This review focuses on our effort in addressing the development and lesion-induced plasticity of the gravity sensing system. After severance of sensory input from one inner ear, there is a bilateral imbalance in response dynamics and spatial coding behavior between neuronal subpopulations on the two sides. These data provide the basis for deranged spatial coding and motor deficits accompanying unilateral labyrinthectomy. Recent studies have also confirmed that both glutamate receptors and neurotrophin receptors within the bilateral vestibular nuclei are implicated in the plasticity during vestibular compensation and development. Changes in plasticity not only provide insight into the formation of a spatial map and recovery of vestibular function but also on the design of drugs for therapeutic strategies applicable to infants or vestibular disorders such as vertigo and dizziness.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|
Nat Commun
January 2025
Department of Neurosurgery, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Successful navigation relies on reciprocal transformations between spatial representations in world-centered (allocentric) and self-centered (egocentric) frames of reference. The neural basis of allocentric spatial representations has been extensively investigated with grid, border, and head-direction cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) forming key components of a 'cognitive map'. Recently, egocentric spatial representations have also been identified in several brain regions, but evidence for the coexistence of neurons encoding spatial variables in each reference frame within MEC is so far lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
LCBC, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Background: Grid cells are spatially modulated cells in the entorhinal cortex (EC) that fire in a hexagonally patterned grid which tiles the environment. These cells are assumed important in human spatial navigation. The EC is vulnerable to neurodegenerative processes in both normal aging and Alzheimer's disease and decline in grid cell function may be a key factor in understanding age-related navigational decline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
Background: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), defined as the accumulation of amyloid in cerebral blood vessels causing alterations in the blood brain barrier (BBB) and the gliovascular unit, occurs in over 85% of Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases, positioning CAA as one of the strongest vascular contributors to age-related cognitive decline. However, the specific mechanisms in the microvasculature that become altered due to amyloid deposition and its downstream effects on the brain are complex and incompletely understood. A spatial transcriptomic analysis comparing pathways affected in the gliovascular niche differently in the presence of vascular amyloid could provide critical insight into the mechanisms underlying cerebrovascular changes involved in the deposition of Amyloid in the cerebrovasculature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
Background: Dementia exerts a significant global impact on societies and individuals. Spatial disorientation emerges as one of the initial symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) (Coughlan et al., 2018).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!