bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A key role of the hippocampal P3 in the attentional blink
Authors: Derner M , Reber TP , Faber J , Surges R , Mormann F , Fell J 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThe attentional blink (AB) refers to an impaired identification of target stimuli (T2), which are presented shortly after a prior target (T1) within a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream. It has been suggested that the AB is related to a failed transfer of T2 into working memory and that hippocampus (HC) and entorhinal (EC) cortex are regions crucial for this transfer. Since the event-related P3 component has been linked to inhibitory processes, we hypothesized that the hippocampal P3 elicited by T1 may impact on T2 processing within HC and EC. To test this hypothesis, we reanalyzed microwire data from 21 patients, who performed an RSVP task, during intracranial recordings for epilepsy surgery assessment (Reber et al., 2017). We identified T1-related hippocampal P3 components in the local field potentials (LFPs) and determined the temporal onset of T2 processing in HC/EC based on single-unit response onset activity. In accordance with our hypothesis, T1-related single-trial P3 amplitudes at the onset of T2 processing were clearly larger for unseen compared to seen T2-stimuli. Moreover, increased T1-related single-trial P3 peak latencies were found for T2[unseen] versus T2[seen] trials in case of lags 1 to 3, which was in line with our predictions. In conclusion, our findings support inhibition models of the AB and indicate that the hippocampal P3 elicited by T1 plays a central role in the AB.
Ethylene impact on grapevine pistil temperature and fruit set
Authors: Chervin Christian , Geffroy Olivier 
Published: August 2022

ABSTRACTEthylene is known to stimulate plant respiration, and this later is always associated with heat generation. The grapevine fruit set is dependent upon pistil temperature, controlling the pollen germination and ovule fertilization. This led us to test whether ethylene would be able to impact fruit set often limited in cool climate conditions, particularly in the case ofVitis vinifera L. cv. Malbec, a variety prone to poor fruit set. With this cultivar, we ran trials in growth chambers using the ethylene gas, and field trials using ethephon as an ethylene precursor. At 14.5 °C ambient temperature, we observed that ethylene at 1 and 10 ppm increased the stigma and pistil temperature to 15 °C, compared to 14.7 °C in controls. This minor temperature rise was associated with an increase of fruit set from 10 to 25 %. The field trials, conducted in the South West of France, confirmed this trend. Indeed, spraying a concentration as low as 216 mg/ha of ethephon onto Malbec at full bloom at 16 °C in the shade, led to an increase of fruit set from 35 % to 45 %. These experiments suggest that spraying ultra-low concentrations of ethylene precursors onto the grapevines prone to poor fruit set, during cool mornings, could improve fruit set and reduce crop losses.
Gene fate spectrum as a reflection of local genomic properties
Authors: Hara Yuichiro , Kuraku Shigehiro 
Published: August 2022

AbstractFunctionally indispensable genes are likely to be retained and otherwise to be lost during evolution. This evolutionary fate of a gene can also be affected by neutral factors, including the mutability of genomic positions, but such features have not been examined well. To uncover the genomic features associated with gene loss, we investigated the characteristics of genomic regions where genes have been independently lost in multiple lineages. With a comprehensive scan of gene phylogenies of vertebrates with a careful inspection of evolutionary gene losses, we identified 1,081 human genes whose orthologs were lost in multiple mammalian lineages: designated ‘elusive genes.’ These elusive genes were located in genomic regions with rapid nucleotide substitution, high GC content, and high gene density. A comparison of the orthologous regions of such elusive genes across vertebrates revealed that these features had been established before the radiation of the extant vertebrates more than 500 million years ago. The association of human elusive genes with transcriptomic and epigenomic characteristics illuminated that the genomic regions containing such genes were subject to repressive transcriptional regulation. Thus, the heterogeneous genomic features driving gene fates toward loss have been in place since the ancestral vertebrates and may sometimes have relaxed the functional indispensability of such genes.
Facilitation-inhibition control of motor neuronal persistent inward currents in young and older adults
Authors: Orssatto Lucas B. R. , Fernandes Gabriel L. , Blazevich Anthony J. , Trajano Gabriel S. 
Published: August 2022

ABSTRACTA well-coordinated control of motor neuronal persistent inward currents (PICs) via diffuse neuromodulation and local inhibition is essential to ensure motor units discharge at required times and frequencies. Current best estimates indicate that PICs are reduced in older adults; however, it is not yet known whether PIC facilitation-inhibition control is also altered with ageing. We investigated the responses of PICs to i) a remote handgrip contraction, which is believed to diffusely increase serotonergic input onto motor neurones, and ii) tendon vibration of the antagonist muscle, which elicits reciprocal inhibition, in both young and older adults. High-density surface electromyograms were collected from soleus and tibialis anterior of 18 young and 26 older adults during triangular-shaped plantar and dorsiflexion contractions to 20% (handgrip experiments) and 30% (vibration experiments) of maximum torque (rise-decline rate of 2%/s). The paired-motor-unit analysis was used to calculate ΔF, which is assumed proportional to PIC strength. ΔF increased in both soleus (0.55pps, 16.0%) and tibialis anterior (0.42pps, 11.4%) during the handgrip contraction independent of age. However, although antagonist tendon vibration reduced ΔF in soleus (0.28pps, 12.6%) independent of age, less reduction was observed in older (0.42pps, 10.7%) than young adults (0.72pps, 17.8%) in tibialis anterior. Our data indicate a preserved ability of older adults to amplify PICs following a remote handgrip contraction, during which increased serotonergic input onto the motor neurones is expected, in both lower leg muscles. However, PIC deactivation in response to reciprocal inhibition was impaired with ageing in tibialis anterior despite being preserved in soleus.KEYPOINTSMotor neuronal persistent inward currents (PICs) are amplified via diffuse neuromodulation and deactivated by local inhibition to ensure motor units discharge at required times and frequencies, allowing a normal motor behaviour.PIC amplitudes appear to be reduced with ageing, however it is not known whether PIC facilitation-inhibition control is also altered.Remote handgrip contraction, which should diffusely increase serotonergic input onto motor neurones, amplified PICs similarly in both soleus and tibialis anterior of young and older adults.Antagonist tendon vibration, which induces reciprocal inhibition, reduced PICs in soleus in both young and older adults but had less effect in tibialis anterior in older adults.Our data suggest that older adults have preserved soleus PIC facilitation during lowintensity contractions, equivalent to activities such as standing and walking. However, a reduced reciprocal inhibition of PICs in tibialis anterior may contribute to locomotion impairments, such as increases in soleus-tibialis anterior co-activation during propulsion.
Enteric glia adopt an activated pro-inflammatory state in response to human and bacterial amyloids
Authors: Verstraelen Peter , Van Remoortel Samuel , De Loose Nouchin , Verboven Rosanne , Garcia-Diaz Barriga Gerardo , Christmann Anne , Gries Manuela , Tükel Cagla , Ibiza Martinez Sales , Schäfer Karl-Herbert , Timmermans Jean-Pierre , De Vos Winnok H. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractMounting evidence suggests a role for the microbiome-gut-brain axis in amyloid-associated neurodegeneration, but the pathogenic changes induced by amyloids in the gastro-intestinal tract remain elusive. To scrutinize the early response to amyloids of human and bacterial origin, we challenged primary murine myenteric networks with Aβ1-42 (vs a scrambled version of Aβ1-42) and curli (vs culture medium), respectively, and performed shotgun RNA sequencing. Both amyloid types induced a transcriptional signature of DNA damage and cell cycle dysregulation. Using in vitro neurosphere-derived cultures and in vivo amyloid injections we found that enteric glia and smooth muscle cells were the most responsive cell types, showing increased proliferation, γH2AX burden and SOD2 levels after amyloid challenge. Consistent with this activated state, we identified a pro-inflammatory hub in the transcriptional profile of amyloid-stimulated myenteric networks. Enteric glia were the principal source of the associated cytokines, and in vivo, this was accompanied by an influx of immune cells. Together, these results shed new light on the intrinsic vulnerability of ENS cells to both amyloid species and position enteric glial cell activation as an early driver of neurodegenerative disease progression.Significance statementThe increasing socio-economic impact of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), long sub-clinical disease progression window, and failure of drug candidates demand mechanistic insight into the early stages of disease development. Epidemiological associations and experimental studies in rodents suggest that the gut may be vulnerable to amyloids and mediate their transfer to the brain. However, whether and how amyloids induce local pathology in the gastro-intestinal wall is not known. We identified a pathogenic program that becomes activated in the gastro-intestinal tract after exposure to amyloid β and curli (the main bacterial amyloid), and show that enteric glia are responsible for creating an amyloid-induced pro-inflammatory environment. This insight of an early response in a distant, more accessible organ than the brain, may have important implications for both disease diagnosis and therapy.
Relationship Between Prediction Accuracy and Feature Importance Reliability: an Empirical and Theoretical Study
Authors: Chen Jianzhong , Ooi Leon Qi Rong , Kiat Tan Trevor Wei , Zhang Shaoshi , Li Jingwei , Asplund Christopher L. , Eickhoff Simon B , Bzdok Danilo , Holmes Avram J , Yeo B.T. Thomas 
Published: August 2022

AbstractThere is significant interest in using neuroimaging data to predict behavior. The predictive models are often interpreted by the computation of feature importance, which quantifies the predictive relevance of an imaging feature. Tian and Zalesky (2021) suggest that feature importance estimates exhibit low split-half reliability, as well as a trade-off between prediction accuracy and feature importance reliability across parcellation resolutions. However, it is unclear whether the trade-off between prediction accuracy and feature importance reliability is universal. Here, we demonstrate that, with a sufficient sample size, feature importance (operationalized as Haufe-transformed weights) can achieve fair to excellent split-half reliability. With a sample size of 2600 participants, Haufe-transformed weights achieve average intra-class correlation coefficients of 0.75, 0.57 and 0.53 for cognitive, personality and mental health measures respectively. Haufe-transformed weights are much more reliable than original regression weights and univariate FC-behavior correlations. Original regression weights are not reliable even with 2600 participants. Intriguingly, feature importance reliability is strongly positively correlated with prediction accuracy across phenotypes. Within a particular behavioral domain, there is no clear relationship between prediction performance and feature importance reliability across regression models. Furthermore, we show mathematically that feature importance reliability is necessary, but not sufficient, for low feature importance error. In the case of linear models, lower feature importance error is mathematically related to lower prediction error. Therefore, higher feature importance reliability might yield lower feature importance error and higher prediction accuracy. Finally, we discuss how our theoretical results relate with the reliability of imaging features and behavioral measures. Overall, the current study provides empirical and theoretical insights into the relationship between prediction accuracy and feature importance reliability.
Predicting Mycoplasma tissue and host specificity from genome sequences
Authors: Zondervan Niels A. , dos Santos Vitor A. P. Martins , Suarez-Diez Maria 
Published: August 2022

AbstractTo gain insights into the genotype-phenotype relationships in Mycoplasmas, we set to investigate which Mycoplasma proteins are most predictive of tissue and host trophism and to which functional groups of proteins they belong. We retrieved and annotated 430 Mycoplasma genomes and combined their genome information with data on which host and tissue these Mycoplasmas were isolated from. We assessed clustering of Mycoplasma strains from a wide range of hosts and tissues based on different functional groups of proteins. Additionally, we assessed clustering using only a subset of M. pneumoniae strains based on different functional groups of proteins. We found that proteins belonging to the Gene Ontology (GO) Biological process group ‘Interspecies interaction between organisms’ proteins are most important for predicting the pathogenesis of Mycoplasma strains whereas for M. pneumoniae, those belonging to ‘Quorum sensing’ and ‘Biofilm formation’ proteins are most important for predicting pathogenesis.Two Random Forest Classifiers were trained to accurately predicts host and tissue specificity based on only 12 proteins. For Mycoplasma host specificity CTP synthase complex, magnesium transporter MgtE, and glycine cleavage system are most important for correctly classifying Mycoplasma strains that infect humans, including opportunistic zoonotic strains. For tissue specificity, we found that a) known virulence and adhesions factor Methionine sulphate reductase MetA is predictive of urinary tract infecting Mycoplasmas; b) an extra cytoplasmic thiamine binding lipoprotein is most predictive of gastro-intestinal infecting Mycoplasmas; c) a type I restriction endonuclease is most predictive of respiratory infecting Mycoplasmas, and; d) a branched-chain amino acid transport system is most predictive for blood infecting Mycoplasmas. These findings can aid in predicting host and tissue specific pathogenicity of Mycoplasmas as well as provide insight in which proteins are important for specific host and tissue adaptations. Furthermore, these results underscore the usefulness of deploying genome-wide methodologies for gaining insights into pathogenicity from genome sequences.
Sniffing behavior of semi free-ranging Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)
Authors: Simon Miriam , Widdig Anja , Weiß Brigitte M. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractOlfaction is one of the evolutionarily oldest senses and plays a fundamental role in foraging and social interactions across mammals. In primates, the role of olfaction is now well recognized, but better investigated in strepsirrhine and platyrrhine primates than in catarrhines. We observed the sniffing behavior of semi-free ranging Barbary macaques,Macaca sylvanus, at Affenberg Salem, Germany, to assess how frequently macaques sniff and in which contexts, and how sniffing is affected by sex and age. Focal observations of 24 males and 24 females aged 1 to 25 years showed that Barbary macaques sniffed, on average, 5.3 times per hour, with more than 80% of sniffs directed at food. Irrespective of the context, younger individuals sniffed more often than older ones. Females’ sniffs were more often directed at food than male sniffs, while males sniffed more often than females in a social context. Sniffs at conspecifics occurred primarily in a sexual context, with 70% of social sniffs directed at female anogenital swellings performed by males. Of the observed 176 anogenital inspections, 51 involved sniffing of the swelling. Olfactory inspections were followed by copulation significantly less often than merely visual inspections, suggesting that anogenital odors provided additional information guiding male mating decisions. In sum, results show that Barbary macaques routinely use olfaction during feeding, but also in a social context. Our study further suggests that odors may guide mating decisions, but the role of olfaction in sexual interactions warrants further investigations.
Bidirectional and reciprocal control of astrocyte free calcium by modest fluctuations in external potassium
Authors: Institoris A. , Shin S. , Weilinger N.L. , Gorzo K. , Mehina E. , Haidey J. , MacVicar B.A. , Gordon G.R. 
Published: August 2022

AbstractAstrocytes sense and respond to changes in the concentration of extracellular K+, and separately contribute to multiple physiological processes through Ca2+ dependent mechanisms. Yet, whether a modest change in [K+]o impacts astrocyte free Ca2+ remains unclear. Using relative or quantitative two-photon fluorescence Ca2+ imaging in acute brain slices or in vivo in the somatosensory cortex from Sprague Dawley rats and C57Bl/6 mice, we showed that changes to external K+ (+/-1mM to 2.5mM) reciprocally controls the astrocyte Rhod-2 or OGB-1 Ca2+-dependent fluorescence in the soma, major processes and endfeet. The astrocyte Ca2+ decrease when [K+]o was elevated was sensitive to lowering the external concentration of Ca2+, Cl-, and HCO3-, but not Na+. Unexpectedly, the phenomenon was blocked by inhibiting K-Cl cotransport. Picrotoxin induced ictal neural activity drove an analogous decrease of astrocyte Ca2+. K+ mediated cerebral arteriole dilation in brain slices was also sensitive to inhibiting K-Cl cotransport as well as whole-cell patching a peri-arteriole astrocyte which perturbs normal Ca2+, Cl- and HCO3- concentration gradients. These data reveal subtle, bidirectional regulation of astrocyte free Ca2 via fluctuations of [K+]o within the physiological range.
The first gapless, reference-quality, fully annotated genome from a Southern Han Chinese individual
Authors: Chao Kuan-Hao , Zimin Aleksey V , Pertea Mihaela , Salzberg Steven L 
Published: August 2022

AbstractWe used long-read DNA sequencing to assemble the genome of a Southern Han Chinese male. We organized the sequence into chromosomes and filled in gaps using the recently completed CHM13 genome as a guide, yielding a gap-free genome, Han1, containing 3,099,707,698 bases. Using the CHM13 annotation as a reference, we mapped all genes onto the Han1 genome and identified additional gene copies, generating a total of 60,708 genes, of which 20,003 are protein coding. A comprehensive comparison between the genes revealed that 235 protein-coding genes were substantially different between the individuals, with frameshifts or truncations affecting the protein-coding sequence. Most of these were heterozygous variants in which one gene copy was unaffected. This represents the first gene-level comparison between two finished, annotated individual human genomes.
Lower Brain Glucose Metabolism in Normal Ageing is Predominantly Frontal and Temporal: A Systematic Review and Pooled Effect Size and Activation Likelihood Estimates Meta-Analyses
Authors: Deery H.A , Di Paolo R , Moran C. , Egan G.F. , Jamadar S.D. 
Published: August 2022

ABSTRACTThis review provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of cerebral glucose in ageing. We undertook a systematic review of the literature followed by pooled effect size and Activation Likelihood Estimates (ALE) meta-analyses. Studies were retrieved from PubMed following the PRISMA guidelines. After reviewing 653 records, 22 studies with 24 samples (n = 993 participants) were included in the pooled effect size analyses. Eight studies with 11 samples (n = 713 participants) were included in the ALE analyses. Pooled effect sizes showed significantly lower cerebral metabolic rates of glucose for older versus younger adults for the whole brain, as well as for the frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes. Among the sub-cortical structures, the caudate showed a lower metabolic rate among older adults. In sub-group analyses controlling for changes in brain volume or partial volume effects, the lower glucose metabolism among older adults in the frontal lobe remained significant, whereas confidence intervals crossed zero for the other lobes and structures. The ALE identified nine clusters of lower glucose metabolism among older adults, ranging from 200mm3 to 2,640mm3. The two largest clusters were in the left and right inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri and the insula. Clusters were also found in the inferior temporal junction, the anterior cingulate and caudate. Taken together, the results of the meta-analyses are consistent with research showing less efficient glucose metabolism in the ageing brain. The findings are discussed in the context of theories of cognitive ageing and are compared to those found in neurodegenerative disease.
Longitudinal neural and vascular recovery following ultraflexible neural electrode implantation in aged mice
Authors: He Fei , Sun Yingchu , Jin Yifu , Yin Rongkang , Zhu Hanlin , Rathore Haad , Xie Chong , Luan Lan 
Published: August 2022

AbstractFlexible neural electrodes improve the recording longevity and quality of individual neurons by promoting tissue-electrode integration. However, the intracortical implantation of flexible electrodes inevitably induces tissue damage. Understanding the longitudinal neural and vascular recovery following the intracortical implantation is critical for the ever-growing applications of flexible electrodes in both healthy and disordered brains. Aged animals are of particular interest because they play a key role in modeling neurological disorders, but their tissue-electrode interface remains mostly unstudied. Here we integrate in-vivo two-photon imaging and electrophysiological recording to determine the time-dependent neural and vascular dynamics after the implantation of ultraflexible neural electrodes in aged mice. We find heightened angiogenesis and vascular remodeling in the first two weeks after implantation, which coincides with the rapid increase in local field potentials and unit activities detected by electrophysiological recordings. Vascular remodeling in shallow cortical layers preceded that in deeper layers, which often lasted longer than the recovery of neural signals. By six weeks post-implantation vascular abnormalities had subsided, resulting in normal vasculature and microcirculation. Putative cell classification based on firing pattern and waveform shows similar recovery time courses in fast-spiking interneurons and pyramidal neurons. These results elucidate how structural damages and remodeling near implants affecting recording efficacy, and support the application of ultraflexible electrodes in aged animals at minimal perturbations to endogenous neurophysiology.