Publications by authors named "Carmen Nunez-Gonzalez"
The pupillary light reflex (PLR) adapts the amount of light reaching the retina, protecting it and improving image formation. Two PLR mechanisms have been described in vertebrates. First, the pretectum receives retinal inputs and projects to the Edinger-Westphal nucleus (EWN), which targets the ciliary ganglion through the oculomotor nerve (nIII).
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- Lampreys can naturally regain their swimming ability after a complete spinal cord injury (SCI) due to the regeneration of their descending axons, a process that hasn’t been thoroughly studied in smaller axon populations often found in mammals.
- Research focused on cholecystokinin (CCK), a neuropeptide that influences several functions, has shown that in larval lampreys, CCKergic axons can partially regenerate, recovering about 81% of the original axonal profiles within 10 weeks post-injury.
- The study found that improved swimming performance in injured lampreys correlates with the resurgence of CCKergic axons, suggesting these neuropeptidergic systems play a significant role in recovery of locom
Animals constantly redirect their gaze away or towards relevant targets and, besides these goal-oriented responses, stabilizing movements clamp the visual scene avoiding image blurring. The vestibulo-ocular (VOR) and the optokinetic reflexes are the main contributors to gaze stabilization, whereas the optic tectum integrates multisensory information and generates orienting/evasive gaze movements in all vertebrates. Lampreys show a unique stepwise development of the visual system whose understanding provides important insights into the evolution and development of vertebrate vision.
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