| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Andrew, Churchill, et al.
(författare)
-
Vision of the hand and environmental context in human prehension
- 2000
-
Ingår i: Experimental Brain Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0014-4819 .- 1432-1106. ; 134:1, s. 81-89
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous findings on the role of visual contact with the hand in the control of reaching and grasping have been contradictory. Some studies have shown that such contact is largely irrelevant, while more recent ones have emphasised its importance. In contrast, information arising from the surrounding environment has received relatively little attention in the study of prehensile actions. In order to identify the roles of both sources of information, we made kinematic comparisons between three conditions. In the first, reaching was performed in a dimly lit room and compared with a second condition in which reaches in the dark, but with the thumb and first finger illuminated, were made to a luminous object. This contrast allows the effects of environmental context to be identified. A comparison between the second and a third condition, in which both vision of the hand and the environment was removed, but the object was still visually available, enabled the assessment of how and when vision of the hand plays a role. Removing environmental cues had effects both early and late in the reach, while vision of the hand was only crucial in the period after peak deceleration. In addition, removal of both sources of information resulted in larger grip apertures. Differences and similarities between our findings and those of other studies are discussed, as is the ongoing debate about the relative importance of visual feedback of the hand in the control and co-ordination of prehensile actions. We conclude with suggestions for further research based on the set-up used in the present study.
|
|
| 3. |
- Apps, R, et al.
(författare)
-
Precise matching of olivo-cortical divergence and cortico-nuclear convergence between somatotopically corresponding areas in the medial C1 and medial C3 zones of the paravermal cerebellum
- 2000
-
Ingår i: European Journal of Neuroscience. - : Wiley. - 1460-9568 .- 0953-816X. ; 12:1, s. 205-214
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paravermal cerebellar cortex contains three spatially separate zones (the C1, C3 and Y zones) which form a functionally coupled system involved in the control of voluntary limb movements. A series of 'modules' has been postulated, each defined by a set of olivary neurons with similar receptive fields, the cortical microzones innervated by these neurons and the group of deep cerebellar nuclear neurons upon which the microzones converge. A key feature of this modular organization is a correspondence between cortical input and output, irrespective of the zonal identity of the microzone. This was tested directly using a combined electrophysiological and bi-directional tracer technique in barbiturate-anaesthetized cats. During an initial operation, small injections of a mix of retrograde and anterograde tracer material (red beads combined with Fluoro-Ruby or green beads combined with biotinylated dextran amine or Fluoro-Emerald) were made into areas of the medial C1 and medial C3 zones in cerebellar lobule V characterized by olivo-cerebellar input from the ventral forelimb. The inferior olive and the deep cerebellar nuclei were then scrutinized for retrogradely labelled cells and anterogradely labelled axon terminals, respectively. For individual experiments, the degree of C1-C3 zone terminal field overlap in the nucleus interpositus anterior was plotted as a function of either the regional overlap of single-labelled cells or the proportion of double-labelled cells in the dorsal accessory olive. The results were highly positively correlated, indicating that cortico-nuclear convergence between parts of the two zones is in close proportion to the corresponding olivo-cerebellar divergence, entirely consistent with the modular hypothesis.
|
|
| 4. |
- Bakall, Benjamin, et al.
(författare)
-
Analysis of subcellular location of bestrophin in transfected RPE cell lines
- 2000
-
Ingår i: Gene Function and Disease. - 1438-7506 .- 1438-826X. ; 1:3-4, s. 128-133
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Best macular dystrophy is an autosomal dominant disease leading to macular degeneration and subsequent impaired vision. The disease has juvenile onset and affects the retinal pigment epithelium and adjacent photoreceptors. There are histopathological similarities between Best macular dystrophy (BMD) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with accumulation of lipofuscin in the outer retina. Recently, we identified the gene VMD2 causing Best macular dystrophy. The VMD2 gene has unknown function and there are no similarities between the VMD2 product, called bestrophin, and other proteins with known function. In order to gain more knowledge about the function of bestrophin we investigated its subcellular localization. DNA constructs encoding the bestrophin protein fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP) or a c-myc tag were transiently expressed in COS-7 cells or retinal pigment epithelium cells. The observed pattern of bestrophin fusion protein was spotted and mainly perinuclear, well corresponding to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which was also suggested when counterstaining with an ER probe. Probes for other organelles had a different localization pattern compared to bestrophin. In conclusion, the results indicate that bestrophin is located to the endoplasmic reticulum.
|
|
| 5. |
- Betts, G A, et al.
(författare)
-
Neck muscle vibration alters visually-perceived roll after unilateral vestibular loss
- 2000
-
Ingår i: NeuroReport. - 1473-558X. ; 11:12, s. 2659-2662
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Unilateral sternocleidomastoid muscle vibration was applied to 21 normal and six unilateral vestibular deafferented (uVD) human subjects at head erect and during 30 degrees left and right whole body roll-tilt. In normal subjects, neck vibration had no effect upon the settings of a visual bar to subjective visual horizontal (SVH) in any roll-tilt condition. In uVD subjects settings to SVH were significantly altered by neck vibration, with ipsilesional neck vibration increasing the SVH bias at head erect. Further, during contralesional roll-tilt, ipsilesional neck vibration in uVD subjects significantly increased the E-effect. These results suggest that compensation after vestibular loss allows cervical signals to influence visual perception of roll-tilt.
|
|
| 6. |
- Birnir, Bryndis, et al.
(författare)
-
Bicuculline, pentobarbital and diazepam modulate spontaneous GABA(A) channels in rat hippocampal neurons
- 2000
-
Ingår i: British Journal of Pharmacology. - : Wiley. - 1476-5381 .- 0007-1188. ; 131:4, s. 695-704
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spontaneously opening, chloride-selective channels that showed outward rectification were recorded in ripped-off patches from rat cultured hippocampal neurons and in cell-attached patches from rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons in slices. In both preparations, channels had multiple conductance states and the most common single-channel conductance varied. In the outside-out patches it ranged from 12 to 70 pS (Vp=40 mV) whereas in the cell-attached patches it ranged from 56 to 85 pS (-Vp=80 mV). Application of GABA to a patch showing spontaneous channel activity evoked a rapid, synchronous activation of channels. During prolonged exposure to either 5 or 100 microM GABA, the open probability of channels decreased. Application of GABA appeared to have no immediate effect on single-channel conductance. Exposure of the patches to 100 microM bicuculline caused a gradual decrease on the single-channel conductance of the spontaneous channels. The time for complete inhibition to take place was slower in the outside-out than in the cell-attached patches. Application of 100 microM pentobarbital or 1 microM diazepam caused 2 - 4 fold increase in the maximum channel conductance of low conductance (<40 pS) spontaneously active channels. The observation of spontaneously opening GABA(A) channels in cell-attached patches on neurons in slices suggests that they may have a role in neurons in vivo and could be an important site of action for some drugs such as benzodiazepines, barbiturates and general anaesthetics.
|
|
| 7. |
- Birnir, Bryndis, et al.
(författare)
-
Spontaneously opening GABA(A) channels in CA1 pyramidal neurones of rat hippocampus.
- 2000
-
Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Biology. - 0022-2631 .- 1432-1424. ; 174:1, s. 21-9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spontaneous, single channel, chloride currents were recorded in 48% of cell-attached patches on neurones in the CA1 region of rat hippocampal slices. In some patches, there was more than 1 channel active. They showed outward rectification: both channel conductance and open probability were greater at depolarized than at hyperpolarized potentials. Channels activated by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in silent patches on the same neurones had similar conductance and outward rectification. The spontaneous currents were inhibited by bicuculline and potentiated by diazepam. It was concluded that the spontaneously opening channels were constitutively active, nonsynaptic GABA(A) channels. Such spontaneously opening GABA(A) channels may provide a tonic inhibitory mechanism in these cells and perhaps in other cells that have GABA(A) receptors although not having a GABA(A) synaptic input. They may also be a target for clinically useful drugs such as the benzodiazepines.
|
|
| 8. |
- Björklund, Anders, et al.
(författare)
-
Towards a neuroprotective gene therapy for Parkinson's disease: use of adenovirus, AAV and lentivirus vectors for gene transfer of GDNF to the nigrostriatal system in the rat Parkinson model
- 2000
-
Ingår i: Brain Research. - 1872-6240. ; 886:1-2, s. 82-98
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the last few years, recombinant viral vectors derived from adenovirus (Ad), adeno-associated virus (AAV) or lentivirus (LV) have been developed into highly effective vehicles for gene transfer to the adult central nervous system. In recent experiments, in the rat model of Parkinson's disease, all three vector systems have been shown to be effective for long-term delivery of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) at biologically relevant levels in the nigrostriatal system. Injection of the GDNF encoding vectors into either striatum or substantia nigra thus makes it possible to obtain a regionally restricted over-expression of GDNF within the nigrostriatal system that is sufficient to block the toxin-induced degeneration of the nigral dopamine neurons. Injection of GDNF vectors in the striatum, in particular, is effective not only in rescuing the cell bodies in the substantia nigra, but also in preserving the nigrostriatal projection and a functional striatal dopamine innervation in the rat Parkinson model. Long-term experiments using AAV-GDNF and LV-GDNF vectors show, moreover, that sustained GDNF delivery over 3-6 months can promote regeneration and significant functional recovery in both 6-OHDA-lesioned rats and MPTP-lesioned monkeys. The impressive efficacy of the novel AAV and LV vectors in rodent and primate Parkinson models suggests that the time may now be ripe to explore these vector systems as tools for neuroprotective treatments in patients with Parkinson's disease.
|
|
| 9. |
- Björkman, Eva, et al.
(författare)
-
Evaluation of design options for the scale-space primal sketch analysis of brain activation images
- 2000
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A key issue in brain imaging concerns how to detect the functionally activated regions from PET and fMRI images. In earlier work, it has been shown that the scale-space primal sketch provides a useful tool for such analysis [1]. The method includes presmoothing with different filter widths and automatic estimation of the spatial extent of the activated regions (blobs).The purpose is to present two modifications of the scale-space primal sketch, as well as a quantitative evaluation which shows that these modifications improve the performance, measured as the separation between blob descriptors extracted from PET images and from noise images. This separation is essential for future work of associating a statistical p-value with the scale-space blob descriptors.
|
|
| 10. |
- Blomsterwall, Elisabeth, et al.
(författare)
-
Postural disturbance in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus.
- 2000
-
Ingår i: Acta neurologica Scandinavica. - : Hindawi Limited. - 0001-6314. ; 102:5, s. 284-91
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The postural function in 52 patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and in 19 patients with subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy (SAE) was analysed bedside and in 17 of the NPH, 10 of the SAE and 23 healthy individuals (HI) also examined with a force platform. At the bedside examination, no differences in postural functions between NPH and SAE patients were found. The NPH patients improved more in the postural than in motor functions after shunt surgery. The NPH patients had a larger sway area and a higher backward directed velocity of centre of pressure than HI. The direction of the inclination in the sagittal plane was neutral or forward in the NPH and the SAE patients while it was backward in HI. The postural function was better in positions with open eyes in all 3 groups, but significantly less in the NPH patients, indicating a misinterpretation of afferent visual stimuli in the brainstem postural centre.
|
|
