scholarly journals The Potential of the Bi-Directional Gaze: A Call for Neuroscientific Research on the Simultaneous Activation of the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems through Tantric Practice

Religions ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Lidke
1962 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 288-289
Author(s):  
AUSTIN H. RIESEN
Keyword(s):  

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 457
Author(s):  
Aihua JIANG ◽  
Rui CHEN ◽  
Ru BAI ◽  
Fengxiang YAN ◽  
Chunying CHEN

Author(s):  
Dale Purves

Brains as Engines of Association seeks an operating principle of the human brain and is divided into four parts. The first part (“What Nervous Systems Do for Animals”) is intended to set the stage for understanding the emergence of neural systems as promoting what all organisms must accomplish: survival and reproduction. The second part (“Neural Systems as Engines of Association”) lays out the general argument that biological sensing systems face a daunting problem: they cannot measure the parameters of the world in the way physical instruments can. As a result, nervous systems must make and update associations (synaptic connections) on the basis of empirical success or failure over both evolutionary and individual time. The third part (“Evidence that Neural Systems Operate Empirically”) reviews evidence accumulated over the past 20 years that supports this interpretation in vision and audition, the sensory systems that have been most studied from this or any other perspective. Finally, the fourth part (“Alternative Concepts of Neural Function”) considers the pros and cons of other interpretations of how brains operate. The overarching theme is that the nervous systems of humans and every other animal operate on the basis associations between stimuli and behavior made by trial and error over species and lifetime experience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha López-Canul ◽  
Seung Hyun Min ◽  
Luca Posa ◽  
Danilo De Gregorio ◽  
Annalida Bedini ◽  
...  

Melatonin (MLT) is a neurohormone that regulates many physiological functions including sleep, pain, thermoregulation, and circadian rhythms. MLT acts mainly through two G-protein-coupled receptors named MT1 and MT2, but also through an MLT type-3 receptor (MT3). However, the role of MLT receptor subtypes in thermoregulation is still unknown. We have thus investigated the effects of selective and non-selective MLT receptor agonists/antagonists on body temperature (Tb) in rats across the 12/12-h light–dark cycle. Rectal temperature was measured every 15 min from 4:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., following subcutaneous injection of each compound at either 5:00 a.m. or 5:00 p.m. MLT (40 mg/kg) had no effect when injected at 5 a.m., whereas it decreased Tb during the light phase only when injected at 5:00 p.m. This effect was blocked by the selective MT2 receptor antagonist 4P-PDOT and the non-selective MT1/MT2 receptor antagonist, luzindole, but not by the α1/MT3 receptors antagonist prazosin. However, unlike MLT, neither the selective MT1 receptor partial agonist UCM871 (14 mg/kg) nor the selective MT2 partial agonist UCM924 (40 mg/kg) altered Tb during the light phase. In contrast, UCM871 injected at 5:00 p.m. increased Tb at the beginning of the dark phase, whereas UCM924 injected at 5:00 a.m. decreased Tb at the end of the dark phase. These effects were blocked by luzindole and 4P-PDOT, respectively. The MT3 receptor agonist GR135531 (10 mg/kg) did not affect Tb. These data suggest that the simultaneous activation of both MT1 and MT2 receptors is necessary to regulate Tb during the light phase, whereas in a complex but yet unknown manner, they regulate Tb differently during the dark phase. Overall, MT1 and MT2 receptors display complementary but also distinct roles in modulating circadian fluctuations of Tb.


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