Deep Cerebellar Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Stimulation Restores Interhemispheric Balance after Ischemic Stroke in Mice.

Ischemic damage after stroke disrupts the complex balance of inhibitory and excitatory activity within cortical network causing brain functional asymmetry. Cerebellar deep nuclei with its extensive projections to cortical regions could be a prospective target for stimulation to restore inter-hemispheric balance and enhance neural plasticity after stroke. In our study, we repeatedly stimulated the lateral cerebellar nucleus (LCN) by low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) for 3 days to enhance rehabilitation after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in a mouse stroke model.

Author Correction: Dentate granule and mossy cells exhibit distinct spatiotemporal responses to local change in a one-dimensional landscape of visual-tactile cues.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Dentate granule and mossy cells exhibit distinct spatiotemporal responses to local change in a one-dimensional landscape of visual-tactile cues.

The dentate gyrus (DG) is critical for detecting changes in environments; however, how granule cells (GCs) and mossy cells (MCs), the two excitatory cell types of the DG, respond to small changes in the object layout is unclear. Here, we recorded GCs and MCs, identified by spike feature and optogenetic tagging, as mice ran on a treadmill belt enriched with visual-tactile cues. We observed that fixing a new cue on the belt induced a reconfiguration of GC and MC spatial representations via the emergence, extinction and rate alteration of firing fields.

A neuroprotective brain stimulation for vulnerable cerebellar Purkinje cell after ischemic stroke: a study with low-intensity focused ultrasound.

The role of established contralateral cerebrocerebellar connections on cerebellar injury during stroke has been increasingly revealed in recent years. An extensive number of studies have investigated alteration in inter-hemispheric correlation in order to find brain regions whose responses are specific to restore functional loss and enhance adaptive neural plasticity after stroke. Although, several non-invasive brain stimulation studies have proven their efficacy in the treatment of stroke recovery, finding more effective brain regions that responsible for stroke rehabilitation as well as optimizing neural stimulation protocol are the main goals of further investigations.

Implantation of Chronic Silicon Probes and Recording of Hippocampal Place Cells in an Enriched Treadmill Apparatus.

An important requisite for understanding brain function is the identification of behavior and cell activity correlates. Silicon probes are advanced electrodes for large-scale electrophysiological recording of neuronal activity, but the procedures for their chronic implantation are still underdeveloped. The activity of hippocampal place cells is known to correlate with an animal's position in the environment, but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear.