Spatiotemporal features of neurovascular (un)coupling with stimulus-induced activity and hypercapnia challenge in cerebral cortex and olfactory bulb.

Carbon dioxide (CO) is traditionally considered as metabolic waste, yet its regulation is critical for brain function. It is well accepted that hypercapnia initiates vasodilation, but its effect on neuronal activity is less clear. Distinguishing how stimulus- and CO-induced vasodilatory responses are (dis)associated with neuronal activity has profound clinical and experimental relevance.

Selective Overexpression of Collybistin in Mouse Hippocampal Pyramidal Cells Enhances GABAergic Neurotransmission and Protects against PTZ-Induced Seizures.

Collybistin (CB) is a rho guanine exchange factor found at GABAergic and glycinergic postsynapses that interacts with the inhibitory scaffold protein, gephyrin, and induces accumulation of gephyrin and GABA type-A receptors (GABARs) to the postsynapse. We have previously reported that the isoform without the src homology 3 (SH3) domain, CBSH3-, is particularly active in enhancing the GABAergic postsynapse in both cultured hippocampal neurons as well as in cortical pyramidal neurons after chronic expression in electroporated (IUE) rats. Deficiency of CB in knock-out (KO) mice results in absence of gephyrin and gephyrin-dependent GABARs at postsynaptic sites in several brain regions, including hippocampus.

Somatostatin-expressing parafacial neurons are CO/H sensitive and regulate baseline breathing.

Glutamatergic neurons in the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN) function as respiratory chemoreceptors by regulating breathing in response to tissue CO/H. The RTN and greater parafacial region may also function as a chemosensing network composed of CO/H-sensitive excitatory and inhibitory synaptic interactions. In the context of disease, we showed that loss of inhibitory neural activity in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome disinhibited RTN chemoreceptors and destabilized breathing (Kuo et al.

Influence of Exogenous β-Hydroxybutyrate on Walking Economy and Rating of Perceived Exertion.

This study investigates the effect of a supplementary ketone, β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), on walking economy and ratings of perceived exertion in apparently healthy individuals. In a repeated-measures, crossover design, ten non-aerobically trained participants (three males; seven females) performed two stages of a duration-modified Bruce treadmill protocol. Participants blindly consumed either 1 ounce of an exogenous BHB solution (KETO) or a noncaloric placebo (CON) 30 minutes prior to exercise testing.

The influence of training with heavy rugby balls on selected spin pass variables in youth rugby union players.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of training with heavy rugby balls on selected spin pass variables in youth rugby union players. Pre-training, 14 participants performed rapid spin passes (using right and left hands) at a wall-mounted target, from 7-m and 10-m distances. Horizontal (linear) and spin (longitudinal angular) velocities of the passes were recorded using a 25Hz video camera.