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Response to dangerous animals in Europe and Africa - attention and emotions
Štolhoferová, Iveta ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee) ; Burda, Hynek (referee)
The focus of this thesis on the emotions elicited by certain animals and the attentional bias towards these animals in two completely different human populations - the Czech Republic and the Republic of Somaliland. Animals have long been at the center of human interest, yet our knowledge of what emotions animals evoke is surprisingly incomplete, especially outside of the so-called WEIRD societies. We found that snakes, scorpions, and large carnivores elicited the greatest fear in Somalis. Among Czechs, however, spiders were also among the most feared animals. Both populations were the least afraid of beetles and grasshoppers. Spontaneous attentional bias during free viewing of two simultaneously presented images reflected both this cross-cultural difference and agreement. When a scorpion and a spider were presented together, the Somalis looked significantly more at the scorpion, but the Czechs distributed their attention more evenly between the two animals, although a slight bias in favor of the scorpion was apparent. In contrast, when the grasshopper was presented with a spider or a scorpion, both Czechs and Somalis looked much less at the grasshopper. In the case of snakes, a stimulus highly feared by both Somalis and Czechs, we focused on the effect of the threatening posture on the spontaneous...
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Cognitive and behavioral alterations in neurodevelopmental and pharmacological animal models of schizophrenia
Malenínská, Kristýna ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Blahna, Karel (referee) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
Establishing reliable animal models of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia is essential to better understand the neurobiological, behavioural and genetic basis of the disorder and to develop new drugs with greater therapeutic efficacy. These models allow the study of different aspects of schizophrenia, including positive, negative and cognitive symptoms similar to schizophrenia. All available animal models of schizophrenia can be divided into four different categories of induction: developmental, pharmacological, genetic and lesion-induced. However, none of these models perfectly replicates all aspects of schizophrenia in humans, and it is therefore necessary to precisely define the influence of each manipulation. This thesis focuses on the study of pharmacological and developmental animal models of schizophrenia, with an emphasis on examining the cognitive and behavioral changes associated with the disorder. Specifically, we investigated the pharmacological induction of schizophrenia- like symptoms by acute administration of MK-801, developmental models of two interventions combining the maternal immune response following poly(I:C) administration and subsequent stress of offspring in adolescence, and repeated prenatal and neonatal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In the...
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One-trial association task as a basic biological model of episodic memory in rats
Radostová, Dominika ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Horáček, Jiří (referee) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
One-trial association task as a basic biological model of episodic memory in rats Abstract A very important structure in the animal and human brain is the hippocampus. The study one of its many functions, episodic memory, is facing with the limited possibilities of non-invasive methods. In this regard, animal models are helpful. In order to study the individual components of such a complex ability in detail, a new behavioral task testing the association of temporally close but separate stimuli was developed. The test animals were exposed to a sequence of a sound conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned electric shock, between which there was a delay of 2 seconds. 59% of the rats successfully learned the association as well as the correct escape reaction to solve the task. Based on the results, the so-called One-Trial Trace Escape Reaction task could be a very valuable tool for a more detailed understanding of animals' incidental one-trial learning important for episodic memory. Another important phenomenon investigated in this work is the development of new neurons in the hippocampus in adulthood and its influence on learning and flexibility. After blocking the animals' neurogenesis with the temozolomide, the animals' ability to learn to avoid an invisible sector in the active avoidance task was tested....
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Mechanisms of comorbidity of metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases
Tauchman, Martin ; Telenský, Petr (advisor) ; Brožka, Hana (referee)
In Czechia, number of people with neurodegenerative diseases is in the hundreds of thousands, and the lifetime health care costs and social impact of each patient's disease reach hundreds of thousands of euros, but these costs could be reduced by early and effective intervention. Its correct implementation could be helped by knowledge of causal links between neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases, whose prevalence is correlated in the population. One of the important factors is an increased pro-inflammatory immune response. In people with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, systemic inflammation evolves into neuroinflammation, which subsequently leads to neurodegeneration. Another mechanism is hyperglycaemia, which is a consequence of insulin resistance. Hyperinsulinaemia and hyperglycaemia lead to impaired expression of glucose transporters and insulin-degrading enzyme, resulting in reduced clearance of amyloid beta. Genetic background is also recognized as a highly influential factor, affecting various mechanisms in both beneficial and harmful ways. Lifestyle is also an important factor. In general, smoking and alcohol consumption are harmful to health. Both increased consumption of alcoholic beverages and smoking tobacco products can lead to metabolic disorders as well as neurodegeneration. On the...
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Cognitive, structural and functional brain changes in a model of psychotic relapses
Ledvinková, Michaela ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
Schizophrenia is a serious nerodevelopmental disease with many sophisticated symptoms. One of its characteristics are relapses which are currently surrounded by consensus that each relaps causes further structural and functional defecits and can even lead to loss of grey matter. Recently, studies of cognitive deficit became prominent and increased the number of possible methods to study schizophrenia. Animal models are used for studying this phenomenon and focuses on neurobiological processes and cellular metabolism and its research is crucial to developing new ways of treatment and understanding schizophrenia. This review mainly focuses on relapses and how they affect progression of this desease. Key words: schizophrenia, psychosis, relaps, neurobiological progression, energy metabolism, cognitive deficit, animal models
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The role of microglia and astrocytes in Alzheimer's disease
Pospíšilová, Eva ; Telenský, Petr (advisor) ; Svoboda, Jan (referee)
Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the central nervous system and is characterized mainly by problems with memory abilities. With the more aging population, the number of patients with this disease is gradually increasing, so Alzheimer's disease research is becoming one of the main priorities of today's health care. Although the research has been going on for more than a century, the exact causes of the Alzheimer's disease are still unclear. For a long time, the main role was attributed to the pathology of amyloid β and tau protein, the basic pathophysiological features of this disease, but in recent years, it has become clear that microglia and astrocytes also play an important role. These glial cells affect the amount of amyloid β and the hyperphosphorylated tau protein, but they are also crucial for maintaining homeostasis of the central nervous system. Activation of microglia and astrocytes in Alzheimer's disease can lead to disruption of the physiological functions of these neuroglia, and thus to problems with the removal of amyloid and tau protein, but also to the induction of chronic neuroinflammation. This work aims to summarize and organize the basic knowledge about the role of microglia and astrocytes in Alzheimer's disease, while focusing mainly on their role...
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Disorders of brain energy metabolism in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease
Řezáčová, Adéla ; Telenský, Petr (advisor) ; Kolář, David (referee)
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases belong to group of neurodegenerative diseases that affect not only the patients, but also their surroundings. Patients of those diseases gradually lose their neurons. Both disorders are typical for pathophysiological accumulation of proteins which affect the functioning of neurons and astrocytes. These disorders are also characterised by mitochondrial senescence and its damages which itself manifest by dysfunction of various complexes. Furthermore, in both diseases, there can be found insulin resistance, which leads to an insufficient insulin signalization. Both diseases are also accompanied by impaired metabolisms of amino acids. With Alzheimer's disease, there is significantly lowered metabolism of glucose, whereas with Parkinson's disease, there is not enough stimulation for action potential to proceed in dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra. These impairments in Alzheimer's disease cause cognitive dysfunction, while with Parkinson's disease, these defects predominantly lead to complications with motor function. By studying energetic changes in presented diseases could bring more effective treatment.
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Early stages of neurodegenerative diseases and their diagnosis using experimental cognitive tests with a specific focus on spatial cognition
Laczó, Martina ; Laczó, Jan (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee) ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
Early stages of neurodegenerative diseases and their diagnosis using experimental cognitive tests with a specific focus on spatial navigation Abstract This dissertation thesis is focused on early and differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) using experimental cognitive tests. AD starts as a preclinical stage, progresses to the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and eventually to the dementia stage. It is crucial to diagnose AD very early to slow down its progression. However, the use of specific AD biomarkers, such as amyloid and tau positron emission tomography and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers, is very limited. Experimental spatial navigation and spatial pattern separation tests, unlike conventional cognitive tests, may have a strong diagnostic potential as they depend on brain regions affected early in AD. The first study in a virtual environment showed preference for word-centered navigation in cognitively normal older adults, while participants with early AD preferred body- centered strategy to compensate for neurodegeneration. Using a virtual navigation test, the second study showed different profiles of navigation impairment in MCI participants with AD and other (i.e., non-AD) etiologies and demonstrated that navigation assessment differentiated AD from non-AD participants. Various...
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Psychophysiological correlates induced by visual food stimuli during hunger and satiety
Schlezingerová, Nicol ; Telenský, Petr (advisor) ; Landová, Eva (referee)
Obesity and its increasing prevalence contribute to the development of diseases of affluence, including type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and several cardiovascular, oncological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanism of food intake at the behavioural level, including the influence of maladaptive factors, such as the frequent exposure to visual high-calorie food stimuli in modern society. In this work, changes in visual attention and selected psychopphysiological correlates (electrodermal activity and salivary biomarkers alpha-amylase and cortisol) in response to visual food stimuli were investigated in healthy, adult non-obese (BMI < 25) volunteers of both sexes. We investigated changes of psychophysiological correlates like visual attention, electrodermal activity and salivary biomarkers (alpha-amylase and cortisol) in response to visual food stimuli in healthy, adult, non-obese (BMI < 25) volunteers of both sexes. Experiment started with questionnaire for self measuring hunger and satiety, saliva sampling and then subject were instructed for presentation of visual food cues of three categories - high-calorie, low-calorie and non-food - they were presented to the subjects on a computer screen. Visual attention to the stimuli was determined using...
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Tracking the progression of Alzheimer's like-pathology in transgenic rat model TgF344-AD
Foltýnová, Alice ; Telenský, Petr (advisor) ; Němec, Pavel (referee)
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting dominantly the elderly and it is the most common cause of dementia. AD is characterized by many pathological events such as amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, inflammation, neurotransmitter dysregulation and many others. These disruptive processes ultimately lead to synaptic and cell loss which human brain. According to literaure, cell loss in AD is apparent especially in the cortex and hippocampus. However, it is unclear at which timepoint the loss becomes significant and in which other structures. There are many other important structures such as olfactory bulbs or entorhinal cortex where the cell loss has not been fully quantified. With new methods like isotropic fractionator it has become possible for scientists to quantify large number of structures more quickly. Since human brains are not easy to obtain shortly after death, use of transgenic animal models, mostly rodents, is a good way to obtain more information about cell and especially neuronal loss occurring in AD. Key words: Alzheimer's disease, cell loss, isotropic fractionator, hippocampus, neurofibrillary tangles, beta amyloid
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