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Sleep and spatial navigation
MARKOVÁ, Stefanie
Sleep is an important part of our lives. It is one of the basic human needs and its importance for basic cognitive functions is a current research topic. The theoretical part of this work focuses on sleep and its effect on individual sleep stages. Closer attention was also paid to memory and spatial navigation, which is now being studied in connection with the effectiveness of the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) phase of sleep. NREM sleep is characterized by its slow-wave activity and the occurrence of sleep spindles, which could help consolidate the memory traces of spatial navigation. This effect has often been studied in rodents, but there have not been many human studies. The practical part of this work is therefore devoted to the effect of sleep as a prerequisite for the consolidation of memory trace. Our participants were made up of a group of healthy 20 students (n = 20) in equal gender representation (10 men and 10 women). They participated in repeated measurements and were varied from exposure to sleep with wakefulness, during the phase of integration of memory traces of egocentric and allocentric spatial navigation. This experimental measurement was performed using the Blue Velvet Arena at the National Institute of Mental Health.
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Advanced neuroimaging methods and their use in evaluation of structural changes of the brain and their cognitive correlates in early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders
Lerch, Ondřej ; Hort, Jakub (advisor) ; Rusina, Robert (referee) ; Dušek, Petr (referee)
Advanced neuroimaging methods and their use in evaluation of structural changes of the brain and their cognitive correlates in early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders Abstract Neurodegenerative diseases are a heterogeneous group of diseases characterized by the loss of specific neuronal populations caused by the deposition of pathologically altered proteins into the brain tissue. The structural corelate of these pathological changes is a brain atrophy. The most common neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer's disease (AN). The cholinergic deficit, caused by atrophy of the basal telencephalon (BF), and atrophy of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) are among the hallmarks of AN. Recent advances in imaging methods and image processing techniques have made it possible to measure atrophy at the level of substructures. The aim of this dissertation was to evaluate the potential utility of imaging methods in the assessment of structural changes and their cognitive correlates in the early diagnosis of neurodegeneration, in particular to evaluate the utility of segmentation of the BF nuclei and MTL substructures in the early and differential diagnosis of AN, their mutual relationships and cognitive correlates. We confirmed that differences in atrophy of individual BF and MTL substructures may be utilized in the...
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Adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus and spatial navigation
Dostálová, Magdalena ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Jiruška, Přemysl (referee)
Hundreds to thousands of new granule neurons are born every day in the hippocampus within the whole life. Inspite of intensive research of the last decades, their function remains unclear. Their participation in spatial memory and the ability of orientation is assumed. Results from behavioral tests like the Morris water maze, the radial maze and many other testing tasks, are often contradictory. Nevertheless, it is highly probable that neurogenesis plays a role in pattern separation and long-term relational memory. Further studies and especially reliable methods of ablation and detection are required for deeper insight into this issue.
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Sledování očních pohybů ve virtuální realitě
Jirásek, Jozef ; Brom, Cyril (advisor) ; Lukavský, Jiří (referee)
In this work we present an application for observing and recording data about movements of a human eye when looking at a computer screen. We use two commercially available devices: I4Control by Medicton Group Ltd. and TrackIR 4 by NaturalPoint. We build a software package which interfaces with the SpaNav system for cognitive research. We also provide an extensible framework for creating other eye tracking applications.
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Acute effects of central muscarinic antagonist scopolamine on learning in two cognitive tasks: Comparison of Long-Evans and Wistar outbred rat strains
Entlerová, Marie ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Jiruška, Přemysl (referee)
Spatial navigation is essential for survival not only in mammals. Neural and neuropharmacological changes of learning and memory in humans and rats could be measured through their behavior and responses to stimuli. In focus of experimental models of cognitive deficits, the Morris water maze (MWM) represents a clasiccal test of exact allothetic representation, i.e. the cognitive map. Another important test of spatial navigation is the active place avoidance, or Carousel maze (also AAPA, Active Allothetic Place Avoidance), that can be used to test the ability of cognitive coordination, thus the ability to distinguish relevant stimuli from irrelevant. There are analogous tasks for testing cognitive abilities in humans for both tests (e.g. Blue Velvet Arena for MWM, virtual reality simulations on PC for AAPA, etc.). Aim of the present study is to compare the sensitivity of outbred Long-Evans and Wistar strains of rats from the institutional breeding to the acute administration of scopolamine, the antagonist of central muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, at doses 0.8 mg/kg; 1.5 mg/kg and 3.0 mg/kg. The results show that the Wistar strain is more influenced by cholinergic blockade than Long-Evans strain in both AAPA and the MWM. Furthermore, it appears that the control rat strain Long-Evans have better...
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Spatial orientation in reptiles focused on methods of testing of allothetic navigation
Voňavková, Monika ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
Recently are known several different navigational systems in reptiles, mainly large scale navigational abilities based on sun and magnetic compass. The turtles are frequently used species in studies of spatial cognition, however, informations about spatial cognitive abilities in snakes and lizards (order Squamata) are only a few. Current knowledge concerning mechanism of small scale navigation based on allothetic orientation in snakes and lizards is only poorly understood. Aim of this thesis is review the literature about the mechanisms of reptile spatial orientation focused on allothetic navigation (using of external landmarks). As extension of this thesis is review of the principles of testing allothetic orientation in other groups (e. g. mammals) that were frequently used as a subject for testing allothetic orientation). The design of tests of allothetic orientation in model species of lizards (Eublepharis macularius) is one of the results of this thesis. Keywords: reptiles, spatial orientation, allothetic navigation
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Memory and cognitive coordination impairment in rat models of neuropsychiatric diseases
Vojtěchová, Iveta ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Syka, Josef (referee) ; Hort, Jakub (referee)
The memory and spatial navigation are extremely important brain functions for humans, but they are often the question of life and death for animals. In humans, memory can be disrupted by various neuropsychiatric disorders. The patients suffering from Alzheimer's dementia (AD) have impaired working and long-term memory, spatial navigation, higher cognitive functions and social memory. The deficit of cognitive coordination (the skill to recognize the relevancy of incoming information) and disorientation belong to the symptomatology of schizophrenia. Intelectual disability appears in some patients with autism spectrum disorder. Unfortunately, it is not possible to cure these disorders efficiently because the etiology is not known in the majority of patients. The causes leading to development of these disorders could be revealed using animal models. This thesis contributes to the characterization of the cognitive skills disruptions - as well as other behavioral alterations - in selected rat models of AD (transgenic McGill rat, non-transgenic Samaritan rat) and schizophrenia (lipopolysaccharide model of early postnatal, or prenatal, bacterial infection). The thesis also discusses the validity and limitations of these models. Our results showed a severe deficit of spatial navigation, learning and...
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