The urocortin 1 (UCN1)-expressing centrally projecting Edinger-Westphal (EWcp) nucleus is influenced by circadian rhythms, hormones, stress, and pain, all known migraine triggers. Our study investigated EWcp's potential involvement in migraine. Using RNAscope in situ hybridization and immunostaining, we examined the expression of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor components in both mouse and human EWcp and dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychiatr Hung
April 2025
In late April 2024, we visited the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) with our psychiatry residency class in Klecany, near Prague, the Czech Republic. There is no similar institution in Hungary, so it was worthwhile to learn not only about the research being conducted there, but also how the successful integration of preclinical and clinical research, patient care, and education is achieved in a psychiatric institute. In this article, we briefly describe the history and professional profile of the institute, its capacities, and the work of the research groups and departments that were presented to us during our visit: the Ward of Sleep Disorders, the Psychedelic Research Centre and the Center for Virtual Reality Research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mental health-related stigma occurs among the public and professionals alike. The lived experience of mental illness has been linked to less stigmatising attitudes. However, data on psychiatrists and the relationship between stigmatising attitudes and psychotherapeutic activity or case discussion groups remains scarce.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To measure the stigma of healthcare providers toward people suffering from mental illness, the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) is a commonly applied instrument. However, this scale has not been thoroughly validated in many European countries, its psychometric properties are still unknown and data on practicing psychiatrists is lacking. Therefore, this multicenter study aimed to assess the psychometric characteristics of the 15-item OMS-HC in trainees and specialists in adult and child psychiatry in 32 countries across Europe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMotor disturbances are observed in schizophrenia patients, but the neuroanatomical background is unknown. Our aim was to investigate the pyramidal cells of the primary motor cortex (BA 4) in both hemispheres of postmortem control and schizophrenia subjects-8 subjects in each group-with 2.5-5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAgeing is driven by the progressive, lifelong accumulation of cellular damage. Autophagy (cellular self-eating) functions as a major cell clearance mechanism to degrade such damages, and its capacity declines with age. Despite its physiological and medical significance, it remains largely unknown why autophagy becomes incapable of effectively eliminating harmful cellular materials in many cells at advanced ages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman prefrontal cortex (hPFC) is a complex brain region involved in cognitive and emotional processes and several psychiatric disorders. Here, we present an overview of the distribution of the peptidergic systems in 17 subregions of hPFC and three reference cortices obtained by microdissection and based on RNA sequencing and RNAscope methods integrated with published single-cell transcriptomics data. We detected expression of 60 neuropeptides and 60 neuropeptide receptors in at least one of the hPFC subregions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Stigma towards people with mental health problems is a growing issue across the world, to which healthcare providers might contribute. The aim of the present study was to explore psychiatrists' attitudes towards their patients and link them to psychosocial and professional factors.
Methods: An online questionnaire was used to approach the in- and outpatient psychiatric services across Hungary.
Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is one of the most common causes of drug-resistant epilepsy. As several studies have revealed, the abnormal functioning of the perisomatic inhibitory system may play a role in the onset of seizures. Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether changes of perisomatic inhibitory inputs are present in FCD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBetz cells-the gigantopyramidal neurons found in high amount in the primary motor cortex-are among of the most characteristic neuronal cells. A part of them contains the calcium-binding protein parvalbumin (PV) in primates. However, less is known about these cells in the human motor cortex despite their important role in different neurological disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) is a widely used questionnaire to measure the stigmatising attitudes of healthcare providers towards patients with mental health problems. The psychometric properties of the scale; however, have never been investigated in Hungary. We aimed to thoroughly explore the factor structure of the OMS-HC and examine the key psychometric properties of the Hungarian version.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Neuropathol
December 2018
Growing evidence gathered from transgenic animal models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) indicates that the intraneuronal accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides is an early event in the AD pathogenesis, producing cognitive deficits before the deposition of insoluble plaques. Levels of soluble Aβ are also a strong indicator of synaptic deficits and concurrent AD neuropathologies in post-mortem AD brain; however, it remains poorly understood how this soluble amyloid pool builds within the brain in the decades leading up to diagnosis, when a patient is likely most amenable to early therapeutic interventions. Indeed, characterizing early intracellular Aβ accumulation in humans has been hampered by the lack of Aβ-specific antibodies, variability in the quality of available human brain tissue and the limitations of conventional microscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent data from absence epileptic patients and animal models provide evidence for significant impairments of attention, memory, and psychosocial functioning. Here, we outline aspects of the electrophysiological and structural background of these dysfunctions by investigating changes in hippocampal and cortical GABAergic inhibitory interneurons in two genetically absence epileptic rat strains: the Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg (GAERS) and the Wistar Albino Glaxo/Rijswijk (WAG/Rij) rats. Using simultaneously recorded field potentials from the primary somatosensory cortex (S1 cortex, seizure focus) and the hippocampal hilus, we demonstrated that typical frequencies of spike-wave discharges (SWDs; 7-8 Hz, GAERS; 7-9 Hz, WAG/Rij) and their harmonics appeared and their EEG spectral power markedly increased on recordings not only from the S1 cortex, but also from the hilus in both GAERS and WAG/Rij rats during SWDs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
June 2018
C1q, a member of the immune complement cascade, is implicated in the selective pruning of synapses by microglial phagocytosis. C1q-mediated synapse elimination has been shown to occur during brain development, while increased activation and complement-dependent synapse loss is observed in neurodegenerative diseases. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying C1q-controlled synaptic pruning are mostly unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rodent ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNC) contain dopamine neurons intermixed with glutamate neurons (expressing vesicular glutamate transporter 2; VGluT2), which play roles in reward and aversion. However, identifying the neuronal compositions of the VTA and SNC in higher mammals has remained challenging. Here, we revealed VGluT2 neurons within the VTA and SNC of nonhuman primates and humans by simultaneous detection of VGluT2 mRNA and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH; for identification of dopamine neurons).
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