Neuroscience Institute

Elevated prenatal IL-6 levels disrupt early patterns of hippocampal electrical activity and chloride homeostasis by targeting GABAergic signaling at perinatal stage

Abstract Early patterns of neuronal electrical activity are fundamental for driving critical developmental processes, including neuronal maturation and synapse formation. While genetic programs are key in orchestrating these events, the influence of environmental stressors remain...

Adeno‐associated virus ‐mediated restoration of Na V 1.1 in targeted brain regions ameliorates epilepsy in symptomatic Dravet syndrome mice

Abstract Objective Dravet syndrome (DS) is a developmental and epileptic encephalopathy primarily caused by haploinsufficiency of the SCN1A gene, which encodes the alpha subunit of Na V 1.1 voltage‐gated sodium channel. The disease manifests with febrile and spontaneous seizures,...

Computational identification and experimental validation of early glycinergic impairments in spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by lower motor neuron (MN) loss, due to mutations or deletions in the Survival Motor Neuron 1 ( SMN1 ) gene. Increasing evidence implies mitochondrial dysfunctions in SMA, suggesting these org...

Caspase-11–mediated hyperinflammation impairs CD8+ T cell immunity and viral clearance in severe SARS-CoV-2 infection

Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection is characterized by lung hyperinflammation, impaired IFN responses, and defective T cell activation, yet the molecular drivers of these immune dysregulations remain incompletely understood. Caspase-11 (CASP11), a key effector of the noncanonical inflam...

Modeling Diabetic Neuropathy: Injury Biomarkers for Early Detection Through Neuronal and Glial In Vitro Models

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a rapidly expanding global health burden and a leading cause of chronic complications. Among these, diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DN) is one of the most prevalent and disabling, affecting up to half of individuals with long-standing diabetes and involv...

Neuromotor modules revealed by direct electrical stimulation of the human primary motor cortex

Muscle synergies extracted from multimuscle electromyographic (EMG) signals are widely interpreted as fundamental building blocks of motor control that coordinate groups of muscles during movement. Whether EMG-derived muscle synergies represent genuine neurally encoded modules or...

Developmental scarcity induces sex differences in social recognition and CA2 perineuronal nets

Abstract Early-life adversity has a lasting negative impact on social behavior in both humans and rodents. Sex differences exist in functional outcomes of postnatal stress, but underlying mechanisms remain incompletely explored. Using the limited bedding and nesting paradigm, a m...

Volume Electron Microscopy of Cortical Organoids: Methods for Region Identification, Connectome Reconstruction, and Organelle Segmentation

Abstract Volume electron microscopy (vEM) has become a powerful tool for 3D ultrastructural analysis of neural circuits, yet its application to human brain organoids remains limited, particularly for connectomic studies. Here, we established a comprehensive and scalable workflow...

Screening of sarcopenia in long-term care facilities using wireless surface electromyography and deep transfer learning: a proof-of-concept study

Abstract Background Sarcopenia is prevalent in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and is associated with falls, functional decline, and mortality. Aims This proof-of-concept study, within the I-COUNT pilot randomized controlled trial, evaluated the feasibility and diagnostic perfo...

Cortical dynamics in Angelman syndrome: novel insights from a preclinical mouse model

Angelman syndrome (AS) is a neurogenetic disorder caused by the loss of function in the maternally inherited UBE3A gene, leading to a spectrum of symptoms that include developmental delays, intellectual disability, and motor impairments. While genetic and molecular mechanisms of...

Intranigral injection of alpha-synuclein pre-formed fibrils leads to BBB compromise and bilateral dopaminergic neurodegeneration in A53T alpha-synuclein transgenic mice

ABSTRACT Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by alpha-(α)-Synuclein neuronal aggregation and loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Developing animal models that replicate PD’s neuropathological phenotypes is critical for understanding i...

Enhancing Pragmatic Communication in Healthy Aging: A Preliminary Investigation of the Long-Term Effects of the Advanced Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment

Abstract The aging process is associated with changes in cognitive and communicative skills, including pragmatic one, the ability to appropriately use language and other expressive means in social contexts. Despite its importance for quality of life and autonomy, the decline of p...