Derivatives of phenylethylamine and tryptamine share structural features with the non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blockers phencyclidine, ketamine, and MK-801. Tryptamine and phenylethylamine inhibited the speci®c binding of [H]MK-801 to rat hippocampal membranes with IC50`s 190 and 905 mM, respectively. The corresponding amino acids phenylalanine and tryptophan were inacti...

Sequential stimulation of the granular layer of the cerebellar cortex in vitro using 11 linearly aligned stimulating electrodes leads to massive population activity in the parallel fiber system and to spike activity in Purkinje cells (Heck, D., Neurosci. Lett., 157 (1993) 95–98; Heck, D., Naturwissenschaften, 82 (1995) 201–2030). The induced parallel fiber activity, however, might have been a r...

To determine the role of cytokines in the nervous system, we examined the effect of interleukin-12(IL-12) on the nerve regeneration of mouse superior cervical ganglion cells (SCG). IL-12 enhanced the neurite outgrowth in a concentrationdependent manner. Immunocytochemical studies demonstrated the expression of IL-12 receptors in neuronal bodies and neurites. The mRNA expression of IL-12 recepto...

A relation between corticospinal excitability and background voluntary muscular activity was investigated at low and high transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) intensities while grasping a stationary object with different widths (2 and 8 cm) using a precision grip. The muscle activity was recorded from the ®rst dorsal interosseous muscle. Regression analysis revealed that there was a linear r...

We investigated whether the posterodorsal nucleus of the medial amygdala (MePD) and the posteromedial nucleus of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTpm) undergo structural changes in response to photoperiod or social environment in the Siberian hamster, a seasonally breeding rodent. Adult male hamsters were either kept in long days (LD; 15:9 h light:dark) from birth or were transferred ...

We analyzed the effects of S-adenosyl-l-methionine (AdoMet) on tissue oxidative stress in rat brain slices exposed to reoxygenation after oxygen-glucose deprivation. The thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), total and oxidized glutathione, and lactate-dehydrogenase efflux (LDH) from tissue to the incubation medium, were measured. Brain slices were incubated without glucose and with N...

We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in professional piano players and control subjects during an overtrained complex ®nger movement task using a blood oxygenation level dependent echo-planar gradient echo sequence. Activation clusters were seen in primary motor cortex, supplementary motor area, premotor cortex and superior parietal lobule. We found signi®cant differences in...

Hemispheric asymmetries in response to speech sounds are well documented. However, it is not known if these asymmetries re ̄ect only cortical hemispheric specialization to language or whether they also re ̄ect pre-conscious encoding of signals at lower levels of the auditory pathway. This study examined differences in neural representations of signals with acoustic properties inherent to speech i...

Behavioral studies suggest that perceptual grouping by proximity occurs earlier than grouping by similarity. This notion is supported by recent electrophysiological evidence that proximity grouping generates earlier occipital activation relative to grouping by shape similarity. The current work further investigated neural substrates that differentiate grouping by proximity and grouping by colou...

The pretectal nucleus lentiformis mesencephali (LM) receives direct input from the contralateral retina and is dedicated to the analysis of optic ̄ow®elds resulting from self-motion. The activity of 126 LM neurons in response to optic ̄ow stimuli was recorded. As with previous studies, it was found that most neurons (,90%) exhibited direction-selectivity to large-®eld stimuli moving in the contr...