Environmental enrichment (EE) is beneficial to sensory functions. Thus, elucidating the neural mechanism underlying improvement of sensory stimulus discrimination is important for developing therapeutic strategies. We aim to advance the understanding of such neural mechanism. We found that tactile enrichment improved tactile stimulus feature discrimination. The neural correlate of such improvement was revealed by analyzing single-cell information coding in both the primary somatosensory cortex and the premotor cortex of awake behaving animals. Our results show that EE enhances the decision-information coding capacity of cells that are tuned to adjacent whiskers, and of premotor cortical cells.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0309-20.2021 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
December 2024
College of Grassland Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010019, China.
Hydrothermal biochar has demonstrated potential in enhancing crop growth by improving soil properties and microbial activity; however, its effectiveness varies with application rate, with excessive amounts potentially inhibiting plant growth. This study employed a pot experiment approach to compare varying application rates of hydrothermal biochar (ranging from 0 to 50 t/ha) and to analyze its effects on alfalfa biomass, photosynthetic efficiency, soil nutrient content, and microbial community composition. Biochar application increased alfalfa dry weight by 12.
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December 2024
Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Falmouth, USA.
Coral reef sponges efficiently take up particulate and dissolved organic matter (DOM) from the water column and release compounds such as nucleosides, amino acids, and other dissolved metabolites to the surrounding reef via their exhalent seawater, but the influence of this process on reef picoplankton and nutrient processing is relatively unexplored. Here we examined the impact of sponge exhalent on the reef picoplankon community and subsequent alterations to the reef dissolved metabolite pool. We exposed reef picoplankton communities to a sponge exhalent water mixture (Niphates digitalis and Xestospongia muta) or filtered reef seawater (control) in closed, container-based dark incubations.
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December 2024
Microelement Research Center, College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, No. 1 Shizishan Road, Wuhan, 430070, China.
The quality of cigar tobacco leaves is profoundly affected by the timing of their harvest, with both early and late collections resulting in inferior characteristics. While the relationship between maturity and physiological metabolic processes is acknowledged, a comprehensive understanding of the physiological behavior of cigar leaves harvested at different stages remains elusive. This research investigated the physiological and metabolomic profiles of the cigar tobacco variety CX-014, grown in Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province, with leaves sampled at 35 (T1), 42 (T2), 49 (T3), and 56 (T4) days post-inflorescence removal.
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December 2024
Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 52828, Republic of Korea.
Heat stress (HS) is an impactful condition in ruminants that negatively affects their physiological and rumen microbial composition. However, a fundamental understanding of metabolomic and metataxonomic mechanisms in goats under HS conditions is lacking. Here, we analyzed the rumen metabolomics, metataxonomics, and serum metabolomics of goats (n = 10, body weight: 41.
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December 2024
School of Agricultural Science (FCA), Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD), Dourados, MS, 79824-900, Brazil.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of two styles of classical music, based on different tempos (BPM), on the physiological and blood parameters of horses during social isolation and restriction of movements. First experiment was carried out using nine horses of no defined breed, distributed in Control, Slow-tempo music and Moderate-tempo music .For social isolation and restriction of movement, the animals were housed daily in individual stalls for two hours and exposed to the stimuli for 60 min, and eye temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate were assessed.
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