Current views of sensory adaptation in the rat somatosensory system suggest that it results mainly from short-term synaptic depression. Experimental and theoretical studies predict that increasing the intensity of sensory stimulation, followed by an increase in firing probability at early sensory stages, is expected to attenuate the response at later stages disproportionately more than weaker stimuli, due to greater depletion of synaptic resources and the relatively slow recovery process. This may lead to coding ambiguity of stimulus intensity during adaptation. In contrast, we found that increasing the intensity of repetitive whisker stimulation entails less adaptation in cortical neurons. In a series of recordings, from the trigeminal ganglion to the thalamus, we pinpointed the source of the unexpected pattern of adaptation to the brainstem trigeminal complex. We suggest that low-level sensory processing counterbalances later effects of short-term synaptic depression by increasing the throughput of high-intensity sensory inputs.
Learning new categories is fundamental to cognition, occurring in daily life through various sensory modalities. However, it is not well known how acquiring new categories can modulate the brain networks. Resting-state functional connectivity is an effective method for detecting short-term brain alterations induced by various modality-based learning experiences.
With no effective treatments for functional recovery after injury, spinal cord injury (SCI) remains one of the unresolved healthcare challenges. Human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) transplantation is a versatile patient-specific regenerative approach for functional recovery after SCI. Injectable electroconductive hydrogel (ECH) can further enhance the cell transplantation efficacy through a minimally invasive manner as well as recapitulate the native bioelectrical microenvironment of neural tissue.
Background And Objectives: Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) is generally associated with focal brain atrophy, but little knowledge exists on possible disease-related hypertrophy of brain structures. We hypothesized that repeated seizures or adaptive plasticity may lead to focal brain hypertrophy and aimed to investigate associated clinical correlates.
Methods: In this cohort study, we included patients with mTLE undergoing detailed epilepsy evaluations and matched healthy volunteers (HVs) from 2 tertiary centers (discovery and validation cohorts).
Finding the synchronization between Electroencephalography (EEG) and human cognition is an essential aspect of cognitive neuroscience. Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) is a widely used cognitive architecture that defines the cognitive and perceptual operations of the human mind. This study combines the ACT-R and EEG-based cortex-level connectivity to highlight the relationship between ACT-R modules during the EEG-based -back task (for validating working memory performance).
Background: Neural activation induced by upper extremity robot-assisted training (UE-RAT) helps characterize adaptive changes in the brains of poststroke patients, revealing differences in recovery potential among patients. However, it remains unclear whether these task-related neural activities can effectively predict rehabilitation outcomes. In this study, we utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure participants' neural activity profiles during resting and UE-RAT tasks and developed models via machine learning to verify whether task-related functional brain responses can predict the recovery of upper limb motor function.
