Acute psychological and physiological benefits of exercising with virtual reality.

Exercise is a powerful tool for disease prevention and rehabilitation. Commercially available virtual reality (VR) devices and apps offer an immersive platform to gamify exercise and potentially enhance physiological and psychological benefits. However, no work has compared immersive exercise to closely matched 2D screen-based equivalents with the same visual and auditory stimuli.

Traumatic Tension Pneumothorax: A Tale of Two Pathologies.

Pneumothorax resulting from injury is a common phenomenon in both civilian and military trauma. A pneumothorax or simple pneumothorax is defined as air in the pleural space. A tension pneumothorax can evolve from a simple pneumothorax if there is a continued air leak from the lung without mechanism for egress.

Biopsychosocial Health Considerations for Astronauts in Long-Duration Spaceflight: A Narrative Review.

Long-duration spaceflights beyond low-Earth orbit, including missions to the Moon and Mars, pose significant health risks. Although biomedical approaches commonly appear in the literature, considering psychological and social factors alongside physiologic health offers a more holistic approach to astronaut care. Integrating the biopsychosocial (BPS) framework into medical planning addresses complex spaceflight challenges and aids in developing mitigation strategies.

Direct whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from small boutons in rodent primary neocortical neuron cultures.

Direct electrical recordings from conventional boutons in the mammalian central nervous system have proven challenging due to their small size. Here, we provide a protocol for direct whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from small presynaptic boutons of primary dissociated cultured neurons of the rodent neocortex. We describe steps to prepare primary neocortical cultures and recording pipettes, followed by identifying boutons and establishing a whole-cell bouton recording.

Cric in the Dark: Surgical Cricothyrotomy in Low Light Tactical Environments.

Background: Surgical cricothyrotomy (SC) is a difficult procedure with high failure rates in the battlefield environment. The difficulty of this procedure is compounded in a low-light tactical environment in which white light cannot be used. This study compared the use of red-green (RG) light and red (R) light in the performance of SC in a low-light environment.

Transitioning to holistic review for admissions in a baccalaureate nursing program: One school's journey.

Healthcare workforce diversity is foundational for the reduction of health disparities, improvement of population health outcomes and the enhancement of patient satisfaction. To increase workforce diversity, health professional programs must be more inclusive during the admission process. Considering demographic trends and the changing landscape of healthcare, it is in the best interests of all institutions that develop students for healthcare roles to actively seek out qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds.

Large, Stable Spikes Exhibit Differential Broadening in Excitatory and Inhibitory Neocortical Boutons.

Presynaptic action potential spikes control neurotransmitter release and thus interneuronal communication. However, the properties and the dynamics of presynaptic spikes in the neocortex remain enigmatic because boutons in the neocortex are small and direct patch-clamp recordings have not been performed. Here, we report direct recordings from boutons of neocortical pyramidal neurons and interneurons.

Photolysis of a Caged, Fast-Equilibrating Glutamate Receptor Antagonist, MNI-Caged -D-Glutamyl-Glycine, to Investigate Transmitter Dynamics and Receptor Properties at Glutamatergic Synapses.

Fast uncaging of low affinity competitive receptor antagonists can in principle measure the timing and concentration dependence of transmitter action at receptors during synaptic transmission. Here, we describe the development, synthesis and characterization of MNI-caged -D-glutamyl-glycine (-DGG), which combines the fast photolysis and hydrolytic stability of nitroindoline cages with the well-characterized fast-equilibrating competitive glutamate receptor antagonist -DGG. At climbing fiber-Purkinje cell (CF-PC) synapses MNI-caged-γ-DGG was applied at concentrations up to 5 mM without affecting CF-PC transmission, permitting release of up to 1.

Cerebellar learning using perturbations.

The cerebellum aids the learning of fast, coordinated movements. According to current consensus, erroneously active parallel fibre synapses are depressed by complex spikes signalling movement errors. However, this theory cannot solve the of processing a global movement evaluation into multiple cell-specific error signals.

Analysis of Claims that the Brain Extracellular Impedance Is High and Non-resistive.

Numerous measurements in the brain of the impedance between two extracellular electrodes have shown that it is approximately resistive in the range of biological interest, <10 kHz, and has a value close to that expected from the conductivity of physiological saline and the extracellular volume fraction in brain tissue. Recent work from Gomes et al. has claimed that the impedance of the extracellular space is some three orders of magnitude greater than these values and also displays a 1/f frequency dependence (above a low-frequency corner frequency).

Burst-Dependent Bidirectional Plasticity in the Cerebellum Is Driven by Presynaptic NMDA Receptors.

Numerous studies have shown that cerebellar function is related to the plasticity at the synapses between parallel fibers and Purkinje cells. How specific input patterns determine plasticity outcomes, as well as the biophysics underlying plasticity of these synapses, remain unclear. Here, we characterize the patterns of activity that lead to postsynaptically expressed LTP using both in vivo and in vitro experiments.

Contribution of postsynaptic T-type calcium channels to parallel fibre-Purkinje cell synaptic responses.

Key Points: At the parallel fibre-Purkinje cell glutamatergic synapse, little or no Ca(2+) entry takes place through postsynaptic neurotransmitter receptors, although postsynaptic calcium increases are clearly involved in the synaptic plasticity. Postsynaptic voltage-gated Ca(2+) channels therefore constitute the sole rapid postsynaptic Ca(2+) signalling mechanism, making it essential to understand how they contribute to the synaptic signalling. Using a selective T-type calcium channel antagonist, we describe a T-type component of the EPSC that is activated by the AMPA receptor-mediated depolarization of the spine and thus will contribute to the local calcium dynamics.

ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND PRACTICE OF SEXUALITY AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN LEBANON.

Sexuality is still a taboo in Middle Eastern countries, and Lebanon is no exception. This study's objective was to evaluate attitudes towards sexuality and its practice among university students in Lebanon and assess their respective correlates. The cross-sectional study was carried out among students selected from seventeen universities across Lebanon.

Lack of support for bexarotene as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Bexarotene has been reported to reduce brain amyloid-β (Aβ) levels and to improve cognitive function in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Four groups failed to fully replicate the primary results but the original authors claimed overall support for the general conclusions. Because of its potential clinical importance, the current work studied the effects of bexarotene using two animal species and highly relevant paradigms.

Neuronal morphology generates high-frequency firing resonance.

The attenuation of neuronal voltage responses to high-frequency current inputs by the membrane capacitance is believed to limit single-cell bandwidth. However, neuronal populations subject to stochastic fluctuations can follow inputs beyond this limit. We investigated this apparent paradox theoretically and experimentally using Purkinje cells in the cerebellum, a motor structure that benefits from rapid information transfer.

Risk perception, motives and behaviours in university students.

Risky behaviours among young people are relatively frequent, with several motives and attitudes lying behind. Our objective was to evaluate the role of risk perception, attractiveness and motives for risk behaviour taking among university students in Lebanon. A cross-sectional study was carried out using a proportionate cluster sample of Lebanese students in public and private universities.

Waterpipe effects on pulmonary function and cardiovascular indices: a comparison to cigarette smoking in real life situation.

Introduction: Smoking is known to have physiological effects on biological systems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate acute and chronic effects on pulmonary functions and cardiovascular indices of waterpipe (WP) smoking in real life circumstances.

Methods: Three groups were included in the study: non-smokers (N = 42), WP smokers (N = 42) and cigarette smokers (N = 48).

Waterpipe dependence in university students and effect of normative beliefs: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to measure the correlates, including normative beliefs, associated with waterpipe (WP) and cigarette smoking prevalence and dependence.

Setting: A cross-sectional study was carried out using a proportionate cluster sample of Lebanese students in 17 public and private universities.

Participants: Of the 4900 distributed questionnaires, 3384 (69.

Ultra-rapid axon-axon ephaptic inhibition of cerebellar Purkinje cells by the pinceau.

Excitatory synaptic activity in the brain is shaped and balanced by inhibition. Because inhibition cannot propagate, it is often recruited with a synaptic delay by incoming excitation. Cerebellar Purkinje cells are driven by long-range excitatory parallel fiber inputs, which also recruit local inhibitory basket cells.

Do personal beliefs and peers affect the practice of alcohol consumption in university students in Lebanon?

Alcohol consumption is frequent among university students in Lebanon as elsewhere in the world. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Lebanon's public and private universities between October 2009 and September 2010 using a standardized questionnaire to assess personal beliefs about alcohol consumption, peers' behaviours and opinions and history of and current drinking practices. Of 1235 students, 199 (16.

The Young Adults' Cigarette Dependence (YACD) score: an improved tool for cigarette dependence assessment in university students.

Background: Cigarette smoking induces dependence in young smokers.

Purpose: The primary objective of this work was to validate the use of the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) in young Lebanese university students, and to improve it eventually by adding new items covering DSM-IV and ICD-10 dependence components.

Methods: We used data from a cross-sectional study on university students.

A spike of electrodiffusion reaches metabotropic receptors.

Flow of current in the synaptic cleft can influence diffusion of charged transmitters, such as glutamate. In this issue of Neuron, Sylantyev et al. (2013) demonstrate how this can modulate synaptic NMDA receptor-mediated responses via a surprising mechanism-perisynaptic metabotropic glutamate receptors.