• Animal cells and systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.11-14
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• 2008

Finding a way to strengthen human cognitive functions, such as learning and memory, has been of great concern since the moment people realized that these functions can be affected and even altered by certain chemicals. Since then, plenty of endeavors have been made to look for safe ways of improving cognitive performances without adverse side-effects. Unfortunately, most of these efforts have turned out to be unsuccessful until now. In this study, we examine the effect of a natural compound, idesolide, on hippocampus-dependent recognition memory. We demonstrate that idesolide is effective in the enhancement of recognition memory, as measured by a novel object recognition task. Thus, idesolide might serve as a novel therapeutic medication for the treatment of memoryrelated brain anomalies such as mild cognitive impairment(MCI) and Alzheimer's disease.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.471-476
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• 2006

Chongmyung-tang(CMT, 聰明湯), oriental herbal medicine which consists of Polygaglae Radix(遠志), Acori Graminei Rhizoma(石菖蒲) and Hoelen(白茯神) has effect on amnesia, dementia. In order to evaluate effect of CMT on memory and learning in mice, CMT extract was used for studies. This paper describes the effects of CMT extract on memory and learning processes by using the passive and active avoidance performance tests, novel object recognition task and water maze task. The CMT extract ameliorated the memory retrieval deficit induced by ethanol in the passive avoidance responses but did not affect ambulatory activity of normal mice. These results suggest that CMT has an ameliorating effect on memory retrieval impairment. CMT extract decreased spontaneous motor activity(SMA) in the latter sessions of memory registration in active avoidance responses. These results suggest that CMT has partly transquilizing or antianxiety effects. In novel object recognition task to measure visual recognition memory, CMT-administered mice enhanced in long term memory for 1-3 days. In water maze task to measure spatial learning, which requires the activation of NMDA receptors in the hippocampus, spatial learning in CMT-administered mice was faster than in wild-type mice. These results suggest that CMT enhances memory and activates NMDA receptors.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.183-188
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• 2008

The behavioral phenotypes of out-bred ICR mice were compared with those of in-bred C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice. In particular, this study examined the locomotor activity and two forms of hippocampus-dependent learning paradigms, passive avoidance and object recognition memory. The basal open-field activity of the ICR strain was greater than that of the C57BL/6 and BALB/c strains. In the passive avoidance task, all the mice showed a significant increase in the cross-over latency when tested 24 hours after training. The strength of memory retention in the ICR mice was relatively weak and measurable, as indicated by the shorter cross-over latency than the C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice. In the object recognition memory test, all strains had a significant preference for the novel object during testing. The index for the preference of a novel object was lower for the ICR and BALB/c mice. Nevertheless, the variance and the standard deviation in these strains were comparable. Overall, these results confirm the strain differences on locomotor activity and hippocampus-dependent learning and memory in mice.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2015

Excessive manganese (Mn) in the brain promotes a variety of abnormal behaviors, including memory deficits, decreased motor skills and psychotic behavior resembling Parkinson's disease. Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is a prevalent genetic iron overload disorder worldwide. Dysfunction in HFE gene is the major cause of HH. Our previous study has demonstrated that olfactory Mn uptake is altered by HFE deficiency, suggesting that loss of HFE function could alter manganese-associated neurotoxicity. To test this hypothesis, Hfe-knockout ($Hfe^{-/-}$) and wild-type ($Hfe^{+/+}$) mice were intranasally-instilled with manganese chloride ($MnCl_2$ 5 mg/kg) or water daily for 3 weeks and examined for memory function. Olfactory Mn diminished both short-term recognition and spatial memory in $Hfe^{+/+}$ mice, as examined by novel object recognition task and Barnes maze test, respectively. Interestingly, $Hfe^{-/-}$ mice did not show impaired recognition memory caused by Mn exposure, suggesting a potential protective effect of Hfe deficiency against Mn-induced memory deficits. Since many of the neurotoxic effects of manganese are thought to result from increased oxidative stress, we quantified activities of anti-oxidant enzymes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Mn instillation decreased superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) activity in $Hfe^{+/+}$ mice, but not in $Hfe^{-/-}$ mice. In addition, Hfe deficiency up-regulated SOD1 and glutathione peroxidase activities. These results suggest a beneficial role of Hfe deficiency in attenuating Mn-induced oxidative stress in the PFC. Furthermore, Mn exposure reduced nicotinic acetylcholine receptor levels in the PFC, indicating that blunted acetylcholine signaling could contribute to impaired memory associated with intranasal manganese. Together, our model suggests that disrupted cholinergic system in the brain is involved in airborne Mn-induced memory deficits and loss of HFE function could in part prevent memory loss via a potential up-regulation of anti-oxidant enzymes in the PFC.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.211-219
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• 2016

Background: Panax ginseng root is used in traditional oriental medicine for human health. Its main active components such as saponins and polysaccharides have been widely evaluated for treating diseases, but secondary active components such as oligosaccharides have been rarely studied. This study aimed to assess the impact of water-soluble ginseng oligosaccharides (WGOS), which were isolated from the warm-water extract of Panax ginseng root, on scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment in mice and its antineuroinflammatory mechanisms. Methods: We investigated the impact of WGOS on scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment in mice by using Morris water maze and novel object recognition task. We also analyzed the impact of WGOS on scopolamine-induced inflammatory response (e.g., the hyperexpression of proinflammatory cytokines IL-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 and astrocyte activation) by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) immunohistochemical staining. Results: WGOS pretreatment protected against scopolamine-induced learning and memory deficits in the Morris water maze and in the novel object recognition task. Furthermore, WGOS pretreatment downregulated scopolamine-induced hyperexpression of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 mRNA and astrocyte activation in the hippocampus. These results indicate that WGOS can protect against scopolamine-induced alterations in learning and memory and inflammatory response. Conclusion: Our data suggest that WGOS may be beneficial as a medicine or functional food supplement to treat disorders with cognitive deficits and increased inflammation.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.349-356
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• 2019

Behavioral analysis in mice provided important contributions in helping understand and treat numerous neurobehavioral and neuropsychiatric disorders. The behavioral performance of animals and humans is widely different among individuals but the neurobehavioral mechanism of the innate difference is seldom investigated. Many neurologic conditions share comorbid symptoms that may have common pathophysiology and therapeutic strategy. The forced swim test (FST) has been commonly used to evaluate the "antidepressant" properties of drugs yet the individual difference analysis of this test was left scantly investigated along with the possible connection among other behavioral domains. This study conducted an FST-screening in outbred CD-1 male mice and segregated them into three groups: high performers (HP) or the active swimmers, middle performers (MP), and low performers (LP) or floaters. After which, a series of behavioral experiments were performed to measure their behavioral responses in the open field, elevated plus maze, Y maze, three-chamber social assay, novel object recognition, delay discounting task, and cliff avoidance reaction. The behavioral tests battery revealed that the three groups displayed seemingly correlated differences in locomotor activity and novel object recognition but not in other behaviors. This study suggests that the HP group in FST has higher locomotor activity and novelty-seeking tendencies compared to the other groups. These results may have important implications in creating behavior database in animal models that could be used for predicting interconnections of various behavioral domains, which eventually helps to understand the neurobiological mechanism controlling the behaviors in individual subjects.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.313-321
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• 2017

One of the most frequently performed tasks in human-robot interaction (HRI), intelligent vehicles, and security systems is face related applications such as face recognition, facial expression recognition, driver state monitoring, and gaze estimation. In these applications, accurate head pose estimation is an important issue. However, conventional methods have been lacking in accuracy, robustness or processing speed in practical use. In this paper, we propose a novel method for estimating head pose with a monocular camera. The proposed algorithm is based on a deep neural network for multi-task learning using a small grayscale image. This network jointly detects multi-view faces and estimates head pose in hard environmental conditions such as illumination change and large pose change. The proposed framework quantitatively and qualitatively outperforms the state-of-the-art method with an average head pose mean error of less than $4.5^{\circ}$ in real-time.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.135-145
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• 2006

This paper presents a novel approach to real-time recognition of 3D environment and objects for intelligent robots. First. we establish the three fundamental principles that humans use for recognizing and interacting with the environment. These principles have led to the development of an integrated approach to real-time 3D recognition and modeling, as follows: 1) It starts with a rapid but approximate characterization of the geometric configuration of workspace by identifying global plane features. 2) It quickly recognizes known objects in environment and replaces them by their models in database based on 3D registration. 3) It models the geometric details on the fly adaptively to the need of the given task based on a multi-resolution octree representation. SIFT features with their 3D position data, referred to here as stereo-sis SIFT, are used extensively, together with point clouds, for fast extraction of global plane features, for fast recognition of objects, for fast registration of scenes, as well as for overcoming incomplete and noisy nature of point clouds. The experimental results show the feasibility of real-time and behavior-oriented 3D modeling of workspace for robotic manipulative tasks.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.31-39
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• 2006

This paper presents a novel approach to real-time recognition of 3D environment and objects for various applications such as intelligent robots, intelligent vehicles, intelligent buildings,..etc. First, we establish the three fundamental principles that humans use for recognizing and interacting with the environment. These principles have led to the development of an integrated approach to real-time 3D recognition and modeling, as follows: 1) It starts with a rapid but approximate characterization of the geometric configuration of workspace by identifying global plane features. 2) It quickly recognizes known objects in environment and replaces them by their models in database based on 3D registration. 3) It models the geometric details the geometric details on the fly adaptively to the need of the given task based on a multi-resolution octree representation. SIFT features with their 3D position data, referred to here as stereo-sis SIFT, are used extensively, together with point clouds, for fast extraction of global plane features, for fast recognition of objects, for fast registration of scenes, as well as for overcoming incomplete and noisy nature of point clouds.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.254-261
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• 2005

The effects on memory and learning ability of the Korean herbal medicine, Xingyo-tang(XGT, 神交湯), which consists of Ginseng Radix(人蔘) 4 g, Liriopis Tuber(麥門冬) 40 g, Morindae Officinalis Radix(巴戟天) 40 g, Biotae Semen(柏子仁) 20 g, Dioscoreae Rhizoma(山藥) 40 g, Euryales Semen(?實) 20 g, Scrophulariae Radix(玄蔘) 40 g, Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix(丹蔘) 12 g, Poria(茯神) 12 g, Cuscutae Semen(免絲子) 40 g, was investigated. The effects of XGT on learning and memory performance were examined in normal or memory impaired mice by using avoidance tests, Pentobarbital -induced sleep test, fear conditioning task, novel object recognition task, and water maze task. Hot water extract from XGT was used for the studies. Learning ability and memory are based on modifications of synaptic strength among neurons that are simultaneously active. Enhanced synaptic coincidence detection leads to better learning and memory. The XGT-treated (30 mg/100 g and 60 mg/100 g, p.o.) mice exhibit superior ability in learning and memorizing when performing various behavioral tasks. XGT did not affect the passive avoidance responses of normal mice in the step through and step down tests, the conditioned and unconditioned avoidance responses of normal mice in the shuttle box, lever press performance tests, and the ambulatory activity of normal mice in normal condition. In contrast, XGT produced ameliorating effects on the memory retrieval impairment induced by ethanol. XGT also improved the memory consolidation disability induced by electric convulsive shock (ECS). XGT extended the sleeping time induced by pentobarbital dose-dependently, suggesting its transquilizing or antianxiety action. These results suggest that XGT has an improving effect on the impaired learning through the effects on memory registration and retrieval.