Animal behavior recognition is an important research area that provides insights into areas such as neural functions, gene mutations, and drug efficacy, among others. The manual coding of behaviors based on video recordings is labor-intensive and pro...
The appropriate display of social behavior is critical for the well-being and survival of an individual. In many psychiatric disorders, including social anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorders, depression and schizophrenia social behavior is seve...
Since the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) was isolated from an ovine brain, a growing family of CRF-related peptides has been discovered. Today, the mammalian CRF system consists of four ligands (CRF, urocortin 1 (Ucn1), urocortin 2 (Ucn2), and...
The appropriate display of social behaviors is essential for the well-being, reproductive success and survival of an individual. Deficits in social behavior are associated with impaired N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated neurotransmission....
Cancer-induced bone pain (CIBP) is a common and devastating symptom with limited treatment options in patients, significantly affecting their quality of life. The use of rodent models is the most common approach to uncovering the mechanisms underlyin...
Olfaction is the dominant sensory modality in rodents, and is crucial for regulating social behaviors, including parental care. Paternal care is rare in rodents, but can have significant consequences for offspring fitness, suggesting a need to unders...
Nutrients and xenobiotics cross the blood–placenta barrier, potentially depositing in the fetal brain. The prenatal exposure affects the neuroendocrine and microbial development. The mechanism underlying maternal risk factors reprograming the m...
Many neurobehavioral tests are used for the assessment of human-like behaviors in animals. Most of them were developed in rodents and are used for the assessment of animal models that mimic human neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders (NDD...
Automation of complex social behavior analysis of experimental animals would allow for faster, more accurate and reliable research results in many biological, pharmacological, and medical fields. However, there are behaviors that are not only difficu...
For social animals that communicate acoustically, hearing loss and social isolation are factors that independently influence social behavior. In human subjects, hearing loss may also contribute to objective and subjective measures of social isolation...
Neuropeptide Y (NPY) has anxiolytic-like effects and facilitates the extinction of cued and contextual fear in rodents. We have previously shown that the intracerebroventricular administration of NPY reduces the expression of social fear in a mouse m...
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects both motor and non-motor functions. Although motor impairment is a prominent clinical sign of PD, additional neurological symptoms may also occur, particularly in the preclini...
Stress is a critical factor in the development of mood and drug use disorders. The social defeat model is not appropriate for female rodents due to their low level of aggression. Therefore, a robust female model of social stress needs to be developed...
Infection with the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii causes loss of innate fear of cat odors in both male and female rats. This behavioral change is presumed to reflect a parasitic manipulation that increases transmission of the parasite from its intermedi...
Social withdrawal in rodents is a measure of asociality, an important negative symptom of schizophrenia. The Roman high- (RHA) and low-avoidance (RLA) rat strains have been reported to exhibit differential profiles in schizophrenia-relevant behaviora...
The microbiome is an important player within physiological homeostasis of the body but also in pathophysiological derailments. Chronic social stress is a challenge to the organism, which results in psychological illnesses such as depression in some i...
The primary cilium is an organelle with a central role in cellular signal perception. Mutations in genes that encode cilia-associated proteins result in a collection of human syndromes collectively termed ciliopathies. Of these, the Bardet-Biedl synd...
Glycerophospholipids have hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties. Previous studies suggest that phospholipids with different moieties have different effects on rodent behavior; however, the relationship between chemical structures and behavioral effect...
There is still no effective treatment that addresses the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including social and communication deficits. A comprehensive body of evidence points to the cholinergic system, including alpha7–nicotini...
In the central nervous system, the neuropeptide oxytocin stimulates neural networks that regulate social behaviors, including social attachment, aggression, and complex social cognition. Perturbations in oxytocin and/or oxytocin receptor expression r...
Combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) has greatly reduced the severity of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders in people living with HIV (PLWH); however, PLWH are more likely than the general population to use drugs and suffer from substance use...
The “experimenter gender effect” is a pervasive confound in rodent behavioral neuroscience: the sex of the human handler alters stress, social, and pharmacological responses via olfactory cues and conserved neural circuits. Whether this e...
Lavender administration in humans has been shown to promote calmness without the side effects often observed with benzodiazepines. Studies in both humans and rodents have found that ingestion of oral lavender capsules resulted in significantly decrea...
The rapid rate of anthropogenic-related climate change is expected to severely impact ecosystems and their constituent organisms, leading to mass extinction. A rapid adaptive response of animals to such change could be due to reversible phenotypic fl...
Exposure of mothers to chronic stressors during pregnancy or the postpartum period often leads to the development of depression, anxiety, or other related mood disorders. The adverse effects of mood disorders are often mediated through maternal behav...
Tagetes lucida Cav., is a medicinal plant used in Mexico to alleviate different disorders related to alterations of the central nervous system, such as behaviors associated with psychosis. The present work evaluated the effect of different extracts s...
It is known that the trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1) receptor is involved in limbic brain functions by regulating dopamine transmission and putative reward circuitry. Moreover, other TAARs are expressed in the olfactory system of all studie...
Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is the deposition of amyloid protein in the cerebral vasculature, a common feature in both aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the effects of environmental factors, particularly cognitive stimulation,...
Octodon degus are long-lived, diurnal, and highly social rodents increasingly used in studies of aging and neurodegeneration. However, behavioral profiles of aged laboratory-housed degus remain incompletely characterized, limiting the interpretation...
Developmental vitamin D (DVD) deficiency is a risk factor for schizophrenia. In rodents we show that DVD-deficiency alters brain development and produces behavioral phenotypes in the offspring of relevance to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. T...
In self-report questionnaires, men report higher scores than women on variables such as desire for sex, frequency of sexual thoughts, number of sex partners, etc. Based on this, men are considered to have a higher level of sexual motivation than wome...
Appropriate animal models of human diseases are a cornerstone in the advancement of science and medicine. To create animal models of neuropsychiatric and neurobehavioral diseases such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) necessitates the development of...
Background/Objectives: Emotion recognition is a fundamental component of mammalian social cognition, enabling animals such as rodents to detect the emotional states of conspecifics and guide prosocial or avoidance behaviors. However, natural social l...
The rodent prenatal valproate (VPA) treatment is a widely used animal model of idiopathic autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the presence of autistic-like symptoms is highly variable in treated offspring. The disruption of the excitation–...
Social isolation deprives rodents of social interactions that are critical for normal development of brain and behavior. Several studies have indicated that postweaning isolation rearing may affect nitric oxide (NO) production. The aim of this study...
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) remains a crucial public health challenge worldwide. The currently available medications for AUD remain limited in the number and efficacy, meaning that the development of new treatments is of critical importance. Agonists...
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social communication and social interaction, and the presence of repetitive behaviors and/or restricted interests. In the past few years, large-...
Social interaction and empathy play critical roles in determining the emotional well-being of humans. Stress-related depression and anxiety can be exacerbated or mitigated depending on specific social conditions. Although rodents are well known to ex...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by cognitive decline and amyloid-β (Aβ)-related pathology. Non-rodent models that capture selected aspects of human AD remain limited. We established and characterized a human APP-driven, A&be...
Previous studies have shown that atypical dopamine-transporter-inhibitors such as modafinil and its analogues modify behavioral and cognitive functions in rodents. Here, we tested potential promnestic effects of the novel, more dopamine-transporter s...
MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has shown potential as an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Preclinical studies involving rodents have demonstrated that MDMA can facilitate the extinction of fear memories. It has been noted t...
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Social factors have a tremendous influence on instances of heavy drinking and in turn impact public health. However, it is extremely difficult to assess whether this influence is only a cultural phenomenon or has biological underpinnings. Research in...
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) comprise a heterogeneous group of pathological conditions, mainly of genetic origin, characterized by stereotyped behavior, such as marked impairment in verbal and nonverbal communication, social skills, and cognition...
A mimetic of the BDNF loop 4, bis (N-monosuccinyl-L-seryl-L-lysine) hexamethylenediamide, named GSB-106, was designed and synthesized in our scientific group. The compound activated TrkB, MAPK/ERK, PI3K/AKT, and PLCγ in in vitro experiments. In vivo...
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that is characterized by differences in social interaction, repetitive behaviors, restricted interests, and sensory differences beginning early in life. Especially sensory sympt...
Over the last three decades, adult neurogenesis in mammals has been a central focus of neurobiological research, providing insights into brain plasticity and function. However, interest in this field has recently waned due to challenges in translatin...
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy and its damaging consequences on the developing infant brain are significant public health, social, and economic issues. The major distinctive features of prenatal alcohol exposure in humans are cognitive and beha...
With the umbrella term ‘neurodevelopmental disorders’ (NDDs) we refer to a plethora of congenital pathological conditions generally connected with cognitive, social behavior, and sensory/motor alterations. Among the possible causes, gesta...
The neuropeptide oxytocin is produced in the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus and the supraoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus. In addition to its extensively studied influence on social behavior and reproductive function, central oxytocin signalin...
Astrocytes are now recognized as active and essential participants in neural circuit function, extending far beyond their traditional roles as passive support cells. Emerging evidence highlights their critical involvement in synaptic modulation, info...
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