Conversation is an important part of human life. Given globalization and the numerous languages around the world, it is increasingly likely that we will be communicating with others speaking in their second language (L2) rather than their first language (L1). In these situations, communication may require more effort. However, people...
Breast cancer patients have reported nonspecific neurologic symptoms such as fatigue, depression, and cognitive concerns while undergoing adjuvant therapy. Few neuroimaging studies have examined hormone therapy, an adjuvant therapy, and more research is needed to determine possible neurologic and cognitive effects. Previous estrogen research has found alterations in gray matter...
Temperature affects all biological processes, from the rate of cellular growth and metabolism to the stability of proteins that make up the machinery of life itself. Thus, all organisms must have the capacity to detect and respond to external temperature. Thermosensation endows animals with the ability to sense and respond...
Visual information plays a critical role in controlling movement. People use visual information to plan future actions and correct current actions through feedforward and feedback processes, respectively. We can gain insights into these visually guided motor control processes by quantifying where people look during movement and measuring how much they...
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, causing devastating disabilities in both motor and non-motor domains following the degeneration of dopamine (DA) producing neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Current treatments are highly limited in efficacy, and no established treatments currently exist to alter disease...
As of 2020, there are currently 5.8 million people in the United States suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a debilitating and progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Of these nearly six million people, two-thirds are women. While it has been suggested that women’s longer lifespan accounts for this disparity, the overall lifetime risk...
Voltage-gated potassium (KV) currents play a crucial role in shaping and controlling the firing patterns that serve as the fundamental basis for the differential signal processing from the ear to the auditory cortex, with distinct firing patterns observed with high- and low-frequency phenotypes. This is an interesting phenomenon, in the...
SCN2A encodes the NaV1.2 voltage-gated sodium channel, which is thought to contribute to the development of the central nervous system. Pathogenic variants in SCN2A have been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), including developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEE), intellectual disability (ID), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These disorders represent a significant...
The basal ganglia operate largely in closed parallel loops, including an associative circuit for goal-directed behavior originating from the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) and a somatosensory circuit important for habit formation originating from the dorsolateral striatum (DLS). An exception to this parallel circuit organization was proposed to explain how information is...
Simple sensorimotor tasks, such as lifting a cup or balancing a tray, requires not only controlled motor output, but also the ability to accurately perceive sensory information. After a hemiparetic stroke, individuals often experience sensory deficits in addition to motor impairments. However, research on the extent of changes in sensory...