Electrocortical and Autonomic Alteration by Administration of a Pleasant and an Unpleasant Odor

The present study was designed to investigate whether there is a consistent response in ongoing EEG due to repetitive olfactory stimulation. Two odors of different hedonic quality were presented bilaterally to five male subjects at suprathreshold levels. A room-air blank served as the control stimulus. Each odor was presented six times to each subject in each of three sessions. Electrocortical activity, heart rate, skin conductance and breathing cycle were recorded continuously. EEG variables assessed were difference scores of absolute power in the frequency bands theta, alpha1, alpha2 and beta1 at eight locations. Phenylethyl alcohol was rated pleasant, while valeric acid was judged unpleasant. Within 8 s after stimulus release, valeric acid increased alpha2 power, whereas phenylethyl alcohol did not. No further frequency bands were affected by olfactory stimulation. These findings suggest that smelling an unpleasant odor leads to a cortical deactivation. Chem. Senses 20: 505-515, 199

The Interaction between Early Life Epilepsy and Autistic-Like Behavioral Consequences: A Role for the Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) Pathway

Early life seizures can result in chronic epilepsy, cognitive deficits and behavioral changes such as autism, and conversely epilepsy is common in autistic children. We hypothesized that during early brain development, seizures could alter regulators of synaptic development and underlie the interaction between epilepsy and autism. The mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) modulates protein translation and is dysregulated in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, a disorder characterized by epilepsy and autism. We used a rodent model of acute hypoxia-induced neonatal seizures that results in long term increases in neuronal excitability, seizure susceptibility, and spontaneous seizures, to determine how seizures alter mTOR Complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling. We hypothesized that seizures occurring at a developmental stage coinciding with a critical period of synaptogenesis will activate mTORC1, contributing to epileptic networks and autistic-like behavior in later life. Here we show that in the rat, baseline mTORC1 activation peaks during the first three postnatal weeks, and induction of seizures at postnatal day 10 results in further transient activation of its downstream targets phospho-4E-BP1 (Thr37/46), phospho-p70S6K (Thr389) and phospho-S6 (Ser235/236), as well as rapid induction of activity-dependent upstream signaling molecules, including BDNF, phospho-Akt (Thr308) and phospho-ERK (Thr202/Tyr204). Furthermore, treatment with the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin immediately before and after seizures reversed early increases in glutamatergic neurotransmission and seizure susceptibility and attenuated later life epilepsy and autistic-like behavior. Together, these findings suggest that in the developing brain the mTORC1 signaling pathway is involved in epileptogenesis and altered social behavior, and that it may be a target for development of novel therapies that eliminate the progressive effects of neonatal seizures

Electrocortical and Autonomic Alteration by Administration of a Pleasant and an Unpleasant Odor

ISSN:0379-864XISSN:1464-355

Global outbreak of severe Mycobacterium chimaera disease after cardiac surgery: a molecular epidemiological study.

Since 2013, over 100 cases of Mycobacterium chimaera prosthetic valve endocarditis and disseminated disease were notified in Europe and the USA, linked to contaminated heater-cooler units (HCUs) used during cardiac surgery. We did a molecular epidemiological investigation to establish the source of these patients' disease

The 'Higgs' amplitude mode at the two-dimensional superfluid/Mott insulator transition

Spontaneous symmetry breaking plays a key role in our understanding of nature. In relativistic quantum field theory, a broken continuous symmetry leads to the emergence of two types of fundamental excitation: massless Nambu-Goldstone modes and a massive 'Higgs' amplitude mode. An excitation of Higgs type is of crucial importance in the standard model of elementary particle physics, and also appears as a fundamental collective mode in quantum many-body systems. Whether such a mode exists in low-dimensional systems as a resonance-like feature, or whether it becomes overdamped through coupling to Nambu-Goldstone modes, has been a subject of debate. Here we experimentally find and study a Higgs mode in a two-dimensional neutral superfluid close to a quantum phase transition to a Mott insulating phase. We unambiguously identify the mode by observing the expected reduction in frequency of the onset of spectral response when approaching the transition point. In this regime, our system is described by an effective relativistic field theory with a two-component quantum field, which constitutes a minimal model for spontaneous breaking of a continuous symmetry. Additionally, all microscopic parameters of our system are known from first principles and the resolution of our measurement allows us to detect excited states of the many-body system at the level of individual quasi-particles. This allows for an in-depth study of Higgs excitations that also addresses the consequences of the reduced dimensionality and confinement of the system. Our work constitutes a step towards exploring emergent relativistic models with ultracold atomic gases