Limbic-brainstem-spinal cord preparations of 0- to 1-day-old Wistar rats were isolated check details under deep ether anesthesia, and were superperfused in a modified Krebs solution. Bath application of 50 nM CRF substantially increased the frequency of burst activity in the piriform-amygdala complex, whereas this polypeptide exerted only minor effects on C4 inspiratory activity. The excitatory effect of CRF on the amygdala burst was effectively blocked by the CRF1 antagonist, antalarmin, but not the CRF2 antagonist, astressin-2B, suggesting

that CRF1 mediated the excitatory effect. The spatio-temporal pattern of the burst activity according to optical recordings was basically identical to the controls; the burst activity initially appeared in the piriform cortex and then propagated to the amygdala. The present experimental model could be useful for the study of role of the

limbic system, including the amygdala, in stress responses. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.”
“A network of two neurons mutually coupled through inhibitory synapses that display short-term synaptic depression is considered. We show that synaptic depression expands the number of possible activity click here patterns that the network can display and allows for co-existence of different patterns. Specifically, the network supports different types of n-m anti-phase firing patterns, where one neuron fires n spikes followed by the other neuron firing m spikes. When maximal synaptic conductances are

identical, n-n anti-phase firing patterns are obtained and there are conductance intervals over which different pairs of these solutions co-exist. The multitude of n-m anti-phase patterns and their co-existence are not found when the synapses are non-depressing. Geometric singular perturbation methods for dynamical systems are applied to selleck products the original eight-dimensional model system to derive a set of one-dimensional conditions for the existence and co-existence of different anti-phase solutions. The generality and validity of these conditions are demonstrated through numerical simulations utilizing the Hodgkin-Huxley and Morris-Lecar neuronal models. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Natural sounds consist of a component at the fundamental frequency (f0) and its overtones. Pitch is perceived at f0, even when spectral energy at f0 is missing. This missing f0, or ‘virtual pitch’, is thought to be detected in the auditory cortex and related cortical areas, but the precise neural mechanisms are unknown. One possibility is that virtual pitch can be retrieved from the periodicity of sound waveforms. However, this mechanism requires the temporal accuracy in periodicity detection, and so far the detection of virtual pitch has only been demonstrated at frequencies lower than 1 kHz. We investigated the ability of mice to detect virtual pitch up to 5 kHz using a two-step sound discrimination test.