Amplification of the poorer ear by StereoBiCROS in case of asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss: effect on tinnitus.

Tinnitus is prevalent among patients suffering from Single-Sided Deafness (SSD) and Asymmetrical Hearing Loss (AHL). In addition to bothersome tinnitus in the poorer ear, these patients also report issues with understanding speech in noise and sound localization. The conventional treatment options offered to these patients to improve auditory abilities are cochlear implantation, bone conduction devices or Contralateral Routing Of Signal (CROS) hearing aids.

Long-lasting spatial memory deficits and impaired hippocampal plasticity following unilateral vestibular loss.

Unilateral vestibular loss (UVL) induces a characteristic vestibular syndrome composed of various posturo-locomotor, oculomotor, vegetative and perceptivo-cognitive symptoms. Functional deficits are progressively recovered over time during vestibular compensation, that is supported by the expression of multiscale plasticity mechanisms. While the dynamic of post-UVL posturo-locomotor and oculomotor deficits is well characterized, the expression over time of the cognitive deficits, and in particular spatial memory deficits, is still debated.

Breaking the reproductive barrier of divergent species to explore the genomic landscape.

Climate change will have significant consequences for species. Species range shifts induce the emergence of new hybrid zones or the spatial displacement of pre-existing ones. These hybrid zones may become more porous as alleles are passed from one species to another.

Microglial Dynamics Modulate Vestibular Compensation in a Rodent Model of Vestibulopathy and Condition the Expression of Plasticity Mechanisms in the Deafferented Vestibular Nuclei.

Unilateral vestibular loss (UVL) induces a vestibular syndrome composed of posturo-locomotor, oculomotor, vegetative, and perceptivo-cognitive symptoms. With time, these functional deficits progressively disappear due to a phenomenon called vestibular compensation, known to be supported by the expression in the deafferented vestibular nuclei (VNs) of various adaptative plasticity mechanisms. UVL is known to induce a neuroinflammatory response within the VNs, thought to be caused by the structural alteration of primary vestibular afferents.

Specific Learning Disorder in Children and Adolescents, a Scoping Review on Motor Impairments and Their Potential Impacts.

Mastering motor skills is important for children to achieve functional mobility and participate in daily activities. Some studies have identified that students with specific learning disorders (SLD) could have impaired motor skills; however, this postulate and the potential impacts remain unclear. The purpose of the scoping review was to evaluate if SLD children have motor impairments and examine the possible factors that could interfere with this assumption.

Unusual evolution of tree frog populations in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Despite the ubiquity of pollutants in the environment, their long-term ecological consequences are not always clear and still poorly studied. This is the case concerning the radioactive contamination of the environment following the major nuclear accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Notwithstanding the implications of evolutionary processes on the population status, few studies concern the evolution of organisms chronically exposed to ionizing radiation in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

SK Channels Modulation Accelerates Equilibrium Recovery in Unilateral Vestibular Neurectomized Rats.

We have previously reported in a feline model of acute peripheral vestibulopathy (APV) that the sudden, unilateral, and irreversible loss of vestibular inputs induces selective overexpression of small conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels in the brain stem vestibular nuclei. Pharmacological blockade of these ion channels by the selective antagonist apamin significantly alleviated the evoked vestibular syndrome and accelerated vestibular compensation. In this follow-up study, we aimed at testing, using a behavioral approach, whether the antivertigo (AV) effect resulting from the antagonization of SK channels was species-dependent or whether it could be reproduced in a rodent APV model, whether other SK channel antagonists reproduced similar functional effects on the vestibular syndrome expression, and whether administration of SK agonist could also alter the vestibular syndrome.

Sensorimotor Rehabilitation Promotes Vestibular Compensation in a Rodent Model of Acute Peripheral Vestibulopathy by Promoting Microgliogenesis in the Deafferented Vestibular Nuclei.

Acute peripheral vestibulopathy leads to a cascade of symptoms involving balance and gait disorders that are particularly disabling for vestibular patients. Vestibular rehabilitation protocols have proven to be effective in improving vestibular compensation in clinical practice. Yet, the underlying neurobiological correlates remain unknown.

Breaking a dogma: acute anti-inflammatory treatment alters both post-lesional functional recovery and endogenous adaptive plasticity mechanisms in a rodent model of acute peripheral vestibulopathy.

Background: Due to their anti-inflammatory action, corticosteroids are the reference treatment for brain injuries and many inflammatory diseases. However, the benefits of acute corticotherapy are now being questioned, particularly in the case of acute peripheral vestibulopathies (APV), characterized by a vestibular syndrome composed of sustained spinning vertigo, spontaneous ocular nystagmus and oscillopsia, perceptual-cognitive, posturo-locomotor, and vegetative disorders. We assessed the effectiveness of acute corticotherapy, and the functional role of acute inflammation observed after sudden unilateral vestibular loss.

A comprehensive approach to study the resting-state brain network related to creative potential.

Studies related to creativity generally investigate cognition and brain functioning linked to creative achievement. However, this approach does not allow characterization of creative potential. To better define creative potential, we studied cognitive function related to creative processes and the associated brain resting functional connectivity.

Mechanisms of Spectrotemporal Modulation Detection for Normal- and Hearing-Impaired Listeners.

Spectrotemporal modulations (STM) are essential features of speech signals that make them intelligible. While their encoding has been widely investigated in neurophysiology, we still lack a full understanding of how STMs are processed at the behavioral level and how cochlear hearing loss impacts this processing. Here, we introduce a novel methodological framework based on psychophysical reverse correlation deployed in the modulation space to characterize the mechanisms underlying STM detection in noise.

Apamin treatment accelerates equilibrium recovery and gaze stabilization in unilateral vestibular neurectomized cats: Cellular and behavioral aspects.

Sudden and complete unilateral loss of peripheral vestibular inputs evokes characteristic vestibular syndrome comprised of posturo-locomotor, oculomotor, vegetative and cognitive symptoms. Subsequently to the vestibular insult, a neurophysiological process called central vestibular compensation promotes the progressive restoration of the posture and balance. The modulation of the excitability of vestibular secondary neurons has been demonstrated to be a key process of this mechanism.

An Integrative Model Accounting for the Symptom Cluster Triggered After an Acoustic Shock.

Acoustic shocks and traumas sometimes result in a cluster of debilitating symptoms, including tinnitus, hyperacusis, ear fullness and tension, dizziness, and pain in and outside the ear. The mechanisms underlying this large variety of symptoms remain elusive. In this article, we elaborate on the hypothesis that the tensor tympani muscle (TTM), the trigeminal nerve (TGN), and the trigeminal cervical complex (TCC) play a central role in generating these symptoms.

Betahistine Treatment in a Cat Model of Vestibular Pathology: Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Approaches.

This study is a pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) approach using betahistine doses levels in unilateral vestibular neurectomized cats (UVN) comparable to those used in humans for treating patients with Menière's disease. The aim is to investigate for the first time oral betahistine administration (0.2 and 2 mg/kg/day) with plasma concentrations of betahistine and its major metabolite 2-pyridylacetic acid (2-PAA) ( = 9 cats), the time course of posture recovery ( = 13 cats), and the regulation of the enzyme synthesizing histamine (histidine decarboxylase: HDC) in the tuberomammillary nuclei (TMN) of UVN treated animals ( = the same 13 cats plus 4 negative control cats).

Distorted own-body representations in patients with dizziness and during caloric vestibular stimulation.

There is increasing evidence that vestibular disorders evoke deficits reaching far beyond imbalance, oscillopsia and spatial cognition. Yet, how vestibular disorders affect own-body representations, in particular the perceived body shape and size, has been overlooked. Here, we explored vestibular contributions to own-body representations using two approaches.

A euryhaline fish, lost in the desert: The unexpected metapopulation structure of Coptodon guineensis (Günther, 1862) in the Sebkha of Imlili.

Euryhaline Cichlid fish of the species Coptodon guineensis are present in different water holes situated in a dried depression in the desert in the extreme South of Morocco, the Sebkha of Imlili. A genetic survey of this population, using complete sequences of the ND2 gene (mtDNA) and sixteen microsatellite loci, revealed that the fish in the sebkha did not form a single population, but rather a metapopulation. This metapopulational structure may be regarded as good news from the point of view of the conservation of fish in the sebkha.

Abortion in two francophone African countries: a study of whether women have begun to use misoprostol in Benin and Burkina Faso.

Objectives: This study aimed to document the means women use to obtain abortions in the capital cities of Benin and Burkina Faso, and to learn whether or not use of misoprostol has become an alternative to other methods of abortion, and the implications for future practice.

Study Design: We conducted in-depth, qualitative interviews between 2014 and 2015 with 34 women - 21 women in Cotonou (Benin) and 13 women in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) - about their pathways to abortion. To obtain a diverse sample in terms of socio-demographic characteristics, we recruited the women through our own knowledge networks, in health facilities where women are treated for unsafe abortion complications, and in schools in Benin.

Microbiota Diversity Within and Between the Tissues of Two Wild Interbreeding Species.

Understanding the role of microbiota as reproductive barriers or sources of adaptive novelty in the fundamental biological phenomenon of speciation is an exciting new challenge necessitating exploration of microbiota variation in wild interbreeding species. We focused on two interbreeding cyprinid species, Chondrostoma nasus and Parachondrostoma toxostoma, which have geographic distributions characterized by a mosaic of hybrid zones. We described microbiota diversity and composition in the three main teleost mucosal tissues, the skin, gills and gut, in the parental parapatric populations.

The bodily self: Insights from clinical and experimental research.

This review article summarizes neuropsychological descriptions of abnormal body representations in brain-damaged patients and recent neuroscientific investigations of their sensorimotor underpinnings in healthy participants. The first part of the article describes unilateral disorders of the bodily self, such as asomatognosia, feelings of amputation, supernumerary phantom limbs and somatoparaphrenia, as well as descriptions of non-lateralized disorders of the bodily self, including Alice in Wonderland syndrome and autoscopic hallucinations. Because the sensorimotor mechanisms of these disorders are unclear, we focus on clinical descriptions and insist on the importance of reporting clinical cases to better understand the full range of bodily disorders encountered in neurological diseases.

Two thumbs and one index: A comparison of manual coordination in touch-typing and mobile-typing.

It has been extensively demonstrated that in touch-typing, manual alternation is performed faster than manual repetition (see i.e. Rumelhart & Norman, 1982), due to parallel activation of successive keystrokes.

Improving postural control by applying mechanical noise to ankle muscle tendons.

The application of subthreshold mechanical vibrations with random frequencies (white mechanical noise) to ankle muscle tendons is known to increase muscle proprioceptive information and to improve the detection of ankle movements. The aim of the present study was to analyze the effect of this mechanical noise on postural control, its possible modulation according to the sensory strategies used for postural control, and the consequences of increasing postural difficulty. The upright stance of 20 healthy young participants tested with their eyes closed was analyzed during the application of four different levels of noise and compared to that in the absence of noise (control) in three conditions: static, static on foam, and dynamic (sinusoidal translation).

Comparative analysis of pharmacological treatments with N-acetyl-DL-leucine (Tanganil) and its two isomers (N-acetyl-L-leucine and N-acetyl-D-leucine) on vestibular compensation: Behavioral investigation in the cat.

Head roll tilt, postural imbalance and spontaneous nystagmus are the main static vestibular deficits observed after an acute unilateral vestibular loss (UVL). In the UVL cat model, these deficits are fully compensated over 6 weeks as the result of central vestibular compensation. N-Acetyl-dl-leucine is a drug prescribed in clinical practice for the symptomatic treatment of acute UVL patients.