Laboratory Investigation (2010) 90, 1152-1168; doi:10.1038/labinvest.2010.91; published online 17 May 2010″
“Increasing evidence suggests that working memory and perceptual processes are dynamically interrelated due to modulating activity in overlapping brain networks. However, the direct influence of working memory on the spatio-temporal brain dynamics of behaviorally relevant intervening information remains unclear. To investigate this issue, subjects performed a visual proximity grid perception task under three different visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) load conditions. Sapitinib purchase VSWM load was manipulated by asking subjects to memorize the spatial locations of 6 or 3 disks. The grid was always presented

between the encoding and recognition of the disk pattern. As a baseline condition, grid stimuli were presented without a VSWM context. VSWM load altered both perceptual performance and neural networks active during intervening grid encoding. Participants performed faster and more accurately on a challenging perceptual task under high VSWM load as compared to the low load and the baseline condition. Visual evoked potential (VEP) analyses identified changes in the configuration of the underlying sources in one particular period occurring 160-190 ms post-stimulus onset. Source analyses further showed an occipitoparietal down-regulation concurrent

to the increased involvement of temporal and frontal resources in the high VSWM context. click here Together, these data suggest that cognitive control mechanisms supporting working memory may selectively enhance concurrent visual processing related to an independent goal. More broadly, our findings are in line with theoretical models implicating the engagement of frontal regions in synchronizing

and optimizing mnemonic and perceptual resources towards multiple goals. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Inflammatory processes have PRT062607 cost an important role in the development of hepatic steatosis and progression to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is known to be a proinflammatory cytokine, but also promotes liver regeneration and protects the liver against various forms of damage. The role of IL-6/Glycoprotein130 (GP130) in NASH remains unclear. In this study, we determined whether blocking IL-6/GP130 signaling prevents progression of steatohepatitis in a mouse NASH model. Six-week-old male C57/BL6 mice were fed either chow control or a methionine choline-deficient (MCD) diet for 8 weeks. Half of the MCD diet-fed mice were treated with 15 mg/kg rat anti-mouse IL-6 receptor antibody (MR16-1), intraperitoneally twice weekly, the remainder and chow-fed mice were injected with 15 mg/kg rat IgG as a control. Hepatic steatosis, injury, fibrosis, apoptosis, markers of lipid peroxidation/oxidant stress and IL-6-related gene expressions were evaluated.