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.

A Comprehensive Assessment of Bedtime Routines and Strategies to Aid Sleep Onset in College Students: A Web-Based Survey.

College students often experience sleep-wake alterations. Different factors can contribute to insomnia symptoms in this population. The present study aims at investigating pre-sleep behaviours and strategies used to aid sleep onset in young college students and their association with insomnia symptoms.

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.

Promoting sleep health during pregnancy for enhancing women's health: a longitudinal randomized controlled trial combining biological, physiological and psychological measures, Maternal Outcome after THERapy for Sleep (MOTHERS).

Background: Sleep is vital for maintaining individuals' physical and mental health and is particularly challenged during pregnancy. More than 70% of women during the gestational period report insomnia symptoms. Sleep dysfunction in the peripartum increases the risk for a cascade of negative health outcomes during late pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

Land/Water Aerobic Activities: Two Sides of the Same Coin. A Comparative Analysis on the Effects in Cognition of Alzheimer's Disease.

 Evidence in the literature indicates that aerobic physical activity may have a protective role in aging pathologies. However, it has not been clarified whether different types of aerobic exercise produce different effects. In particular, these potential differences have not been explored in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Trans-generational effects of parental exposure to drugs of abuse on offspring memory functions.

Recent evidence reported that parental-derived phenotypes can be passed on to the next generations. Within the inheritance of epigenetic characteristics allowing the transmission of information related to the ancestral environment to the offspring, the specific case of the trans-generational effects of parental drug addiction has been extensively studied. Drug addiction is a chronic disorder resulting from complex interactions among environmental, genetic, and drug-related factors.

Advance in Neurotoxicity Research from Development to Aging.

A substance capable of inducing a consistent pattern of neural dysfunction in the chemistry or structure of the nervous system may be defined as neurotoxic [...

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between young adults' sleep habits and substance use, with a focus on self-medication behaviours.

Young adults (18-30 years) are vulnerable to sleep-wake disturbances and substance use, which are bi-directionally associated. The present work aims to organise the literature that deals with the association between sleep and substance use in young adults, also considering self-medication behaviours. We adopted a framework that accounts for the multidimensionality of sleep and the effect of different substances.

Dietary Protection against Cognitive Impairment, Neuroinflammation and Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer's Disease Animal Models of Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammation.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a rapidly growing epidemic with a heavy social and economic burden. Evidence suggests that systemic inflammation, dysregulation of the immune response and the resulting neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration play a significant role in AD pathogenesis. Currently, given that there is no fully convincing cure for AD, the interest in lifestyle factors (such as diet), which potentially delay onset and reduce the severity of symptoms, is increasing.

Environmental Enrichment Protects against Neurotoxic Effects of Lipopolysaccharide: A Comprehensive Overview.

Neuroinflammation is a pathophysiological condition associated with damage to the nervous system. Maternal immune activation and early immune activation have adverse effects on the development of the nervous system and cognitive functions. Neuroinflammation during adulthood leads to neurodegenerative diseases.

New prospects on cerebellar reserve: Remarks on neuroprotective effects of experience in animals and humans.

The ability of the brain to change structure and function in response to experience accounts for its ability to successfully adapt to the environment in both learning processes and unique phases, such as during development and repair. On this basis, the occurrence of the brain, cognitive, and neural reserves has been advanced to explain the discrepancies between the extent of neurological damage and the severity of clinical manifestations described in patients with different life span experiences. Research on this topic highlighted the neuroprotective role of complex stimulations, allowing the brain to better cope with the damage.

Walking, Running, Swimming: An Analysis of the Effects of Land and Water Aerobic Exercises on Cognitive Functions and Neural Substrates.

In the brain and cognitive reserves framework, aerobic exercise is considered as a protective lifestyle factor able to induce positive effects on both brain structure and function. However, specific aspects of such a beneficial effect still need to be completely clarified. To this aim, the present narrative review focused on the potential brain/cognitive/neural reserve-construction mechanisms triggered by different aerobic exercise types (land activities; such as walking or running; vs.

n-3 PUFA Improve Emotion and Cognition during Menopause: A Systematic Review.

Women show an increased risk of cognitive impairment and emotional disorders, such as anxiety and depression, when approaching menopause. Data on risk and protection factors have yielded robust evidence on the effects of lifestyle factors, such as diet, in preserving emotional and cognitive functioning. This review focused on the effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) on anxiety, depression, and cognition during the menopausal transition.

Environmental Enrichment Enhances Cerebellar Compensation and Develops Cerebellar Reserve.

The brain is able to change its structure and function in response to environmental stimulations. Several human and animal studies have documented that enhanced stimulations provide individuals with strengthened brain structure and function that allow them to better cope with damage. In this framework, studies based on the exposure of animals to environmental enrichment (EE) have provided indications of the mechanisms involved in such a beneficial action.

Multigenerational effects of paternal spatial training are lasting in the F1 and F2 male offspring.

Recent studies on intergenerational transmission of learning and memory performances demonstrated that parental spatial training before fertilization could facilitate learning and memory in the offspring, but many questions remain unclarified. Essential issues regarding whether and how long the effects of parental training in a task can last in several generations, and whether learning a task repeated in the successive generations can enhance a load of multigenerational effects. In the present study, the spatial performances of F1 and F2 generations of male offspring of fathers or grandfathers spatially trained in the Morris Water Maze were evaluated and compared with the performance of a control sample matched for age and sex.

Environmental Enrichment Effects on the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Expression in Healthy Condition, Alzheimer's Disease, and Other Neurodegenerative Disorders.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein belonging to the neurotrophin family, is known to be heavily involved in synaptic plasticity processes that support brain development, post-lesion regeneration, and cognitive performances, such as learning and memory. Evidence indicates that BDNF expression can be epigenetically regulated by environmental stimuli and thus can mediate the experience-dependent brain plasticity. Environmental enrichment (EE), an experimental paradigm based on the exposure to complex stimulations, constitutes an efficient means to investigate the effects of high-level experience on behavior, cognitive processes, and neurobiological correlates, as the BDNF expression.

Maternal spatial training before fertilization improves the spatial learning process in female offspring.

Recent results of our team showed that parental spatial training before fertilization improves the offspring's spatial memory. However, the process of spatial learning (short-term/working and long-term memories, mnesic consolidation and procedures) in the offspring has not been fully clarified yet. Therefore, this study aimed at specifically analyzing whether maternal learning of a spatial task before fertilization can impact on the process of spatial learning in the female offspring.

Does Experience Enhance Cognitive Flexibility? An Overview of the Evidence Provided by the Environmental Enrichment Studies.

Neuroplasticity accounts for the ability of the brain to change in both structure and function in consequence of life experiences. An enhanced stimulation provided by the environment is able to create a form of brain, neural, and cognitive reserve, which allows an individual to cope better with the environmental demands, also in case of neural damage leading to cognitive decline. With its complex manipulation of several stimuli, the animal experimental paradigm of environmental enrichment (EE) appears particularly effective in modulating the ability to successfully respond to the ever-changing characteristics of the environment.

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.

Rethinking the Reserve with a Translational Approach: Novel Ideas on the Construct and the Interventions.

The concept of brain, cognitive, and neural reserves has been introduced to account for the apparent discrepancies between neurological damage and clinical manifestations. However, these ideas are yet theoretical suggestions that are not completely assimilated in the clinical routine. The mechanisms of the reserves have been extensively studied in neurodegenerative pathologies, in particular in Alzheimer's disease.

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.