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Multiple Causal Links Between Magnocellular-Dorsal Pathway Shortage and Developmental Dyslexia.
Recent evidence increasingly associates network disruption in brain organization with multiple neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare terminal disease. However, the comparability of brain network characteristics across different studies remains a challenge for conventional graph theoretical methods. One suggested method to address this issue is minimum spanning tree (MST) analysis, which provides a less biased comparison. Here, we assessed the novel application of MST network analysis to hemodynamic responses recorded by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging modality, during an activity-based paradigm to investigate hypothetical disruptions in frontal functional brain network topology as a marker of the executive dysfunction, one of the most prevalent cognitive deficit reported across ALS studies. We analyzed data recorded from nine participants with ALS and ten age-matched healthy controls by first estimating functional connectivity, using phasethat the global PLV (gPLV) synchronization metric is associated with disease progression, and a few topological properties, including leaf fraction and tree hierarchy, are linked to disease duration. These results suggest that dysregulation, centralization, and asymmetry of the hemodynamic-based frontal functional network during activity are potential neuro-topological markers of ALS pathogenesis. Our findings can possibly support new bedside assessments of the functional status of ALS' brain network and could hypothetically extend to applications in other neurodegenerative diseases.In a pattern of horizontal lines containing ± 45° zigzagging phase-shifted strips, vivid illusory motion is perceived when the pattern is translated up or down at a moderate speed. Two forms of illusory motion are seen [i] a motion "racing" along the diagonal interface between the strips and [ii] lateral (sideways) motion of the strip sections. We found the relative salience of these two illusory motions to be strongly influenced by the vertical spacing and length of the line gratings, and the period length of the zigzag strips. Both illusory motions are abolished when the abutting strips are interleaved, separated by a gap or when a real line is superimposed at the interface. Illusory motion is also severely weakened when equiluminant colored grating lines are used. Illusory motion perception is fully restored at less then 20% luminance contrast. IWP-4 beta-catenin inhibitor Using adaptation, we find that line-ends alone are insufficient for illusory motion perception, and that both physical carrier motion and line orientation are required. We finally test a classical spatiotemporal energy model of V1 cells that exhibit direction tuning changes that are consistent with the direction of illusory motion. Taking this data together, we constructed a new visual illusion and surmise its origin to interactions of spatial and temporal energy of the lines and line-ends preferentially driving the magnocellular pathway.
Neuroinflammation and cellular apoptosis caused by spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury result in neurological dysfunction. MicroRNAs (miRs) have crucial functions in spinal cord I/R injury pathogenesis according to previous evidences. Herein, whether miR-128-3p contributes to spinal cord I/R injury by regulating specificity protein 1 (SP1) was assessed.

A rat model of spinal cord I/R injury was established by occluding the aortic arch for 14 min. Then, miR-128-3p's interaction with SP1 was detected by dual-luciferase reporter assays. Next, miR-128-3p mimic and inhibitor, as well as adenovirus-delivered shRNA specific for SP1 were injected intrathecally for assessing the effects of miR-128-3p and SP1 on rats with spinal cord I/R injury. SP1, Bax and Bcl-2 expression levels in I/R injured spinal cord tissues were evaluated by Western blotting, while IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6 were quantitated by ELISA. Tarlov scores were obtained to detect hind-limb motor function. Evans blue (EB) dye extravasation was utilized to examine blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) permeability. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining was performed for neuronal apoptosis assessment.

MiR-128-3p expression was decreased, while SP1 amounts were increased in rat spinal cord tissue specimens following I/R. SP1 was identified as a miR-128-3p target and downregulated by miR-128-3p. MiR-128-3p overexpression or SP1 silencing alleviated I/R-induced neuroinflammation and cell apoptosis, and improved Tarlov scores, whereas pretreatment with miR-128-3p inhibitor aggravated the above injuries.

Overexpression of miR-128-3p protects neurons from neuroinflammation and apoptosis during spinal cord I/R injury partially by downregulating SP1.
Overexpression of miR-128-3p protects neurons from neuroinflammation and apoptosis during spinal cord I/R injury partially by downregulating SP1.Background Brainstem-mediated functions are impaired in neurodegenerative diseases and aging. Atrophy can be visualized by MRI. This study investigates extrinsic sources of brainstem volume variability, intrinsic sources of anatomical variability, and the influence of age and sex on the brainstem volumes in healthy subjects. We aimed to develop efficient normalization strategies to reduce the effects of intrinsic anatomic variability on brainstem volumetry. Methods Brainstem segmentation was performed from MPRAGE data using our deep-learning-based brainstem segmentation algorithm MD-GRU. The extrinsic variability of brainstem volume assessments across scanners and protocols was investigated in two groups comprising 11 (median age 33.3 years, 7 women) and 22 healthy subjects (median age 27.6 years, 50% women) scanned twice and compared using Dice scores. Intrinsic anatomical inter-individual variability and age and sex effects on brainstem volumes were assessed in segmentations of 110 healthy subjects (median stem volumes compared to non-normalized volumes and similarly reduced the relative standard deviation by about 35%. Conclusion The extrinsic variability of the novel brainstem segmentation method MD-GRU across different scanners and imaging protocols is very low. Anatomic inter-individual variability of brainstem volumes is substantial. This study presents efficient normalization models for variability reduction in brainstem volumetry in healthy subjects.
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