Notes

Strong Strengthening Mastering With Quantum-Inspired Experience Replay.
Several lines of evidence accrued over the last 5-10 years have converged to suggest that the parafascicular nucleus of the thalamus and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex each represent or contribute to internal state/context representations that guide action selection in partially observable task situations. In rodents, inactivations of each structure have been found to selectively impair performance in paradigms testing goal-directed action selection, but only when that action selection relies on state representations. Electrophysiological evidence has suggested that each structure achieves this function via inputs onto cholinergic interneurons (CINs) in the dorsomedial striatum. Here, we briefly review these studies, then point to anatomical evidence regarding the afferents of each structure and what they suggest about the specific features that each contribute to internal state representations. Androgen Receptor activity inhibition Finally, we speculate as to whether this role might be achieved interdependently through direct PF→OFC projections, or through the convergence of independent direct orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and parafascicular nucleus of the thalamus (PF) inputs onto striatal targets.Ophidiophobia (snake phobia) is one of the most common specific phobias. It has been proposed that specific phobia may have an evolutionary origin, and that attentional bias to specific items may promote the onset of phobia. Noninvasive imaging studies of patients with specific phobia reported that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), especially the rostral part of the anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), and amygdala are activated during the presentation of phobogenic stimuli. We propose that the mPFC-amygdala circuit may be involved in the pathogenesis of phobia. The mPFC receives inputs from the phylogenically old subcortical visual pathway including the superior colliculus, pulvinar, and amygdala, while mPFC neurons are highly sensitive to snakes that are the first modern predator of primates, and discriminate snakes with striking postures from those with non-striking postures. Furthermore, the mPFC has been implicated in the attentional allocation and promotes amygdala-dependent aversive conditioning. These findings suggest that the rACC focuses attention on snakes, and promotes aversive conditioning to snakes, which may lead to anxiety and ophidiophobia.Animal behaviours are demonstrably governed by sensory stimulation, previous experience and internal states like hunger. With increasing hunger, priorities shift towards foraging and feeding. During foraging, flies are known to employ efficient path integration strategies. However, general long-term activity patterns for both hungry and satiated flies in conditions of foraging remain to be better understood. Similarly, little is known about how permanent contact chemosensory stimulation affects locomotion. To address these questions, we have developed a novel, simplistic fly activity tracking setup-the Panopticon. Using a 3D-printed Petri dish inset, our assay allows recording of walking behaviour, of several flies in parallel, with all arena surfaces covered by a uniform substrate layer. We tested two constellations of providing food (i) in single patches and (ii) omnipresent within the substrate layer. Fly tracking is done with FIJI, further assessment, analysis and presentation is done with a custom-built MATLAB analysis framework. We find that starvation history leads to a long-lasting reduction in locomotion, as well as a delayed place preference for food patches which seems to be not driven by immediate hunger motivation.The dynamic nature of cortical activation changes during language acquisition, including second-language learning, has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we administered two sets of reading and listening tests (Pre and Post) to participants who had begun to learn Japanese abroad. The two sets were separated by an interval of about 2 months of Japanese language training. We compared the results of longitudinal functional MRI experiments between the two time-points and obtained the following major findings. First, the left-dominant language areas, as well as bilateral visual and auditory areas, were activated, demonstrating the synergistic effects of multiple modalities. There was also significant activation in the bilateral hippocampi, indicating the expected involvement of memory-related processes. Second, consistent with the behavioral improvements from Pre to Post, the brain activations decreased in the left inferior and middle frontal gyri during the listening tests, as well as in the visual areas (the bilateral inferior and superior parietal lobules, and left inferior and middle occipital gyri) during the reading tests, while activations in the right superior and middle temporal gyri increased during the listening tests. These modality-dependent activation changes could not be explained by domain-general cognitive factors, such as habituation or familiarization, because we used completely different test sets for Pre and Post. Third, the posterior hippocampus showed a main effect of the hemisphere, whereas the anterior hippocampus showed a significant main effect of the event (i.e., specific to first listening events), reflecting initial encoding of auditory information alone. In summary, activation changes from Pre to Post indicate functional changes in modality-dependent networks over a short period of staying abroad, which would enable effective acquisition of a second language.Pathological impairments in the regulation of affect (i.e., emotion) and flexible decision-making are commonly observed across numerous neuropsychiatric disorders and are thought to reflect dysfunction of cortical and subcortical circuits that arise in part from imbalances in excitation and inhibition within these structures. Disruptions in GABA transmission, in particular, that from parvalbumin-expressing interneurons (PVI), has been highlighted as a likely mechanism by which this imbalance arises, as they regulate excitation and synchronization of principle output neurons. G protein-gated inwardly rectifying potassium ion (GIRK/Kir3) channels are known to modulate excitability and output of pyramidal neurons in areas like the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus; however, the role GIRK plays in PVI excitability and behavior is unknown. Male and female mice lacking GIRK1 in PVI (Girk1flox/floxPVcre) and expressing td-tomato in PVI (Girk1flox/floxPVCrePVtdtom) exhibited increased open arm time in the elevated plus-maze, while males showed an increase in immobile episodes during the forced swim test (FST).
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