Noradrenergic
noradrenergic
The role of noradrenergic transmission for saliency signaling and perception
Effects of Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Arousal State and Cortical Excitation
The vagus nerve is a major pathway by which the brain and the body communicate. Electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve (VNS) is widely used as a therapeutic intervention for epilepsy and there is compelling evidence that it can enhance recovery following stroke. Our work demonstrates that VNS exerts a robust excitatory effect on the brain. First, we establish that VNS triggers an increase in arousal state as measured by behavioral state change. This behavioral state change is linked to an increase in excitatory activity within the cortex. We also show that cholinergic and noradrenergic neuromodulatory pathways are activated by VNS, providing a potential mechanism by which VNS may trigger cortical activation. Importantly, the effect of VNS on neuromodulation and cortical excitation persists in anesthetized mice, demonstrating that VNS-induced cortical activation cannot be fully explained by associated behavioral changes.
Neuroimmune interactions in Cardiovascular Diseases
The nervous system and the immune system share the common ability to exert gatekeeper roles at the interfaces between internal and external environment. Although interaction between these two evolutionarily highly conserved systems is long recognized, the pathophysiological mechanisms regulating their reciprocal crosstalk in cardiovascular diseases became object of investigation only more recently. In the last years, our group elucidated how the autonomic nervous system controls the splenic immunity recruited by hypertensive challenges. In my talk, I will focus on the molecular mechanisms that regulate the neuro-immune crosstalk in hypertension. I will elaborate on the mechanistic insights into this brain-spleen axis led us uncover a new molecular pathway mediating the neuroimmune interaction established by noradrenergic-mediated release in the spleen of placental growth factor (PlGF), an angiogenic growth factor potentially targetable with pharmacological approaches.
Rapid State Changes Account for Apparent Brain and Behavior Variability
Neural and behavioral responses to sensory stimuli are notoriously variable from trial to trial. Does this mean the brain is inherently noisy or that we don’t completely understand the nature of the brain and behavior? Here we monitor the state of activity of the animal through videography of the face, including pupil and whisker movements, as well as walking, while also monitoring the ability of the animal to perform a difficult auditory or visual task. We find that the state of the animal is continuously changing and is never stable. The animal is constantly becoming more or less activated (aroused) on a second and subsecond scale. These changes in state are reflected in all of the neural systems we have measured, including cortical, thalamic, and neuromodulatory activity. Rapid changes in cortical activity are highly correlated with changes in neural responses to sensory stimuli and the ability of the animal to perform auditory or visual detection tasks. On the intracellular level, these changes in forebrain activity are associated with large changes in neuronal membrane potential and the nature of network activity (e.g. from slow rhythm generation to sustained activation and depolarization). Monitoring cholinergic and noradrenergic axonal activity reveals widespread correlations across the cortex. However, we suggest that a significant component of these rapid state changes arise from glutamatergic pathways (e.g. corticocortical or thalamocortical), owing to their rapidity. Understanding the neural mechanisms of state-dependent variations in brain and behavior promises to significantly “denoise” our understanding of the brain.
Noradrenergic Modulation of Whole Brain Energy Landscape Mediates Perceptual Switches
COSYNE 2023
α1-noradrenergic cAMP signaling in astrocytes of the murine olfactory bulb
FENS Forum 2024
Characterization of astroglia-noradrenergic neuron communication in the locus coeruleus
FENS Forum 2024
Exploring noradrenergic signaling and sleep patterns in prodromal stages of Alzheimer’s disease mouse models
FENS Forum 2024
Identification of excitatory presynaptic neurons participating in regulation of noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus
FENS Forum 2024
The locus coeruleus noradrenergic network in prodromal phases of Parkinson’s disease
FENS Forum 2024
Long-term consequences of early life stress on noradrenergic neurons activation in male and female mice
FENS Forum 2024
Noradrenergic agonists as new treatment opportunity against radiation-induced cognitive decline
FENS Forum 2024
Noradrenergic locus coeruleus activity functionally partitions NREM sleep to gatekeep the NREM-REM sleep cycle
FENS Forum 2024
Noradrenergic modulation of the perirhinal network
FENS Forum 2024
Noradrenergic modulation of recognition memory in male and female mice
FENS Forum 2024
Noradrenergic modulation of stress-induced catecholamine release optimizes motivated decision-making behavior
FENS Forum 2024
Noradrenergic neuromodulation of neuronal dynamics and behavior
FENS Forum 2024
Noradrenergic α2 receptor: A promising central target for urolithins
FENS Forum 2024
Noradrenergic regulation of hippocampal neuronal representations of spatial information
FENS Forum 2024
Possible interaction between noradrenergic transmission in the basolateral amygdala and dopaminergic transmission in the hippocampus in the modulation of initial memory consolidation
FENS Forum 2024
Psychosocial and physical stress modulate noradrenergic signaling in the ventral tegmental area-nucleus accumbens circuit
FENS Forum 2024
Stimuli-evoked noradrenergic activity in the VTA drives phasic dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens – preliminary results
FENS Forum 2024
Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) as a therapeutic approach towards the functional deterioration of the locus coeruleus–noradrenergic system
FENS Forum 2024
Unveiling molecular signatures in resilience following child abuse: Noradrenergic cells transcriptomics in human post-mortem tissues
FENS Forum 2024