Introduction: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is one of the methods of improving the quality of life and enhancing psychosocial flexibility in students with learning disorders. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of ACT on the quality of life and psychological flexibility of female junior high school students with learning disorders in Sari, Iran. Materials and Methods: The present quasi-experimental study used a Pre-test-Post-test design with a control group. The statistical population consisted of all female junior high school students in Sari. A total of 60 individuals were selected by convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The intervention was performed for the experimental group. The 36-item short form health survey and cognitive flexibility inventory were used to collect the data. The data were analyzed by analysis of covariance, using SPSS version 21. Results: The ACT had significant effects on the psychosocial flexibility and quality of life of female junior high school students with learning disorders (P<0.001). Conclusion: The ACT improved the quality of life and psychological flexibility of female junior high school students with learning disorders.
Background: Cholinergic dysfunction is involved with age-related cognitive deficits and Alzheimer’s disease. Donepezil is a reversible acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Objectives: The present study examined the ability of chronic supplementation with donepezil on the cognition of the healthy young rats. Materials and Methods: Twenty young male Wistar rats (140-160 g) were divided into the control and experimental groups. The rats received the oral administration of saline or 0.3 mg/kg of donepezil for 30 consecutive days. Then, they were trained and tested with Inhibitory Avoidance (IA) and 8-radial Arm Maze (RAM) tasks. Results: There was neither significant difference in the number of trials to acquisition in the IA nor the number of baited food arms in RAM tasks between the groups. In the IA retrieval test, the time spent in the dark compartment in the donepezil-treated group was significantly less than the saline-treated group. Also, in the RAM retrieval test, the number of total memory and working memory errors of donepezil-treated rats was significantly less than that of the saline-treated ones. Conclusion: The chronic administration of donepezil (0.3 mg/kg) had no significant effect on the learning process, but it can improve memory performance in normal rats.
Background and Aims: 3, 4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is used for recreational purposes worldwide. The use of MDMA resulted in learning and memory dysfunction. Duloxetine, a serotonin/noradrenalin-reuptake inhibitor is also utilized to treat depression and anxiety. The current study aimed to evaluate the effects of duloxetine against MDMA's effect on anxiety, cognition, and memory disturbance in the male rats. Materials and Methods: Wistar rats received treatment of saline (10 ml/kg; sham group), “MDMA” (10 mg/kg), “Duloxetine” (10 mg/kg), and Duloxetine plus MDMA (10 mg/kg, each), or no treatment (control) through the intraperitoneal administration for four days. The elevated plus maze (EPM), passive avoidance learning (PAL), Morris water maze (MWM), and novel object recognition (NOR) tests were employed to evaluate the anxiety, memory, and cognition, Results: The MDMA increased the time spent in open arms in EPM, time spent in the dark part of PAL, and swimming time to reach the platform in MWM. Furthermore, duloxetine inhibited the reduction of the discrimination index, time spent in the dark compartment, and time spent on the platform in NOR, PAL, and MWM tests among rats received MDMA. Moreover, duloxetine decreased time spent in open arms and the target quadrant in EPM and MWM tests. Conclusions: Our findings suggested that duloxetine treatment attenuated the MDMA-induced anxiolytic response and could improve MDMA-induced cognitive impairment and disturbance in learning and memory.
Background and Objectives: Diabetes affects the central nervous system associated with cognition, especially memory and learning. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of probiotics (living microorganisms that provide health benefits) and resveratrol (a polyphenol with potential antioxidant activity) combination on oxidative stress, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), memory, and learning in diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups (six animals per group) of control, diabetic, probiotic-treated diabetic (50×109CFU/kg in drinking water), resveratrol-treated diabetic (10 mg/kg, oral gavage), as well as probiotics and resveratrol-treated diabetic. The treatment procedures lasted for four weeks, and a Shuttle Box test was then performed to evaluate memory and learning. At the end of the study, animals were sacrificed, and the hippocampus was removed to perform biochemical studies. Results: The levels of malondialdehyde and total oxidative status significantly decreased in the diabetic group treated with combined resveratrol and probiotics (P<0.05). Furthermore, the levels of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase significantly increased in the hippocampus of the diabetic group treated with combined resveratrol and probiotics (P<0.05). According to the results, the combined therapy improved memory and learning (P<0.05). In addition, the level of GLP-1 increased in the treatment groups (P<0.05). Conclusion: Treatment with resveratrol and probiotics significantly normalized pyramidal cell densities in the hippocampus of diabetic rats. This combination also reduced oxidative stress and activated the gut-brain axis in diabetic animals.
Background: Visual information acquired through observation plays a pivotal role in learning a movement pattern and motor control. Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the effect of visual deprivation on learning in rats. Methods: The study sample consisted of 12 male rats, divided into three groups. Group I consisted of four rats and was considered the control group. Transection of the two optic nerves was performed on rats of group II on the seventh day after birth and group III on the seventh week after birth to develop the early blind and late blind models, respectively. A T-shaped maze device was utilized to evaluate the learning behavior of rats. Rats of groups II and III were blinded by the optic nerve surgery. In total, 20 trials per day were conducted for nine consecutive days, in which the time and number of correct arm entries were recorded. The ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were employed to analyze the results in SPSS software (version 16.0). A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There was a significant difference between the three groups regarding the number of correct arm entries on days one, three, and seven (P<0.05). There was also a significant difference between the three groups regarding how long it took them to enter the target box on days two and three (P<0.05). Group III had a lower number of entries to the target box and it took them a significantly longer time to enter the target box, compared to the other groups. Conclusion: According to the results, visual deprivation may affect the learning of rats during the early days; however, their learning levels increased over the following days. Moreover, the early blinded rats had a higher level of learning than the lately blinded adult rats and the same level of learning as that of the sighted adult rats.
Background and Objective: Electroencephalography (EEG) analysis is an important tool for neuroscience, brain-computer interface studies, and biomedical studies. The primary purpose of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) studies is to establish communication between disabled individuals, other individuals, and machines with brain signals. Interpreting and classifying the brain's response during different cognitive tasks will contribute to brain-computer interface studies. Therefore, in this study, five cognitive tasks were classified from EEG signals. Material and Methods: In this study, five neuropsychological tests (Öktem Verbal Memory Processes Test, WMS-R Visual Memory Subtest, Digit Span Test, Corsi Block Test, and Stroop Test) were administered to 30 healthy individuals. The tests assess the volunteers' abilities in verbal memory, visual memory, attention, concentration, working memory, and reaction time. The EEG signals were recorded while the tests were administered to the volunteers. The tests were classified using two different deep learning algorithms, 1D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), from the recorded EEG signals. Results: When the success of the tests was evaluated, classification success was achieved with an accuracy of 88.53% in the CNN deep learning algorithm and 89.80% in the LSTM deep algorithm. Precision, recall, and F1-score values for CNN were calculated at 0.88, 0.87, and 0.87, respectively, while precision, recall, and f1-score values for the LSTM network were obtained at 0.90, 0.89, and 0.89. Conclusion: Following the findings of the present study, five different cognitive tasks were able to be classified with high accuracy from EEG signals using deep learning algorithms.
