The Effect of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy on Reducing Craving in Populations with Substance Use Disorder: A Meta-Analysis.

Substance use disorder (SUD) significantly impacts public health, economics, and legal systems worldwide. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) was initially developed in the late 1980s as a therapeutic approach for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), using bilateral stimulation to integrate traumatic memories with calming physiological responses. However, the effectiveness of EMDR in treating SUD remains unclear.

K252a Prevents Microglial Activation Induced by Anoxic Stimulation of Carotid Bodies in Rats.

Inducing carotid body anoxia through the administration of cyanide can result in oxygen deprivation. The lack of oxygen activates cellular responses in specific regions of the central nervous system, including the Nucleus Tractus Solitarius, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala, which are regulated by afferent pathways from chemosensitive receptors. These receptors are modulated by the brain-derived neurotrophic factor receptor TrkB.

Acoustic Stress Induces Opposite Proliferative/Transformative Effects in Hippocampal Glia.

The hippocampus is a brain region crucially involved in regulating stress responses and highly sensitive to environmental changes, with elevated proliferative and adaptive activity of neurons and glial cells. Despite the prevalence of environmental noise as a stressor, its effects on hippocampal cytoarchitecture remain largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of acoustic stress on hippocampal proliferation and glial cytoarchitecture in adult male rats, using environmental noise as a stress model.

Immediate Early Gene c-fos in the Brain: Focus on Glial Cells.

The gene was first described as a proto-oncogene responsible for the induction of bone tumors. A few decades ago, activation of the protein product c-fos was reported in the brain after seizures and other noxious stimuli. Since then, multiple studies have used c-fos as a brain activity marker.

Male/female Differences in Radial Arm Water Maze Execution After Chronic Exposure to Noise.

Introduction: Noise is one of the main sources of discomfort in modern societies. It affects physiology, behavior, and cognition of exposed subjects. Although the effects of noise on cognition are well known, gender role in noise-cognition relationship remains controversial.

Male rats exhibit higher pro-BDNF, c-Fos and dendritic tree changes after chronic acoustic stress.

Prolonged or intense exposure to environmental noise (EN) has been associated with a number of changes in auditory organs as well as other brain structures. Notably, males and females have shown different susceptibilities to acoustic damage as well as different responses to environmental stressors. Rodent models have evidence of sex-specific changes in brain structures involved in noise and sound processing.

Environmental noise exposure modifies astrocyte morphology in hippocampus of young male rats.

Background: Chronic exposure to noise induces changes on the central nervous system of exposed animals. Those changes affect not only the auditory system but also other structures indirectly related to audition. The hippocampus of young animals represents a potential target for these effects because of its essential role in individuals' adaptation to environmental challenges.

Nitric oxide in the nucleus of the tractus solitarius is involved in hypoglycemic conditioned response.

The repeated injection of insulin (unconditioned stimulus, UCS) immediately followed by exposure to sensory stimulation (e.g. sound or odor; conditioned stimulus, CS) results in a learned conditioned reflex in which the exposure to the CS alone lowers blood glucose.

[Cognitive assessment in children who presented gastroschisis: a case-control study].

Introduction: Gastroschisis is a malformation of the abdominal wall that is corrected by surgery and requires special hospital care, such as immobilisation, dietary restriction and separation from the mother for a variable period of time, among others. To analyse the possible cognitive repercussions, the Bayley III test was administered to 14 children.

Subjects And Methods: The study was conducted with seven cases (born with gastroschisis) and seven controls, in civil hospitals in Guadalajara, over the period January-April 2013.

Hippocampal cytogenesis and spatial learning in senile rats exposed to chronic variable stress: effects of previous early life exposure to mild stress.

In this study, we exposed adult rats to chronic variable stress (CVS) and tested the hypothesis that previous early-life exposure to stress changes the manner in which older subjects respond to aversive conditions. To this end, we analyzed the cytogenic changes in the hippocampus and hippocampal-dependent spatial learning performance. The experiments were performed on 18-month-old male rats divided into four groups as follows: Control (old rats under standard laboratory conditions), Early-life stress (ELS; old rats who were exposed to environmental noise from postnatal days, PNDs 21-35), CVS + ELS (old rats exposed to a chronic stress protocol who were previously exposed to the early-life noise stress) and CVS (old rats who were exposed only to the chronic stress protocol).

Early-life exposure to noise reduces mPFC astrocyte numbers and T-maze alternation/discrimination task performance in adult male rats.

In this experiment, we evaluated the long-term effects of noise by assessing both astrocyte changes in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and mPFC-related alternation/discrimination tasks. Twenty-one-day-old male rats were exposed during a period of 15 days to a standardized rats' audiogram-fitted adaptation of a human noisy environment. We measured serum corticosterone (CORT) levels at the end of the exposure and periodically registered body weight gain.

Nitric oxide in the commissural nucleus tractus solitarii regulates carotid chemoreception hyperglycemic reflex and c-Fos expression.

Carotid body chemoreceptors function as glucose sensors and contribute to glucose homeostasis. The nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) is the first central nervous system (CNS) nuclei for processing of information arising in the carotid body. Here, we microinjected a nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP), an NO-independent activator of the soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) (YC₁) or an NO-synthase (NOS) inhibitor Nω-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) into the commissural NTS (cNTS) before carotid chemoreceptor anoxic stimulation and measured arterial glucose and the expression of Fos-like immunoreactivity (Fos-ir).

Combined approach for experimental Oto-neurosurgical procedures.

Background: Experimental procedures will continue to be a key element while going through the learning curve in the use of the endoscope and minimally invasive procedures. We describe the technical procedure of an experimental approach to middle ear in New Zealand rabbits through external auditory canal and its relevance as an ideal model to study graft materials and serve as a training tool for potential applications in otoneurology.

Methods: A group of 28 adult New Zealand rabbits were subjected to an experimental myringoplasty, combining the transmeatal and retroauricular approach with endoscopic assistance and microsurgical technique.

Nitric oxide infused in the solitary tract nucleus blocks brain glucose retention induced by carotid chemoreceptor stimulation.

Previous work has shown that the carotid body glomus cells can function as glucose sensors. The activation of these chemoreceptors, and of its afferent nucleus in the brainstem (solitary tract nucleus - STn), induces rapid changes in blood glucose levels and brain glucose retention. Nitric oxide (NO) in STn has been suggested to play a key role in the processing of baroreceptor signaling initiated in the carotid sinus.

Chronic exposure of juvenile rats to environmental noise impairs hippocampal cell proliferation in adulthood.

Increasing evidence indicates that chronic exposure to environmental noise may permanently affect the central nervous system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term effects of early exposure to environmental noise on the hippocampal cell proliferation of the adult male rat. Early-weaned Wistar rats were exposed for 15 days to a rats' audiogram-fitted adaptation to a noisy environment.

Early exposure to noise followed by predator stress in adulthood impairs the rat's re-learning flexibility in Radial Arm Water Maze.

Objective: This study investigated the cognitive effect of chronic exposure to environmental noise on RAWM performance of juvenile rats, and the ability of adult rats exposed to a novel acute stress to perform in the RAWM as a function of whether or not they were exposed to environmental noise as juveniles.

Methods: We examined the consequences of exposure to noise during the juvenile-early periadolescent period on adulthood stress response by assessing cognitive performance in the RAWM. Male rats were exposed to environmental noise during the childhood-prepubescent period (21-35 PND), and their RAWM performance was tested at the end of the exposure to noise, and then again two months later when they had to cope with a new stressful event.

Dietary tryptophan restriction in rats triggers astrocyte cytoskeletal hypertrophy in hippocampus and amygdala.

We have previously reported that dietary tryptophan (TRP) restriction in a rat crucial postnatal developmental stage induces depression-like behavior and alters dendritic spine density in CA1 pyramidal neurons and granule cells of the hippocampus. Due to astrocyte involvement in critical brain mechanisms, it seems worth to investigate possible adaptive changes in the glial population with TRP restriction. Experimental rats were fed with low TRP diet (20% of TRP level of the laboratory rat chow) from postnatal days 30-60.

Deflazacort: a glucocorticoid with few metabolic adverse effects but important immunosuppressive activity.

Deflazacort (DFZ) is a synthetic glucocorticoid that has few adverse effects on glucose and calcium metabolism and fewer deleterious effects on the neuronal population. Therefore, it may have a crucial role in the treatment of patients with autoimmune disorders associated with central nervous system or metabolic affectations. To date, the pharmacologic safety profile of DFZ is considered similar to that of other glucocorticoids.

Deflazacort induced stronger immunosuppression than expected.

Prednisone (PDN) impairs cognitive functioning and brain structures in humans and animals. Deflazacort (DFZ) is a synthetic glucocorticoid claimed to have lesser side effects than prednisone. The objective of this study was to assess whether chronic administration (90 days) of DFZ produces less neuronal degeneration and glial reactivity than PDN.

Electrochemical antigen-retrieval of formaldehyde fixed and paraffin-embedded archived leprosy skin biopsies.

While formaldehyde fixation preserves tissue morphology, it often hinders immunodetection of antigens in paraffin-embedded tissue because the antigens are masked. Antigen unmasking can be achieved with treatments such as microwave irradiation but they often lead to excessive tissue damage. Therefore, an electrochemical antigen-retrieval method (EAR) was devised in which an alternating electric current is passed through the tissue in a chamber containing an electrolyte buffer.

An alpha-lipoic acid-vitamin E mixture reduces post-embolism lipid peroxidation, cerebral infarction, and neurological deficit in rats.

Oxidative stress increases delayed neuronal death in the brain following ischemia. As a consequence, many attempts to reduce the damage resulting from cerebral ischemia under more highly oxidized conditions have focused on treatments aimed at maintaining the redox equilibrium of the local environment. This study demonstrates the synergistic effects of combining treatments with alpha-lipoic acid (LA) and vitamin E (VE) as an efficient measure to reduce the damage caused by cerebral ischemia.

Prednisone induces cognitive dysfunction, neuronal degeneration, and reactive gliosis in rats.

Background: High glucocorticoid serum levels and prednisone (PDN) therapy have been associated with depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and some types of cognitive dysfunction in humans.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether chronic (90 days) PDN administration produces disturbance in learning and memory retention associated with neuronal degeneration and cerebral glial changes.

Methods: Male Wistar rats were studied.