The Journal of Comparative Neurology
June 1, 2016
Jaak Panksepp
54 citations
Understanding the neural basis of emotional feelings in animals, rather than just their behavior, may accelerate development of new psychiatric treatments. By studying rewarding and punishing effects of deep brain stimulation in subcortical emotional networks—including systems labeled SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC, and PLAY—researchers have identified distinct emotion action patterns. This preclinical affective neuroscience approach has led to three potential antidepressant strategies: deep brain stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle in humans, reducing psychological pain from excessive PANIC arousal, and enhancing social joy through studies of social play in rats. The argument is that taking animal emotional feelings seriously as treatment targets could improve psychiatric intervention development.
The Journal of Comparative Neurology
January 1, 2006
Csaba Ádori, Rómeó D. Andó, Gábor G. Kovács et al.
51 citations
MDMA (ecstasy) causes lasting damage to the brain's serotonin system. In Dark Agouti rats, a single injection of MDMA at doses of 7.5, 15, or 30 mg/kg reduced the density of serotonin-producing axons throughout the brain 3 and 7 days later. Three days after treatment, a dose-dependent increase in the stress protein Hsp27 appeared in star-shaped glial cells (astrocytes) in several cortical areas and the hippocampus CA1 region, but not in other brain regions like the caudate putamen. The hippocampus CA1 showed both increased Hsp27 and another marker of glial activation (GFAP), suggesting particular vulnerability. High-dose MDMA also triggered Hsp72 in neurons, indicating effects beyond serotonin cells.
The Journal of Comparative Neurology
May 3, 2020
Olivia Carter, Bruno van Swinderen, David A. Leopold et al.
29 citations
Multistable perception—where sensory ambiguity causes spontaneous alternations between two or more perceptual interpretations—occurs across many animal species. This review covers research on visual perceptual rivalry in insects, fish, reptiles, and primates, highlighting binocular rivalry and the Necker cube as examples. Common behavioral indicators of perceptual alternation appear across species. The comparative approach offers insights into how brains suppress conflicting sensory signals and generate shifts in perceptual dominance, suggesting that ambiguous sensation is a fundamental problem that has shaped brain evolution.
The Journal of Comparative Neurology
December 1, 2020
Paul R Manger, Jerome M Siegel
21 citations
Dreams occur during human sleep, especially REM sleep, and similar physiological states exist in mammals, raising the question of whether animals experience sleep mentation. Advances in understanding sleep-stage anatomy and physiology allow a better assessment of dream mentation in nonhuman mammals. If dream mentation occurs only during REM sleep, monotremes, cetaceans, and otariid seals at sea likely lack this potential; atypical REM sleep in African elephants and Arabian oryx may alter their potential. If dream mentation occurs during both non-REM and REM sleep, all mammals could experience it, though non-REM mentation may differ in species with atypical sleep, such as aquatic mammals with unihemispheric sleep.
The Journal of Comparative Neurology
February 1, 2021
Robert P Vertes, Stephanie B Linley
9 citations
The brain during non-REM sleep is in an unconscious state akin to general anesthesia, making meaningful cognitive processing impossible. Waking experiences are never faithfully reproduced in sleep but appear in distorted forms. Both non-REM sleep and general anesthesia share features such as sensory blockade, immobility, amnesia, and loss of awareness, characterized by delta oscillations across the cortex, reduced neural activity especially in frontal and parietal regions, and disrupted functional connectivity in thalamocortical and corticocortical networks. Disrupting the cortex, particularly the orbitofrontal cortex, impairs higher-order cognitive functions. The profound cortical deactivation in non-REM sleep would negate any possibility of memory processing or consolidation.
The Journal of Comparative Neurology
December 1, 2020
David E. Presti
Neuroscience has accepted the study of consciousness but largely restricts itself to neural correlates, which may not yield fundamentally new insights. Expanding the science of consciousness requires appreciating the interdependent co-creation or enfolding of mind and world. Addressing this interdependence is part of the collaborative engagement between Buddhism and science, exploring how complementary worldviews and analytic procedures can further an expanded science of mind. This essay, honoring Jack Pettigrew, describes his connection to that project.