Computational Neuroscience and Compartmental Modeling
Bahman Zohuri, Patrick J. McDaniel in Electrical Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Neurological Disorders, 2019
The last several years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of neurobiologists building or using computer-based models as a regular part of their efforts to understand how different neural systems function. As experimental data continue to be amassed, it is increasingly clear that detailed physiological and anatomical data alone are not ensouled model to infer how neural circuits work. Experimentalists appear to be recognizing the need for the quantitative approach to exploring the functional consequences of particular neuronal features that are provided by modeling. This combination of modeling and experimental work has led to the creation of the new discipline of computational neuroscience. As part of compartmental modeling of neurons that are briefly explained in this chapter, we refer the readers to a book by Zohuri and Moghadam1 which gives the tutorials to understand something important about the assumption and the mathematical models that underline these computational modeling through simulations that are known as General Neural Simulation System (GENESIS).
Treatment and therapy
Rosa Angela Fabio, Tindara Caprì, Gabriella Martino in Understanding Rett Syndrome, 2019
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain that allows us to learn and adapt to our environment. Many studies have shown that plasticity is retained throughout the lifespan from infancy to old age. The results of these studies suggest that the training can improve neural plasticity and functional recovery after a lesion. Rehabilitative therapy, indeed, avoids a further loss of the representation of the physical structure within the intact cortex and induces an expansion of the area in the adjacent cortex. Even though during the last decades, a lot of scientists have revealed the possibility of recovering cortical functions after a lesion, which confirms that the human brain is physiologically sensitive in respect of the experience, and its plasticity is maintained in the case of a lesion. The ability to learn new motor-cognitive skills, with an intact CNS, is similar to the recovery of abilities after damage. Therefore, the brain has the possibility to compensate for cerebral lesions with specific mechanisms. This phenomenon consists of two processes: the functional reorganization of neuronal circuits, and their structural reconstruction. In the case of functional reorganization, the recovery depends on the entirety of the structures that perform functions that normally are not relevant to them, without the need to stop the activities that they were performing until then. Instead, according to the concept of redundancy, our brain has many more neurons that it actually uses, so if a part is damaged, another can replace their functions (see Figure 4.7).
Sleep deprivation therapy: A rapid-acting antidepressant
S.R. Pandi-Perumal, Meera Narasimhan, Milton Kramer in Sleep and Psychosomatic Medicine, 2017
Emerging new technologies, including optogenetics, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and nanomedicine strategies, are expected to provide exciting data in the near future that will help us to understand the mechanisms of rapid-acting antidepressants. Optogenetics enables researchers to selectively manipulate individual neural circuits.95 CRISPR enables the editing of DNA,96 while iPSCs can differentiate into many cell subtypes, thus providing the potential ability to rebuild neuronal circuits.97 Finally, a recent breakthrough in nanotechnology involves the introduction of novel DNA nanostructures in order to manipulate gene expression.98 Using these tools to target the genes and their pathways that are relevant to the rapid-acting antidepressant effects of SDT (and fast-acting, low-dose ketamine) could help to revolutionize the treatment of depression.
Ethical Implications of BRAIN 2.0: Beyond Bioethics, Beyond Borders
Published in AJOB Neuroscience, 2020
Gidon Felsen
A central goal of the US BRAIN Initiative is to elucidate fundamental brain function at the level of neural circuits by “identifying and characterizing the component cells, defining their synaptic connections with one another, [and] observing their dynamic patterns of activity as the circuit functions in vivo during behavior” (BRAIN 2025 Report 2014). While an important ultimate goal of the Initiative is to treat and cure disease (BRAIN Initiative 2.0 2019), it is recognized that understanding healthy brain function is a key step toward to doing so. This ambitious goal is shared by similar neuroscience initiatives across the globe. For example, the China Brain Project seeks to understand “how specific neural circuits perform their signal processing functions during cognitive processes and behaviors, [which] requires detailed information on the architecture of neural circuits at single-cell resolution and on the spatiotemporal pattern of neuronal activity” (Poo et al. 2016). These examples illustrate that the global neuroscience community—of researchers publishing in the same journals, attending meetings together and citing each other’s results—is generally in accord about the next big steps in understanding the brain.
Psychopharmacological advances in eating disorders
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 2018
Hubertus Himmerich, Janet Treasure
Appetite control includes a complex integration of several neural circuits including those related to (1) self- and social regulation, learning, and memory; (2) hedonic aspects associated with the desire to eat and pleasure during food consumption and satiation; and (3) the homeostatic regulation which integrates peripheral signals of food consumption and energy stores with central systems of appetite control [50–56]. These neural circuits are both anatomical and functional entities. On the basis of the current literature we propose a model in which we allocate certain brain functions, anatomic structures, their input and signal molecules, associated comorbidities, and psychopharmacological agents to these three systems, the self-regulatory, the hedonic, and the homeostatic system [50]. However, this is only an attempt to classify comorbidities and medications according to the putatively most relevant neural circuits for EDs. We are aware that this model includes several simplifications, but it helps to understand the role of the most important neural circuits and their signal molecules in EDs in keeping with the latest research. For further information regarding these three systems, see Table 2.
History of Drosophila neurogenetic research in South Korea
Published in Journal of Neurogenetics, 2023
Greg S. B. Suh, Kweon Yu, Young-Joon Kim, Yangkyun Oh, Joong-Jean Park
The identification and characterization of genes that regulate behavior and physiology led to a new initiative that has attempted to explain the functions of these key genes in the context of a neuronal pathway or circuit. With the advent of the approaches and techniques used by modern systems neuroscientists to elucidate the holistic view of a given behavioral or physiological response, Drosophila neurobiologists have also been able to engage in this effort. Anmo Kim, who received training in both sensory neurobiology and theoretical modeling, has set up his own laboratory at Hanyang University, where he has been trying to elucidate how sensory information is translated into action in Drosophila. A research article from his group, featured in this special issue, describes how visual circuits are organized for two elementary visual behaviors – optomotor stabilization versus fixation – through distinct neural pathways (An et al., 2022: ‘The role of motion-sensitive visual neurons in object fixation behavior of flying Drosophila’). Another key feature of neuronal circuits is their interactions with non-neuronal tissues. A review article from Jiwon Shim and colleagues introduces novel interactions between chemosensory neurons and hematopoiesis or immunity that link the brain to the fly blood cells, culminating the significance of the brain-body communications.
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