Cortical maps express experience-dependent plasticity. However, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain unclear. We have recently shown that sensory deprivation results in large changes of the short-term dynamics of excitatory synapses at the junction of deprived and spared somatosensory (barrel) cortex, which may contribute to map reorganization. A key issue is whether the alterations in sho...

It is known from previous research that physical exercise prevents long-term memory deficits induced by maternal deprivation in rats. But we could not assume similar effects of physical exercise on short-term memory, as short- and long-term memories are known to result from some different memory consolidation processes. Here we demonstrated that, in addition to long-term memory deficit, the sho...

BACKGROUND Prospective data from over 10 years of follow-up were used to examine neighbourhood deprivation, social fragmentation and trajectories of health. METHODS From the third phase (1991-93) of the Whitehall II study of British civil servants, SF-36 health functioning was measured on up to five occasions for 7834 participants living in 2046 census wards. Multilevel linear regression mode...

OBJECTIVE One night of sleep deprivation induces a transient improvement in about 60% of depressed patients. Since depression is associated with abnormalities of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the authors measured cortisol secretion before, during, and after therapeutic sleep deprivation for 1 night. METHOD Fifteen unmedicated depressed inpatients participated in a combined po...

  Humans suffer transient or persistent starvation due to a lack of food intake, either because of fasting, voluntary dieting, or due to the scarcity of available food. At the cellular level it is possible to possess pathological starvation during ischemia and solid tumors. Blood provides many nutrients to our cells, and researchers provide these nutrients to cells in culture in the form of en...

The human brain requires a wide variety of experiences and environmental inputs in order to develop normally. Children who are neglected by caregivers or raised in institutional environments are deprived of numerous types of species-expectant environmental experiences. In this review, we articulate a model of how the absence of cognitive stimulation and sensory, motor, linguistic, and social ex...

for the deprived eye in the early and middle periods of the training stage for all subjects, performance levels were similar between the eyes in the late period (Figure B). Significant differences were observed in the early (paired t-test, P = 0.0 5) and middle (P = 0.00 ) periods, but no significant difference in the late period (P = 0.380) (Figure C). These results suggest that MD selectively...

Progressive loss of plasticity during development prevents refined circuits from regressing to an immature state and is thought to depend on maturation of GABAergic inhibition. For example, a gradual reduction in size of visual receptive fields (RFs) occurs in the superior colliculus (SC) during development. Maintenance of the refined state throughout adulthood requires early light exposure. He...

BACKGROUND Despite a considerable increase in claims for long-term sickness benefits, and the impact of certifying sickness upon general practitioner (GP) workload, little is known about transition to long-term incapacity for work. AIM To explore the relationship between patient factors and the transition from short-term to long-term work incapacity, in particular focusing on mild mental heal...