648 research outputs found
The brattleboro rat displays a natural deficit in social discrimination that is restored by clozapine and a neurotensin analog.
Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are a major source of dysfunction for which more effective treatments are needed. The vasopressin-deficient Brattleboro (BRAT) rat has been shown to have several natural schizophrenia-like deficits, including impairments in prepulse inhibition and memory. We investigated BRAT rats and their parental strain, Long-Evans (LE) rats, in a social discrimination paradigm, which is an ethologically relevant animal test of cognitive deficits of schizophrenia based upon the natural preference of animals to investigate conspecifics. We also investigated the effects of the atypical antipsychotic, clozapine, and the putative antipsychotic, PD149163, a brain-penetrating neurotensin-1 agonist, on social discrimination in these rats. Adult rats were administered saline or one of the three doses of clozapine (0.1, 1.0, or 10 mg/kg) or PD149163 (0.1, 0.3, or 1.0 mg/kg), subcutaneously. Following drug administration, adult rats were exposed to a juvenile rat for a 4-min learning period. Animals were then housed individually for 30 min and then simultaneously exposed to the juvenile presented previously and a new juvenile for 4 min. Saline-treated LE rats, but not BRAT rats, exhibited intact social discrimination as evidenced by greater time spent exploring the new juvenile. The highest dose of clozapine and the two highest doses of PD149163 restored social discrimination in BRAT rats. These results provide further support for the utility of the BRAT rat as a genetic animal model relevant to schizophrenia and drug discovery. The potential of neurotensin agonists as putative treatments for cognitive deficits of schizophrenia was also supported
Photoionization in the time and frequency domain
Ultrafast processes in matter, such as the electron emission following light
absorption, can now be studied using ultrashort light pulses of attosecond
duration (s) in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range. The lack of
spectral resolution due to the use of short light pulses may raise serious
issues in the interpretation of the experimental results and the comparison
with detailed theoretical calculations. Here, we determine photoionization time
delays in neon atoms over a 40 eV energy range with an interferometric
technique combining high temporal and spectral resolution. We spectrally
disentangle direct ionization from ionization with shake up, where a second
electron is left in an excited state, thus obtaining excellent agreement with
theoretical calculations and thereby solving a puzzle raised by seven-year-old
measurements. Our experimental approach does not have conceptual limits,
allowing us to foresee, with the help of upcoming laser technology, ultra-high
resolution time-frequency studies from the visible to the x-ray range.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Competition between folded and extended structures of alanylalanine (Ala-Ala) in a molecular beam
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Cationic double K-hole pre-edge states of CS2 and SF6
Recent advances in X-ray instrumentation have made it possible to measure the
spectra of an essentially unexplored class of electronic states associated
with double inner-shell vacancies. Using the technique of single electron
spectroscopy, spectra of states in CS2 and SF6 with a double hole in the
K-shell and one electron exited to a normally unoccupied orbital have been
obtained. The spectra are interpreted with the aid of a high-level theoretical
model giving excellent agreement with the experiment. The results shed new
light on the important distinction between direct and conjugate shake-up in a
molecular context. In particular, systematic similarities and differences
between pre-edge states near single core holes investigated in X-ray
absorption spectra and the corresponding states near double core holes studied
here are brought out
Experimental Verification of the Chemical Sensitivity of Two-Site Double Core-Hole States Formed by an X-ray FEL
We have performed X-ray two-photon photoelectron spectroscopy (XTPPS) using
the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) in order
to study double core-hole (DCH) states of CO2, N2O and N2. The experiment
verifies the theory behind the chemical sensitivity of two-site (ts) DCH states
by comparing a set of small molecules with respect to the energy shift of the
tsDCH state and by extracting the relevant parameters from this shift.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Carbon dioxide ion dissociations after inner shell excitation and ionization: The origin of site-specific effects
Oxytocin alters patterns of brain activity and amygdalar connectivity by age during dynamic facial emotion identification
Aging is associated with increased difficulty in facial emotion identification, possibly due to age-related network change. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) facilitates emotion identification, but this is understudied in aging. To determine the effects of OT on dynamic facial emotion identification across adulthood, 46 young and 48 older participants self-administered intranasal OT or a placebo in a randomized, double-blind procedure. Older participants were slower and less accurate in identifying emotions. Although there was no behavioral treatment effect, partial least squares analysis supported treatment effects on brain patterns during emotion identification that varied by age and emotion. For young participants, OT altered the processing of sadness and happiness, whereas for older participants, OT only affected the processing of sadness (15.3% covariance, p\ua0= 0.004). Furthermore, seed partial least squares analysis showed that older participants in the OT group recruited a large-scale amygdalar network that was positively correlated for anger, fear, and happiness, whereas older participants in the placebo group recruited a smaller, negatively correlated network (7% covariance, p\ua0= 0.002). Advancing the literature, these findings show that OT alters brain activity and amygdalar connectivity by age and emotion
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