The present study investigated the effects of protein malnutrition and environmental stimulation on biochemical and behavioral parameters in rats. The concentrations of polyamines in the frontal cortex, striatum, and hippocampus, as well as plasma corticosterone levels, were measured. The exploratory behavior was analyzed using the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test. Rats received either 16% (well-n...

We compared the effects of environmental enrichment (EE) and tactile stimulation (handling [H]) during a critical period of development of the central nervous system (CNS) on behavior in malnourished (M; 6% protein) and control (C; 16% protein) rats in the elevated plus maze (EPM) on postnatal day 36 (P36) and P37. The stimulation occurred during two different periods of development: P8-21 (lac...

Sarcocystis neurona is the etiologic agent of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM). Based on an analysis of 25,000 equine serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples, including samples from horses with neurologic signs typical of EPM or with histologically or parasitologically confirmed EPM, four major immunoblot band patterns have been identified. Twenty-three serum and CSF samples represe...

BACKGROUND Phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors in the central nervous system have been shown to stimulate neuronal functions and increase neurogenesis in Alzheimer disease (AD) patients. MATERIAL/METHODS The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of zaprinast, a PDE5 inhibitor, and rolipram, a PDE4 inhibitor, on learning and memory in elevated plus maze (EPM) and passive avoidance (P...

Lactating rats show less noise-induced freezing and fewer inhibitory responses on the 6th day post-delivery when submitted to water and food deprivation in a classical conflict paradigm. Lactating mice go more often to the illuminated chamber in a light-dark cage and stay longer in it than virgin females. The present study was designed to assess the influence of this physiological state, i.e. l...

Several findings have pointed to the role of histaminergic neurotransmission in the modulation of anxiety-like behaviors and emotional memory. The elevated plus-maze (EPM) test has been widely used to investigate the process of anxiety and also has been used to investigate the process of learning and memory. Visual cues are relevant to the formation of spatial maps, and as the hippocampus is in...

Epimorphin/syntaxin-2 (EPM) is a plasma membrane-anchored protein that has at least two distinct functions depending on its membrane topology: vesicle fusion when localized to the cytoplasmic surface and morphogenic signaling when localized to the extracellular surface. Transgenic mice that express full-length extracellular EPM fused to the NH2-terminal signal sequence of interleukin-2, under t...

This paper proposes the application to requirements elicitation of an innovative creativity technique based on a model of the pragmatics of communication, the Elementary Pragmatic Model (EPM). The EPM has been used to define a creative process, called EPMcreate that consists of sixteen steps. In each step, the problem is analyzed according to one elementary behavior identified by the EPM. Each ...

Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) is a syndrome in which the inflammatory component of disease is an identifying criterion for histological diagnosis, but not addressed in clinical diagnosis or treatment. Two parasites, Sarcocystis neurona or Neospora hughesi, are generally believed to be the cause EPM in horses. Elucidating the nature of the immune response in EPM, determining how S neu...