Post-status epilepticus treatment with the Fyn inhibitor, saracatinib, improves cognitive function in mice

Background Status epilepticus (SE) is a life-threatening neurological disorder. The hippocampus, as an important area of the brain that regulates cognitive function, is usually damaged after SE, and cognitive deficits often result from hippocampal neurons lost after SE. Fyn, a non-receptor Src family of tyrosine kinases, is potentially associated with the onset of seizure. Saracatinib, a Fyn inhibitor, suppresses epileptogenesis and reduces epileptiform spikes. However, whether saracatinib inhibits cognitive deficits after SE is still unknown. Methods In the present study, a pilocarpine-induced SE mouse model was used to answer this question by using the Morris water maze and normal object recognition behavioral tests. Results We found that saracatinib inhibited the loss in cognitive function following SE. Furthermore, we found that the number of hippocampal neurons in the saracatinib treatment group was increased, when compared to the SE group. Conclusions These results showed that saracatinib can improve cognitive functions by reducing the loss of hippocampal neurons after SE, suggesting that Fyn dysfunction is involved in cognitive deficits after SE, and that the inhibition of Fyn is a possible treatment to improve cognitive function in SE patients.

Post-status epilepticus treatment with the Fyn inhibitor, saracatinib, improves cognitive function in mice

BackgroundStatus epilepticus (SE) is a life-threatening neurological disorder. The hippocampus, as an important area of the brain that regulates cognitive function, is usually damaged after SE, and cognitive deficits often result from hippocampal neurons lost after SE. Fyn, a non-receptor Src family of tyrosine kinases, is potentially associated with the onset of seizure. Saracatinib, a Fyn inhibitor, suppresses epileptogenesis and reduces epileptiform spikes. However, whether saracatinib inhibits cognitive deficits after SE is still unknown. MethodsIn the present study, a pilocarpine-induced SE mouse model was used to answer this question by using the Morris water maze and normal object recognition behavioral tests. ResultsWe found that saracatinib inhibited the loss in cognitive function following SE. Furthermore, we found that the number of hippocampal neurons in the saracatinib treatment group was increased, when compared to the SE group. ConclusionsThese results showed that saracatinib can improve cognitive functions by reducing the loss of hippocampal neurons after SE, suggesting that Fyn dysfunction is involved in cognitive deficits after SE, and that the inhibition of Fyn is a possible treatment to improve cognitive function in SE patients.

Post-status epilepticus treatment with the Fyn inhibitor, saracatinib, improves cognitive function in mice

BackgroundStatus epilepticus (SE) is a life-threatening neurological disorder. The hippocampus, as an important area of the brain that regulates cognitive function, is usually damaged after SE, and cognitive deficits often result from hippocampal neurons lost after SE. Fyn, a non-receptor Src family of tyrosine kinases, is potentially associated with the onset of seizure. Saracatinib, a Fyn inhibitor, suppresses epileptogenesis and reduces epileptiform spikes. However, whether saracatinib inhibits cognitive deficits after SE is still unknown.MethodsIn the present study, a pilocarpine-induced SE mouse model was used to answer this question by using the Morris water maze and normal object recognition behavioral tests.ResultsWe found that saracatinib inhibited the loss in cognitive function following SE. Furthermore, we found that the number of hippocampal neurons in the saracatinib treatment group was increased, when compared to the SE group.ConclusionsThese results showed that saracatinib can improve cognitive functions by reducing the loss of hippocampal neurons after SE, suggesting that Fyn dysfunction is involved in cognitive deficits after SE, and that the inhibition of Fyn is a possible treatment to improve cognitive function in SE patients.

Post-status Epilepticus Treatment With the Fyn Inhibitor, Saracatinib, Improves Cognitive Function in Mice

BackgroundStatus epilepticus (SE) is a life-threatening neurological disorder. The hippocampus, as an important area of the brain that regulates cognitive function, is usually damaged after SE, and cognitive deficits often result from hippocampal neurons lost after SE. Fyn, a non-receptor Src family of tyrosine kinases, is closely related to SE occurrence. Saracatinib, a Fyn inhibitor, suppresses epileptogenesis and reduces epileptiform spikes. However, whether saracatinib inhibits cognitive deficits after SE is still unknown. MethodsIn the present study, a pilocarpine-induced SE mouse model was used to answer this question by using the Morris water maze and normal object recognition behavioral tests. ResultsWe found that saracatinib inhibited the loss in cognitive function following SE. Furthermore, we found that the number of hippocampal neurons in the saracatinib treatment group was increased, when compared to the SE group. ConclusionsThese results showed that saracatinib can inhibit cognitive deficits resulting from SE by reducing the loss of hippocampal neurons, suggesting that Fyn is involved in the loss of cognitive function after SE, and that the inhibition of Fyn is a possible treatment to improve cognitive function in SE patients.

The hidden identity of faces: A case of lifelong prosopagnosia

Not being able to recognize a person's face is a highly debilitating condition from which people with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) suffer their entire life. Here we describe the case of JB, a 30 year old woman who reports being unable to recognize her parents, her husband, or herself in the mirror. We set out to assess the severity of JB's prosopagnosia using tests with unfamiliar as well as familiar faces and investigated whether impaired configural processing explains her deficit. To assess the specificity of the impairment, we tested JB's performance when evaluating emotions, intentions, and the attractiveness and likability of faces. Detailed testing revealed typical brain activity patterns for faces and normal object recognition skills, and no evidence of any brain injury. However, compared to a group of matched controls, JB showed severe deficits in learning new faces, and in recognizing familiar faces when only inner features were available. Her recognition of uncropped faces with blurred features was within the normal range, indicating preserved configural processing when peripheral features are available. JB was also unimpaired when evaluating intentions and emotions in faces. In line with healthy controls, JB rated more average faces as more attractive. However, she was the only one to rate them as less likable, indicating a preference for more distinctive and easier to recognize faces. Taken together, the results illustrate both the severity and the specificity of DP in a single case. While DP is a heterogeneous disorder, an inability to integrate the inner features of the face into a whole might be the best explanation for the difficulties many individuals with prosopagnosia experience.

An Improved Semisupervised Outlier Detection Algorithm Based on Adaptive Feature Weighted Clustering

There exist already various approaches to outlier detection, in which semisupervised methods achieve encouraging superiority due to the introduction of prior knowledge. In this paper, an adaptive feature weighted clustering-based semisupervised outlier detection strategy is proposed. This method maximizes the membership degree of a labeled normal object to the cluster it belongs to and minimizes the membership degrees of a labeled outlier to all clusters. In consideration of distinct significance of features or components in a dataset in determining an object being an inlier or outlier, each feature is adaptively assigned different weights according to the deviation degrees between this feature of all objects and that of a certain cluster prototype. A series of experiments on a synthetic dataset and several real-world datasets are implemented to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposal.

Modest Fashion

Finally it seems the academic study of hijab has come of age. The contributorsto this collection neither treat it as an object of curiosity or derision, nor wonderat Muslimahs’ “false consciousness”; rather, they treat this “piece of cloth” andthe accompanying dress code as a “normal” object of academic enquiry. Forexample, they expand the investigation to include attire for modest Jewish andChristian women, as well as for secular women who dress in similar ways albeitfor different reasons. The title captures this broad focus by using modest, ratherthan limiting the focus to the hijab. While some Jewish and Christian womenalso dress modestly, discursive politics only label the hijab as oppressive.It is refreshing to read academic studies that treat the hijab with the samerespect that they do modest Jewish or Christian dress codes. This is not to saythat the book necessarily endorses or advocates modest dress, which it mostcertainly does not, but only that its contributors (e.g., a journalist and a paneldiscussion with bloggers, designers, and entrepreneurs) study in a sociologicalway the different meanings behind religious dress while maintaining respectfor those they study. Even Elizabeth Wilson’s “Can We Discuss This?,” whichfinds secular women’s recourse to modest dress depressing (“the human body,clothed or unclothed, is a cause for celebration” [p. 171]) and asks secular feministsto “fight their corner” (p. 171), respectfully summarizes the rationale behindmodest dress in order to argue against that very rationale.The contributors also link the study of modest dress with the concept of“fashion,” which is a matter of women who want to dress modestly but haveto look long and hard for nice, fashionable clothing that meets their standards.But as Lewis (“Introduction”) and others, like arts journalist Liz Hoggard(“Modesty Regulators: Punishing and Rewarding Women’s Appearances inMainstream Media”) note, the mainstream fashion industry does not treatmodest dress as “fashion.” Therefore, some Jewish, Christian, and Muslimwomen entrepreneurs have opened stores as well as designed and sold theirown creations to those who want to dress modestly and yet be stylish and fashionable.By investigating the link between fashion and modest dress moreclosely, the book provides a very refreshing analysis of modest dress. Afterall, we receive the obfuscations of “oppressed” or “false consciousness”through the mainstream fashion lens.Lewis argues that the Internet has allowed this niche market to blossom ...