Attention Enhances the Retrieval and Stability of Visuospatial and Olfactory Representations in the Dorsal Hippocampus

Attention enhances the encoding and retrieval of olfactory and visuospatial representations by modulating place field stability, firing rate, and neuronal synchronization of pyramidal cells in the hippocampus

The Boundary Vector Cell Model of Place Cell Firing and Spatial Memory

We review evidence for the boundary vector cell model of the environmental determinants of the firing of hippocampal place cells. Preliminary experimental results are presented concerning the effects of addition or removal of environmental boundaries on place cell firing and evidence that boundary vector cells may exist in the subiculum. We review and update computational simulations predicting the location of human search within a virtual environment of variable geometry, assuming that boundary vector cells provide one of the input representations of location used in mammalian spatial memory. Finally, we extend the model to include experience-dependent modification of connection strengths through a BCM-like learning rule, and compare the effects to experimental data on the firing of place cells under geometrical manipulations to their environment. The relationship between neurophysiological results in rats and spatial behaviour in humans is discussed

Biogenic iron-silver nanoparticles inhibit bacterial biofilm formation due to Ag+ release as determined by a novel phycoerythrin-based assay

Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) can be considered as a cost-effective alternative to antibiotics. In the presence of Fe(III)-citrate and Ag+, Klebsiella oxytoca DSM 29614 produces biogenic Ag-NPs embedded in its peculiar exopolysaccharide (EPS). K. oxytoca DSM 29614 was cultivated in a defined growth medium–containing citrate (as sole carbon source) and supplemented with Ag+ and either low or high Fe(III) concentration. As inferred from elemental analysis, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and dynamic light scattering, Ag-EPS NPs were produced in both conditions and contained also Fe. The production yield of high-Fe/Ag-EPS NPs was 12 times higher than the production yield of low-Fe/Ag-EPS NPs, confirming the stimulatory effect of iron. However, relative Ag content and Ag+ ion release were higher in low-Fe/Ag-EPS NPs than in high-Fe/Ag-EPS NPs, as revealed by emission-excitation spectra by luminescent spectrometry using a novel ad hoc established phycoerythrin fluorescence–based assay. Interestingly, high and low-Fe/Ag-EPS NPs showed different and growth medium–dependent minimal inhibitory concentrations against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 15442. In addition, low-Fe/Ag-EPS NPs exert inhibition of staphylococcal and pseudomonal biofilm formation, while high-Fe/Ag-EPS NPs inhibits staphylococcal biofilm formation only. Altogether, these results, highlighting the different capability of Ag+ release, support the idea that Fe/Ag-EPS NPs produced by K. oxytoca DSM 29614 can be considered as promising candidates in the development of specific antibacterial and anti-biofilm agents

Plasticity of the Hippocampal Place Cell Representation

The roie of the hippocampus in the representation of 'place' has been attributed to the place cells, whose spatially localised firing suggests their participation in forming a cognitive map of the environment. That this map is necessary for spatial memory formation is indicated by the propensity of almost all navigational tasks to be disrupted by hippocampal damage. The hippocampus has also long been implicated in the formation of episodic memories, and the unusually plastic nature of hippocampal synapses testifies to its probable mnemonic role. Arguably, the place cell representation should, if it is to support spatial learning, be modifiable according to known principles of synaptic reorganization. The present article reviews evidence that the place cell representation is indeed plastic, and that its plasticity depends on the same neurobiological mechanisms known to underlie experimentally induced synaptic plasticity. Inferences are drawn regarding the architecture of the spatial representation and the principles by which it is modified. Spatial learning is promising to be the first kind of memory which is completely understood at all levels, from molecular through circuitry to behaviour and beyond