Publications by authors named "Shahab A Zarei"

Article Synopsis
  • GABA receptors are linked to drug addiction, sleep issues, and aging, but their interrelationships are not well researched; this study focuses on how blocking these receptors influences methamphetamine (METH) reward memory in sleep-deprived rats.
  • Adult and adolescent male Wistar rats underwent seven days of rapid-eye movement sleep deprivation and then were conditioned with METH before testing their memory retrieval after administering the GABA receptor agonist baclofen.
  • Baclofen reduced METH reward memory retrieval in both age groups, with stronger effects seen in adolescents, and the high dose lowered GABA overexpression in adolescent rats, suggesting age and sleep deprivation play significant roles in addiction mechanisms.
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B-vitamins have been evaluated as a useful adjuvant therapy to treat pain. In spite of clinical and experimental evidence indicating the analgesic effect of B-vitamins, few studies have investigated their effect on aspects of the inflammatory pain response. In the present study, we investigated the analgesic effect of chronic application of B-complex vitamins (Neurobion) using an inflammatory experimental pain model in rats.

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Sleep deficiency is known as an important risk factor for relapse to drug abuse, especially for the powerful psychostimulant methamphetamine (METH). On the other hand, both drug addiction and sleep neurobiology are affected by sex hormones. We, therefore, aimed to examine the probable effects of sleep deprivation (SD) on methamphetamine (METH) reward memory in male and female rats.

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Introduction: The practicality of the idea whether the laughter-involved large-scale brain networks can be stimulated to remediate affective symptoms, namely depression, has remained elusive.

Methods: In this study, 25 healthy individuals were tested through 21-channel quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) setup upon resting state and while submitted to standardized funny video clips (corated by two behavioral neuroscientists and a verified expert comedian, into neutral and mildly to highly funny). We evaluated the individuals' facial expressions against the valence and intensity of each stimulus through the Nuldos face analysis software.

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Neuromyelitis Optica, which is known as NMO, is a demyelination syndrome and inflammatory condition of the central nervous system that affects the optic nerves. Since structural imaging approaches cannot adequately describe the brain disorders in patients with NMO, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used. Resting-state fMRI was performed on 25 healthy subjects and 26 NMO patients.

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Background music is one of the most frequently encountered contextual factors that affect cognitive and emotional functions in humans. However, it is still unclear whether music induces similar effects in nonhuman primates. Answering this question might bring insight to the long-lasting question regarding the ability of nonhuman primates in perceiving and dissociating music from other nonmusical acoustic information.

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Current models suggest that neuropeptide oxytocin modulates the salience of emotional/social stimuli and consequently influences perceptual, attentional and learning processes that underlie social behaviour. Therefore, oxytocin has been considered as a potential treatment in managing social and communication deficits in neuropsychological disorders. Recent studies indicate that effects of oxytocin on social and cognitive functions greatly vary and even lead to opposite outcomes.

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