• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.343-384
• /
• 2014

In order to unravel the problems of the mind, today's cognitive science has expanded its perspective from the narrow framework of the past computer model or neuronal network model to the wider frameworks of interaction with the brain in interaction with the body in interaction with their environments. The theories of 'the extended mind', 'embodied mind', or 'enactive mind' appeared through such processes are working on a way to move into the environments while the problem to unravel the complex process of interactions between the mind, the body and the environments are left alone. This problem can be traced back as far as to Gibson and Maturana & Varela who tried at first to unravel the problem of the mind in terms of interaction between the brain, the body and there environments in 1960~70s. It's because Gibson stressed the importance of the 'affordance' provided by the environment while Maturana & Varela emphasized the 'autonomy' of auto-poiesis of life. However, it will be proper to say that there are invariants in the affordances provided by the environment as well as the autonomy of life in the state of structural coupling of the environment's variants and life's openness toward the environment. In this case, the confrontational points between Gibson and Maturana & Varela will be resolved. In this article, I propose Benjamin's theory of mimesis as a mediator of both theories. Because Benjamin's concept of mimesis has the process of making a constellation of the embodiment of the affordance and the enaction of new affordance into the environment at the same time, Gibson's concept of the affordance and Maturana & Varela's concept of embodiment and enaction will be so smoothly interconnected to circulate through the medium of Benjamin's concept of mimesis.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.235-242
• /
• 2010

Emotion science is one of the rapidly expanding engineering/scientific disciplines which has a major impact on human society. Such growing interests in emotion science and engineering owe the recent trend that various academic fields are being merged. In this paper we review the recent techniques in the measuring the emotion related elements and applications which include animal model system to investigate the neural network and behaviour, artificial nose/neuronal chip for in-depth understanding of sensing the outer stimuli, metabolic controlling using emotional stimulant such as sounds. In particular, microfabrication techniques made it possible to construct nano/micron scale sensing parts/chips to accommodate the olfactory cells and neuron cells and gave us a new opportunities to investigate the emotion precisely. Recent developments in the measurement techniques will be able to help combine the social sciences and natural sciences, and consequently expand the scope of studies.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.27-32
• /
• 2006

Background: Chronic inflammation in the brain has known to be associated with the development of a various neurological diseases including dementia. In general, the characteristic of neuro-inflammation is the activated microglia over the brain where the pathogenesis occurs. Pro-inflammatory repertoires, interleukin-1${\beta}$ (IL-1${\beta}$) and nitric oxide (NO), are the main causes of neuro-degenerative disease, particularly in Alzheimer's disease (AD) which is caused by neuronal destruction. Those pro-inflammatory repertoires may lead the brain to chronic inflammatory status, and thus we hypothesized that chronic inflammation would be inhibited when pro-inflammatory repertoires are to be well controlled by inactivating the signal transduction associated with inflammation. Methods: In the present study, we examined whether biphenyl dimethyl dicarboxylate (DDB), an active compound from Schizandra chinensis Baillon, inhibits the NO production by a direct method using Griess reagent and by RT-PCR in the gene expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and IL-1${\beta}$. Western blots were also used for the analysis of NF-${\kappa}B$ and I${\kappa}B$. Results: In the study, we found that DDB effectively inhibited IL-1${\beta}$ as well as NO production in BV-2 microglial cell, and the translocation of NF-${\kappa}B$ was comparably inhibited in the presence of DDB comparing those to the positive control, lipopolysaccharide. Conclusion: The data suggested that the DDB from Schizandra chinensis Baillon may play an effective role in inhibiting the pro-inflammatory repertoires which may cause neurodegeneration and the results imply that the compound suppresses a cue signal of the microglial activation which can induce the brain pathogenesis such as Alzheimer's disease.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.74-80
• /
• 2014

The peroxisome is an intracellular organelle that responds dynamically to environmental changes. Various model organisms have been used to study the roles of peroxisomal proteins in maintaining cellular homeostasis. By taking advantage of the zebrafish model whose early stage of embryogenesis is dependent on yolk components, we examined the developmental roles of the D-bifunctional protein (Dbp), an essential enzyme in the peroxisomal ${\beta}$-oxidation. The knockdown of dbp in zebrafish phenocopied clinical manifestations of its deficiency in human, including defective craniofacial morphogenesis, growth retardation, and abnormal neuronal development. Overexpression of murine Dbp rescued the morphological phenotypes induced by dbp knockdown, indicative of conserved roles of Dbp during zebrafish and mammalian development. Knockdown of dbp impaired normal development of blood, blood vessels, and most strikingly, endoderm-derived organs including the liver and pancreas - a phenotype not reported elsewhere in connection with peroxisome dysfunction. Taken together, our results demonstrate for the first time that zebrafish might be a useful model animal to study the role of peroxisomes during vertebrate development.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.390-400
• /
• 2021

Background: We recently showed that gintonin, an active ginseng ingredient, exhibits antibrain neurodegenerative disease effects including multiple target mechanisms such as antioxidative stress and antiinflammation via the lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptors. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a spinal disease characterized by neurodegenerative changes in motor neurons with subsequent skeletal muscle paralysis and death. However, pathophysiological mechanisms of ALS are still elusive, and therapeutic drugs have not yet been developed. We investigate the putative alleviating effects of gintonin in ALS. Methods: The G93A-SOD1 transgenic mouse ALS model was used. Gintonin (50 or 100 mg/kg/day, p.o.) administration started from week seven. We performed histological analyses, immunoblot assays, and behavioral tests. Results: Gintonin extended mouse survival and relieved motor dysfunctions. Histological analyses of spinal cords revealed that gintonin increased the survival of motor neurons, expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factors, choline acetyltransferase, NeuN, and Nissl bodies compared with the vehicle control. Gintonin attenuated elevated spinal NAD(P) quinone oxidoreductase 1 expression and decreased oxidative stress-related ferritin, ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1-immunoreactive microglia, S100β-immunoreactive astrocyte, and Olig2-immunoreactive oligodendrocytes compared with the control vehicle. Interestingly, we found that the spinal LPA1 receptor level was decreased, whereas gintonin treatment restored decreased LPA1 receptor expression levels in the G93A-SOD1 transgenic mouse, thereby attenuating neurological symptoms and histological deficits. Conclusion: Gintonin-mediated symptomatic improvements of ALS might be associated with the attenuations of neuronal loss and oxidative stress via the spinal LPA1 receptor regulations. The present results suggest that the spinal LPA1 receptor is engaged in ALS, and gintonin may be useful for relieving ALS symptoms.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.157-168
• /
• 2020

Advancements in segmentation methodology has made automatic segmentation of brain structures using structural images accurate and consistent. One method of automatic segmentation, which involves registering atlas information from template space to subject space, requires a high quality atlas with accurate boundaries for consistent segmentation. The Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, which has been widely accepted as a high quality reference of the mouse brain, has been used in various segmentations and can provide accurate coordinates and boundaries of mouse brain structures for tractography. Through probabilistic tractography, diffusion tensor images can be used to map comprehensive neuronal network of white matter pathways of the brain. Comparisons between neural networks of mouse and human brains showed that various clinical tests on mouse models were able to simulate disease pathology of human brains, increasing the importance of clinical mouse brain studies. However, differences between brain size of human and mouse brain has made it difficult to achieve the necessary image quality for analysis and the conditions for sufficient image quality such as a long scan time makes using live samples unrealistic. In order to secure a mouse brain image with a sufficient scan time, an Ex-vivo experiment of a mouse brain was conducted for this study. Using FSL, a tool for analyzing tensor images, we proposed a semi-automated segmentation and tractography analysis pipeline of the mouse brain and applied it to various mouse models. Also, in order to determine the useful signal-to-noise ratio of the diffusion tensor image acquired for the tractography analysis, images with various excitation numbers were compared.