Avoidance Response in Goldfish: Emotional and Temporal Involvement of Medial and Lateral Telencephalic Pallium

The hippocampus and the amygdala are involved in avoidance learning in mammals. The medial and lateral pallia of actinopterygian fish have been proposed as homologous to the mammalian pallial amygdala and hippocampus, respectively, on the basis of neuroanatomical findings. This work was aimed at studying the effects of ablation of the medial telencephalic pallia (MP) and lateral telencephalic pallia (LP) in goldfish on the retention of a conditioned avoidance response previously acquired in two experimental conditions. In the first experiment, fish were trained in nontrace avoidance conditioning. In the second experiment, fish were trained in trace avoidance conditioning in which temporal cues were crucial for the learning process. An MP lesion affected the retention of the avoidance response in both procedures; in contrast, an LP lesion impaired the retention only in the trace-conditioning procedure. These data support the presence of two different systems of memory in fish, based on discrete telencephalic areas: the MP, involved in an emotional memory system; and the LP, involved in a spatial, relational, or temporal memory system. Moreover, these differential effects were similar to those produced by amygdalar and hippocampal lesions in mammals. We conclude that these specialized systems of memory could have appeared early during phylogenesis and could have been conserved throughout vertebrate evolution.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología BF-I2001-3178Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología I2000-0315Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología I2003-0029Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología PB-96-1334Junta de Andalucía CVI-24

Efectos de la ablación telencefálica sobre el aprendizaje apetitivo instrumental en la carpa dorada (Carassius auratus)

Efectos de la ablación telencefálica sobre el aprendizaje apetitivo instrumental en la carpa dorada (Carassius auratus). En este experimento se emplearon carpas doradas (Carassius auratus) con ablación bilateral del telencéfalo o con operación de control en un procedimiento de entrenamiento instrumental con distribución de ensayos ampliamente espaciados (un ensayo por día). Los animales fueron entrenados a nadar en un corredor bajo condiciones de reforzamiento continuo o reforzamiento parcial al 50%. Se realizaron 32 sesiones diarias de adquisición seguidas de 32 sesiones diarias de extinción en las que la comida fue suprimida. La lesión telencefálica afectó a la adquisición durante los primeros ensayos, aunque, al final, los animales lesionados alcanzaron una ejecución asintótica similar a la de los animales controles. La extinción se vio facilitada por las lesiones, independientemente del programa de reforzamiento usado durante la adquisición. Los resultados se interpretan en relación a los estudios comparativos de aprendizaje instrumental apetitivo con ensayos espaciados realizados en otros vertebrados.Goldfish received either bilateral ablation of the telencephalon or a sham operation, followed by instrumental training under widely-spaced conditions (one trial per day). Animals were trained to swim in a runway for either continuous reinforcement or 50% partial reinforcement. Thirty-two daily acquisition sessions were followed by 32 daily extinction sessions during which food was withheld. Telencephalic lesions disrupted early acquisition performance, but lessoned animals achieved an asymptotic performance similar to that of sham controls. Extinction was facilitated by the lesions, independently of the schedule of reinforcement used during acquisition. The results are interpreted in relation to comparative research on spaced-trial appetitive instrumental learning in vertebrates.Ministerio de Educación y Cultura PB96-1334Junta de Andalucía CVI-24

Validation of the Edinburgh postpartum depression scale in a population of puerperal women in Mexico

BACKGROUND: The Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS) has been validated and used successfully in detecting postnatal depression in several language versions in a number of countries. However, there is not any Mexican version of the EPDS that had been validated. Therefore, we sought to validate a Spanish translated Mexican version of the EPDS in a population of puerperal Mexican women. METHODS: One hundred puerperal women within their three month postpartum period attending routine postnatal consultations in a public hospital in Durango City, Mexico participated in the study. The participants were divided into two groups: one group included 49 women with less than 4 weeks of postpartum, and the other group included 51 women within 4 to 13 weeks of postpartum. All participants submitted a Spanish translated Mexican version of the EPDS and were interviewed by a psychiatrist to assess major and minor depression by using DSM-IV criteria. RESULTS: Out of the 49 women with less than 4 weeks of postpartum, 4 were found as suffering from major depression and none from minor depression by using the DSM-IV criteria. In this group of women we found that the best EPDS score for screening depression was 11/12. This threshold showed a sensitivity of 75% (95% CI: 63.8–86.2), a specificity of 93% (95% CI: 84.6–100), a positive predictive value of 50%, a negative predictive value of 97.6%, and an area under the curve of 0.84. While in the 51 women within 4 to 13 weeks of postpartum, 7 were found as suffering from major depression and 1 from minor depression by using the DSM-IV criteria. In this group we found that the best EPDS score for screening depression was 7/8. This threshold showed a sensitivity of 75% (95% CI: 66.1–83.9), a specificity of 84% (95% CI: 76.1–91.9), a positive predictive value of 46.2%, a negative predictive value of 94.7% and an area under the curve of 0.80. CONCLUSION: The Mexican version of the EPDS can be considered for screening depression in puerperal Mexican women whenever cut-off scores of 11/12 and 7/8 in women with less than 4 weeks and within 4 to 13 weeks of postpartum are used, respectively

Telencephalon ablation impairs goldfish allocentric spatial learning in a "hole-board" task

The present work analyzes the involvement of telencephalon of goldfish in spatial strategies, using a procedure analogue to the hole-board task. With this aim, goldfish with sham operation or telencephalon ablation were trained to find a baited feeder within a twenty-five feeder matrix, which maintained stable spatial relationships relative to five peripheral landmarks. After training, different types of probe tests were conducted. Although both groups learned the task, probe trials showed that whereas the sham animals used the whole configuration of cues to implement map-like strategies the telencephalic animals used a guidance strategy based on cues located in the vicinity of the baited feeder. These results confirm the role of teleost fish telencephalon in the use of allocentric strategies obtained with other spatial procedures, and indicate that the hole-board task described here for goldfish is a useful tool to assess the neural bases of spatial cognition in teleost fish.Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte BFU-2004-03219Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte BFU2007-6228Junta de Andalucía BIO-24

Conservation of Spatial Memory Function in the Pallial Forebrain of Reptiles and Ray-Finned Fishes

The hippocampus of mammals and birds is critical for spatial memory. Neuroanatomical evidence indicates that the medial cortex (MC) of reptiles and the lateral pallium (LP) of ray-finned fishes could be homologous to the hippocampus of mammals and birds. In this work, we studied the effects of lesions to the MC of turtles and to the LP of goldfish in spatial memory. Lesioned animals were trained in place, and cue maze tasks and crucial probe and transfer tests were performed. In experiment 1, MC-lesioned turtles in the place task failed to locate the goal during trials in which new start positions were used, whereas sham animals navigated directly to the goal independently of start location. In contrast, no deficit was observed in cue learning. In experiment 2, LP lesion produced a dramatic impairment in goldfish trained in the place task, whereas medial and dorsal pallium lesions did not decrease accuracy. In addition, none of these pallial lesions produced deficits in cue learning. These results indicate that lesions to the MC of turtles and to the LP of goldfish, like hippocampal lesions in mammals and birds, selectively impair map-like memory representations of the environmental space. Thus, the forebrain structures of reptiles and teleost fish neuroanatomically equivalent to the mammalian and avian hippocampus also share a central role in spatial cognition. Present results suggest that the presence of a hippocampus-dependent spatial memory system is a primitive feature of the vertebrate forebrain that has been conserved through evolution.Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior de EspañaJunta de Andalucí

Hippocampal pallium and map-like memories through vertebrate evolution

The hippocampus in humans and other mammals is essential for episodic and relational memories. Comparative evidence indicates that a hippocampal pallium homologue is present in birds, reptiles, amphibians, ray-finned fishes, cartilaginous fishes and agnathans. Some of their characteristics, such as the topological position and the pattern of connectivity, appear remarkably well conserved. We review here substantial data showing that in all the vertebrate groups studied up to date, from fish to mammals, the hippocampus plays a fundamental role in spatial memory. In these vertebrates groups, the hippocampal pallium homologue is involved in the use of map-like, relational representations of the objective space that provide stable allocentric frames of reference, thus allowing flexible navigation. These similarities suggest a common evolutionary ancestry and indicate that the functional properties of the hippocampus appear early in the vertebrate phylogenesis and are retained through the independent evolution of the vertebrate lineages.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España PSI2011-2748

Psicoexposoma: una perspectiva holística más allá de la salud y la enfermedad

Antecedentes: el concepto de exposoma surgió como una estrategia para impulsar el estudio exhaustivo de las exposiciones ambientales a lo largo de la vida del individuo y su impacto en la salud. El desarrollo de dispositivos electrónicos para obtener datos de geolocalización, biológicos o biomarcadores de exposición y los avances en las ciencias “ómicas” y en bioinformática permiten la recopilación y el análisis masivo de datos muy diversos. Objetivo: proponer el término psicoexposoma en línea con el concepto de exposoma generado desde las ciencias ambientales. Método: se llevó a cabo una revisión de la literatura para buscar la inclusión de términos psicológicos asociados al concepto de exposoma. Se discute la justificación de un enfoque de psicoexposición para las ciencias psicológicas. Resultados: los términos psicología, psiquiatría o enfermedades neurológicas son escasos en el enfoque del exposoma. La experiencia en el control de variables ambientales sitúa al psicólogo en un punto de partida ventajoso para realizar estudios de psicoexposoma. Conclusión: la psicología puede aprovechar tanto las ciencias de la exposición como las ciencias “ómicas” para crear un enfoque integrado de psicoexposición que pueda ayudar a descifrar la etiología de los trastornos psicológicos y a promover la salud mental del individuo.Background: The concept of the exposome has emerged as a new strategy for studying all environmental exposures throughout an individual’s life and their impact on human health. Nowadays, electronic devices are available to collect data about an individual’s geolocation, biological function, or exposure biomarkers. The appearance of “omic” sciences and advances in bioinformatics have allowed massive data-gathering and analysis from various scientific fields. Objective: to propose the term Psychoexposome in line with the concept of the exposome from the field of environmental sciences. Method: a literature review of psychological terms associated with the exposome concept was carried out and the rationale and benefits of a psychoexposme approach for psychological sciences is discussed. Results: the terms psychology, psychiatry and neurological diseases are scarce in the exposome approach. A long tradition in psychology of performing epidemiological studies and in the study of multifactorial influences traits places psychologists at an advantageous starting point for conducting psychoexposome studies. Conclusion: psychology may take advantage from both exposome and omic sciences to create an integrated psychoexposome approach that may help in deciphering the etiology of psychological disorders and improving people’s mental health

7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl

Spatial Cognition in Teleost Fish: Strategies and Mechanisms

Teleost fish have been traditionally considered primitive vertebrates compared to mammals and birds in regard to brain complexity and behavioral functions. However, an increasing amount of evidence suggests that teleosts show advanced cognitive capabilities including spatial navigation skills that parallel those of land vertebrates. Teleost fish rely on a multiplicity of sensory cues and can use a variety of spatial strategies for navigation, ranging from relatively simple body-centered orientation responses to allocentric or “external world-centered” navigation, likely based on map-like relational memory representations of the environment. These distinct spatial strategies are based on separate brain mechanisms. For example, a crucial brain center for egocentric orientation in teleost fish is the optic tectum, which can be considered an essential hub in a wider brain network responsible for the generation of egocentrically referenced actions in space. In contrast, other brain centers, such as the dorsolateral telencephalic pallium of teleost fish, considered homologue to the hippocampal pallium of land vertebrates, seem to be crucial for allocentric navigation based on map-like spatial memory. Such hypothetical relational memory representations endow fish’s spatial behavior with considerable navigational flexibility, allowing them, for example, to perform shortcuts and detours.Gobierno de España PSI2017-84970-PJunta de Andalucía US-126476

Un recorrido por la vida y la obra de Rafael Lorente de Nó

Con motivo de la reciente muerte de Rafael Lorente de Nó, nos propusimos dar a conocer un esbozo general de su vida y su obra. Labor necesaria si tenemos en cuenta el notable desconocimiento existente en España de su figura y de la magnitud de su producción científica. Se presentan una reconstrucción de su biografía y un somero análisis de su obra, en un recorrido científico que abarca desde sus primeros trabajos en España junto a Cajal, hasta los últimos realizados con Vicente Honrubia en Estados Unidos. Se resalta, ante todo, sus importantes contribuciones en diversos campos de la Neurociencia, que sólo ahora empiezan a ser reconocidas