The dark matter of the brain (Review). Ovsepian 2019

[percyval577]

LINK to the review. The review can be fully read, but can´t be printed out.

Brain Structure and Function
April 2019, Volume 224, Issue 3, pp 973–983| Cite as
The dark matter of the brain

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Saak V. Ovsepian

Abstract. My paragraphing.

The bulk of brain energy expenditure is allocated for maintenance of perpetual intrinsic activity of neurons and neural circuits. Long-term electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies in anesthetized and behaving animals show, however, that the great majority of nerve cells in the intact brain do not fire action potentials, i.e., are permanently silent.

Herein, I review emerging data suggesting massive redundancy of nerve cells in mammalian nervous system, maintained in inhibited state at high energetic costs.

Acquired in the course of evolution, these collections of dormant neurons and circuits evade routine functional undertakings, and hence, keep out of the reach of natural selection. Under penetrating stress and disease, however, they occasionally switch in active state and drive a variety of neuro-psychiatric symptoms and behavioral abnormalities. The increasing evidence for widespread occurrence of silent neurons warrants careful revision of functional models of the brain and entails unforeseen reserves for rehabilitation and plasticity.

The review is also discussed here:
blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2019/02/06/silent-neurons-dark-matter-brain

 

[percyval577]

I find this interesting b/c synaptical structures might have happened to have broken down in our disease.
Nerves, I think, would have switched to another metabolic state.


Sadly the article cannot be printed out. I am a bit helpless as I cannot read any text on a computer and without a pencil (will try though).

 

[PatJ]

Sadly the article cannot be printed out

PrintFriendly can help. It's available through the PrintFriendly web site, or as a web browser extension. Here is a PrintFriendly generated version of the article that is printable.

 

[Wolfcub]

So to apply this to ME/CFS, is the idea that if the whole system is placed under extreme unusual stress, that could activate previously dormant areas of the brain ?

 

[percyval577]

I think the possibility
that there would be some nerves and their connections dormant,
and other ones would be regularily active,
can mean in generel, that such system is out of propper work.

So there might be more than one dysbalance possible
(the abstract mentiones schizophrenia, with too much action potential).
But it might well be also possible, that some circuits are dormant - which ones rather would be needed,
and other ones would be acting too much - this might be an explanation for symptoms (as well).

ME/CFS:
I personally started with the idea (last year) that there are too much nerves active.
Then I thought such a chaos could also be saved into/in a lower active state.
And finally this could directly be the consequnce of too less available connections.

My impression in my case is now, that I can bring nerves and their connections back to live
when I support them with 4 vit B´s and metals
(under the prerequisite of a lower Mn diet and avoidance of 3 vitB´s).
Too less action would also go along with the sphingolipid finding by Naviaux.

I actually don´t know if the review supports this whole idea specifically,
b/c the abstract says "at high energy cost"
which I would interpretate as stopping from firing by pumping out the electrolytes before the nerve would fire.

Whereas in mecfs I would now guess
that some nerves are deaf so far (and other ones are too active)
and the high 4 B´s would say "switch on again".
But it might also be possible to say
that there is a deficiency in some areas and therefore the pumping would not work properly (somehow).


Unfortunatlely it turned out just a few hours earlier that the text is not available for free reading,
I don´t why it yesterday was. Maybe I even will buy the text.