I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

A fast-Fourier-transform method of topography and interferometry is proposed. By computer processing of a noncontour type of fringe pattern, automatic discrimination is achieved between elevation and depression of the object or wave-front form, which has not been possible by the fringe-contour-generation techniques. The method has advantages over moire topography and conventional fringe-contour interferometry in both accuracy and sensitivity. Unlike fringe-scanning techniques, the method is easy to apply because it uses no moving components.

Fourier-transform method of fringe-pattern analysis for computer-based topography and interferometry

http://academic.oup.com/milmed/article-pdf/146/7/506/24126715/milmed-146-7-506.pdf

Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics

Here we conducted a large-scale genetic association analysis of educational attainment in a sample of approximately 1.1 million individuals and identify 1,271 independent genome-wide-significant SNPs. For the SNPs taken together, we found evidence of heterogeneous effects across environments. The SNPs implicate genes involved in brain-development processes and neuron-to-neuron communication. In a separate analysis of the X chromosome, we identify 10 independent genome-wide-significant SNPs and estimate a SNP heritability of around 0.3% in both men and women, consistent with partial dosage compensation. A joint (multi-phenotype) analysis of educational attainment and three related cognitive phenotypes generates polygenic scores that explain 11-13% of the variance in educational attainment and 7-10% of the variance in cognitive performance. This prediction accuracy substantially increases the utility of polygenic scores as tools in research.

/pdf/gene-discovery-and-polygenic-prediction-from-a-genome-wide-28jxdgwqo5.pdf

Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals

Muller glial cells span the entire thickness of the tissue, and ensheath all retinal neurons, in vertebrate retinae of all species. This morphological relationship is reflected by a multitude of functional interactions between neurons and Muller cells, including a 'metabolic symbiosis' and the processing of visual information. Muller cells are also responsible for the maintenance of the homeostasis of the retinal extracellular milieu (ions, water, neurotransmitter molecules, and pH). In vascularized retinae, Muller cells may also be involved in the control of angiogenesis, and the regulation of retinal blood flow. Virtually every disease of the retina is associated with a reactive Muller cell gliosis which, on the one hand, supports the survival of retinal neurons but, on the other hand, may accelerate the progress of neuronal degeneration: Muller cells protect neurons via a release of neurotrophic factors, the uptake and degradation of the excitotoxin, glutamate, and the secretion of the antioxidant, glutathione. However, gliotic Muller cells display a dysregulation of various neuron-supportive functions. This contributes to a disturbance of retinal glutamate metabolism and ion homeostasis, and causes the development of retinal edema and neuronal cell death. Moreover, there are diseases evoking a primary Muller cell insufficiency, such as hepatic retinopathy and certain forms of glaucoma. Any impairment of supportive functions of Muller cells, primary or secondary, must cause and/or aggravate a dysfunction and loss of neurons, by increasing the susceptibility of neurons to stressful stimuli in the diseased retina. On the contrary, Muller cells may be used in the future for novel therapeutic strategies to protect neurons against apoptosis (somatic gene therapy), or to differentiate retinal neurons from Muller/stem cells. Meanwhile, a proper understanding of the gliotic responses of Muller cells in the diseased retina, and of their protective vs. detrimental effects, is essential for the development of efficient therapeutic strategies that use and stimulate the neuron-supportive/protective-and prevent the destructive-mechanisms of gliosis.

https://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/productFlyer/productFlyer_978-1-4419-1671-6.pdf?SGWID=0-0-1297-173938007-0

Müller Cells in the Healthy and Diseased Retina

Sound evokes sub-nanoscale vibration within the sensory epithelium The epithelium contains not only immotile cells but also contractile outer hair cells (OHCs) that actively shrink and elongate synchronously with the sound However, the in vivo motion of OHCs has remained undetermined The aim of this work is to perform high-resolution and -accuracy vibrometry in live guinea pigs with an SC-introduced spectral-domain optical coherence tomography system (SD-OCT) In this study, to reveal the effective contribution of SC source in the recording of the low reflective materials with the short total acquisition time, we compare the performances of the SC-introduced SD-OCT (SCSD-OCT) to that of the conventional SD-OCT As inanimate comparison objects, we record a mirror, a piezo actuator, and glass windows For the measurements in biological materials, we use in/ex vivo guinea pig cochleae Our study achieved the optimization of a SD-OCT system for high-resolution in vivo vibrometry in the cochlear sensory epithelium, termed the organ of Corti, in mammalian cochlea By introducing a supercontinuum (SC) light source and reducing the total acquisition time, we improve the axial resolution and overcome the difficulty in recording the low reflective material in the presence of biological noise The high power of the SC source enables the system to achieve a spatial resolution of 172 ± 000 μm on a mirror and reducing the total acquisition time contributes to the high spatial accuracy of sub-nanoscale vibrometry Our findings reveal the vibrations at the apical/basal region of OHCs and the extracellular matrix, basilar membrane

/pdf/optimization-of-spectral-domain-optical-coherence-tomography-34qib023fh.pdf

Optimization of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with a supercontinuum source for in vivo motion detection of low reflective outer hair cells in guinea pig cochleae

117 Expression and clustered distribution of an inwardly rectifying K+ channels, KAB-2/Kir4.1 or retinal Muller cell

KAB-2 (Kir4.1) which is essential for endocochlear potential of inner ear, is not expressed In stria vascularis of deaf mutant WV/WV mice

We propose a rapid tomographic vibrometer technique using an optical comb to measure internal vibrations, transient phenomena, and tomographic distributions in biological tissue and microelectromechanical system devices at high frequencies. This method allows phase-sensitive tomographic measurement in the depth direction at a multi-MHz scan rate using a frequency-modulated broadband electrooptic multi-GHz supercontinuum comb. The frequency spacing was swept instantaneously in time and axisymmetrically about the center wavelength via a dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator driven by a variable radio frequency signal. This unique sweeping method permits direct measurement of fringe-free interferometric amplitude and phase with arbitrarily changeable measurement range and scan rate. Therefore, a compressive measurement can be made in only the depth region where the vibration exists, reducing the number of measurement points. In a proof-of-principle experiment, the interferometric amplitude and phase were investigated for in-phase and quadrature phase-shifted interferograms obtained by a polarization demodulator. Tomographic transient displacement measurements were performed using a 0.12 mm thick glass film and piezo-electric transducer oscillating at 10–100 kHz with scan rates in the range 1–20 MHz. The depth resolution and precision of the vibrometer were estimated to be approximately 25 µm and 1.0 nm, respectively.

Rapid optical tomographic vibrometry using a swept multi-gigahertz comb.

Multifrequency swept optical coherence microscope with a supercontinuum was developed for in-vivo intracochlear vibration measurement of a guinea pig. 3D volumetric and enface vibration imaging were successfully conducted with a depth resolution of 2.7 μm. The sensibility of the vibration amplitude was estimated to be ~1.1 nm for 25 kHz sound stimulation.

Hiroshi Hibino

Papers

Optimization of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with a supercontinuum source for in vivo motion detection of low reflective outer hair cells in guinea pig cochleae

117 Expression and clustered distribution of an inwardly rectifying K+ channels, KAB-2/Kir4.1 or retinal Muller cell

KAB-2 (Kir4.1) which is essential for endocochlear potential of inner ear, is not expressed In stria vascularis of deaf mutant WV/WV mice

Rapid optical tomographic vibrometry using a swept multi-gigahertz comb.

Intracochlear vibration measurement using supercontinuum multifrequency-swept optical coherence microscope