Central amygdala contributes to stimulus facilitation and pre-stimulus vigilance during cerebellar learning.

Our previous studies found that the central amygdala (CeA) modulates cerebellum-dependent eyeblink conditioning (EBC) using muscimol inactivation. We also found that CeA inactivation decreases cerebellar neuronal activity during the conditional stimulus (CS) from the start of training. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that the CeA facilitates CS input to the cerebellum.

Knockdown of the Non-canonical Wnt Gene Prickle2 Leads to Cerebellar Purkinje Cell Abnormalities While Cerebellar-Mediated Behaviors Remain Intact.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involve brain wide abnormalities that contribute to a constellation of symptoms including behavioral inflexibility, cognitive dysfunction, learning impairments, altered social interactions, and perceptive time difficulties. Although a single genetic variation does not cause ASD, genetic variations such as one involving a non-canonical Wnt signaling gene, Prickle2, has been found in individuals with ASD. Previous work looking into phenotypes of Prickle2 knock-out (Prickle2) and heterozygous mice (Prickle2) suggest patterns of behavior similar to individuals with ASD including altered social interaction and behavioral inflexibility.

Shaking up the silence: consequences of HMGN1 antagonizing PRC2 in the Down syndrome brain.

Intellectual disability is a well-known hallmark of Down Syndrome (DS) that results from the triplication of the critical region of human chromosome 21 (HSA21). Major studies were conducted in recent years to gain an understanding about the contribution of individual triplicated genes to DS-related brain pathology. Global transcriptomic alterations and widespread changes in the establishment of neural lineages, as well as their differentiation and functional maturity, suggest genome-wide chromatin organization alterations in trisomy.

The dorsal hippocampus' role in context-based timing in rodents.

To act proactively, we must predict when future events will occur. Individuals generate temporal predictions using cues that indicate an event will happen after a certain duration elapses. Neural models of timing focus on how the brain represents these cue-duration associations.

Theta oscillations in rat infralimbic cortex are associated with the inhibition of cocaine seeking during extinction.

Infralimbic cortical (IL) manipulations indicate that this region mediates extinction learning and suppresses cocaine seeking following cocaine self-administration. However, little work has recorded IL activity during the inhibition of cocaine seeking due to the difficulty of determining precisely when cocaine-seeking behaviour is inhibited within a cocaine-seeking session. The present study used in vivo electrophysiology to examine IL activity across extinction as well as during cocaine self-administration and reinstatement.

Amygdala central nucleus modulation of cerebellar learning in female rats.

Previous studies found that inactivation of the central amygdala (CeA) severely impaired acquisition of cerebellum-dependent delay eye-blink conditioning (EBC) in male rats and rabbits. Sex differences in EBC and the effects of stress on EBC have been reported and might be related to sex differences in amygdala modulation of cerebellar learning. The current study examined the effects of CeA inactivation with muscimol on acquisition and retention of EBC in female rats.

Amygdala central nucleus modulation of cerebellar learning with a visual conditioned stimulus.

Previous studies found that reversible inactivation of the central amygdala (CeA) severely impairs acquisition and retention of cerebellum-dependent eye-blink conditioning (EBC) with an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS). A monosynaptic pathway between the CeA and basilar pontine nuclei (BPN) may be capable of facilitating cerebellar learning. However, given that the CeA projects to the medial auditory thalamus, a critical part of the auditory CS pathway in EBC, the CeA influence on cerebellar learning could be specific to auditory stimuli.

Amygdala Modulation of Cerebellar Learning.

Unlabelled: Previous studies showed that amygdala lesions or inactivation slow the acquisition rate of cerebellum-dependent eyeblink conditioning, a type of associative motor learning. The current study was designed to determine the behavioral nature of amygdala-cerebellum interactions, to identify the neural pathways underlying amygdala-cerebellum interactions, and to examine how the amygdala influences cerebellar learning mechanisms in rats. Pharmacological inactivation of the central amygdala (CeA) severely impaired acquisition and retention of eyeblink conditioning, indicating that the amygdala continues to interact with the cerebellum after conditioning is consolidated (Experiment 1).

Reevaluating hippocampus-dependent learning in FVB/N mice.

The FVB/N (FVB) mouse has been a popular background strain for constructing transgenic mice. However, behavioral phenotyping of the resultant mice is complicated, due to severe visual impairment in the FVB background strain. Previous studies reported cognitive impairments with the FVB strain, suggesting the background as unsuitable for behavioral analysis.

Association between moxifloxacin ophthalmic solution and fungal infection in patients with corneal ulcers and microbial keratitis.

Background: Fungal keratitis is a painful and dangerous fungal infection of the cornea. Recently, use of a contact lens solution with a novel ophthalmic preservative was linked to an increased risk of fungal keratitis. This study investigated whether fungal contamination was present in bottles of a widely used moxifloxacin ophthalmic solution, and whether there was an association between the use of this solution and fungal keratitis in a corneal referral practice.