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Effect of hearing loss of cochlear origin on the auditory brain stem response.

Auditory brain stem response (ABR) testing is widely used to detect lesions of the auditory neural pathways. The ABR waves depend not only on the integrity of the neural pathways, but also on the condition of the cochlea. To properly interpret the ABR response, it is necessary to understand the effects of cochlear hearing loss on the ABR wave latencies. We studied two populations of subjects with cochlear hearing loss: one with varying degrees of high-frequency hearing loss and the other with varying degrees of flat configuration hearing loss. The degree of cochlear hearing loss was quantified in several different ways and subjected to one linear and three nonlinear regression analyses to test for accuracy in predicting ABR wave latencies and interpeak intervals (waves I, III, V, I-V, I-III, and III-V) for three click intensities. Hearing loss levels from 2 to 6 kHz, in particular 4 kHz, were superior to other audiometric test frequencies as predictors of ABR wave latencies for the group with the high-frequency losses. No particular characterization was found to be superior for the flat hearing loss configurations. From these results, modeled predictions of wave latencies as a function of degree and configuration of hearing loss were made. The modeled predictions are then used to suggest guidelines for interpretations of ABR results where hearing impaired patients are involved.

Adult

Effect of bilateral cervical vagotomy on balloon-induced lower esophageal sphincter relaxation in the dog.

A study was performed in dogs to determine whether balloon distension within the striated muscle esophagus induces lower esophageal sphincter relaxation via a local intramural pathway or a central neural pathway. Bilateral vagosympathetic nerve blockade was produced by cooling the nerve trunks isolated in skin loops on either side of the neck. Sphincter pressure was measured before and during intraesophageal balloon distension, with and without nerve blockade. With the vagosympathetic nerves intact, balloon distension produced sphincter relaxation, sphincter shortening, and orad movement of the sphincter. The threshold for these responses increased progressively as distension was applied at more proximal levels. Bilateral vagosympathetic nerve blockade abolished all the lower esophageal sphincter responses to distension at any level within the esophagus, whether or not sphincter pressure was raised by pentagastrin infusion. Therefore, lower esophageal sphincter relaxation induced by distension of the dog striated muscle esophagus requires a central nervous system connection via the vagosympathetic nerve trunks. There is no direct intramural pathway for this responses in the dog.

Animals

Spontaneous visual phenomena with visual loss: 104 patients with lesions of retinal and neural afferent pathways.

Fifty-seven percent of 104 consecutive patients with retinal or neural visual loss reported spontaneous visual phenomena (SVP). Elementary SVP occurred more commonly (51% of patients) than complex SVP (21%). SVP occur with lesions of any portion of the visual pathways. Unlike irritative hallucinations, they do not aid in localization of the lesion. SVP occur significantly more frequently with visual acuity of 20/50 or less in both eyes. These purely visual hallucinations are unlikely to herald psychiatric disease and may be release phenomena stemming from loss of inhibitory visual input.

Adolescent

Pharmacological and anatomical analysis of fear conditioning.

The potentiated startle paradigm measures conditioned fear by an increase in the amplitude of a simple reflex (the acoustic startle reflex) in the presence of a cue previously paired with shock. This paradigm offers a number of advantages as an alternative to most animal tests of fear or anxiety, since it involves no operant and is reflected by an enhancement rather than a suppression of ongoing behavior. Lesion and electrical stimulation studies on fear-potentiated startle and startle increased by electrical stimulation of the amygdala are being used to define the neural pathways necessary for a visual conditioned stimulus to alter the acoustic startle reflex. The current working hypothesis is that the conditioned stimulus activates the central nucleus of the amygdala through a pathway involving the lateral geniculate nucleus and insular cortex. The central nucleus of the amygdala may then project directly to the acoustic startle pathway, modulating the startle response. More work has to be done to define conclusively the relevant neural pathways involved in fear-potentiated startle. Nonetheless, by combining behavioral, anatomical, physiological, and pharmacological approaches, it will be possible to determine each step along the pathway that mediates the ability of a stimulus signaling fear to alter behavior. Once the exact structures are delineated, it should be possible to determine the neurotransmitters that are released during a state of fear and how this chemical information is relayed along these pathways to affect behavior. Eventually, this approach should help to determine where plastic changes take place along these pathways to mediate the conditioned effects that are being measured and the biochemical processes that are involved.

Amygdala

Topographical features of the substratum for growth of pioneering neurons in the Manduca wing disc.

The sensory neurons of the Manduca wing form a planar network nestled between the wing's upper and lower monolayers. The pioneering axons of this network grow in a distal-to-proximal direction over the basal surface of the upper epithelial monolayer. The basal surface of this monolayer has been examined ultrastructurally during the period of axonal outgrowth. The cellular terrain traversed by axons shows a graded distribution of epithelial processes, with the number of processes increasing in a proximal direction. Growth cones of axons, therefore, encounter increasing surface areas for contact with their substratum as they move toward the base of the wing. Because a basal lamina is laid down over these epithelial processes after axons have pioneered the neural pathways of the wing, axonal guidance cues apparently lie on surfaces of these basal processes. At branch points of the neural pathway examined in this study, axons avoid pathways in which the basal surfaces of cells in the upper wing monolayer interdigitate with basal surfaces of underlying tracheal cells. This interaction between wing epithelial cells and tracheal epithelial cells could act as a physical barrier to axonal outgrowth.

Animals

Neuroanatomic projections related to biting attack elicited from ventral midbrain in cats.

A single electrode was implanted in each of ten cats at a point in the ventral midbrain from which nonaffective biting attack on a rat could be elicited by electrical stimulation. A lesion was then made which was just large enough to eliminate the elicitation of attack at suprathreshold intensities from that electrode. After post-lesion survival times of 3-14 days the cats were sacrificed, and the degeneration resulting from the lesions was followed with the use of modified Nauta silver stains. Four additional cats were used as anatomic controls. Degenerating fibers were observed to descend bilaterally through the midbrain, pontine, and medullary tegmentum to the vicinity of the principal sensory and motor nuclei of the trigeminal nerve. There was, in addition, evidence of degenerating terminals within the nucleus of the facial nerve and the spinal nucleus of the trigeminal nerve. Of particular note was the observation that the degenerating fibers in the region of the nucleus of the spinal tract of the trigeminal nerve terminated in glomeruli in the rostral portion of the nucleus. Degenerating fibers ascending from the lesion were found to course along the medial forebrain bundle into the hypothalamus and the midline thalamus in a pattern very similar to that previously demonstrated after lesions of biting attack sites in the hypothalamus. The role that the neural pathways associated with ventral midbrain attack sites might play in the mediation of behavior patterns which are elicited during attack stimulation was discussed and it was concluded that the demonstrated neural pathway could provide a cogent explanation for some of the properties of centrally elicited attack behavior.

Affect

Adrenocortical responses following sciatic nerve stimulation in rats with partial hypothalamic deafferentations.

Studies from this laboratory have demonstrated that the adrenocortical response following sciatic nerve stimulation is completely inhibited in rats with hypothalamic islands, indicating that this response depends entirely on the activation of afferent neural pathways to the hypothalamus. With the purpose of identifying the site of entry of these neural pathways into the mediobasal hypothalamus the effects of partial hypothalamic deafferentations were studied. It was found that in rats with posterior or posterolateral deafferentation the adrenocortical responses were similar to those obtained in intact rats, while anterior and anterolateral deafferentation resulted in a reduction of 62.3 and 53.3%, respectively. These results would indicate that the sciatic impulses which activate the adrenocortical response involve neural afferents which enter the mediobasal hypothalamus by an anterior pathway.

Adrenal Cortex

Knife cuts lateral but not dorsal to the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus abolish gonadal responses to photoperiod in female hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus).

Horizontal and parasagittal knife cuts in the hypothalamus of female hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) were employed to investigate the neural pathways that mediate gonadal responses to photoperiod. Bilateral horizontal knife cuts placed dorsal to the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) did not prevent short-day-induced acyclicity and uterine regression. On the other hand, regardless of photoperiod, animals with bilateral parasagittal knife cuts placed lateral to the PVN continued to exhibit regular 4-day estrous cycles and stimulated uteri. Thus, parasagittal cuts prevented the effects of short days on reproductive physiology. This finding suggests that the lateral efferent projections from the PVN represent an important component of the neural pathway mediating reproductive photoperiodism in female hamsters.

Animals

Altered carbachol-induced contractile responses of rat jejunal smooth muscle following local myenteric plexus ablation.

Alterations in smooth muscle responsiveness and neural pathways in adjacent tissue may occur after local myenteric denervation. The in vitro contractile responses of both longitudinal and circular muscle to the mixed muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic agonist carbachol were determined 15, 30, and 45 days after localized myenteric plexus ablation. Denervated longitudinal muscle exhibited decreased responsiveness to carbachol at all times examined. Denervated circulated muscle was initially supersensitive, but with time became subsensitive. These changes probably reflect the loss of the nicotinic (neuronal) component of the action of carbachol. Muscle orad to the site of denervation appeared subsensitive, while muscle caudad to the lesion was supersensitive (circular) or unaffected (longitudinal). These results suggest that there are changes in ascending and descending neural pathways. Alterations in the cholinergic responsiveness of intestinal smooth muscle, both at and beyond the site of myenteric plexus ablation, may result in altered intestinal motility that could lead to functional obstruction.

Animals

Gastric mucosal hyperemia due to acid backdiffusion depends on splanchnic nerve activity.

Acid backdiffusion through a disrupted gastric mucosal barrier leads to an increase in gastric mucosal blood flow (MBF). This response involves afferent neurons that pass through the celiac ganglion. The present study examined the neural pathways that underlie the rise in MBF caused by gastric perfusion with 15% ethanol in 0.15 N HCl. MBF was measured by the hydrogen gas clearance technique in urethan-anesthetized rats. Mucosal hyperemia due to acid backdiffusion was not changed by acute bilateral subdiaphragmatic vagotomy but was blocked by acute removal of the celiac-superior mesenteric ganglion complex or acute bilateral transection of the greater splanchnic nerves. Hexamethonium (85 mumol/kg iv) also attenuated the rise in MBF due to acid backdiffusion, whereas guanethidine (0.225 mmol/kg sc) had no effect. None of the procedures and drug treatments altered basal MBF to a significant extent. Transection of the splanchnic nerves, hexamethonium, and guanethidine lowered mean arterial blood pressure, but hypotension as such did not significantly influence the hyperemic response under study. Taken together, the previous and present data indicate that the rise in MBF caused by acid backdiffusion depends on the integrity of afferent and efferent neural pathways that run in the splanchnic nerves and through the celiac ganglion. The efferent pathway involves ganglionic transmission through nicotinic acetylcholine receptors but is independent of noradrenergic neurons.

Animals

The vasovagal response.

The vasovagal response is the development of inappropriate cardiac slowing and arteriolar dilatation. Vasovagal responses reflect autonomic neural changes: bradycardia results from sudden augmentation of efferent vagal activity, and hypotension results from sudden reduction or cessation of sympathetic activity and relaxation of arterial resistance vessels. Two different neural pathways are thought to be involved, one originating in the hypothalamus, the other in the heart. Direct hypothalamic activation of the medullary cardiovascular centres triggered by emotional stress or pain causes a vasovagal response (central type). The combination of a reduced central blood volume secondary to venous pooling or blood loss, and an increased inotropic state of the heart, may stimulate ventricular mechanoreceptors and provoke vasodilatation and bradycardia (peripheral type). Cardiovascular afferents originating from stretch receptors in various parts of the vascular tree sometimes induce opposite reflexes when compared with those from ventricular afferents. The depressor reflex involved in the peripheral type of vasovagal response originates in the heart itself and overrides normal baroreflex circulatory control; an antagonism between the control of volume and pressure on the filling side of the heart and the control system of arterial pressure becomes apparent. Vasovagal responses are not necessarily abnormal; the neural pathways involved in the vasovagal response are probably present in all healthy subjects who individually mainly differ in susceptibility.

Arterioles

Developmental plasticity in neural circuits controlling birdsong: sexual differentiation and the neural basis of learning.

In many species of passerine songbirds, males learn their song during defined periods of life. Female song is often reduced or absent, as are the brain regions controlling song. Sexual differences in the brain arise because of the action of sex steroids, which trigger the formation of some neural pathways (especially the pathway from the higher vocal center to the robust nucleus) and prevent the atrophy of others in males. These neural changes occur during periods of developmental song learning and can recur during periods of learning in adult birds. The process of learning is correlated with major increases or decreases in the numbers of neurons in specific neuronal populations, suggesting that the formation or loss of specific neural pathways regulates the ability to learn. Species differences in sexual differentiation and learning allow informative cross-species comparisons of neural structure and behavior.

Animals

Role of gastrin in bombesin-stimulated somatostatin release.

The intermediary pathways in the bombesin-induced somatostatin release were examined in isolated perfused rat stomach obtained from male rats that were fasted overnight. The stomachs were perfused by way of the celiac artery. On coinfusion of 1.0 mumol/L tetrodotoxin and 1 nmol/L bombesin, a significant depression in release of somatostatin was observed compared with that observed with bombesin alone. The 5-minute integrated somatostatin response after treatment with tetrodotoxin and bombesin was 173% +/- 14% of basal, which was significantly lower than that observed with bombesin alone (394% +/- 59% of basal, P less than 0.05) but significantly higher than that observed with medium-199 alone (95% +/- 7% of basal, P less than 0.05); this indicated that approximately 70% of the bombesin-stimulated somatostatin release was indirectly mediated through neural pathways, while a significant (approximately 30%) segment of it was mediated by nonneural mechanisms. To test if the 30% somatostatin release was secondary to gastrin release in response to bombesin, gastrin antiserum and bombesin (1 nmol/L) were coadministrated in the presence or absence of tetrodotoxin (1 mumol/L). Gastrin antiserum alone did not significantly affect basal release of somatostatin but caused a significant inhibition (approximately 23%) of bombesin-provoked somatostatin release. Coadministration of gastrin antiserum and tetrodotoxin attenuated bombesin-stimulated somatostatin release. Gastrin (1 mumol/L) alone significantly stimulated somatostatin release (150% +/- 10% of basal), which was completely attenuated in the presence of gastrin antiserum. Tetrodotoxin did not affect bombesin-elicited gastrin release, confirming that bombesin-stimulated gastrin release was directly mediated. To determine the nature of the neural pathways mediating the bombesin-induced somatostatin release, atropine (100 nmol/L) was used. Atropine inhibited bombesin-induced somatostatin release to the same extent as tetrodotoxin, indicating that cholinergic pathways mediated bombesin-induced somatostatin release. These results show that almost all the somatostatin response to bombesin is indirectly mediated, and is composed of a major neural (cholinergic) and a minor nonneural pathway. The nonneural mechanism appears to be contributed primarily by gastrin released in response to bombesin, which apparently has a short paracrine positive feedback effect on somatostatin release.

Animals

Intramural neural control of opossum sphincter of Oddi.

We evaluated the intramural neural control of the opossum sphincter of Oddi (SO) in an in vitro preparation. Force transducers were used to record contractions at four sites along the sphincter segment. To stimulate intramural nerves, 10- to 120-s trains of pulses (4-10 V amplitude, 0.5 ms duration, and 5 Hz frequency) were delivered to one of three electrode pairs implanted along the SO. Electrical stimulation in the proximal, mid, or distal SO elicited phasic contractions that invariably originated in the proximal SO and propagated antegrade along the entire length of the sphincter segment. Stimulus-evoked contractions resembled spontaneous antegrade peristaltic contractions, but occurred at a higher rate (12-20/min). Atropine completely blocked this excitatory response to nerve stimulation. After atropine, nerve stimulation in the proximal, mid, or distal SO abolished spontaneous contractions at and distal to the site of stimulation for the duration of the stimulus. The inhibitory response to nerve stimulation was completely blocked by tetrodotoxin but was unaffected by phenoxybenzamine, tolazoline, or propranolol. We conclude that 1) the opossum SO is innervated by intramural cholinergic excitatory nerves and nonadrenergic noncholinergic inhibitory nerves; 2) cholinergic excitatory nerves are organized in ascending neural pathways, whereas nonadrenergic noncholinergic inhibitory nerves descend along the length of the SO; and 3) these neural pathways may modulate SO peristalsis in vivo and participate in ascending excitatory and descending inhibitory reflexes.

Ampulla of Vater

Metabolic activation of efferent pathways from the rat area postrema.

We used the quantitative [14C]deoxyglucose method and autoradiography to evaluate metabolic activity in 47 individual cerebral structures or subregions that are part of neural pathways emanating from the brain stem circumventricular organ, area postrema. Electrical stimulation of the dorsocentral area postrema in halothane-ventilated rats produced hypotension and increased glucose metabolism by several structures within the ascending trajectories of efferent neural projections from the nucleus. Structures in the caudal medulla oblongata, including three subnuclei of the nucleus of the solitary tract, dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve, and nucleus ambiguus-A1 noradrenergic region, had increases of metabolism during stimulation of 32-62%. Pontine activation occurred specifically in the locus coeruleus and lateral parabrachial nuclei (increases of 24-36%). Magnocellular and parvocellular subdivisions of the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, supraoptic and suprachiasmatic nuclei, and median eminence showed increases in metabolism of 22-34%. An 89% elevation of glucose metabolism by the pituitary neural lobe resulted. The findings are evidence for functional activation of specific structures within ascending neural pathways from area postrema to forebrain mechanisms regulating blood pressure and fluid balance.

Animals

Effect of diabetes on glucoregulation. From glucose transporters to glucose metabolism in vivo.

Peripheral resistance to insulin is a prominent feature of both insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Skeletal muscle is the primary site responsible for decreased insulin-induced glucose utilization in diabetic subjects. Glucose transport is the rate-limiting step for glucose utilization in muscle, and that cellular process is defective in human and animal diabetes. The transport of glucose across the muscle cell plasma membrane is mediated by glucose transporter proteins, and two isoforms (GLUT1 and GLUT4) are expressed in muscle. Insulin acutely increases glucose transport in muscle by selectively stimulating the recruitment of the GLUT4 transporter (but not GLUT1) from an intracellular pool to the plasma membrane. In skeletal muscles of streptozocin-induced diabetic rats, there is a decreased GLUT4 protein content in intracellular and plasma membranes. In these rats, insulin induced the mobilization of GLUT4 from the internal pool, but the incorporation of the transporter protein into the plasma membrane is diminished. Conversely, the content of the GLUT1 transporter increases in the plasma membrane of these diabetic rats. Normalization of glycemia with phlorizin fully restores the amount of GLUT1 and GLUT4 proteins to normal levels in the plasma membrane without altering insulin levels. This suggests that glycemia regulates the number of glucose transporters at the cell surface, GLUT1 varying directly and GLUT4 inversely, to glycemia. The regulatory role of glycemia also can be seen in diabetic dogs in vivo, where correction of hyperglycemia with phlorizin restores, at least in part, the defective metabolic clearance rate of glucose seen in these animals. In addition to acutely stimulating glucose transport in muscle, insulin controls exercise- and possibly stress-mediated glucose uptake in vivo, by preventing hyperglycemia and by restraining the effects of catecholamines on lipolysis and/or muscle glycogenolysis. Finally, we postulated a neural pathway that requires the permissive effect of insulin to increase glucose uptake by the muscle. Thus, insulin, glucose, and neural pathways regulate muscle glucose utilization in vivo and are, therefore, important determinants of glucoregulation in diabetes.

Animals