Evidence from experimental animal studies suggests that complement activation in the brain is a “double-edged sword” as it exerts beneficial or detrimental effects depending on the context. Here, we assessed whether ...

The brain is highly plastic, displaying both short- and long-term changes, resulting from developmental processes as well as learning and memory. Moreover, short-term plasticity such as paired pulse facilitation and ...

Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) are considered as the most important forms of synaptic plasticity involved in learning and memory. The traditional way to induce LTP and LTD is by electric ...

Neural stem and progenitor cells in the germinal regions of the adult brain, such as the hippocampus, are of great interest, because they provide the possibility for enhanced brain plasticity or can contribute to endogenous ...

In this thesis, the effects of an anesthetic agent, isoflurane, on the young brain and resulting behavioral effects were investigated. Anesthesia is commonly used in young children during surgery or other procedures ...

Astrocytes are the most common cell type in mammalian central nervous system (CNS). Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and vimentin constitute intermediate filaments (known also as nanofilaments), a part of the ...

Short-term synaptic plasticity, the activity-dependent regulation of synaptic efficacy that occurs in the timeframe of milliseconds to seconds, is a fundamental property of the synapse, mostly attributed to changes in ...

Synapses are highly plastic, i.e. they have the ability to change their signaling strength both in the short- and long-term (e.g. long-term potentiation - LTP) in response to specific patterns of activity. In the developing ...

Radiotherapy is used in the treatment of pediatric brain tumors and is often associated with debilitating late effects, such as intellectual impairment. Areas in the brain harboring stem cells are particularly sensitive ...

Dementia is a syndrome with cognitive decline as a prominent feature. MCI is similarly a syndrome of cognitive decline, albeit with much subtler symptoms, and has been identified as a condition at risk for progression to ...