Glial cells form a network in the central nervous system to support neurons and interact with them. The glia consist essentially of astrocytes that help with the nutrition of neurons and react in some cases of injury, oligodendrocytes that produce myelin, and microglia that are derived from the haemopoietic system and are concerned with the immunological defense of the nervous system. Experimen...

We found previously that damage to a cluster of sleep-active neurons (Fos-positive during sleep) in the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO) decreases non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in rats, whereas injury to the sleep-active cells extending dorsally and medially from the VLPO cluster (the extended VLPO) diminishes REM sleep. These results led us to examine whether neurons in the extended...

The Drosophila melanogaster circadian clock is generated by interlocked feedback loops, and null mutations in core genes such as period and timeless generate behavioral arrhythmicity in constant darkness. In light-dark cycles, the elevation in locomotor activity that usually anticipates the light on or off signals is severely compromised in these mutants. Light transduction pathways mediated by...

Sensory deprivation is thought to have an adverse effect on visual development and to prolong the critical period for plasticity. Once the animal reaches adulthood, however, synaptic connectivity is understood to be largely stable. We reported previously that N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blockade in the superior colliculus of the Syrian hamster prevents refinement of receptive fields (R...

Strabismus, a misalignment of the eyes, results in a loss of binocular visual function in humans. The effects are similar in monkeys, where a loss of binocular convergence onto single cortical neurons is always found. Changes in the anatomical organization of primary visual cortex (V1) may be associated with these physiological deficits, yet few have been reported. We examined the distributions...

introduction: cholinergic systems are involved in learning and memory. scopolamine, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, is used as a standard/ reference drug for inducing cognitive deficits in healthy humans and animals. the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of scopolamine on avoidance memory and number of neurons in rat’s hippocampus. . methods: thirty five male alb...

background: oleuropein is a phenolic compound which is present in the olive leaf extract. the purpose of the present study was to investigate the neuroprotective effect of oleuropein as an antioxidant agent on the substantia nigra in aged rats. methods: twenty 18-month-old wistar rats (450-550 g) were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. the experimental group received a daily...

background and objective: parkinson's disease (pd) is characterized by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra. in recent years, there have been interests in the role of the free radical damage in pd. cinnamon and its derivative, cinnamaldehyde acts as powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents. this research focused on the effects of cinnamon extract and cinn...

Glial cells form a network in the central nervous system to support neurons and interact with them. The glia consist essentially of astrocytes that help with the nutrition of neurons and react in some cases of injury, oligodendrocytes that produce myelin, and microglia that are derived from the haemopoietic system and are concerned with the immunological defense of the nervous system. Experimen...

This paper demonstrates that, in the mediation of light, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) functionally associates with the anterior periventricular and parvocellular paraventricular neuron systems in rats. Intact rats (group 1) and rats undergoing a hemicomplete cutting of the SCN (group 2) were housed in a dark room (2-3 weeks) and killed after an exposure to light for 10, 30 or 60 min. Other...