggested that stochasticity acts in the formation of topographically ordered maps in the visual system through the opposing chemoaffinity and neural activity forces acting on the innervating nerve fibers being held in an unstable equilibrium. Evidence comes from the Islet2-EphA3 knock-in mouse, in which ∼50% of the retinal ganglion cells, distributed across the retina, acquire the EphA3 receptor, thus having an enhanced density of EphA which specifies retinotopic order along the rostrocaudal (RC) axis of the colliculus. Sampling EphA3 knock-in maps in heterozygotes at different positions along the mediolateral (ML) extent of the colliculus had found single 1D maps [as in wild types (WTs)], double maps (as in homozygous knock-ins) or both single and double maps. We constructed full 2D maps from the same mouse dataset. We found either single maps or maps where the visual field projects rostrally, with a part-projection more caudally to form a double map, the extent and location of this duplicati...

The gradual accumulation of noisy evidence for or against options is the main step in the perceptual decision-making process. Using brain-wide electrophysiological recording in mice ([Steinmetz et al., 2019][1]), we examined neural correlates of evidence accumulation across brain areas. We demonstrated that the neurons with drift-diffusion model (DDM)-like firing rate activity (i.e., evidence-sensitive ramping firing rate) were distributed across the brain. Exploring the underlying neural mechanism of evidence accumulation for the DDM-like neurons revealed different accumulation mechanisms (i.e., single and race) both within and across the brain areas. Our findings support the hypothesis that evidence accumulation is happening through multiple integration mechanisms in the brain. We further explored the timescale of the integration process in the single and race accumulator models. The results demonstrated that the accumulator microcircuits within each brain area had distinct properties in terms of their i...