Transport of Prions in the Peripheral Nervous System: Pathways, Cell Types, and Mechanisms.

Prion diseases are transmissible protein misfolding disorders that occur in animals and humans where the endogenous prion protein, PrP, undergoes a conformational change into self-templating aggregates termed PrP. Formation of PrP in the central nervous system (CNS) leads to gliosis, spongiosis, and cellular dysfunction that ultimately results in the death of the host. The spread of prions from peripheral inoculation sites to CNS structures occurs through neuroanatomical networks.

Numerical working memory alters alpha-beta oscillations and connectivity in the parietal cortices.

Although the neural bases of numerical processing and memory have been extensively studied, much remains to be elucidated concerning the spectral and temporal dynamics surrounding these important cognitive processes. To further this understanding, we employed a novel numerical working memory paradigm in 28 young, healthy adults who underwent magnetoencephalography (MEG). The resulting data were examined in the time-frequency domain prior to image reconstruction using a beamformer.

Beta and gamma oscillations index cognitive interference effects across a distributed motor network.

The planning and execution of an efficient motor plan is essential to everyday cognitive function, and relies on oscillatory neural responses in both the beta (14-30 ​Hz) and gamma (>30 ​Hz) bands. Such motor control requires not only the integration of salient information from the environment, but also the inhibition of irrelevant or distracting inputs that often manifest as forms of cognitive interference. While the effects of cognitive interference on motor neural dynamics has been an area of increasing interest recently, it remains unclear whether different subtypes of interference differentially impact these dynamics.

Multielectrode Transcranial Electrical Stimulation of the Left and Right Prefrontal Cortices Differentially Impacts Verbal Working Memory Neural Circuitry.

Recent studies have examined the effects of conventional transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on working memory (WM) performance, but this method has relatively low spatial precision and generally involves a reference electrode that complicates interpretation. Herein, we report a repeated-measures crossover study of 25 healthy adults who underwent multielectrode tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), right DLPFC, or sham in 3 separate visits. Shortly after each stimulation session, participants performed a verbal WM (VWM) task during magnetoencephalography, and the resulting data were examined in the time-frequency domain and imaged using a beamformer.