Traumatic brain injury is one of the most prevalent risks of death and disability in young people, with about 1.6 million reported per year in the US. Some of the most devastating injuries from brain trauma are the rupturing of arteries between the dura...

Diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC), which involves endogenous pain modulation, has been investigated as a potential mechanism for the differences in pain observed between men and women. We used a capsaicin-induced DNIC behavioral assay and restin...

Depression and anxiety have been linked to changes in the gray matter volume of the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus (Mervaala et al., 2000; Merz, Tottenham, and Noble, 2018). Additionally, children that live in disadvantaged neighborhoods are at inc...

Executive functions, and particularly inhibitory control (i.e.,the ability to withhold a prepotent response), play a critical role in academic success. While the effect of cognitive training on IC efficiency improvement has been studied either in childr...

Epidemiological and animal model studies suggest that exposure to either the stress of untreated depression or to selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants during pregnancy increase risks for neurodevelopmental disorders in t...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) induces a pronounced neuroinflammation driven by activation and proliferation of resident microglia as well as infiltrating peripheral monocyte-derived macrophages. Depending on time post-lesion, positive and detrimental influen...

Preliminary studies suggest that MRI may be useful for distinguishing between vasogenic edema (open BBB edema) and cytotoxic or cellular edema (closed BBB edema). Cold injury-induced brain trauma (CIBT) is the classic small-animal model of vasogenic cerebral edema. Rats were anesthetized and maintained at 37oC. The skull was exposed, and a cooled brass probe was placed in direct contact with the skull, over the right hemisphere, for 2 minutes. Twenty-four hours later MRI was performed. Images were collected on a 7T horizontal bore MR system with 220mT/m actively shielded gradients (TR/TE = 8/0.05 s, pixel resolution = 115x230x1000µm. The T2 weighted image and T2 map clearly delineated the borders of the infarct. The contrast in both images was maximal at the base of the infarct. BBB integrity was also assessed 24-hours after CIBT from gadolinium (Gd)-enhanced, T1-weighted images obtained 30 minutes after a tail-vein injection of Gd-DTPA. It was noteworthy that BBB breakdown was most extensive along the top...

Background Perinatal lead (Pb) exposure is associated with adverse cognitive and behavioral outcomes that may be mediated by altered brain structure and function. Childhood Pb exposure has been associated with persistent impacts on adult white matter mi...

Violence exposure (e.g., witnessing or experiencing an assault) is a prevalent issue that affects approximately 25% of adolescents in the United States (McLaughlin et al., 2016). In particular, physical and sexual abuse are associated with poor physical...

The swine model is becoming a popular alternative to nonhuman primates in translational neuroscience research mainly because of the reduced cost and ethical liability, especially when performing large cohort studies. Unlike brains from small animals suc...