Neurotransmitters Affect Larval Development by Regulating the Activity of Prothoracicotropic Hormone-Releasing Neurons in .

Ecdysone, an essential insect steroid hormone, promotes larval metamorphosis by coordinating growth and maturation. In , prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH)-releasing neurons are considered to be the primary promoting factor in ecdysone biosynthesis. Recently, studies have reported that the regulatory mechanisms of PTTH release in larvae are controlled by different neuropeptides, including allatostatin A and corazonin.

Lamina feedback neurons regulate the bandpass property of the flicker-induced orientation response in Drosophila.

Natural scenes contain complex visual cues with specific features, including color, motion, flicker, and position. It is critical to understand how different visual features are processed at the early stages of visual perception to elicit appropriate cellular responses, and even behavioral output. Here, we studied the visual orientation response induced by flickering stripes in a novel behavioral paradigm in Drosophila melanogaster.

Differentiation of Theta Visual Motion from Fourier Motion Requires LC16 and R18C12 Neurons in Drosophila.

Many animals perceive features of higher-order visual motion that are beyond the spatiotemporal correlations of luminance defined in first-order motion. Although the neural mechanisms of first-order motion detection have become understood in recent years, those underlying higher-order motion perception remain unclear. Here, we established a paradigm to assess the detection of theta motion-a type of higher-order motion-in freely walking Drosophila.

Beyond spikes: Multiscale computational analysis of long-term recordings in the cockroach circadian clock.

The circadian clock of the nocturnal Madeira cockroach is located in the accessory medulla, a small nonretinotopic neuropil in the brain's visual system. The clock comprises about 240 neurons that control rhythms in physiology and behavior such as sleep-wake cycles. The clock neurons contain an abundant number of partly colocalized neuropeptides, among them pigment-dispersing factor (PDF), the insects' most important circadian coupling signal that controls sleep-wake rhythms.

GABA- and serotonin-expressing neurons take part in inhibitory as well as excitatory input pathways to the circadian clock of the Madeira cockroach Rhyparobia maderae.

In the Madeira cockroach, pigment-dispersing factor-immunoreactive (PDF-ir) neurons innervating the circadian clock, the accessory medulla (AME) in the brain's optic lobes, control circadian behaviour. Circadian activity rhythms are entrained to daily light-dark cycles only by compound eye photoreceptors terminating in the lamina and medulla. Still, it is unknown which neurons connect the photoreceptors to the clock to allow for light entrainment.

Sensitivity to Pigment-Dispersing Factor (PDF) Is Cell-Type Specific among PDF-Expressing Circadian Clock Neurons in the Madeira Cockroach.

Transplantation studies have pinpointed the circadian clock of the Madeira cockroach to the accessory medulla (AME) of the brain's optic lobes. The AME is innervated by approximately 240 adjacent neuropeptidergic neurons, including 12 pigment-dispersing factor (PDF)-expressing neurons anterior to the AME (aPDFMEs). Four of the aPDFMEs project contralaterally, controlling locomotor activity rhythms of the night-active cockroach.

Hypoxia and reoxygenation of primary human hepatocytes induce proteome changes of glucose metabolism, oxidative protection and peroxisomal function.

Protective hepatocellular responses to a hypoxic challenge are crucial to preserve liver function. The knowledge of affected metabolic functions could help assess and enhance hepatic ischemic tolerance. Here we studied adaptive mechanisms in human hepatocytes after hypoxia and reoxygenation using a proteomic approach.

Computer-assisted attention training in schizophrenics. A comparative study.

The evaluation of a computer-assisted attention training program is compared with a cognitive group training program. Both programs were devised to reduce cognitive deficits in schizophrenics. The training programs were given to 30 acute schizophrenics and 30 healthy subjects.

[Development of cryosurgery treatment methods in inoperable anus and rectum cancer and their introduction to general practice].

The domain of cryosurgery in proctology is in the field of inoperable anal and rectal carcinoma therapy with the aim of improving living quality. By intravital microscopy the role of microcirculation as the causative factor for counterheating could be proved. There by the cryodestruction is restricted.

[Cryoenucleation in malignant melanoma of the choroid].

The works of Zimmermann, Fraunfelder et al. and Migdal offer reasons for postulating atraumatic procedures for the enucleation of malignant melanoma of the choroid. Cryosurgery represents an effective method of blocking the melanoma prior to enucleation in such a manner that an intraoperative dissemination of tumor cells is unlikely.

[Success in studies and course of illness in regard to schizophrenic students (author's transl)].

When treating schizophrenic students, the problem of whether the student ought to continue his studies frequently arises. To obtain a basis for criteria, a written questionnaire was sent to students who were treated as in-patients at the Universitäts-Nervenklinik in Tübingen between 1972 and 1978. By means of these questionnaires, details were obtained about progress of the patients' studies and illness.