Publications by authors named "Greta Vargova"
Behavioral flexibility is the ability to adjust behavioral strategies in response to changing environmental contingencies. A major hypothesis in the field posits that the activity of neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC) plays an important role in mediating behavioral flexibility. To test this hypothesis, we developed a tactile-based rule-shift detection task in which mice responded to left and right whisker deflections in a context-dependent manner and exhibited varying degrees of switching behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neuronal accumulation of hyperphosphorylated and truncated tau aggregates is one of the major defining factors and key drivers of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies.
Objective: We developed an AAV-induced model of tauopathy mediated by human truncated tau protein without familial frontotemporal dementia-related mutations to study tau propagation and the functional consequences of tau pathology.
Methods: We performed targeted transductions of the hippocampus or entorhinal cortex in adult mice followed by histological analysis to study the progression of hippocampal tau pathology and tau spreading.
Article Synopsis
- Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a leading neurodegenerative disorder affecting over 44 million people, and there are currently no effective drugs for its prevention or treatment.
- A study involving transgenic rat models showed that exposure to an enriched environment for 3 months improved behavioral deficits without reducing tau pathology, indicating that environmental factors can positively influence functioning in AD models.
- The research also found increased nerve growth factor levels in the hippocampus of both transgenic and non-transgenic rats, while inflammation markers were altered, suggesting non-pharmacological approaches might help mitigate neuroinflammation related to tau protein in AD.