Clinical improvement and enhanced collateral vessel growth after xenogenic monocyte transplantation.

Monocytes (Mo) are the most important mediators in arteriogenesis. Previous results from our group demonstrated the great potential of allogenic Mo transplantation for improving collateral vessel growth, which appeared to be due to a considerable host vs. graft reaction.

Vision Restoration in Glaucoma by Activating Residual Vision with a Holistic, Clinical Approach: A Review.

Sabel BA, Cárdenas-Morales L, Gao Y. Vision Restoration in Glaucoma by activating Residual Vision with a Holistic, Clinical Approach: A Review. J Curr Glaucoma Pract 2018;12(1):1-9.

Neural Correlates of Learning from Induced Insight: A Case for Reward-Based Episodic Encoding.

Experiencing insight when solving problems can improve memory formation for both the problem and its solution. The underlying neural processes involved in this kind of learning are, however, thus far insufficiently understood. Here, we conceptualized insight as the sudden understanding of a novel relationship between known stimuli that fits into existing knowledge and is accompanied by a positive emotional response.

Calretinin and parvalbumin in schizophrenia and affective disorders: a mini-review, a perspective on the evolutionary role of calretinin in schizophrenia, and a preliminary post-mortem study of calretinin in the septal nuclei.

Objective: The septal nuclei are important limbic regions that are involved in emotional behavior and connect to various brain regions such as the habenular complex. Both the septal nuclei and the habenular complex are involved in the pathology of schizophrenia and affective disorders.

Methods: We characterized the number and density of calretinin-immunoreactive neurons in the lateral, medial, and dorsal subregions of the septal nuclei in three groups of subjects: healthy control subjects (N = 6), patients with schizophrenia (N = 10), and patients with affective disorders (N = 6).

Growth factor choice is critical for successful functionalization of nanoparticles.

Nanoparticles (NPs) show new characteristics compared to the corresponding bulk material. These nanoscale properties make them interesting for various applications in biomedicine and life sciences. One field of application is the use of magnetic NPs to support regeneration in the nervous system.

Visual rehabilitation: visual scanning, multisensory stimulation and vision restoration trainings.

Neuropsychological training methods of visual rehabilitation for homonymous vision loss caused by postchiasmatic damage fall into two fundamental paradigms: "compensation" and "restoration". Existing methods can be classified into three groups: Visual Scanning Training (VST), Audio-Visual Scanning Training (AViST) and Vision Restoration Training (VRT). VST and AViST aim at compensating vision loss by training eye scanning movements, whereas VRT aims at improving lost vision by activating residual visual functions by training light detection and discrimination of visual stimuli.

Corrigendum: Valenced action/inhibition learning in humans is modulated by a genetic variant linked to dopamine D2 receptor expression.

[This corrects the article on p. 140 in vol. 8, PMID: 25147510.

Valenced action/inhibition learning in humans is modulated by a genetic variant linked to dopamine D2 receptor expression.

Motivational salience plays an important role in shaping human behavior, but recent studies demonstrate that human performance is not uniformly improved by motivation. Instead, action has been shown to dominate valence in motivated tasks, and it is particularly difficult for humans to learn the inhibition of an action to obtain a reward, but the neural mechanism behind this behavioral specificity is yet unclear. In all mammals, including humans, the monoamine neurotransmitter dopamine is particularly important in the neural manifestation of appetitively motivated behavior, and the human dopamine system is subject to considerable genetic variability.

"Sightblind": perceptual deficits in the "intact" visual field.

Unilateral visual cortex lesions caused by stroke or trauma lead to blindness in contralateral visual field - a condition called homonymous hemianopia. Although the visual field area processed by the uninjured hemisphere is thought to be "intact," it also exhibits marked perceptual deficits in contrast sensitivity, processing speed, and contour integration. Such patients are "sightblind" - their blindness reaches far beyond the primary scotoma.