建立猕猴Go/NoGo视觉分辨任务的方法

在认知神经科学研究中,Go/NoGo模型是一种非常有效的研究方法。在本试验中,以两只猕猴为研究对象,采用Go/NoGo模型,以不同的视觉线索作为刺激来研究相关认知行为。结果表明猕猴能够很快学会Go/NoGo视觉分辨任务,而且对NoGo任务的完成要优于对Go任务的完成。本实验建立了一种有效的猕猴Go/NoGo视觉分辨实验的方法及计算机控制系统,为进一步记录神经元活动建立了良好的基础。     

Cerebral correlates of psychotic syndromes in neurodegenerative diseases

Psychosis has been recognized as a common feature in neurodegenerative diseases and a core feature of dementia that worsens most clinical courses. It includes hallucinations, delusions including paranoia, aggressive behaviour, apathy and other psychotic phenomena that occur in a wide range of degenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease, synucleinopathies (Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies), Huntington's disease, frontotemporal degenerations, motoneuron and prion diseases. Many of these psychiatric manifestations may be early expressions of cognitive impairment, but often there is a dissociation between psychotic/behavioural symptoms and the rather linear decline in cognitive function, suggesting independent pathophysiological mechanisms. Strictly neuropathological explanations are likely to be insufficient to explain them, and a large group of heterogeneous factors (environmental, neurochemical changes, genetic factors, etc.) may influence their pathogenesis. Clinico-pathological evaluation of behavioural and psychotic symptoms (PS) in the setting of neurodegenerative and dementing disorders presents a significant challenge for modern neurosciences. Recognition and understanding of these manifestations may lead to the development of more effective preventive and therapeutic options that can serve to delay long-term progression of these devastating disorders and improve the patients' quality of life. A better understanding of the pathophysiology and distinctive pathological features underlying the development of PS in neurodegenerative diseases may provide important insights into psychotic processes in general.     

Transcranial magnetic stimulation and cognitive neuroscience

Transcranial magnetic stimulation has been used to investigate almost all areas of cognitive neuroscience. This article discusses the most important (and least understood) considerations regarding the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation for cognitive neuroscience and outlines advances in the use of this technique for the replication and extension of findings from neuropsychology. We also take a more speculative look forward to the emerging development of strategies for combining transcranial magnetic stimulation with other brain imaging technologies and methods in the cognitive neurosciences.     

Recovering the contents of consciousness in the noise of neuroimaging

A classical approach in the neurosciences is to study neural activity modulations induced by a stimulus, a task, etc. This approach is anchored in a behaviourist culture and has proven informative within certain limits. The present paper shows that this approach nonetheless neglects aspects of neural activity that can also contribute important information about brain function. Over the last years, the contributions with the strongest impact on progress in cognitive neuroscience have used other approaches that exploit a spatial or temporal variability of neural activity that standard analyses consider as noise and hence do not take into account. By applying multi-variate analyses, spatial variability of evoked responses has permitted decoding sensory and cognitive representations in the brain. Temporal variability of ongoing neural activity influences how stimuli are perceived trial by trial as well as the associated evoked responses which points out the importance of spontaneous brain activity for cognition. We describe these two kind of approaches based on experiments using functional neuroimaging but the conclusions generalize to other techniques applied in the neurosciences.     

The social brain hypothesis

Conventional wisdom over the past 160 years in the cognitive and neurosciences has assumed that brains evolved to process factual information about the world. Most attention has therefore been focused on such features as pattern recognition, color vision, and speech perception. By extension, it was assumed that brains evolved to deal with essentially ecological problem-solving tasks. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Swarm Cognition: an interdisciplinary approach to?the?study of self-organising biological collectives

Basic elements of cognition have been identified in the behaviour displayed by animal collectives, ranging from honeybee swarms to human societies. For example, an insect swarm is often considered a ??super-organism?? that appears to exhibit cognitive behaviour as a result of the interactions among the individual insects and between the insects and the environment. Progress in disciplines such as neurosciences, cognitive psychology, social ethology and swarm intelligence has allowed researchers to recognise and model the distributed basis of cognition and to draw parallels between the behaviour of social insects and brain dynamics. In this paper, we discuss the theoretical premises and the biological basis of Swarm Cognition, a novel approach to the study of cognition as a distributed self-organising phenomenon, and we point to novel fascinating directions for future work.     

High-field magnetic resonance techniques for brain research

High-field magnetic resonance imaging scanners with a static magnetic field of 3 Tesla or higher are becoming ubiquitous in clinical and basic neurosciences. Given the high cost and complexity of operation, it is important to ask whether or not and how the use of high-field magnets can be beneficial for the neurosciences. What new questions can be addressed? Which new insights can we expect from these new tools? In addition, what are the limitations of these new techniques? This review discusses the three most important applications of the high-field magnetic resonance techniques for the neuroscience community: first, functional magnetic resonance imaging, second, in vivo spectroscopy, and third, in vivo fiber tracking on the basis of diffusion tensor imaging.     

Clinical implications from proteomic studies in neurodegenerative diseases: lessons from mitochondrial proteins

Mitochondria play a key role in eukaryotic cells, being mediators of energy, biosynthetic and regulatory requirements of these cells. Emerging proteomics techniques have allowed scientists to obtain the differentially expressed proteome or the proteomic redox status in mitochondria. This has unmasked the diversity of proteins with respect to subcellular location, expression and interactions. Mitochondria have become a research ‘hot spot’ in subcellular proteomics, leading to identification of candidate clinical targets in neurodegenerative diseases in which mitochondria are known to play pathological roles. The extensive efforts to rapidly obtain differentially expressed proteomes and unravel the redox proteomic status in mitochondria have yielded clinical insights into the neuropathological mechanisms of disease, identification of disease early stage and evaluation of disease progression. Although current technical limitations hamper full exploitation of the mitochondrial proteome in neurosciences, future advances are predicted to provide identification of specific therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disorders.     

Aggression in invertebrates

Invertebrates are outstanding model systems for the study of aggression. Recent advances and promising new research approaches are bringing investigators closer to the goal of integrating behavioral findings with those from other disciplines of the neurosciences. The presence of highly structured, easily evoked behavioral systems offer unique opportunities to quantify the aggressive state of individuals, to explore the mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of dominance relationships, to investigate the dynamic properties of hierarchy formation, and to explore the significance of neural, neurochemical and genetic mechanisms in these behavioral phenomena.     

A promising structural magnetic resonance imaging assessment in patients with preclinical cognitive decline and diabetes mellitus

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is frequently reported in diabetic patients. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with changes in the microstructure of the brain arise in diabetic patients, including changes in gray matter volume (GMV). However, the underlying mechanisms of changes in GMV in DM patients with cognitive impairment remain uncertain. Here, we present an overview of amyloid-β-dependent cognitive impairment in DM patients with SCD. Moreover, we review the evolving insights from studies on the GMV changes in GMV and cognitive dysfunction to which provide the mechanisms of cognitive impairment in T2DM. Ultimately, the novel structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol was used for detecting neuroimaging biomarkers that can predict the clinical outcomes in diabetic patients with SCD. A reliable MRI protocol would be helpful to detect neurobiomarkers, and to understand the pathological mechanisms of preclinical cognitive impairment in diabetic patients.     

The medical utility of genomics data in neuropsychiatry: mutational genetics versus association genetics

The long anticipated ‘genetic revolution’ in neuropsychiatry has yet to have an impact on the practice of clinical medicine. Excitement in the 1980s over major genetic breakthroughs in schizophrenia and manic depression, for example, has been replaced in the late 1990s by the sobering realization that most common neuropsychiatric disorders are multifactorial. Despite considerable effort and resources, no ‘causative’ genetic variation has been identified that plays a definitive major role in any common neuropsychiatric disorder.     

Circuit-breakers: optical technologies for probing neural signals and systems

Neuropsychiatric disorders, which arise from a combination of genetic, epigenetic and environmental influences, epitomize the challenges faced in understanding the mammalian brain. Elucidation and treatment of these diseases will benefit from understanding how specific brain cell types are interconnected and signal in neural circuits. Newly developed neuroengineering tools based on two microbial opsins, channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) and halorhodopsin (NpHR), enable the investigation of neural circuit function with cell-type-specific, temporally accurate and reversible neuromodulation. These tools could lead to the development of precise neuromodulation technologies for animal models of disease and clinical neuropsychiatry.     

Pavlov and psychophysiology in the 21st century]

Psychophysiology, physiological psychology (Sechenov), human physiology of higher nervous activity (Pavlov) is an interdisciplinary field, which appeared at the interface between psychology and neurosciences for exploration of the brain mechanisms of mental functions. The fundamental complementation of subjective and objective, psychological and neurobiological approaches as the facets of investigation of the basically whole process made it possible to fill with a specific content and clearly differentiate the forms of human psyche such as emotion, consciousness, personality, character, and creativity.     

Scintigraphie cérébrale de perfusion et exploration des syndromes démentiels : illustration à l’aide de cinq cas cliniques

The epidemiological evidence suggests that individuals with higher education level have a reduced risk of developing dementia. Because cognitive reserve and its compensation mechanisms may modulate the clinical expression in neurodegenerative pathology, it is important to study subjects who present mild cognitive disturbance with functional imaging. The cerebral SPECT has been used to determine regional uptake of radiotracer into the brain of patients with cognitive impairment. These abnormalities of blood flow were correlated with cognitive impairment. The cerebral SPECT is also useful to investigate preclinical dementia and to predict the evolution of cognitive disturbance. This article, reports some technical and semiological notions and illustrate with five clinical cases the scintigraphic aspect of some dementia syndrome.     

Integration of neuroscience and endocrinology in hybrid PBL curriculum

At the University of Missouri-Columbia, the medical school employs a problem-based learning curriculum that began in 1993. Since the curriculum was changed, student performance on step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination has significantly increased from slightly below the national average to almost one-half a standard deviation above the national mean. In the first and second years, classes for students are organized in classes or blocks that are 8 wk long, followed by 1 wk for evaluation. Initially, basic science endocrinology was taught in the fourth block of the first year with immunology and molecular biology. Student and faculty evaluations of the curriculum indicated that endocrinology did not integrate well with the rest of the material taught in that block. To address these issues, basic science endocrinology was moved into another block with neurosciences. We integrate endocrinology with neurosciences by using the hypothalamus and its role in neuroendocrinology as a springboard for endocrinology. This is accomplished by using clinical cases with clear neuroscience and endocrinology aspects such as Cushing's disease and multiple endocrine neoplastic syndrome type 1.     

Review: Impact of food,gut–brain signals and metabolic status on brain activity in the pig model: 10 years of nutrition research using in vivo brain imaging

The purpose of this review is to offer a panorama on 10 years of nutrition research using in vivo brain imaging in the pig model. First, we will review some work describing the brain responses to food signals, including basic tastants such as sweet and bitter at both oral and visceral levels, as well as conditioned preferred and aversive flavours. Second, we will have a look at the impact of weight gain and obesity on brain metabolism and functional responses, drawing the parallel with obese human patients. Third, we will evoke the concept of the developmental origins of health and diseases, and how the pig model can shed light on the importance of maternal nutrition during gestation and lactation for the development of the gut–brain axis and adaptation abilities of the progeny to nutritional environments. Finally, three examples of preventive or therapeutic strategies will be introduced: the use of sensory food ingredients or pre-, pro-, and postbiotics to improve metabolic and cognitive functions; the implementation of chronic vagus nerve stimulation to prevent weight gain and glucose metabolism alterations; and the development of bariatric surgery in the pig model for the understanding of its complex mechanisms at the gut–brain level. A critical conclusion will brush the limitations of neurocognitive studies in the pig model and put in perspective the rationale and ethical concerns underlying the use of pig experimentation in nutrition and neurosciences.     

The complex roles of neurosteroids in depression and anxiety disorders

The role of neurosteroids in neuropsychiatric disorders has been thoroughly investigated in many research studies that have stressed their significant pathophysiological function in neuropsychiatry. In this review, we will focus mainly on the steroids active on the GABA(A) receptors studied in anxiety and depression. The aim is to discuss the controversial results reported in research on anxiety and depressive disorders. We suggest the combined use of biological parameters linked to psychopathological dimensions to make more homogeneous diagnoses and to develop more precise therapies for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. We discuss the role of neurosteroids in the pathophysiology and therapy of anxiety and depression. Finally, we consider the possibility of using quantification of mRNA expression of steroidogenic enzymes from peripheral sources in neuropsychiatry.     

Dreaming and offline memory processing

The activities of the mind and brain never cease. Although many of our waking hours are spent processing sensory input and executing behavioral responses, moments of unoccupied rest free us to wander through thoughts of the past and future, create daydreams, and imagine fictitious scenarios. During sleep, when attention to sensory input is at a minimum, the mind continues to process information, using memory fragments to create the images, thoughts, and narratives that we commonly call 'dreaming'. Far from being a random or meaningless distraction, spontaneous cognition during states of sleep and resting wakefulness appears to serve important functions related to processing past memories and planning for the future. From single-cell recordings in rodents to behavioral studies in humans, recent studies in the neurosciences suggest a new conception of dreaming as part of a continuum of adaptive cognitive processing occurring across the full range of mind/brain states.     

Auditory ERPs to stimulus deviance in an awake chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes): towards hominid cognitive neurosciences

Background

For decades, the chimpanzee, phylogenetically closest to humans, has been analyzed intensively in comparative cognitive studies. Other than the accumulation of behavioral data, the neural basis for cognitive processing in the chimpanzee remains to be clarified. To increase our knowledge on the evolutionary and neural basis of human cognition, comparative neurophysiological studies exploring endogenous neural activities in the awake state are needed. However, to date, such studies have rarely been reported in non-human hominid species, due to the practical difficulties in conducting non-invasive measurements on awake individuals.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We measured auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) of a fully awake chimpanzee, with reference to a well-documented component of human studies, namely mismatch negativity (MMN). In response to infrequent, deviant tones that were delivered in a uniform sound stream, a comparable ERP component could be detected as negative deflections in early latencies.

Conclusions/Significance

The present study reports the MMN-like component in a chimpanzee for the first time. In human studies, various ERP components, including MMN, are well-documented indicators of cognitive and neural processing. The results of the present study validate the use of non-invasive ERP measurements for studies on cognitive and neural processing in chimpanzees, and open the way for future studies comparing endogenous neural activities between humans and chimpanzees. This signifies an essential step in hominid cognitive neurosciences.