A DNA test to sex most birds.

Neuronal circuits in the brain are shaped by experience during 'critical periods' in early postnatal life. In the primary visual cortex, this activity-dependent development is triggered by the functional maturation of local inhibitory connections and driven by a specific, late-developing subset of interneurons. Ultimately, the structural consolidation of competing sensory inputs is mediated by a proteolytic reorganization of the extracellular matrix that occurs only during the critical period. The reactivation of this process, and subsequent recovery of function in conditions such as amblyopia, can now be studied with realistic circuit models that might generalize across systems.

/pdf/critical-period-plasticity-in-local-cortical-circuits-7uu04w35je.pdf

Critical period plasticity in local cortical circuits.

Pharmacology of cannabinoid cb1 and cb2 receptors

Conditioned place preference (CPP) continues to be one of the most popular models to study the motivational effects of drugs and non-drug treatments in experimental animals. This is obvious from a steady year-to-year increase in the number of publications reporting the use this model. Since the compilation of the preceding review in 1998, more than 1000 new studies using place conditioning have been published, and the aim of the present review is to provide an overview of these recent publications. There are a number of trends and developments that are obvious in the literature of the last decade. First, as more and more knockout and transgenic animals become available, place conditioning is increasingly used to assess the motivational effects of drugs or non-drug rewards in genetically modified animals. Second, there is a still small but growing literature on the use of place conditioning to study the motivational aspects of pain, a field of pre-clinical research that has so far received little attention, because of the lack of appropriate animal models. Third, place conditioning continues to be widely used to study tolerance and sensitization to the rewarding effects of drugs induced by pre-treatment regimens. Fourth, extinction/reinstatement procedures in place conditioning are becoming increasingly popular. This interesting approach is thought to model certain aspects of relapse to addictive behavior and has previously almost exclusively been studied in drug self-administration paradigms. It has now also become established in the place conditioning literature and provides an additional and technically easy approach to this important phenomenon. The enormous number of studies to be covered in this review prevented in-depth discussion of many methodological, pharmacological or neurobiological aspects; to a large extent, the presentation of data had to be limited to a short and condensed summary of the most relevant findings.

Measuring reward with the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm: update of the last decade.

Suicide is a leading cause of death, but it is not well understood or well researched. Our purpose in this review is to summarize extant knowledge on neurobiological and psychological factors involved in suicide, with specific goals of identifying areas particularly in need of future research and of articulating an initial agenda that may guide future research. We conclude that from both neurobiological and psychological perspectives, extant research findings converge on the view that two general categories of risk for suicide can be identified: (a) dysregulated impulse control; and (b) propensity to intense psychological pain (e.g., social isolation, hopelessness), often in the context of mental disorders, especially mood disorders. Each of these categories of risk is underlain at least to some degree by specific genetic and neurobiological factors; these factors in general are not well characterized, though there is emerging consensus that most if not all reside in or affect the serotonergic system. We encourage future theorizing that is conceptually precise, as well as epistemically broad, about the specific preconditions of serious suicidal behavior, explaining the daunting array of suicide-related facts from the molecular to the cultural level.

The Psychology and Neurobiology of Suicidal Behavior

CB1 cannabinoid receptor expression in brain regions associated with zebra finch song control.

Singing by adult male zebra finches is a learned behavior important for courtship, kin recognition, and nest defense (Zann, 1996) and is inhibited by both brief periods of limited food availability and systemic injection of cannabinoids. These similar effects on singing, combined with increasing evidence for endocannabinoid involvement in feeding behavior, led us to evaluate a possible shared mechanism. We found that limited food availability both reduces singing in a cannabinoid antagonist-reversible manner and increases levels of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonyl glycerol in various brain regions including the caudal telencephalon, an area that contains auditory telencephalon including the L2 subfield of L (L2) and caudal medial nidopallium (NCM). Development and use of an anti-zebra finch cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) antibody demonstrates distinct, dense cannabinoid receptor expression within song regions including Area X, lMAN (lateral magnocellular nucleus of anterior nidopallium), HVC, RA (robust nucleus of arcopallium), and L2. NCM receives L2 projections and is implicated in integration of auditory information. Activity in this area, determined through expression of the transcription factor ZENK, is increased after exposure to unfamiliar song. Because previous work has shown that these novel song-stimulated increases in NCM activity are mitigated by cannabinoid exposure, we tested and found that similar effects on ZENK expression are produced by limiting food. Limited food-related reductions in the activity of NCM neurons were reversed by the cannabinoid antagonist SR141716A (N-piperidino-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-methylpyrazole-3-carboxamide), implicating CB1 cannabinoid receptor involvement. Taken together, these experiments indicate a link between feeding state and gene expression related to auditory perception that is mediated by endocannabinoid signaling.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/24/44/10013.full.pdf

Endocannabinoids Link Feeding State and Auditory Perception-Related Gene Expression

Periadolescent nicotine exposure causes heterologous sensitization to cocaine reinforcement.

Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) learn vocal behavior during sensitive developmental periods, similar to the way in which human language is acquired. As adults, they recite the learned song pattern in a stereotyped manner. Previously, we demonstrated that central nervous system-associated cannabinoid receptors (CB1) are expressed in brain regions known to control both juvenile song learning and adult recitation of song. Here we extend these findings by establishing the zebra finch as a behavioral model to study cannabinoid pharmacology, showing that the cannabinoid agonist WIN55212-2 inhibits both adult song production and locomotor activity, effects that are antagonist-reversed. Through radioligand binding assays we investigated the pharmacology of a number of cannabinoid ligands representing all structural classes and established an affinity profile that can be compared with that of other species. To begin to characterize signal transduction mechanisms we isolated cDNA encoding the receptor protein. The zebra finch CB1 receptor (ZFCB1) is highly expressed in brain with amino acid sequence 92% identical to human CB1 receptor. Establishment of a Chinese hamster ovary cell line stably expressing ZFCB1 allowed demonstration that the cannabinoid agonist WIN55212-2 dose dependently and potently inhibits forskolin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity (IC(50) = 9.0 nM, maximum inhibition = 49% at 100 nM WIN55212-2, reversed by 1 mM SR141716A). Cyclase inhibition indicates that ZFCB1-mediated signal transduction is consistent with that of mammalian CB1 receptors. Overall, cannabinoid inhibition of adult song production and conserved pharmacology render the zebra finch a promising model to investigate cannabinoid effects on learning by juveniles.

Zebra finch CB1 cannabinoid receptor: pharmacology and in vivo and in vitro effects of activation.

Cannabinoid exposure alters learning of zebra finch vocal patterns.

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