(C) 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Corticotropin-releasing factor
(CRF) and CRF-related neuropeptides are involved in the regulation of stress-related physiology and behavior. Members of the CRF family of neuropeptides bind to two known receptors, the CRF type 1 (CRF(1)) receptor, and the CRF type 2 (CRF(2)) receptor. Although the distribution of CRF(2) receptor mRNA expression has been extensively studied, the distribution of CRF(2) receptor protein has not been characterized. An area of the brain known to contain high levels of CRF(2) receptor mRNA expression and CRF(2) receptor binding is the dorsal raphe nucleus (DR). In the present Citarinostat cost study we investigated in detail the distribution selleck compound of CRF(2) receptor immunoreactivity throughout the rostrocaudal extent of the DR. CRF(2) receptor-immunoreactive perikarya were observed throughout the DR, with the highest number and density in the mid-rostrocaudal DR. Dual immunofluorescence revealed that CRF(2) receptor immunoreactivity was frequently
co-localized with tryptophan hydroxylase, a marker of serotonergic neurons. This study provides evidence that CRF(2) receptor protein is expressed in the DR, and that CRF, receptors are expressed in topographically organized subpopulations of cells in the DR, including serotonergic neurons. Furthermore, these data are consistent with the hypothesis that CRF(2) receptors play an important role in the regulation of stress-related physiology and behavior through actions on serotonergic and non-serotonergic neurons within the DR. (C) 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Previous studies have demonstrated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be proficiently used to modulate attentional
and Flavopiridol datasheet cognitive functions. For instance, in the language domain there is evidence that tDCS can fasten picture naming in both healthy individuals and aphasic patients, or improve grammar learning. In this study, we investigated whether tDCS can be used to increase healthy subjects’ performance in phonemic and semantic fluency tasks, that are typically used in clinical assessment of language. Ten healthy individuals performed a semantic and a phonemic fluency task following anodal tDCS applied over Broca’s region. Each participant underwent a real and a sham tDCS session. Participants were found to produce more words following real anodal tDCS both in the phonemic and in the semantic fluency. Control experiments ascertained that this finding did not depend upon unspecific effects of tDCS over levels of general arousal or attention or upon participants’ expectations.