scholarly journals Inhibitory engrams in perception and memory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Barron ◽  
Tim P. Vogels ◽  
Timothy Behrens ◽  
Mani Ramaswami

SUMMARYNervous systems use excitatory cell assemblies or “perceptual engrams” to encode and represent sensory percepts. Similarly, synaptically connected cell assemblies or “memory engrams” are thought to represent memories of past experience. Multiple lines of recent evidence indicate that brain systems also create inhibitory replicas of excitatory engrams with important cognitive functions. Such matched inhibitory engrams may form through homeostatic potentiation of inhibition onto postsynaptic cells that show increased levels of excitation. Inhibitory engrams can reduce behavioral responses to familiar stimuli thereby resulting in behavioral habituation. In addition, by preventing inappropriate activation of excitatory memory engrams, inhibitory engrams can make memories quiescent, stored in a latent form that is available for contextrelevant activation. In neural networks with balanced excitatory and inhibitory engrams, the release of innate responses and recall of associative memories can occur through focussed disinhibition. Understanding mechanisms that regulate the formation and expression of inhibitory engrams in vivo may help not only to explain key features of cognition, but also to provide insight into transdiagnostic traits associated with psychiatric conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Janus Head ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-29
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McManaman Tyler ◽  

While recent work on trauma provides insight into the first-person experience of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Aristotelian propositional logic, which underlies Western paradigms of thought, contains implicit ontological assumptions about identity and time which obscure the lived experience of PTSD. Conversely, Indian Buddhist catuskoti logic calls into question dualistic and discursive forms of thought. This paper argues that catuskoti logic, informed by Buddhist ontology, is a more fitting logical framework when seeking to describe and understand the first-person experience of PTSD, as it allows for ambiguity, non-duality, and polysemy.


Author(s):  
Frederic Busch ◽  
Barbara Milrod ◽  
Cory Chen ◽  
Meriamne Singer

This book, which operationalizes and articulates in detail a unique, brief, tested psychodynamic psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Trauma Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy [TFPP], describes how to perform this helpful treatment. The book provides tailored psychodynamic background that underpins these approaches, and explains the different phases of treatment. Additionally, it articulates common underlying dynamics of PTSD that the treatment commonly addresses in patients to bring about symptomatic relief. TFPP is being tested in two diverse populations: military Veterans with PTSD who are receiving care at three Veterans Administration Hospitals, and also among LGBTQ patients with PTSD. The book is focused on the authors’ experiences treating Veterans and many clinical examples are provided demonstrating how to work with these principles and approaches. In general, patients and therapists have found the treatment to be an extremely useful tool. Veterans have gained insight into the impact of traumatic experiences on various aspects of their lives and had improvements in dissociation, interpersonal engagement, anxiety, and anger/hostility. TFPP appears to be particularly effective for patients with prominent avoidance symptoms and those who are unwilling or unable to recount the details of their trauma directly. Patients have been found to be more affectively engaged and better connected to others (including the therapist) following treatment.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ludgin ◽  
Deanna Sverdlov ◽  
Errol R. Norwitz

The exacerbation of pre-existing psychiatric conditions and the development of a new-onset psychiatric disorder during pregnancy directly affects the care of pregnant women. Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent in reproductive age women and may be exacerbated in the perinatal and postpartum periods. Post-traumatic stress disorder is another common condition seen in this population and may worsen under the stress of pregnancy, delivery, and childrearing. Substance abuse is also pervasive in this population, requiring obstetricians to have a thorough understanding of how to manage and treat pregnant women with dependence disorders. Psychiatric conditions and substance abuse often co-exist. These and other disorders present significant risk to the mother and fetus. It is essential therefore for obstetric care providers to understand how to screen for, diagnose, and treat psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. This review contains 4 tables, and 58 references. Keywords: perinatal depression, postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, anxiety in pregnancy, substance abuse in pregnancy, post-traumatic stress disorder in pregnancy, eating disorders in pregnancy, pregnancy screening


Author(s):  
Elizabeth P. Bauer ◽  
Denis Paré

Normal fear regulation includes the ability to learn by experience that some circumstances predict danger. This process, which can be modeled in the laboratory using Pavlovian fear conditioning, appears to be disrupted in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Understanding of the mechanisms underlying fear learning has progressed tremendously in the last 25 years, and constitutes a promising paradigm to study the neural bases of PTSD. This chapter first reviews current knowledge of the brain structures involved in fear learning, expression and extinction, including the contributions of the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. It then addresses how these circuits are affected by PTSD and how fear processing is altered in PTSD. Understanding PTSD within a fear-conditioning and extinction framework provides insight into why certain individuals are susceptible to developing PTSD and suggests potential therapies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annett Szibor ◽  
Antti Mäkitie ◽  
Antti A. Aarnisalo

Tinnitus is an auditory phantom sensation which can be a devastating condition for the affected person causing annoyance and discomfort. It may be associated with psychiatric conditions. Patients with highly annoying tinnitus and different comorbidities may have a higher risk of expressing suicidal behaviour and ideation. We aimed to review available reports on the prevalence of suicide and suicidal behaviour with tinnitus patients in order to collate current concepts and to identify possible alarming signs and risk factors. A comprehensive search for appropriate studies listed in PubMed, Ovid and Cochrane databases was conducted using appropriate keyword combinations. We identified 22 publications including original articles, case reports and reviews of which 10 fit our stringent search criteria. Most importantly, from the present studies it appears not feasible to univocally conclude on the co-incidence of tinnitus and suicide. This is due to methodological differences in these approaches, complex interrelations between tinnitus and other psychiatric comorbidities and confounding factors such as the inclusion of patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. More concerted actions involving different medical disciplines are needed to reflect the ethiological heterogeneity of tinnitus and suicide or suicidal behaviour to test for a relationship.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ludgin ◽  
Deanna Sverdlov ◽  
Errol R. Norwitz

The exacerbation of pre-existing psychiatric conditions and the development of a new-onset psychiatric disorder during pregnancy directly affects the care of pregnant women. Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent in reproductive age women and may be exacerbated in the perinatal and postpartum periods. Post-traumatic stress disorder is another common condition seen in this population and may worsen under the stress of pregnancy, delivery, and childrearing. Substance abuse is also pervasive in this population, requiring obstetricians to have a thorough understanding of how to manage and treat pregnant women with dependence disorders. Psychiatric conditions and substance abuse often co-exist. These and other disorders present significant risk to the mother and fetus. It is essential therefore for obstetric care providers to understand how to screen for, diagnose, and treat psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. This review contains 4 tables, and 58 references. Keywords: perinatal depression, postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, anxiety in pregnancy, substance abuse in pregnancy, post-traumatic stress disorder in pregnancy, eating disorders in pregnancy, pregnancy screening


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ludgin ◽  
Deanna Sverdlov ◽  
Errol R. Norwitz

The exacerbation of pre-existing psychiatric conditions and the development of a new-onset psychiatric disorder during pregnancy directly affects the care of pregnant women. Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent in reproductive age women and may be exacerbated in the perinatal and postpartum periods. Post-traumatic stress disorder is another common condition seen in this population and may worsen under the stress of pregnancy, delivery, and childrearing. Substance abuse is also pervasive in this population, requiring obstetricians to have a thorough understanding of how to manage and treat pregnant women with dependence disorders. Psychiatric conditions and substance abuse often co-exist. These and other disorders present significant risk to the mother and fetus. It is essential therefore for obstetric care providers to understand how to screen for, diagnose, and treat psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. This review contains 4 tables, and 58 references. Keywords: perinatal depression, postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, anxiety in pregnancy, substance abuse in pregnancy, post-traumatic stress disorder in pregnancy, eating disorders in pregnancy, pregnancy screening


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S725-S725
Author(s):  
S.I. Lim ◽  
K.H. Song ◽  
C.H. Yoo ◽  
D.C. Woo ◽  
B.Y. Choe

PurposeSingle prolonged stress (SPS) is an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Until now, it has not been known how PTSD develops from the first exposure to traumatic events and neurochemical differences between acute/single stress and PTSD-triggering stress. The object of this study is to determine neurochemical changes in prefrontal cortex of rats using in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) at 9.4 T.Method and MaterialsMale Sprague–Dawley rats (n = 11; mean body weight: 200–220 g) were used. The SPS was used in this study. Rats were restrained for 2 h and then immediately forced to swim for 20 min in water (20–24 C). After a 15 min recuperation period, rats were exposed to ether until anesthesia occurred. MRS was performed 30 min before SPS, 30 min after the stressors, 3 and 7 days after the stressors to investigate time-dependent changes on metabolites levels in the PFC. Acquisition of MRI/MRS was conducted at four time points using 9.4 T Agilent Scanner. Concentration of metabolites was quantified by LCModel. A one-way ANOVA test with Tukey's HSD post-hoc test was used for statistical analyses.ResultsThe SPS resulted in altered absolute metabolite concentrations for GABA [F(3.0) = 1.450, P = 0.035], glutamate [F(3.0) = 3.417, P = 0.026], glutathione [F(3.0) = 3.759, P = 0.018], NAA [F(3.0) = 3.919, P = 0.015], total choline [F(3.0) = 7.584, P = 0.000], total NAA [F(3.0) = 3.760, P = 0.018], total creatine [F(3.0) = 3.248, P = 0.032] and glutamine/glutamate [F(3.0) = 3.552, P = 0.023] among the four time points.ConclusionPTSD in human is associated with decreased neuronal activity in the PFC. In this study, SPS decreased glutamate (excitatory) and total choline (membrane turnover) on day 7.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Yang ◽  
Jian-You Guo ◽  
Ya-Ni Jiang ◽  
Meng-Meng Liu ◽  
Qiu-Yu Li ◽  
...  

Zhi zhu xiang (ZZX) is the root and rhizome of Valeriana jatamansi Jones ex Roxb. Recent studies have shown that ZZX can exert antianxiety, antidepressant, and sedative effects. Because post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is similar to depression and anxiety in terms of its etiology, pathogenesis, and clinical manifestations, it is possible that ZZX may also be useful for the prevention and treatment of PTSD. In this study, a mouse model of PTSD was established and used to study the pharmacological action of a 95% ethanol extract of ZZX on PTSD via a series of classic behavioral tests. We found that a 95% ethanol extract of ZZX was indeed effective for relieving the symptoms of PTSD in mice. Moreover, network pharmacology analysis was used to predict the potential active ingredients, targets, and possible pathways of ZZX in the treatment of PTSD. The neurotransmitter system, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, and the endocannabinoid (eCB) system were identified to be the most likely pathways for anti-PTSD action in ZZX. Due to the lack of a falsification mechanism in network pharmacology, in vivo tests were carried out in mice, and the expression levels of neurotransmitters, hormones, and genes of key targets were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and real-time PCR to further verify this inference. Analysis showed that the levels of norepinephrine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, and glutamic acid were increased in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala of PTSD mice, while the levels of dopamine and γ-aminobutyric acid were decreased in these brain regions; furthermore, ZZX could restore the expression of these factors, at least to a certain extent. The levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone, corticosterone, and corticotropin-releasing hormone were increased in these different brain regions and the serum of PTSD mice; these effects could be reversed by ZZX to a certain extent. The expression levels of cannabinoid receptor 1 and diacylglycerol lipase α mRNA were decreased in PTSD mice, while the levels of fatty acid amide hydrolase and monoacylglycerol lipase mRNA were increased; these effects were restored by ZZX to a certain extent. In conclusion, our findings suggest that ZZX may provide new therapeutic pathways for treating PTSD by the regulation of neurotransmitters, the HPA, and expression levels of eCB-related genes in the brain.


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