Vasotocin increases dominance in the weakly electric fish Brachyhypopomus gauderio
In this study, we focus on the role of AVT on dominance establishment in Brachyhypopomus gauderio by analyzing the effects of pharmacological manipulations of the AVT system in potential dominants. AVT exerts a very specific direct effect restricted only to EOD rate, and is responsible for the electric dominance. Unexpectedly, AVT did not affect the intensity of aggression in either contender. Nor was the time structure affected by AVT administration. We also present two interesting examples of the interplay between contenders by evaluating how AVT modulations, even when directed to one individual, affect the behavior of t...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - December 7, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
An integrated model for motor control of song in Serinus canaria
Publication date: Available online 8 December 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Rodrigo Gogui Alonso, Ana Amador, Gabriel B. Mindlin Birdsong is a learned motor behavior controlled by an interconnected structure of neural nuclei. This pathway is bilaterally organized, with anatomically indistinguishable structures in each brain hemisphere. In this work, we present a computational model whose variables are the average activities of different neural nuclei of the song system of oscine birds. Two of the variables are linked to the air sac pressure and the tension of the labia during canary song productio...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - December 7, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Building the case for a novel teleost model of non-breeding aggression and its neuroendocrine control
Publication date: Available online 1 December 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Laura Quintana, Lucía Zubizarreta, Cecilia Jalabert, Gervasio Batista, Rossana Perrone, Ana Silva In vertebrates, aggression has been traditionally associated with high levels of circulating androgens in breeding males. Nevertheless, the centrality of androgens as primary modulators of aggression is being reconsidered in at least in two particular cases: 1) territorial aggression outside the breeding season, and 2) aggression by females. We are developing the weakly electric fish, Gymnotus omarorum, as a novel, advanta...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 30, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Dose-dependent effect of donepezil administration on long-term enhancement of visually evoked potentials and cholinergic receptor overexpression in rat visual cortex
Publication date: Available online 29 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Mira Chamoun, Marianne Groleau, Menakshi Bhat, Elvire Vaucher Stimulation of the cholinergic system tightly coupled with periods of visual stimulation boosts the processing of specific visual stimuli via muscarinic and nicotinic receptors in terms of intensity, priority and long-term effect. However, it is not known whether more diffuse pharmacological stimulation with donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor, is an efficient tool for enhancing visual processing and perception. The goal of the present study was to potentiat...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 29, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Gamma band directional interactions between basal forebrain and visual cortex during wake and sleep states
We report novel aspects of endogenous BF LFP oscillations and their relationship to cortical LFP signals during sleep and wakefulness. We link our findings to known aspects of GABAergic BF networks that likely underlie gamma band LFP activations, and show that the Granger causality analyses can faithfully recapitulate many known attributes of these networks. Graphical abstract (Source: Journal of Physiology Paris)
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 29, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Post-hatching brain morphogenesis and cell proliferation in the pulse-type mormyrid Mormyrus rume proboscirostris.
Publication date: Available online 23 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Milka Radmilovich, Isabel Barreiro, Leticia Iribarne, Kirsty Grant, Frank Kirschbaum, María E. Castelló The anatomical organization of African Mormyrids’ brain is a clear example of departure from the average brain morphotype in teleosts, probably related to functional specialization associated to electrosensory processing and sensory-motor coordination. The brain of Mormyrids is characterized by a well-developed rhombencephalic electrosensory lobe interconnected with relatively large mesencephalic torus semicircul...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 22, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Kissing bugs can generalize and discriminate between different bitter compounds
Publication date: Available online 16 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Yamila Asparch, Gina Pontes, Santiago Masagué, Sebastian Minoli, Romina B. Barrozo Animals make use of contact chemoreception structures to examine the quality of potential food sources. During this evaluation they can detect nutritious compounds that promote feeding and recognize toxins that trigger evasive behaviors. Although animals can easily distinguish between stimuli of different gustatory qualities (bitter, salty, sweet, etc.), their ability to discriminate between compounds of the same quality may be limited. ...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 16, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Sternopygus macrurus electric organ transcriptome and cell size exhibit insensitivity to short-term electrical inactivity
Publication date: Available online 15 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Robert Güth, Matthew Pinch, Manoj P. Samanta, Alexander Chaidez, Graciela A. Unguez Electrical activity is an important regulator of cellular function and gene expression in electrically excitable cell types. In the weakly electric teleost fish Sternopygus macrurus, electrocytes, i.e., the current-producing cells of the electric organ, derive from a striated muscle lineage. Mature electrocytes are larger than muscle fibers, do not contain sarcomeres, and are driven continuously at frequencies higher than those exerted ...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 14, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Previous and recent maternal experiences modulate pups ’ incentive value relative to a male without affecting maternal behavior in postpartum estrous rats
This study extends the behavioral analysis of the postpartum estrus (PPE) which represents a unique period in the female rat’s lifetime when maternal and sexual motivations co-exist. The aim of this study was to explore how previous and recent maternal experiences influence the maternal responses to pups when confronted with a male in a preference test or when they are presented independently in the home cage. To achieve this objective, we firstly compared the maternal behavior in the home cage and the preference for pups or a male in a Y-maze of primiparous and multiparous females approximately twelve hours after delive...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 12, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Nicotinic Regulation of Experience-Dependent Plasticity in Visual Cortex
Publication date: Available online 10 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Masato Sadahiro, Mari Sajo, Hirofumi Morishita While the cholinergic neuromodulatory system and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) have been appreciated as permissive factors for developmental critical period plasticity in visual cortex, it was unknown why plasticity becomes limited after the critical period even in the presence of massive cholinergic projections to visual cortex. In this review we highlighted the recent progresses that started to shed light on the role of the nicotinic cholinergic neuromodulatory...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 10, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Cell-specific modulation of plasticity and cortical state by cholinergic inputs to the visual cortex
Publication date: Available online 10 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Hiroki Sugihara, Naiyan Chen, Mriganka Sur Acetylcholine (ACh) modulates diverse vital brain functions. It innervates a wide range of cortical areas, including the primary visual cortex (V1), and multiple cortical cell types have been found to be responsive to ACh. Here we review how different cell types contribute to different cortical functions modulated by ACh. We specifically focus on two major cortical functions: plasticity and cortical state. In layer II/III of V1, ACh acting on astrocytes and somatostatin-expressin...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 9, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Weakly electric fish learn both visual and electrosensory cues in a multisensory object discrimination task
Publication date: Available online 5 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Sandra Dangelmayer, Jan Benda, Jan Grewe Weakly electric fish use electrosensory, visual, olfactory and lateral line information to guide foraging and navigation behaviors. In many cases they preferentially rely on electrosensory cues. Do fish also memorize non-electrosensory cues? Here, we trained individuals of gymontiform weakly electric fish Apteronotus albifrons in an object discrimination task. Objects were combinations of differently conductive materials covered with differently colored cotton hoods. By setting visu...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 4, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Key considerations in designing a somatosensory neuroprosthesis
Publication date: Available online 1 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Benoit P. Delhaye, Hannes P. Saal, Sliman J. Bensmaia In recent years, a consensus has emerged that somatosensory feedback needs to be provided for upper limb neuroprostheses to be useful. An increasingly promising approach to sensory restoration is to electrically stimulate neurons along the somatosensory neuraxis to convey information about the state of the prosthetic limb and about contact with objects. To date, efforts towards artificial sensory feedback have consisted mainly of demonstrating that some sensory informat...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 1, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
A quest for excitation: Theoretical arguments and immunohistochemical evidence of excitatory granular cells in the ELL of Gnathonemus petersii
Publication date: Available online 2 November 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): V. Hollmann, J. Engelmann, L. Gómez-Sena The Electrosensory Lateral Line lobe (ELL) is the first central target where the electrosensory information encoded in the spatiotemporal pattern electroreceptor afferent discharges is processed. These afferents encode the minute amplitude changes of the basal electric field through both a change in latency and discharge rate. In the ELL the time and rate-coded input pattern of the sensory periphery goes through the granular cell layer before reaching the main efferent cells of the...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - November 1, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Evolution of electric communication signals in the South American ghost knifefishes (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae): A phylogenetic comparative study using a sequence-based phylogeny
Publication date: Available online 18 October 2016 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Adam R. Smith, Melissa R. Proffitt, Winnie W. Ho, Claire B. Mullaney, Javier A. Maldonado-Ocampo, Nathan R. Lovejoy, José A. Alves-Gomes, G. Troy Smith The electric communication signals of weakly electric ghost knifefishes (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae) provide a valuable model system for understanding the evolution and physiology of behavior. Apteronotids produce continuous wave-type electric organ discharges (EODs) that are used for electrolocation and communication. The frequency and waveform of EODs, as well as ...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 28, 2016 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
