Publications by authors named "E V Freedman"

Midbrain dopamine neurons are well-known to shape central nervous system function, yet there is growing evidence for their influence on the peripheral immune systems. Here we demonstrate that midbrain dopamine neurons form a circuit to the spleen via a multisynaptic pathway from the dorsal vagal complex (DVC) through the celiac ganglion. Midbrain dopamine neurons modulate the activity of D1-like and D2-like dopamine receptor-expressing DVC neurons.

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Background And Aims: Video games are a common form of entertainment in adolescents, which may result in gaming habits characterized by impairment to reward-related decision-making. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between reward processing and symptoms of gaming addiction in adolescents.

Methods: Data from three consecutive follow-up years (years 2, 3 and 4) of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study were analyzed (n = 6,143, total observations = 12,745, mean age at year-2 = 12 years).

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Article Synopsis
  • Language comprehension involves understanding individual words and their context, with specific brain responses (N400 and LPC/P600) indicating semantic processing when errors occur in sentences.
  • A study tested whether these brain responses could still be triggered in adolescents who weren't explicitly paying attention to spoken sentences—either actively judging sentence completion or passively listening while distracted by a video.
  • Results showed that even when ignoring sentences, adolescents still exhibited N400 and LPC/P600 responses to semantic errors, indicating that some level of automatic semantic processing occurs without direct attention.
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Postmortem investigations in autism have identified anomalies in neural cytoarchitecture across limbic, cerebellar, and neocortical networks. These anomalies include narrow cell mini-columns and variable neuron density. However, difficulty obtaining sufficient post-mortem samples has often prevented investigations from converging on reproducible measures.

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