Down syndrome (DS) is characterized by severe neurodevelopmental alterations that ultimately lead to the typical hallmark of DS: intellectual disability. In the DS brain, since the prenatal life stages, the number of astrocytes is disproportional compared to the healthy brain. This increase is due to a shift from neuron to astrocyte differentiation during brain development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman imagination has garnered growing interest in many fields. However, it remains unclear how to characterize different forms of imaginative thinking and how imagination differs between young and older adults. Here, we introduce a novel scoring protocol based on recent theoretical developments in the cognitive neuroscience of imagination to provide a broad tool with which to characterize imaginative thinking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study introduces EMPATIC (Electro-Modulation of PAncreaTic Islet Cells), a miniaturized intraneural device designed for transversal insertion into small nerves with a mean diameter of 400 μm. EMPATIC aims to modulate glucose tolerance through intraneural vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in rats.
Materials And Methods: EMPATIC design was optimized to fit into the cervical vagus nerve of rats and was developd through thin film microtechnologies.