The slow pathway in the electrosensory lobe of Gymnotus omarorum: Field potentials and unitary activity
Publication date: Available online 1 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Ana Carolina Pereira , Alejo Rodríguez-Cattáneo , Angel A. Caputi This is a first communication on the self-activation pattern of the electrosensory lobe in the pulse weakly electric fish Gymnotus omarorum. Field potentials in response to the fish’s own electric organ discharge (EOD) were recorded along vertical tracks (50μm step) and on a transversal lattice array across the electrosensory lobe (resolution 50μm×100μm). The unitary activity of 82 neurons was recorded in the same experiments. Field potential analysi...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Assessing value representation in animals
Publication date: Available online 1 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Aurore San-Galli , Sebastien Bouret Among all factors modulating our motivation to perform a given action, the ability to represent its outcome is clearly the most determining. Representation of outcomes, rewards in particular, and how they guide behavior, have sparked much research. Both practically and theoretically, understanding the relationship between the representation of outcome value and the organization of goal directed behavior implies that these two processes can be assessed independently. Most of animal studies...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Memory beyond expression
Publication date: Available online 4 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): A. Delorenzi , F.J. Maza , L.D. Suárez , K. Barreiro , V.A. Molina , J. Stehberg The idea that memories are not invariable after the consolidation process has led to new perspectives about several mnemonic processes. In this framework, we review our studies on the modulation of memory expression during reconsolidation. We propose that during both memory consolidation and reconsolidation, neuromodulators can determine the probability of the memory trace to guide behavior, i.e. they can either increase or decrease its be...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
The Mauthner-cell circuit of fish as a model system for startle plasticity
Publication date: Available online 7 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Violeta Medan , Thomas Preuss The Mauthner-cell (M-cell) system of teleost fish has a long history as an experimental model for addressing a wide range of neurobiological questions. Principles derived from studies on this system have contributed significantly to our understanding at multiple levels, from mechanisms of synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity to the concepts of a decision neuron that initiates key aspects of the startle behavior. Here we will review recent work that focuses on the neurophysiological and...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Local vasotocin modulation of the pacemaker nucleus resembles distinct electric behaviors in two species of weakly electric fish
Publication date: Available online 11 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Rossana Perrone , Adriana Migliaro , Virginia Comas , Laura Quintana , Michel Borde , Ana Silva The neural bases of social behavior diversity in vertebrates have evolved in close association with hypothalamic neuropeptides. In particular, arginine-vasotocin (AVT) is a key integrator underlying differences in behavior across vertebrate taxa. Behavioral displays in weakly electric fish are channeled through specific patterns in their electric organ discharges (EODs), whose rate is ultimately controlled by a medullary pac...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Hippocampal NMDA receptors and the previous experience effect on memory
Publication date: Available online 14 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Magalí C. Cercato , Natalia Colettis , Marina Snitcofsky , Alejandra I. Aguirre , Edgar E. Kornisiuk , María V. Baez , Diana A. Jerusalinsky N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) are thought to be responsible for switching synaptic activity specific patterns into long-term changes in synaptic function and structure, which would support learning and memory. Hippocampal NMDAR blockade impairs memory consolidation in rodents, while NMDAR stimulation improves it. Adult rats that explored twice an open field (OF) before...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
The endocrine regulation of cichlids social and reproductive behavior through the eyes of the chanchita, Cichlasoma dimerus (Percomorpha; Cichlidae)
Publication date: Available online 24 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Martín Roberto Ramallo , Leonel Morandini , Felipe Alonso , Agustina Birba , Cecilia Tubert , Ana Fiszbein , Matías Pandolfi Sociobiology, the study of social behavior, calls for a laboratory model with specific requirements. Among the most obvious is the execution of social interactions that need to be readily observable, quantifiable and analyzable. If, in turn, one focuses on the neuroendocrinological basis of social behavior, restrictions grow even tighter. A good laboratory model should then allow easy access t...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Role of astrocytes in memory and psychiatric disorders
Publication date: Available online 26 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): R. Moraga-Amaro , J.M. Jerez-Baraona , F. Simon , J. Stehberg Over the past decade, the traditional description of astrocytes as being merely accessories to brain function has shifted to one in which their role has been pushed into the forefront of importance. Current views suggest that astrocytes:(1) are excitable through calcium fluctuations and respond to neurotransmitters released at synapses; (2) communicate with each other via calcium waves and release their own gliotransmitters which are essential for synaptic pla...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Memory labilization in reconsolidation and extinction – Evidence for a common plasticity system?
Publication date: Available online 28 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Suellen Almeida-Corrêa , Olavo B. Amaral Reconsolidation and extinction are two processes occurring upon memory retrieval that have received great attention in memory research over the last decade, partly due to their purported potential in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Due to their opposite behavioral effects, the two phenomena have usually been considered as separate entities, with few attempts to build a unified view of how both could be produced by similar mechanisms. Based on computational modeling, we have pre...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Participation of group I p21-activated kinases in neuroplasticity
Publication date: Available online 28 August 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): André P. Koth , Bruno R. Oliveira , Gustavo M. Parfitt , Juliana de Quadros Buonocore , Daniela M. Barros PAKs are a family of serine/threonine protein kinases activated by small GTPases of the Rho family, including Rac and Cdc42, and are categorized into group I (isoforms 1, 2 and 3) and group II (isoforms 4, 5 and 6). PAK1 and PAK3 are critically involved in biological mechanisms associated with neurodevelopment, neuroplasticity and maturation of the nervous system, and changes in their activity have been detected in...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
The neural processes underlying perceptual decision making in humans: Recent progress and future directions
Publication date: Available online 7 September 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Simon P. Kelly , Redmond G. O’Connell In the last two decades, animal neurophysiology research has made great strides towards explaining how the brain can enable adaptive action in the face of noisy sensory information. In particular, this work has identified neural signals that perform the role of a ‘decision variable’ which integrates sensory information in favor of a particular outcome up to an action-triggering threshold, consistent with long-standing predictions from mathematical psychology. This has provoked ...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Escape response of the crab Neohelice to computer generated looming and translational visual danger stimuli
Publication date: Available online 8 September 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Florencia Scarano , Daniel Tomsic Historically, arthropod behavior has been considered to be a collection of simple, automaton-like routines commanded by domain-specific brain modules working independently. Nowadays, it is evident that the extensive behavioral repertoire of these animals and its flexibility necessarily imply far more complex abilities than originally assumed. For example, even what was thought to be a straightforward behavior of crabs, the escape response to visual danger stimuli, proved to involve a num...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Strengthening a consolidated memory: The key role of the reconsolidation process
We present and discuss both our findings and those of others, trying to reveal the central role of reconsolidation in the modification of stored information. (Source: Journal of Physiology Paris)
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
New evidence on an old question: Is the “fight or flight” stage present in the cardiac and respiratory regulation of decapod crustaceans?
Publication date: Available online 16 September 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Eliana M. Canero , Gabriela Hermitte The ability to stay alert to subtle changes in the environment and to freeze, fight or flight in the presence of predators requires integrating sensory information as well as triggering motor output to target tissues, both of which are associated with the autonomic nervous system. These reactions, which are commonly related to vertebrates, are the fundamental physiological responses that allow an animal to survive danger. The circulatory activity in vertebrates changes in opposite ph...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
Feedback-related negativity observed in rodent anterior cingulate cortex
Publication date: Available online 16 September 2014 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Christopher M. Warren , James M. Hyman , Jeremy K. Seamans , Clay B. Holroyd The feedback-related negativity (FRN) refers to a difference in the human event-related potential (ERP) elicited by feedback indicating success versus failure: the difference appears negative when subtracting the success ERP from the failure ERP (Miltner et al., 1997). Although source localization techniques (e.g., BESA) suggest that the FRN is produced in the ACC, the inverse problem (that any given scalp distribution can be produced by an i...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - October 12, 2014 Category: Physiology Source Type: research
