Rebecca S. Hofford, Ava L. Shipman, Weiwei Wang, TuKiet T. Lam, Drew D. Kiraly
Adolescence is a developmentally sensitive period during which individuals begin experimenting with drugs of abuse. This window coincides with maturation of brain structures critical to reward and decision-making, including the prefrontal cortex, as well as peripheral physiological systems such as the gut microbiome - making it a period of heightened vulnerability to the long-lasting effects of drug exposure. Work from our lab has shown that manipulations to the gut microbiome influence drug reward, reinforcement, and drug seeking after abstinence. Critically, some of these effects are age-dependent with adolescents demonstrating greater sensitivity to the effects of microbiome disturbance on drug reward. Behavioral changes induced by microbiome disruption occur in parallel with molecular changes in reward-related brain regions like the medial prefrontal cortex. However, whether adolescent microbiome disruption produces alterations in opioid seeking and molecular changes in brain reward regions that persist into early adulthood has not been investigated. In the current study, we examined the effects of oral antibiotics during adolescent fentanyl self-administration on drug seeking, microbiome composition, and proteomic changes in the prefrontal cortex in adulthood. Adolescent antibiotics reduced contextual but not cue-induced drug seeking and changes in the medial prefrontal cortex proteome suggest global alterations in pathways regulating cellular metabolism and neurotransmitter release. Together this work indicates that brief oral antibiotics during adolescence produces long-lasting impacts on both brain and behavior.
Achille Pasqualotto, Jun Aoki, Kenji Suzuki, Hideki Kadone
Wheelchair users face numerous challenges, which might include experiencing the world from a sitting modality, thus resulting in poorer spatial representation. Our study is an initial exploration of this hypothesis that, to begin with, involved healthy participants using a novel mobility device for sitting and standing locomotion. According to the situations, this device allows for transitioning from the sitting to the standing modality and vice versa. Additionally, we adopted a “classical” methodology to investigate spatial representation. Participants [ N = 40] saw a scene of real objects (a book, a teapot, a football, etc.) arranged in a large room. Crucially, a half of them was using the device in the sitting modality, and the other half was in the standing modality. Afterwards, a spatial memory task investigated participants’ spatial representation. More importantly, this task assessed whether the spatial representation was more egocentric (viewer-to-objects) or allocentric (objects-to-objects). Results showed that the standing group outperformed the sitting group [ p < 0.001] and possessed a markedly allocentric spatial representation [ p < 0.001], thus indicating that the standing group was better at grasping the spatial relations among objects. This set of results suggests that the higher viewpoint afforded by the standing modality provided more spatial information to the brain areas involved in spatial processing, thus resulting in a more robust spatial representation. Aside its theoretical relevance, this finding might have practical implications for improving independence and life quality of wheelchair-users.
Anastasiya Rakovskaya, Alexey Lozhkov, Valeria Tverdokhlebova, Yana Zabrodskaya, Egor Vinokurov, Valeria Kirenskaya, Alexander Erofeev, Angelika Garshinina, Valeria Zryacheva, Anna Shtro, Ekaterina Pchitskaya, Olga Vlasova, Ekaterina Elpaeva, Pavel Dav, Ilya Bezprozvanny, Andrey Vasin
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by progressive cognitive decline, synaptic dysfunction, and neuroinflammation, which may be influenced by systemic factors such as infection. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of prior influenza A (H1N1)pdm infection on behavioral, synaptic, and neuroinflammatory alterations in the 5xFAD mouse model of AD. Mice were intranasally infected at 2 months of age and underwent behavioral assessment from 7 months of age using tests of social, affective, exploratory, and cognitive function. Hippocampal synaptic function and structure were assessed by CA1 long-term potentiation (LTP) recordings and dendritic spine analysis, while neuroinflammation and amyloid pathology were evaluated by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. 5xFAD mice exhibited impairments in hippocampus-dependent memory, social behavior, and affective responses. Prior H1N1pdm infection modulated these phenotypes, resulting in increased depressive-like behavior in the tail suspension test and alterations in exploratory and social activity. At the synaptic level, reduced LTP and decreased dendritic spine density were observed in 5xFAD mice, along with a shift toward immature spine morphology. Viral infection induced similar synaptic alterations in wild-type mice but did not further exacerbate synaptic deficits in 5xFAD animals. Both amyloid pathology and infection were associated with increased astrocytic and microglial activation, with the strongest neuroinflammatory response detected in infected 5xFAD mice. Overall, prior H1N1pdm infection altered behavioral and neuroinflammatory phenotypes but did not further aggravate the already established synaptic deficits in 5xFAD mice. These findings support a non-additive interaction between systemic inflammation and neurodegenerative pathology and may help explain the heterogeneous consequences of viral infection in older individuals with cognitive impairment.
Long-term, automated tracking of group-housed social animals using RFID (radio frequency identification) is a promising approach in ethological neuroscience. However, low-frequency (LF) RFID, while long-established in the field, is constrained by its inherent low data rates, which lead to two critical limitations: (1) compromised spatiotemporal resolution, and (2) the inability to identify multiple tags (animals) simultaneously. To address these limitations, we developed eeeHive, a high-frequency (HF) RFID-based animal tracking system with a fully custom hardware architecture that enables high-speed, multiplexed antenna polling and concurrent multi-tag reading. The polling time per antenna in eeeHive was 5.9 ms, with an additional 8.2 ms read time per tag. We applied the system to track 24 mice for 1 week, and six common marmosets for 7 weeks. The system successfully tracked individuals even within dense clusters, revealing complex behavioral traits characterized by spatial utilization, temporal dynamics, behavioral regularity, and inter-individual relationships. Additional tests with Japanese fire-bellied newts and Nile tilapia juveniles demonstrated comparable tracking performance in aquatic environments. Taken together, eeeHive overcomes the inherent limitations of conventional LF RFID, establishing a powerful HF RFID-based platform for fine-scale behavioral tracking of group-housed animals across terrestrial and aquatic species.
Rand Alsharq, Anfal AL-Dalaeen, Eman Saleh, Nour Batarseh, Abeer Ahmad Bahathig
Individuals with disabilities face practical and social challenges beyond those experienced by non-disabled individuals, which may increase vulnerability to mental health problems. However, few studies have examined biochemical correlates of psychological health in this population. This study investigated the associations of serum brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF) and adiponectin with anxiety, depression, and stress among deaf adults. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 204 deaf adults aged 18–45 years. Anxiety and depression were assessed using the DASS-21 questionnaire. Body composition analyses were performed using bioelectrical impedance analysis, and serum BDNF and adiponectin levels were measured. Serum BDNF concentrations were inversely associated with anxiety (r = −0.632, p < 0.001), depression (r = −0.732, p < 0.001), and stress (r = −0.795, p < 0.001). Similarly, serum adiponectin concentrations showed significant inverse correlations with anxiety (r = −0.422, p < 0.001), depression (r = −0.344, p < 0.001), and stress (r = −0.446, p < 0.001). In multiple linear regression analyses adjusted for age, sex, and body mass index (BMI), BDNF remained an independent inverse predictor of anxiety (β = −0.48, p < 0.001), depression (β = −0.55, p < 0.001), and stress (β = −0.62, p < 0.001). Adiponectin also remained independently associated with anxiety (β = −0.19, p = 0.03) and stress (β = −0.21, p = 0.02). Lower serum BDNF and adiponectin concentrations were independently associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and stress among deaf adults. These findings suggest that BDNF, and to a lesser extent adiponectin, may represent potential biomarkers of psychological distress in this population.
