• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.17-25
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• 2011

본 연구는 만성적인 망간(Mn) 노출 결과로써 초래될 수 있는 영향을 기능적 신경영상기법의 하나인 fMRI(functional magnetic resonance imaging)를 이용하여 인지 활동에 따른 뇌 활성화 정도를 분석, 평가하고자 하였다. 조선소에서 10년 이상 용접 작업을 해왔고 현재도 용접 전담 업무를 하고 있는 34세 이상의 남성 15명을 노출군으로 하였고, 노출군과 연령, 사회·경제적 지위와 행동 패턴이 비슷하며 다른 위험한 금속성 물질에 노출되지 않은 제조업 사업장에서 용접 작업을 하지 않는 생산직 근로자 15명을 대조군으로 구성하여 설문조사와 혈액 검사, fMRI를 실시하였다. 그 결과 fMRI 대상자(29명)의 평균 혈중 Mn 농도는 노출군($1.3\;{\mu}g/dl$)이 대조군($0.8\;{\mu}g/dl$)보다 유의하게 증가하였고, Pallidal Index(PI)도 노출군이 대조군보다 유의하게 증가하였다(p < 0.001). MRI 상의 PI값은 혈중 Mn 농도가 $0.93\;{\mu}g/dl$ 이상인 군이 $0.93\;{\mu}g/dl$ 미만인 군보다 유의하게 증가하였다(p < 0.001). 산술 과제를 수행하는 동안 실험군의 각 문항에 대한 평균 응답 시간은 노출군(1.3 sec)이 대조군(1.1 sec)보다 유의하게 증가하였다. 또한, 문항 전체에 대한 평균 응답 시간도 대조군(54.7 sec)이 노출군(45.0 sec)보다 느리게 나타났으며, 통계학적으로도 유의미한 차이를 보였다(p < 0.001). 대조군의 뇌 활성화 영역은 후두피질의 좌 우측, 상 중간전두피질과 하두정피질(inferior parietal cortex)의 우측, 중간측두피질의 좌측 영역에서 유의하게 증가하였다. 노출군의 뇌 활성화 영역은 대조군의 활성화 영역과 비슷한 위치에서는 보다 넓고 높은 활성화 상태를 보였다. 노출군은 대조군의 활성화 영역에 추가하여 상 하 측두피질의 우측, 뇌섬엽의 좌측, 뇌교량과 측뇌실 영역에서 유의한 증가로 나타났다. 두 집단간 뇌 활성화 영역 비교를 위한 t-test에서 노출군은 중간측두피질 영역을 포함하여 우측 하측두피질, 좌측 상두정피질, 좌측 후두피질, 좌측 소뇌 등의 영역에서 대조군보다 유의하게 더 높은 증가를 나타냈다. 하지만 어떤 영역도 노출군보다 대조군에서 더 활성화된 영역은 없었다. 이상의 결과에서 만성적인 Mn 노출은 인지 과제 수행 중에 뇌 활성화를 증가시켰다. 동일한 과제에서도 상 하 측두피질, 뇌도 영역에서 활성화가 증가되었고, 노출군이 일반인보다 측두영역 및 후두영역에서 뇌 활성화 상태가 증가되었음을 알아냈다. 이상의 결과에서 살펴 볼 때 작업환경 내에서의 만성적인 Mn 노출이 뇌 활성화의 신경 네트워크에 영향을 미친다는 것이 확인되었다.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Damage in the periphery or spinal cord induces maladaptive plastic changes along the somatosensory nervous system from the periphery to the cortex, often leading to chronic pain. Although the role of neural circuit remodeling and structural synaptic plasticity in the 'pain matrix' cortices in chronic pain has been thought as a secondary epiphenomenon to altered nociceptive signaling in the spinal cord, progress in whole brain imaging studies on human patients and animal models has suggested a possibility that plastic changes in cortical neural circuits may actively contribute to chronic pain symptoms. Furthermore, recent development in two-photon microscopy and fluorescence labeling techniques have enabled us to longitudinally trace the structural and functional changes in local circuits, single neurons and even individual synapses in the brain of living animals. These technical advances has started to reveal that cortical structural remodeling following tissue or nerve damage could rapidly occur within days, which are temporally correlated with functional plasticity of cortical circuits as well as the development and maintenance of chronic pain behavior, thereby modifying the previous concept that it takes much longer periods (e.g. months or years). In this review, we discuss the relation of neural circuit plasticity in the 'pain matrix' cortices, such as the anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex and primary somatosensory cortex, with chronic pain. We also introduce how to apply long-term in vivo two-photon imaging approaches for the study of pathophysiological mechanisms of chronic pain.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.73-79
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• 2009

Purpose: Recently, neurostimulation studies involving manipulation of cortical excitability of the human brain have been increasingly attempted. We investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the underlying cerebral cortex, directly induces cortical activation during fMRI scanning. Methods: We recently recruited five healthy subjects without a neurological or psychiatric history and who were right-handed, as verified by the modified Edinburg Handedness Inventory. fMRI was done while constant anodal tDCS was delivered to the underlying SM1 area?? immediately after the pre-stimulation for eighteen minutes. Results: Group analysis yielded an averaged map that showed that the SM1 area and the superior parietal cortex in the ipsilateral hemisphere were activated. The voxel size and peak intensity were, respectively, 82 and 5.22 in the SM1, and 85 and 5.77 in the superior parietal cortex. Conclusion: Cortical activation can be induced by constant anodal tDCS of the underlying motor cortex. This suggests that tDCS may be an effective therapeutic device for enhancing? physical motor function by modulating neural excitability of the motor cortex.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.181-190
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• 1996

To clarify the mechanism of action of electroconvulsive shack(ECS) in respect to molecular biology, and to detect the quantitative amount of change of c-fos gene expression after ECS in the rat's brain, the authors obtained brain specimens from the striatum, cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum. Each brain was removed within 30min. after ECS(130V, 0.5sec) and ECS-sham. Then we performed RT-PCR. The results are 1) ECS was found to affect the expression of immediate early genes. 2) the cerebral cortex and hippocampus was more influenced by ECS thon in the cerebellum and striatum. From these results, we can suggest that ECS is related to the mechanism of cognition, mood, memory which is correlated to cerebral cortex and hippocampus.

• 영재교육연구
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.421-434
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• 2013

청소년들의 뇌는 급속한 변화를 겪는다. 그동안 신경해부학적 특성과 일반지능(IQ)과의 관련성을 알아보기 위한 연구가 지속적으로 이뤄져 왔으나 대부분 단편적이었다. 본 연구는 단순히 대뇌 피질 두께를 한 번 측정한 것이 아니고, 대뇌 피질 두께의 변화를 추적하여 일반지능과 그 변화 간의 관련성을 추정하였다. 건강한 청소년 75명(M=16세 4개월)을 5단계의 지능범주별로 나눈 뒤 6개월의 간격을 두고 MRI 촬영을 두 번씩 하여 대뇌 피질 두께 변화를 알아냈다. 그 결과 일반지능 범주별로 대뇌 피질 두께 변화에 차이가 크게 나타났다. 일반지능이 120 이상인 세 그룹은 관찰 대상인 11개 뇌 영역의 대뇌 피질 두께가 모두 감소했으나, 그 이하의 두 개 그룹에서는 지능이 낮을수록 늘어나는 영역이 5~8개나 됐다. 이는 일반지능이 낮을수록 대뇌피질의 성숙이 늦어지는 것으로 추정할 수 있다.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.41-52
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• 2001

This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of n-6(corn oil) & n-3(fish oil) fatty acids on infarction size and the cerebral activities of antioxidant enzyme in rat focal brain ischemia model. Weaning Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with either corn oil supplemented diet(COD, 14% corn oil) or fish oil supplemented diet(FOD, 14% menhaden oil) for 6 weeks. The right middle cerebral artery was occluded for 2 hours with a silicon rubber coated nylon surgical thread. After 24 hours of recirculation, the rats were sacrificed and brain sections were photographed using CCD camera after staining with 2, 3, 5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride for 60 minutes in room temperature. The infarcted area was measured and the volume of infarction was calculated. Catalase(CAT), superoxide dismutase(SOD) activities, and fatty acid composition in the brain were also measured. The total and corrected infarction volumes were not significantly different between FOD and COD group. The docosagexaenoic acid(DHA) and DHA content/arachidonic acid(AA) ratio of the cerebral cortex, an index of defense against lipid oxidation, were significantly increased in FOD group compared to those of COD group(p<0.05). In the left cortex(non-infarction side) as well as the right cortex(infarction side) of FOD group, CAT and Cu/Zn SOD activities were higher than those of the COD group(p<0.05). However, CAT and Cu/Zn SOD activities were not significantly different between the left cortex(non-infarction side) and the right cortex(infarction side) of both FOD and COD group. GPx activities were also not significantly different between two groups. Our results demonstrate that the brain infarction size in FOD and COD were not significantly different. However, cerebral lipid composition and antioxidant enzyme activities in FOD and COD group were different. Fish oil, a source of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid(PUFA) and corn oil, that of n-6(PUFA) may have a protective effect against oxidative stress induced via different mechanisms.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 제어로봇시스템학회 2005년도 ICCAS
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• pp.1745-1748
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• 2005

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can be used to monitor brain activation by measuring changes in the concentration of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin (Hb) by their different spectra in the near-infrared range. Because NIRS is a noninvasive, highly flexible and portable device, it is very suitable to study brain activation when a human repeatedly performs a manipulative task, and possibly provides useful information to construct human adaptive mechatronics (HAM). There is some evidence that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a major role in working memory and it is proposed that the use of working memory decreases as a human develops manipulative skills. In the present study, we investigated the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of the brain in Brodmann's areas 9 and 46 in drawing tasks to examine whether NIRS can measure the changes of DLPFC activation as a human develops manipulative skills. Subjects performed a mirror image drawing task and a square drawing task by ones' left hands. In the mirror image task the subject drew following a star shape based on a mirror image of it, but square drawing did not involve mirror image and was estimated to be simpler. The changes of the concentration of oxy-Hb was higher in the mirror image drawing than the square drawing in most subjects. The changes of oxy-Hb decreased as the subject repeated the drawing task in most subjects. In conclusion, The activation of DLPFC measured by NIRS can reflect the brain activity in the development of manipulative skills.

• 감성과학
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.113-126
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• 2017

The purpose of the study was to find grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume reduction in the brain reward system among patients with alcohol dependency. This study investigated regional GM and WM in chronic alcoholic patients, focusing primarily on the reward system, including principal components of the mesocorticolimbic reward circuit as well as cortical areas with modulating and oversight functions. Sixteen abstinent long-term chronic alcoholic men and demographically matched 16 healthy control men participated in the study. Morphometric analysis was performed on magnetic resonance brain scans using voxel-based morphometry (VBM)-diffeomorphic Anatomical Registration through Exponentiated Liealgebra (DARTEL). We derived GM and WM volumes from total brain and cortical and subcortical reward-related structures. Morphometric analyses that revealed the total volume of GM and WM was reduced and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was increased in the alcohol group compared to control group. The pronounced volume reduction in the reward system was observed in the GM and WM of the nucleus accumbens (NAc), GM of the amygdala, GM and WM of the hippocampus, WM of the thalamus, GM and WM of the insula, GM of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), GM of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), GM of the cingulate cortex (CC), GM and WM of the parahippocampal gyrus in the alcohol group. We identified volume reductions in WM as well as GM of reward system in the patients with alcohol dependency. These structural deficits in the reward system elucidate underlying impairment in the emotional and cognitive processing in alcoholism.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.61-81
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• 2004

Background and Objective : The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of acupuncture and electroacupuncture on the DCX, PSA-NCAM, and pCREB expression in the brain of spontaneously hypertensive rats(SHR). Materials and Methods : SHR were divided into five groups: control group, acupuncture group, 2Hz electroacupuncture(EA) group and 100Hz EA group. We evaluated the changes of the DCX, PSA-NCAM, and pCREB positive cells using immunohistochemical method. In the olfactory bulb, we investigate the optical densities of the immunoactive cells. In the dentate gyrus and the piriform cortex, we count the immunoactive cells under the $100{\times}$ visual field optical microscope. Results : 1. The optical densities of DCX-positive cells in the subependymal zone were significantly decreased in all groups, compared to the control group. 2. The counts of DCX-positive cells in the dentate gyrus were significantly increased in all groups, compared to the control group. The counts of DCX-positive cells in the piriform cortex were significantly increased in the acupuncture and 100Hz EA group, compared to the control group. 3. The optical densities of PSA-NCAM-positive cells in the subependymal zone were significantly decreased in the acupuncture and 2Hz EA group, compared to the control group. 4. The counts of PSA-NCAM-positive cells in the dentate gyrus and the piriform cortex were significantly increased in all group, compared to the control group. 5. The counts of pCREB-positive cells in the dentate gyrus were significantly increased in all groups, compared to the control group. The counts of pCREB-positive cells in the piriform cortex were significantly increased in the acupuncture and 100Hz EA group, compared to the control group. Conclusion : We conclude that acupuncture and EA may affect neuronal cell proliferation, differentiation and plasticity in the brain.

• Toxicological Research
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• 제17권
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• pp.11-16
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• 2001

The development of the central nervous system is a continuous process during the embryonic and fetal periods. For a better understanding of congenital anomalies of central nervous system, three major events of normal development, i.e., neurulation (3 to 4 weeks), brain vesicle formation (4 to 7 weeks) and mantle formation (over 8 weeks) should be kept in mind. The first category of anomalies is neural tube defect. Neural tube defects encompass all the anomalies arise in completion of neurulation. The second category of central nervous system anomalies is disorders of brain vesicle formation. This is anomaly that applies for "the face predicts the brain". Holoprosencephaly covers a spectrum of anomalies of intracranial and midfacial development which result from incomplete development and septation of midline structures within the forebrain or prosencephalon. The last category of central nervous system malformation is disorders involving the process of mantle formation. In the human, neurons are generated in two bursts, the first from 8 to 10 weeks and next from 12 to 14 weeks. By 16 weeks, most of the neurons have been generated and have started their migration into the cortex. Mechanism of migration disorders are multifactorial. Abnormal migration into the cortex, abnormal neurons, faulty neural growth within the cortex, unstable pial-glial border, degeneration of neurons, neural death by exogenous factors are some of the proposed mechanism. Agyria-pachygyria are characterized by a four-layerd cortex. Polymicrogyria is gyri that are too numerous and too small, and is morphologically heterogeneous. Cortical dysplasia is characterized by the presence Q[ abnormal neurons and glia arranged abnormally in focal areas of the cerebral cortex. Neuroglial malformative lesions associated with medically intractable epilepsy are hamartia or hamartoma, focal cortical dysplasia and microdysgenesis.ysgenesis.