Long-term effects of prophylactic MgSO4 in maternal immune activation rodent model at adolescence and adulthood.

The effects of MgSO4 as an anti-inflammatory agent in pregnant women have been investigated in the last few years. Infections can cause an inflammatory reaction involving the placenta membranes and amniotic cavity. They may have short-term effects on the mother and her fetuses, like preterm birth, cerebral palsy, and developmental delay. Despite the alleged advantages of MgSO4 as a neuroprotective agent in the preterm brain, the long-term molecular and behavioral function of MgSO4 has not been fully elucidated. Here, we investigated the long-term effect of antenatal MgSO4 , during late gestation, on offspring's behavior focusing on cognitive function, motor activity, and social cognition in adolescence and adulthood, and explored its influence on brain gene expression (e.g., ErbB signaling, pro-inflammatory, and dopaminergic markers) in adulthood. A significant abnormal exploratory behavior of offspring of MgSO4 -treated dams was found compared to the control group in both adolescence and adulthood. Furthermore, we found that adult females exposed to MgSO4 under inflammation displayed working and recognition memory impairment. A reduction in IL-6 expression was detected in the prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus specimens derived from LPS-Mg-treated group. In contrast, an imbalanced expression of dopamine 1 and 2 receptors was detected only in prefrontal cortex specimens. Besides, we found that MgSO4 ameliorated the overexpression of the Nrg1 and Erbb4 receptors induced by LPS in the hippocampus. Thus, MgSO4 treatment for preventing brain injuries can adversely affect offspring cognition behavior later in life, depending on the sex and age of the offspring.

Spherical harmonic decomposition of a sound field based on observations along the equator of a rigid spherical scatterer.

We present a method for computing a spherical harmonic representation of a sound field based on observations of the sound pressure along the equator of a rigid spherical scatterer. Our proposed solution assumes that the captured sound field is height invariant so that it can be represented by a two-dimensional (2D) plane wave decomposition (PWD). The 2D PWD is embedded in a three-dimensional representation of the sound field, which allows for perfectly undoing the effect of the spherical scattering object. If the assumption of height invariance is fulfilled, then the proposed solution is at least as accurate as a conventional spherical microphone array of the same spherical harmonic order, which requires a multiple of the number of sensors. Our targeted application is binaural rendering of the captured sound field. We demonstrate by analyzing the binaural output signals that violations of the assumptions that the solution is based on-particularly height invariance and consequently also horizontal propagation-lead to errors of moderate magnitude.