Scientists at Moscow State University have found out how hormones control the body after a stroke
An international team of scientists with the participation of Vladimir Galatenko, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, and graduates of Moscow University found that hormones can independently regulate left-sided and right-sided processes in the body of animals in normal conditions and after brain damage, the results were published in the journal eLIFE.
Hormones released after brain injury play a role in the development of movement disorders, and compounds that block hormones reduce movement disorders. Georgy Bakalkin, a professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biology at Uppsala University, said that scientists asked whether these hormones could be involved in movement disorders after brain injury.
For response, they studied rats in which the neural pathways between the brain and the neurons that control the hind legs were surgically cut. It turned out that after the transection, unilateral brain injury caused reflexes in the hind legs and these disorders were on the opposite side of the body. To test the hormone hypothesis, the researchers surgically removed the pituitary gland. In animals with a removed pituitary gland, unilateral trauma did not cause movement disorders.
Further, it was possible to find two pituitary hormones, beta-endorphin and vasopressin, which cause contractions of the right hind paw in normal animals. Compounds blocking these hormones prevented changes in the reflexes of the right hind paw following injury to the left hemisphere. These observations have shown that the endocrine system, through its hormones in the blood, can selectively affect the left and right sides of the animal's body. It is noted that this is an unusual phenomenon that requires testing on other models.
Earlier it was reported that in the Russian Federation they are developing a program for implanting chips into the brain. The project involves the development of neurointerface technology, a person will be able to control external devices using brain signals. The program allows you to control external devices directly by means of electrical signals from the brain, which are converted into control commands under the influence of artificial intelligence technologies. The document was developed by the Russian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with Moscow State University. In early spring, it was approved by President Vladimir Putin. The study was entrusted to the head of the government Mikhail Mishustin and the head of the presidential administration Anton Vaino.
