Treatment of Nonsocial Environmental Fear in a Service Dog Using Fluoxetine and Behavior Modification.

Training and maintaining a service dog requires extensive time and financial resources. The emotional bond between service dogs and their handlers poses unique challenges when dogs develop behavioral issues. We present a case of an otherwise healthy adult service dog exhibiting acute environmental fears, hindering her job performance.

Winning the race with aging: age-related changes in gait speed and its association with cognitive performance in dogs.

Introduction: In humans, gait speed is a crucial component in geriatric evaluation since decreasing speed can be a harbinger of cognitive decline and dementia. Aging companion dogs can suffer from age-related mobility impairment, cognitive decline and dementia known as canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome. We hypothesized that there would be an association between gait speed and cognition in aging dogs.

Association of Body Mass Index With Outcomes Among Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Treated With Chemoradiotherapy.

Importance: Combined modality therapy, such as chemoradiotherapy, often results in significant morbidity among patients with head and neck cancer. Although the role of body mass index (BMI) varies based on cancer subtypes, its association with treatment response, tumor recurrence, and survival outcomes among patients with head and neck cancer remains unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the role of BMI in treatment response, tumor recurrence, and survival outcomes among patients with head and neck cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy.

Sleep and cognition in aging dogs. A polysomnographic study.

Introduction: Sleep is fundamental for cognitive homeostasis, especially in senior populations since clearance of amyloid beta (key in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease) occurs during sleep. Some electroencephalographic characteristics of sleep and wakefulness have been considered a hallmark of dementia. Owners of dogs with canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome (a canine analog to Alzheimer's disease) report that their dogs suffer from difficulty sleeping.

Prophylactic High-Dose Gabapentin Reduces Opiate Use during Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Background: The role of prophylactic high-dose gabapentin for the management of oral mucositis during radiation therapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains controversial.

Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was performed on primary HNSCC patients treated at our institution. Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare the patients' baseline characteristics.

The influence of foreperiod duration on the preparation and control of sequential aiming movements.

Reaction time (RT) and movement times (MTs) to the first target are typically longer for two-target sequential movements compared to one-target movements. While this one-target advantage has been shown to be dependent on the availability of advance information about the numbers of targets, there has been no systematic investigation of how foreperiod duration (i.e.

Activity patterns are associated with fractional lifespan, memory, and gait speed in aged dogs.

Maintaining an active lifestyle is considered a hallmark of successful aging. Physical activity significantly reduces the risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease in humans. However, pain and lack of motivation are important barriers to exercise.

A novel task of canine olfaction for use in adult and senior pet dogs.

While much work has been done in the field of canine olfaction, there has been little exploration of hyposmia or anosmia. This is partly due to difficulties in reducing confounds like training history and environmental distraction. The current study describes a novel olfaction test using spontaneous search behavior in dogs to find a hidden food treat in a three-choice task with both light-phase and dark-phase conditions.

Collateralizing ventral subiculum melanocortin 4 receptor circuits regulate energy balance and food motivation.

Hippocampal dysfunction is associated with major depressive disorder, a serious mental illness characterized by not only depressed mood but also appetite disturbance and dysregulated body weight. However, the underlying mechanisms by which hippocampal circuits regulate metabolic homeostasis remain incompletely understood. Here we show that collateralizing melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) circuits in the ventral subiculum (vSUB), one of the major output structures of the hippocampal formation, affect food motivation and energy balance.

Relationship between engagement with the impossible task, cognitive testing, and cognitive questionnaires in a population of aging dogs.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the engagement of aging dogs with a cognitively challenging and potentially frustrating task (the impossible task). Based on previous observations, we predicted that dogs showing signs of cognitive impairment in other cognitive tests and owner-completed questionnaires would show reduced engagement with the task.

Methods: In this task, dogs were shown a piece of food in a clear container that they could not open; time spent interacting with the container and the experimenter was measured.

Testing anxiety's effect on movement planning and correction: Online upper-limb corrections are not completely automatic.

Via three experiments, we investigated heightened anxiety's effect on the offline planning and online correction of upper-limb target-directed aiming movements. In Experiment 1, the majority of task trials allowed for the voluntary distribution of offline planning and online correction to achieve task success, while a subset of cursor jump trials necessitated the use of online correction to achieve task success. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated and elaborated Experiment 1 by assessing movement-specific reinvestment propensity and manipulating the self-control resources of participants.

Relationship between hearing, cognitive function, and quality of life in aging companion dogs.

Background: Elderly people with presbycusis are at higher risk for dementia and depression than the general population. There is no information regarding consequences of presbycusis in dogs.

Objective: Evaluate the relationship between cognitive function, quality of life, and hearing loss in aging companion dogs.

Use of Cognitive Testing, Questionnaires, and Plasma Biomarkers to Quantify Cognitive Impairment in an Aging Pet Dog Population.

Background: Aging dogs may suffer from canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CCDS), a condition in which cognitive decline is associated with amyloid pathology and cortical atrophy. Presumptive diagnosis is made through physical examination, exclusion of systemic/metabolic conditions, and completion of screening questionnaires by owners.

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether cognitive function could be quantified in aging pet dogs, and to correlate cognitive testing with validated questionnaires and plasma neurofilament light chain (pNfL) concentration.

Evaluation of Optimal Threshold of Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio and Its Association With Survival Outcomes Among Patients With Head and Neck Cancer.

Importance: Given the role of inflammation in cancer progression, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) from peripheral blood has been suggested as a readout of systemic inflammation and a prognostic marker in several solid malignant neoplasms. However, optimal threshold for NLR in US patients with head and neck cancer remains unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the optimal NLR threshold as a potential prognostic biomarker for survival outcomes.

Is Alzheimer's Disease a Liver Disease of the Brain?

Clinical specialization is not only a force for progress, but it has also led to the fragmentation of medical knowledge. The focus of research in the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is neurobiology, while hepatologists focus on liver diseases and lipid specialists on atherosclerosis. This article on AD focuses on the role of the liver and lipid homeostasis in the development of AD.

Micro-Net: A unified model for segmentation of various objects in microscopy images.

Object segmentation and structure localization are important steps in automated image analysis pipelines for microscopy images. We present a convolution neural network (CNN) based deep learning architecture for segmentation of objects in microscopy images. The proposed network can be used to segment cells, nuclei and glands in fluorescence microscopy and histology images after slight tuning of input parameters.

What's your number? The effects of trial order on the one-target advantage.

When moving our upper-limb towards a single target, movement times are typically shorter than when movement to a second target is required. This is known as the one-target advantage. Most studies that have demonstrated the one-target advantage have employed separate trial blocks for the one- and two-segment movements.

(-)-P7C3-S243 Protects a Rat Model of Alzheimer's Disease From Neuropsychiatric Deficits and Neurodegeneration Without Altering Amyloid Deposition or Reactive Glia.

Background: In addition to cognitive deficits, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with other neuropsychiatric symptoms, including severe depression. Indeed, depression often precedes cognitive deficits in patients with AD. Unfortunately, the field has seen only minimal therapeutic advances, underscoring the critical need for new treatments.

The Eating-Disorder Associated HDAC4 Mutation Alters Feeding Behaviors in Female Mice.

Background: While eating disorders (EDs) are thought to result from a combination of environmental and psychological stressors superimposed on genetic vulnerability, the neurobiological basis of EDs remains incompletely understood. We recently reported that a rare missense mutation in the gene for the transcriptional repressor histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4) is associated with the risk of developing an ED in humans.

Methods: To understand the biological consequences of this missense mutation, we created transgenic mice carrying this mutation by introducing the alanine to threonine mutation at position 778 of mouse Hdac4 (corresponding to position 786 of the human protein).

The interaction between practice and performance pressure on the planning and control of fast target directed movement.

Pressure to perform often results in decrements to both outcome accuracy and the kinematics of motor skills. Furthermore, this pressure-performance relationship is moderated by the amount of accumulated practice or the experience of the performer. However, the interactive effects of performance pressure and practice on the underlying processes of motor skills are far from clear.