Cognition enhances cognition: A comprehensive analysis on cognitive stimulation protocols and their effects on cognitive functions in animal models.

Brain plasticity is involved in the regulation of neural differentiation as well as in functional processes related to memory consolidation, learning, and cognition during healthy life and brain pathology. Modifications in lifestyle, like poor diet, insufficient physical exercise and cognitive stimulation are associated with an increased risk of neurodegeneration; however, there is a paucity of research regarding the impact of individual factors on dementia risk or progression. Cognitive stimulation is a group of techniques and strategies, including cognitive enrichment (CE) and cognitive training (CT), aimed to maintain or improve the functionality of cognitive abilities, such as memory, learning, cognitive flexibility, and attention.

The Complex Relationship between Sleep and Cognitive Reserve: A Narrative Review Based on Human Studies.

Sleep and brain/cognitive/neural reserve significantly impact well-being and cognition throughout life. This review aims to explore the intricate relationship between such factors, with reference to their effects on human cognitive functions. The specific goal is to understand the bidirectional influence that sleep and reserve exert on each other.

Glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) methylation during the first thousand days: Environmental exposures and developmental outcomes.

The first 1000 days from conception are a sensitive period for human development programming. During this period, environmental exposures may result in long-lasting epigenetic imprints that contribute to future developmental trajectories. The present review reports on the effects of adverse and protective environmental conditions occurring during the first 1000 days on glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) regulation in humans.

Pre-reproductive Parental Enriching Experiences Influence Progeny's Developmental Trajectories.

While the positive effects of environmental enrichment (EE) applied after weaning, in adulthood, during aging, or even in the presence of brain damage have been widely described, the transgenerational effects of pre-reproductive EE have been less examined. And yet, this issue is remarkable given that parental environmental experience may imprint offspring's phenotype over generations through many epigenetic processes. Interactions between individual and environment take place lifelong even before conception.

Cerebellar BDNF Promotes Exploration and Seeking for Novelty.

Background: Approach system considered a motivational system that activates reward-seeking behavior is associated with exploration/impulsivity, whereas avoidance system considered an attentional system that promotes inhibition of appetitive responses is associated with active overt withdrawal. Approach and avoidance dispositions are modulated by distinct neurochemical profiles and synaptic patterns. However, the precise working of neurons and trafficking of molecules in the brain activity predisposing to approach and avoidance are yet unclear.

Effects of pre-reproductive maternal enrichment on maternal care, offspring's play behavior and oxytocinergic neurons.

Potentiating social, cognitive, and sensorimotor stimulations the Environmental Enrichment (EE) increases levels of novelty and complexity experienced by individuals. Growing evidence demonstrates that parental EE experience, even occurring in the pre-reproductive phase, affects behavioral and neural developmental trajectories of the offspring. To discover how the accumulation of early maternal complex experiences may inform and shape the social behavior of the following generation, we examined the effects of pre-reproductive enrichment of dams (post-natal days 21-72) on the play performances of their male and female adolescent offspring.

Recovery of hippocampal functions and modulation of muscarinic response by electroacupuncture in young diabetic rats.

The muscarinic receptor response to acetylcholine regulates the hippocampal-related learning, memory, neural plasticity and the production and processing of the pro-nerve growth factor (proNGF) by hippocampal cells. The development and progression of diabetes generate a mild cognitive impairment reducing the functions of the septo-hippocampal cholinergic circuitry, depressing neural plasticity and inducing proNGF accumulation in the brain. Here we demonstrate, in a rat model of early type-1 diabetes, that a physical therapy, the electroacupuncture, counteracts the diabetes-induced deleterious effects on hippocampal physiology by ameliorating hippocampal-related memory functions; recovering the impaired long-term potentiation at the dentate gyrus (DG-LTP) and the lowered expression of the vesicular glutamate transporter 1; normalizing the activity-dependent release of proNGF in diabetic rat hippocampus.

Influence of Pre-reproductive Maternal Enrichment on Coping Response to Stress and Expression of c-Fos and Glucocorticoid Receptors in Adolescent Offspring.

Environmental enrichment (EE) is an experimental setting broadly used for investigating the effects of complex social, cognitive, and sensorimotor stimulations on brain structure and function. Recent studies point out that parental EE experience, even occurring in the pre-reproductive phase, affects neural development and behavioral trajectories of the offspring. In the present study we investigated the influences of pre-reproductive EE of female rats on maternal behavior and adolescent male offspring's coping response to an inescapable stressful situation after chronic social isolation.