Noves dades sobre el mecanisme neural de la consolidació de la memòria: una oportunitat per a atenuar l’impacte emocional de les experiències traumàtiques

Durant la major part del segle xx, els estudis científics sobre la memòria assumien que les memòries eren immutables una vegada es consolidaven, tot i que podien perdre qualitat amb el pas del temps. Dades recents han revelat que les memòries, tot i estar ja consolidades, es tornen làbils durant la seua rememoració. Aquest descobriment implica que poden ser modificades i per tant emmagatzemades de nou amb aquestes modificacions. Aquestes investigacions obrin noves possibilitats d’intervenció en el camp del tractament de memòries emocionals resultants d’experiències traumàtiques, com ara el trastorn per estrés posttraumàtic. A més a més, dades experimentals indiquen que és possible utilitzar tant tractaments farmacològics com ara teràpies comportamentals.Durante la mayor parte del siglo xx, los estudios científicos sobre la memoria asumían que las memorias eran inmutables una vez se consolidaban, aunque podían perder calidad con el paso del tiempo. Datos recientes ha revelado que las memorias, a pesar de estar ya consolidadas, se vuelven lábiles durante su rememoración. Este descubrimiento implica que pueden ser modificadas y por tanto almacenadas de nuevo con estas modificaciones. Estas investigaciones abren nuevas posibilidades de intervención en el campo del tratamiento de memorias emocionales resultantes de experiencias traumáticas, como el trastorno por estrés postraumático. Además, resultados experimentales indican que es posible utilizar tanto tratamientos farmacológicos como terapias comportamentales.Pendant la plupart du xxe siècle, les études scientifiques sur la mémoire présupposaient que les mémoires étaient immuables une fois consolidées, mais qu’elles pouvaient perdre de la qualité au fil du temps. Des données récentes ont révélé que les mémoires, bien qu’elles soient déjà consolidées, deviennent labiles pendant leur souvenance. Cette découverte implique qu’elles peuvent être modifiées et donc entreposées de nouveau à partir de ces modifications. Ces recherches ouvrent de nouvelles possibilités d’intervention dans le domaine du traitement des mémoires émotionnelles résultantes des expériences traumatiques, comme le trouble de stress post-traumatique. D’ailleurs, certains résultats expérimentaux indiquent qu’il est possible d’utiliser soit des traitements pharmacologiques, soit des thérapies comportementales.During most of the twentieth century, scientific studies assumed that memories are unchangeable once consolidated, apart from quality loss over time. Recent data shows that, despite being consolidated, memories become labile when retrieved, which implies that they can be modified and stored with these modifications. This suggests new possibilities in the field of therapeutic treatment of emotional memories resulting from traumatic experiences, such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Moreover, experimental results indicate that both pharmacological and drug-free behavioural therapies may be useful

Complicaciones materno-perinatales de las embarazadas entre las 28 y 35 semanas de gestación con Ruptura prematura de Membranas que ingresan a la sala de Alto Riesgo Obstétrico del Hospital Bertha Calderón Roque en el período de Enero a Junio del año 2014

La ruptura prematura de membranas es una patología de gran importancia clínica y epidemiológica ya que conlleva múltiples complicaciones tanto fetales como maternas. Se estima que un 20 a un 50% de casos de nacimientos prematuros, bajo peso al nacer y el nacimiento de producto pequeño para su edad gestacional están íntimamente relacionados con esta patología. Este estudio nos permitió conocer las principales complicaciones materno- perinatales de la ruptura prematura de membranas que se presentan antes que estos sean de termino. Este es un estudio observacional, retrospectivo, tipo descriptivo, de corte transversal en el servicio de Alto Riesgo Obstétrico del Hospital Bertha Calderón Roque en el periodo comprendido de Enero a Mayo del año 2014. Se estudiaron a 88 pacientes con embarazos entre las 28 y 35 semanas de gestación que presentaran ruptura prematura de membranas y además que el expediente clínico cumpliera con la información necesaria para poder llevar a cabo dicho estudio para después poderla procesar en el programa SPSS, donde encontramos que el rango de edad de las pacientes estudiadas la mayoría oscila entre los 20 y 35 años que equivalen al 61% de la población donde el 78.4% provenía del área urbana. El 55.7% de la población estudiada tenían una escolaridad de secundaria y solamente el 15.9% habían llegado a la universidad. Entre las patologías asociadas al embarazo las más frecuentes fueron Cervicovaginitis en primer lugar con el 19.3%, en segundo lugar esta las infecciones de vías urinaria con el 17%. Respecto al periodo de latencia la mayoría tenía menos de seis horas representado por el 28.4%, seguido de aquellas de mayor de 18 horas con un 27.3% y en tercer lugar las que se encontraban entre 6 y 12 horas. El 68.2% de las embarazadas estudiadas recibió doble terapia con antibióticos y corticoides y el 71.6% el tratamiento duro más de 24 horas. Las principal complicaciones materna que se encontró fue corioamnioitis con el 12.5 % y el 81.8 % no presentó ninguna complicación. En este estudio se encontró que con la ruptura prematura de membranas antes de los embarazos a término los más perjudicados son los bebes los cuales solo el 64.8% de estos no presentaron complicaciones el resto se complicó con Síndrome de Distress Respiratorio con el 12.5% y en segundo lugar Sepsis Neonatal con el 11.4

Focal Lesions within the ventral striato-pallidum abolish attraction for male chemosignals in female mice

In rodents, socio-sexual behaviour is largely mediated by chemosensory cues, some of which are rewarding stimuli. Female mice display an innate attraction towards male chemosignals, dependent on the vomeronasal system. This behaviour likely reflects the hedonic value of sexual chemosignals. The anteromedial aspect of the olfactory tubercle, along with its associated islands of Calleja, receives vomeronasal inputs and sexually-dimorphic vasopressinergic innervation. Thus, we hypothesised that this portion of the ventral striato-pallidum, known to be involved in reward processing, might be important for sexual odorant-guided behaviours. In this study, we demonstrate that lesions of this region, but not of regions in the posterolateral striato-pallidum, abolish the attraction of female mice for male chemosignals, without affecting significantly their preference for a different natural reward (a sucrose solution). These results show that, at least in female mice, the integrity of the anterior aspect of the medioventral striato-pallidum, comprising a portion of the olfactory tubercle and associated islands of Calleja, is necessary for the attraction for male chemosignals. We suggest that this region contributes to the processing of the hedonic properties of biologically significant odorants

Comportamiento clínico y quirúrgico de mano congénita en pacientes ingresados en el servicio de Ortopedia pediátrica en el Hospital Fernando Vélez Paiz en el período comprendido de febrero 2018 a diciembre 2021

La mano congénita es una deformidad presente al nacimiento, que puede generar limitación funcional en los pacientes, de etiología variada, que causa repercusiones estéticas y psicológicas tanto en los pacientes, como su familia. Entre el 1 y el 2 % de los nacidos vivos presentan defectos congénitos, un 10% de estos, se trata de malformaciones de la mano. Estas anomalías ocurren en las primeras etapas del embarazo, en cuanto a la incidencia mundial, se estima que se presentan 2.3 casos por cada 1000 nacidos. En nuestro país se recopilan datos de malformaciones congénitas desde el 2016, se estima que se presentan anualmente 1200 casos en general. De acuerdo a estadísticas de nuestro ministerio de salud las afecciones más habituales son dedo en resorte, exostosis múltiple, artrogriposis y polidactilia radial, de acuerdo a cada una de ellas se plantea el abordaje quirúrgico, los cuales se llevan a cabo en nuestra unidad de Salud. Al ser una problemática de salud en nuestro país, en especial en las personas de bajos recursos, se pretende conocer el comportamiento clínico y quirúrgico de mano congénita de pacientes ingresados en el servicio de Ortopedia pediátrica del Hospital Dr. Fernando Vélez Paiz de febrero 2018 a Diciembre de 202

Especificidad de escarabajos longicornios (Coleóptera:cerambycidae) de acuerdo a la filogenia del hospedero y la luminosidad en un bosque tropical

En este trabajo se estudia el nivel de especificidad de los escarabajos de la familia Cerambycidae de acuerdo a la historia evolutiva de las plantas hospederas y el efecto de la luminosidad sobre el sustrato en el bosque tropical presente en el Paisaje Protegido de Isla Galeta, Provincia de Colon. Los escarabajos fueron colectados de cortes frescos estandarizados de madera de diferentes especies de plantas con algún grado de relación filogenética en diferentes situaciones en el bosque (expuestas en campo, bajo luz directa, bajo sombra). De los cortes de 6 especies de árboles pertenecientes a 5 familias, con un peso total de 212 kg (468.6 lb) de madera, emergieron 109 individuos representando 9 géneros y 11 especies. Al extrapolar los resultados obtenidos así como la historia evolutiva de las plantas hospederas y de las diferentes familias de Cerambycidae se demostró que la especificidad al hospedero fue baja con la mayoría de las especies de Cerambycidae colectadas de madera de más de una familia de planta, solo Cosmotoma fasciata presento algún grado de especificidad a plantas del genero Inga, de igual manera se registran nuevos hospederos para las diferentes especies de Cerambycidae tratadas. El efecto del gradiente de luminosidad sobre el sustrato aunque bajo, refleja la predilección de los Cerambycidae por ambientes expuestos a intensidad mínima de luz, en detrimento de ambientes iluminados intensamente, que son muy escasos en condiciones naturales del bosque tropical

Evolution of vertebrate survival circuits

Evolution selects those adaptive features that increase reproductive probabilities and facilitate survival. Analysing the brain circuits mediating risk-avoidance (e.g. defense) and those allowing reward-seeking (motivated) behaviours in different vertebrates leads to several main conclusions. First, circuits mediating risk-avoidance are similar in all studied vertebrates, where they include amygdala homologues located in the posterior half of the cerebral hemispheres, in close relationship with the chemosensory systems. Second, in all vertebrates, reward-seeking behaviours involve the activity of tegmento-striatal dopaminergic pathways, plus other inputs to the ventral striatum, including amygdalo-striatal glutamatergic projections. Third, output structures in these forebrain circuits for both risk-avoidance and reward-seeking behaviours occupy the caudal and rostral poles of the ventral striato-pallidum, namely the central amygdala and nucleus accumbens-olfactory tubercle respectively. This brain configuration was already present in at least the ancestral amniote, likely also in anamniotes. Finally, social behaviours (sexual, agonistic-territorial, parental) are fundamental for reproduction and survival. Consequently, the so-called socio-sexual brain network that governs these conducts is closely related with brain centres mediating motivation (maybe also risk-avoidance). Central nonapeptidergic circuits are apparently required for endowing social stimuli with rewarding (attractive) properties. More studies in non-mammals are required to further test and expand these ideas

Avoidance and contextual learning induced by a kairomone, a pheromone and a common odorant in female CD1 mice

Chemosignals mediate both intra- and inter-specific communication in most mammals. Pheromones elicit stereotyped reactions in conspecifics, whereas kairomones provoke a reaction in an allospecific animal. For instance, predator kairomones elicit anticipated defensive responses in preys. The aim of this work was to test the behavioral responses of female mice to two chemosignals: 2-heptanone (2-HP), a putative alarm pheromone, and 2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), a fox-derived putative kairomone, widely used to investigate fear and anxiety in rodents. The banana-like odorant isoamyl acetate (IA), unlikely to act as a chemosignal, served as a control odorant. We first presented increasing amounts of these odorants in consecutive days, in a test box in which mice could explore or avoid them. Female mice avoided the highest amounts of all three compounds, with TMT and IA eliciting avoidance at lower amounts (3.8 pmol and 0.35 μmol, respectively) than 2-HP (35 μmol). All three compounds induced minimal effects in global locomotion and immobility in this set up. Further, mice detected 3.5 pmol of TMT and IA in a habituation–dishabituation test, so avoidance of IA started well beyond the detection threshold. Finally, both TMT and IA, but not 2-HP, induced conditioned place avoidance and increased immobility in the neutral compartment during a contextual memory test. These data suggest that intense odors can induce contextual learning irrespective of their putative biological significance. Our results support that synthetic predator-related compounds (like TMT) or other intense odorants are useful to investigate the neurobiological basis of emotional behaviors in rodents. Since intense odorants unlikely to act as chemosignals can elicit similar behavioral reactions than chemosignals, we stress the importance of using behavioral measures in combination with other physiological (e.g., hormonal levels) or neural measures (e.g., immediate early gene expression) to establish the ethological significance of odorants

Lifespan Changes of the Human Brain In Alzheimer's Disease

[EN] Brain imaging studies have shown that slow and progressive cerebral atrophy characterized the development of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Despite a large number of studies dedicated to AD, key questions about the lifespan evolution of AD biomarkers remain open. When does the AD model diverge from the normal aging model? What is the lifespan trajectory of imaging biomarkers for AD? How do the trajectories of biomarkers in AD differ from normal aging? To answer these questions, we proposed an innovative way by inferring brain structure model across the entire lifespan using a massive number of MRI (N = 4329). We compared the normal model based on 2944 control subjects with the pathological model based on 3262 patients (AD + Mild cognitive Impaired subjects) older than 55 years and controls younger than 55 years. Our study provides evidences of early divergence of the AD models from the normal aging trajectory before 40 years for the hippocampus, followed by the lateral ventricles and the amygdala around 40 years. Moreover, our lifespan model reveals the evolution of these biomarkers and suggests close abnormality evolution for the hippocampus and the amygdala, whereas trajectory of ventricular enlargement appears to follow an inverted U-shape. Finally, our models indicate that medial temporal lobe atrophy and ventricular enlargement are two mid-life physiopathological events characterizing AD brain.This work benefited from the support of the project DeepVolBrain of the French National Research Agency (ANR-18-CE45-0013). This study was achieved within the context of the Laboratory of Excellence TRAIL ANR-10-LABX-57 for the BigDataBrain project. Moreover, we thank the Investments for the future Program IdEx Bordeaux (ANR-10-IDEX- 03-02, HL-MRI Project), Cluster of excellence CPU and the CNRS. This study has been also supported by the DPI2017-87743-R grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad. Moreover, this work is based on multiple samples. We wish to thank all investigators of these projects who collected these datasets and made them freely accessible. The C-MIND data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the C-MIND Data Repository (accessed in Feb 2015) created by the C-MIND study of Normal Brain Development. This is a multisite, longitudinal study of typically developing children from ages newborn through young adulthood conducted by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and UCLA and supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Contract #s HHSN275200900018C). A listing of the participating sites and a complete listing of the study investigators can be found at https://research.cchmc.org/c-mind. The NDAR data used in the preparation of this manuscript were obtained from the NIH-supported National Database for Autism Research (NDAR). NDAR is a collaborative informatics system created by the National Institutes of Health to provide a national resource to support and accelerate research in autism. The NDAR dataset includes data from the NIH Pediatric MRI Data Repository created by the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development. This is a multisite, longitudinal study of typically developing children from ages newborn through young adulthood conducted by the Brain Development Cooperative Group and supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (Contract #s N01- HD02-3343, N01-MH9-0002, and N01-NS-9-2314, -2315, -2316, -2317, -2319 and -2320). A listing of the participating sites and a complete listing of the study investigators can be found at http://pediatricmri.nih.gov/nihpd/info/participating_centers.html. The ADNI data used in the preparation of this manuscript were obtained from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) (National Institutes of Health Grant U01 AG024904). The ADNI is funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and through generous contributions from the following: Abbott, AstraZeneca AB, Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai Global Clinical Development, Elan Corporation, Genentech, GE Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Innogenetics NV, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Co., Medpace, Inc., Merck and Co., Inc., Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., F. 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Tuning the brain for motherhood: prolactin-like central signalling in virgin, pregnant, and lactating female mice

Prolactin is fundamental for the expression of maternal behaviour. In virgin female rats, prolactin administered upon steroid hormone priming accelerates the onset of maternal care. By contrast, the role of prolactin in mice maternal behaviour remains unclear. This study aims at characterizing central prolactin activity patterns in female mice and their variation through pregnancy and lactation. This was revealed by immunoreactivity of phosphorylated (active) signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (pSTAT5-ir), a key molecule in the signalling cascade of prolactin receptors. We also evaluated non-hypophyseal lactogenic activity during pregnancy by administering bromocriptine, which suppresses hypophyseal prolactin release. Late-pregnant and lactating females showed significantly increased pSTAT5-ir resulting in a widespread pattern of immunostaining with minor variations between pregnant and lactating animals, which comprises nuclei of the sociosexual and maternal brain, including telencephalic (septum, nucleus of the stria terminalis, and amygdala), hypothalamic (preoptic, paraventricular, supraoptic, and ventromedial), and midbrain (periaqueductal grey) regions. During late pregnancy, this pattern was not affected by the administration of bromocriptine, suggesting it to be elicited mostly by non-hypophyseal lactogenic agents, likely placental lactogens. Virgin females displayed, instead, a variable pattern of pSTAT5-ir restricted to a subset of the brain nuclei labelled in pregnant and lactating mice. A hormonal substitution experiment confirmed that estradiol and progesterone contribute to the variability found in virgin females. Our results reflect how the shaping of the maternal brain takes place prior to parturition and suggest that lactogenic agents are important candidates in the development of maternal behaviours already during pregnancy.This work has been funded by the Spanish MINECO-FEDER (BFU2013-47688-P), the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha/FEDER (PEIC11-0045-4490), and the Universitat Jaume I. This work is part of the Doctoral Thesis of Hugo Salais-López, granted by the FPU (Formación de Profesorado Universitario) programme of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science