User recommended papers

User-recommended papers allows you to suggest a paper you would like to see on Nature China. When these papers appear on our site, users may comment and vote on them. To recommend a paper please use this form. Please note that you cannot recommend a paper you have authored. The editors will reject any self-recommendations. All comments and recommendation are checked by the editors and may be edited prior to publication on the site.

  • Neuroscience

    • Auditory fear conditioning modulates prepulse inhibition in socially reared rats and isolation-reared rats.

      • Nanxin Li, Junli Ping, Rongbin Wu, Chao Wang, Xihong Wu, Liang Li
        Original article citation: Behavioral Neuroscience 122," 107 - 118, (2008).

      • Categories: Neuroscience
      • Recommended by : Chun Wang on 07/30/2008 08:05PM GMT

        This fascinating study for the first time shows that isolation rearing could not only impair prepulse inhibition, a commonly used sensorimotor gating model of schizophrenia, but also significantly impair the attentional modulation of prepulse inhibition. The authors further demonstrate that this effect is modulated via metabolic glutamate receptors. This work provides a brand new animal model for investigating both neural bases and cognitive features of schizophrenia.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Whole brain functional connectivity in the early blind

      • Y. Liu, C. Yu, M. Liang, J. Li, L. Tian, Y. Zhou, W. Qin, K. Li, T. Jiang
        Original article citation: Brain 130," 2085 - 2096, (2007).

      • Categories: Neuroscience
      • Recommended by : Yong HE on 04/07/2008 09:45AM GMT

        Recent research has demonstrated that visual deprivation in early life is accompanied by structural and functional alterations of the brain, which could be explained by either of two hypotheses. The general-loss hypothesis might explain for maladaptive changes, while the compensatory-plasticity hypothesis might explain for enhanced ability to use remaining senses. So far, task-based fMRI studies have provided support for the compensatory-plasticity hypothesis, but these studies did not provide evidence supporting the general-loss hypothesis since the blind people cannot carry out visual tasks. Liu et al. employed resting-state fMRI to investigate the changes in functional connectivity of spontaneous brain activities in early blind subjects. They found that, compared with controls, the blind demonstrated decreased functional connectivities within the occipital visual cortices as well as between the occipital visual cortices and the parietal somatosensory, frontal motor and temporal multisensory cortices. The authors interpret these differences as supporting the general-loss hypothesis. In addition, they also found that the introduction of Braille earlier in life or with longer daily practice sessions was associated with stronger functional connectivities between these brain areas, which might support the compensatory-plasticity hypothesis. Finally, the authors also report increased functional connectivities between occipital cortices and frontal cortices in subjects with early onset of blindness as compared to the controls, which they again interpret as evidence for the compensatory plasticity. This study indicates that the changes in the functional connectivities in the resting state may be an integrated reflection of general loss and compensatory plasticity when a single sensory modality is deprived.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Spontaneous activities associated with primary visual cortex: detected from resting state fMRI data

      • Kun Wang, Tianzi Jiang, Chunshui Yu, Lixia Tian, Jun Li, Yong Liu, Yuan Zhou, Ming Song, Kuncheng Li
        Original article citation: Cerebral Cortex 18," 697 - 704, (2008).

      • Categories: Neuroscience
      • Recommended by : Meng Liang on 02/24/2008 04:02PM GMT

        Using regional temporal clustering, this study provided quantitative evidence for the existence of spontaneous activities in the primary visual areas of human beings during the resting state. They also found that there was a neural network that was associated with the emergence of spontaneous activities in the PVA. Although the precise mental processes supported by such a neural network remain to be elucidated, our results suggest that memory-related mental imagery and visual memory consolidation processes may be candidates. Through investigating spontaneous activities without any external stimulus, this study may offer a new perspective for exploring the visual perception and other brain processing. In addition, the phenomenon that primary visual area has spontaneous activities without any stimulus offers new evidence for the perspective that the brain is a system intrinsically operating on its own, and sensory information interacts with rather than determines the operation of the system.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Different effects of mild and severe seizures on hippocampal neurogenesis in adult rats

      • Fang Yang, Jin-Cun Wang, Jun-Liang Han, Gang Zhao, Wen Jiang
        Original article citation: Hippocampus doi:10.1002/hipo.20409

      • Categories: Neuroscience, Cell & Molecular Biology, and Developmental Biology
      • Recommended by : Jie Huang on 02/21/2008 03:47PM GMT

        Hippocampus is known to be one site of continuing neurogenesis into adulthood for humans and other mammals, which provides possible compensatory and rehabilitative mechanisms for some brain injuries. Based on previous knowledge about epileptic seizures effect on neurogenesis in dentate gyrus (DG), researchers in this study examined seizure severity's influence in this process on rats. It appeared though both mild and severe seizures promoted mitotic activity in DG, difference in severity were driving neuron proliferation and migration into two distinctive directions. On the other hand, it hints at limitations of hippocampus' postnatal neurogenesis.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Fisher discriminative analysis of resting-state brain function for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

      • C ZHU, Y ZANG, Q CAO, C YAN, Y HE, T JIANG, M SUI, Y WANG
        Original article citation: NeuroImage 40," 110 - 120, (2008).

      • Categories: Neuroscience
      • Recommended by : Jie Huang on 02/18/2008 09:36PM GMT

        They demonstrated the potential improvement to diagnose ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). They utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and used resting-state signals as classifier, which was identidied by Principle Component Analysis based Fisher discriminative analysis (PC-FDA). The most significant contributors, such as prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex were consistent with previous findings on ADHD. Their findings offer practical value to current behavioral symptom-based ADHD diagnosis.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • The Visual Word Form Area: Evidence from an fMRI study of implicit processing of Chinese characters

      • C LIU, W ZHANG, Y TANG, X MAI, H CHEN, T TARDIF, Y LUO
        Original article citation: NeuroImage doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.10.014

      • Categories: Neuroscience
      • Recommended by : Jie Huang on 02/18/2008 09:21PM GMT

        Visual ventral stream is known to be associated with object recognition and form representation, some specific types of obejcts have their own corresponding brain regions, such as Fusiform Face Area (FFA). In this study, they identified Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in the left middle fusiform gyrus for written Chinese characters, which area is in line with previously reported VWFA for alphabetic scripts. This study, further, affords applicability of results drawn from alphabetic language to logographic Chinese.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Altered functional connectivity in early Alzheimer's disease: A resting-state fMRI study

      • Kun Wang, Meng Liang, Liang Wang, Lixia Tian, Xinqing Zhang, Kuncheng Li, Tianzi Jiang
        Original article citation: Hum. Brain Mapp. 28," 967 - 978, (2007).

      • Categories: Neuroscience
      • Recommended by : Yong HE on 02/18/2008 12:26PM GMT

        Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia associated with aging. To explore AD-related alteration in the brain functionality, Wang et al. employed resting-state functional MRI to investigate inter-regional correlations of spontaneous brain activity. They found that, compared with the controls, AD patients had decreased positive correlations between the prefrontal and parietal regions, and increased positive correlations within the prefrontal, parietal and occipital regions. In addition, they also found that AD patients had decreased negative correlations between two intrinsically anti-correlated networks that had been exhibited to be intrinsically organized in the healthy brain. This study provides important evidence for abnormal functional integrity among regions in AD.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made
Top

Extra navigation

ADVERTISEMENT