• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.63-73
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• 2016

It is widely acknowledged that the human auditory system is organized tonotopically and people generally listen to sounds as a function of frequency distribution through the auditory system. However, it is still unclear how acoustic features of speech sounds are indicated to the human brain in terms of speech perception. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether two sounds with similar high-frequency characteristics in the acoustic analysis show similar results at the level of auditory brainstem. Thirty three young adults with normal hearing participated in the study. As stimuli, two Korean monosyllables (i.e., /ja/ and /cha/) and four frequencies of toneburst (i.e., 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz) were used to elicit the auditory brainstem response (ABR). Measures of monosyllable and toneburst were highly replicable and the wave V of waveform was detectable in all subjects. In the results of Pearson correlation analysis, the /ja/ syllable had a high correlation with 4000 Hz of toneburst which means that its acoustic characteristics (i.e., 3671~5384 Hz) showed the same results in the brainstem. However, the /cha/ syllable had a high correlation with 1000 and 2000 Hz of toneburst although it has acoustical distribution of 3362~5412 Hz. We concluded that there was disagreement between acoustic features and physiology outcomes at the auditory brainstem level. This finding suggests that an acoustical-perceptual mapping study is needed to scrutinize human speech perception.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2005

The effect of the developed symmetric upper extremity motion trainer on the cortical activation pattern was investigated in three chronic hemiparetic patients using both fMRI and Fugl-Meyer test. The training program was performed at 1 hr/day, 5 days/week during 6 weeks. Fugl-Meyer tests were performed every two weeks during the training. fMRI was performed at 3T scanner with wrist flexion-extension in two different tasks before and after the training program: the only unaffected hand movement (Task 1) and passive movements of affected hand by the active movement of unaffected hand (Task 2). fMRI studies in Task 1 showed that cortical activations decreased in ipsilateral SMC but increased in contralateral SMC. Task 2 showed cortical reorganizations in bilateral SMC, PMA and SMA. Therefore, it seems that the cortical reorganization in chronic hemiparetic patients can be induced by the training with the developed symmetric upper extremity motion trainer.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.452-458
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• 2017

In this study, a device was developed for diagnosing depression using EEG signals from July 2016 to June 2017. For normal people, the left alpha rhythm is more activated than the right alpha rhythm, but for the depressed patients, the right alpha rhythm is more activated than the left one. An analog circuit and digital low pass filter were used for noise removal and amplification of EEG, and the Hamming window function was applied to eliminate the signal leakage generated by the fast Fourier transform. To verify the validity of the developed diagnosis system, the EEG of 20 university students in the 3rd and 4th grade with an average age of 24 years was measured. Calculations of the relative value of the left and right alpha rhythm for the depression diagnosis revealed a minimum, maximum, and mean value of 66.7, 113.3, and 92.2, respectively. In addition, 7 out of 20 subjects were between 90 and 95, and those with a higher mean deviation of approximately 20 tended to have mild depression. These results can provide meaningful data for the development of depression treatment equipment by solving the left and right brain asymmetry problem, and it may be applied usefully to diagnose depression after clinical trials on a large number of depressed patients.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2003

To investigate the changes of cortico-cortical connectivity during odor stimulation of subjects classified by occupations, the mutual information content of EEGs was examined, for general workers, perfume salespersons and professional perfume researchers. Analysis of the averaged-cross mutual information content (A-CMI) from the EEGs revealed that, among the professional perfume researchers,. changes in the A-CMI values during odor stimulation were more apparent in the frontal region of the brain, although for the general workers group and perfume salespersons group such changes were more conspicuous in the overall posterior temporal, parietal and frontal regions. These results indicate that the brains of professional perfume researchers respond to odors mainly in the frontal region, reflecting the function of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) due to the occupational requirement of these subjects to discriminate of identify odors. During odor stimulation, the perfume salespersons, although relatively more exposed to odors than the general workers, showed similar changes to the general workers. A-CMI value is in inverse proportion to psychological preferences of the professional perfume researchers and perfume salespersons, but this is not the case with the general workers. This suggests that functional coupling for people who are occupationally exposed to odors may be related to odors nay be related to psychological preference.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.123-127
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• 2009

Purpose: There is an increasing amount of evidence that S100B could function as a marker of brain damage. However, the cerebral specificity of S100B has been questioned, so the extracerebral sources of S100B have been paid attention. We performed this investigation to show serum S100B levels after extracranial fracture in patients without current head injury and without prior neurological disease. Methods: At the emergency department, we obtained the blood samples within 6 hours from trauma patients hospitalized with extracranial fractures. S100B levels were compared between one fracture and more than two fractures, and analyzed according to the presence of soft tissue damage. Results: Patients with one fracture and those with more than two fractures did not differ by age (mean, 54.70 vs. 47.03, p=0.130), and there was no significant difference in the male-to-female ratio(33:32 vs. 21:12, p=0.226). In patients with one fracture, the mean value of S-100B was $0.56{\mu}g/L$ (95% CI: 0.35-0.77) whereas in those with more than two fractures, the corresponding value was $1.09{\mu}g/L$ (95% CI: 0.46-1.7, p=0.048). The S100B level of patients with soft tissue damage($1.32{\pm}0.38$) was higher than that of patients without soft tissue damage($0.81{\pm}0.21$), whether one fracture or more than two fractures(p=0.049). Conclusion: We present here that S100B levels were raised in 77% of patients with extracranial fractures without cerebral injury who were hospitalized from the emergency room and that the presence of soft tissue damage contributed to the increased S100B rather than the size of the fractured bone size or the number of fracturest. Thus, this study suggests that soft tissue injury may be considered as an important extracerebral source of S100B.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.33-42
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• 1992

Naegleria fowleri, a free-living amoeba commonly found in moist soil and fresh water, enters the body via the nasal mucosa and migrates along the olfactory nerve to t he brain, where it causes acute amoebic meningoencephalitis. In the present study 7 clones secreting monoclonal antibodies (McAbs) against N. fowleri were produced and the effector function of them was investigated. Their isotopes were IgGl (Nf 1, Nf 154), 19G3 (Nf 137) and 19A (Nf 1, Nf 2, Nf 256, Nf 279). Five McAbs (McAb Nf 2, Nf 279, Nf 27, Nf 154, Nf 137) were specific for N. fowleri by ELISA and recognized the antigenic determinants located on the trophoBoite surface by IFAT and immunoperoxidase stain. These aye McAbs had capacity to agglutinate N. fowleri trophozoites and inhibited the growth of the amoeba in culture medium. McAb Nf 2 inhibited proliferation of trophozoites in vitro significantly. Also the cytotoxicity of JV. fowleri against CHO cell was reduced in the presence of McAb Nf 2 and McAb Nf 154. From these results McAb Nf 2 was confirmed to weaken the virulence of the amoeba among 7 screened McAbs.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1356-1363
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• 2014

Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid orexigenic peptide hormone that is secreted predominantly by tX/A cells in the stomach, and it plays a major role in energy homeostasis. Activated ghrelin has an n-octanoyl group covalently linked to the hydroxyl group of the Ser3 residue, which is critical for its binding to the G-protein coupled growth hormone secretagogue receptor-1a (GHS-R1a). According to recent reports, both ghrelin and its receptor, GHS-R1a, are expressed by a variety of immune cells, including T- and B-lymphocytes, monocytes, and dendritic cells, and ghrelin stimulation of leukocytes provides a potent immunomodulatory signal controlling systemic and age-associated inflammation and thymic involution. Here, we report that ghrelin protected murine thymocytes from dexamethasone (DEX)-induced cell death both in vivo and in vitro. Subsequently, we explored the molecular mechanisms of the antiapoptotic effect of ghrelin. According to our experiments, ghrelin inhibited the expression of proapoptotic proteins via the regulation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) phosphorylation. As a result, ghrelin inhibited the proapoptotic activation of proteins, such as Caspase-3, PARP, and Bim. These data suggest that ghrelin, through GHS-R, inhibits the pathway to apoptosis by regulation of the proapoptotic protein activation signal pathway. They provide evidence that blocking apoptosis is an essential function of ghrelin during the development of thymocytes.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.34-44
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• 1999

Ischemic damage in the selectively vulnerable populations of neurons is thought to be caused by an abnormal accumulation of intracellular calcium. It has been reported that the neurons, expressing specific calcium binding proteins, might effectively control intracellular calcium concentrations because of a high capacity to buffer intracellular calcium in the brain ischemic condition. It is uncertain that parvalbumin, one of the calcium binding proteins, can protect the neurons from the cerebral ischemic damage. Recently, treatment of kappa opioid agonists increased survival rate, improved neurological function, and decreased tissue damage under the cerebral ischemic condition. Many evidences indicate that these therapeutic effects might result from regulation of calcium concentration. This study was designed to analyze the changes of number in parvalbumin-positive neurons after cerebral ischemic damage according to timepoints after cerebral ischemic induction. In addition, we evaluated the effect of GR89696 (kappa opioid agonist) or naltrexone(non selective opioid antagonist) on the changes of number in parvalbumin expressing neurons under ischemic condition. Cerebral ischemia was induced by occluding the common carotid artery of experimental animals. The hippocampal areas were morphometrically analyzed at different time point after ischemic induction(1, 3, 5 days) by using immuno-histochemical technique and imaging analysis system. The number of parvalbumin-positive neurons in hippocampus was significantly reduced at 1 day after ischemia(p<0.05). Furthermore, the number of parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons was dramatically reduced at 3 and 5 days after cerebral ischemic induction(p<0.05) as compared to 1 day group after ischemia, as well as sham control group. Significant reduction of parvalbumin positive neurons in CA1 region of hippocampus was observed at 1 day after cerebral ischemic induction. However, significant loss of MAP2 immunoreactivity was observed at 3 day after cerebral ischemia. The loss of parvalbumin-positive neurons and MAP2 immunoreactivity in CA1 region was prevented by pre-administration of GR89696 compared to that of saline-treated ischemic group. Furthermore, protective effect of GR89696 partially reversed by pre-treatment of naltrexone. These data indicate that parvalbumin-positive neurons more sensitively responded to cerebral ischemic damage than MAP2 protein. Moreover, this loss of parvalbumin-positive neurons was effectively prevented by the pretreatment of kappa opioid agonist. It was also suggested that the changes of number in parvalbumin-positive neurons could be used as the specific marker to analyze the degree of ischemic neuronal damage.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.702-707
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• 2004

In native-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of Pangasius polyuranodon, the lactate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.27, LDH) $A_4$, $A_3$B, $A_2$$B_2$,$AB_3$ and $B_4$ isozymes were expressed in various tissues. The LDH $A_4$ and liver-specific $C_4$ isozymes were expressed in the tissues of Hypostomus Plecostomus. The bands of LDH in skeletal muscle, heart and eye tissues were not detected while one band was detected in kidney and liver, and four bands were detected in brain. The detected one band in liver was identified as alcohol dehydrogenase and an anodal band of skeletal muscle was identified as nothing dehydrogenase. The LDH in skeletal muscle, heart and eye might function as pyruvate reductase. The degree of inhibitions of LDH in skeletal muscle and heart of P. polyuranodon by 10 mM pyruvate were measured 57.6% and 73.8%, respectively. However, those of LDH in tissues of H. plecostomus were measured 52.7-61.8% so tissue specificity did not appear. Therefore, H. ple-costomus might be more acclimated to hypoxic environment by anaerobic metabolism of LDH iso-zymes than P. polyuranodon.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.263-273
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• 2020

In this study, in order to confirm the ameliorative effects of onion (Allium cepa L.) flesh and peel on amyloidbeta (Aβ)-induced cognitive dysfunction, we evaluated their in vitro neuroprotection and in vivo cognitive functions. As the result of in vitro neuroprotection, the protective effect of the ethyl acetate fraction of onion flesh (EOF) on Aβ-induced cytotoxicity was similar to that of the ethyl acetate fraction of onion peel (EOP). In the behavioral tests, the EOF and EOP effectively improved the Aβ-induced learning and memory impairments. For this reason, it could be concluded that the EOF and EOP improved the antioxidant activities (superoxide dismutase, oxidized glutathione/total glutathione, and malondialdehyde) in brain tissue. In addition, the EOF and EOP effectively activated mitochondrial functions by protecting the mitochondrial membrane potential, ATP, mitochondria-mediated protein (BAX and cytochrome c), and caspase 3/7 activities. The EOF and EOP also improved the cholinergic system (acetylcholinesterase and acetylcholine). Therefore, we suggest that onion could be used for management of Aβ-induced cognitive dysfunction.