Experience teaches cosmetic surgeons to become good, but avoiding and treating adverse events make them great. In no area is this more true than in cosmetic procedures involving fillers and neuromodulators. By utilizing knowledge of materials and anatomy involved, specialists seek to avoid complications. A well-trained physician is able to reduce the sequelae from an adverse event by acting pro...

The hypocretin (Hcrt), also known as orexin, peptides are essential for arousal stability. Here we discuss background information about the interaction of Hcrt with other neuromodulators, including norepinephrine and acetylcholine probed with optogenetics. We conclude that Hcrt neurons integrate metabolic, circadian and limbic inputs and convey this information to a network of neuromodulators, ...

MARIANA F. WOLFNER Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 USA E-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1002/mrd.22338 Mating regulates the available combinations of neuromodulators in Drosophila reproductivetract regions. This results in a combinatorial “code” of neuromodulators that changes with place and time, and is proposed to coordinate function...

KCC2 is the central regulator of neuronal Cl(-) homeostasis, and is critical for enabling strong hyperpolarizing synaptic inhibition in the mature brain. KCC2 hypofunction results in decreased inhibition and increased network hyperexcitability that underlies numerous disease states including epilepsy, neuropathic pain and neuropsychiatric disorders. The current holy grail of KCC2 biology is to ...

Neocortical population activity varies between deactivated and activated states marked by the presence and absence of slow oscillations, respectively. Neocortex activation occurs during waking and vigilance and is readily induced in anesthetized animals by stimulating the brainstem reticular formation, basal forebrain, or thalamus. Neuromodulators are thought to be responsible for these changes...

Several classes of neurotransmitters exert modulatory effects on a broad and diverse population of neurons throughout the brain. Some of these neuromodulators, especially acetylcholine and dopamine, have long been implicated in the neural control of selective attention. We review recent evidence and evolving ideas about the importance of these neuromodulatory systems in attention, particularly ...

Multiple neuromodulators are involved in learning and memory. However, the differences and similarities in mechanisms underlying how each neuromodulator regulates behaviors in learning are not well understood. Recently, we found that dopamine and neuropeptide signalings are both required for odor learning of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Interestingly, quantitative behavioral and genetic...

Neuromodulation in sensory perception serves important functions such as regulation of signal to noise ratio, attention, and modulation of learning and memory. Neuromodulators in specific sensory areas often have highly similar cellular, but distinct behavioral effects. To address this issue, we here review the function and role of two neuromodulators, acetylcholine (Ach) and noradrenaline (NE)...

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) occupies the brain's ventricles and subarachnoid space and, together with the interstitial fluid (ISF), forms a continuous fluidic network that bathes all cells of the central nervous system (CNS). As such, the CSF is well positioned to actively distribute neuromodulators to neural circuits in vivo via volume transmission. Recent in vitro experimental work in brain...

Recent years have seen the discovery of freely diffusing gaseous neurotransmitters, such as nitric oxide (NO), in biological nervous systems. A type of artificial neural network (ANN) inspired by such gaseous signaling, the GasNet, has previously been shown to be more evolvable than traditional ANNs when used as an artificial nervous system in an evolutionary robotics setting, where evolvabilit...