A molecule for proper neural wiring in the cerebellum

Proper neural wiring sounds incredibly important to stroke recovery. But only to survivors, I bet absolutely nothing will be done with this. Our fucking failures of stroke associations won't lift a finger, neither will your doctor or stroke hospital. 

A molecule for proper neural wiring in the cerebellum

A molecule produced by insulating glial cells facilitates the functional wiring of brain cells involved in motor coordination.
Researchers at Hokkaido University have found that the molecule “L-gutamate/L-aspartate transporter” (GLAST) plays an essential role in establishing and maintaining proper neural wiring of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum.
Purkinje cells are among the largest nerve cells in the brain. They are present in the cerebellum, a small structure in the back of the brain influencing motor coordination. They are mainly hooked up to the nervous system by means of two distinct types of nerve fibers, “parallel fibers” and “climbing fibers.” Those fibers connect to different part of Purkinje cell dendrites, or the branches projecting from the cell body, segregating their territories.
GLAST is a molecule produced by specialized insulating cells, called Bergmann glia, that wrap around Purkinje cell synapses (a synapse is the structure connecting one nerve cell to another). GLAST’s role is to remove excess glutamate, a neurotransmitter used by parallel and climbing fibers to send signals to Purkinje cells. This facilitates a “high-fidelity” signal, by allowing the right amount of glutamate to reach the targeted nerve cell without spilling over onto its neighbors. However, little is known about GLAST’s role in the development of neural circuits.
Professor Masahiko Watanabe of Hokkaido University and his colleagues in Japan compared the wiring of Purkinje cells in normal mice and mutant mice lacking GLAST. The wiring of Purkinje cells in the mutant mice was laden with abnormalities.
Each Purkinje cell is normally innervated by a single climbing fiber as a result of competition between the fibers during development. However, in the mutant mice, Purkinje cells were innervated by multiple climbing fibers, which apparently caused the Purkinje cells to be atypically excited.
Parallel fibers were also affected. They robustly increased the number of connections with Purkinje cells, impairing the territorial segregation between climbing fibers and parallel fibers. Furthermore, in the knockout mice, Bergmann glial cells were improperly wrapped around the Purkinje cells, exposing them to the external environment.
In a different experiment, they also found that functional blockade of GLAST in normal adult mice results in similar abnormalities as seen in the knockout mice.
“We have shown that the glutamate transporter, GLAST, plays important roles in establishing and maintaining proper nerve wiring and insulation in the cerebellum. Further investigation should reveal how GLAST’s function is related to the plasticity of the neural network,” says Masahiko Watanabe.
https://www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/blog/a-molecule-for-proper-neural-wiring-in-the-cerebellum/

Attached files

• In the normal mice (left panel), connections between Purkinje cells (asterisks) and climbing fibers or parallel fibers are thoroughly wrapped by Bergmann glia (colored in red), whereas they are exposed to their neighbors in the knockout mice lacking GLAST (right panel, arrowheads).
  

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• Full bibliographic informationMiyazaki T. et al., Glutamate transporter GLAST controls synaptic wrapping by Bergmann glia and ensures proper wiring of Purkinje cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, June 27, 2017.
  DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1617330114

Interactive website helps to reduce dizziness

Would this help those cerebellum strokes that have dizziness as a result? Not to be done without your doctors prescription. 

Interactive website helps to reduce dizziness

05 May 2017 Southampton, University of

• Under embargo until 08 May 2017 21:00 GMT

An interactive website developed by health psychology and primary care researchers at the University of Southampton has been shown to reduce dizziness amongst adults aged 50 and above.

Results of a study into the effectiveness of the new Balance Retraining site show patients had significantly lower levels of dizziness symptoms after three and six months than those accessing standard care from their GP. After three months, 40 percent of people using the site reported that they felt 'much better' or 'completely well' - twice as many as in the GP care group.

Dizziness affects nearly one in three people aged over 65 in the UK and is often caused by problems with the vestibular (balance) organ in the inner ear. Patients with 'vestibular dizziness', such as those examined in this study, can suffer severe symptoms, triggered by simple everyday movements like turning over in bed, or looking left and right to cross the road. These symptoms are very disruptive - leading to falls, anxiety, depression and loss of independence.

The recommended treatment is a simple exercise-based therapy called vestibular rehabilitation, which involves nodding and shaking the head. Previous research has shown that patients using this therapy are nearly three times more likely to reduce their dizziness than those who don't. However, very few people who report dizziness to their doctor are referred for this type of treatment, so there is a real need to improve access.

Researchers at the University of Southampton developed Balance Retraining to address this problem and help people with dizziness to carry out vestibular rehabilitation exercises via the Web - using video demonstrations, instructions and personalised feedback and advice.

Lucy Yardley, Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Southampton, says: "Balance Retraining has been designed to be very straightforward to use and provides individuals with information and instruction about techniques they can use to reduce their dizziness. The vestibular rehabilitation exercises are very quick and easy to carry out, and work by encouraging the body's balance system to re-adjust to the movements that trigger dizziness symptoms."

The Balance Retraining study included 296 patients with vestibular-related dizziness. These patients were randomly assigned to either have immediate access to the website, or to continue with usual care from their GP. The complete findings are published in the journal Annals of Family Medicine.

Dr Adam Geraghty, a research psychologist at the University of Southampton added: "Users were very positive about their experiences. They found it easy to use, visually appealing and encouraging. Overall, the results show that Balance Retraining is an effective and appealing method of delivering vestibular rehabilitation to those who need it. They also add to existing evidence that this is a safe and effective means of treating vestibular-related dizziness."

Professor Paul Little, a GP and Professor of Primary Care Research at the University of Southampton said: "Dizziness is both common and disabling and most sufferers don't get access to effective treatment. The Balance Retraining intervention has huge potential to provide effective and easily accessible treatment for a really under-served patient group in primary care."

Balance Retraining is now available for the public to use free of charge and can be visited at: https://balance.lifeguidehealth.org. Alternatively, it can be accessed via The Meniere's Society website http://www.menieres.org..uk/information-and-support/treatment-and-management/vestibular-rehabilitation, or the Vestibular Disorders Association's website http://vestibular.org/diagnosis_treatment.
https://balance.lifeguidehealth.org

Study provides new insight into cerebellum's role in motor learning process

Your doctor should be able to use this to create a protocol for relearning your movements. But I bet s/he does absolutely nothing with this because they are waiting for SOMEONE ELSE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20170330/Study-provides-new-insight-into-cerebellums-role-in-motor-learning-process.aspx

• Download PDF Copy

March 30, 2017 at 9:35 PM

The human brain's cerebellum controls the body's ability to tightly and accurately coordinate and time movements as fine as picking up a pin and as muscular as running a foot race. Now, Johns Hopkins researchers have added to evidence that this structure also helps transfer so-called motor learning from one part of the body to another.
One implication of the research, the Johns Hopkins investigators say, is that practicing a newly learned task involving the hands can also improve a person's ability to do the same task with the foot, and vice versa.
"Our study gives us new insight into the cerebellum's role in the learning process, information that maybe someday we can use to enhance the learning transfer between limbs so that we can rehabilitate patients who have lost function in hands, feet, arms or legs," says Pablo Celnik, M.D., director of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The study, described in The Journal of Neuroscience on March 1, was primarily designed to demonstrate the value of a brain stimulation technique called cerebellar inhibition that can be used to investigate how connections in the brain change as people learn new motor skills.
For the study, investigators recruited 32 healthy subjects with an average age of 23.9. The subjects were asked to learn to play a computer-based game in which they needed to move a cursor from a starting point to a target. However, the researchers adjusted the movement of the cursor so that it moved at a 30-degree angle from the position of the mouse, forcing the subjects to adapt their movements to reach the target with the cursor.
Each subject learned the new task either with the hand or the foot. During this process, the researchers used magnetic stimulation to measure activity in two areas of the brain, the motor cortex and the cerebellum. The electrical brain activity between these areas was used to calculate the degree of connectivity between them.
In one part of the experiment, Celnik's team tested to see if learning a new task incited change in the connection between the motor cortex and the cerebellum. Twenty subjects trained at the task with their right hand. After measuring the subjects' baseline performance, the researchers switched to the angle-adjusted mouse, and the subjects completed 144 more trials. The measurements from these subjects showed that the connectivity between the cerebellum and the motor cortex changed not just for the areas of the motor cortex that controlled the right hand, but also in the areas known to control the right foot.

The researchers then explored whether this change in activity resulted in an actual transfer of skills from the hand to the foot. Ten patients completed 48 training trials with the angle-adjusted cursor using their right foot, followed by similar test trials for the right hand.
"Without first training the right hand, the subjects' ability to complete the task improved from the baseline measurements, showing that the learning transferred from the foot," Celnik says.
In a third part of the experiment, the researchers investigated whether the brain changes were exclusive to learning a new task. Instead of having the subjects train using the adjusted mouse, they instructed subjects to perform a task they already knew, like lifting a finger. Researchers measured the connectivity between the motor cortex and the cerebellum and found that unlike learning a new task, the activity between the motor cortex and the cerebellum did not change when executing a familiar task.
"This shows us there is something special about learning something new that changes how areas of the brain interact that does not happen when we do a movement we already knew how to do," says Danny Spampinato, a biomedical engineering graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
In the future, the researchers say they hope to use the same cerebellar measurements to get a better understanding of this brain area's role in executing everyday tasks useful to those undergoing rehabilitation after injury or stroke, for example.

Source:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/getting_a_leg_up_hand_task_training_transfers_motor_knowledge_to_feet

New Research Says Cerebellum Contributes to Creativity

What is your doctor doing to make sure your cerebellum damage is alleviated via an efficacious stroke protocol? ANYTHING AT ALL?
http://www.visualnews.com/2015/08/18/new-research-says-cerebellum-contributes-to-creativity/
by Katy French
Whether it’s electrical stimulation of the brain, taking a walk, or doing something boring, scientists are constantly looking for ways to help us be more creative. Neuroscientists are particularly interested in which areas of the brain contribute to or control creativity, and new research is giving us a little more insight. A new study by Stanford’s School of Medicine and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design has found an unexpected link between creativity and the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls movement.  

TImg: Wiki Commons

This part of the brain has never been recognized as contributing to the creative process, but it turns out that it does play a part. For the study, researchers devised a method to test creativity—without explicitly telling participants that they were supposed to be creative—and monitored brainwave activity to identify what areas of the brain were being activated.

Participants were given two tasks: Visually depict certain words (a la Pictionary), such as “vote” or “salute,” and draw a zigzag line (a task that requires motor skills but not much creativity). While they performed the tasks, participants’ brains were monitored via MRI scans. Once the drawings were completed, participants were asked to rate how difficult the words they were given to draw were (to give researchers a sense of perceived difficulty). After the experiment, researchers analyzed and rated the drawings for creativity according to specific criteria, including accuracy of depiction, number of elements in the drawing, how elaborate or original the drawing was, etc.

What they found was surprising. Participants’ responses tracked with brainwave activity, meaning those who perceived a word to be more difficult exhibited higher activity in the left prefrontal cortex, an executive-function center responsible for attention and evaluation. But those who had produced more creative drawings exhibited low activity in the same center. The cerebellum was also particularly active for participants whose drawings were more creative—surprising as it has generally been thought to be responsible only for motor movement. In short, just drawing the zigzag lines didn’t produce nearly as much brain activity as the creative drawings did. Even more interestingly, more activity in certain areas signified a decrease in creativity.

“We found that activation of the brain’s executive-control centers — the parts of the brain that enable you to plan, organize and manage your activities — is negatively associated with creative task performance,” says Allan Reiss, MD, professor of radiology and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

“As our study also shows, sometimes a deliberate attempt to be creative may not be the best way to optimize your creativity,” Reiss says. “While greater effort to produce creative outcomes involves more activity of executive-control regions, you actually may have to reduce activity in those regions in order to achieve creative outcomes.”
What does that really mean? If you want to be more creative, don’t think so hard.
We’re down with that.

‘O’ blood type is associated with larger grey-matter volumes in the cerebellum

I'm sure there is no one in the world that I can ask whether my blood type of O negative is enough to offset my 33% dementia chance post-stroke from an Australian study.
This is what is so bad with stroke knowledge today, there is no one in the world any survivor can ask ANY SIMPLE QUESTION and expect any answer other than the f*ckingly stupid response of
'All strokes are different, all stroke recoveries are different' .
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361923015000805

• Matteo De Marco^a,
• Annalena Venneri^{a, b, ,}

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Highlights

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‘O’ blood type adults have increased volumes in the posterior cerebellum.

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‘O’ blood type might be protective against dementia.

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Biological explanations include possible fostering of endothelial dysfunction.

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Abstract

Recent evidence indicated higher incidence of cognitive deficits in ABO blood-type system ‘AB’ individuals. Since this statistical difference might originate from the lack of protective effects exerted by ‘O’ alleles on the brain via vascular or non-vascular routes, this study investigated volumetric differences in grey matter between ‘O’ and non-‘O’ adults to explore the possibility of a structural endophenotype visible in ‘O’ adults without cognitive impairment or neurodegeneration.

A large sample of cognitively healthy adults who had previously undergone structural MRI for research purposes were contacted telephonically and enquired about their ABO blood type. Out of the 189 individuals who were able to retrieve and communicate this information, ‘O’ (n = 76) and ‘A’ adults (n = 65) were included in Model 1. In Model 2, all non-‘O’ (n = 113) were instead collapsed in a single group. Voxel-Based Morphometry analyses were carried out on three-dimensional T1-weighted scans, and between-sample t tests were run to compare the maps of grey-matter volumes of the subgroups of interest, controlling for major nuisance variables.

In Model 1, ‘O’ adults had larger grey-matter volumes in two symmetrical clusters within the posterior ventral portion of the cerebellum. This was confirmed in Model 2. Additionally, non-‘O’ adults showed lower volume values in temporal and limbic regions, including the left hippocampus.

The cerebellar clusters were located in regions previously found to be part of a network responsible for sensorimotor integration. It is speculated that the structural reductions seen in non-‘O’ adults might result in a susceptibility to down-regulation of this network. This occurrence is likely to intensify along the ageing process and may contribute to foster cognitive decline. Although Model 2 seems to suggest that having a ‘O’ blood type might play a role in protection against those conditions in which temporal and mediotemporal volumetric loss is observed (Alzheimer's disease), additional supporting evidence is needed.

A number of potential biological processes might sustain these between-group differences, including sensorimotor ontogenesis, hormonal function, and a regional impact of cerebral amyloid angiopathy. These findings identify the cerebellar tissue as a candidate for further studying ABO function, and support a general association between ABO blood type and variance in the development of the nervous system.

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Graphical abstract

Creativity Tied to Cerebellum for First Time

For you cerebellar strokes out there your doctor will need to come up with a stroke protocol to fix your creativity.
http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/articles/2015/05/creativity-tied-cerebellum-first-time?

A Man's Incomplete Brain Reveals Cerebellum's Role In Thought And Emotion

More proof those of us with dead areas can function pretty well.

Earlier here:

Woman in her twenties discovers that she was born without a cerebellum

A Man's Incomplete Brain Reveals Cerebellum's Role In Thought And Emotion

Amy writing about her problems with a cerebellum stroke here:

Cerebellum

Why you can live a normal life with half a brain

An entertaining blog post. Why can't you just live with the damage you have?
http://mindhacks.com/2014/12/29/why-you-can-live-a-normal-life-with-half-a-brain/

Woman in her twenties discovers that she was born without a cerebellum

Don't be surprised if your insurance informs you that your cerebullar stroke doesn't need any paid for therapy. After all this woman functions quite well without one.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/11/6137241/woman-in-her-twenties-discovers-that-she-was-born-without-a-cerebellum

Researchers Find Gene Critical for Development of Brain Motor Center

Well this is so simple, you follow this research to its natural conclusion. How can we use this to redevelop dead and damaged brains from stroke?
http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2014/06/researchers-find-gene-critical-development-brain-motor-center?
In a report published in Nature Communications, an Ottawa-led team of researchers describe the role of a specific gene, called Snf2h, in the development of the cerebellum. Snf2h is required for the proper development of a healthy cerebellum, a master control centre in the brain for balance, fine motor control and complex physical movements.
Athletes and artists perform their extraordinary feats relying on the cerebellum. As well, the cerebellum is critical for the everyday tasks and activities that we perform, such as walking, eating and driving a car. By removing Snf2h, researchers found that the cerebellum was smaller than normal, and balance and refined movements were compromised.
Led by Dr. David Picketts, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, the team describes the Snf2h gene, which is found in our brain's neural stem cells and functions as a master regulator. When they removed this gene early on in a mouse's development, its cerebellum only grew to one-third the normal size. It also had difficulty walking, balancing and coordinating its movements, something called cerebellar ataxia that is a component of many neurodegenerative diseases.
"As these cerebellar stem cells divide, on their journey toward becoming specialized neurons, this master gene is responsible for deciding which genes are turned on and which genes are packed tightly away," said Dr. Picketts. "Without Snf2h there to keep things organized, genes that should be packed away are left turned on, while other genes are not properly activated. This disorganization within the cell’s nucleus results in a neuron that doesn't perform very well—like a car running on five cylinders instead of six."
The cerebellum contains roughly half the neurons found in the brain. It also develops in response to external stimuli. So, as we practice tasks, certain genes or groups of genes are turned on and off, which strengthens these circuits and helps to stabilize or perfect the task being undertaken. The researchers found that the Snf2h gene orchestrates this complex and ongoing process. These master genes, which adapt to external cues to adjust the genes they turn on and off, are known as epigenetic regulators.
"These epigenetic regulators are known to affect memory, behaviour and learning," said Dr. Picketts. "Without Snf2h, not enough cerebellar neurons are produced, and the ones that are produced do not respond and adapt as well to external signals. They also show a progressively disorganized gene expression profile that results in cerebellar ataxia and the premature death of the animal."
There are no studies showing a direct link between Snf2h mutations and diseases with cerebellar ataxia, but Dr. Picketts added that it "is certainly possible and an interesting avenue to explore."
In 2012, Developmental Cell published a paper by Dr. Picketts' team showing that mice lacking the sister gene Snf2l were completely normal, but had larger brains, more cells in all areas of the brain and more actively dividing brain stem cells. The balance between Snf2l and Snf2h gene activity is necessary for controlling brain size and for establishing the proper gene expression profiles that underlie the function of neurons in different regions, including the cerebellum.
This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Don’t forget the cerebellum

From Janet Kwasniak's Neuro-patch blog on consciousness.
See if your doctor has stroke protocols that cover recovery of all the functions that the cerebellum does.
It does coordination, timing, accuracy, smoothness, balance.
It appears to also deal in cognition, attention, learning and emotion. 
Does your doctor have ANY stroke recovery protocols?
http://dyslectern.info/2014/04/11/dont-forget-the-cerebellum/

Motor learning: Lining up our sights

Something for our cerebellar dysfunction patients that I'm sure your doctor knows nothing about.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=140312&CultureCode=en

Ballet dancers' brains 'adapt to spins'

And if dancers can do this neuroplastically your doctor needs to start a clinical trial for all the cerebellum stroke survivors who experience dizziness and figure out how to stop their dizziness. But that won't occur, give it to your great stroke association to figure out.
BBC article here;

Ballet dancers' brains 'adapt to spins'
The Neurologica blog writing about it here;
Why Isn’t the Spinning Dancer Dizzy?

The abstract and article this is based on is here: 
The Neuroanatomical Correlates of Training-Related Perceptuo-Reflex Uncoupling in Dancers

The Esoteric Significance of the Cerebellum I

What a collection of something or other.
From the online campus of humanity healing university supporting the like-minded souls of the New Conscious Planetary Culture
Just think of what you've lost if you had a stroke here.
http://humanityhealing.net/2013/07/the-esoteric-significance-of-the-cerebellum-i/
You'll have to read it there, cost was going to be $19.95 for less than 95 words.
I had to laugh at the no recollection of astral experiences.
Read page 2, its priceless.
Amy, did you lose your astral experiences?
This would be so easily proveable one way or the other, there are probably hundreds of thousands cerebullar strokes in the US. Just ask them.

Noninvasive brain stimulation shown to impact walking patterns

I wonder if this corrects the spastic leg muscles?
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-noninvasive-brain-shown-impact-patterns.html
Previous studies in the lab of Amy Bastian, PhD, PT, director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Kennedy Krieger Institute, have shown that the cerebellum, a part of the brain involved in movement coordination, is essential for walking adaptation. In this new study, Dr. Bastian and her colleagues explored the impact of stimulation over the cerebellum on adaptive learning of a new walking pattern. Specifically, her team tested how anode (positive), cathode (negative) or sham (none) stimulation affected this learning process.
"We've known that the cerebellum is essential to adaptive learning mechanisms like reaching, walking, balance and eye movements," says Dr. Bastian. "In this study, we wanted to examine the effects of direct stimulation of the cerebellum on locomotor learning utilizing a split-belt treadmill that separately controls the legs."
The study, published today in the Journal of Neurophysiology, found that by placing electrodes on the scalp over the cerebellum and applying very low levels of current, the rate of walking adaptation could be increased or decreased. Dr. Bastian's team studied 53 healthy adults in a series of split-belt treadmill walking tests. Rather than a single belt, a split-belt treadmill consists of two belts that can move at different speeds. During split-belt walking, one leg is set to move faster than the other. This initially disrupts coordination between the legs so the user is not walking symmetrically, however over time the user learns to adapt to the disturbance.
The main experiment consisted of a two-minute baseline period of walking with both belts at the same slow speed, followed by a 15-minute period with the belts at two separate speeds. While people were on the treadmill, researchers stimulated one side of the cerebellum to assess the impact on the rate of re-adjustment to a symmetric walking pattern.
Dr. Bastian's team found not only that cerebellar tDCS can change the rate of cerebellum-dependent locomotor learning, but specifically that the anode speeds up learning and the cathode slows it down. It was also surprising that the side of the cerebellum that was stimulated mattered; only stimulation of the side that controls the leg walking on the faster treadmill belt changed adaptation rate.
"It is important to demonstrate that we can make learning faster or slower, as it suggests that we are not merely interfering with brain function," says Dr. Bastian. "Our findings also suggest that tDCS can be selectively used to assess and understand motor learning."
The results from this study present an exciting opportunity to test cerebellar tDCS as a rehabilitation tool. Dr. Bastian says, "If anodal tDCS prompts faster learning, this may help reduce the amount of time needed for stroke patients to relearn to walk evenly. It may also be possible to use tDCS to help sustain gains made in therapy, so patients can retain and practice improved walking patterns for a longer period of time. We are currently testing these ideas in individuals who have had a stroke."