To determine how neuronal circuits encode and drive behavior, it is often necessary to measure and manipulate different aspects of neurochemical signaling in awake animals. Optogenetics and calcium sensors have paved the way for these types of studies, allowing for the perturbation and readout of spiking activity within genetically defined cell typ...
Neuropeptides are ubiquitous in the nervous system. Research into neuropeptides has been limited by a lack of experimental tools that allow for the precise dissection of their complex and diverse dynamics in a circuit-specific manner. Opioid peptides modulate pain, reward and aversion and as such have high clinical relevance. To illuminate the spat...
Behavioral flexibility, the capacity to adapt behavior in response to changes in the environment or internal state, is a fundamental aspect of animal behavior, essential for survival and reproductive success. Notably, an animal's feeding state strongly influences its behavior, even beyond feeding-related choices and impact even decisions unrelated ...
Published in Atherosclerosis
Schizophrenia (SZ) is a serious mental illness and neuropsychiatric brain disorder with behavioral symptoms that include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized behavior, and cognitive impairment. Regulation of such behaviors requires utilization of neurotransmitters released to mediate cell-cell communication which are essential to brain functions...
Published in Brain, Behavior and Evolution
Introduction: The octopus peduncle complex is an agglomeration of neural structures with remarkably diverse functional roles. The complex rests on the optic tract, between the optic lobe and the central brain, and comprises the peduncle lobe proper, the olfactory lobe, and the optic gland. The peduncle lobe regulates visuomotor behaviors, the optic...
Published in Journal of ethnopharmacology
Bushen Zhuangjin Decoction (BZD) are an herbal compound commonly used to treat osteoarthritis (OA) in China. This study aimed to verify the mechanism of Bushen Zhuangjin Decoction in relieving the pain of knee osteoarthritis. Network pharmacology evaluation was used to discover the potential targets of BZD to relieve pain in KOA. The therapeutic ef...
Published in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology
Peptides and protein hormones form the largest group of secreted signals that mediate intercellular communication and are central regulators of physiology and behavior in all animals. Phylogenetic analyses and biochemical identifications of peptide-receptor systems reveal a broad evolutionary conservation of these signaling systems at the molecular...
Published in The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry
Almost every facet of our behaviour and physiology varies predictably over the course of day and night, anticipating, and adapting us to, their associated opportunities and challenges. These rhythms are driven by endogenous biological clocks that, when deprived of environmental cues, can continue to oscillate with a period of approximately one day,...
Published in BMC Ophthalmology
Introduction In recent years, insulin eye drops have attracted increasing attention from researchers and ophthalmologists. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and possible mechanism of action of insulin eye drops in diabetic mice with corneal wounds. Methods A type 1 diabetes model was induced, and a corneal epithelial injury mode...
