The mouse cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic network.

The cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop is one of the fundamental network motifs in the brain. Revealing its structural and functional organization is critical to understanding cognition, sensorimotor behaviour, and the natural history of many neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Classically, this network is conceptualized to contain three information channels: motor, limbic and associative.

Integration of gene expression and brain-wide connectivity reveals the multiscale organization of mouse hippocampal networks.

Understanding the organization of the hippocampus is fundamental to understanding brain function related to learning, memory, emotions, and diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Physiological studies in humans and rodents have suggested that there is both structural and functional heterogeneity along the longitudinal axis of the hippocampus. However, the recent discovery of discrete gene expression domains in the mouse hippocampus has provided the opportunity to re-evaluate hippocampal connectivity.

Rapid-onset hypoglycemia suppresses Fos expression in discrete parts of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus.

The consensus view of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH) is that it is a key node in the rodent brain network controlling sympathoadrenal counterregulatory responses to hypoglycemia. To identify the location of hypoglycemia-responsive neurons in the VMH, we performed a high spatial resolution Fos analysis in the VMH of rats made hypoglycemic with intraperitoneal injections of insulin. We examined Fos expression in the four constituent parts of VMH throughout its rostrocaudal extent and determined their relationship to blood glucose concentrations.

Partial rescue of memory deficits induced by calorie restriction in a mouse model of tau deposition.

Calorie restriction (CR) was shown previously to improve cognition and decrease pathology in transgenic mouse models with Alzheimer-like amyloid deposition. In the present study, we investigated the effects of CR on the Tg4510 model of tau deposition. Mice in the calorie restriction group had food intake gradually decreased until they reached an average of 35% body weight reduction.