A shea butter-based ketamine ointment: The antidepressant effects of transdermal ketamine in rats.

The delayed onset of monoaminergic antidepressants and disadvantages of traditional administration routes created the need for alternative non-invasive delivery methods with rapid onset therapeutic effect. Ketamine attracted attention as a fast-acting glutamatergic antidepressant with ideal physiochemical properties for alternative routes of administration. However, there is no sufficient data for its transdermal use in depression.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy shows that object relative clauses are more difficult to process than subject relative clauses in Turkish.

It was suggested that processing subject relative clauses (SRCs) is universally easier than processing object relative clauses (ORCs) based on the studies carried out in head-initial languages such as English and German. However, studies in head-final languages such as Chinese and Basque contradicted this claim. Turkish is also a head-final language.

Sensory stimulation via the visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory systems can modulate mood and depression.

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders, predicted to be the leading cause of disease burden by the next decade. There is great deal of emphasis on the central origin and potential therapeutics of depression whereby the symptomatology of depression has been interpreted and treated as brain generated dysfunctions filtering down to the periphery. This top-down approach has found strong support from clinical work and basic neuroscientific research.

Paw preference is associated with behavioural despair and spatial reference memory in male rats.

Paw preference, one of the well-studied behavioural markers of asymmetry, has been associated with affective states and pathologies such as behavioural despair, a rodent model of clinical depression. However, a consistent differential effect of paw preference has not been observed for cognitive functions. In order to investigate the affective properties of paw preference together with its potential cognitive effects, we grouped male Wistar rats as left- or right-pawed, and tested them in the forced swim test and Morris water maze for behavioural despair and spatial memory performance, respectively.

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Indicates That Asymmetric Right Hemispheric Activation in Mental Rotation of a Jigsaw Puzzle Decreases With Task Difficulty.

Mental rotation (MR) is a cognitive skill whose neural dynamics are still a matter of debate as previous neuroimaging studies have produced controversial results. In order to investigate the underlying neurophysiology of MR, hemodynamic responses from the prefrontal cortex of 14 healthy subjects were recorded with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during a novel MR task that had three categorical difficulty levels. Hemodynamic activity strength (HAS) parameter, which reflects the ratio of brain activation during the task to the baseline activation level, was used to assess the prefrontal cortex activation localization and strength.

Low cognitive competence as a vulnerability factor for behavioral despair in rats.

Elucidating the multi-faceted relationship between cognitive competence and affective states is a major pursuit in behavioral sciences. Mood disorders constitute a good research model for this question, as cognitive impairment may accompany clinical depression and persist after full remission. This suggests cognitive dysfunction as an etiological factor of depression, rather than an epiphenomenon.

Psychomotor retardation in depression: A critical measure of the forced swim test.

DSM-5 lists 9 different symptoms for major depressive disorder and dictates that either "depressed mood" or "loss of interest or pleasure" should be present for diagnosis. Both are relatively high-level symptoms of the complex affecto-cognitive disease. However, the single most common behavioral paradigm and the gold standard animal (rodent) test for depression, the forced swim test (FST), measures a low-level mechanical feature that resembles "psychomotor retardation" observed in depression.

Oral ketamine alleviates behavioral despair without cognitive impairment in Wistar rats.

Ketamine is a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist used as a major anesthetic agent, especially in children. It has also been shown that at sub-anesthetic concentrations, ketamine has acute antidepressant properties. The rapid-onset nature of this effect makes it a promising alternative for classical antidepressants targeting the monoaminergic system.

Head-turning asymmetry: A novel lateralization in rats predicts susceptibility to behavioral despair.

Behavioral markers of laterality reflecting underlying neurobiological asymmetries between the cerebral hemispheres are related to differential susceptibility to mood disorders. In the present study, we investigated the strength and consistency of a novel behavioral lateralization, head-turning asymmetry, and its relation to behavioral despair in adult female Wistar rats. Head-turning biases were determined in a test where water-deprived rats had to turn their head to right or left to gain access to a water dispenser.

Automated Neuroanatomical Relation Extraction: A Linguistically Motivated Approach with a PVT Connectivity Graph Case Study.

Identifying the relations among different regions of the brain is vital for a better understanding of how the brain functions. While a large number of studies have investigated the neuroanatomical and neurochemical connections among brain structures, their specific findings are found in publications scattered over a large number of years and different types of publications. Text mining techniques have provided the means to extract specific types of information from a large number of publications with the aim of presenting a larger, if not necessarily an exhaustive picture.

Toward Building Hybrid Biological/in silico Neural Networks for Motor Neuroprosthetic Control.

In this article, we introduce the Bioinspired Neuroprosthetic Design Environment (BNDE) as a practical platform for the development of novel brain-machine interface (BMI) controllers, which are based on spiking model neurons. We built the BNDE around a hard real-time system so that it is capable of creating simulated synapses from extracellularly recorded neurons to model neurons. In order to evaluate the practicality of the BNDE for neuroprosthetic control experiments, a novel, adaptive BMI controller was developed and tested using real-time closed-loop simulations.

Right-but not left-paw use in female rats provides advantage in forced swim tests.

Left- and right-pawed adult female Wistar rats were subjected to forced swimming on two consecutive days. Compared to the right-pawed group, left- pawed rats displayed significantly increased immobility from the first to the second swim test and remained significantly more immobile in the second swim test. Both groups performed similarly in spatial learning in the Morris water maze suggesting that left- pawed rats are differentially and specifically susceptible to depressogenic treatment.

Sensorimotor modulation of mood and depression: in search of an optimal mode of stimulation.

Depression involves a dysfunction in an affective fronto-limbic circuitry including the prefrontal cortices, several limbic structures including the cingulate cortex, the amygdala, and the hippocampus as well as the basal ganglia. A major emphasis of research on the etiology and treatment of mood disorders has been to assess the impact of centrally generated (top-down) processes impacting the affective fronto-limbic circuitry. The present review shows that peripheral (bottom-up) unipolar stimulation via the visual and the auditory modalities as well as by physical exercise modulates mood and depressive symptoms in humans and animals and activates the same central affective neurocircuitry involved in depression.

Duration discrimination by musicians and nonmusicians.

This study investigated the effects of stimulus modality, standard duration, sex, and laterality in duration discrimination by musicians and nonmusicians. Seventeen musicians (M age = 24.1 yr.

A comparative study of health related quality of life, psychological well-being, impact of illness and stigma in epilepsy and migraine.

This study aimed to show the difference of epilepsy from another chronic neurological disorder with episodic manifestations (CDEM): migraine. Seventy persons with epilepsy (PWE), 56 persons with migraine (PWM) and 45 healthy control participants (HCs) were included. The groups were compared in terms of demographics, quality of life, depression and self-esteem.

Sensorimotor modulation of mood and depression: an integrative review.

Several lines of research on mood disorders reveal that depression involves a dysfunction in an affective fronto-limbic circuitry that involves the prefrontal cortices, the cingulate cortex, several limbic structures including the amygdala and the hippocampus, lower brainstem structures and the basal ganglia. In dealing with both depressive symptoms as well as their manifestation in the brain, clinical as well as basic research has emphasized mainly a top-down or central approach in elucidating the etiology of depression and its therapy. The present integrative review emphasizes the bottom-up or peripheral view of evaluating the impact of stimulation via sensory modalities or the motor system on the same circuitry in effecting mood regulation and possibly causing mood disorders, specifically depression.

Blue but not red light stimulation in the dark has antidepressant effect in behavioral despair.

The present study investigated potential antidepressant effect of light exposure in the dark phase of a 12:12 L/D cycle on behavioral despair. In Exp.1, male Wistar rats were administered a single, 10 min broadband light pulse (1300lx) either 3h (ZT15) or 9h (ZT21) after dark onset (ZT12) and tested in two consecutive swim tests separated by 24 h.

The effects of systemic and intratumoral interleukin-12 treatment in C6 rat glioma model.

Objective: Cytokine based immunotherapy has long been an exciting field for many investigators aiming to provide an effective alternative treatment modality for glioma management. Among these cytokines, interleukin-12 (IL-72) plays a crucial role in mediating inflammatory and antitumoral activity on the host defence. We have investigated the therapeutic role of systemic and local delivery of IL-12 in C6 rat glioma model and compared these two modalities.

Effects of BNST lesions in female rats on forced swimming and navigational learning.

The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) in the forebrain shows sexual dimorphism in its neuroanatomical connectivity and neurochemical characteristics. The structure is involved in many behavioral and motivational phenomena particularly related to coping with stress. Female rats differ from males in responding to stressful situations such as forced swimming and navigational learning in the water maze.

Behavioral despair is differentially affected by the length and timing of photic stimulation in the dark phase of an L/D cycle.

The effect of varying the length and timing of photic stimulation in the dark phase of an L/D lighting cycle on behavioral despair was investigated in female Wistar rats. Animals were kept in a vivarium on an L/D 12 h:12 h light cycle (lights on at 0700 h) except for a single day of light exposure in an insulated chamber in the dark phase of the L/D schedule. Light pulses provided by an incandescent lamp (15- and 25-W, for Exps.

BNST lesions aggravate behavioral despair but do not impair navigational learning in rats.

The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a basal forebrain structure involved in many motivational processes closely linked to stress regulation. The present study investigated the effect of bilateral lesions of the BNST in male Wistar rats on behavioral despair and navigational learning in the Morris water maze both of which present stressful challenges. Compared to controls, BNST-lesioned animals displayed longer duration of immobility in the second of two forced swim tests used to assess behavioral despair but performed similarly in the water maze task.

A single day of constant light (L/L) provides immunity to behavioral despair in female rats maintained on an L/D cycle.

The present experiment investigated the potentially ameliorative effect of exposure to light in the dark phase of an 12:12 h daily lighting schedule (12L/12D cycle) on behavioral despair, an animal model of depression based on two forced swim tests separated by 24 h. Experimental groups of female Wistar rats were maintained on the 12L/12D cycle except for a single exposure to 12 h of light treatment in the dark phase of the 12L/12D cycle. Control animals were treated similarly except for light treatment.

Seasonal variability in behavioral despair in female rats.

Separate groups of female Wistar rats were tested every three months over a year to assess the extent of seasonal variability in the behavioral despair model of depression consisting of 2 swim tests separated by 24 h. There was a significant seasonal variability in the duration of immobility in the swim tests; duration of immobility was shorter in August and November than in February and May. These findings suggest reduced immobility and susceptibility to behavioral despair in summer and fall compared to winter and spring.

Changes in quality of life and self-perspective related to surgery in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Purpose: To evaluate changes in intractable epilepsy patients in terms of quality of life, depression, anxiety, stigma, and impact of epilepsy before and after surgery.

Methods: Twenty patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy who were waiting for surgery (pre-SAH group) and 21 patients who had already undergone surgery (post-SAH group) were studied. All patients received SF-36, Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, stigma and impact of epilepsy inventories, and a form asking their own perspectives about epilepsy and surgery.

The 980-nm diode laser for brain surgery: histopathology and recovery period.

The 980-nm diode laser has been under investigation for neurosurgery because of a local peak in the absorption spectra of water around this wavelength. This work was carried out to examine the extent of thermal changes and the recovery process of laser-induced brain lesions. In order to study the quality of the lesions, a conventional monopolar electrocoagulation technique was applied comparatively.