Age-related Changes of GAD1 mRNA Expression in the Central Inferior Colliculus.

Encoding sounds with a high degree of temporal precision is an essential task for the inferior colliculus (IC) to perform and maintain the accurate processing of sounds and speech. However, the age-related reduction of GABAergic neurotransmission in the IC interrupts temporal precision and likely contributes to presbycusis. As presbycusis often manifests at high or low frequencies specifically, we sought to determine if the expression of mRNA for glutamic decarboxylase 1 (GAD1) is downregulated non-uniformly across the tonotopic axis or cell size range in the aging IC.

Off Starburst Amacrine Cells in the Retina Trigger Looming-Evoked Fear Responses in Mice.

A rapidly approaching dark object evokes an evolutionarily conserved fear response in both vertebrates and invertebrates, young to old. A looming visual stimulus mimics an approaching object and triggers a similarly robust fear response in mice, resulting in freeze and flight. However, the retinal neural pathway responsible for this innate response has not been fully understood.

Dopaminergic Modulation of Signal Processing in a Subset of Retinal Bipolar Cells.

The retina and the olfactory bulb are the gateways to the visual and olfactory systems, respectively, similarly using neural networks to initiate sensory signal processing. Sensory receptors receive signals that are transmitted to neural networks before projecting to primary cortices. These networks filter sensory signals based on their unique features and adjust their sensitivities by gain control systems.

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision.

The visual system in the central nervous system processes diverse visual signals. Although the overall structure has been characterized from the retina through the lateral geniculate nucleus to the visual cortex, the system is complex. Cellular and molecular studies have been conducted to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning visual processing and, by extension, disease mechanisms.

Bipolar Cell Type-Specific Expression and Conductance of Alpha-7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in the Mouse Retina.

Purpose: Motion detection is performed by a unique neural network in the mouse retina. Starburst amacrine cells (SACs), which release acetylcholine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) into the network, are key neurons in the motion detection pathway. Although GABA contributions to the network have been extensively studied, the role of acetylcholine is minimally understood.

T1ρ-weighted Dynamic Glucose-enhanced MR Imaging in the Human Brain.

Purpose To evaluate the ability to detect intracerebral regions of increased glucose concentration at T1ρ-weighted dynamic glucose-enhanced (DGE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at 7.0 T. Materials and Methods This prospective study was approved by the institutional review board.

Fast and Quantitative T1ρ-weighted Dynamic Glucose Enhanced MRI.

Common medical imaging techniques usually employ contrast agents that are chemically labeled, e.g. with radioisotopes in the case of PET, iodine in the case of CT or paramagnetic metals in the case of MRI to visualize the heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment.

Adiabatically prepared spin-lock approach for T1ρ-based dynamic glucose enhanced MRI at ultrahigh fields.

Purpose: Chemical exchange sensitive spin-lock and related techniques allow to observe the uptake of administered D-glucose in vivo. The exchange-weighting increases with the magnetic field strength, but inhomogeneities in the radiofrequency (RF) field at ultrahigh field whole-body scanners lead to artifacts in conventional spin-lock experiments. Thus, our aim was the development of an adiabatically prepared T -based imaging sequence applicable to studies of glucose metabolism in tumor patients at ultrahigh field strengths.

Detection of electrophoretically separated cytochromes P450 by element-labelled monoclonal antibodies via laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Numerous structurally and enzymatically similar cytochromes P450 (CYPs) are involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics and are present in different amounts and with different enzyme profiles in human tissues and cells. Analysis of their adaptively regulated and individually variable patterns is a peculiar analytical challenge. We developed a laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) based method for concomitant detection and semiquantitative determination of electrophoretically separated and blotted CYPs.