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Turkish Neurosurgery Aug 2023Taste consists of perception and sensation. Specific neural structures transmit a stimulus from the taste buds to the gustatory cortex to generate taste sensation. Any...
Taste consists of perception and sensation. Specific neural structures transmit a stimulus from the taste buds to the gustatory cortex to generate taste sensation. Any disruption of this pathway, whether it affects sensation or perception, can result in taste disorders. Stereotactic procedures involving the thalamus may result in gustatory complications. A 41-year-old female patient who underwent stereotactic drainage of a thalamic cyst suffered transient ageusia. Subsequently, she developed metallic taste perception. When her stereotactic plan was re-evaluated, it was noted that the posteromedial ventral thalamus nucleus was in the path of the needle tract and the needle had passed through it. Follow-up was recommended and her symptoms completely resolved within 2 months following surgery. Modern imaging techniques allow for the visualization of neural structures related to the sense of taste. Additionally, care must be taken when planning stereotactic procedures for such lesions.
PubMed: 38874247
DOI: 10.5137/1019-5149.JTN.43601-23.3 -
Brain and Behavior Jun 2024Low self-esteem is a frequent symptom in major depressive disorder (MDD). This functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated whether MDD patients with low...
INTRODUCTION
Low self-esteem is a frequent symptom in major depressive disorder (MDD). This functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated whether MDD patients with low self-esteem show a distinct neural pathophysiology. Previous studies linked low self-esteem to reduced task-induced deactivation of the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) as a part of the default mode network, and to reduced connectivity between pgACC and reward system. Goya-Maldonado et al. identified an MDD subtype with pgACC and ventral striatal overactivations during reward processing. We hypothesized that this subtype might be characterized by low self-esteem.
METHODS
Eighty-three MDD patients performed the desire-reason dilemma task and completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Brain activity during bottom-up reward processing was regressed upon the RSES scores, controlling for depression severity measured by the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale. To corroborate the findings, we compared self-esteem scores between patient subgroups with impaired task-induced deactivation (n = 31) and with preserved task-induced deactivation (n = 31) of the pgACC.
RESULTS
Consistent with our a priori hypothesis, activity in a bilateral fronto-striatal network including pgACC and ventral striatum correlated negatively with RSES scores, also when controlling for depression severity. In the additional analysis, patients with impaired task-induced pgACC deactivation showed lower self-esteem (t (52.82) = -2.27; p = .027, d = 0.58) compared to those with preserved task-induced pgACC deactivation.
CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that low self-esteem in MDD patients is linked to a task-induced deactivation dysfunction of the pgACC. Our findings suggest that a previously described possible subtype of MDD with pgACC and ventral striatal overactivations during reward processing is clinically characterized by low self-esteem.
Topics: Humans; Depressive Disorder, Major; Self Concept; Reward; Male; Female; Adult; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Gyrus Cinguli; Middle Aged; Ventral Striatum
PubMed: 38873863
DOI: 10.1002/brb3.3545 -
Journal of Abdominal Wall Surgery : JAWS 2024Health disparities are pervasive in surgical care. Particularly racial and socioeconomic inequalities have been demonstrated in emergency general surgery outcomes, but...
Health disparities are pervasive in surgical care. Particularly racial and socioeconomic inequalities have been demonstrated in emergency general surgery outcomes, but less so in elective abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR). The goal of this study was to evaluate the disparities in referrals to a tertiary hernia center. A prospectively maintained hernia database was queried for patients who underwent open ventral hernia (OVHR) or minimally invasive surgical (MISR) repair from 2011 to 2022 with complete insurance and address information. Patients were divided by home address into in-state (IS) and out-of-state (OOS) referrals as well as by operative technique. Demographic data and outcomes were compared. Standard and inferential statistical analyses were performed. Of 554 patients, most were IS (59.0%); 334 underwent OVHR, and 220 underwent MISR. IS patients were more likely to undergo MISR (OVHR: 45.6% vs. 81.5%, laparoscopic: 38.2% vs. 14.1%, robotic: 16.2% vs. 4.4%; < 0.001) when compared to OOS referrals. Of OVHR patients, 44.6% were IS and 55.4% were OOS. Patients' average age and BMI, sex, ASA score, and insurance payer were similar between IS and OOS groups. IS patients were more often Black (White: 77.9% vs. 93.5%, Black: 16.8% vs. 4.3%; < 0.001). IS patients had more smokers (12.1% vs. 3.2%; = 0.001), fewer recurrent hernias (45.0% vs. 69.7%; < 0.001), and smaller defects (155.7 ± 142.2 vs. 256.4 ± 202.9 cm; < 0.001). Wound class, mesh type, and rate of fascial closure were similar, but IS patients underwent fewer panniculectomies (13.4% vs. 34.1%; < 0.001), component separations (26.2% vs. 51.4%; < 0.001), received smaller mesh (744.2 ± 495.6 vs. 975.7 ± 442.3 cm; < 0.001), and had shorter length-of-stay (4.8 ± 2.0 vs. 7.0 ± 5.5 days; < 0.001). There was no difference in wound breakdown, seroma requiring intervention, hematoma, mesh infection, or recurrence; however, IS patients had decreased wound infections (2.0% vs. 8.6%; = 0.009), overall wound complications (11.4% vs. 21.1%; = 0.016), readmissions (2.7% vs. 13.0%; = 0.001), and reoperations (3.4% vs. 11.4%; = 0.007). Of MISR patients, 80.9% were IS and 19.1% were OOS. In contrast to OVHR, MISR IS and OOS patients had similar demographics, preoperative characteristics, intraoperative details, and postoperative outcomes. Although there were no differences in referred patients for MISR, this study demonstrates the racial disparities that exist among our IS and OOS complex, open AWR patients. Awareness of these disparities can help clinicians work towards equitable access to care and equal referrals to tertiary hernia centers.
PubMed: 38873344
DOI: 10.3389/jaws.2024.12946 -
International Journal For Parasitology.... Aug 2024To investigate infection of fish in the river system of Xinjiang (China), individuals were isolated from specimens of . Morphological characterization and phylogenetic...
To investigate infection of fish in the river system of Xinjiang (China), individuals were isolated from specimens of . Morphological characterization and phylogenetic analysis based on rDNA locus revealed that the gyrodactylids belong to new species. n. sp. differs significantly in the morphology of the haptoral structures from 12 known species of found in fishes of the subfamily Schizothoracinae. In particular, n. sp. has a relatively short dorsal bar with thick and large ends, flat and straight hamuli roots, and small ventral bar processes. Furthermore, . n. sp. is the only representative of found on Using the BLASTn search of rDNA sequences in GenBank and the Bayesian Information and Maximum Likelihood methods, we constructed phylogenetic trees for n. sp. As a result, our studies clearly identified that n. sp. was the first monogenean isolated from . and a new species belonged to the subgenus .
PubMed: 38873216
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2024.100949 -
ENeuro Jun 2024CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing represents an exciting avenue to study genes of unknown function, and can be combined with genetically-encoded tools such as fluorescent...
CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing represents an exciting avenue to study genes of unknown function, and can be combined with genetically-encoded tools such as fluorescent proteins, channelrhodopsins, DREADDs, and various biosensors to more deeply probe the function of these genes in different cell types. However, current strategies to also manipulate or visualize edited cells are challenging due to the large size of Cas9 proteins and the limited packaging capacity of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs). To overcome these constraints, we developed an alternative gene editing strategy using a single AAV vector and mouse lines that express Cre-dependent Cas9 to achieve efficient cell-type specific editing across the nervous system. Expressing Cre-dependent Cas9 from a genomic locus affords space to package guide RNAs for gene editing together with Cre-dependent, genetically encoded tools to manipulate, map, or monitor neurons using a single virus.We validated this strategy with three common tools in neuroscience: ChRonos, a channelrhodopsin, for studying synaptic transmission using optogenetics; GCaMP8f for recording Ca2+ transients using photometry, and mCherry for tracing axonal projections. We tested these tools in multiple brain regions and cell types, including GABAergic neurons in the nucleus accumbens, glutamatergic neurons projecting from the ventral pallidum to the lateral habenula, dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area, and proprioceptive neurons in the periphery. This flexible approach could help identify and test the function of novel genes affecting synaptic transmission, circuit activity, or morphology with a single viral injection. Our CRISPR/Cas9 approach is the first to use a single vector to both knock-down genes of interest and express tools to monitor, map, and manipulate neurons. We demonstrate its utility in the central nervous system and describe the first systemic CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing with co-expressed reporters in the peripheral nervous system. Our approach fills a significant gap in the neuronal gene editing toolkit, allowing high-throughput study of genes of unknown function in the nervous system, and has broad utility for loss-of-function studies in other biological fields. This tool has great translational potential: it can be used to screen risk factor genes identified through genome-wide association studies, or knock-down native gene expression and reintroduce mutant variants identified in clinical settings.
PubMed: 38871457
DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0438-23.2024 -
PLoS Computational Biology Jun 2024Humans are extremely robust in our ability to perceive and recognize objects-we see faces in tea stains and can recognize friends on dark streets. Yet,...
Humans are extremely robust in our ability to perceive and recognize objects-we see faces in tea stains and can recognize friends on dark streets. Yet, neurocomputational models of primate object recognition have focused on the initial feed-forward pass of processing through the ventral stream and less on the top-down feedback that likely underlies robust object perception and recognition. Aligned with the generative approach, we propose that the visual system actively facilitates recognition by reconstructing the object hypothesized to be in the image. Top-down attention then uses this reconstruction as a template to bias feedforward processing to align with the most plausible object hypothesis. Building on auto-encoder neural networks, our model makes detailed hypotheses about the appearance and location of the candidate objects in the image by reconstructing a complete object representation from potentially incomplete visual input due to noise and occlusion. The model then leverages the best object reconstruction, measured by reconstruction error, to direct the bottom-up process of selectively routing low-level features, a top-down biasing that captures a core function of attention. We evaluated our model using the MNIST-C (handwritten digits under corruptions) and ImageNet-C (real-world objects under corruptions) datasets. Not only did our model achieve superior performance on these challenging tasks designed to approximate real-world noise and occlusion viewing conditions, but also better accounted for human behavioral reaction times and error patterns than a standard feedforward Convolutional Neural Network. Our model suggests that a complete understanding of object perception and recognition requires integrating top-down and attention feedback, which we propose is an object reconstruction.
Topics: Humans; Attention; Neural Networks, Computer; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Computational Biology; Models, Neurological; Recognition, Psychology
PubMed: 38870125
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012159 -
IScience Jun 2024Cortical gradients in endogenous and stimulus-evoked neurodynamic timescales, and long-range cortical interactions, provide organizational constraints to the brain and...
Cortical gradients in endogenous and stimulus-evoked neurodynamic timescales, and long-range cortical interactions, provide organizational constraints to the brain and influence neural populations' roles in cognition. It is unclear how these functional gradients interrelate and which influence behavior. Here, intracranial recordings from 4,090 electrode contacts in 35 individuals map gradients of neural timescales and functional connectivity to assess their interactions along category-selective ventral temporal cortex. Endogenous and stimulus-evoked information processing timescales were not significantly correlated with one another suggesting that local neural timescales are context dependent and may arise through distinct neurophysiological mechanisms. Endogenous neural timescales correlated with functional connectivity even after removing the effects of shared anatomical gradients. Neural timescales and functional connectivity correlated with how strongly a population's activity predicted behavior in a simple visual task. These results suggest both interrelated and distinct neurophysiological processes give rise to different functional connectivity and neural timescale gradients, which together influence behavior.
PubMed: 38868193
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110003 -
Nature Communications Jun 2024Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a higher prevalence of social memory impairment. A series of our previous studies revealed that hippocampal ventral...
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a higher prevalence of social memory impairment. A series of our previous studies revealed that hippocampal ventral CA1 (vCA1) neurons possess social memory engram and that the neurophysiological representation of social memory in the vCA1 neurons is disrupted in ASD-associated Shank3 knockout mice. However, whether the dysfunction of Shank3 in vCA1 causes the social memory impairment observed in ASD remains unclear. In this study, we found that vCA1-specific Shank3 conditional knockout (cKO) by the adeno-associated virus (AAV)- or specialized extracellular vesicle (EV)- mediated in vivo gene editing was sufficient to recapitulate the social memory impairment in male mice. Furthermore, the utilization of EV-mediated Shank3-cKO allowed us to quantitatively examine the role of Shank3 in social memory. Our results suggested that there is a certain threshold for the proportion of Shank3-cKO neurons required for social memory disruption. Thus, our study provides insight into the population coding of social memory in vCA1, as well as the pathological mechanisms underlying social memory impairment in ASD.
Topics: Animals; Mice, Knockout; Male; Nerve Tissue Proteins; CA1 Region, Hippocampal; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Mice; Memory; Gene Editing; Social Behavior; Neurons; Dependovirus; Microfilament Proteins; Memory Disorders; Mice, Inbred C57BL
PubMed: 38866749
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48430-x -
Cell Reports Jun 2024In addition to its role in vision, light also serves non-image-forming visual functions. Despite clinical evidence suggesting the antipruritic effects of bright light...
In addition to its role in vision, light also serves non-image-forming visual functions. Despite clinical evidence suggesting the antipruritic effects of bright light treatment, the circuit mechanisms underlying the effects of light on itch-related behaviors remain poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate that bright light treatment reduces itch-related behaviors in mice through a visual circuit related to the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN). Specifically, a subset of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) innervates GABAergic neurons in the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus and intergeniculate leaflet (vLGN/IGL), which subsequently inhibit CaMKIIα neurons in the LPBN. Activation of both the vLGN/IGL-projecting RGCs and the vLGN/IGL-to-LPBN projections is sufficient to reduce itch-related behaviors induced by various pruritogens. Importantly, we demonstrate that the antipruritic effects of bright light treatment rely on the activation of the retina-vLGN/IGL-LPBN pathway. Collectively, our findings elucidate a visual circuit related to the LPBN that underlies the antipruritic effects of bright light treatment.
PubMed: 38865246
DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114356 -
ELife Jun 2024A social memory pathway connecting the ventral hippocampus, the lateral septum and the ventral tegmental area helps to regulate how mice react to unknown individuals.
A social memory pathway connecting the ventral hippocampus, the lateral septum and the ventral tegmental area helps to regulate how mice react to unknown individuals.
Topics: Animals; Mice; Social Behavior; Ventral Tegmental Area; Hippocampus; Memory
PubMed: 38865180
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.99363