in this study organotypic adult spinal cord slices were used to investigate whether caspases could participate in the apoptosis of motor neurons. the thoracic region of spinal cord was sliced using a tissue chopper and cultured in a medium for 6h. morphological and biochemical features of apoptosis were assessed by fluorescent staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl nick end labeling (tunel) met...

introduction: (s)- 3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (dhpg) is an agonist for group i metabotropic glutamate receptors. dhpg-induced synaptic depression of excitatory synapses on hippocampal pyramidal neurons is well known model for synaptic plasticity studies. the aim of the present study was to examine the effects of dhpg superfusion on excitatory synapses on pyramidal and fast-spiking gabaergic cel...

spinal muscular atrophy (sma) is a genetic disorder which affect nervous system and is characterized with progressive distal motor neuron weakness. the survival motor neuron (smn) protein level reduces in patients with sma. two different genes code survival motor neuron protein in human genome. skeletal and intercostal muscles denervation lead to weakness, hypotony, hyporeflexia, respiratory fa...

Cell-gene therapy is a dynamic constituent of novel medical biotechnology. Neurodegenerative disordersin which damage to or demise of specific brain cell types plays central role, are clear examples of diseasecandidate for cell replacement therapy. Dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons biosynthesize dopamine, a vitalneurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Due to the involveme...

background and objective: deprenyl is a drug for the treatment of parkinson’s disease, where the dopaminergic neurons are the target of this drug. several reports also documented that deprenyl has an effect on the sensory and motor neurons. there are some reports about the mode of action of deprenyl on motoneurons as a neuroprotective agent, while others believe that deprenyl acts as a neurores...

CA1 place cells discharge in prospective and retrospective modes, possibly reflecting memory retrieval and encoding, respectively. In this issue of Neuron, Bieri et al. (2014) report that slow and fast gamma oscillations associate with prospective and retrospective discharge, indicating that gamma oscillations organize information-processing modes.

In this issue of Neuron, Nikolaou et al. (2012) place the first pins in the functional map of the optic tectum. They show that retinal ganglion cells coding for the trajectory of motion target the most superficial layer in the tectum, whereas ganglion cells carrying information on the orientation of stimuli target deeper layers.

Norepinephrine and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) have long been implicated in the response to stress. In this issue of Neuron, McCall et al. (2015) show that CRH projections from the central amygdala drive tonic locus coeruleus activity that evokes acute anxiety responses and place aversion.

Rate remapping is a conjunctive code that potentially enables hippocampal place cells to jointly represent spatial and nonspatial information. In this issue of Neuron, Rennó-Costa et al. introduce a theoretical model wherein the convergence of the medial and lateral entorhinal excitatory inputs, combined with local inhibition, explains hippocampal rate remapping.

Attractor neural network theory has been proposed as a theory for long-term memory. Recent studies of hippocampal place cells, including a study by Leutgeb et al. in this issue of Neuron, address the potential role of attractor dynamics in the formation of hippocampal representations of spatial maps.