Topic: cognitive abilities

Regression, understood as the loss of previously acquired behaviors, affects 20-30% of patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Nowadays, the mechanism behind this regressive process is still unknown. To improve our knowledge and find selected target treatments, it is important to establish a model with regressive features. Here, we showed that the Synapsin II Knockout (SynII KO) mouse loses previously acquired social and cognitive abilities in adulthood. Synapsin II is a presynaptic phosphoprotein belonging to the Synapsin family (Syns) involved in neuronal development and in the modulat

The brain parenchyma undergoes several structural changes throughout life that significantly impact on its physiology, and are reflected in changes in cognitive abilities. The aim of this healthy ageing study was to investigate how age-related microstructural alterations affect the degree of preserved cognition in the elderly. We sought to identify brain region- and age-specific patterns that contribute to the physiological decline in cognition. To this end, we compared behavioral and microstructural MRI biomarkers in adult (6 months) and old (1.5 years) Wistar rats. Additionally, we analyzed

The interplay between olfaction and higher cognitive processing has been documented in the adult brain, yet its development is poorly understood. In mice, shortly after birth, endogenous and stimulus-evoked activity in the olfactory bulb (OB) boosts the oscillatory entrainment of the downstream lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) and hippocampus (HP). The tight anatomical connections between olfactory system and higher-order neuronal circuits might implicate the functional impact of olfactory outputs on cognitive functions along brain development. However, it is unclear whether early OB activity h

During Long Term Potentiation (LTP) AMPA receptors (AMPARs) are inserted into the plasma membrane. This form of synaptic plasticity is crucial for many aspects of brain function, including learning and memory. Protein 4.1N (EPB41L1) is a neuronally enriched member of the protein 4.1 family. In primary hippocampal cultures, 4.1N is enriched at the discrete sites of synaptic contact, co-localizing with the postsynaptic density proteins, suggesting a potential functional role for 4.1N as a component of the cytoskeletal architecture of excitatory synapses. 4.1N also directly interacts with the Glu

Predicting neuromarkers for cognitive abilities using fMRI has been a major focus of research in the past few years. However, it has recently been reported that many thousands of participants are required to obtain reproducible results. This appears to be a major impediment to obtaining neuromarkers from fMRI because large sample sizes are typically not available in neuroimaging studies. Here we show that the out-of-sample prediction accuracy can be dramatically improved by supplementing fMRI with readily available non-imaging information so that reliable predictive modeling becomes feasible e

Neurogenesis is primarily defined as the development of neurons, which occurs in several locations of the brain including the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. The proliferation stage of neurogenesis is the earliest stage in which the neural stem cells (NSCs) produced can be affected by a variety of factors, such as antibiotic toxicity. Fosfomycin (FOS) is a very reactive broad-spectrum antibiotic and is commonly prescribed for urinary tract infections (UTI). Previous data from our lab indicated a serious negative effect on NSCs when FOS was administered to rats. In this study, we aim to inves