Neural plasticity

Journal ArticleNeural plasticity refers to functional changes in the nervous system and therefore encompasses a range of phenomena from changes at synapses observed on a microscopic scale to changes in behavior observed in the whole animal. These diverse phenomena are related since changes in synapses are believed to underlie changes in an animal's behavior (Greenough and Bailey 1988)

Alcohol Addiction: Chronic Ethanol Leads to Cognitive Dependence in Drosophila

SummaryRecent studies have found that Drosophila show detrimental effects of withdrawal from ethanol on learning, a preference for stimuli associated with intoxication, and a tendency to consume ethanol after frustrating social situations

Checklist for One Health epidemiological reporting of evidence (COHERE)

One Health is defined as the intersection and integration of knowledge regarding humans, animals, and the environment, yet as the One Health scientific literature expands, there is considerable heterogeneity of approach and quality of reporting in One Health studies. In addition, many researchers who publish such studies do not include or integrate data from all three domains of human, animal, and environmental health. This points to a critical need to unify guidelines for One Health studies. This report details the Checklist for One Health Epidemiological Reporting of Evidence (COHERE) to guide the design and publication format of future One Health studies. COHERE was developed by a core writing team and international expert review group that represents multiple disciplines, including human medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, allied professionals, clinical laboratory science, epidemiology, the social sciences, ecohealth and environmental health. The twin aims of the COHERE standards are to 1) improve the quality of reporting of observational or interventional epidemiological studies that collect and integrate data from humans, animals and/or vectors, and their environments; and 2) promote the concept that One Health studies should integrate knowledge from these three domains. The 19 standards in the COHERE checklist address descriptions of human populations, animal populations, environmental assessment, spatial and temporal relationships of data from the three domains, integration of analyses and interpretation, and inclusion of expertise in the research team from disciplines related to human health, animal health, and environmental health

EFHC1, Implicated in Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy, Functions at the Cilium and Synapse to Modulate Dopamine Signaling

Neurons throughout the mammalian brain possess non-motile cilia, organelles with varied functions in sensory physiology and cellular signaling. Yet, the roles of cilia in these neurons are poorly understood. To shed light into their functions, we studied EFHC1, an evolutionarily conserved protein required for motile cilia function and linked to a common form of inherited epilepsy in humans, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME). We demonstrate that C. elegans EFHC-1 functions within specialized non-motile mechanosensory cilia, where it regulates neuronal activation and dopamine signaling. EFHC-1 also localizes at the synapse, where it further modulates dopamine signaling in cooperation with the orthologue of an R-type voltage-gated calcium channel. Our findings unveil a previously undescribed dual-regulation of neuronal excitability at sites of neuronal sensory input (cilium) and neuronal output (synapse). Such a distributed regulatory mechanism may be essential for establishing neuronal activation thresholds under physiological conditions, and when impaired, may represent a novel pathomechanism for epilepsy

BHPR research: qualitative1. Complex reasoning determines patients' perception of outcome following foot surgery in rheumatoid arhtritis

Background: Foot surgery is common in patients with RA but research into surgical outcomes is limited and conceptually flawed as current outcome measures lack face validity: to date no one has asked patients what is important to them. This study aimed to determine which factors are important to patients when evaluating the success of foot surgery in RA Methods: Semi structured interviews of RA patients who had undergone foot surgery were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to explore issues that were important to patients. Results: 11 RA patients (9 ♂, mean age 59, dis dur = 22yrs, mean of 3 yrs post op) with mixed experiences of foot surgery were interviewed. Patients interpreted outcome in respect to a multitude of factors, frequently positive change in one aspect contrasted with negative opinions about another. Overall, four major themes emerged. Function: Functional ability & participation in valued activities were very important to patients. Walking ability was a key concern but patients interpreted levels of activity in light of other aspects of their disease, reflecting on change in functional ability more than overall level. Positive feelings of improved mobility were often moderated by negative self perception ("I mean, I still walk like a waddling duck”). Appearance: Appearance was important to almost all patients but perhaps the most complex theme of all. Physical appearance, foot shape, and footwear were closely interlinked, yet patients saw these as distinct separate concepts. Patients need to legitimize these feelings was clear and they frequently entered into a defensive repertoire ("it's not cosmetic surgery; it's something that's more important than that, you know?”). Clinician opinion: Surgeons' post operative evaluation of the procedure was very influential. The impact of this appraisal continued to affect patients' lasting impression irrespective of how the outcome compared to their initial goals ("when he'd done it ... he said that hasn't worked as good as he'd wanted to ... but the pain has gone”). Pain: Whilst pain was important to almost all patients, it appeared to be less important than the other themes. Pain was predominately raised when it influenced other themes, such as function; many still felt the need to legitimize their foot pain in order for health professionals to take it seriously ("in the end I went to my GP because it had happened a few times and I went to an orthopaedic surgeon who was quite dismissive of it, it was like what are you complaining about”). Conclusions: Patients interpret the outcome of foot surgery using a multitude of interrelated factors, particularly functional ability, appearance and surgeons' appraisal of the procedure. While pain was often noted, this appeared less important than other factors in the overall outcome of the surgery. Future research into foot surgery should incorporate the complexity of how patients determine their outcome Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes

Habituation mechanisms and their impact on cognitive function

Habituation describes the progressive decrease of the amplitude or frequency of a motor response to repeated sensory stimulation that is not caused by sensory receptor adaptation or motor fatigue. Habituation can occur in different time scales: habituation within a testing session has been termed short-term habituation, whereas habituation across testing sessions has been termed long-term habituation. Generally, the more spaced the stimuli for inducing habituation are presented (i.e. the slower habituation is induced), the longer it seems to take to recover the behavioural response to its initial magnitude. Habituation is opposed by behavioural sensitization, which is thought to be an independent mechanism that leads to an increased behavioural response, especially if the sensory stimulus is annoying or aversive. Habituation provides an important mechanism for filtering sensory information, as it allows filtering out irrelevant stimuli and thereby focussing on important stimuli, a prerequisite for many cognitive tasks. The importance is demonstrated in mental disorders that are associated with disruptions in habituation, e.g. schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. The inability to filter out irrelevant information in patients with these disorders strongly correlates with disruptions in higher cognitive functions, such as in different types of memory and attention. Habituation is also considered to be the most basic form of non-associative implicit learning, and it can be observed throughout the animal kingdom. Based on the importance of habituation for cognitive function and therefore for the survival of an animal, it is assumed that habituation mechanisms are highly conserved across species. On the other hand, there is emerging evidence for a multitude of homo- and heterosynaptic mechanisms underlying habituation, depending on the modality of sensory stimulation, the level of sensory information processing where habituation occurs, and the temporal composition of sensory stimulation. Eric Kandel used the sea hare Aplysia in order to study habituation mechanisms of the gill withdrawal reflex; however, the molecular mechanisms remain largely elusive to date. A multitude of different organisms, behaviours, and experimental approaches have been used since in order to study habituation, but still surprisingly little is known about the underlying mechanisms. New insights also come from an unexpected side: in the recent past, groups that have been studying molecular mechanisms underlying short- and long-term synaptic plasticity phenomenons in different parts of the rodent brain are starting to link these plasticity processes to behavioural habituation. The scope of this Frontier Research Topic is to give an overview over the concept of habituation, different animal and behavioural models used for studying habituation mechanisms, as well as the different synaptic and molecular processes suggested to play a role in behavioural habituation through Original Research Articles, Methods, Hypothesis & Theory Articles, and Reviews