• Title/Summary/Keyword: Basic Neuroscience

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Tau mis-splicing in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders

  • Park, Sun Ah;Ahn, Sang Il;Gallo, Jean-Marc
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.49 no.8
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    • pp.405-413
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    • 2016
  • Tau proteins, which stabilize the structure and regulate the dynamics of microtubules, also play important roles in axonal transport and signal transduction. Tau proteins are missorted, aggregated, and found as tau inclusions under many pathological conditions associated with neurodegenerative disorders, which are collectively known as tauopathies. In the adult human brain, tau protein can be expressed in six isoforms due to alternative splicing. The aberrant splicing of tau pre-mRNA has been consistently identified in a variety of tauopathies but is not restricted to these types of disorders as it is also present in patients with non-tau proteinopathies and RNAopathies. Tau mis-splicing results in isoform-specific impairments in normal physiological function and enhanced recruitment of excessive tau isoforms into the pathological process. A variety of factors are involved in the complex set of mechanisms underlying tau mis-splicing, but variation in the cis-element, methylation of the MAPT gene, genetic polymorphisms, the quantity and activity of spliceosomal proteins, and the patency of other RNA-binding proteins, are related to aberrant splicing. Currently, there is a lack of appropriate therapeutic strategies aimed at correcting the tau mis-splicing process in patients with neurodegenerative disorders. Thus, a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between tau mis-splicing and neurodegenerative disorders will aid in the development of efficient therapeutic strategies for patients with a tauopathy or other, related neurodegenerative disorders.

Neuroscience and the Social Powers of Narrative: How Stories Configure Our Brains

  • Armstrong, Paul B.
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.64 no.1
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    • pp.3-24
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    • 2018
  • Stories are important instruments for configuring our cognitive and social worlds, but they do not necessarily make us more caring or less aggressive and self-involved. The ability to tell and follow a story requires cognitive capacities that are basic to the neurobiology of mental functioning, and so it would stand to reason that our experiences with stories would draw on and re-shape patterns of interaction that extend beyond the immediate experience of reading or listening to a narrative. Our intuitive, bodily-based ability to understand the actions of other people is fundamental to social relations, including the circuit between the representation of a configured action emplotted in a narrative and the reader's or listener's activity of following the story as we assimilate its patterns into the figures that shape our worlds. The activity of following a narrative can have a variety of beneficial or potentially noxious social consequences, either promoting the shared intentionality that neurobiologically oriented cultural anthropologists identify as a unique human capacity supporting culturally productive collaboration, or habitualizing and thereby naturalizing particular patterns of perception into rigid ideological constructs. The doubling of "me" and "not-me" in narrative acts of identification may promote the "we-intentionality" that makes socially beneficial cooperation possible, or it can set off mimetic conflict and various contagion effects. Neuroscience cannot predict what the social consequences of narrative will be, but it can identify the brain- and body-based processes through which (for better or worse) stories exercise social power.

Brain-based Learning Science: What can the Brain Science Tell us about Education? (뇌기반 학습과학: 뇌과학이 교육에 대해 말해 주는 것은 무엇인가?)

  • Kim, Sung-Il
    • Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.375-398
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    • 2006
  • Humans learn by observing, hearing, imitating, doing, and feeling. The brain(cortex) is the central tore of this process. The recent rapid progress of brain science and the active interdisciplinary collaboration between brain science and cognitive science opens a new possibility. That is a new research Held called 'Brain-Based learning Science', 'Edutational Neuroscienre', or 'NeuroEduration' This study reviews the nature and basic assumptions of brain-based learning science, current directions in educational neuroscience research, the neuro-myths, educational implications of neuroscience, and a possibility of making a meaningful connection between brain science and education. Also the future prospects and limitations of the brain-based learning science are discussed.

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Development of Cyber Lecture Contents and Application to the Basic Neuroscience Integrative Lecture for Medical Students (기초의학 통합강의 운영을 위한 가상강의(Cyber Lecture)의 개발 및 적용 -기초신경과학 통합강의의 운용과 설문을 통한 학생들의 의견을 중심으로-)

  • Park, Jeong-Hyun;Park, Kyeong-Han;Lee, Young-Il
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.12 no.5
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    • pp.2222-2229
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    • 2011
  • The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of basic integrative lecture course of medical college through cyber lecture. This study was also aimed to develop and implement a progressive cyber-teaching method which integrative lecture system is concerned for medical students. In this study, effectiveness of cyber lecture on the student's satisfaction, content difficulty and course management were analyzed by way of anonymous survey at the end of basic neuroscience integrative lecture course. Survey data were also analyzed with statistical tools to find out strength of correlation between students degree of satisfaction to cyber lecture and their individual grade of this course. The majority of students held positive opinions on course management, level of difficulty in each session, utilizing multimedia contents and preferred cyber lecture system to be continued in the future. Many students also suggested intimate integration of multimedia contents shown in cyber lecture to the lab sessions for the maximization of educational effect. In this study, it suggested that cyber lecture could be a useful tool in teaching integrative medical subjects and play more important role in the future integrative medical subjects with the improvement of present problems and limitations.

Dynamic Changes in the Bridging Collaterals of the Basal Ganglia Circuitry Control Stress-Related Behaviors in Mice

  • Lee, Young;Han, Na-Eun;Kim, Wonju;Kim, Jae Gon;Lee, In Bum;Choi, Su Jeong;Chun, Heejung;Seo, Misun;Lee, C. Justin;Koh, Hae-Young;Kim, Joung-Hun;Baik, Ja-Hyun;Bear, Mark F.;Choi, Se-Young;Yoon, Bong-June
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.43 no.4
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    • pp.360-372
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    • 2020
  • The basal ganglia network has been implicated in the control of adaptive behavior, possibly by integrating motor learning and motivational processes. Both positive and negative reinforcement appear to shape our behavioral adaptation by modulating the function of the basal ganglia. Here, we examined a transgenic mouse line (G2CT) in which synaptic transmissions onto the medium spiny neurons (MSNs) of the basal ganglia are depressed. We found that the level of collaterals from direct pathway MSNs in the external segment of the globus pallidus (GPe) ('bridging collaterals') was decreased in these mice, and this was accompanied by behavioral inhibition under stress. Furthermore, additional manipulations that could further decrease or restore the level of the bridging collaterals resulted in an increase in behavioral inhibition or active behavior in the G2CT mice, respectively. Collectively, our data indicate that the striatum of the basal ganglia network integrates negative emotions and controls appropriate coping responses in which the bridging collateral connections in the GPe play a critical regulatory role.

Influences of ethanol and temperature on sucrose-evoked response of gustatory neurons in the hamster solitary nucleus

  • Li, Cheng-Shu;Chung, Ki-Myung;Kim, Kyung-Nyun;Cho, Young-Kyung
    • The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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    • v.25 no.6
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    • pp.603-611
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    • 2021
  • Taste-responsive neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST), the first gustatory nucleus, often respond to thermal or mechanical stimulation. Alcohol, not a typical taste modality, is a rewarding stimulus. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of ethanol (EtOH) and/or temperature as stimuli to the tongue on the activity of taste-responsive neurons in hamster NST. In the first set of experiments, we recorded the activity of 113 gustatory NST neurons in urethane-anesthetized hamsters and evaluated responses to four basic taste stimuli, 25% EtOH, and 40℃ and 4℃ distilled water (dH2O). Sixty cells responded to 25% EtOH, with most of them also being sucrose sensitive. The response to 25% EtOH was significantly correlated with the sucrose-evoked response. A significant correlation was also observed between sucrose- and 40℃ dH2O- and between 25% EtOH- and 40℃ dH2O-evoked firings. In a subset of the cells, we evaluated neuronal activities in response to a series of EtOH concentrations, alone and in combination with 32 mM sucrose (EtOH/Suc) at room temperature (RT, 22℃-23℃), 40℃, and 4℃. Neuronal responses to EtOH at RT and 40℃ increased as the concentrations increased. The firing rates to EtOH/Suc were greater than those to EtOH or sucrose alone. The responses were enhanced when solutions were applied at 40℃ but diminished at 4℃. In summary, EtOH activates most sucrose-responsive NST gustatory cells, and the concomitant presence of sucrose or warm temperatures enhance this response. Our findings may contribute to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying appetitive alcohol consumption.

Iron Can Accelerate the Conjugation Reaction between Abeta 1-40 Peptide and MDA

  • Park, Yong-Hoon;Jung, Jai-Yun;Son, Il-Hong
    • Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.108-112
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    • 2009
  • Alzheimer's disease(AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized pathologically by senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and synapse loss. Especially, extracellular beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposition is a major pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In AD senile plaques, high level of iron and car-bonylated Abeta were detected. Iron has a Lewis acid property which can increase the electrophilicity of carbonyls, which may react catalytically with nucleophiles, such as amines. Hence, this study investigated whether or not iron could promote the carbonylation of amine with malondialdehyde (MDA) in the physiological condition. As the basic study, we examined that iron might promote the conjugation reaction between propylamine, monoamine molecule and MDA in the physiological condition. As the concentration of iron increased, the fluorescence intensity produced from the conjugation reaction increased in a dose-dependent manner. Instead of propylamine, we applied the same reaction condition to Abeta 1-40 peptide, one of major components founded in AD senile plaques for the conjugation reaction. As the result, the fluorescence intensity produced from the conjugation reaction between Abeta 1-40 peptide and MDA showed the similar trend to that of the reaction used with propylamine. This study suggests that iron can accelerate the conjugation reaction of MDA to Abeta 1-40 peptide and play an another important role in deterioration of AD brain.

A New Tailored Sinc Pulse and Its Use for Multiband Pulse Design

  • Park, Jinil;Park, Jang-Yeon
    • Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.27-35
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    • 2016
  • Purpose: Among RF pulses, a sinc pulse is typically used for slice selection due to its frequency-selective feature. When a sinc pulse is implemented in practice, it needs to be apodized to avoid truncation artifacts at the expense of broadening the transition region of the excited-band profile. Here a sinc pulse tailored by a new apodization function is proposed that produces a sharper transition region with well suppression of truncation artifacts in comparison with conventional tailored sinc pulses. A multiband pulse designed using this newly apodized sinc pulse is also suggested inheriting the better performance of the newly apodized sinc pulse. Materials and Methods: A new apodization function is introduced to taper a sinc pulse, playing a role to slightly shift the first zero-crossing of a tailored sinc pulse from the peak of the main lobe and thereby producing a narrower bandwidth as well as a sharper pass-band in the excitation profile. The newly apodized sinc pulse was also utilized to design a multiband pulse which inherits the performance of its constituent. Performances of the proposed sinc pulse and the multiband pulse generated with it were demonstrated by Bloch simulation and phantom imaging. Results: In both simulations and experiments, the newly apodized sinc pulse yielded a narrower bandwidth and a sharper transition of the pass-band profile with a desirable degree of side-lobe suppression than the commonly used Hanning-windowed sinc pulse. The multiband pulse designed using the newly apodized sinc pulse also showed the better performance in multi-slice excitation than the one designed with the Hanning-windowed sinc pulse. Conclusion: The new tailored sinc pulse proposed here provides a better performance in slice (or slab) selection than conventional tailored sinc pulses. Thanks to the availability of analytical expression, it can also be utilized for multiband pulse design with great flexibility and readiness in implementation, transferring its better performance.