Effect of simultaneous application of adenosine A1 receptor agonist and A2A receptor antagonist on memory, inflammatory factors, and PSD-95 in lipopolysaccharide-induced memory impairment.

The potential role of adenosine, a natural neuroprotective agent, and its receptors in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease has been proposed. The present study aims to examine the effect of administering both an A1 receptor agonist and an A2A adenosine receptor antagonist simultaneously on memory, inflammatory factors, and PSD-95 in an LPS-induced Alzheimer's disease model in rats. Fifty-six male Wistar rats were randomly divided into seven groups: Saline, LPS, Saline + Vehicle, LPS + Vehicle, LPS + SCH58261 (A2A receptor antagonist), LPS + CPA (A1 receptor agonist), LPS + SCH58261+CPA. LPS (3 mg/kg/ip) was used to cause memory impairment. Treatment was performed by intraventricular injection of CPA at a dose of 700 µg and SCH-58261 at 40 µg for ten days. Passive avoidance and Y-maze tests were performed to examine animals' memories. IL-10, TNF-α, and PSD-95 levels were measured in the brain using ELISA and western blot, respectively. Compared to the groups receiving each medication separately, the simultaneous administration of CPA and SCH58261 improved memory (P<0.05). Additionally, compared to the single medication groups, there was a significant increase in IL-10, PSD-95, and a significant decrease in TNF-α in the brain tissue (P<0.05). These findings suggest that the activation of A1 receptors along with A2A receptor inhibition could be a potential therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer's disease. These findings suggest that A1 receptor activation combined with A2A receptor inhibition may be a promising therapeutic approach for Alzheimer's disease.

Microstructure and radiation shielding capabilities of Al-Cu and Al-Mn alloys.

In this study, the microstructure and elemental analysis of aluminum-copper alloy type-2024, Al-2024, and aluminum-manganese alloy type-3003, Al-3003, have been investigated by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detector. Experimental and theoretical radiation shielding studies were performed to assess the radiation shielding capabilities of the studied alloys. Considering the radiation shielding theoretical assessment, some reliable software tools were used, such as Phy-X/PSD, MCNP5, NXCom, and MRCsC. The microstructural observations and results have shown the presence of second phases rich with the main alloying elements in both alloys. Considering Al-2024 alloy, coarse second-phase particles, having a size range of 8-15 µm, were found aligning in lines parallel to the rolling direction, whereas smaller ones, having a size range of 2-8 µm, were found decorated the grain boundaries. Also, dark holes represent the pull-out large particles separated during preparation indicated poor adhesion with the main matrix that could be a result of losing particle coherency with the matrix where the misorientation in-between the atomic planes increase. However, better adhesion of the second-phase particles with the matrix, which were found possessing smaller particle size, have been observed in the Al-3003 alloy indicating good coherency and better manufacturing process for the non-heat-treatable alloy. The second-phase particles in case of Al-2024 alloy were found containing significant content of high-Z elements like Cu with greater volume fraction equals 7.5%. On the other side, Al-3003 alloy has possessed second-phase particles which lack of high-Z elements with only volume fraction equals 3.5%. All the former besides the higher density and content of high-Z elements like copper in Al-2024 alloy in compare to Al-3003 alloy and pure aluminum, led to relatively better radiation shielding capabilities against energetic photons, the highest in the low energy band and decreases with the increase of the photon energy, and slight superiority in the case of fast neutrons with only 3%inc. over pure aluminum. For instance, the radiation protection efficiency (RPE) values dropped from about; 23.2, 21.6, and 20.8% at 0.100 MeV to only 5.7, 5.9, and 5.6% at Eγ = 2 MeV, for; Al-2024, Al-3003, and Al-Pure, respectively."Please check and confirm that the authors and their respective affiliations have been correctly identified and amend if necessary.""confirmed".

Similarities and differences between Chronic Primary Pain and Depression in brain activities: Evidence from Resting-State Microstates and auditory Oddball Task.

BACKGROUND: In 2019, the International Association for the Study of Pain introduced the concept of 'chronic primary pain (CPP)', characterized by persistent non-organic pain with emotional and functional abnormalities. Underdiagnosed and linked to depression, CPP has poorly understood neural characteristics. Electroencephalogram (EEG) microstates enable detailed examination of brain network dynamics at the millisecond level. Incorporating task-related EEG features offers a comprehensive neurophysiological signature of brain dysfunction, facilitating exploration of potential neural mechanisms. METHODS: This study employed resting-state and task-related auditory Oddball EEG paradigm to evaluate 20 healthy controls, 20 patients with depression, and 20 patients with CPP. An 8-minute recording of resting-state EEG was conducted to identify four typical microstates (A-D). Additionally, power spectral density (PSD) features were examined during an auditory Oddball paradigm. RESULTS: Both CPP and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients exhibited reduced occurrence rate and transition probabilities of other microstates to microstate C during resting-state EEG. Furthermore, more pronounced increase in Gamma PSD was observed in the occipital region of CPP during the Oddball task. In CPP, both resting-state microstate C and task-related Gamma PSD correlated with pain and emotional indicators. Notably, microstate C occurrence positively correlated with occipital Gamma PSD in MDD. CONCLUSION: Conclusively, both CPP and MDD display dynamic abnormalities within the salient network, closely associated with pain and depressive symptoms in CPP. Unlike MDD, CPPs' dynamic network changes appear unrelated to perceptual integration function, indicating differing microstate functional impacts. Combining resting-state microstates and Oddball tasks may offer a promising avenue for identifying potential biomarkers in objectively assessing chronic primary pain.

Theta-gamma-coupling as predictor of working memory performance in young and elderly healthy people.

The relationship between working memory (WM) and neuronal oscillations can be studied in detail using brain stimulation techniques, which provide a method for modulating these oscillations and thus influencing WM. The endogenous coupling between the amplitude of gamma oscillations and the phase of theta oscillations is crucial for cognitive control. Theta/gamma peak-coupled transcranial alternating current stimulation (TGCp-tACS) can modulate this coupling and thus influence WM performance. This study investigated the effects of TGCp-tACS on WM in older adults and compared their responses with those of younger participants from our previous work who underwent the same experimental design. Twenty-eight older subjects underwent both TGCp-tACS and sham stimulation sessions at least 72 h apart. Resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded before and after the interventions, and a WM task battery with five different WM tasks was performed during the interventions to assess various WM components. Outcomes measured included WM task performance (e.g., accuracy, reaction time (RT)) and changes in power spectral density (PSD) in different frequency bands. TGCp-tACS significantly decreased accuracy and RT on the 10- and 14-point Sternberg tasks and increased RT on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test in older adults. In contrast, younger participants showed a significant increase in accuracy only on the 14-item Sternberg task. Electrophysiological analysis revealed a decrease in delta and theta PSD and an increase in high gamma PSD in both younger and older participants after verum stimulation. In conclusion, theta-gamma coupling is essential for WM and modulation of this coupling affects WM performance. The effects of TGCp-tACS on WM vary with age due to natural brain changes. To better support older adults, the study suggests several strategies to improve cognitive function, including: Adjusting stimulation parameters, applying stimulation to two sites, conducting multiple sessions, and using brain imaging techniques for precise targeting.

Biochemical Properties of Synaptic Proteins Are Dependent on Tissue Preparation: NMDA Receptor Solubility Is Regulated by the C-Terminal Tail.

Synaptic proteins are essential for neuronal development, synaptic transmission, and synaptic plasticity. The postsynaptic density (PSD) is a membrane-associated structure at excitatory synapses, which is composed of a huge protein complex. To understand the interactions and functions of PSD proteins, researchers have employed a variety of imaging and biochemical approaches including sophisticated mass spectrometry. However, the field is lacking a systematic comparison of different experimental conditions and how they might influence the study of the PSD interactome isolated from various tissue preparations. To evaluate the efficiency of several common solubilization conditions, we isolated receptors, scaffolding proteins, and adhesion molecules from brain tissue or primary cultured neurons or human forebrain neurons differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We observed some striking differences in solubility. We found that N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) and PSD-95 are relatively insoluble in brain tissue, cultured neurons, and human forebrain neurons compared to α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic receptors (AMPARs) or SAP102. In general, synaptic proteins were more soluble in primary neuronal cultures and human forebrain neurons compared to brain tissue. Interestingly, NMDARs are relatively insoluble in HEK293T cells suggesting that insolubility does not directly represent the synaptic fraction but rather it is related to a detergent-insoluble fraction such as lipid rafts. Surprisingly, truncation of the intracellular carboxyl-terminal tail (C-tail) of NMDAR subunits increased NMDAR solubility in HEK293T cells. Our findings show that detergent, pH, and temperature are important for protein preparations to study PSD protein complexes, and NMDAR solubility is regulated by its C-tail, thus providing a technical guide to study synaptic interactomes and subcellular localization of synaptic proteins.

Neural Dynamics Associated with Biological Variation in Normal Human Brain Regions.

The processes involved in encoding and decoding signals in the human brain are a continually studied topic, as neuronal information flow involves complex nonlinear dynamics. This study examines awake human intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) data from normal brain regions to explore how biological sex influences these dynamics. The iEEG data were analyzed using permutation entropy and statistical complexity in the time domain and power spectrum calculations in the frequency domain. The Bandt and Pompe method was used to assess time series causality by associating probability distributions based on ordinal patterns with the signals. Due to the invasive nature of data acquisition, the study encountered limitations such as small sample sizes and potential sources of error. Nevertheless, the high spatial resolution of iEEG allows detailed analysis and comparison of specific brain regions. The results reveal differences between sexes in brain regions, observed through power spectrum, entropy, and complexity analyses. Significant differences were found in the left supramarginal gyrus, posterior cingulate, supplementary motor cortex, middle temporal gyrus, and right superior temporal gyrus. This study emphasizes the importance of considering sex as a biological variable in brain dynamics research, which is essential for improving the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Improving working memory by electrical stimulation and cross-frequency coupling.

Working memory (WM) is essential for the temporary storage and processing of information required for complex cognitive tasks and relies on neuronal theta and gamma oscillations. Given the limited capacity of WM, researchers have investigated various methods to improve it, including transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), which modulates brain activity at specific frequencies. One particularly promising approach is theta-gamma peak-coupled-tACS (TGCp-tACS), which simulates the natural interaction between theta and gamma oscillations that occurs during cognitive control in the brain. The aim of this study was to improve WM in healthy young adults with TGCp-tACS, focusing on both behavioral and neurophysiological outcomes. Thirty-one participants completed five WM tasks under both sham and verum stimulation conditions. Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings before and after stimulation showed that TGCp-tACS increased power spectral density (PSD) in the high-gamma region at the stimulation site, while PSD decreased in the theta and delta regions throughout the cortex. From a behavioral perspective, although no significant changes were observed in most tasks, there was a significant improvement in accuracy in the 14-item Sternberg task, indicating an improvement in phonological WM. In conclusion, TGCp-tACS has the potential to promote and improve the phonological component of WM. To fully realize the cognitive benefits, further research is needed to refine the stimulation parameters and account for individual differences, such as baseline cognitive status and hormonal factors.

Intensity-dependence of auditory-evoked potentials might present an early surrogate marker for post-stroke depression.

OBJECTIVE: Post-stroke depression (PSD) is a common stroke complication, associated with severe physical and cognitive impairment. Low central serotonergic tone, associated with depression, inversely correlates with the intensity-dependence of auditory-evoked potentials (IDAP). Aim of this study was to investigate IDAP's usability as early surrogate marker for PSD development by assessing the correlation between IDAP early after stroke and the occurrence of PSD from 4 weeks after stroke. METHODS: We assessed auditory-evoked potentials (AEP) and depressive symptoms using the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) at day 1 - 3 and > 30 after stroke onset. IDAP was calculated as the linear slope of the N1-P2 amplitude/stimulus intensity function (ASF). RESULTS: 37 patients completed the study. We diagnosed 7 patients with PSD, defined as MADRS-score≥ 7 at follow-up. The PSD group showed significantly steeper ASF slopes at admission compared with the non-depressed group (p = 0.007). We also found a positive correlation between ASF slopes on first and MADRS-scores on last measurement point for all stroke patients as a group (p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: The study findings support the hypothesis that IDAP can predict the development of depressive symptoms following stroke and may therefore serve as an early surrogate marker for PSD. SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first longitudinal study to assess the relationship between IDAP and PSD.

[Neuro-endocrine-immune network mechanism of acupuncture for post-stroke depression].

The nervous, endocrine and immune systems are interconnected through neurotransmitters, endocrine hormones and cytokines, forming a neuro-endocrine-immune (NEI) network that outputs effect information to target organs in a multi-level and multi-system manner. The effects of acupuncture can be amplified through the NEI network, causing local microenvironment responses at acupoints to treat post-stroke depression (PSD). This paper systematically elucidates the mechanisms of acupuncture treatment for PSD from three aspects: nervous, endocrine and immune, and reveals the potential mechanisms and biological pathways of acupuncture treatment for PSD from an overall perspective based on the NEI network, aiming to provide a reliable theoretical basis for fundamental research on acupuncture treatment for PSD.

Association between non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (NHHR) and the risk of post-stroke depression: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Limited observational research has explored the relationship between the non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio (NHHR) and the risk of post-stroke depression (PSD). This study aims to investigate the potential associations between NHHR and PSD. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from stroke participants aged 20 and older, sourced from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning 2005 to 2018. Depression was assessed using the PHQ-9 questionnaire. The association between NHHR and PSD risk was evaluated through weighted multivariate logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) models. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to validate the findings. RESULTS: In the continuous model, the NHHR value for the PSD group (3.23±1.84) was significantly higher than that of the non-PSD group (2.79±1.40, p=0.015). Logistic regression analysis in the fully adjusted model revealed a positive association between NHHR and PSD (OR 1.16, 95 % CI 1.03-1.30, p=0.016). Interaction tests showed no significant differences across strata (p > 0.05 for interaction). Restricted cubic spline results indicated a linear dose-response relationship between NHHR and PSD risk (P for non-linearity = 0.6). This association persisted in various subgroup analyses. CONCLUSION: NHHR was significantly correlated with an increased risk of PSD among U.S. adults. Further re-search on NHHR could contribute to the prevention and treatment of PSD.

Mitigation of synaptic and memory impairments via F-actin stabilization in Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Synaptic dysfunction, characterized by synapse loss and structural alterations, emerges as a prominent correlate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Actin cytoskeleton, which serves as the structural backbone of synaptic architecture, is observed to be lost from synapses in AD. Actin cytoskeleton loss compromises synaptic integrity, affecting glutamatergic receptor levels, neurotransmission, and synaptic strength. Understanding these molecular changes is crucial for developing interventions targeting synaptic dysfunction, potentially mitigating cognitive decline in AD. METHODS: In this study, we investigated the synaptic actin interactome using mass spectrometry in a mouse model of AD, APP/PS1. Our objective was to explore how alterations in synaptic actin dynamics, particularly the interaction between PSD-95 and actin, contribute to synaptic and cognitive impairment in AD. To assess the impact of restoring F-actin levels on synaptic and cognitive functions in APP/PS1 mice, we administered F-actin stabilizing agent, jasplakinolide. Behavioral deficits in the mice were evaluated using the contextual fear conditioning paradigm. We utilized primary neuronal cultures to study the synaptic levels of AMPA and NMDA receptors and the dynamics of PSD-95 actin association. Furthermore, we analyzed postmortem brain tissue samples from subjects with no cognitive impairment (NCI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer's dementia (AD) to determine the association between PSD-95 and actin. RESULTS: We found a significant reduction in PSD-95-actin association in synaptosomes from middle-aged APP/PS1 mice compared to wild-type (WT) mice. Treatment with jasplakinolide, an actin stabilizer, reversed deficits in memory recall, restored PSD-95-actin association, and increased synaptic F-actin levels in APP/PS1 mice. Additionally, actin stabilization led to elevated synaptic levels of AMPA and NMDA receptors, enhanced dendritic spine density, suggesting improved neurotransmission and synaptic strength in primary cortical neurons from APP/PS1 mice. Furthermore, analysis of postmortem human tissue with NCI, MCI and AD subjects revealed disrupted PSD-95-actin interactions, underscoring the clinical relevance of our preclinical studies. CONCLUSION: Our study elucidates disrupted PSD-95 actin interactions across different models, highlighting potential therapeutic targets for AD. Stabilizing F-actin restores synaptic integrity and ameliorates cognitive deficits in APP/PS1 mice, suggesting that targeting synaptic actin regulation could be a promising therapeutic strategy to mitigate cognitive decline in AD.

Intelligent tool wear prediction based on deep learning PSD-CVT model.

To ensure the reliability of machining quality, it is crucial to predict tool wear accurately. In this paper, a novel deep learning-based model is proposed, which synthesizes the advantages of power spectral density (PSD), convolutional neural networks (CNN), and vision transformer model (ViT), namely PSD-CVT. PSD maps can provide a comprehensive understanding of the spectral characteristics of the signals. It makes the spectral characteristics more obvious and makes it easy to analyze and compare different signals. CNN focuses on local feature extraction, which can capture local information such as the texture, edge, and shape of the image, while the attention mechanism in ViT can effectively capture the global structure and long-range dependencies present in the image. Two fully connected layers with a ReLU function are used to obtain the predicted tool wear values. The experimental results on the PHM 2010 dataset demonstrate that the proposed model has higher prediction accuracy than the CNN model or ViT model alone, as well as outperforms several existing methods in accurately predicting tool wear. The proposed prediction method can also be applied to predict tool wear in other machining fields.

PSD-95 Protein: A Promising Therapeutic Target in Chronic Pain.

Chronic pain, as a social public health problem, has a serious impact on the quality of patients' life. Currently, the main drugs used to treat chronic pain are opioids, antipyretic, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). But the obvious side effects limit their use, so it is urgent to find new therapeutic targets. Postsynaptic density (PSD)-95 protein plays an important role in the occurrence and development of chronic pain. The over-expression of the PSD-95 protein and its interaction with other proteins are closely related to the chronic pain. Besides, the PSD-95-related drugs that inhibit the expression of PSD-95 as well as the interaction with other protein have been proved to treat chronic pain significantly. In conclusion, although more deep studies are needed in the future, these studies indicate that PSD-95 and the related proteins, such as NMDA receptor (NMDAR) subunit 2B (GluN2B), AMPA receptor (AMPAR), calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor (5-HT2AR), and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), are the promising therapeutic targets for chronic pain.

Experimental Study on Mechanical Properties of Recycled Aggregate Mixed Soil.

In the context of efforts aimed at reducing carbon emissions, the utilization of recycled aggregate soil mixes for soil stabilization has garnered considerable interest. This study examines the mechanical properties of mixed soil samples, varying by dosage of a soft soil curing agent C, recycled aggregate R content, and curing duration. Mechanical evaluations were conducted using unconfined compressive strength tests (UCS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and laser diffraction particle size meter tests (PSD). The results indicate that the strength of the mixed soil samples first increases and then decreases with higher dosages of recycled aggregate, reaching optimal strength at a 20% dosage. Similarly, an increase in curing agent dosage enhances the strength, peaking at 20%. The maximum strength of the mixed soils is achieved at 28 days under various proportions. The introduction of the curing agent leads to the formation of a flocculent structure, as observed in FESEM, which contributes to the enhanced strength of the soil mixes. Specimens prepared with a combination of 20% R and 20% C, maintained at a constant moisture content of 20%, and cured for 28 days exhibit a balance between economic, environmental, and engineering performance.

Development of EEG Response to Unpleasant, Pleasant, and Neutral Tactile Stimuli.

BACKGROUND: The study of tactile perception during a childhood is extremely important for understanding the social and communicative aspects of the child's development. Tactile perception of stimuli with different valence can have different normative stages of development. METHODS: In the present study, we examined changes in linear and nonlinear electroencephalogram (EEG) parameters during the presentation of pleasant (C-tactile optimal stroking), unpleasant (ice stroking), and neutral tactile stimuli in three groups of healthy volunteers: preschoolers 4 and 5 years, school-age children from 8 to 10 years, and adults from 20 to 40 years. RESULTS: According to our findings, child maturation plays a significant role in the perception of pleasant and neutral tactile stimuli. Patterns of EEG dynamics related to tactile perception showed greater similarity between adult volunteers and school-aged children than preschoolers. CONCLUSIONS: Non-linear EEG parameters such as fractal dimension (FD), envelope mean frequency (EMF), and power spectral density (PSD) dynamics of the theta-rhythm were particularly sensitive to developmental changes in tactile perception. Hjorth complexity and peak alpha frequency (PAF) scores may serve as indicators of mature perception of С-tactile (CT)-stimuli.

Electrochemical Noise Analysis: An Approach to the Effectivity of Each Method in Different Materials.

Corrosion deterioration of materials is a major problem affecting economic, safety, and logistical issues, especially in the aeronautical sector. Detecting the correct corrosion type in metal alloys is very important to know how to mitigate the corrosion problem. Electrochemical noise (EN) is a corrosion technique used to characterize the behavior of different alloys and determine the type of corrosion in a system. The objective of this research is to characterize by EN technique different aeronautical alloys (Al, Ti, steels, and superalloys) using different analysis methods such as time domain (visual analysis, statistical), frequency domain (power spectral density (PSD)), and frequency-time domain (wavelet decomposition, Hilbert Huang analysis, and recurrence plots (RP)) related to the corrosion process. Optical microscopy (OM) is used to observe the surface of the tested samples. The alloys were exposed to 3.5 wt.% NaCl and H2SO4 solutions at room temperature. The results indicate that HHT and recurrence plots are the best options for determining the corrosion type compared with the other methods due to their ability to analyze dynamic and chaotic systems, such as corrosion. Corrosion processes such as passivation and localized corrosion can be differentiated when analyzed using HHT and RP methods when a passive system presents values of determinism between 0.5 and 0.8. Also, to differentiate the passive system from the localized system, it is necessary to see the recurrence plot due to the similarity of the determinism value. Noise impedance (Zn) is one of the best options for determining the corrosion kinetics of one system, showing that Ti CP2 and Ti-6Al-4V presented 742,824 and 939,575 Ω·cm2, while Rn presented 271,851 and 325,751 Ω·cm2, being the highest when exposed to H2SO4.

Sleep maintains excitatory synapse diversity in the cortex and hippocampus.

Insufficient sleep is a global problem with serious consequences for cognition and mental health.1 Synapses play a central role in many aspects of cognition, including the crucial function of memory consolidation during sleep.2 Interference with the normal expression or function of synapse proteins is a cause of cognitive, mood, and other behavioral problems in over 130 brain disorders.3 Sleep deprivation (SD) has also been reported to alter synapse protein composition and synapse number, although with conflicting results.4,5,6,7 In our study, we conducted synaptome mapping of excitatory synapses in 125 regions of the mouse brain and found that sleep deprivation selectively reduces synapse diversity in the cortex and in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation targeted specific types and subtypes of excitatory synapses while maintaining total synapse density (synapse number/area). Synapse subtypes with longer protein lifetimes exhibited resilience to sleep deprivation, similar to observations in aging and genetic perturbations. Moreover, the altered synaptome architecture affected the responses to neural oscillations, suggesting that sleep plays a vital role in preserving cognitive function by maintaining the brain's synaptome architecture.

Study on different brain activation rearrangement during cognitive workload from ERD/ERS and coherence analysis.

The functional activities of the brain during any task like imaginary, motor, or cognitive are different in pattern as well as their area of activation in the brain is also different. This variation in pattern is also found in the brain's electrical variations that can be measured from the scalp of the brain using an electroencephalogram (EEG). This work exclusively studied a group of subjects' EEG data (available at: https://archive.physionet.org/physiobank/database/eegmat/) to unravel the activation pattern of the human brain during a mental arithmetic task. Since any cognitive task creates variations in EEG signal pattern, the relative changes in the signal power also occur which is also known as event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS). In this work, ERD/ERS have calculated the band-wise power spectral density (PSD) using Welch's method from the EEG signals. Besides, the coherence analysis was also performed to verify the results of ERD/ERS analysis from several randomly chosen subjects' EEG data. Here, subjects performing mental arithmetic tasks were grouped based on their performances: good (subtraction solved > 10 on average) and bad (subtraction solved ≤ 10 on average) to conduct group-specific ERD/ERS analysis regarding their performance in cognitive tasks. It was found that when the brain is on count condition, the variations found in the band power of theta and beta. The amounts of ERS in the left hemisphere are increased. When the task complexity increases, it contributes to an increase in relative ERD/ERS amounts and durations. The left and right hemispheres were asymmetrically distributed by both the pre-stimulus stages of the corresponding band power and relative ERD/ERS.

The loss of ßΙ spectrin alters synaptic size and composition in the ja/ja mouse.

Introduction: Deletion or mutation of members of the spectrin gene family contributes to many neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders. While each spectrinopathy may generate distinct neuropathology, the study of ßΙ spectrin's role (Sptb) in the brain has been hampered by the hematologic consequences of its loss. Methods: Jaundiced mice (ja/ja) that lack ßΙ spectrin suffer a rapidly fatal hemolytic anemia. We have used exchange transfusion of newborn ja/ja mice to blunt their hemolytic pathology, enabling an examination of ßΙ spectrin deficiency in the mature mouse brain by ultrastructural and biochemical analysis. Results: ßΙ spectrin is widely utilized throughout the brain as the ßΙΣ2 isoform; it appears by postnatal day 8, and concentrates in the CA1,3 region of the hippocampus, dentate gyrus, cerebellar granule layer, cortical layer 2, medial habenula, and ventral thalamus. It is present in a subset of dendrites and absent in white matter. Without ßΙ spectrin there is a 20% reduction in postsynaptic density size in the granule layer of the cerebellum, a selective loss of ankyrinR in cerebellar granule neurons, and a reduction in the level of the postsynaptic adhesion molecule NCAM. While we find no substitution of another spectrin for ßΙ at dendrites or synapses, there is curiously enhanced ßΙV spectrin expression in the ja/ja brain. Discussion: ßΙΣ2 spectrin appears to be essential for refining postsynaptic structures through interactions with ankyrinR and NCAM. We speculate that it may play additional roles yet to be discovered.

MC4R Localizes at Excitatory Postsynaptic and Peri-Postsynaptic Sites of Hypothalamic Neurons in Primary Culture.

The melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is expressed in several brain locations encompassing the hypothalamus and the brainstem, where the receptor controls several body functions, including metabolism. In a well-defined pathway to decrease appetite, hypothalamic proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons localized in the arcuate nucleus (Arc) project to MC4R neurons in the paraventricular nuclei (PVN) to release the natural MC4R agonist α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH). Arc neurons also project excitatory glutamatergic fibers to the MC4R neurons in the PVN for a fast synaptic transmission to regulate a satiety pathway potentiated by α-MSH. By using super-resolution microscopy, we found that in hypothalamic neurons in a primary culture, postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95) colocalizes with GluN1, a subunit of the ionotropic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR). Thus, hypothalamic neurons form excitatory postsynaptic specializations. To study the MC4R distribution at these sites, tagged HA-MC4R under the synapsin promoter was expressed in neurons by adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene transduction. HA-MC4R immunofluorescence peaked at the center and in proximity to the PSD95- and NMDAR-expressing sites. These data provide morphological evidence that MC4R localizes together with glutamate receptors at postsynaptic and peri-postsynaptic sites.