Langhoffforrest7378

Our study revealed that the VMPFC plays different roles concerning gains and losses in situations requiring cooperation. Anodal stimulation over the VMPFC decreased cooperative behavior in public bad games, whereas stimulation over the VMPFC did not change cooperative behavior in public good games. Moreover, participants' beliefs about others' cooperation were changed in public bad games but not in public good games. Finally, participants' cooperative attitudes were not influenced in the public good or public bad games under the three stimulation conditions.The ability to discriminate familiar from unfamiliar conspecifics has been demonstrated in several species of fish. Agonistic interactions are among the most frequent behaviors exhibited by territorial species and could offer useful information for the individual recognition process. In agonistic situations, memory may modulate the behavioral response and affect social dynamics, but few studies have explored the memory retention acquired during aggressive encounters. The present study investigated the memory retention of an agonistic encounter in the dusky damselfish Stegastes fuscus. The experimental procedure was divided into three parts (1) Familiarization; (2) Recognition test; and (3) Memory test. During the familiarization phase, the fish were visually exposed to the same conspecific for 5 days (10 min per day) and the behavior was recorded. On the following day (conspecific recognition test), half of the animals were paired with the same conspecific and the other half with a different conspecific for 10 min, and the behavior was recorded. The fish were retested 5, 10, and 15 days after the test to evaluate memory retention. In the memory test, they were exposed to the same conspecific as before or to a different conspecific. We found that the damselfish reduced their agonistic displays when the stimulus fish was familiar, but when it was unfamiliar, the animals were more aggressive and only reduced their mnemonic response after 10 days. These results suggest that the recognition ability of damselfish can be affected by time and that it modulates agonistic response.Dual-tasking is extremely prominent nowadays, despite ample evidence that it comes with a performance cost the Dual-Task (DT) cost. Neuroimaging studies have established that tasks are more likely to interfere if they rely on common brain regions, but the precise neural origin of the DT cost has proven elusive so far, mostly because fMRI does not record neural activity directly and cannot reveal the key effect of timing, and how the spatio-temporal neural dynamics of the tasks coincide. Recently, DT electrophysiological studies in monkeys have recorded neural populations shared by the two tasks with millisecond precision to provide a much finer understanding of the origin of the DT cost. We used a similar approach in humans, with intracranial EEG, to assess the neural origin of the DT cost in a particularly challenging naturalistic paradigm which required accurate motor responses to frequent visual stimuli (task T1) and the retrieval of information from long-term memory (task T2), as when answering passengers' questions while driving. We found that T2 elicited neuroelectric interferences in the gamma-band (>40 Hz), in key regions of the T1 network including the Multiple Demand Network. They reproduced the effect of disruptive electrocortical stimulations to create a situation of dynamical incompatibility, which might explain the DT cost. Yet, participants were able to flexibly adapt their strategy to minimize interference, and most surprisingly, reduce the reliance of T1 on key regions of the executive control network-the anterior insula and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex-with no performance decrement.Altered sensory information processing, and auditory processing, in particular, is a common impairment in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One prominent hypothesis for the etiology of ASD is an imbalance between neuronal excitation and inhibition. The selective GABAB receptor agonist R-Baclofen has been shown previously to improve social deficits and repetitive behaviors in several mouse models for neurodevelopmental disorders including ASD, and its formulation Arbaclofen has been shown to ameliorate social avoidance symptoms in some individuals with ASD. CD532 The present study investigated whether R-Baclofen can remediate ASD-related altered sensory processing reliant on excitation/inhibition imbalance in the auditory brainstem. To assess a possible excitation/inhibition imbalance in the startle-mediating brainstem underlying ASD-like auditory-evoked behaviors, we detected and quantified brain amino acid levels in the nucleus reticularis pontis caudalis (PnC) of rats with a homozygous loss-of-functh the two higher doses bringing thresholds close to controls, whereas shorter ASR peak latencies at the threshold were further exacerbated. Impaired prepulse inhibition increased across various acoustic prepulse conditions after administration of R-Baclofen in Cntnap2 KO rats, whereas R-Baclofen did not affect prepulse inhibition in WT rats. Our findings suggest that GABAB receptor agonists may be useful for pharmacologically targeting multiple aspects of sensory processing disruptions involving neuronal excitation/inhibition imbalances in ASD.The heparan sulfate 6-O-endosulfatases, Sulfatase 1 (Sulf1), and Sulfatase 2 (Sulf2), are extracellular enzymes that regulate cellular signaling by removing 6-O-sulfate from the heparan sulfate chain. Although previous studies have revealed that Sulfs are essential for normal development, their functions in the adult brain remain largely unknown. To gain insight into their neural functions, we used in situ hybridization to systematically examine Sulf1/2 mRNA expression in the adult mouse brain. Sulf1 and Sulf2 mRNAs showed distinct expression patterns, which is in contrast to their overlapping expression in the embryonic brain. In addition, we found that Sulf1 was distinctly expressed in the nucleus accumbens shell, the posterior tail of the striatum, layer 6 of the cerebral cortex, and the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus, all of which are target areas of dopaminergic projections. Using double-labeling techniques, we showed that Sulf1-expressing cells in the above regions coincided with cells expressing the dopamine D1 and/or D2 receptor. These findings implicate possible roles of Sulf1 in modulation of dopaminergic transmission and dopamine-mediated behaviors.Retracing the evolutionary steps by which human brains evolved can offer insights into the underlying mechanisms of human brain function as well as the phylogenetic origin of various features of human behavior. To this end, this article presents a model for interpreting the physical and behavioral modifications throughout major milestones in human brain evolution. This model introduces the concept of a "breakthrough" as a useful tool for interpreting suites of brain modifications and the various adaptive behaviors these modifications enabled. This offers a unique view into the ordered steps by which human brains evolved and suggests several unique hypotheses on the mechanisms of human brain function.The corticothalamic (CT) pathways emanate from either Layer 5 (L5) or 6 (L6) of the neocortex and largely outnumber the ascending, thalamocortical pathways. The CT pathways provide the anatomical foundations for an intricate, bidirectional communication between thalamus and cortex. They act as dynamic circuits of information transfer with the ability to modulate or even drive the response properties of target neurons at each synaptic node of the circuit. L6 CT feedback pathways enable the cortex to shape the nature of its driving inputs, by directly modulating the sensory message arriving at the thalamus. L5 CT pathways can drive the postsynaptic neurons and initiate a transthalamic corticocortical circuit by which cortical areas communicate with each other. For this reason, L5 CT pathways place the thalamus at the heart of information transfer through the cortical hierarchy. Recent evidence goes even further to suggest that the thalamus via CT pathways regulates functional connectivity within and across cortical regions, and might be engaged in cognition, behavior, and perceptual inference. As descending pathways that enable reciprocal and context-dependent communication between thalamus and cortex, we venture that CT projections are particularly interesting in the context of hierarchical perceptual inference formulations such as those contemplated in predictive processing schemes, which so far heavily rely on cortical implementations. We discuss recent proposals suggesting that the thalamus, and particularly higher order thalamus via transthalamic pathways, could coordinate and contextualize hierarchical inference in cortical hierarchies. We will explore these ideas with a focus on the auditory system.The communication behaviors of vocal fish and electric fish are among the vertebrate social behaviors best understood at the level of neural circuits. Both forms of signaling rely on midbrain inputs to hindbrain pattern generators that activate peripheral effectors (sonic muscles and electrocytes) to produce pulsatile signals that are modulated by frequency/repetition rate, amplitude and call duration. To generate signals that vary by sex, male phenotype, and social context, these circuits are responsive to a wide range of hormones and neuromodulators acting on different timescales at multiple loci. Bass and Zakon (2005) reviewed the behavioral neuroendocrinology of these two teleost groups, comparing how the regulation of their communication systems have both converged and diverged during their parallel evolution. Here, we revisit this comparison and review the complementary developments over the past 16 years. We (a) summarize recent work that expands our knowledge of the neural circuits underlying these two communication systems, (b) review parallel studies on the action of neuromodulators (e.g., serotonin, AVT, melatonin), brain steroidogenesis (via aromatase), and social stimuli on the output of these circuits, (c) highlight recent transcriptomic studies that illustrate how contemporary molecular methods have elucidated the genetic regulation of social behavior in these fish, and (d) describe recent studies of mochokid catfish, which use both vocal and electric communication, and that use both vocal and electric communication and consider how these two systems are spliced together in the same species. Finally, we offer avenues for future research to further probe how similarities and differences between these two communication systems emerge over ontogeny and evolution.Mammalian inner ear hair cells do not have the ability to spontaneously regenerate, so their irreversible damage is the main cause of sensorineural hearing loss. The damage and loss of hair cells are mainly caused by factors such as aging, infection, genetic factors, hypoxia, autoimmune diseases, ototoxic drugs, or noise exposure. In recent years, research on the regeneration and functional recovery of mammalian auditory hair cells has attracted more and more attention in the field of auditory research. How to regenerate and protect hair cells or auditory neurons through biological methods and rebuild auditory circuits and functions are key scientific issues that need to be resolved in this field. This review mainly summarizes and discusses the recent research progress in gene therapy and molecular mechanisms related to hair cell regeneration in the field of sensorineural hearing loss.