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Biomedical subjects

M Shimokochi

Publications and source records attributed to M Shimokochi.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

Effects of semantic context and event-related potentials: N400 correlates with inhibition effect.

Two experiments investigated the modulation of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) by semantic context. A prime-target pair was visually presented in each trial of a lexical decision task. For word targets, three types of relatedness conditions were employed: (1) Related word condition (e.g., school-teacher); (2) Neutral word condition (e.g., [symbol: see text] - number); (3) Unrelated word c((e.g., hospital-potato). In Experiment 1, the reaction time for unrelated targets was longer than that for neutral targets (inhibition effect) which was longer than that for related targets (facilitation effect). The N400 amplitude in the unrelated targets was larger compared to those in the related and neutral targets, which did not differ. In Experiment 2, where only the facilitation effect was obtained, the N400 amplitude did not differ among conditions.

Adult

The N400 component of event-related potentials in schizophrenic patients: a preliminary study.

ERPs were recorded during a word recognition task to investigate cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Thirteen medicated schizophrenics and 26 normal controls were tested. In each trial a pair of stimuli, S1 (a word) and S2 (a word or a non-word), were presented. The subjects were required to discriminate between a word and a non-word for S2 (lexical decision task). In a related (R) condition, S2 was the antonym of S1 (e.g., brother-sister); in an unrelated (U) condition, S1 and S2 were semantically unrelated (e.g., brother-drive); in the non-word (N) condition, S2 was a non-word (e.g., brother-grofe). The ERPs for S2 were analyzed, and the contextual effects on the ERPs for S2 observed for both the patients and controls. For both groups, in the U and N conditions S2 elicited a large negative-trending deflection (N370). In contrast, in the R condition it elicited only a small negative-trending notch. There was no difference in the amplitude of N370 between the groups, but its latency was more prolonged or its wave shape more extended for the schizophrenics than for the controls. The N400 amplitude is concluded to remain unchanged in schizophrenics.

Adolescent

Modification of male rat copulatory behavior by lateral midbrain stimulation.

Effects of electrical stimulation of the lateral midbrain tegmentum (LMT) on the copulatory behavior of male rats were examined in our investigation of the role of the LMT in this behavior. Sexually experienced male rats (n = 15) that had been implanted with chronic electrodes under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia were individually tested for copulation with a receptive female under a 30 s on, 30 s off pattern of stimulation. The ejaculation latency, and mount and intromission frequencies decreased significantly during the stimulation tests, indicative of facilitation of copulation. In contrast, a strong stimulus-bound inhibition of copulation was found in 12 males (80%). Six animals who showed accelerated copulation also depressed the lever for self-stimulation at an identical current during the copulation tests. These results suggest that the LMT functions in ejaculation, in the normal expression of intromission and in sexual reward, thereby regulating the copulatory behavior of male rats.

Animals

Abnormalities in event-related potentials, N100, P200, P300 and slow wave in schizophrenia.

Event-related potentials were recorded in 54 schizophrenics and 88 age-matched controls during a two-tone discrimination (odd ball) task. All the subjects were free from medication. In the schizophrenics, the mean amplitudes of the N100, P300 and Slow Wave latency ranges were decreased, and the amplitude of the P200 latency range was greater than that for the controls. These reductions and the increase were found both for the ERPs elicited by rare target stimuli and for those elicited by frequent nontarget stimuli. The peak latency of N200 to rare stimuli was more prolonged in the schizophrenics than in the controls. This finding confirms the prolongation of N200 latency that Brecher et al. (1987) found for a different visual stimuli task. Neither the N100 nor P300 latency differed between the two groups.

Adult

Deviate N200 component of event-related potentials in shuchaku-seikaku, a premorbid personality of depression.

Twenty-one healthy subjects with Shuchaku-Seikaku (SS), a premorbid personality of depression, and 44 control subjects were tested for event-related potentials using the auditory odd ball paradigm. A higher percent of the N200 component was evoked by frequent task-irrelevant stimuli in the Shuchaku-Seikaku (81.0%) subjects than in the controls (45.5%). The mean amplitudes in the 50-100 ms latency range for task-relevant rare stimuli were smaller; whereas, the amplitudes in the 100-200 ms range for task-irrelevant frequent stimuli and the amplitudes in the 200-260 ms range for both stimuli were larger (shifted to negative direction) in the SS subjects than in the controls. The evidence suggests that the fully automatic detection process, which is assumed to be correlated with mismatch negativity, is hypoactivated and that a contrarily controlled or conscious mismatch process, which may be N2b, is hyperactivated in SS.

Adolescent

Involvement of the lateral mesencephalic tegmentum in copulatory behavior of male rats: neuron activity in freely moving animals.

Single unit activity was recorded from the lateral mesencephalic tegmentum (LMT) during free copulatory activity by male rats. Twenty-four (89%) of 27 units showed changes in the firing rate during at least one of the three phases of copulatory behavior: pursuit of the female, pelvic thrusting and genital grooming. The activity of 16 units (59%) increased during pursuit of the female, and the activity of 3 units (11%) increased markedly during pelvic thrusting accompanied by intromission. In contrast, 6 units (22%) were suppressed during thrusting with intromission. Whereas the activity of 10 units (37%) increased during genital grooming, 7 units (26%) were suppressed below the baseline during this behavior. The specific firing patterns of the LMT units that are correlated with the particular copulatory movements are a strong indication that the LMT may have an important function in the execution of male copulatory behavior. Some LMT units may mediate sensory information from the genitals that is needed to display a series of copulatory movements. Other units may be more directly related to reflex-like copulatory movements.

Animals

Multiple unit activities recorded from the medial preoptic area during copulatory behavior in freely moving male rats.

Multiple unit activities (MUAs) were recorded from the medial preoptic area (MPO) during copulatory behavior in freely moving male rats. The baseline firing rate in the male MPO was 19.6 spikes/s +/- 7.1 S.E. (n = 14), and it was increased by 36.7% when a female rat was introduced (26.8 spikes/s +/- 8.9 S.E., n = 14). The firing rate remained elevated until ejaculation. The maximum firing rate (53.5 spikes/s +/- 16.7 S.E., n = 14) was obtained specifically during pursuit-mounting behavior. This high frequency firing with pursuit-mounting behavior was, however, immediately inhibited for 8.2 s +/- 2.1 S.E. (n = 14) when mounting was followed by intromission. The firing-inhibition was further prolonged (120.9 s +/- 44.6 S.E., n = 14) when ejaculation was performed after mounting and intromission. In cases where mounting was elicited alone, a firing-inhibition was not observed and the firing rate after mounting returned to the average firing rate during copulatory behavior. These results suggest that the MPO neurons may play a major role in pursuit-mounting, intromission and ejaculation.

Action Potentials

Temporal analysis of REM sleep after nest-building behavior in nulliparous albino rat.

EEG recording was performed, during nest-building behavior (NBB), from the hippocampus and sensorimotor cortex of nulliparous albino rats with simultaneous recordings of EMGs of neck-muscle and eye movements. The duration of NBB varied with a period of 4-5 days. However, the relative durations of behavioral transitions in NBB, i.e., nest-building, grooming, and sleeping, were regular in both long lasting and early terminated NBB. REM sleep was identified, in every instance, immediately after NBB. The latency of REM sleep was significantly tied to the termination of NBB without regard to the duration of NBB. Differences in the duration of NBB, however, affected REM-propensity: the longer the NBB was, the shorter the latency of REM sleep tended to be. NBB might accelerate the induction of the physiological condition responsible for REM sleep generation.

Animals

Neural readout from memory during generalization.

Eight cats with implanted electrodes were trained to obtain food on presentation of one flicker frequency and to avoid shock on presentation of a second flicker frequency. A third flicker frequency, midway between the first and the second, was then presented. Differential generalization ensued, in which either the food response or the avoidance response was performed. Average evoked potentials from generalization trials with different outcomes were significantly different. The wave shape elicited by the stimulus for generalization closely resembled the usual response to the appropriate signal for the behavior which was displayed. This constitutes evidence for release of a neural process representing previous experience. The release of this process begins about 35 milliseconds after stimulation.

Animals