Nucleus accumbens core single cell ensembles bidirectionally respond to experienced versus observed aversive events.

Empathy is the ability to adopt others' sensory and emotional states and is an evolutionarily conserved trait among mammals. In rodents, empathy manifests itself as social modulation of aversive stimuli such as acknowledging and acting on conspecifics' distress. The neuronal network underlying social transmission of information is known to overlap with the brain regions that mediate behavioral responses to aversive and rewarding stimuli.

Low-level lead exposure during development differentially affects neurobehavioral responses in male and female mouse offspring: A longitudinal study.

Early life low-level lead (Pb) exposure is still an alarming child health issue. To date, animal studies investigating the effects of low doses of Pb since early stages of life to adulthood are scarce. We investigated in a mouse model the behavioral effects of developmental exposure to low-level Pb yielding blood levels similar to those observed in child clinical literature.

Human Biomonitoring Data in Health Risk Assessments Published in Peer-Reviewed Journals between 2016 and 2021: Confronting Reality after a Preliminary Review.

Human biomonitoring (HBM) is a rapidly developing field that is emphasized as an important approach for the assessment of health risks. However, its value for health risk assessment (HRA) remains to be clarified. We performed a review of publications concerned with applications of HBM in the assessment of health risks.

Impact of Methylmercury and Other Heavy Metals Exposure on Neurocognitive Function in Children Aged 7 Years: Study Protocol of the Follow-up.

Background: The extent to which prenatal low-level mercury (Hg) exposure through maternal fish intake and heavy metals exposure affect children's neurodevelopment is controversial and may appear in the long term. In 2007, a prospective cohort, the Northern Adriatic Cohort II (NAC-II), was established to investigate the association between prenatal Hg exposure from maternal fish consumption and child neurodevelopment. The study enrolled 900 pregnant women, and 632 and 470 children underwent neurodevelopmental evaluation at 18 and 40 months of age, respectively.