• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.153-164
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• 1988

The potential role of endogenous opioid peptides (EOPS) in cardiovascular regulation has only recently been entertained. EOPS have been localized in brain, spinal cord, autonomic ganglia, particularly the adrenal gland, and many other peripheral tissues. There are at least five major types of opioid receptors; namely ${\mu},\;{\delta},\;k,\;{\sigma},\;and\;{\varepsilon}$ and Experimental evidence indicates that cardiovascular actions of the peptide are mediated primarily by ${\mu},\;{\delta}$ and k receptors, and that these receptor types may be allosterically coupled. In anesthetized rabbits met-enkephalin decreased blood pressure and heart rate, which closely paralleled a reduction in sympathetic discharge. Naloxone, but not naloxone methobromide, antagonized these effects, which suggests a central site of action of met-enkephalin. A number of autonomic agents, particularly adrenergic ${\alpha}$-and, ${\beta}-agonists$ and antagonists modify the cardiovascular actions of met-enkephalin. Experiments in reserpine-treated and adrenalectomized rats provide no evidence of sympathetic nervous system involvement in the pressor responses to intravenous injection of opioid peptides, but rather suggest a direct peripheral action. Finally, activation of a beta-endorphinergic pathway projecting from the arcuate nucleus to the nucleus tractos solitarii in rats can cause naloxone reversible hypotension and bradycardia. There is evidence to implicate this pathway in antihypertensive drug action and in the modulation of baroreflex activity.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.371-382
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• 2011

We performed experiments using Aplysia neurons to identify the mechanism underlying the changes in the firing patterns in response to temperature changes. When the temperature was gradually increased from $11^{\circ}C$ to $31^{\circ}C$ the firing patterns changed sequentially from the silent state to beating, doublets, beating-chaos, bursting-chaos, square-wave bursting, and bursting-oscillation patterns. When the temperature was decreased over the same temperature range, these sequential changes in the firing patterns reappeared in reverse order. To simulate this entire range of spiking patterns we modified nonlinear differential equations that Chay and Lee made using temperature-dependent scaling factors. To refine the equations, we also analyzed the spike pattern changes in the presence of potassium channel blockers. Based on the solutions of these equations and potassium channel blocker experiments, we found that, as temperature increases, the maximum value of the potassium channel relaxation time constant, ${\tau}_n(t)$ increases, but the maximum value of the probabilities of openings for activation of the potassium channels, n(t) decreases. Accordingly, the voltage-dependent potassium current is likely to play a leading role in the temperature-dependent changes in the firing patterns in Aplysia neurons.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.517-524
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• 2014

Phasic and tonic ${\gamma}$-aminobutyric acidA ($GABA_A$) receptor-mediated inhibition critically regulate neuronal information processing. As these two inhibitory modalities have distinctive features in their receptor composition, subcellular localization of receptors, and the timing of receptor activation, it has been thought that they might exert distinct roles, if not completely separable, in the regulation of neuronal function. Inhibition should be maintained and regulated depending on changes in network activity, since maintenance of excitation-inhibition balance is essential for proper functioning of the nervous system. In the present study, we investigated how phasic and tonic inhibition are maintained and regulated by different signaling cascades. Inhibitory postsynaptic currents were measured as either electrically evoked events or spontaneous events to investigate regulation of phasic inhibition in layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons of the rat visual cortex. Tonic inhibition was assessed as changes in holding currents by the application of the $GABA_A$ receptor blocker bicuculline. Basal tone of phasic inhibition was maintained by intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ and $Ca^{2+}$/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII). However, maintenance of tonic inhibition relied on protein kinase A activity. Depolarization of membrane potential (5 min of 0 mV holding) potentiated phasic inhibition via $Ca^{2+}$ and CaMKII but tonic inhibition was not affected. Thus, phasic and tonic inhibition seem to be independently maintained and regulated by different signaling cascades in the same cell. These results suggest that neuromodulatory signals might differentially regulate phasic and tonic inhibition in response to changes in brain states.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Cognitive Science Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.203-207
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• 2002

본 연구에서는 한국사람이 모국어인 한국어 단어를 산출할 때와 외국어인 영어 단어를 산출할 때 관여하는 대뇌 영역을 fMRI 를 통해 조사하였다. 또한, 단일 언어를 산출할 때와 두 언어를 수시로 바꾸어서 인출할 때 관련되는 뇌 영역이 어디인지를 조사하였다. 실험에 참가한 피험자는 외국어를 공식적인 교육을 통해 12 세 근처에서 배우기 시작한 대학생이었다. 흔히 분류하는 방식으로 late learner로 구분되는 학생들이었다. 한 피험자가 세 종류의 실험 모두에 참여하였다. 피험자의 실험과제는 그림을 보고 그림에 해당되는 이름을 인출하여 말하는 과제였다. 실험 1, 2, 3 모두에서 사건관련 fMRI(event-related fMRI) 기법을 사용하였다. 실험 1에서는 그림을 보고 그림 이름에 해당되는 한국어 어휘와 외래어 어휘를 산출하게 하였다. 언어관련 뇌영역인 Wernicke 영역, Broca 영역, SMA 영역, SMG 영역 등에서 유의미한 활성화가 있었다. 실험 2 에서는 실험 1 에서 사용하지 않았던 그림을 사용하여 그림의 영어 이름과 외래어 이름을 인출하게 하였다. 외국어인 영어 단어를 산출할 때에도 모국어 단어를 산출할 때와 유사한 영역이 활성화되었다. 특히 외래어 산출 시에는 뇌 활성화 영역이 모국어와 영어 단어 산출할 때와 모국어 산출할 때 활성화되는 공통 영역이 활성화되었다. 모국어 산출과 영어 단어 산출의 차이점은 외국어 산출 시에 활성화 영역이 전반적으로 더 컸다는 것과 외국어 단어 산출 시에 Broca 영역보다 조금 밑쪽에서 그리고 모국어 단어 산출시에는 전전두엽 영역에서 더 많은 활성화가 있었다. 실험 3 에서도 실험 1 과 실험 2 에 사용하지 않았던 그림을 사용하였다. 실험 3 의 특이한 결과는 언어 switching 이 있는 경우에 전통적인 언어 영역 활성화 외에 전전두엽의 활성화가 컸다는 것이다. 아마도 언어를 바꾸어 가면서 단어를 산출하는 것이 전전두엽의 정보선택과정에 많은 영향을 주었던 것으로 해석된다. 전체적으로 어휘 산출시에 모국어 어휘, 외국어 어휘, 외래어 등을 산출할 때 공통되는 언어 영역과 언어 특성적 영역이 활성화된다고 결론지을 수 있을 것 같다.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.355-364
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• 2005

A neurotoxin, 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) has long been used to form a Parkinson's disease (PD) model by inducing the lesion in catecholaminergic pathways, particularly the nigrostriatal dopamine (DA) pathway. Whereas l-deprenyl, a selective inhibitor of monoamine oxidase (MAO) type B, is now widely used in the treatment of PD, the precise action mechanism of the drug remains elusive. In this study, we investigated whether l-deprenyl shows protective effect against the DA depletion induced by 6-OHDA in rat brain, and against 6-OHDA-induced neurotoxicity and oxidative stress in catecholaminergic neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells that are known to lack MAO-B activity. Pretreatment of l-deprenyl significantly enhanced the striatal DA, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, homovanilic acid, and 3-methoxytyramine levels compared to the untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned rat, indicating that l-deprenyl pretreatment prevents 6-OHDA-induced depletion of not only striatal dopamine but also its metabolites. Treatment of 6-OHDA for 24hrs decreased the cell viability and increase the generation of ROS in dose-dependent manners. We further investigated whether caspase activity is involved in the action of l-deprenyl. Treatment of l-deprenyl $(0.1\~100{\mu}M)$ did not produce any changes in 6-OHDA-induced cleavage of poly (ADP-ridose) polymerase in SH-SY5Y cells. Our results suggest that the neuroprotective effect of l-deprenyl against 6-OHDA is due to its increased scavenger activity, but independent of inhibition of MAO-B or caspase-3 activation.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.217-231
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• 1997

This paper first reviewed the current neurological theories concerning the etiology of ADHD and secondly, examined results of studies that applied neuropsychological assessment methods in the examination of ADHD children both here in Korea and abroad. ADHD children were found to exhibit characteristic responses indicating deficits in vigilance, sustained attention, distractibility, allocation and regulation of attention in many assessments of attention, in addition to deficits in executive functioning, working and associative memory. Such neuropsychological assessment results suggest that in addition to dysfunction in the frontal lobe and the reticular activation system, dysfunction may exist in other neural pathways involving many areas of the brain. However, because a substantial number of neuropsychological assessment tools being employed in Korea for ADHD children had been developed abroad, a Korean standardization project involving ADHD and normal control children, in addition to other child psychiatric population pools must be conducted in order to obtain appropriate age norms and test validity, and in order to make possible a more accurate and precise comparison and interpretation in the assessment of ADHD children.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.136-144
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• 1997

Cigarette smoking is known to suppress both 1-methy14-phenyl-155,Ltetrahydropy-ridine (MPTP)-induced parkinsonism and idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the precise mechanism underlying its protective action against PD is not clearly elucidated yet. In order to find possible clue on the mechanism of protective action of smoking, we investigated the inhibitory effect of cigarette smoke components on rat brain mitochondria1 monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B), responsible enzyme for the activation of MPTP to its toxic metabolitesr and identified the components having an inhibitory potency on this enzyme from cigarette smoke. Total 31 eligible constituents including nicotine were selected from cigarette smoke condensates via solvents partitioning and silica gel chromatographic separation, and inhibitory potencies of 19 components on MAO-B were determined. Hydroquinone and methylcatechol, the phenolic components, showed the strongest inhibitory potencies on MAO-B activity in the components tested. 3,4-Dihydroxybenzylamino, myosmine and indole in basic fracton, eugenol in phenolic fraction, and farnesol in neutral fraction also inhibited the enzyme activity dose-dependently. Among tobacco alkaloids tested only myosmine was effective for the inhibition of this enzyme. These results suggest that the decrease in MAO-B activity by such components derived from cigarette smoke seems to be related to the suppression of MPTP-induced neurotoxicity and to the less incidence of Parkinson's disease in smokers than in nonsmokers.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 1986

Tissue distribution and blood chemistry of uranium in serum levels of BUN, Creatinine, SGPT and SGOT were determined in rats after the administration of uranylnitrate. Determination of uranium in organ was done by radio activation analysis. Radioactivity of $^{239}Np$ in lung was higher than in other tissues (e.g. liver, kidneys, spleen, tibia, testes, stomach and brain). Correlations between BUN and Creatinine were positively increased after the administration of 25 mg/kg uranylnitrate. The SGPT and SGOT activities showed weak correlation with the control group. However, activities of SGPT and SGOT after the administration of lmg/kg uranylnitrate showed high peak at 90 min interval. Uranium uptake by liver and kidneys increased at early period and decreased immediately to the control level. Lung who confirmed to be the critical organ on toxic effect by uranylnitrate.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.121-134
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this in vivo study is to observe anti-amnesic effects of Yeongkyekamjotanggayonggolmoryo (YGYM), a novel mixed herbal prescription, Ossis Mastodi and Ostreae Testa added Yeongkyekamjo-tang, on scopolamine induced amnesia in C57BL/6 mice through acetylcholine (ACh) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) mRNA expression, and antioxidant effects. Methods: Six groups, total 20 intact or 100 Sco treated mice were used in this study after one week of acclimatization period. Half the animals were used for passive avoidance task tests and hippocampus ACh content, AChE activity, and ChAT mRNA expression were measured. The other half was subjected to an underwater maze test and then the cerebral cortex antioxidant defense system was measured. Results: In the passive avoidance experiment, there was significant decrease in residence time in the bright room and in the underwater maze test, escape latency to escape from the esophagus significantly increased compared with the normal control group. At the final sacrifice, ACh content and ChAT mRNA expression decreased, AChE activity increased, and cerebral cortical MDA increased GSH content, SOD and CAT activity in Sco control mice, as compared to intact vehicle control mice. However, these Sco treatment-related memory loss through AChE activation destroyed the cerebral cortex antioxidant defense system, and was inhibited dose-dependently by 28 days consecutive oral pretreatments of YGYM extracts 500, 250, 125 mg/kg. Conclusions: In the above results, YGYM extract that oral administration of YGYM extracts alleviates the antioxidant defense system, through preservation of ACh mediated by upregulation of ChAT mRNA expression, and increase of AChE inhibition and brain antioxidant defense systems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.352-355
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not acupuncture of GB34 produces a significant response of the modulation of somatomotor areas by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. The acupoint, GB34, located in the back of the knee, is known to be effective in recovering motor function after stroke. Using 3T MRI scanner, functional MR imaging of the whole brain was performed in 12 normal healthy subjects during two stimulation paradigms; acupuncture manipulation on GB 34 and sham points. This study investigates the activation of the mortor cortex elicited by a soft and an intensified stimulation of GB 34. Three different paradigms were carried out to detect any possible modulation of the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) response in the somatomortor area to motor stimulation through acupuncture. Group analysis from seven individuals showed that bilateral sensorimotor areas (BA 3,4,6 and 7) showed stimulation related BOLD signal contrast of approximately 6% whereas very few areas were activated when sham stimulation is given. The present study shows that acupuncture fMRI study can be safely conducted in 3T MRI environment, and acupuncture stimulation in GB34 modulates the cortical activities of the somatomotor area in human. The present findings may shed light on the CNS mechanism of motor function by acupuncture and form a basis for future investigations of motor modulation circuits in the stroke patients.