Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) has been shown to play a critical role in brain development, learning, memory and neural processing in general. Cdk5 is widely distributed in many neuron types in the central nervous system, while its cell-specific ro...
Heterosynaptic plasticity, along with Hebbian homosynaptic plasticity, is an important mechanism ensuring the stable operation of learning neuronal networks. However, whether heterosynaptic plasticity occurs in the whole brain in vivo, and what role(...
The activation of tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB), the receptor of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), plays a key role in induced juvenile-like plasticity (iPlasticity), which allows restructuring of neural networks in adulthood. Opticall...
Visual perception is profoundly modulated by spatial attention, which can selectively prioritize goal-related information. Previous studies found spatial attention facilitated the efficacy of neuronal communication between visual cortices with hierar...
Blue light exposure-induced retinal damage has been extensively studied. Although many in vitro studies have shown the benefits of blue light-blocking lenses (BBL) there have been few comprehensive in vivo studies to assess the effects of BBL. We inv...
Layer-specific cortical microcircuits have been explored through invasive animal studies, yet it is not possible to reliably characterize them functionally and noninvasively in the human brain. However, recent advances in ultra-high-field functional...
Damage to the visual cortex structures after high altitude exposure has been well clarified. However, changes in the neuronal activity and functional connectivity (FC) of the visual cortex after hypoxia/reoxygenation remain unclear. Twenty-three sea-...
The Sox2 transcription factor, encoded by a gene conserved in animal evolution, has become widely known because of its functional relevance for stem cells. In the developing nervous system, Sox2 is active in neural stem cells, and important for their...
Both hemispheres connect with each other by excitatory callosal projections, and whether inhibitory interneurons, usually believed to have local innervation, engage in transcallosal activity modulation is unknown. Here, we used optogenetics in combin...
Neuronal migration is a fundamental biological process that underlies proper brain development and neuronal circuit formation. In the developing cerebral cortex, distinct neuronal populations, producing excitatory, inhibitory and modulatory neurotran...
Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is found throughout the central nervous system where it appears to be involved in the regulation of a wide range of physiological effects. The Mongolian gerbil, a member of the rodent family Muridae, is a diurnal animal and has b...
During visual fixation, the eyes make small and fast movements known as microsaccades (MSs). The effects of MSs on neural activity in the visual cortex are not well understood. Utilizing voltage-sensitive dye imaging, we imaged the spatiotemporal pat...
As an important part of the nervous system, the human visual system can provide visual perception for humans. The research on it is of great significance to improve our understanding of biological vision and the human brain. Orientation detection, in...
Background/Objectives: Visual dysfunction emerges during the mild cognitive impairment stage of early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While previous studies have primarily focused on retinal pathology, the early pathological progression across centra...
The complexity and functional evolution of mammalian visual systems have always been a focal point in neuroscience and biological science research. The primary neurons that output motion direction signals have been a focal point of research in visual...
The optic nerve is the second cranial nerve (CN II) that connects and transmits visual information between the retina and the brain. Severe damage to the optic nerve often leads to distorted vision, vision loss, and even blindness. Such damage can be...
The deletion of matrix metalloproteinase MMP9 is combined here with chronic monocular deprivation (cMD) to identify the contributions of this proteinase to plasticity in the visual system. Calcium imaging of supragranular neurons of the binocular reg...
Human visual system is a crucial component of the nervous system, enabling us to perceive and understand the surrounding world. Advancements in research on the visual system have profound implications for our understanding of both biological and comp...
Since the first half of the twentieth century, numerous studies have been conducted on how the visual cortex encodes basic image features. One of the hallmarks of basic feature extraction is the phenomenon of orientation selectivity, of which the und...
We consider a natural extension of the Petitot–Citti–Sarti model of the primary visual cortex. In the extended model, the curvature of contours is taken into account. The occluded contours are completed via sub-Riemannian geodesics in the...
Serotonergic neurons constitute one of the main systems of neuromodulators, whose diffuse projections regulate the functions of the cerebral cortex. Serotonin (5-HT) is known to play a crucial role in the differential modulation of cortical activity...
The neural correlates of locomotion impairments observed in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are not fully understood. We investigated whether people with PD present distinct brain electrocortical activity during usual walking and the appro...
Cortical traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of cognitive impairment accompanied by motor and behavioral deficits, and there is no effective treatment strategy in the clinic. Cell transplantation is a promising therapeutic strategy, and it...
Despite mirror self-recognition being regarded as a classical indication of self-awareness, little is known about its neural underpinnings. An increasing body of evidence pointing to a role of multimodal somatosensory neurons in self-recognition guid...
Somatostatin (SST) is widely expressed in the brain and plays various, vital roles involved in neuromodulation. The purpose of this study is to characterize the organization of SST neurons in the Mongolian gerbil visual cortex (VC) using immunocytoch...
For mammals, enormous amounts of visual information are processed by neurons of the visual nervous system. The research of the direction selectivity is of great significance and local direction-selective ganglion neurons have been discovered. However...
Doublecortin (DCX) is a microtubule associated protein, essential for correct central nervous system development and lamination in the mammalian cortex. It has been demonstrated to be expressed in developing—but not in mature—neurons. The...
Optimal motor control requires the effective integration of multi-modal information. Visual information of movement performed by others even enhances potentials in the upper motor neurons through the mirror-neuron system. On the other hand, it is kno...
The human visual system is one of the most important components of the nervous system, responsible for visual perception. The research on orientation detection, in which neurons of the visual cortex respond only to a line stimulus in a particular ori...
Sensory systems are widely known to exhibit adaptive mechanisms. Vision is no exception to input dependent changes in its sensitivity. Recent animal work demonstrates enhanced connectivity between neurons in the visual cortex. The purpose of the pres...
Cocaine use is associated with negative health outcomes: cocaine use disorders, speedballing, and overdose deaths. Currently, treatments for cocaine use disorders and overdose are non-existent when compared to opioid use disorders, and current standa...
The analysis of neurophysiological data using the two most widely used open-source MATLAB toolboxes, FieldTrip and Brainstorm, validates our hypothesis about the correlation between event-related coherence in the visual cortex and neuronal noise. The...
Using ultrasound imaging to diagnose liver steatosis is of great significance for preventing diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. Accurate diagnosis under conditions of low quality, noise and poor resolutions is still a challenging task. Phys...
The selective degeneration of both upper motor neurons (UMNs) and lower motor neurons (LMNs) is the pathological hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Unlike the simple organisation of LMNs in the brainstem and spinal cord, UMNs are embedd...
Irreversible disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is largely attributed to neuronal and axonal degeneration, which, along with inflammation, is one of the major pathological hallmarks of these disea...
Underwater survey and inspection are tasks of paramount relevance for a variety of applications. They are usually performed through the employment of optical and acoustic sensors installed aboard underwater vehicles, in order to capture details of th...
The electrophysiological activities of head direction (HD) cells under visual and vestibular input dissociation are important to understanding the formation of the sense of direction in animals. In this paper, we fabricated a PtNPs/PEDOT:PSS-modified...
Assessing the molecular mechanism of synaptic plasticity in the cortex is vital for identifying potential targets in conditions marked by defective plasticity. In plasticity research, the visual cortex represents a target model for intense investigat...
The pulvinar, also called the lateral posterior nucleus of the thalamus in rodents, is one of the higher-order thalamic relays and the main visual extrageniculate thalamic nucleus in rodents and primates. Although primate studies report the pulvinar...
Incorporating optical methods into implantable neural sensing devices is a challenging approach for brain–machine interfacing. Specifically, voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging is a powerful tool enabling visualization of the network activity of thou...
Hemispheric asymmetries in the cortical structure and function are well documented, but whether this asymmetry is reflected in the electrophysiological properties of the same neuron type remains unclear, particularly given the many factors that influ...
Migraine is a primary headache with high prevalence among the general population, characterized by functional hypersensitivity to both exogenous and endogenous stimuli particularly affecting the nociceptive system. The hyperresponsivity of cortical n...
Neural regeneration and neuroprotection represent strategies for future management of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or glaucoma. However, the complex molecular mechanisms that are involved in neuroprotection are n...
Peripheral nerve injury induces cortical remapping that can lead to sensory complications. There is evidence that inhibitory interneurons play a role in this process, but the exact mechanism remains unclear. Glutamate decarboxylase-1 (GAD1) is a prot...
Green fluorescent genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) are the most popular tool for visualization of calcium dynamics in vivo. However, most of them are based on the EGFP protein and have similar molecular brightnesses. The NTnC indicator,...
Bioengineering systems have transformed scientific knowledge of cellular behaviors in the nervous system (NS) and pioneered innovative, regenerative therapies to treat adult neural disorders. Microscale systems with characteristic lengths of single t...
Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a rare, maternally inherited genetic disease caused by a mutation of mitochondrial DNA. Classical descriptions have highlighted structural abnormalities in various parts of patients’ optic tra...
Neurodegenerative diseases are an increasingly common group of diseases that occur late in life with a significant impact on personal, family, and economic life. Among these, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are the m...
Eye-drop recombinant human nerve growth factor (ed-rhNGF) has proved to recover the retina and optic nerve damage in animal models, including the unilateral optic nerve crush (ONC), and to improve visual acuity in humans. These data, associated with...
Brain–computer interface (BCI) remains an emerging tool that seeks to improve the patient interaction with the therapeutic mechanisms and to generate neuroplasticity progressively through neuromotor abilities. Motor imagery (MI) analysis is the most...
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