TY - JOUR. T1 - Midline and intralaminar thalamic connections with the orbital and medial prefrontal networks in macaque monkeys. AU - Hsu, David T.. AU - Price, Joseph L.. PY - 2007/9/10. Y1 - 2007/9/10. N2 - Although the midline and intralaminar thalamic nuclei (MITN) were long believed to project nonspecifically, they are now known from rat studies to have restricted connections to the prefrontal cortex. This has not been studied thoroughly in primates, however, and it is not known how MITN are associated with the orbital and medial prefrontal networks. This study examined the connections of MITN in cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Experiments with retrograde and anterograde tracer injections into the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC) showed that MITN are strongly connected with the medial prefrontal network. The dorsal nuclei of the midline thalamus, including the paraventricular (Pa) and parataenial nuclei (Pt), had heavy connections with medial network areas 25, ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Category-specific representations of social and nonsocial knowledge in the human prefrontal cortex. AU - Wood, J. N.. AU - Romero, S. G.. AU - Makale, M.. AU - Grafman, Jordan. N1 - Copyright: Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.. PY - 2003/2/15. Y1 - 2003/2/15. N2 - Complex social behavior and the relatively large size of the prefrontal cortex are arguably two of the characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals. Grafman presented a framework concerning how the prefrontal cortex (PFC) controls complex behavior using stored structured event complexes (SECs). We report behavioral and imaging data from a modified go/no-go paradigm in which subjects had to classify, words (semantic) and phrases (SEC) according to category. In experimental trials, subjects classified items according to social or nonsocial activity; in control trials, they classified items according to font. Subjects were faster to classify social than nonsocial semantic items, with the ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Medial prefrontal cortex involvement in aesthetic appreciation of paintings. T2 - a tDCS study. AU - Cattaneo, Zaira. AU - Ferrari, Chiara. AU - Schiavi, Susanna. AU - Alekseichuk, Ivan. AU - Antal, Andrea. AU - Nadal, Marcos. PY - 2020/2. Y1 - 2020/2. N2 - Among the brain regions involved in the aesthetic evaluation of paintings, the prefrontal cortex seems to play a pivotal role. In particular, consistent neuroimaging evidence indicates that activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (mainly in the left hemisphere) and in medial and orbital sectors of the prefrontal cortex is linked to viewing aesthetically pleasing images. In this study, we focused on the contribution of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in mediating aesthetic decisions about paintings. We found that enhancing excitability in this region via anodal tDCS led participants to judge paintings as more beautiful. Although significant, the effects were moderate, possibly due to the neutral affective value of ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate neuronal mechanisms active during the percep-tion of forward postural limits in a standing po-sition and to specify fall-related brain activity using optical functional near-infrared spectros-copy. The study group included six right-handed, healthy female volunteers (range: 19, 20 years). The optical imaging device comprised 16 opto-des designed to provide 24-channel recording of changes in hemoglobin oxygenation. We meas-ured the changes of oxygenated hemoglobin levels in the frontal region when subjects per-ceived reachability in a standing position. Com- pared with those in other regions, the oxygen-ated hemoglobin levels in the right frontal region compatible with the right prefrontal cortex sig-nificantly increased. This result suggests that brain activities in the right prefrontal cortex are related to perception of reachability. Overesti-mation of postural limits has been reported as one of the risk factor for falling. This overesti-mation might be

Background Walking while performing another task (eg, talking) is challenging for many stroke survivors, yet its neural basis are not fully understood. Objective To investigate prefrontal cortex activation and its relationship to gait measures while walking under single-task (ST) and dual-task (DT) conditions (ie, walking while simultaneously performing a cognitive task) in stroke survivors. Methods We acquired near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) data from the prefrontal cortex during treadmill walking in ST and DT conditions in chronic stroke survivors and healthy controls. We also acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and NIRS during simulated walking under these conditions. Results NIRS revealed increased oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in DT-walking compared with ST-walking for both groups. For simulated walking, NIRS showed a significant effect of group and group × task, being greater on both occasions, in stroke survivors. A greater increase in brain activation observed from ST

TY - JOUR. T1 - Relation between Parametric Change of the Workload and Prefrontal Cortex Activity during a Modified Version of the Rock, Paper, Scissors Task. AU - Yamauchi, Yoshiki. AU - Kikuchi, Senichiro. AU - Miwakeichi, Fumikazu. AU - Matsumoto, Kenji. AU - Nishida, Masaki. AU - Ishiguro, Makio. AU - Watanabe, Eiju. AU - Kato, Satoshi. N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel. Copyright: Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.. PY - 2013. Y1 - 2013. N2 - Background/Aims: Modified rock, paper, scissors (RPS) tasks have previously been used in neuroscience to investigate activity of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). In this study, we investigated hemodynamic changes in the PFC using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) during a modified RPS task in which each subjects successful performance rate was equalized; the workload was increased parametrically in order to reveal the resulting pattern of PFC activation. Methods: The subjects were 20 healthy adults. During ...

We have recently identified up- or down-regulation of the olfactory (OR) and taste (TASR) chemoreceptors in the human cortex in several neurodegenerative diseases, raising the possibility of a general deregulation of these genes in neuropsychiatric disorders. In this study, we explore the possible deregulation of OR and TASR gene expression in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. We used quantitative polymerase chain reaction on extracts from postmortem dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of subjects with chronic schizophrenia (n = 15) compared to control individuals (n = 14). Negative symptoms were evaluated premortem by the Positive and Negative Syndrome and the Clinical Global Impression Schizophrenia Scales. We report that ORs and TASRs are deregulated in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. Seven out of eleven ORs and four out of six TASRs were down-regulated in schizophrenia, the most prominent changes of which were found in genes from the 11p15.4 locus. The expression

Although the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a critical role in cocaine addiction, the effects of chronic cocaine on mPFC neurons remain poorly understood. Here, we performed visualized current-clamp recordings to determine the effects of repeated cocaine administration on the membrane excitability of mPFC pyramidal neurons in rat brain slices. Following repeated cocaine administration (15 mg/kg/day i.p. for 5 days) with a 3-day withdrawal, alterations in membrane properties, including increased input resistance, reduced intensity of intracellular injected currents required for generation of Na+-dependent spikes (rheobase), and an increased number of spikes evoked by depolarizing current pulses were observed in mPFC neurons. The current-voltage relationship was also altered in cocaine-pretreated neurons showing reduced outward rectification during membrane depolarization and decreased inward rectification during membrane hyperpolarization. Application of the K+ channel blocker Ba2+ ...

60 The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) has been implicated21 in the generation of an abstract representation of the rewarding value of a stimulus by attending to its context,61 and the learning of contingencies. based on the outcome of a rewarding situation.35 By contrast, lateral areas of the ventral prefrontal cortex may be less involved in hedonic emotions, responding to avcrsive rather than rewarding stimuli.62,63 Some other regions might have a more obvious role in negative and/or distressing emotions rather than hedonic experiences, such as the insula.64,65 Recall-generated sadness was associated with significantly greater increases in activity #www.selleckchem.com/products/CP-690550.html keyword# in the vicinity of the anterior insular cortex, suggesting that this region. participates in the emotional response to potentially distressing cognitive or interoceptive sensory stimuli. Neuropharmacology of anhedonia in major depressive disorder There is considerable evidence that ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Enhanced food-related responses in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex in narcolepsy type 1. AU - van Holst, Ruth Janke. AU - Janssen, Lieneke K.. AU - van Mierlo, Petra. AU - Jan Lammers, Gert. AU - Cools, Roshan. AU - Overeem, Sebastiaan. AU - Aarts, Esther. PY - 2018/12/1. Y1 - 2018/12/1. N2 - Narcolepsy type 1 is a chronic sleep disorder caused by a deficiency of the orexin (hypocretin) neuropeptides. In addition to sleep regulation, orexin is important for motivated control processes. Weight gain and obesity are common in narcolepsy. However, the neurocognitive processes associated with food-related control and overeating in narcolepsy are unknown. We explored the neural correlates of general and food-related attentional control in narcolepsy-type-1 patients (n = 23) and healthy BMI-matched controls (n = 20). We measured attentional bias to food words with a Food Stroop task and general executive control with a Classic Stroop task during fMRI. Moreover, using multiple ...

There is good evidence that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in different aspects of recognition memory. However, the mPFC is a heterogeneous structure, and the contribution of the prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) cortices to recognition memory has not been investigated. Similarly, the role of different neuromodulators within the mPFC in these processes is poorly understood. To this end, we tested animals with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions of the PL and IL mPFC on three tests of object recognition memory that required judgments about recency, object location, and object identity. In the recency task, lesions to both PL and IL severely impaired animals ability to differentiate between old (earlier presented) and recently presented familiar objects. Relative to sham and PL animals, the IL lesion also disrupted performance on the object location task. However, both lesions left novel object recognition intact. These data confirm previous reports that the mPFC is not required ...

In order to clarify the mechanism through which extract of Ginkgo biloba leaves (EGb) improves cognitive function, we examined the effects of EGb on cerebral blood oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and on performance during a working memory task, using near-infrared spectrometry (NIRS).. First, we evaluated differences in behavioral performance of the Sternberg working memory test (ST) and in the activation pattern of the PFC during ST between 15 young and 19 middle-aged healthy women. Then, we examined the effect of EGb (120 mg/day for 6 weeks) on ST performance and PFC activation pattern in the middle-aged group.. The middle-aged group exhibited a longer reaction time (RT) in ST than the young group and showed a different PFC activation pattern during ST, i.e., the middle-aged group showed bilateral activation while the young group showed right-dominant activation. In the middle-aged group, administration of EGb for 6 weeks shortened the RT of ST and changed the PFC activation pattern ...

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) dopamine system, which is critical for modulating PFC function, undergoes remodeling until at least young adulthood in primates. Catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) alters extracellular dopamine levels in PFC, and its gene contains a functional polymorphism (Val(158)Met) that has been associated with variation in PFC function. We examined COMT enzyme activity and protein immunoreactivity in the PFC during human postnatal development. Protein was extracted from PFC of normal individuals from 6 age groups: neonates (1-4 months), infants (5-11 months), teens (14-18 years), young adults (20-24 years), adults (31-43 years), and aged individuals (68-86 years; n = 5-8 per group). There was a significant 2-fold increase in COMT enzyme activity from neonate to adulthood, paralleled by increases in COMT protein immunoreactivity. Furthermore, COMT protein immunoreactivity was related to Val(158)Met genotype, as has been previously demonstrated. The significant increase in COMT activity

TY - JOUR. T1 - Cognition and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume in corticosteroid- treated patients given lamotrigine. AU - Husain, Saira. AU - Kuzminski, Samuel. AU - Shad, Mujeeb U.. AU - Gabrielson, Barry. AU - Bret, Mary E.. AU - Osuji, I. Julian. AU - Brown, E. Sherwood. PY - 2011/2. Y1 - 2011/2. N2 - In addition to changes in declarative memory and the hippocampus, corticosteroid excess is associated with prefrontal cortex changes. We previously reported that patients receiving exogenous corticosteroid therapy had impaired performance on prefrontal cortex-related tasks, including working memory and executive functioning tasks. Glutamate release inhibitors attenuate corticosteroid-effects on the hippocampus in both animal and human models. Twenty-eight outpatients receiving chronic prednisone therapy for transplant rejection or other medical conditions were randomized to lamotrigine (a glutamate release inhibitor) or placebo for 24 weeks. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) volume ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex contribution to behavioral and nucleus accumbens neuronal responses to incentive cues. AU - Ishikawa, Akinori. AU - Ambroggi, Frederic. AU - Nicola, Saleem M.. AU - Fields, Howard L.. PY - 2008/5/7. Y1 - 2008/5/7. N2 - Cue-elicited phasic changes in firing of nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons can facilitate reward-seeking behavior. Here, we test the hypothesis that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which sends a dense glutamatergic projection to the NAc core, contributes to NAc neuronal firing responses to reward-predictive cues. Rats trained to perform an operant response to a cue for sucrose were implanted with recording electrodes in the core of the NAc and microinjection cannulas in the dorsal mPFC (dmPFC). The cue-evoked firing of NAc neurons was reduced by bilateral injection of GABAA and GABAB agonists into the dmPFC concomitant with loss of behavioral responding to the cue. In addition, unilateral dmPFC inactivation reduced ipsilateral cue ...

Negative symptoms in schizophrenia and core depressive symptoms share phenomenology and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a treatment modality for both conditions. The most common treatment site has been the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) but there might be more optimal targets. Furthermore, the implementation of the currently approved protocols is hampered by the long duration. More intense stimulation protocols such as the theta burst stimulation (TBS) are significantly shorter and may be as effective and safe.. The overall aim of this project is to evaluate the treatment effect of TBS on poor motivation and anhedonia in schizophrenia and depression and to explore the neurobiological correlates of these deficits.. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) is a key cortical area in networks associated with motivation and anhedonia and it is affected in both schizophrenia and depression. The dmPFC has recently been identified as a possible site of stimulation and is ...

Trends toward encephalization and technological complexity ∼1.8 million years ago may signify cognitive development in the genus Homo. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we measured relative brain activity of 33 human subjects at three different points as they learned to make replicative Oldowan and Acheulian Early Stone Age tools. Here we show that the more complex early Acheulian industry recruits left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when skills related to this task are first being learned. Individuals with increased activity in this area are the most proficient at the Acheulian task. The Oldowan task, on the other hand, transitions to automatic processing in less than 4 h of training. Individuals with increased sensorimotor activity demonstrate the most skill at this task. We argue that enhanced working memory abilities received positive selection in response to technological needs during the early Pleistocene, setting Homo on the path to becoming human.. ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Material-specific lateralization in the medial temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex during memory encoding. AU - Golby, Alexandra J.. AU - Poldrack, Russell A.. AU - Brewer, James B.. AU - Spencer, David. AU - Desmond, John E.. AU - Aron, Arthur P.. AU - Gabrieli, John D.E.. PY - 2001. Y1 - 2001. N2 - Numerous observations in patients with unilateral lesions of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and the prefrontal cortex indicate that memory processes are lateralized according to content. Left-sided lesions interfere with verbal memory processes, whereas right-sided lesions interfere with visuospatial (non-verbal) memory processes. However, functional imaging studies have resulted in contradictory data, some studies showing lateralization in the prefrontal cortex determined by stage of processing (encoding versus retrieval) and others suggesting that lateralization is dependent on the type of material. Few studies have examined this issue in the MTL. In order to test the hypothesis ...

Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) neurofeedback can be used to train localized, conscious regulation of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals. As a therapeutic technique, rt-fMRI neurofeedback reduces the symptoms of a variety of neurologic disorders. To date, few studies have investigated the use of self-regulation training using rt-fMRI neurofeedback to enhance cognitive performance. This work investigates the utility of rt-fMRI neurofeedback as a tool to enhance human cognition by training healthy individuals to consciously control activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). A cohort of 18 healthy participants in the experimental group underwent rt-fMRI neurofeedback from the left DLPFC in five training sessions across two weeks while 7 participants in the control group underwent similar training outside the MRI and without rt-fMRI neurofeedback. Working memory (WM) performance was evaluated on two testing days separated by the five rt-fMRI neurofeedback

Background: Brain imaging studies suggest that volume reductions and compromised white matter integrity occur in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD). However, the cellular correlates have not yet been identified. To address this issue we assessed oligodendrocyte, astrocyte and microglial populations in postmortem white matter from schizophrenia, BD and nonpsychiatric control samples. Methods: The density, areal fraction and spatial distribution of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-expressing astrocytes and ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule-1 (IBA-1)-expressing microglia as well as the density, nuclear size and spatial distribution of Nissl-stained oligodendrocytes were quantified in postmortem white matter adjacent to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 9) in schizophrenia, BD and control samples (n = 20). In addition, the oligodendrocyte-associated proteins myelin basic protein and 2′,3′-cyclic-nucleotide 3′-phosphodiesterase (CNPase) were quantified in the ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Reduced activation of intracellular signaling pathways in rat prefrontal cortex after chronic phencyclidine administration. AU - Molteni, Raffaella. AU - Pasini, Matteo. AU - Moraschi, Stefania. AU - Gennarelli, Massimo. AU - Drago, Filippo. AU - Racagni, Giorgio. AU - Riva, Marco A.. PY - 2008/4. Y1 - 2008/4. N2 - Evidence exists that schizophrenia is characterized by deficits in cell-cell communication and information processing. In the present study, we used the phencyclidine (PCP) animal model of schizophrenia to investigate possible defects in intracellular signaling proteins involved in neuroplasticity. Western Blot analysis has been performed to determine total and phospho-protein levels of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2), type II calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (αCaMKII) and cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) in prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus (HIP) of rat chronically treated with PCP, whereas their mRNA levels were ...

Background: Previous studies have shown that the activity of the amygdala is elevated in people experiencing clinical and subclinical levels of anxiety and depression (negative affect). It has been proposed that a reduction in inhibitory input to the amygdala from the prefrontal cortex and resultant over-activity of the amygdala underlies this association. Prior studies have found relationships between negative affect and 1) amygdala over-activity and 2) reduced amygdala-prefrontal connectivity. However, it is not known whether elevated amygdala activity is associated with decreased amygdala-prefrontal connectivity during negative affect states. Methods: Here we used resting-state arterial spin labeling (ASL) and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in combination to test this model, measuring the activity (regional cerebral blood flow, rCBF) and functional connectivity (correlated fluctuations in the BOLD signal) of one subregion of the amygdala ...

Different accounts of the ventral and orbital prefrontal cortex (PFv+o) have emphasized either its role in learning conditional rules for action selection or the attentional selection of behaviorally relevant stimuli. Although the accounts are not mutually exclusive, it is possible that the involvement of PFv+o in conditional action selection is a consequence of its role in selecting relevant stimuli or that its involvement in attentional selection is a consequence of the conditional rules present in many attentional paradigms. Five macaques learned a conditional action-selection task in which the difficulty of identifying the stimulus relevant for guiding action selection was varied in a simple manner by either altering its distance from the action or presenting additional distracting stimuli. Simply increasing the spatial separation between the instructing stimulus led to slower responses. Experiment 1 showed that bilateral PFv+o lesions impaired conditional action selection even when attentional

TY - JOUR. T1 - Disruption of prefrontal cortex large scale neuronal activity by different classes of psychotomimetic drugs. AU - Wood, Jesse. AU - Kim, Yunbok. AU - Moghaddam, Bita. PY - 2012/2/29. Y1 - 2012/2/29. N2 - In the absence of overt cellular pathology but profound perceptual disorganization and cognitive deficits, schizophrenia is increasingly considered a disorder of neural coordination. Thus, different causal factors can similarly interrupt the dynamic function of neuronal ensembles and networks, in particular in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), leading to behavioral disorganization. The importance of establishing preclinical biomarkers for this aberrant function has prompted investigations into the nature of psychotomimetic drug effects on PFC neuronal activity. The drugs used in this context include serotonergic hallucinogens, amphetamine, and NMDA receptor antagonists. A prominent line of thinking is that these drugs create psychotomimetic states by similarly disinhibiting the ...

The STM was assessed using a spontaneous spatial alternation task in a T-maze. C57-Bl/6 J male mice were distributed in 4 groups according to treatment (0.1 nmol of NPS or vehicle intracerebroventricular injection) and to 20 h-SR. Immediately after behavioural testing, regional c-fos immunohistochemistry was performed and used as a neural activation marker for spatial short term memory (prefrontal cortex, dorsal hippocampus) and emotional reactivity (basolateral amygdala and ventral hippocampus). Anxiety-like behaviour was assessed using elevated-plus maze task ...

Alterations in the structure and physiology of interneurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are important factors in the etiopathology of different psychiatric disorders. Among the interneuronal subpopulations, parvalbumin (PV) expressing cells appear to be specially affected. Interestingly, during development and adulthood the connectivity of these interneurons is regulated by the presence of perineuronal nets (PNNs), specialized regions of the extracellular matrix, which are frequently surrounding PV expressing neurons. Previous reports have found anomalies in the density of PNNs in the PFC of schizophrenic patients. However, although some studies have described alterations in PNNs in some extracortical regions of bipolar disorder patients, there are no studies focusing on the prefrontocortical PNNs of bipolar or major depression patients. For this reason, we have analyzed the density of PNNs in post-mortem sections of the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) from the Stanley Neuropathology Consortium, which

Our laboratory, along with others, has demonstrated abnormalities in brain structure and function associated with breast cancer chemotherapy, most consistently in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is critical for skills such as multi-tasking, attention, processing speed and memory; skills that are often impaired in patients who have undergone breast cancer chemotherapy. Because prefrontal cortex changes have also been observed in patients prior to chemotherapy treatment as well as in those treated with radiation and/or hormonal blockade, the specific effects of chemotherapy on prefrontal cortex remain unclear. It is also currently unknown why some patients treated with chemotherapy show improvement in cognitive function over time while others do not. The proposed research will examine prefrontal cortex structure and function as well as cognitive status in 50 patients with primary breast cancer scheduled for chemotherapy. These patients will be evaluated across the treatment course, ...

Subjects. Male Sprague Dawley CAMM rats (n = 6 per experiment) weighing 240-280 gm were paired and housed in filter frame cages. The rats were kept on a 12 hr light/dark cycle, and the experiments were conducted during the light phase. The animals were fed a diet of autoclaved Purina rat chow (17 gm/rat per day) immediately after behavioral testing. Water was available ad libitum. Rats were weighed weekly, and weights were maintained at ∼400-450 gm. Food rewards during cognitive testing were highly palatable miniature chocolate chips, thus minimizing the need for dietary regulation. Rats were assigned a single experimenter who handled them extensively before behavioral testing. The experimenter testing the animal was blind to the drug treatment conditions.. Delayed alternation. The delayed-alternation task was selected for comparison with previous studies of (1) PFC DA depletion and (2) stress, which similarly used this paradigm. The delayed-alternation task uses a number of processes ...

Subjects. Male Sprague Dawley CAMM rats (n = 6 per experiment) weighing 240-280 gm were paired and housed in filter frame cages. The rats were kept on a 12 hr light/dark cycle, and the experiments were conducted during the light phase. The animals were fed a diet of autoclaved Purina rat chow (17 gm/rat per day) immediately after behavioral testing. Water was available ad libitum. Rats were weighed weekly, and weights were maintained at ∼400-450 gm. Food rewards during cognitive testing were highly palatable miniature chocolate chips, thus minimizing the need for dietary regulation. Rats were assigned a single experimenter who handled them extensively before behavioral testing. The experimenter testing the animal was blind to the drug treatment conditions.. Delayed alternation. The delayed-alternation task was selected for comparison with previous studies of (1) PFC DA depletion and (2) stress, which similarly used this paradigm. The delayed-alternation task uses a number of processes ...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine the pattern of activity of prefrontal cortex in prepubertal children during performance of a nonspatial working memory task. The children observed sequences of letters and responded whenever a letter repeated with exactly one nonidentical letter intervening. In a comparison task, subjects monitored similar sequences of letters for any occurrence of a single, prespecified target letter. Location of activation closely approximated that observed in a recent fMRI study with adults using exactly the same task. Activation of the inferior and middle frontal gyri was reliably observed within individual subjects during performance of the working memory task relative to the comparison task. Activation increased and decreased with a time course that was highly consistent with the task manipulations and correlated with behavioral performance. To our knowledge, this study is one of the first to demonstrate the applicability of fMRI to a normative

Author: Spitzer, Bernhard et al.; Genre: Journal Article; Published in Print: 2014-05; Keywords: Working memory; Tactile; fMRI; Connectivity; Stimulus coding; Title: Maintenance and manipulation of somatosensory information in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Conventional models of schizophrenia have tended to focus on cellular and behavioural manipulations of dopamine, as the dopaminergic system has been strongly implicated in the disease. However, typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs with D2 receptor antagonist properties that display activity in these models tend to have clinical efficacy limited to the positive symptoms of the disease. Hence, there is a need for improved models to enable the identification of new treatments. A variety of newer animal models are emerging, which include genetic, neurodevelopmental and pharmacological models (see Lipska, 2004; Morris et al., 2005; Arguello and Gogos, 2006; Enomoto et al., 2007). The validity and future success of these models will reside in their ability to detect new treatments that can treat the disease more effectively than the current antipsychotic drugs.. To date, relatively few models have focussed on prefrontal cortex pathophysiology and resultant behaviours. One neurodevelopmental model ...

Neuroimaging studies have implicated the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPFC), an area of the brain that plays an important role in the organization and planning of behavior including goal-oriented regulation of eating behavior and food choice, has been implicated in obesity.. Now Marci Gluck and colleagues, present a proof of concept study published in OBESITY, suggesting that effects of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)aimed at the LDLPFC may reduce energy intake and promote weight loss in individuals with obesity.. The randomised sham-controlled study was conducted in 9 (3m, 6f) healthy volunteers with obesity, who were admitted as inpatients for 9 days to a metabolic ward.. In a first study, following 5 days of a weight-maintaining diet, participants received cathodal or sham tDCS (2 mA, 40 min) on three consecutive mornings and then ate ad libitum from a computerized vending machine, which recorded energy intake.. In a second study participants repeated the 1st ...

The prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are thought to play opposing roles in drug-seeking behaviour. Specifically, the PL promotes drug-seeking whereas the IL is necessary for the inhibition of drug-seeking during extinction. We studied the roles of the PL, IL and dorsal peduncular PFC (DP) in the expression of context-induced reinstatement, reacquisition and extinction of alcoholic beer-seeking. In context-induced reinstatement (renewal), animals were trained to nosepoke for alcoholic beer (context A), extinguished (context B) and then tested in context A and B. In reacquisition, animals received the same instrumental training and extinction without any contextual manipulation. On test, alcoholic beer was again available and responding was compared with naive controls. Just prior to the test, rats received bilateral infusion of baclofen/muscimol into the PL, IL or DP. Reversible inactivation of the PL attenuated ABA renewal but augmented reacquisition. ...

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Louise White.. Please note, this talk will start at 4.15pm for virtual tea with talk starting at 4.30pm. Episodic memories contain information about our personal experiences. But memories would be useless if we could not retrieve them. Memory retrieval requires the correct selection of a particular trace to be expressed. However, many memories share cues, so how does the brain control interference between similar memories during retrieval? A system including the medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) has been proposed to mediate response selection and control interference. Over the years we have studied how serotonin and particularly 5-HT2a receptors (5-HT2aR) modulates memory processes. By combining behavioral tasks with pharmacology and genetically modified mice we were able to show that mPFC 5-HT2aR are important for the retrieval of episodic like memories and their reconsolidation, some of the signaling cascade that appears to participate in ...

PubMed Central Canada (PMC Canada) provides free access to a stable and permanent online digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed health and life sciences research publications. It builds on PubMed Central (PMC), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature and is a member of the broader PMC International (PMCI) network of e-repositories.

Models of cognitive control posit a key modulatory role for the pontine locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. In nonhuman primates, phasic LC-NE activity confers adaptive adjustments in cortical gain in task-relevant brain networks, and in performance, on a trial-by-trial basis. This model has remained untested in humans. We used the pharmacological agent modafinil to promote low-tonic/high-phasic LC-NE activity in healthy humans performing a cognitive control task during event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Modafanil administration was associated with decreased task-independent, tonic LC activity, increased task-related LC and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity, and enhanced LC-PFC functional connectivity. These results confirm in humans the role of the LC-NE system in PFC function and cognitive control and suggest a mechanism for therapeutic action of procognitive noradrenergic agents.. ...

In the vibrotactile comparison task (Machens et al., 2005), opponency in prefrontal coding was analyzed for the sensory continuum of vibration frequency. Evidence for opponent coding came from the finding of two groups of cells, one group with activity monotonically increasing with vibration frequency, the other with activity monotonically decreasing. For such sensory continua, opponency may be widespread in the nervous system; for example, in the same task, similar monotonic responses to stimulus frequency have been reported from secondary somatosensory cortex (Romo, Hernández, Zainos, Lemus, & Brody, 2002) to premotor cortex (Romo, Hernández, & Zainos, 2004). Here, we extended these observations to consider opponency in behavioral categories. For this purpose, we used a sequential target detection task based on previous studies of inferotemporal (Takeda, Naya, Fujimichi, Takeuchi, & Miyashita, 2005) and prefrontal (Kusunoki, Sigala, Gaffan, & Duncan, 2009) cortex. Each trial began with a cue ...

Mesencephalic dopamine (DA) projections are essential for cognitive and behavioral functions and believed to play a critical role during development and aging. The dopaminergic afferents of the rodent prefrontal cortex (PFC) show an extremely prolonged maturation which is very sensitive to epigenetic challenges. However, less is known about the long-term maturation and aging of these DA axons. Therefore, immunohistochemically stained DA fibres were quantitatively examined in the PFC of the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) ranging from 6 to 24 months of age. Results show a decrease in DA fibre densities in the superficial layers of the PFC in 24 month old animals compared to 6 and 12 months ...

In active stimulation, the anode is placed over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the cathode is placed over the right prefrontal cortex. They are located five centimeters ventrally of the primary motor area, which are located five centimeters laterally of the central point of the scalp (which is located on the intersection of the sagittal and median curves). The device will deliver a charge of 2mA for 30 minutes.. Placebo pills are sugar pills having the same size and shape of the active pill ...

This work focuses on the memory functions of the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC). We have provided evidence that this region codes for affective representations of our environment (e.g., of familiar people and places) that can be flexibly engaged for the simulation of possible future events (Benoit et al., 2011; 2014; 2019; Paulus et al., under review). We currently seek to understand the interactions of this region with the medial temporal lobes, both in the service of retrieving individual episodic memories and for the formation of affective memory schemas. In addition, our research on suppression adds to our understanding of the lateral PFC by showing how its subregions influence processing in other parts of the brain, notably the hippocampus (Benoit & Anderson, 2012; Benoit et al., 2015). Further research is targeted at determining the functional organization of rostral prefrontal cortex, i.e., the most anterior part of the brain (e.g., Benoit, et al., 2010; 2012).. ...

Studies of prefrontal cortex (PFC) lesion patients suggest that information conveying high immediacy, certainty, or tangibility engages the more posterior part of the PFC, whereas information that is more abstract or complex engages the anterior part. We examined whether the anterior and posterior subdivisions of the PFC have distinct roles in processing temporal information during decision making in healthy individuals. We hypothesized that the more the locus of activation is in the posterior (as opposed to anterior) PFC, the more the decision maker will be affected by recent information at the expense of past outcomes. Participants performed a complex decision task while their PFC activity was monitored using fMRI. Results indicate that individual differences in the effect of recent outcomes correspond to differences in the locus of activation, with elevated recency associated with more posterior loci of activation. Copyright © 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc ...

The present study examined whether the development in rats of behavioral sensitization to methamphetamine (MAP) is related to the development of neurotoxic morphological changes presumably induced in the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC). Male rats were intraperitonieally injected with MAP (5 mg/kg) on …

Author: Schwiedrzik, Caspar M. et al.; Genre: Journal Article; Published in Print: 2018-09; Title: Medial prefrontal cortex supports perceptual memory

Oishi, Y.; Williams, R.H.; Agostinelli, L.; Arrigoni, E.; Fuller, P.M.; Mochizuki, T.; Saper, C.B.; Scammell, T.E., 2013: Role of the medial prefrontal cortex in cataplexy

A high percentage of people who struggle with addictions also have ADD or ADHD. When left untreated, a person has less ability to control his or her impulses, setting them up for significant health problems, poor decisions, and early death. Natural ways to treat ADHD, include intense aerobic exercise, a very healthy diet, a multiple vitamin, fish oil, and supplements (such as green tea, rhodiola, l-tyrosine) or medication (such as Ritalin or Adderall) to enhance prefrontal cortex function ...

When you recite a phone number over and over while you search for a pen and paper to write it down, youre relying on your working memory. Activity in an area of the brains prefrontal cortex is thought to contribute to working memory ability, but the exact neural mechanisms are still a mystery. In a new study, researchers find the amount of a specific neurotransmitter in the prefrontal cortex may predict one aspect of working memory ability.

Abstract: Major depression is a heterogeneous condition, and the search for neural correlates specific to clinically defined subtypes has been inconclusive. Theoretical considerations implicate frontostriatal, particularly subgenual prefrontal cortex (PFC), dysfunction in the pathophysiology of melancholia--a subtype of depression characterized by anhedonia--but no empirical evidence has been found yet for such a link. To test the hypothesis that melancholic, but not nonmelancholic depression, is associated with the subgenual PFC impairment, concurrent measurement of brain electrical (electroencephalogram, EEG) and metabolic (positron emission tomography, PET) activity were obtained in 38 unmedicated subjects with DSM-IV major depressive disorder (20 melancholic, 18 nonmelancholic subjects), and 18 comparison subjects. EEG data were analyzed with a tomographic source localization method that computed the cortical three-dimensional distribution of current density for standard frequency bands, ...

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is thought to play an important role in cognitive processes that are negatively impacted by alcohol exposure. Compared to other brain regions, the neuronal connections of the PFC undergo a critical period of reorganization and refinement during adolescence that coincides with improvements in cognitive control and decision-making. Environmental insults that occur during this period may be particularly damaging to the PFC, resulting in aberrant neurodevelopment along with long-lasting effects on cognitive functioning that negatively impacts decision-making and behavioral control. Experimentation with alcohol typically begins during adolescence when it is often consumed in excessive binge-like episodes resulting in high levels of intoxication followed by a short period of abstinence. This dissertation addresses the hypothesis that binge-like adolescent alcohol (AIE) exposure alters the development of neurotransmitter systems in the prelimbic PFC (PrL-C) and as a result, ...

Abstract:Objective: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders in children and affects 3% to 5% of school-aged children. This study is to demonstrate whether functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can detect the changes in the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin(oxy-HB) in children with ADHD and typically developing children(TD children).Method: In this study, 14 children with ADHD and 15 TD children were studied. Metabolic signals of functional blood oxygen were recorded by using fNIRS during go/no-go task. A statistic method is used to compare the fNIRS between the ADHD children and controls.Results: A significant oxy-HB increase in the left frontopolar cortex(FPC) in control subjects but not in children with ADHD during inhibitory tasks. Moreover, ADHD children showed reduced activation in left FPC relative to TD children . Conclusion: Functional brain imaging using fNIRS showed reduced activation in the left prefrontal cortex(PFC)

Selective Serotonergic Modulation of Cortical Pyramidal Neurons in the Rodent Prefrontal Cortex A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental and Molecular Medicine by Daniel Avesar DARTMOUTH COLLEGE Hanover, New Hampshire September, 2013 Examining Committee: _________________________ (chair) Dr. Allan T. Gulledge _________________________ Dr. Leslie P. Henderson _________________________ Dr. Eugene E. Nattie _________________________ Dr. Evelyn K. Lambe _________________________ Dr. F. Jon Kull Dean of Graduate Studies ...

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between suicidal ideation (SI), structural brain damage, and cognitive deficits in patients with penetrating traumatic brain injury (pTBI). METHODS: Vietnam War veterans (n = 142) with pTBI to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) underwent combination of neuropsychological and psychiatric examinations and non-contrast CT brain scan. Patients were divided into SI positive (SI+) and SI negative (SI-) groups according to the SI item of the Beck Depression Inventory. RESULTS: Lesions to the left rostrolateral PFC (rlPFC) were associated with a lower risk of SI independent of depression and global functioning. Left rlPFC lesion also reduced abstract reasoning skills, which mediated the lesion effects on suicide ideation. CONCLUSIONS: The left rlPFC plays a crucial role in SI independently of depression and global functioning.

Regions affected late in neurodegenerative disease are thought to be anatomically connected to regions affected earlier. The subcallosal medial prefrontal cortex (SMPC) has connections with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and hippocampus (HC), which are regions that may become atrophic in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and Alzheimers disease (AD). We hypothesized that the SMPC is a common site of frontal atrophy in the FTLD subtypes and in AD. The volume of the SMPC, DLPFC, OFC, HC, and entorhinal cortex (EC) were manually delineated for 12 subjects with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), 13 with semantic dementia (SD), 9 with progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA), 10 AD cases, and 13 controls. Results revealed significant volume loss in the left SMPC in FTD, SD, and PNFA, while the right SMPC was also atrophied in SD and FTD. In AD a non significant tendency of volume loss in the left SMPC was found (p = 0.08), with no volume loss on the right side. Results

Background Sub-optimal functioning of the dorsal prefrontal cortex (PFC) is associated with executive dysfunction, such as set-shifting deficits, in neurological and psychiatric disorders. We tested this hypothesis by investigating the effect of low-frequency inhibiting off-line repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on the left dorsal prefrontal cortex on behavioural performance, neural activity, and network connectivity during the performance of a set-shifting paradigm in healthy elderly (mean age 50+).

The prefrontal cortex regulates behavior, cognition, and emotion by using working memory. Prefrontal functions are impaired by stress exposure. Acute, stress-induced deficits arise from excessive protein kinase C (PKC) signaling, which diminishes prefrontal neuronal firing. Chronic stress additionally produces architectural changes, reducing dendritic complexity and spine density of cortico-cortical pyramidal neurons, thereby disrupting excitatory working memory networks. In vitro studies have found that sustained PKC activity leads to spine loss from hippocampal-cultured neurons, suggesting that PKC may contribute to spine loss during chronic stress exposure. The present study tested whether inhibition of PKC with chelerythrine before daily stress would protect prefrontal spines and working memory. We found that inhibition of PKC rescued working memory impairments and reversed distal apical dendritic spine loss in layer II/III pyramidal neurons of rat prelimbic cortex. Greater spine density ...

This study was designed to evaluate the therapeutic potentials and neuroprotective effects of methanol extract of Buchholzia coriacea (BC) seeds on sodium azide (NaN3) induced neurotoxicity of the prefrontal cortex in male Wistar rats. Neurotoxicity occurs as a result of exposure to neurotoxins in the environment, of which NaN3 is a potent neurotoxin. Thirty male Wistar rats were were randomly divided into 5 groups. Group A were administered with distilled water. Group B was administered with NaN3 for 28 days. Group C was administered with NaN3 for 28 days and thereafter B. coriacea for 21 days. Group D was administered with B. coriacea for 21 days and then NaN3 for 28 days. Group E was administered with only B. coriacea for 21 days. After treatment, neurobehavioral assessment was carried out after which the rats were sacrificed, and the prefrontal cortex excised. The prefrontal cortex was then processed for histological and biochemical analysis (SOD, MDA, GSH, and CAT). Pre-treatment and ...

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) modulates dopamine in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and influences PFC dopamine-dependent cognitive task performance. A human COMT polymorphism (Val(158)Met) alters enzyme activity and is associated with both the activation and functional connectivity of the PFC during task performance, particularly working memory. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a data-driven, independent components analysis (ICA) approach to compare resting state functional connectivity within the executive control network (ECN) between young, male COMT Val(158) (n=27) and Met(158) (n=28) homozygotes. COMT genotype effects on grey matter were assessed using voxel-based morphometry. COMT genotype significantly modulated functional connectivity within the ECN, which included the head of the caudate, and anterior cingulate and frontal cortical regions. Val(158) homozygotes showed greater functional connectivity between a cluster within the left ventrolateral PFC and the rest of

Both mental workload and inhibitory control have previously been found to relate to road traffic collisions and these factors are also believed to be highly dependent on the prefrontal cortex. Driving simulators create a safe environment in which to manipulate these factors and examine human behaviours. However, the validity of simulators is often called in to question and previous simulator validation research has a number of common methodological issues. As such, there were two main aims of this thesis. The first was to examine the efficacy of functional near infrared spectroscopy in measuring changes in prefrontal cortex activation as a result of mental workload and inhibitory control manipulations in simulated driving scenarios. The second aim was to examine the similarities and differences in driving behaviour, eye movements and prefrontal cortex activation in real and simulated driving environments ...

Trust and trustworthiness are essential to an efficient economy and play crucial roles in social life. Previous evidence from behavioral experiments has revealed that the trustworthiness of individuals is closely related with their altruistic preference. It has been demonstrated that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is associated with decisions involving trustworthiness. Moreover, vmPFC lesion patients showed less trustworthiness and altruism than control subjects, indicating the indispensable role of this specific brain area in human social interactions. However, the causal relationship between this neural area and trustworthiness, as well as altruism, has not been fully revealed. The potential neural basis behind the behavior of trustees repayment has also seldom been discussed. In the present study, we aimed to provide evidence of a direct link between the neural and behavioral results through the application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the vmPFC of our

In the prefrontal cortex, dopamine D(1)-like and M(1) muscarinic receptors are both involved in the regulation of attentional, cognitive and emotional processes but so far no information has been provided on their functional interaction. In the present study we show that in mouse medial prefrontal cortex, concomitant activation of M(1) muscarinic receptors potentiated D(1)-like receptor-induced cyclic AMP formation through a mechanism involving activation of G(q/11) and the release of G protein βγ subunits. Immunohistochemical studies indicated that the adenylyl cyclase isoforms AC2 and AC4 are expressed in mouse prefrontal cortex and that they colocalize with D(1)-like receptors with a greater association for AC4. In primary cultures of frontal cortex neurons, D(1)-like receptor-induced Ser133 phosphorylation of the transcription factor cyclic AMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB) was potentiated by concurrent stimulation of M(1) receptors. Suppression of AC4 expression with small ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Effects of lesions of prefrontal cortex, amygdala, or fornix on behavioral sensitization to amphetamine. T2 - Comparison with N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonists. AU - Wolf, Marina. AU - Dahlin, S. L.. AU - Hu, X. T.. AU - Xue, C. J.. AU - White, K.. PY - 1995/1/1. Y1 - 1995/1/1. N2 - Behavioral sensitization to amphetamine involves the mesoaccumbens dopamine system and is accompanied by cellular changes in this system. Excitatory amino acid antagonists, when co-administered with amphetamine, prevent both behavioral sensitization and associated changes in the mesoaccumbens dopamine system. This suggests that excitatory amino acid-dependent events are critical to the initiation of sensitization. This study sought to identify excitatory amino acid projections required for sensitization, focusing on projections to the nucleus accumbens or ventral tegmental area. The major excitatory projections to the nucleus accumbens originate in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus. The ...

Recent work has suggested an association between the orbitofrontal cortex in humans and practical decision making. The aim of this study was to investigate the profile of cognitive deficits, with particular emphasis on decision‐making processes, following damage to different sectors of the human prefrontal cortex. Patients with discrete orbitofrontal (OBF) lesions, dorsolateral (DL) lesions, dorsomedial (DM) lesions and large frontal lesions (Large) were compared with matched controls on three different decision‐making tasks: the Iowa Gambling Task and two recently developed tasks that attempt to fractionate some of the cognitive components of the Iowa task. A comprehensive battery including the assessment of recognition memory, working memory, planning ability and attentional set‐shifting was also administered. Whilst combined frontal patients were impaired on several of the tasks employed, distinct profiles emerged for each patient group. In contrast to previous data, patients with focal ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Distinct differences in cortical reactivity of motor and prefrontal cortices to magnetic stimulation. AU - Wilenius, J AU - Komssi, S AU - Ilmoniemi, Risto. AU - Kähkönen, Seppo Antero. PY - 2004. Y1 - 2004. KW - cortical reactivity. KW - motor cortex. KW - prefrontal cortex. KW - magnetic stimulation. KW - COMBINED TMS. KW - CORTEX. KW - COIL. KW - EEG. KW - RESPONSES. KW - EXCITABILITY. KW - THRESHOLD. KW - DISTANCE. KW - 3111 Biomedicine. U2 - 10.1016/j.clinph.2003.10.032. DO - 10.1016/j.clinph.2003.10.032. M3 - Article. VL - 115. SP - 583. EP - 588. JO - Electromyography and clinical neurophysiology. JF - Electromyography and clinical neurophysiology. SN - 0301-150X. IS - 3. ER - ...

Neuromorality is an emerging field of neuroscience that studies the connection between morality and neuronal function. Scientists use fMRI and psychological assessment together to investigate the neural basis of moral cognition and behavior. Evidence shows that the central hub of morality is the prefrontal cortex guiding activity to other nodes of the neuromoral network. A spectrum of functional characteristics within this network to give rise to both altruistic and psychopathological behavior. Evidence from the investigation of neuromorality has applications in both clinical neuropsychiatry and forensic neuropsychiatry. The main brain regions that are involved in the regulation of moral cognition and behavior are those of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala. Less pronounced areas that are involved in moral regulation include the anterior cingulate gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, anterior ...

Background: Huntingtons disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that results in deterioration and atrophy of various brain regions.. Aim: To assess the functional connectivity between prefrontal brain regions in patients with Huntingtons disease, compared with normal controls, using functional magnetic resonance imaging.. Patients and methods: 20 patients with Huntingtons disease and 17 matched controls performed a Simon task that is known to activate lateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortical regions. The functional connectivity was hypothesised to be impaired in patients with Huntingtons disease between prefrontal regions of interest, selected from both hemispheres, in the anterior cingulate and dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex.. Results: Controls showed a dynamic increase in interhemispheric functional connectivity during task performance, compared with the baseline state; patients with Huntingtons disease, however, showed no such increase in prefrontal connectivity. ...

Memory formation and recall depend on a complex circuit that includes the hippocampus and associated cortical regions. The goal of this thesis was to understand how two of the cortical connections, the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), influence spatial and nonspatial activity in the hippocampus. Cells in the MEC exhibit prominent spatially selective activity and have been hypothesized to drive place representation in the hippocampus. In Experiment 1 the MEC was transiently inactivated using the inhibitory opsin ArchaerhodopsinT (ArchT), and simultaneous recordings from CA1 were made as rats ran on an elliptical track. In response to MEC disruption some cells in the hippocampus shifted the preferred location of activity, some changed firing rate and others were unaffected. The new representation that developed following MEC disruption remained stable despite the fact that inhibition was transient. If the MEC is the source of spatial activity in the hippocampus ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Layer-specific high-frequency action potential spiking in the prefrontal cortex of awake rats. AU - Boudewijns, Z.S.R.M.. AU - Groen, M.R.. AU - Lodder, B.N.. AU - McMaster, M.T.. AU - Kaleogrades, L.. AU - de Haan, R.. AU - Narayanan, R.T.. AU - Meredith, R.M.. AU - Mansvelder, H.D.. AU - de Kock, C.P.J.. PY - 2013. Y1 - 2013. N2 - Cortical pyramidal neurons show irregular in vivo action potential (AP) spiking with high frequency bursts occurring on sparse background activity. Somatic APs can backpropagate from soma into basal and apical dendrites and locally generate dendritic calcium spikes. The critical AP frequency for generation of such dendritic calcium spikes can be very different depending on cell-type or brain area involved. Previously, it was shown in vitro that calcium electrogenesis can also be induced in L(ayer) 5 pyramidal neurons of prefrontal cortex (PFC). It remains an open question whether somatic burst spiking and the resulting dendritic calcium electrogenesis ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - Lasting downregulation of the lipid peroxidation enzymes in the prefrontal cortex of mice susceptible to stress-induced anhedonia. AU - Cline, Brandon H.. AU - Anthony, Daniel C.. AU - Lysko, Alexander. AU - Dolgov, Oleg. AU - Anokhin, Konstantin. AU - Schroeter, Careen. AU - Malin, Dmitry. AU - Kubatiev, Aslan. AU - Steinbusch, Harry W.. AU - Lesch, Klaus-Peter. AU - Strekalova, Tatyana. PY - 2015/1/1. Y1 - 2015/1/1. KW - Lipid peroxidation. KW - Chronic stress depression model. KW - Anhedonia. KW - Prefrontal cortex. KW - Imipramine. KW - Microarray. U2 - 10.1016/j.bbr.2014.04.037. DO - 10.1016/j.bbr.2014.04.037. M3 - Article. C2 - 24786329. VL - 276. SP - 118. EP - 129. JO - Behavioural Brain Research. JF - Behavioural Brain Research. SN - 0166-4328. ER - ...

From the most minimal of person information, such as a photograph or a sentence, people are able to rapidly infer a multitude of complex personality traits. These social inferences are thought to rely upon cognitive representations of person knowledge (e.g., person schemas and stereotypes) that guide social perception and allow us to infer unseen traits from sparse observations about a person. Cognitive neuroscience research has shown that forming impressions and making mental state inferences relies on the medial prefrontal cortex. The majority of this work has focused on tasks in which participants are explicitly instructed to form impressions or infer thoughts and beliefs; however real-world impression formation usually occurs spontaneously. In this thesis, studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging in combination with model-based and data-driven techniques aim to uncover the central features of peoples representations of other persons. Studies 1 and 2 used movies and visual ...

PubMed journal article: Blockade of D1 dopamine receptors in the medial prefrontal cortex attenuates amphetamine- and methamphetamine-induced locomotor activity in the rat. Download Prime PubMed App to iPhone, iPad, or Android

Behavioral evidence indicates that working memory (WM) in schizophrenia is already impaired at the encoding stage. However, the neurophysiological basis of this primary deficit remains poorly understood. Using event-related fMRI, we assessed differences in brain activation and functional connectivity during the encoding, maintenance and retrieval stages of a visual WM task with 3 levels of memory load in 17 adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) and 17 matched controls. The amount of information patients could store in WM was reduced at all memory load levels. During encoding, activation in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and extrastriate visual cortex, which in controls positively correlated with the amount of stored information, was reduced in patients. Additionally, patients showed disturbed functional connectivity between prefrontal and visual areas. During retrieval, right inferior VLPFC hyperactivation was correlated with hypoactivation of left VLPFC in patients ...

TY - JOUR. T1 - A topography of executive functions and their interactions revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. AU - Fassbender, Catherine. AU - Murphy, K.. AU - Foxe, J. J.. AU - Wylie, G. R.. AU - Javitt, D. C.. AU - Robertson, I. H.. AU - Garavan, H.. PY - 2004/7/1. Y1 - 2004/7/1. N2 - We used fMRI to study the brain processes involved in the executive control of behavior. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), which allows unpredictable and predictable NOGO events to be contrasted, was imaged using a mixed (block and event-related) fMRI design to examine tonic and phasic processes involved in response inhibition, error detection, conflict monitoring and sustained attention. A network of regions, including right ventral prefrontal cortex (PFC), left dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) and right inferior parietal cortex, was activated for successful unpredictable inhibitions, while rostral anterior cingulate was implicated in error processing and the pre-SMA in conflict ...

Lesions to prefrontal cortex (PFC) in humans can severely disrupt everyday decision-making, with concomitant effects on social and occupational functioning. Forty-six patients with unilateral lesions to prefrontal cortex and 21 healthy control subjects were administered three neuropsychological measures of decision-making: the Iowa Gambling Task, the Cambridge Gamble Task, and the Risk Task. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were acquired from 40 patients, with region of interest (ROI) mapping of prefrontal subregions. The frontal patients showed only limited damage in medial and orbital prefrontal cortex, but greater damage in lateral prefrontal regions of interest. Patients with right frontal lesions preferred the risky decks on the Iowa Gambling Task, and differed significantly from left frontal and control subjects. Within the right frontal group, the preference for the risky decks was correlated with the total lesion volume and the volume of damage outside of the ventromedial prefrontal region

The Val158Met polymorphism of the human catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene affects activity of the enzyme and influences performance and efficiency of the prefrontal cortex (PFC); however, although catecholaminergic neurotransmission is implicated, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive because studies of the role of COMT in PFC function are sparse. This study investigated the effect of tolcapone, a brain-penetrant COMT inhibitor, on a rat model of attentional set shifting, which is dependent on catecholamines and the medial PFC (mPFC). Additionally, we investigated the effect of tolcapone on extracellular catecholamines in the mPFC using microdialysis in awake rats. Tolcapone significantly and specifically improved extradimensional (ED) set shifting. Tolcapone did not affect basal extracellular catecholamines, but significantly potentiated the increase in extracellular dopamine (DA) elicited by either local administration of the depolarizing agent potassium chloride or systemic administration

TY - JOUR. T1 - Relationship between trait anxiety, prefrontal cortex, and attention bias to angry faces in children and adolescents. AU - Telzer, Eva H.. AU - Mogg, Karin. AU - Bradley, Brendan P.. AU - Mai, Xiaoqin. AU - Ernst, Monique. AU - Pine, Daniel S.. AU - Monk, Christopher S.. N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported in part by K22 MH068017 to C.S.M. and the NIMH intramural research program. The authors gratefully acknowledge Harvey Iwamoto for programming and computer support, Ken Towbin, MD and Alan Zametkin, MD for medical oversight, and Robert Cox, PhD, Gang Chen, PhD, and Ziad Saad, PhD for statistical and technical advice.. PY - 2008/10. Y1 - 2008/10. N2 - Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a visual-probe task that assesses attention to threat, we investigated the cognitive and neurophysiological correlates of trait anxiety in youth. During fMRI acquisition, 16 healthy children and adolescents viewed angry-neutral face pairs and ...

The largest, but most mysterious, sub-region of prefrontal cortex is the rostral PFC (RPFC). As a proportion of whole-brain volume, some have estimated the human RPFC to be twice as large as the corresponding region in the chimpanzee brain. Yet curiously, patients with damage restricted to the RPFC often perform well on standard neuropsychological tests, including classical tests of executive function such as the Wisconsin card sorting test. Instead, patients with damage to this region seem to have particular difficulty in real-world multitasking situations, such as organising a shopping trip when there are few strict constraints - participants are relatively free to organise their behaviour however they like - but there are also multiple instructions to be remembered, rules to be followed, and potential distractions in the environment. Recent accounts have focused on the role of RPFC in the most high-level human abilities, such as combining two distinct cognitive operations in order to ...

So where do we go from here? Bridging the technological gulf between exceptionally invasive methods (like optogenetics and chemogenetics in animals) and non-invasive ones (TMS, MRI in humans) is a minor funding priority of the BRAIN Initiative. Another - more manageable - strategy for the present would be a comprehensive review of imaging, genetic, and post-mortem neuroanatomical studies of brains from people who lived with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety. This has been done most extensively (perhaps) for schizophrenia (e.g., Meyer-Lindenberg, 2010; Arnsten, 2011). Certain types of electrophysiological studies in primate prefrontal cortex may provide another bridge, although this has been disputed ...

So where do we go from here? Bridging the technological gulf between exceptionally invasive methods (like optogenetics and chemogenetics in animals) and non-invasive ones (TMS, MRI in humans) is a minor funding priority of the BRAIN Initiative. Another - more manageable - strategy for the present would be a comprehensive review of imaging, genetic, and post-mortem neuroanatomical studies of brains from people who lived with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety. This has been done most extensively (perhaps) for schizophrenia (e.g., Meyer-Lindenberg, 2010; Arnsten, 2011). Certain types of electrophysiological studies in primate prefrontal cortex may provide another bridge, although this has been disputed ...

So where do we go from here? Bridging the technological gulf between exceptionally invasive methods (like optogenetics and chemogenetics in animals) and non-invasive ones (TMS, MRI in humans) is a minor funding priority of the BRAIN Initiative. Another - more manageable - strategy for the present would be a comprehensive review of imaging, genetic, and post-mortem neuroanatomical studies of brains from people who lived with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety. This has been done most extensively (perhaps) for schizophrenia (e.g., Meyer-Lindenberg, 2010; Arnsten, 2011). Certain types of electrophysiological studies in primate prefrontal cortex may provide another bridge, although this has been disputed ...

Among psychiatric conditions, depression has been most extensively studied, and seems most promising target, although evidence is not entirely convincing. In a large double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) implemented in Brazil, 120 depressed patients were randomized with a 2x2 factorial design to sertraline, a serotonin reuptake inhibitor used as antidepressant, or placebo, and active or sham tDCS (Brunoni et al. 2013). Compared to sham-tDCS groups, tDCS groups showed significantly greater improvements of depressive symptoms after 10 stimulations in 2 weeks. The benefit of tDCS was further indicated at the end of a 4 week extension period in which two stimulations (every other week) were administered (Brunoni et al. 2013).. A hypothesized rationale of treating depression with tDCS is that altered balance in cortical activities between left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is related to depressive symptoms (Grimm et al. 2008). Therefore, the left DLPFC or F3 area in the ...

There are two functional parts of the brain that play a key role in stress. These serve the functions of emotion and cognitive function. So I am calling them the emotional brain (amygdala and its connections and medial forebrain structures including the medial prefrontal cortex) and the logical brain (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, other parts of the prefrontal cortex, parts of the cingulate cortex and parts of the hippocampus).. The emotional brain is able to initiate a stress response via the sympathetic nervous system which culminates in adrenaline and cortisol racing through our circulation.The logical brain is always trying to turn-off this stress response and it is also trying to restrain the emotional brain. The stronger our logical brain, the better it becomes at doing these two things. When the stress response is turned off, our parasympathetic nervous system signal is turned on. This signal relaxes the body. So a strong logical brain goes hand in hand with ...

Our brains have a lot of different components. But 3 of the main ones are our amygdala, our hippocampus and our prefrontal cortex. Our amygdala is like the security guard for our brain. It blocks out fear and scary things from getting to our brains. But sometimes things get past it and it goes into our brains. The hippocampus is where when we think about something it goes in there and then after a while gets transferred into our prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the mainframe of our brains. The prefrontal cortex is where all of our memories are from a long time back. They are all there but they are just deep in there cramped and full because of all our memories. A memory I still remember is when I was 8 and I was in my car going to a party. Something that I remember my amygdala doing is when I was going to go on a roller coaster the fear snuck past and I got really REALLY scared. That is my blog on My Limbic System ...

There is growing evidence that noradrenergic inputs to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) play an important role in regulating its function. This paper reviews the pharmacological control of noradrenaline (NA) release in this region, with particular reference to our studies using brain microdialysis, and also describes how NA levels are modulated by antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs. The suggestion that atypical antipsychotics such as clozapine and risperidone may produce clinical benefits by their ability to increase NA release is discussed. Finally, a new class of drugs, which show selectivity for imidazoline receptors is described. These compounds are shown to similarly increase extracellular NA in the PFC. Their potential utility as clinical treatments is ...

Background: Obesity is associated with reduced activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a region of the brain that plays a key role in the support of self-regulatory aspects of eating behavior and inhibitory control. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive technique used to modulate brain activity.Objectives: We tested whether repeated anodal tDCS targeted at the left DLPFC (compared with sham tDCS) has an immediate effect on eating behavior during ad libitum food intake, resulting in weight change, and whether it might influence longer-term food intake-related appetite ratings in individuals with obesity ...

CHIROPRACTIC & THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX - In this video we look at research undertaken that showed how Chiropractic care can positively affect how your brain functions.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4265-0792 and Brake, Wayne G. (2017) 17β-estradiol locally increases phasic dopamine release in the dorsal striatum. Neuroscience Letters . ISSN 0304-3940 (In Press) Almey, Anne, Hafez, Nada M., Hantson, Arne and Brake, Wayne G. (2013) Deficits in latent inhibition induced by estradiol replacement are ameliorated by haloperidol treatment. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7 (136). ISSN 1662-5153 Baharnoori, Moogeh, Brake, Wayne G. and Srivastava, Lalit (2009) Prenatal Immune Challenge Induces Developmental Changes in the Morphology of Pyramidal Neurons of the Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus in Rats. Schizophrenia Research, 107 (1). pp. 99-109. ISSN 0920-9964 Quinlan, Matthew G., Hussain, Dema and Brake, Wayne G. (2008) Use of Cognitive Strategies in Rats: the Role of Estradiol and its Interaction with Dopamine. Hormones and Behavior, 53 (1). 185 -191. ISSN 0018-506X Sullivan, Ron M. and Brake, Wayne G. (2003) What the rodent prefrontal cortex can teach ...

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