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Feizolahi F, Arabzadeh E, Sarshin A, Falahi F, Dehghannayeri Z, Ali Askari A, Wong A, Aghaei F, Zargani M. Effects of Exercise Training and L-Arginine Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles on Hippocampus Histopathology, β-Secretase Enzyme Function, APP, Tau, Iba1and APOE-4 mRNA in Aging Rats. Neurotox Res 2024; 42:21. [PMID: 38441819 DOI: 10.1007/s12640-024-00699-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Revised: 02/19/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024]
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the combined and independent effects of exercise training and L-Arginine loaded chitosan nanoparticles (LA CNPs) supplementation on hippocampal Tau, App, Iba1, and ApoE gene expression, oxidative stress, β-secretase enzyme activity, and hippocampus histopathology in aging rats. Thirty-five male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to five groups (n = 7 in each): Young (8 weeks old), Old (20 months old), old + L-arginine supplementation (Old Sup), old + exercise (Old Exe) and old + L-arginine supplementation + exercise (Old Sup + Exe). LA CNPs were administered to the supplement groups through gavage at a dosage of 500 mg/kg/day for 6-weeks. Exercise groups were subjected to a swimming exercise program five days/week for the same duration. Upon the completion of their interventions, the animals underwent behavioral and open-field task tests and were subsequently sacrificed for hippocampus genetic and histopathological evaluation. For histopathological analysis of brain, Cresyl violet staining was used. Congo Red staining was employed to confirm amyloid plaques in the hippocampus. Expressions of Tau, App, Iba1, and ApoE genes were determined by real-time PCR. In contrast to the Old group, Old Exe and Old Sup + Exe groups spent more time in the central space in the open field task (p < 0.05) and have more live cells in the hippocampus. Old rats (Old, Old Sup and Old Exe groups) exhibited a significant Aβ peptide accumulation and increases in APP, Tau, Iba1, APOE-4 mRNA and MDA, along with decreases in SOD compared to the young group (p < 0.05). However, LA CNPs supplementation, exercise, and their combination (Old Sup, Old Exe and Old Sup + Exe) significantly reduced MDA, Aβ plaque as well as APP, Tau, Iba1, and APOE-4 mRNA compared to the Old group (p < 0.05). Consequently, the administration of LA CNPs supplements and exercise might regulate the risk factors of hippocampus cell and tissue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Foad Feizolahi
- Clinical Care and Health Promotion Research Center, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Amir Sarshin
- Clinical Care and Health Promotion Research Center, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Farshad Falahi
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Zahra Dehghannayeri
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Ali Ali Askari
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Alexei Wong
- Department of Health and Human Performance, Marymount University, Arlington, VA, USA
| | - Fariba Aghaei
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Mehdi Zargani
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran.
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Mishra W, Kheradpezhouh E, Arabzadeh E. Activation of M1 cholinergic receptors in mouse somatosensory cortex enhances information processing and detection behaviour. Commun Biol 2024; 7:3. [PMID: 38168628 PMCID: PMC10761830 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05699-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024] Open
Abstract
To optimise sensory representations based on environmental demands, the activity of cortical neurons is regulated by neuromodulators such as Acetylcholine (ACh). ACh is implicated in cognitive functions including attention, arousal and sleep cycles. However, it is not clear how specific ACh receptors shape the activity of cortical neurons in response to sensory stimuli. Here, we investigate the role of a densely expressed muscarinic ACh receptor M1 in information processing in the mouse primary somatosensory cortex and its influence on the animal's sensitivity to detect vibrotactile stimuli. We show that M1 activation results in faster and more reliable neuronal responses, manifested by a significant reduction in response latencies and the trial-to-trial variability. At the population level, M1 activation reduces the network synchrony, and thus enhances the capacity of cortical neurons in conveying sensory information. Consistent with the neuronal findings, we show that M1 activation significantly improves performances in a vibriotactile detection task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wricha Mishra
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Ehsan Kheradpezhouh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
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Arabzadeh E, Shirvani H, Masjedi MR, Ghanei M, Hofmeister M, Rostamkhani F. Treadmill exercise with nanoselenium supplementation affects the expression of Irisin/FNDC5 and semaphorin 3A in rats exposed to cigarette smoke extract. 3 Biotech 2024; 14:4. [PMID: 38058362 PMCID: PMC10695908 DOI: 10.1007/s13205-023-03849-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023] Open
Abstract
In the current study, we investigated the impacts of 6 weeks of aerobic interval training (AIT) with selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) on muscle, serum, and lung irisin (FNDC5) and Sema3A in rats exposed to cigarette smoke extract (CSE). To this end, 49 male Wistar rats (8 weeks old) were divided into seven groups: control, SeNPs (2.5 mg/kg b.w by oral gavage, 3 days/week, 6 weeks), AIT (49 min/day, 5 days/week for 6 weeks, interval), SeNPs + AIT, CSE (150 µL by IP injection, 1 day/week for 6 weeks), CSE + AIT, and CSE + SeNPs + AIT. The CSE group showed a significant reduction in irisin and Sema3A serum levels, as well as a decrease in FNDC5 and Sema3A gene expression in lung tissue (p < 0.05). A combined treatment (AIT with SeNPs) significantly increased the serum level and the expression of muscle and lung irisin (FNDC5) and Sema3A in CSE received groups (p < 0.05). There was a positive and significant correlation between muscle FNDC5 and lung FNDC5 in the CSE + SeNPs + AIT group (r = 0.92, p = 0.025). In addition, there was a positive and significant correlation between serum Sema3A and lung Sema3A of CSE + SeNPs + AIT group (r = 0.97, p = 0.004). Seemingly, performing aerobic exercises with the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory supplement nano-selenium in the model of lung damage (similar to COPD) can boost myokine irisin and Sema3A, especially in serum and lung tissue. These results displayed the paracrine/endocrine regulatory function of these myokines on other tissues. In other words, these interventions emphasized the creation of crosstalk between skeletal muscles and damaged lung, focusing on its recovery; however, further research is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hossein Shirvani
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad Reza Masjedi
- Tobacco Control Research Center (TCRC), Iranian Anti-Tobacco Association, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mostafa Ghanei
- Chemical Injuries Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Martin Hofmeister
- Department of Food and Nutrition, Consumer Centre of the German Federal State of Bavaria, Munich, Germany
| | - Fatemeh Rostamkhani
- Department of Biology, Yadegar-e-Imam Khomeini (RAH) Shahre Rey Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
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Norouzi Kamareh M, Samadi M, Arabzadeh E, Abdollahi M, Sheidaei S, Riyahi Malayeri S, Schlicht J, Shirvani H, Rostamkhani F. The effect of 24-hour sleep deprivation and anaerobic exercise on the expression of BAX, BCL2, BMAL1 and CCAR2 genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells after L-arginine supplementation. Gene 2023; 887:147732. [PMID: 37625565 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2023.147732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Revised: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/22/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2023]
Abstract
Sleep deprivation disrupt the circadian clock and exercise performance. Defective oxidative stress caused by sleep deprivation may affect the expression of genes involved in cell apoptosis. Since a number of studies have shown the anti-apoptotic effect of L-arginine, so the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of eight weeks of L-arginine supplementation on the expression of brain and muscle ARNT-like protein 1 (BMAL1), cell cycle and apoptosis regulator 2 (CCAR2), and BAX and BCL2 genes during sleep deprivation and acute anaerobic exercise. Participants included 20 healthy men age 26-35 years, randomized into the L-arginine intervention group (n = 10) and a placebo control (n = 10). The running-based anaerobic sprint test (RAST) was used for anaerobic exercise. Intervention subjects took one 1000 mg L-arginine tablet daily for 8 weeks. The Real-Time PCR method was used to determine apoptosis gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Acute anaerobic exercise and sleep deprivation both increased the expression of BAX and CCAR2 genes, and decreased the expression of BCL2 and BMAL1 genes (p < 0.05 for all). L-arginine supplementation increased the expression of BMAL1 and BCL2 genes and decreased the expression of BAX and CCAR2 genes relative to control (p < 0.05). L-Arginine controlled the increase in expression of BAX and CCAR2 genes and the decrease in expression of BCL2 and BMAL1 genes in response to sleep deprivation and acute anaerobic exercise (p < 0.05). Our results showed that 24-hour sleep deprivation and acute anaerobic exercise increased the expression of pro-apoptotic genes (BAX and CCAR2) and decreased the expression of anti-apoptotic genes (BCL2 and BMAL1), although the effect of sleep deprivation is greater. In this situation, L-arginine supplementation may balance the apoptotic state of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. However, any recommendation about this needs further research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mirzahossein Norouzi Kamareh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad Samadi
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mahkameh Abdollahi
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Sadra Sheidaei
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Shahin Riyahi Malayeri
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Jeffrey Schlicht
- Department of Health Promotion and Exercise Sciences, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT 06810, USA
| | - Hossein Shirvani
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Fatemeh Rostamkhani
- Department of Biology, Yadegar-e-Imam Khomeini (RAH) Shahre Rey Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
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Aghaei F, Wong A, Zargani M, Sarshin A, Feizolahi F, Derakhshan Z, Hashemi M, Arabzadeh E. Effects of swimming exercise combined with silymarin and vitamin C supplementation on hepatic inflammation, oxidative stress, and histopathology in elderly rats with high-fat diet-induced liver damage. Nutrition 2023; 115:112167. [PMID: 37611505 DOI: 10.1016/j.nut.2023.112167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Revised: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/25/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to demonstrate that swimming exercise combined with silymarin and vitamin C supplementation improves hepatic inflammation, oxidative stress, and liver histopathology in elderly rats with high-fat diet-induced liver damage. METHODS Forty elderly male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to five groups (n = 8 in each): a normal diet (control), a high-fat diet (HFD), HFD + silymarin and vitamin C supplementation (HFD+Sup), HFD + swimming exercise (HFD+Exe), and HFD+Sup+Exe group (HFD+Sup+Exe). The non-alcoholic fatty liver model was induced for 6 wk in the HFD groups. After 6 wk of consuming an HFD, a daily supplemental gavage was administered to rats as an intervention along with HFD in the supplement groups for 8 wk. Moreover, rats in the exercise groups were subjected to swimming exercise training 5 d/wk for the same period. RESULTS The combination of swimming training and supplementation caused significant decreases in liver inflammatory biomarkers tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β while increasing total antioxidant capacity and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION In elderly rats with liver injury caused by an HFD, the combination of exercise and silymarin with vitamin C supplementation effectively reduced oxidative stress, liver inflammation, fat accumulation, and regulated liver enzymes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fariba Aghaei
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Alexei Wong
- Department of Health and Human Performance, Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia, USA
| | - Mehdi Zargani
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Amir Sarshin
- Clinical Care and Health Promotion Research Center, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Foad Feizolahi
- Clinical Care and Health Promotion Research Center, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Zhila Derakhshan
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Mohammadreza Hashemi
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Aghaei F, Arabzadeh E, Mahmoodzadeh Hosseini H, Shirvani H. Exercise Training and Probiotic Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG Reduce Tetracycline-Induced Liver Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Rats with Hepatic Steatosis. Probiotics Antimicrob Proteins 2023; 15:1393-1405. [PMID: 36169882 DOI: 10.1007/s12602-022-09994-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Lifestyle modification with regular exercise can improve metabolic diseases by reducing lipid profile and inflammation. Probiotics have been recently recommended not only for gastrointestinal diseases but also for metabolic and even degenerative diseases. Therefore, in the present study, the effect of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus strain GG (LGG) as a probiotic on tetracycline-induced hepatic steatosis in an animal model was evaluated. Eighty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into eight groups (n = 10 in each group): control, LGG, HIIT, LGG + HIIT, tetracycline-induced (TTC), TTC + LGG, TTC + HIIT, and TTC + LGG + HIIT. The rats are treated by intraperitoneal injection (IP) with 140 mg kg-1 tetracycline, an antibiotic previously known to induce steatosis. The exercise training groups performed HIIT 5 days/week for 5 weeks, and 107 CFU/ml of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG was gavaged for the LGG groups 5 days/week for 5 weeks. Fatty droplets in the hepatocyte were considered with Oil Red staining. TTC-receiving rats have more lipid accumulation and larger lipid droplets in the liver compared to healthy animals. The two-way ANOVA showed that the interaction of LGG and HIIT significantly decreased LDL, cholesterol, and triglyceride in the healthy rats (p < 0.05). In TTC-receiving rats, the interaction of LGG and HIIT significantly increased HDL and SOD and significantly decreased triglyceride, ALP, AST, and ALT (p < 0.05). The consumption of probiotic LGG, along with HIIT with control of lipid profile and liver enzymes and improvement of the oxidative capacity, neutralizes the damage of TTC to liver tissue. Therefore, this protocol can be recommended for people with hepatic steatosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fariba Aghaei
- Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Alborz, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hamideh Mahmoodzadeh Hosseini
- Applied Microbiology Research Center, Systems Biology and Poisonings Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hossein Shirvani
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Zargani M, Ramirez-Campillo R, Arabzadeh E. Swimming and L-arginine loaded chitosan nanoparticles ameliorates aging-induced neuron atrophy, autophagy marker LC3, GABA and BDNF-TrkB pathway in the spinal cord of rats. Pflugers Arch 2023; 475:621-635. [PMID: 36869900 DOI: 10.1007/s00424-023-02795-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2022] [Revised: 01/05/2023] [Accepted: 02/08/2023] [Indexed: 03/05/2023]
Abstract
Aging is associated with muscle atrophy, and erosion and destruction of neuronal pathways in the spinal cord. The study aim was to assess the effect of swimming training (Sw) and L-arginine loaded chitosan nanoparticles (LA-CNPs) on the sensory and motor neuron population, autophagy marker LC3, total oxidant status/total antioxidant capacity, behavioural test, GABA and BDNF-TrkB pathway in the spinal cord of aging rats. The rats were randomized to five groups: young (8-weeks) control (n = 7), old control (n = 7), old Sw (n = 7), old LA-CNPs (n = 7) and old Sw + LA-CNPs (n = 7). Groups under LA-CNPs supplementation received 500 mg/kg/day. Sw groups performed a swimming exercise programme 5 days per week for 6 weeks. Upon the completion of the interventions the rats were euthanized and the spinal cord was fixed and frozen for histological assessment, IHC, and gene expression analysis. The old group had more atrophy in the spinal cord with higher changes in LC3 as an indicator of autophagy in the spinal cord compared to the young group (p < 0.0001). The old Sw + LA-CNPs group increased (improved) spinal cord GABA (p = 0.0187), BDNF (p = 0.0003), TrkB (p < 0.0001) gene expression, decreased autophagy marker LC3 protein (p < 0.0001), nerve atrophy and jumping/licking latency (p < 0.0001), improved sciatic functional index score and total oxidant status/total antioxidant capacity compared to the old group (p < 0.0001). In conclusion, swimming and LA-CNPs seems to ameliorate aging-induced neuron atrophy, autophagy marker LC3, oxidant-antioxidant status, functional restoration, GABA and BDNF-TrkB pathway in the spinal cord of aging rats. Our study provides experimental evidence for a possible positive role of swimming and L-arginine loaded chitosan nanoparticles to decrease complications of aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehdi Zargani
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Rodrigo Ramirez-Campillo
- Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences Laboratory, School of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Universidad Andres Bello, 7591538, Santiago, Chile
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Abazari O, Shakibaee A, Shahriary A, Arabzadeh E, Hofmeister M. Hepatoprotective effects of moderate-intensity interval training along with ginger juice in an old male rat model. Pflugers Arch 2023; 475:437-452. [PMID: 36692542 DOI: 10.1007/s00424-023-02787-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2022] [Revised: 01/03/2023] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Aging is a natural process coupled with oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, gradually associated with losing organ function over time. Therefore, the objective of the current work was to peruse the protective effects of 8-week moderate-intensity interval training (MIIT) and ginger extract supplementation on some biomarkers of oxidative stress, inflammation, and lipid metabolism in the liver of elderly males Wistar rats (animal study with ethical code IR.BMSU.REC.1401.015). A total of thirty-two 22-month-aged male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to four groups: (1) control, (2) MIIT, (3) ginger, and (4) MIIT + ginger. After 8 weeks of treadmill training and ginger extract supplementation, the biochemical parameters (liver enzyme and lipid profile), inflammatory mediators (leucine-rich α-2 glycoprotein 1 (LRG1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and interleukin-6), pro-oxidant (malondialdehyde), antioxidant biomarkers (catalase, superoxide dismutase, total antioxidant capacity), some lipid metabolism regulators (carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1, adipose triglyceride lipase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, CD36, and AMP-activated protein kinase), and liver histopathological changes were appraised. The acquired findings pointed out that MIIT combined with ginger extract appreciably diminished the serum levels of LRG1, liver enzymes, and lipid profile relative to the other groups after 8 weeks of intervention. Furthermore, ginger + MIIT caused a great improvement in the liver levels of antioxidant biomarkers, pro-oxidant, pro-inflammatory biomarkers, lipid metabolism regulators, and liver tissue impairment compared to the other groups. The findings suggested that MIIT + ginger was more effective in improving examined indices relative to the other groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Omid Abazari
- Student Research Committee, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Abolfazl Shakibaee
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Alireza Shahriary
- Chemical Injuries Research Center, Systems Biology and Poisonings Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Martin Hofmeister
- Department of Food and Nutrition, Consumer Centre of the German Federal State of Bavaria, Munich, Germany
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Arabzadeh E, Ebrahimi S, Gholami M, Moiniafshari K, Sohrabi A, Armannia F, Shahba M. The relationship between physical activity pre COVID-19 pandemic with mental health, depression, and anxiety in COVID-19 patients: a cross-sectional study. Sport Sci Health 2023:1-6. [PMID: 37360976 PMCID: PMC10017344 DOI: 10.1007/s11332-023-01056-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Covid-19 pandemic has gained a growing trend and affected mental health in several aspects. Physical activity guidelines was strongly associated with a reduced risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes among infected adults. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between physical activity pre COVID-19 pandemic with mental health, depression, and anxiety in COVID-19 patients. Methods 206 hospitalized patients diagnosed with covid-19 (140 male and 66 female, aged 34.5 ± 12) were selected and completed physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) and hospital anxiety and depression questionnaire (HADS). For physical activity status assessment, a self-completed IPAQ questionnaire was taken and patients were divided into: (1) low active, (2) moderate active and (3) high active groups according to their physical activity experience. One-way ANOVA test was recruited and Tukey post hoc test was taken to assess difference among means. Pearson correlation was used to evaluate the association between physical activity level and mental health status (p < 0.05). Results The results from this study showed that anxiety and depression was significantly higher in low active patients (p = 0.001) and there was a negative correlation between physical activity level and HADS (p = 0.001). However, patients with high physical activity pre COVID-19 pandemic have a lowest levels of anxiety and depression compare to other groups (p < 0.001). Conclusion It seems that adequate physical activity as a part of a healthy lifestyle may have a beneficial effect on mental health during the current outbreak of covid-19. Therefore, it is suggested that we perform exercise training every day to preconditioning effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Samaneh Ebrahimi
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mandana Gholami
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Kimia Moiniafshari
- Food and Health group, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Ashkan Sohrabi
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Fariba Armannia
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mojdeh Shahba
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
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Zargani M, Rahimi A, Mazaheri Tirani Z, Arabzadeh E, Feizolahi F. Swimming exercise and nano-l-arginine supplementation improve oxidative capacity and some autophagy-related genes in the soleus muscle of aging rats. Gene 2023; 850:146955. [PMID: 36220447 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146955] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2022] [Revised: 09/04/2022] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
The present research aims to evaluate the effect of swimming exercise and chitosan-coated l-arginine on mitochondrial oxidation, BCL2 Interacting Protein 3 (Bnip3), NIP-like protein × (Nix), B-cell lymphoma-extra-large (Bcl-xL) and autophagy-related protein light chain 3(LC3) expression in soleus muscle of aging rats. In this experimental research, 25 male Wistar rats were assigned into five groups randomly: young, old, old + Nano l-arginine (Nano L-a), old + exercise (Ex), and old + Nano l-arginine (Nano L-a) + exercise (Ex) (n = 5 in each). They performed a swimming exercise program five days a week for six weeks. To determine the relative strength for rats before and after performing these interventions, the 1repetition maximum (1RM) test was done as a pre and post-test. The exercise program started with 20 min and after four sessions, gradually increased to 60 min and this time was maintained until the completion of the training period. l-arginine coated with chitosan nanoparticles was given to the rats in the l-arginine-supplemented group via gavage at a dosage of 500 mg/kg/day, five days a week, for six weeks. Additionally, the rats in all groups were fed a normal diet (2.87 kcal/g and 15 % energy from fat). Upon the completion of the protocol implementation, the rats were sacrificed and the soleus muscle was fixed and frozen to determine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, immunohistochemistry (IHC), gene expression analysis, levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). The results from the present research indicated that swimming exercise and Nano l-arginine improve the strength and histology of muscle tissue in old rats (p < 0.05). Aging significantly increased the expression of Nix and Bnip3 (p < 0.05) and reduced the Bcl-xL gene expression (p < 0.05). The expression of LC3 protein also increased with aging (p < 0.05). Therapeutic interventions, such as combined treatment (old + Nano L-a + Ex) for old animals, reduced the amount of this protein in soleus muscle (p < 0.05). The ROS values also showed a significant reduction only in the old + Nano L-a + Ex group compared to the old group. Moreover, TAC values show a significant decrease in the old and old + Ex groups in comparison to the young group. The use of arginine supplement, especially in nano form, along with swimming exercise seems to reduce the oxidative damage to the elderly muscle tissue, which has a positive effect on the structure and function of the soleus muscle. Since these interventions only had a significant effect on LC3 protein, further studies with more diverse measurement methods for autophagy are suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehdi Zargani
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Alireza Rahimi
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | | | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Foad Feizolahi
- Clinical Care and Health Promotion Research Center, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran.
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11
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Mafi F, Tang MF, Afarinesh MR, Ghasemian S, Sheibani V, Arabzadeh E. Temporal order judgment of multisensory stimuli in rat and human. Front Behav Neurosci 2023; 16:1070452. [PMID: 36710957 PMCID: PMC9879721 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1070452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
We do not fully understand the resolution at which temporal information is processed by different species. Here we employed a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task in rats and humans to test the temporal precision with which these species can detect the order of presentation of simple stimuli across two modalities of vision and audition. Both species reported the order of audiovisual stimuli when they were presented from a central location at a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA)s. While both species could reliably distinguish the temporal order of stimuli based on their sensory content (i.e., the modality label), rats outperformed humans at short SOAs (less than 100 ms) whereas humans outperformed rats at long SOAs (greater than 100 ms). Moreover, rats produced faster responses compared to humans. The reaction time data further revealed key differences in decision process across the two species: at longer SOAs, reaction times increased in rats but decreased in humans. Finally, drift-diffusion modeling allowed us to isolate the contribution of various parameters including evidence accumulation rates, lapse and bias to the sensory decision. Consistent with the psychophysical findings, the model revealed higher temporal sensitivity and a higher lapse rate in rats compared to humans. These findings suggest that these species applied different strategies for making perceptual decisions in the context of a multimodal TOJ task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Mafi
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Matthew F. Tang
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Mohammad Reza Afarinesh
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Sadegh Ghasemian
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Vahid Sheibani
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia,*Correspondence: Ehsan Arabzadeh,
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12
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Arabzadeh E, Ghassemi Gil-kalayeh Z, Gholami M, Abed Natanzi H, Ebrahimi S. The effect of 8 weeks of circuit resistance training on serum levels of decorin and IGF-I in sedentary young men. Sport Sci Health 2023. [DOI: 10.1007/s11332-022-01035-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
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13
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Avazpour S, Amini A, Shirvani H, Arabzadeh E. Exercise modulation in inflammation and metabolic hormonal disorders of COVID-19 to decrease risk factors in coronary heart disease. Horm Mol Biol Clin Investig 2022:hmbci-2022-0040. [PMID: 36560914 DOI: 10.1515/hmbci-2022-0040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2022] [Accepted: 12/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Sedentary life style separated during COVID-19 pandemic. Patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are vulnerable with sedentary life style. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of combined and high intensity interval training (HIIT) on C Reactive protein, galectin-3, leptin, fibrinogen and insulin resistance index in coronary heart disease after COVID-19. METHODS Thirty-six cardiovascular patients (55.14 ± 1.4 years, 78.6 ± 5.1 kg) were divided into three groups of combined exercise (n=13), HIIT (n=12) and control group (n=11). Combined exercise consisted of aerobic (4 weeks) and aerobic + HIIT exercise (4 weeks), three sessions per weeks. The protocol of the HIIT group included performing high intensity interval training, three sessions per weeks for 8 weeks. Blood samples were taken 24 h before the first training session and 48 h after the last training. C Reactive protein (CRP), galectin-3, leptin, fibrinogen measured with ELISA kit. RESULTS CRP, galectin-3 and fibrinogen decreased significantly after 8 weeks of combined training and HIIT (compare to pre-test). Also, insulin resistance index after 8 weeks of combined exercise showed a significant decrease compare to pre-test (p<0.05). After 8 weeks, CRP, galectin-3 and insulin resistance significantly decreased compare to control group (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS In the patient with CVD, combined exercise training may be more effective than HIIT in reducing metabolic and heart risk factors after an epidemic such as COVID-19. However, change of leptin need to more studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sahar Avazpour
- Department of Sports Sciences, Sports Biochemistry and Metabolism, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Gerash University of Medical Science, Gerash, Iran
| | - Amin Amini
- Faculty of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Sciences, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hossein Shirvani
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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14
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Arabzadeh E, Norouzi Kamareh M, Ramirez-Campillo R, Mirnejad R, Masti Y, Shirvani H. Twelve weeks of treadmill exercise training with green tea extract reduces myocardial oxidative stress and alleviates cardiomyocyte apoptosis in aging rat: The emerging role of BNIP3 and HIF-1α/IGFBP3 pathway. J Food Biochem 2022; 46:e14397. [PMID: 36069470 DOI: 10.1111/jfbc.14397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2022] [Revised: 08/24/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
In this study, we consider the effect of treadmill exercise training, green tea extract, and combination of exercise training with green tea extract, in aging rat cardiac myocytes apoptosis markers (i.e., HIF-1α, BNIP3, Bax, IGFBP3, Bcl-2, caspase-3, MDA, GPx, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, and hematoxylin and eosin). Twenty-four rats (male, Wistar) were divided into four groups: (I) control (n = 6), (II) green tea extract (n = 6), (III) exercise (n = 6), and (IV) exercise + green tea extract (n = 6). Exercise groups performed 12 weeks of running on a rodent treadmill at 17-27 m.min-1 (60-75% vo2peak) for 5 days per week. Green tea extract involved 300 mg.kg-1 , 5 days per week for 12 weeks. After being euthanized, the blood and heart were collected for glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA), HIF-1α, BNIP3, insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP3), Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-3, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, and hematoxylin and eosin level measurements. Compared to control, the ANOVA demonstrated significant effects of green tea extract (F = 14.646 to 32.453, p = .009 to .001, η = 0.295 to 0.715) and exercise training (F = 9.213 to 133.828, p = .007 to .001, η = 0.315 to η = 0.870) on HIF-1a, BNIP3, Bax, IGFBP3, Bcl-2, caspase-3, MDA, GPx, and Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. However, the combination of green tea extract and exercise had no effect on the aforementioned apoptosis markers when compared to isolated green tea extract or isolated exercise (F = 0.002 to 4.068, p = .057 to .968, and η = 0.001 to 0.169). PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Isolated exercise training and green tea extract may provide a cardioprotective effect on aging-induced apoptosis through the downregulation of HIF-1α, BNIP3, and IGFBP3 in the heart muscle. However, further research is needed to clarify the effects of combining exercise and green tea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mirzahossein Norouzi Kamareh
- PHD of Exercise Physiology, Department of Exercise Physiology and Corrective Exercises, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
| | - Rodrigo Ramirez-Campillo
- Department of Physical Activity Sciences, Universidad de Los Lagos, Santiago, Chile.,Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences Laboratory, School of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile
| | - Reza Mirnejad
- Molecular Biology Research Center, Systems Biology and Poisonings Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Yousef Masti
- MSc of Cellular Molecular, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hossein Shirvani
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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15
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Arabzadeh E, Shirvani H, Ebadi Zahmatkesh M, Riyahi Malayeri S, Meftahi GH, Rostamkhani F. Irisin/FNDC5 influences myogenic markers on skeletal muscle following high and moderate-intensity exercise training in STZ-diabetic rats. 3 Biotech 2022; 12:193. [PMID: 35910290 PMCID: PMC9325938 DOI: 10.1007/s13205-022-03253-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
In the present study, we investigated the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) versus moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on irisin and expression of myogenic markers (paired box 7 (Pax7), myogenic differentiation 1 (MyoD), myogenin) in skeletal muscle of diabetic rats. Eighty-four male Wistar rats (6 weeks of age) were randomly divided into seven groups (n = 12): basic control (Co Basic), 8 weeks control (Co 8w), diabetes mellitus (DM), HIIT, DM + HIIT, MICT, and DM + MICT groups. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ). TheV ˙ o 2 max protocol was characterized by running on a rodent treadmill with moderate intensity (60-70%V ˙ o 2 max ), 60 min per session, 5 days/week, for 6 weeks. HIIT consisted of six 3-min runs at a high intensity (80-90%V ˙ o 2 max ) alternated with 2-min running at low intensity (50%V ˙ o 2 max ), 30 min per session, 5 days/week, for 6 weeks. Results showed that DM decreased myoblast markers compared to Co Basic and Co 8w groups. Fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5) mRNA decrease was correlated with myoblast markers (Pax7 r = 0.632, p = 0.027; MyoD r = 0.999, p = 0.001; myogenin r = 1.000, p = 0.001) in DM group. DM + MICT significantly increased gene expression of MyoD, myogenin, and FNDC5 compared to DM and DM + HIIT. The results also showed that the intensity and duration of exercise on the treadmill were effective in stimulating irisin and myogenic markers after DM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hossein Shirvani
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | | | - Shahin Riyahi Malayeri
- Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | | | - Fatemeh Rostamkhani
- Department of Biology, College of Basic Sciences, Yadegar-e-Imam Khomeini (RAH) Shahre Rey Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
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16
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Arabzadeh E, Reza Rahimi A, Zargani M, Feyz Simorghi Z, Emami S, Sheikhi S, Zaeri Amirani Z, Yousefi P, Sarshin A, Aghaei F, Feizollahi F. Resistance exercise promotes functional test via sciatic nerve regeneration, and muscle atrophy improvement through GAP-43 regulation in animal model of traumatic nerve injuries. Neurosci Lett 2022; 787:136812. [PMID: 35872241 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2022.136812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2022] [Revised: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Resistance training improves muscle strength through a combination of neural plasticity and muscle hypertrophy. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of resistance exercise on sciatic nerve regeneration and histology, growth-associated protein 43 (GAP-43) expressions, and soleus muscle atrophy following traumatic nerve injuries in Wistar rats. In the present study, 40 male Wistar rats were randomly assigned into four groups: healthy control (HC) as a sham group was exposed to the surgical procedures without any sciatic nerve compression, lesioned control (LC), resistance training (RT,non-lesioned), and lesioned rats+RT (LRT) (n=10 in each). The RT group performed a resistance-training program 5 days/week for 4 weeks. Sciatic functional index (SFI) score, beam score and Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) score decreased and the hot plate time increased significantly in the LC group compared to the HC (p<0.05) group. However, the LRT group showed a significant increase in the SFI score (p=0.001) and a significant decrease in hot plate time (p=0.0232) compared to the LC group. The LC group also showed neurological morphological damage and muscle atrophy and a decrease in GAP-43 in nerve tissue. In comparison to the LC group, a significant increase in sciatic nerve caliber, diameter, number of muscle fibers, and the expression of GAP-43 (p<0.05) was observed in the LRT group. Doing resistance training even for four weeks seems to affect sciatic nerve lesions and injuries. It can also repair and regenerate nerve tissue by upregulating GAP-43 expression, improving motor behavioral tests, and controlling muscle atrophy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ali Reza Rahimi
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Alborz, Iran
| | - Mehdi Zargani
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Alborz, Iran
| | - Zeinab Feyz Simorghi
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Alborz, Iran
| | - Shaghayegh Emami
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Alborz, Iran
| | - Sahar Sheikhi
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Alborz, Iran
| | - Zeinab Zaeri Amirani
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Alborz, Iran
| | - Parisa Yousefi
- Department of Exercise Physiology, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Alborz, Iran
| | - Amir Sarshin
- Clinical Care and Health Promotion Research Center, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Fariba Aghaei
- Clinical Care and Health Promotion Research Center, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
| | - Foad Feizollahi
- Clinical Care and Health Promotion Research Center, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran.
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17
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Hosseini HM, Shirvani H, Aghaei F, Arabzadeh E, Hofmeister M. Ameliorative effects of high intensity interval training and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG Protect against tetracycline-induced fatty liver in rats: a gene expression profiling comparative study. EXCLI J 2022; 21:991-1006. [PMID: 36110559 PMCID: PMC9441685 DOI: 10.17179/excli2022-4791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 07/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Exercise training and probiotics have been suggested as a treatment for the prevention of chronic liver damage such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Lactobacillus rhamnosus Gorbach - Goldin (LGG) is one of the most widely used probiotic strains that decreases liver damage. Thus, this study aims to consider the ameliorative effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT) and LGG against tetracycline-induced fatty liver in rats. Eighty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 8 groups of (n=10 each group): control, LGG, HIIT, LGG+HIIT, NAFLD, NAFLD+LGG, NAFLD+HIIT, and NAFLD+LGG+HIIT. The rats are treated by intraperitoneal injection with 140 mg/kg-1 tetracycline, an antibiotic previously known to induce steatosis. The exercise training groups performed HIIT 5 days/week for 5 weeks. 107 colony-forming units (cfu) of LGG were gavaged for LGG groups 5 days/week for 5 weeks. Probiotic supplementation in combination with interval training significantly decreased tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) mRNA and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) mRNA in the liver (p<0.05), while the levels of lysosomal acid lipase (LIPA) mRNA was significantly increased compared to NAFLD group. Also, compared with NAFLD group, NAFLD+LGG, NAFLD+HIIT and NAFLD+LGG+HIIT groups showed a significant decrease in hepatic monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). Compared to LGG and LGG+HIIT groups, all NAFLD groups showed a significant decrease in apolipoprotein C3 (apoc3) in liver tissue (p<0.05). The results suggested that interval exercise with LGG supplementation minimizes cell destruction and inflammation in liver tissue due to NAFLD by improving gene expression profiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hamideh Mahmoodzadeh Hosseini
- Applied Microbiology Research Center, Systems Biology and Poisonings Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hossein Shirvani
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran,*To whom correspondence should be addressed: Hossein Shirvani, Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Nosrati Alley, Sheikh Bahai Street, Mollasadra Street, Vanak Square, 19395-5487, Tehran, Iran; Tel: +98-21-82482395, Fax: +98-21-88600030, E-mail:
| | - Fariba Aghaei
- Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Alborz, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Martin Hofmeister
- Department of Food and Nutrition, Consumer Centre of the German Federal State of Bavaria, Munich, Germany
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18
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Lee CCY, Kheradpezhouh E, Diamond ME, Arabzadeh E. State-Dependent Changes in Perception and Coding in the Mouse Somatosensory Cortex. Cell Rep 2021; 32:108197. [PMID: 32997984 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2020] [Revised: 07/07/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
An animal's behavioral state is reflected in the dynamics of cortical population activity and its capacity to process sensory information. To better understand the relationship between behavioral states and information processing, mice are trained to detect varying amplitudes of whisker-deflection under two-photon calcium imaging. Layer 2/3 neurons in the vibrissal primary somatosensory cortex are imaged across different behavioral states, defined based on detection performance (low to high-state) and pupil diameter. The neurometric curve in each behavioral state mirrors the corresponding psychometric performance, with calcium signals predictive of the animal's choice. High behavioral states are associated with lower network synchrony, extending over shorter cortical distances. The decrease in correlation across neurons in high state results in enhanced information transmission capacity at the population level. The observed state-dependent changes suggest that the coding regime within the first stage of cortical processing may underlie adaptive routing of relevant information through the sensorimotor system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Conrad C Y Lee
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
| | - Ehsan Kheradpezhouh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
| | - Mathew E Diamond
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Cognitive Neuroscience, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
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Shirvani H, Bazgir B, Rahimi M, Isanejad A, Samadi M, Sobhani V, Alizadeh AM, Arabzadeh E. Therapeutic and preventive effects of exercise training on metabolic regulators/markers in mouse colorectal cancer cells. Sport Sci Health 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s11332-021-00826-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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20
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Sabzalizadeh M, Afarinesh MR, Esmaeili-Mahani S, Farsinejad A, Derakhshani A, Arabzadeh E, Sheibani V. Transplantation of rat dental pulp stem cells facilities post-lesion recovery in the somatosensory whisker cortex of male Wistar rats. Brain Res Bull 2021; 173:150-161. [PMID: 33964348 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2021.04.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2020] [Revised: 04/26/2021] [Accepted: 04/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Damage to somatosensory "barrel" cortex reduces the rats' behavioral sensitivity in discrimination of tactile stimuli. Here, we examined how transplantation of stem cells into the lesioned barrel cortex can help in recovery of sensory capacities. We induced mechanical lesions in the right barrel cortex area of male rats. Three days after lesioning, rats received one of three transplantation types: un-differentiated dental pulp stem cells (U-DPSCs) or differentiated dental pulp stem cells (D-DPSCs), or cell medium (vehicle). A fourth group of rats were control without any Surgery. For 4 consecutive weeks, starting one week after transplantation, we evaluated the rats' preference to explore novel textures as a measure of sensory discrimination ability, also measured the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), Olig 2, nestin, neuronal nuclei (NeuN), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neuroligin1 by immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Unilateral mechanical lesion decreased the rats' preferential exploration of novel textures compared to the control group across the 4-week behavioral tests. Following stem cell therapy, the rats' performance significantly improved at week 2-4 compared to the vehicle group. Compared to the control group, there was a significant decrease in the expression of nestin, NeuN, Olig 2, BDNF, neuroligin1 and a significant increase in the expression of GFAP in the vehicle group. The expression of the neural markers was significantly higher in DPSCs compared with the vehicle group whereas GFAP level was lower in DPSCs compared to vehicle. We found that DPSCs therapy affected a range of neuronal markers in the barrel cortex post lesion, and improved the rats' recovery for sensory discrimination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mansoureh Sabzalizadeh
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmachology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Mohammad Reza Afarinesh
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmachology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmachology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
| | - Saeed Esmaeili-Mahani
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
| | - Alireza Farsinejad
- Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Comprehensive Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Ali Derakhshani
- Hydatid Disease Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmachology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Vahid Sheibani
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmachology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmachology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
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21
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Kheradpezhouh E, Tang MF, Mattingley JB, Arabzadeh E. Enhanced Sensory Coding in Mouse Vibrissal and Visual Cortex through TRPA1. Cell Rep 2021; 32:107935. [PMID: 32698003 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2020] [Revised: 05/25/2020] [Accepted: 06/29/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) is a non-selective cation channel, broadly expressed throughout the body. Despite its expression in the mammalian brain, little is known about the contribution of TRPA1 to cortical function. Here, we characterize how TRPA1 affects sensory information processing in two cortical areas in mice: the primary vibrissal (whisker) somatosensory cortex (vS1) and the primary visual cortex (V1). In vS1, local activation of TRPA1 by allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) increases the ongoing activity of neurons and their evoked response to vibrissal stimulation, producing a positive gain modulation. The gain modulation is reversed by TRPA1 inhibitor HC-030031 and is absent in TRPA1 knockout mice. Similarly, in V1, TRPA1 activation increases the gain of direction and orientation selectivity. Linear decoding of V1 population activity confirms faster and more reliable encoding of visual signals under TRPA1 activation. Overall, our findings reveal a physiological role for TRPA1 in enhancing sensory signals in the mammalian cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Kheradpezhouh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia; The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australia.
| | - Matthew F Tang
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia; The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australia; Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Jason B Mattingley
- The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australia; Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia; The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australia
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22
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Abstract
Here, we describe a protocol to simultaneously record and label single cortical neurons in vivo under local application of a chemical such as a receptor agonist. This protocol provides a useful tool to investigate how the chemical of interest affects the processing of sensory information by cortical neurons. The juxtacellular labeling allows identification of the cell type and morphology of the recorded neurons. We draw examples to show pharmacological modulations in encoding of vibrotactile stimuli in the mouse primary somatosensory cortex. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Kheradpezhouh et al. (2020). In vivo recording of cortical neurons under local pharmacological manipulation A pipette pair is used for simultaneous juxtacellular recording and pharmacology The recorded neuron is labeled for identification of cell type and morphology Establish how the chemical changes the neuronal response function to sensory input
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Kheradpezhouh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
- The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, ACT Node, Caneberra, ACT 2601, Australia
- Corresponding author
| | - Wricha Mishra
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
- The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, ACT Node, Caneberra, ACT 2601, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
- The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, ACT Node, Caneberra, ACT 2601, Australia
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23
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Ghazvineh S, Salimi M, Nazari M, Garousi M, Tabasi F, Dehdar K, Salimi A, Jamaati H, Mirnajafi-Zadeh J, Arabzadeh E, Raoufy MR. Rhythmic air-puff into nasal cavity modulates activity across multiple brain areas: A non-invasive brain stimulation method to reduce ventilator-induced memory impairment. Respir Physiol Neurobiol 2021; 287:103627. [PMID: 33516946 DOI: 10.1016/j.resp.2021.103627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2020] [Revised: 01/16/2021] [Accepted: 01/24/2021] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Mechanical ventilation (MV) can result in long-term brain impairments that are resistant to treatment. The mechanisms underlying MV-induced brain function impairment remain unclear. Since nasal airflow modulates brain activity, here we evaluated whether reinstating airflow during MV could influence the memory performance of rats after recovery. Rats were allocated into two study groups: one group received rhythmic air-puff into the nasal cavity during MV and a control group that underwent ventilation without air-puff. During MV, air-puffs induced time-locked event potentials in OB, mPFC and vHPC and significantly increased the oscillatory activity at the air-puff frequency. Furthermore, in mPFC and vHPC, (but not in OB), delta and theta oscillations were more prominent during air-puff application. After recovery, working memory performance was significantly higher in the air-puff group compared to control. Our study thus suggests a promising non-invasive brain stimulation approach to alleviate the neurological complications of prolonged mechanical ventilation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sepideh Ghazvineh
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Morteza Salimi
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; Chronic Respiratory Diseases Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Milad Nazari
- Electrical Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mani Garousi
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Farhad Tabasi
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; Institute for Brain Sciences and Cognition, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Kolsoum Dehdar
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Alireza Salimi
- Chronic Respiratory Diseases Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hamidreza Jamaati
- Chronic Respiratory Diseases Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Javad Mirnajafi-Zadeh
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; Institute for Brain Sciences and Cognition, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
| | - Mohammad Reza Raoufy
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; Institute for Brain Sciences and Cognition, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
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Shirvani H, Arabzadeh E, Akbari J. The short-term effect of caffeine supplementation on immune-endocrine responses to acute intensive exercise. Sci Sports 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.scispo.2019.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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25
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Gharaei S, Honnuraiah S, Arabzadeh E, Stuart GJ. Superior colliculus modulates cortical coding of somatosensory information. Nat Commun 2020; 11:1693. [PMID: 32245963 PMCID: PMC7125203 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15443-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2019] [Accepted: 03/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
The cortex modulates activity in superior colliculus via a direct projection. What is largely unknown is whether (and if so how) the superior colliculus modulates activity in the cortex. Here, we investigate this issue and show that optogenetic activation of superior colliculus changes the input-output relationship of neurons in somatosensory cortex, enhancing responses to low amplitude whisker deflections. While there is no direct pathway from superior colliculus to somatosensory cortex, we found that activation of superior colliculus drives spiking in the posterior medial (POm) nucleus of the thalamus via a powerful monosynaptic pathway. Furthermore, POm neurons receiving input from superior colliculus provide monosynaptic excitatory input to somatosensory cortex. Silencing POm abolished the capacity of superior colliculus to modulate cortical whisker responses. Our findings indicate that the superior colliculus, which plays a key role in attention, modulates sensory processing in somatosensory cortex via a powerful di-synaptic pathway through the thalamus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saba Gharaei
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
| | - Suraj Honnuraiah
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Greg J Stuart
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
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Shirvani H, Arabzadeh E. Metabolic cross-talk between skeletal muscle and adipose tissue in high-intensity interval training vs. moderate-intensity continuous training by regulation of PGC-1α. Eat Weight Disord 2020; 25:17-24. [PMID: 29480414 DOI: 10.1007/s40519-018-0491-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2018] [Accepted: 02/17/2018] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE An imbalance in the production of adipokines and myokines impairs the energy expenditure, increases adipocyte and develops metabolic pathologies. Physical exercise is able to regulate the secretion of myokines and adipokines. The present study considers the metabolic cross talk between skeletal muscle and adipose tissue in high-intensity interval training vs. moderate-intensity continuous training by regulation of PGC-1α. METHODS A sample of 32 male Wistar rats (8 weeks old with mean weight 250 ± 55 g) were divided into four groups randomly: control of base (CO), control of 8 weeks (CO8w), moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT), and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). The rats were fed with standard chow diet. The CO group was killed at the start of the study and the CO8w group was kept alive for the same time as the experimental groups, but did not participate in any exercise. MICT and HIIT groups for 8 weeks were placed under the moderate-intensity continuous training (15-60 min, with speed of 15-30 m/min) and high-intensity interval training (8-4 intense period for 1 min, with speed of 28-55 m/min, with 3-7 slow-intensity period for 1 min, with a speed of 12-30 m/min) for 8 weeks, respectively. To measure the levels of serum irisin, nesfatin, and resistin the ELISA method was used and real-time PCR method was used to evaluate the relative expression of soleus PGC-1α gene mRNA. RESULTS The levels of irisin and nesfatin significantly increased in the HIIT compared with control groups (p = 0.001). Resistin values in both training groups showed a significant decrease compared to the control groups (p = 0.005). The level of PGC-1α gene expression in both HIIT and MICT groups was significantly increased in comparison with the control groups (p = 0.001). DISCUSSION The results showed that HIIT and MICT increase the transcription of the PGC-1α gene and possibly the increased expression of this gene after HIIT and MICT plays a central role in the secretion of skeletal muscle myokines and adipokines of adipose tissue. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE No Level of evidence: Animal study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hossein Shirvani
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Nosrati Alley, Sheikh Bahaei Street, Mollasadra Street, Vanak Square, 19395-5487, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Exercise Physiology Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Nosrati Alley, Sheikh Bahaei Street, Mollasadra Street, Vanak Square, 19395-5487, Tehran, Iran
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION The perception of a target stimulus can be impaired by a subsequent mask stimulus, even if they do not overlap temporally or spatially. This "backward masking" is commonly used to modulate a subject's awareness of a target and to characterize the temporal dynamics of vision. Masking is most apparent with brief, low-contrast targets, making detection difficult even in the absence of a mask. Although necessary to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms, evaluating masking phenomena in animal models is particularly challenging, as the task structure and critical stimulus features to be attended must be learned incrementally through rewards and feedback. Despite the increasing popularity of rodents in vision research, it is unclear if they are susceptible to masking illusions. METHODS We characterized how spatially surrounding masks affected the detection of sine-wave grating targets. RESULTS In humans (n = 5) and rats (n = 7), target detection improved with contrast and was reduced by the presence of a mask. After controlling for biases to respond induced by the presence of the mask, a clear reduction in detectability was caused by masks. This reduction was evident when data were averaged across all animals, but was only individually significant in three animals. CONCLUSIONS While perceptual masking occurs in rats, it may be difficult to observe consistently in individual animals because the complexity of the requisite task pushes the limits of their behavioral capabilities. We suggest methods to ensure that masking, and similarly subtle effects, can be reliably characterized in future experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katrina L Dell
- Neuroscience Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Vic., Australia.,Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, Vic., Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Monash University Node, Clayton, Vic., Australia.,Department of Medicine, St. Vincent's Hospital, The University of Melbourne, Fitzroy, Vic., Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- John Curtin School of Medical Research, Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Nicholas S C Price
- Neuroscience Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Vic., Australia.,Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, Vic., Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Monash University Node, Clayton, Vic., Australia
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28
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Ranjbar-Slamloo Y, Ahmed N, Gao L, Abed SA, Rcom-H’cheo-Gauthier A, Sontani Y, Arabzadeh E, Dehorter N. Molecular control of the cholinergic interneuron activity in the developing striatum. IBRO Rep 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ibror.2019.07.1281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
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29
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Ranjbar-Slamloo Y, Arabzadeh E. Diverse tuning underlies sparse activity in layer 2/3 vibrissal cortex of awake mice. J Physiol 2019; 597:2803-2817. [PMID: 30932197 DOI: 10.1113/jp277506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2018] [Accepted: 03/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
KEY POINTS Sparse population activity is a common feature observed across cortical areas, yet the implications for sensory coding are not clear. We recorded single neuron activity in the vibrissal somatosensory cortex of awake head-fixed mice using the cell-attached technique. Unlike the anaesthetised condition, in awake mice a high-velocity, piezo-controlled whisker deflection excited only a small fraction of neurons. Manual probing of whiskers revealed that the majority of these silent neurons could be activated by specific forms of whisker-object contact. Our results suggest that sparse coding in vibrissal cortex may be due to high dimensionality of the stimulus space and narrow tuning of individual neurons. ABSTRACT It is widely reported that superficial layers of the somatosensory cortex exhibit sparse firing. This sparseness could reflect weak feedforward sensory inputs that are not sufficient to generate action potentials in these layers. Alternatively, sparseness might reflect tuning to unknown or higher-level complex features that are not fully explored in the stimulus space. Here, we examined these hypotheses by applying a range of vibrotactile and manual vibrissal stimuli in awake, head-fixed mice while performing loose-seal cell-attached recordings from the vibrissal primary somatosensory (vS1) cortex. A high-velocity stimulus delivered by a piezo-electric actuator evoked activity in a small fraction of regular spiking supragranular neurons (23%) in the awake condition. However, a majority of the supragranular regular spiking neurons (84%) were driven by manual stimulation of whiskers. Our results suggest that most neurons in the superficial layers of vS1 cortex contribute to coding in the awake condition when neurons may encounter their preferred feature(s) during whisker-object interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yadollah Ranjbar-Slamloo
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
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30
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Lee CCY, Clifford CWG, Arabzadeh E. Temporal cueing enhances neuronal and behavioral discrimination performance in rat whisker system. J Neurophysiol 2019; 121:1048-1058. [DOI: 10.1152/jn.00604.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Since sensory systems operate with a finite quantity of processing resources, an animal would benefit from prioritizing processing of sensory stimuli within a time window that is expected to provide key information. This behavioral manifestation of such prioritization is known as attention. Here, we investigate attention with temporal cueing and its neuronal correlates in the rat primary vibrissal somatosensory (vS1) cortex. Rats were trained in a simple whisker vibration detection task. A vibration was presented at one of two spatial locations (left or right), sometimes after an unknown time interval and sometimes after receiving an auditory cue. The auditory cue provided temporal but not spatial information about the vibration. We found that for all rats ( n = 6), the auditory cue consistently enhanced detection of the vibration stimulus. Neuronal activity in vS1 cortex reflected the observed behavioral enhancement from temporal cueing with single units responded differentially to the whisker vibration stimulus when it was temporally predicted by the auditory cue, exhibiting an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio. Our findings indicate that rats are capable of prioritizing processing within a specified time window and provide evidence that the primary sensory cortex may participate in the temporal allocation of resources. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We demonstrate a novel paradigm of temporal cueing in rats. In a two-alternative whisker detection task, an auditory cue provided information about the timing of the stimulus but not the correct choice. In the presence of cue, detection was faster and more accurate, and neuronal activity from the primary somatosensory cortex revealed enhanced representation of vibrations. These results thus establish the rat as an alternative model organism to primates for studying temporal attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Conrad C. Y. Lee
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Colin W. G. Clifford
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
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31
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Shirvani H, Aslani J, Fallah Mohammadi Z, Arabzadeh E. Short-term effect of low-, moderate-, and high-intensity exercise training on cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF) and oxidative stress biomarkers in brain male Wistar rats. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00580-018-2885-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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Tang MF, Smout CA, Arabzadeh E, Mattingley JB. Prediction error and repetition suppression have distinct effects on neural representations of visual information. eLife 2018; 7:33123. [PMID: 30547881 PMCID: PMC6312401 DOI: 10.7554/elife.33123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2017] [Accepted: 12/13/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Predictive coding theories argue that recent experience establishes expectations in the brain that generate prediction errors when violated. Prediction errors provide a possible explanation for repetition suppression, where evoked neural activity is attenuated across repeated presentations of the same stimulus. The predictive coding account argues repetition suppression arises because repeated stimuli are expected, whereas non-repeated stimuli are unexpected and thus elicit larger neural responses. Here, we employed electroencephalography in humans to test the predictive coding account of repetition suppression by presenting sequences of visual gratings with orientations that were expected either to repeat or change in separate blocks of trials. We applied multivariate forward modelling to determine how orientation selectivity was affected by repetition and prediction. Unexpected stimuli were associated with significantly enhanced orientation selectivity, whereas selectivity was unaffected for repeated stimuli. Our results suggest that repetition suppression and expectation have separable effects on neural representations of visual feature information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew F Tang
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Victoria, Australia
| | - Cooper A Smout
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Victoria, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Victoria, Australia.,Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Jason B Mattingley
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Victoria, Australia.,School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
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Dell KL, Arabzadeh E, Price NSC. Human-like perceptual masking is difficult to observe in rats performing an orientation discrimination task. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0207179. [PMID: 30462681 PMCID: PMC6248968 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2017] [Accepted: 10/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual masking occurs when the perception of a brief target stimulus is affected by a preceding or succeeding mask. The uncoupling of the target and its perception allows an opportunity to investigate the neuronal mechanisms involved in sensory representation and visual perception. To determine whether rats are a suitable model for subsequent studies of the neuronal basis of visual masking, we first demonstrated that decoding of neuronal responses recorded in the primary visual cortex (V1) of anaesthetized rats predicted that orientation discrimination performance should decline when masking stimuli are presented immediately before or after oriented target stimuli. We then trained Long-Evans rats (n = 7) to discriminate between horizontal and vertical target Gabors or gratings. In some trials, a plaid mask was presented at varying stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) relative to the target. Spatially, the masks were presented either overlapping or surrounding the target location. In the absence of a mask, all animals could reliably discriminate orientation when stimulus durations were 16 ms or longer. In the presence of a mask, discrimination performance was impaired, but did not systematically vary with SOA as is typical of visual masking. In humans performing a similar task, we found visual masking impaired perception of the target at short SOAs regardless of the spatial or temporal configuration of stimuli. Our findings indicate that visual masking may be difficult to observe in rats as the stimulus parameters necessary to quantify masking will make the task so difficult that it prevents robust measurement of psychophysical performance. Thus, our results suggest that rats may not be an ideal model to investigate the effects of visual masking on perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katrina Louise Dell
- Neuroscience Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Monash University Node, Clayton, VIC, Australia
- Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Fitzroy VIC, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Nicholas Seow Chiang Price
- Neuroscience Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Monash University Node, Clayton, VIC, Australia
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Abstract
Multisensory integration is a process by which signals from different sensory modalities are combined to facilitate detection and localization of external events. One substrate for multisensory integration is the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) which plays an important role in orienting behavior. In rodent SC, visual and somatosensory (whisker) representations are in approximate registration, but whether and how these signals interact is unclear. We measured spiking activity in SC of anesthetized hooded rats, during presentation of visual- and whisker stimuli that were tested simultaneously or in isolation. Visual responses were found in all layers, but were primarily located in superficial layers. Whisker responsive sites were primarily found in intermediate layers. In single- and multi-unit recording sites, spiking activity was usually only sensitive to one modality, when stimuli were presented in isolation. By contrast, we observed robust and primarily suppressive interactions when stimuli were presented simultaneously to both modalities. We conclude that while visual and whisker representations in SC of rat are partially overlapping, there is limited excitatory convergence onto individual sites. Multimodal integration may instead rely on suppressive interactions between modalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saba Gharaei
- Discipline of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. .,Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. .,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australia.
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australia
| | - Samuel G Solomon
- Discipline of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.,Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
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Abstract
Neuronal adaptation is a common feature observed at various stages of sensory processing. Here, we quantified the time course of adaptation in rat somatosensory cortex. Under urethane anesthesia, we juxta-cellularly recorded single neurons (n = 147) while applying a series of whisker deflections at various frequencies (2-32 Hz). For ~90% of neurons, the response per unit of time decreased with frequency. The degree of adaptation increased along the train of deflections and was strongest at the highest frequency. However, a subset of neurons showed facilitation producing higher responses to subsequent deflections. The response latency to consecutive deflections increased both for neurons that exhibited adaptation and for those that exhibited response facilitation. Histological reconstruction of neurons (n = 45) did not reveal a systematic relationship between adaptation profiles and cell types. In addition to the periodic stimuli, we applied a temporally irregular train of deflections with a mean frequency of 8 Hz. For 70% of neurons, the response to the irregular stimulus was greater than that of the 8 Hz regular. This increased response to irregular stimulation was positively correlated with the degree of adaptation. Altogether, our findings demonstrate high levels of diversity among cortical neurons, with a proportion of neurons showing facilitation at specific temporal intervals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Kheradpezhouh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
| | - Mehdi Adibi
- University of New South Wales, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- International School for Advanced Studies - SISSA, Trieste, Italy
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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Kheradpezhouh E, Choy JMC, Daria VR, Arabzadeh E. TRPA1 expression and its functional activation in rodent cortex. Open Biol 2017; 7:rsob.160314. [PMID: 28424320 PMCID: PMC5413904 DOI: 10.1098/rsob.160314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2016] [Accepted: 03/13/2017] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
TRPA1 is a non-selective cation channel involved in pain sensation and neurogenic inflammation. Although TRPA1 is well established in a number of organs including the nervous system, its presence and function in the mammalian cortex remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate the expression of TRPA1 in rodent somatosensory cortex through immunostaining and investigate its functional activation by whole-cell electrophysiology, Ca2+ imaging and two-photon photoswitching. Application of TRPA1 agonist (AITC) and antagonist (HC-030031) produced significant modulation of activity in layer 5 (L5) pyramidal neurons in both rats and mice; AITC increased intracellular Ca2+ concentrations and depolarized neurons, and both effects were blocked by HC-030031. These modulations were absent in the TRPA1 knockout mice. Next, we used optovin, a reversible photoactive molecule, to activate TRPA1 in individual L5 neurons of rat cortex. Optical control of activity was established by applying a tightly focused femtosecond-pulsed laser to optovin-loaded neurons. Light application depolarized neurons (n = 17) with the maximal effect observed at λ = 720 nm. Involvement of TRPA1 was further confirmed by repeating the experiment in the presence of HC-030031, which diminished the light modulation. These results demonstrate the presence of TRPA1 in L5 pyramidal neurons and introduce a highly specific approach to further understand its functional significance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Kheradpezhouh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University Node, Acton, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia .,The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Research, Australian National University Node, Acton, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
| | - Julian M C Choy
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University Node, Acton, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
| | - Vincent R Daria
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University Node, Acton, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University Node, Acton, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia.,The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Research, Australian National University Node, Acton, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
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Ranjbar-Slamloo Y, Arabzadeh E. High-velocity stimulation evokes "dense" population response in layer 2/3 vibrissal cortex. J Neurophysiol 2016; 117:1218-1228. [PMID: 28003414 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00815.2016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2016] [Revised: 12/14/2016] [Accepted: 12/14/2016] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Supragranular layers of sensory cortex are known to exhibit sparse firing. In rodent vibrissal cortex, a small fraction of neurons in layer 2 and 3 (L2/3) respond to whisker stimulation. In this study, we combined whole cell recording and two-photon imaging in anesthetized mice and quantified the synaptic response and spiking profile of L2/3 neurons. Previous literature has shown that neurons across layers of vibrissal cortex are tuned to the velocity of whisker movement. We therefore used a broad range of stimuli that included the standard range of velocities (0-1.2 deg/ms) and extended to a "sharp" high-velocity deflection (3.8 deg/ms). Consistent with previous literature, whole cell recording revealed a sparse response to the standard range of velocities: although all recorded cells showed tuning to velocity in their postsynaptic potentials, only a small fraction produced stimulus-evoked spikes. In contrast, the sharp stimulus evoked reliable spiking in the majority of neurons. The action potential threshold of spikes evoked by the sharp stimulus was significantly lower than that of the spontaneous spikes. Juxtacellular recordings confirmed that application of sharp stimulus to single or multiple whiskers produced temporally precise spiking with minimal trial-to-trial spike count variability (Fano factors equal or close to the theoretical minimum). Two-photon imaging further confirmed that most neurons that were not responsive to the standard deflections responded to the sharp stimulus. Altogether, our results indicate that sparseness in L2/3 cortex depends on the choice of stimulus: strong single- or multiwhisker stimulation can induce the transition from sparse to "dense" population response.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In superficial layers of sensory cortex, only a small fraction of neurons fire most of the spontaneous and sensory evoked spikes. However, the functional relevance of such "sparse" activity remains unknown. We found that a "dense" population response is evoked by high-velocity micromotions applied to whiskers. Our results suggest that flashes of precisely timed population response on an almost silent background can provide a high capacity for coding of ecologically salient stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yadollah Ranjbar-Slamloo
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia; and.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia; and .,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australia
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Sabri MM, Adibi M, Arabzadeh E. Dynamics of Population Activity in Rat Sensory Cortex: Network Correlations Predict Anatomical Arrangement and Information Content. Front Neural Circuits 2016; 10:49. [PMID: 27458347 PMCID: PMC4933716 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2016.00049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2016] [Accepted: 06/22/2016] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
To study the spatiotemporal dynamics of neural activity in a cortical population, we implanted a 10 × 10 microelectrode array in the vibrissal cortex of urethane-anesthetized rats. We recorded spontaneous neuronal activity as well as activity evoked in response to sustained and brief sensory stimulation. To quantify the temporal dynamics of activity, we computed the probability distribution function (PDF) of spiking on one electrode given the observation of a spike on another. The spike-triggered PDFs quantified the strength, temporal delay, and temporal precision of correlated activity across electrodes. Nearby cells showed higher levels of correlation at short delays, whereas distant cells showed lower levels of correlation, which tended to occur at longer delays. We found that functional space built based on the strength of pairwise correlations predicted the anatomical arrangement of electrodes. Moreover, the correlation profile of electrode pairs during spontaneous activity predicted the "signal" and "noise" correlations during sensory stimulation. Finally, mutual information analyses revealed that neurons with stronger correlations to the network during spontaneous activity, conveyed higher information about the sensory stimuli in their evoked response. Given the 400-μm-distance between adjacent electrodes, our functional quantifications unravel the spatiotemporal dynamics of activity among nearby and distant cortical columns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Mahdi Sabri
- School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM)Tehran, Iran; Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University NodeCanberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Mehdi Adibi
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University NodeCanberra, ACT, Australia; School of Psychology, University of New South WalesSydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University NodeCanberra, ACT, Australia
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Fazlali Z, Ranjbar-Slamloo Y, Adibi M, Arabzadeh E. Correlation between Cortical State and Locus Coeruleus Activity: Implications for Sensory Coding in Rat Barrel Cortex. Front Neural Circuits 2016; 10:14. [PMID: 27047339 PMCID: PMC4805600 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2016.00014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2015] [Accepted: 03/04/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Cortical state modulates the background activity of cortical neurons, and their evoked response to sensory stimulation. Multiple mechanisms are involved in switching between cortical states including various neuromodulatory systems. Locus Coeruleus (LC) is one of the major neuromodulatory nuclei in the brainstem with widespread projections throughout the brain and modulates the activity of cells and networks. Here, we quantified the link between the LC spontaneous activity, cortical state and sensory processing in the rat vibrissal somatosensory "barrel" cortex (BC). We simultaneously recorded unit activity from LC and BC along with prefrontal electroencephalogram (EEG) while presenting brief whisker deflections under urethane anesthesia. The ratio of low to high frequency components of EEG (referred to as the L/H ratio) was employed to identify cortical state. We found that the spontaneous activity of LC units exhibited a negative correlation with the L/H ratio. Cross-correlation analysis revealed that changes in LC firing preceded changes in the cortical state: the correlation of the LC firing profile with the L/H ratio was maximal at an average lag of -1.2 s. We further quantified BC neuronal responses to whisker stimulation during the synchronized and desynchronized states. In the desynchronized state, BC neurons showed lower stimulus detection threshold, higher response fidelity, and shorter response latency. The most prominent change was observed in the late phase of BC evoked activity (100-400 ms post stimulus onset): almost every BC unit exhibited a greater late response during the desynchronized state. Categorization of the BC evoked responses based on LC activity (into high and low LC discharge rates) resulted in highly similar response profiles compared to categorization based on the cortical state (low and high L/H ratios). These findings provide evidence for the involvement of the LC neuromodulatory system in desynchronization of cortical state and the consequent enhancement of sensory coding efficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zeinab Fazlali
- School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM)Tehran, Iran
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University NodeCanberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Yadollah Ranjbar-Slamloo
- School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM)Tehran, Iran
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University NodeCanberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Mehdi Adibi
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University NodeCanberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The Australian National University NodeCanberra, ACT, Australia
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Fam J, Westbrook F, Arabzadeh E. Dynamics of pre- and post-choice behaviour: rats approximate optimal strategy in a discrete-trial decision task. Proc Biol Sci 2015; 282:20142963. [PMID: 25694623 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
We simulate two types of environments to investigate how closely rats approximate optimal foraging. Rats initiated a trial where they chose between two spouts for sucrose, which was delivered at distinct probabilities. The discrete trial procedure used allowed us to observe the relationship between choice proportions, response latencies and obtained rewards. Our results show that rats approximate the optimal strategy across a range of environments that differ in the average probability of reward as well as the dynamics of the depletion-renewal cycle. We found that the constituent components of a single choice differentially reflect environmental contingencies. Post-choice behaviour, measured as the duration of time rats spent licking at the spouts on unrewarded trials, was the most sensitive index of environmental variables, adjusting most rapidly to changes in the environment. These findings have implications for the role of confidence in choice outcomes for guiding future choices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justine Fam
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Fred Westbrook
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
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Fam J, Westbrook F, Arabzadeh E. Behavioral correlates of the decision process in a dynamic environment: post-choice latencies reflect relative value and choice evaluation. Front Behav Neurosci 2015; 9:261. [PMID: 26483649 PMCID: PMC4586275 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2015] [Accepted: 09/11/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
One characteristic of natural environments is that outcomes vary across time. Animals need to adapt to these environmental changes and adjust their choices accordingly. In this experiment, we investigated the sensitivity with which rats could detect, and adapt to, multiple changes in the environment. Rats chose between two spouts which delivered 5% sucrose rewards with distinct probabilities. Across three phases, reward probabilities changed in size (large or small) and direction (increase or decrease). A discrete trial-structure was used, which allowed the choice process to be decomposed into three distinct response latency measures (choice execution latency, spout sampling duration, and trial-initiation latency). We found that a large decrease in reward probabilities rapidly produced the greatest change in choice proportions. The time taken to execute a choice reflected the differences in reward probabilities across the two spouts in some cases, but also reflected training history. By contrast, the amount of time rats spent responding at reward spouts in anticipation of reward consistently reflected the relative likelihood of reward across the two spouts and not the absolute probability of reward. The latency to initiate the subsequent trial reflected choice evaluation. These three response latencies thus indexed key behavioral correlates of the choice process as it unfolds in time. We discuss how this paradigm can be used to assess the corresponding neural correlates of decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justine Fam
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Fred Westbrook
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- John Curtin School of Medical Research, Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, Australian National University Canberra, ACT, Australia ; ARC Centre for Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australian National University Canberra, ACT, Australia
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Abrahamyan A, Clifford CWG, Arabzadeh E, Harris JA. Low Intensity TMS Enhances Perception of Visual Stimuli. Brain Stimul 2015; 8:1175-82. [PMID: 26169802 DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2015.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2015] [Revised: 05/16/2015] [Accepted: 06/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a popular functional mapping tool in cognitive and sensory neuroscience. While strong TMS typically degrades performance, two recent studies have demonstrated that weak TMS, delivered to visual cortex, can improve performance on simple visual tasks. The improvement was interpreted as the summation of visually-evoked and TMS-elicited neuronal activity in visual cortex, but the nature of this interaction remains unclear. OBJECTIVE The present experiments sought to determine whether these weak pulses of TMS assist subjects to see the visual stimulus itself or create a distinct "melded" percept that may not be recognizable as the visual stimulus. METHODS We measured contrast thresholds in an orientation discrimination task in which participants reported the orientation (left or right) of gratings tilted 45° from vertical. RESULTS Weak TMS improved sensitivity for identifying gratings, suggesting that TMS sums with but preserves orientation information so that the subject can recognize the visual stimulus. We explain the effect using a mechanism of non-linear transduction of sensory signals in the brain. CONCLUSIONS The capability of low-intensity TMS to augment the neural signal while preserving information encoded in the stimulus can be employed as a novel approach to study the neural correlates of consciousness by selectively "pushing" an unconscious stimulus into consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arman Abrahamyan
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia; Lab for Human Systems Neuroscience, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan.
| | - Colin W G Clifford
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia; School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia; Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Australia
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Arabzadeh E, Mirdar S, Fathi Z. Measurement of levels of lung HIF-1α protein in response to tapering for 14- and 21-day with nigella sativa supplementation in maturing rat, with histological study. Sport Sci Health 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s11332-015-0223-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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Arabzadeh E, Mirdar S, Moradiani H. Nigella sativa supplementation attenuates exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in the maturing rat: a histometric and histologic study. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s00580-015-2128-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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Abstract
We designed a behavioural paradigm for vibro-tactile detection to characterise the sampling time and performance in the rat whisker sensory system. Rats initiated a trial by nose-poking into an aperture where their whiskers came into contact with two meshes. A continuous nose-poke for a random duration triggered stimulus presentation. Stimuli were a sequence of discrete Gaussian deflections of the mesh that increased in amplitude over time – across 5 conditions, time to maximum amplitude varied from 0.5 to 8 seconds. Rats indicated the detected stimulus by choosing between two reward spouts. Two rats completed more than 500 trials per condition. Rats' stimulus sampling duration increased and performance dropped with increasing task difficulty. For all conditions the median reaction time was longer for correct trials than incorrect trials. Higher rates of increment in stimulus amplitude resulted in faster rise in performance as a function of stimulus sampling duration. Rats' behaviour indicated a dynamic stimulus sampling whereby nose-poke was maintained until a stimulus was correctly identified or the rat experienced a false alarm. The perception was then manifested in behaviour after a motor delay. We thus modelled the results with 3 parameters: signal detection, false alarm, and motor delay. The model captured the main features of the data and produced parameter estimates that were biologically plausible and highly similar across the two rats.
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Affiliation(s)
- James S. McDonald
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Mehdi Adibi
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | | | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australian National University Node, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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Arabzadeh E, Clifford CWG, Harris JA, Mahns DA, Macefield VG, Birznieks I. Single tactile afferents outperform human subjects in a vibrotactile intensity discrimination task. J Neurophysiol 2014; 112:2382-7. [PMID: 25143540 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00482.2014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
We simultaneously compared the sensitivity of single primary afferent neurons supplying the glabrous skin of the hand and the psychophysical amplitude discrimination thresholds in human subjects for a set of vibrotactile stimuli delivered to the receptive field. All recorded afferents had a dynamic range narrower than the range of amplitudes across which the subjects could discriminate. However, when the vibration amplitude was chosen to be within the steepest part of the afferent's stimulus-response function the response of single afferents, defined as the spike count over the vibration duration (500 ms), was often more sensitive in discriminating vibration amplitude than the perceptual judgment of the participants. We quantified how the neuronal performance depended on the integration window: for short windows the neuronal performance was inferior to the performance of the subject. The neuronal performance progressively improved with increasing spike count duration and reached a level significantly above that of the subjects when the integration window was 250 ms or longer. The superiority in performance of individual neurons over observers could reflect a nonoptimal integration window or be due to the presence of noise between the sensory periphery and the cortical decision stage. Additionally, it could indicate that the range of perceptual sensitivity comes at the cost of discrimination through pooling across neurons with different response functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Arabzadeh
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australian National University Node, Canberra, Australia;
| | - Colin W G Clifford
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; School of Psychology, UNSW Australia, Sydney, Australia
| | - Justin A Harris
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - David A Mahns
- School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Vaughan G Macefield
- School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia; and
| | - Ingvars Birznieks
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia; and School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia
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Adibi M, McDonald JS, Clifford CWG, Arabzadeh E. Population decoding in rat barrel cortex: optimizing the linear readout of correlated population responses. PLoS Comput Biol 2014; 10:e1003415. [PMID: 24391487 PMCID: PMC3879135 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2013] [Accepted: 11/15/2013] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensory information is encoded in the response of neuronal populations. How might this information be decoded by downstream neurons? Here we analyzed the responses of simultaneously recorded barrel cortex neurons to sinusoidal vibrations of varying amplitudes preceded by three adapting stimuli of 0, 6 and 12 µm in amplitude. Using the framework of signal detection theory, we quantified the performance of a linear decoder which sums the responses of neurons after applying an optimum set of weights. Optimum weights were found by the analytical solution that maximized the average signal-to-noise ratio based on Fisher linear discriminant analysis. This provided a biologically plausible decoder that took into account the neuronal variability, covariability, and signal correlations. The optimal decoder achieved consistent improvement in discrimination performance over simple pooling. Decorrelating neuronal responses by trial shuffling revealed that, unlike pooling, the performance of the optimal decoder was minimally affected by noise correlation. In the non-adapted state, noise correlation enhanced the performance of the optimal decoder for some populations. Under adaptation, however, noise correlation always degraded the performance of the optimal decoder. Nonetheless, sensory adaptation improved the performance of the optimal decoder mainly by increasing signal correlation more than noise correlation. Adaptation induced little systematic change in the relative direction of signal and noise. Thus, a decoder which was optimized under the non-adapted state generalized well across states of adaptation. In the natural environment, animals are constantly exposed to sensory stimulation. A key question in systems neuroscience is how attributes of a sensory stimulus can be “read out” from the activity of a population of brain cells. We chose to investigate this question in the whisker-mediated touch system of rats because of its well-established anatomy and exquisite functionality. The whisker system is one of the major channels through which rodents acquire sensory information about their surrounding environment. The response properties of brain cells dynamically adjust to the prevailing diet of sensory stimulation, a process termed sensory adaptation. Here, we applied a biologically plausible scheme whereby different brain cells contribute to sensory readout with different weights. We established the set of weights that provide the optimal readout under different states of adaptation. The results yield an upper bound for the efficiency of coding sensory information. We found that the ability to decode sensory information improves with adaptation. However, a readout mechanism that does not adjust to the state of adaptation can still perform remarkably well.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehdi Adibi
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - James S. McDonald
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Colin W. G. Clifford
- School of Psychology & Australian Centre of Excellence in Vision Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
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48
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Abstract
One of the great challenges of systems neuroscience is to understand how the neocortex transforms neuronal representations of the physical characteristics of sensory stimuli into the percepts which can guide the animal's decisions. Here we present progress made in understanding behavioral and neurophysiological aspects of a highly efficient sensory apparatus, the rat whisker system. Beginning with the 1970s discovery of "barrels" in the rat and mouse brain, one line of research has focused on unraveling the circuits that transmit information from the whiskers to the sensory cortex, together with the cellular mechanisms that underlie sensory responses. A second, more recent line of research has focused on tactile psychophysics, that is, quantification of the behavioral capacities supported by whisker sensation. The opportunity to join these two lines of investigation makes whisker-mediated sensation an exciting platform for the study of the neuronal bases of perception and decision-making. Even more appealing is the beginning-to-end prospective offered by this system: the inquiry can start at the level of the sensory receptor and conclude with the animal's choice. We argue that rats can switch between two modes of operation of the whisker sensory system: (1) generative mode and (2) receptive mode. In the generative mode, the rat moves its whiskers forward and backward to actively seek contact with objects and to palpate the object after initial contact. In the receptive mode, the rat immobilizes its whiskers to optimize the collection of signals from an object that is moving by its own power. We describe behavioral tasks that rats perform in these different modes. Next, we explore which neuronal codes in sensory cortex account for the rats' discrimination capacities. Finally, we present hypotheses for mechanisms through which "downstream" brain regions may read out the activity of sensory cortex in order to extract the significance of sensory stimuli and, ultimately, to select the appropriate action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathew E Diamond
- Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy.
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49
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Lavan D, McDonald JS, Westbrook RF, Arabzadeh E. Behavioural correlate of choice confidence in a discrete trial paradigm. PLoS One 2011; 6:e26863. [PMID: 22046387 PMCID: PMC3203175 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2011] [Accepted: 10/05/2011] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
How animals make choices in a changing and often uncertain environment is a central theme in the behavioural sciences. There is a substantial literature on how animals make choices in various experimental paradigms but less is known about the way they assess a choice after it has been made in terms of the expected outcome. Here, we used a discrete trial paradigm to characterise how the reward history shaped the behaviour on a trial by trial basis. Rats initiated each trial which consisted of a choice between two drinking spouts that differed in their probability of delivering a sucrose solution. Critically, sucrose was delivered after a delay from the first lick at the spouts--this allowed us to characterise the behavioural profile during the window between the time of choice and its outcome. Rats' behaviour converged to optimum choice, both during the acquisition phase and after the reversal of contingencies. We monitored the post-choice behaviour at a temporal precision of 1 millisecond; lick-response profiles revealed that rats spent more time at the spout with the higher reward probability and exhibited a sparser lick pattern. This was the case when we exclusively examined the unrewarded trials, where the outcome was identical. The differential licking profiles preceded the differential choice ratios and could thus predict the changes in choice behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Doron Lavan
- School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - James S. McDonald
- School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - R. Frederick Westbrook
- School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ehsan Arabzadeh
- School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- * E-mail:
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50
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Abrahamyan A, Clifford CWG, Ruzzoli M, Phillips D, Arabzadeh E, Harris JA. Accurate and rapid estimation of phosphene thresholds (REPT). PLoS One 2011; 6:e22342. [PMID: 21799833 PMCID: PMC3142147 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2010] [Accepted: 06/24/2011] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
To calibrate the intensity of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) at the occipital pole, the phosphene threshold is used as a measure of cortical excitability. The phosphene threshold (PT) refers to the intensity of magnetic stimulation that induces illusory flashes of light (phosphenes) on a proportion of trials. The existing PT estimation procedures lack the accuracy and mathematical rigour of modern threshold estimation methods. We present an improved and automatic procedure for estimating the PT which is based on the well-established Ψ Bayesian adaptive staircase approach. To validate the new procedure, we compared it with another commonly used procedure for estimating the PT. We found that our procedure is more accurate, reliable, and rapid when compared with an existing PT measurement procedure. The new procedure is implemented in Matlab and works automatically with the Magstim Rapid(2) stimulator using a convenient graphical user interface. The Matlab program is freely available for download.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arman Abrahamyan
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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