Hippocampal Global Remapping Can Occur without Input from the Medial Entorhinal Cortex

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Medial and Lateral Entorhinal Cortex Differentially Excite Deep versus Superficial CA1 Pyramidal Neurons

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Stellate Cells in the Medial Entorhinal Cortex Are Required for Spatial Learning

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An Excitatory Neural Assembly Encodes Short-Term Memory in the Prefrontal Cortex

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Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Control Encoding and Retrieval of Associative Recognition Memory through Plasticity in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex

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Rhythmic Pruning of Perceptual Noise for Object Representation in the Hippocampus and Perirhinal Cortex in Rats

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Early Activation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Signaling Pathway in the Hippocampus is Required for Short-Term Memory Formation of a Fear-Motivated Learning

1. According to its duration there are, at least, two major forms of memory in mammals: short term memory (STM) which develops in a few seconds and lasts several hours and long-term memory (LTM) lasting days, weeks and even a lifetime. In contrast to LTM, very little is known about the neural, cellular and molecular requirements for mammalian STM formation.2. Here we show that early activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) in the hippocampus is required for the establishment of STM for a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task in the rat. Immediate posttraining infusion of U0126 (a selective inhibitor of ERK kinase) into the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus blocked STM formation.3. Reversible inactivation of the entorhinal cortex through muscimol infusion produced deficits in STM and a selective and rapid decrease in hippocampal ERK2 activation.4. Together with our previous findings showing a rapid decrease in ERK2 activation and impaired STM after blocking BDNF function, the present results strongly suggest that ERK2 signaling in the hippocampus is a critical step in STM processing.Lionel Muller Igaz and Milena Winograd contributed equally to this work     

Oscillatory neurocomputing with ring attractors: a network architecture for mapping locations in space onto patterns of neural synchrony

Theories of neural coding seek to explain how states of the world are mapped onto states of the brain. Here, we compare how an animal''s location in space can be encoded by two different kinds of brain states: population vectors stored by patterns of neural firing rates, versus synchronization vectors stored by patterns of synchrony among neural oscillators. It has previously been shown that a population code stored by spatially tuned ‘grid cells’ can exhibit desirable properties such as high storage capacity and strong fault tolerance; here it is shown that similar properties are attainable with a synchronization code stored by rhythmically bursting ‘theta cells’ that lack spatial tuning. Simulations of a ring attractor network composed from theta cells suggest how a synchronization code might be implemented using fewer neurons and synapses than a population code with similar storage capacity. It is conjectured that reciprocal connections between grid and theta cells might control phase noise to correct two kinds of errors that can arise in the code: path integration and teleportation errors. Based upon these analyses, it is proposed that a primary function of spatially tuned neurons might be to couple the phases of neural oscillators in a manner that allows them to encode spatial locations as patterns of neural synchrony.     

Unexpected Rule-Changes in a Working Memory Task Shape the Firing of Histologically Identified Delay-Tuned Neurons in the Prefrontal Cortex

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神经细胞微囊偏侧帕金森病猴脑内移植的组织学观察

通过脑内移植脉络膜细胞(CP)海藻酸盐微囊观察偏侧帕金森病样猴脑神经组织学改变,以探讨微囊化CP对灵长类动物纹状体神经元的保护作用.用海藻酸盐多聚鸟氨酸微囊包裹猪脉络膜细胞,移植至偏侧帕金森病样猴黑质-纹状体通道,移植后6个月进行神经病理学检查,观察脑组织学变化.脉络膜细胞微囊脑内移植能改善偏侧帕金森病猴行为,能促进多巴胺能纤维增生和活动增强.     

State transitions in the statistically stable place cell population correspond to rate of perceptual change

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Ovarian Stem Cells (OSCs) from the Cryopreserved Ovarian Cortex: A Potential for Neo-Oogenesis in Women with Cancer-Treatment Related Infertility: A Case Report and a Review of Literature

Cancer treatment related infertility (CTRI) affects more than one third of young women undergoing anti-cancer protocols, inducing a premature exhaustion of the ovarian reserve. In addition to ovarian suppression by GnRHa, oocyte and cortex cryopreservation has gained interest in patients with estrogen-sensitive tumors for whom the hormonal burst to prompt the multiple follicular growth could provide a further pro-life tumor pulsing. On the other hand, cortex reimplantation implies a few drawbacks due to the unknown consistency of the follicles to be reimplanted or the risk of reintroducing malignant cells. The capability of ovarian stem cells (OCSs) from fresh ovarian cortex fragments to differentiate in vitro to mature oocytes provides a tool to overcome these drawbacks. In fact, since ovarian cortex sampling and cryopreservation is practicable before gonadotoxic treatments, the recruitment of OSCs from defrosted fragments could provide a novel opportunity to verify their suitability to be expanded in vitro as oocyte like cells (OLCs). Here, we describe in very preliminary experiments the consistency of an OSC population from a single cryopreserved ovarian cortex after thawing as well as both their viability and their suitability to be further explored in their property to differentiate in OLCs, thus reinforcing interest in stemness studies in the treatment of female CTRI.     

Pluripotent Stem Cells for Uncovering the Role of Mitochondria in Human Brain Function and Dysfunction

Mitochondrial dysfunctions are a known pathogenetic mechanism of a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders. At the same time, mutations in genes encoding for components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain cause mitochondrial diseases, which commonly exhibit neurological symptoms. Mitochondria are therefore critical for the functionality of the human nervous system. The importance of mitochondria stems from their key roles in cellular metabolism, calcium handling, redox and protein homeostasis, and overall cellular homeostasis through their dynamic network. Here, we describe how the use of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) may help in addressing the physiological and pathological relevance of mitochondria for the human nervous system. PSCs allow the generation of patient-derived neurons and glia and the identification of gene-specific and mutation-specific cellular phenotypes via genome engineering approaches. We discuss the recent advances in PSC-based modeling of brain diseases and the current challenges of the field. We anticipate that the careful use of PSCs will improve our understanding of the impact of mitochondria in neurological and psychiatric disorders and the search for effective therapeutic avenues.