• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.2.1-2.3
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• 2009

There is evidence that cholesterol in the brain plays an important role in the neurotransmitter release. A decrease of the cholesterol level severely hampers the activity of the membrane fusion machinery, thereby inhibiting the release. Meanwhile, the results from several clinical studies suggest that a low cholesterol level is linked to the dysfunction of some brain activities. Because the neurotransmitter release underlies the basic brain function, the combined results lead to a testable hypothesis that the cholesterol-lowering drugs may inhibit the neurotransmitter release at the synapse. Such inhibition of the release could result in impaired brain function for a limited group of people. A molecular basis for the hypothesis is discussed.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.723-744
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• 2010

The aim of this study was to find the effects of open-ended problems on mathematical creativity and brain function. In this study, one class of first grade students were allocated randomly into two groups. Each group solved different problems. The experimental group solved the open-ended problems and the comparison group solved the closed-problems. Mathematical creativity was tested by the paper test. And Brain function was tested by an EEG(electroencephalogram) tester. The results of this study are as follows. Firstly, this study analyzed how the open-ended problems are effective on mathematical creativity. This analysis showed that it had a meaningful influence on the mathematical creativity(p=0.46). Accordingly, we could find out that open-ended problems make the student connect the mathematical concept and idea and think variously. Secondly, this study analyzed the effect of open-ended problems on brain function. This analysis showed that it did not have a meaningful influence on the brain function(p=.073) statistically but the experimental group's evaluation was higher than comparison groups' at the post-test. It also had a meaningful influence on the brain attention quotient(left) (p=.007), attention quotient(right) (p=.023) and emotion tendency quotient(p=.025). As a result of such tests, we could find out that open-ended problems are effective on brain function, especially on the attention ability. With the use of the open-ended problems, students could show quick understanding and response. An emotion tendency is also developed in the process. Because various answers are accepted, the students gain an internal reward at the process of finding an answer. Putting the above results together, we could find that open-ended problem is effective on mathematical creativity and brain function.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.286-297
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• 2024

Brain plasticity refers to the brain's ability to modify its structure, accompanied by its functional changes. It is influenced by learning, experiences, and dietary factors, even in later life. Accumulated researches have indicated that ginseng may protect the brain and enhance its function in pathological conditions. There is a compelling need for a more comprehensive understanding of ginseng's role in the physiological condition because many individuals without specific diseases seek to improve their health by incorporating ginseng into their routines. This review aims to deepen our understanding of how ginseng affects brain plasticity of people undergoing normal aging process. We provided a summary of studies that reported the impact of ginseng on brain plasticity and related factors in human clinical studies. Furthermore, we explored researches focused on the molecular mechanisms underpinning the influence of ginseng on brain plasticity and factors contributing to brain plasticity. Evidences indicate that ginseng has the potential to enhance brain plasticity in the context of normal aging by mediating both central and peripheral systems, thereby expecting to improve age-related declines in brain function. Moreover, given modern western diet can damage neuroplasticity in the long term, ginseng can be a beneficial supplement for better brain health.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.713-722
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• 2023

This study was conducted to examine the effects of care farming activities on the brain waves of adults with developmental disabilities from September 2022 to December 2022, with a total of 16 sessions held once a week. For 28 adults with developmental disabilities, 15 participants in the care farm program and 13 participants who did not participate were used as the control group. Before and after the care farming activities, participants' self-esteem, happiness levels, and brain function indices were measured through surveys and electroencephalography (EEG). Consequently, the self-esteem of the participants in the experimental group significantly increased after the activity, and as for the brain function index, the left brain activity index related to stress, attention, brain function, and emotional state increased compared to the control group in the experimental group of adults with developmental disabilities, especially intellectual disabilities. Notably, the effect of care farming activities was greater for women than for men with intellectual disabilities. Therefore, considering the differential effects of care farming activities based on the type of developmental disability and sex, it is deemed advantageous to primarily apply these activities to women with intellectual disabilities in order to maximize the healing effect of care farming.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.5495-5501
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• 2014

Individuals with a left frontal brain injury show significant impairments in their speech ability. The aims of the present study were (1) to assess and compare the ability of speech acts comprehension and executive function between individuals with a left frontal brain injury and normal individuals, and (2) to investigate the correlation of speech act comprehension ability factors. The study's subjects were 18 individuals with a left frontal brain injury and 18 normal control adults of the same age, gender, and educational age. The following results were obtained. First, the group of individuals with a left frontal brain injury had lower speech act comprehension, executive function than the normal control group. Second, the speech act comprehension ability of the individuals with a left frontal brain injury showed a high correlation with the executive function.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2002.06c
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• pp.139-142
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• 2002

The brain of the human is the best model for the artificial intelligence and is studied by many natural, medical scientists and engineers. In the engineering department, the brain model becomes a main subject in the area of development of a system that can represent and think like human. In this paper, we approach and define the function of the brain biologically and especially, make a model for the function of cerebral cortex, known as a part that performs behavior inference and decision for sensitive information from the thalamus. Therefore, we try to make a model for the transfer process of the brain. The brain takes the sensory information from sensory organ, proceeds behavior inference and decision and finally, commands behavior to the motor nerves. We use the modular neural network in this model. finally, we would like to design the intelligent system that can sense, recognize, think and decide like the brain by learning the information process in the brain with the modular neural network.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.881-887
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• 2002

This treatise is written in order to solve the important contradiction between the two theories; in oriental medicine psychological function is responsible for heart, but in western one it is responsible for brain. So we take the methods of studying in the aspects of morphological characteristics(MC) and visceral manifestation theory(VMT, 藏象論) and others about two organs-heart and brain. Brain(頭腦) is preferred to understand as a structure which is manifesting mental activity of heart. So the brain can be named with external heart(外心) corresponding to the relation of kidney(外 and external kidney. Saying conversely, the nutritional foundation of the mental function is the blood of heart, but the enlightening and insightful features of mentality make it's own residence move to the organ in the uppermost and positive site, that is head. And the close relationships on mental functions between heart and brain were discussed in various aspects, like investigation on east and west etymological literature, or Jiu gong and Taoist theory as well as Me and VMT, These understandings can make us know about the pathology of brain by itself. It has deep relations with heart fire and heart blood and kidney essence, and gastrointestinal function and liver with lung additionally. In another point, it makes the highly complicated psychological functions to be explained free from body relatively, and so can do a role in the complement of the strict 5 viscera theory.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.45-60
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• 2008

Objectives : Sopung-tang(Shufeng-tang) is a famous herbal prescription that treated ischemic brain injury. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of Sopung-tang(Shufeng-tang) on congnition and motor function recovery after ischemic brain injury in rats. Methods : Male rats were divided into 4 groups. Those rats caused ischemic brain injury by occlusion of MCA as Longa method. Control group I was per os normal saline for 7 days after ischemic brain injury. Control group II was per os normal saline for 14 days after ischemic brain injury. Experimental group I(Ex I) was taken with Sopung-tang(Shufeng-tang) for 7 days after ischemic brain injury. Experimental group II(Ex II) was taken with Sopung-tang(Shufeng-tang) for 14 days after ischemic brain injury. The author carried out neurological, cognitive motor behavior tests and histological assessment. Neurological motor behavior tests consist of limb placement test, beam-walking test and horizontal wire test. Morris water maze test was used for cognitive motor behavior test. In the histological assessment test, TTC(2,3,5-triphenylteterazolium chloride) staining, Hematoxylin & Eosin staining and immunohistochemical staining were experimented. Results : 1. In neurological motor behavior tests, motor function recovery was significantly increased in the experimental groups as compared with control groups(p<0.05). Especially Ex II was significantly increased as compared with Ex I(p<0.05). 2. In Morris water maze test, congnitive motor function recovery was significantly increased in the experimental groups as compared with control group(p<0.05). Especially Ex II was significantly increased as compared with Ex I(p<0.05). 3. In the immunohistochemical staining for the expression of BDNF in hippocampus, more immune reaction was investigated in the experimental groups as compared with control groups. Especially most immune reaction was experimented in the EX II. Conclusions : According to the above results, Sopung-tang(Shufeng-tang) can treat on the congnition and motor function recovery after ischemic brain injury in rats. And it is effective method in expression of BDNF in hippocampus.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.177-184
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• 1998

Objectives : Disturbance of sleep with or without sleep apnea may impair the memory function. Sleep deficiency, sleepiness, sleep apnea and emotional problem in sleep disorders can induce an impairment of memory function. Methods : In this study, the polysomnographies were administered to 58 sleep apnea patients and 38 sleep disorder patients without sleep apnea. Their clinical symptoms were quantitatively evaluated. Short term and long term memory were evaluated before and after polysom no graphy with Digit symbol test and Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test. And correlations among various sleep, repiratory and clinical variables were statistically studied in order to explore which variables may influence on memory function. Results and Conclusions : Results are as follows. Depth of sleep cis positively correlated with memory function. As sleep apnea increases and average saturation of blood oxygen decreases, memory function is more impaired. Emotional depression, high blood pressure, obesity or alcohol impaired memory function. However, daytime sleepiness was not significantly correlated with memory function. The possible mechanisms how above factors influence on the memory function were discussed.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.86-93
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• 2005

Human brain EST data provide important clues for our understanding of the molecular biology associated with the function of the normal brain and the molecular pathophysiology with brain disorders. To systematically and efficiently study the function and disorders of the human brain, 45,773 human brain ESTs were collected from 27 human brain cDNA libraries, which were constructed from normal brains and brain disorders such as brain tumors, Parkinson's disease (PO) and epilepsy. An analysis of 45,773 human brain ESTs using our EST analysis pipeline resulted in 38,396 high-quality ESTs and 35,906 ESTs, which were coalesced into 8,246 unique gene clusters, showing a significant similarity to known genes in the human RefSeq, human mRNAs and UniGene database. In addition, among 8,246 gene clusters, 4,287 genes ($52\%$) were found to contain full-length cONA clones. To facilitate the extraction of useful information in collected these human brain ESTs, we developed a user-friendly interface system, the Korea Brain Unigene Database (KBUD). The KBUD web interface allows access to our human brain data through three major search modes, the BioCarta pathway, keywords and BLAST searches. Each result when viewed in KBUD offers comprehensive information concerning the analyzed human brain ESTs provided by our data as well as data linked to various other publiC databases. The user-friendly developed KBUD, the first world-wide web interface for human brain EST data with ESTs of human brain disorders as well as normal brains, will be a helpful system for developing a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the normal brain well as brain disorders. The KBUD system is freely accessible at http://kugi.kribb.re.kr/KU/cgi -bin/brain. pI.