Trafficking protein particle complex 9 (TRAPPC9) is a protein subunit of the transport protein particle II (TRAPPII), which has been reported to be important in the trafficking of cargo from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi, and in…
A global loss of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP; encoded by the Fmr1 gene) leads to sensory dysfunction and intellectual disabilities. One underlying mechanism of these phenotypes is structural and functional deficits in synapses.…
Neuromodulation mediated by metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) regulates many brain functions. However, the functions of mGluRs in the auditory system under normal and diseased states are not well understood. The medial nucleus of the…
GABAergic cells constitute 20-40% of the cells that project from the inferior colliculus [(IC) a midbrain auditory hub] to the medial geniculate body [(MG) the main auditory nucleus of the thalamus]. Four subtypes of GABAergic IC cells have been…
Hominoid remains from Miocene deposits in India and Pakistan have played a pivotal role in understanding the evolution of great apes and humans since they were first described in the 19th Century. We describe here a hominoid maxillary fragment…
Vespertilionid bats (Mammalia: Order Chiroptera) live 3-10 times longer than other mammals of an equivalent body size. At present, nothing is known of how bat fecal metabolic profiles shift with age in any taxa. This study established the feasibility…
Counts of Growth Layer Groups (GLGs) in the dentin of marine mammal teeth are widely used as indicators of age. In most marine mammals, observations document that GLGs are deposited yearly, but in beluga whales, some studies have supported the view…
BACKGROUND: Neuroinflammation is one of the hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Activation of glial cells, including microglia and astrocytes, is a characteristic of the inflammatory response. Glycoprotein…
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Butein (2',3,4,4'-Tetrahydroxychalcone), a polyphenol produced by several plants including Butea monoserpma, has been reported to exert potent anti-inflammatory activity but the mechanism remains unknown. In the present work we…
Swallowing disorders in Parkinson's disease are not responsive to dopamine depletion therapy and contribute to morbidity. They are poorly understood owing to a lack of adequate models. We present the first evidence of oropharyngeal changes in a…
Speech perception relies on the accurate resolution of brief, successive sounds that change rapidly over time. Deficits in the perception of such sounds, indicated by a reduced ability to detect signals during auditory backward masking, strongly…
The successful performance of a swallow requires dynamic integration between a wide range of sensory inputs and muscle activities to produce the coordinated kinematics of oropharyngeal structures. Damage to the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN)…
The perception of temporally changing auditory signals has a gradual developmental trajectory. Speech is a time-varying signal, and slow changes in speech (filtered at 0-4 Hz) are preferentially processed by the right hemisphere, while the left…
KEY POINTS: Binaural excitatory inputs to coincidence detection neurons in nucleus laminaris (NL) play essential roles in interaural time difference coding for sound localization. Here, we show that the two excitatory inputs are physiologically…
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease and the leading cause of chronic disability in middle-aged and older populations worldwide. The development of disease modifying therapy for OA is in its infancy largely because the regulatory…
Substantial knowledge of auditory processing within mammalian nervous systems emerged from neurophysiological studies of the mustached bat (Pteronotus parnellii). This highly social and vocal species retrieves precise information about the velocity…
Low bone mineral density (BMD) is a significant comorbidity in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and may reflect systemic regulatory pathway dysfunction. Low BMD has been identified in several AD mouse models selective for amyloid-beta or tau pathology, but…
OBJECTIVE: Mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and chondrocyte death are important contributors to the development and pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). In this study, we determined the expression and role of Parkin in the clearance of…
The process of wound repair requires the coordinated participation of multiple types of cells, which are sequentially recruited during the healing process. In response to tissue injury, both macrophages and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are recruited…
The inferior colliculus occupies a central position in ascending and descending auditory pathways. A substantial proportion of its neurons are GABAergic, and these neurons contribute to intracollicular circuits as well as to extrinsic projections to…
Gene expression analysis is essential for understanding the rich repertoire of cellular functions. With the development of sensitive molecular tools such as single-cell RNA sequencing, extensive gene expression data can be obtained and analyzed from…
The acoustic startle reflex (ASR) is subject to substantial variability. This inherent variability consequently shapes the conclusions drawn from gap-induced prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex (GPIAS) assessments. Recent studies have…
Nrf2, a redox regulated transcription factor, has recently been shown to play a role in cartilage integrity but the mechanism remains largely unknown. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial disease in which focal degradation of cartilage occurs.…
Neurodegeneration is characterized by severe neuronal loss leading to the cognitive and physical impairments that define various neurodegenerative diseases. Neuroinflammation is one hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases and can ultimately contribute…
Noise is the most common occupational and environmental hazard, and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is the second most common form of sensorineural hearing deficit. Although therapeutics that target the free-radical pathway have shown promise, none…
The timing of the occurrence of a swallow in a respiratory cycle is critical for safe swallowing, and changes with infant development. Infants with damage to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, which receives sensory information from the larynx and…
Recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury in neonates, a complication of head and neck surgeries, leads to increased aspiration risk and swallowing dysfunction. The severity of resulting sequelae range from morbidity, such as aspiration pneumonia, to…
The superior colliculus (SC) contains an auditory space map that is shaped by projections from several subcortical auditory nuclei. Both GABAergic (inhibitory) and excitatory cells contribute to these inputs, but there are contradictory reports…
Whether to stage degeneration or investigate early pathology in glaucoma, examination of axonal structure and function is essential. There are a wide variety of methods available to investigators using animal models of glaucoma, with varying…
Nearly 60% of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) die of metastases or locoregional recurrence. Metastasis is mediated by cancer cell migration and invasion, which are in part dependent on extracellular matrix degradation by…
Cetaceans are the only mammals to have evolved hyperphalangy, an increase in the number of phalanges beyond the mammalian plesiomorphic condition of three phalanges per digit. In this study, cetaceans were used as a novel model to review previous…
Perineuronal nets (PNs) are aggregates of extracellular matrix molecules that surround some neurons in the brain. While PNs occur widely across many cortical areas, subcortical PNs are especially associated with motor and auditory systems. The…
OBJECTIVE: Cytokine expression is tightly regulated post-transcriptionally but high levels of IL-6 in osteoarthritis (OA) indicate disruption of regulatory mechanisms. ZCCHC6 enzyme is implicated in post-transcriptional regulation of inflammatory…
Functional studies of skeletal anatomy are predicated on the fundamental assumption that form will follow function. For instance, previous studies have shown that the femora of specialized leaping primates are more robust than those of more…
Few studies exist of the bowhead whale brain and virtually nothing is known about its cortical cytoarchitecture or how it compares to other cetaceans. Bowhead whales are one of the least encephalized cetaceans and occupy a basal phylogenetic position…
The nasolacrimal duct (NLD) connects the orbital (often associated with the Deep Anterior Orbital gland: DAOG, a.k.a. Harderian gland) and nasal regions in many tetrapods. Adult cetaceans are usually said to lack an NLD, and there is little agreement…
OBJECTIVES: Laboratory studies have yielded important insights into primate locomotor mechanics. Nevertheless, laboratory studies fail to capture the range of ecological and structural variation encountered by free-ranging primates. We present…
The importance of locomotion to evolutionary fitness has led to extensive study of primate locomotor behavior, morphology and ecology. Most previous research has focused on adult primates, but in the last few decades, increased attention to locomotor…
OBJECTIVES: Relatively long digits are considered to enhance grasping performance in primates. We tested whether growth-related changes in intrinsic hand and foot proportions may have behavioral implications for growing animals, by examining whether…
Understanding intraspecific behavioral and dietary variation is critical for assessing primate populations' abilities to persist in habitats characterized by increasing anthropogenic disturbances. While it is evident that some species exhibit…
