Browsing by Author "Medina, Jorge H."

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    The impact of the succesive outbreaks of COVID-19, vaccination, and physical activity on mental health in the argentine population : a repeated cross-sectional study
    (2024-02-26) Barbuzza, Alejo Ramiro; Ballarini, Fabricio; Goyeneche, Celina; Reppucci, Victoria; Benedetti, Pedro; Moscato, Franco; Medina, Jorge H.; Katche, Cynthia; Moncada, Diego; Viola, Haydeé
    A controversy regarding the duration of generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic arose, stating that these symptoms last a short time, perhaps a few months, or that they are more persistent over time. After more than three years of the pandemic, this is still a question that requires an answer. The main goal of this work was to record the levels of self-perceived GAD and depression in the Argentine population at several time points during the pandemic to characterize whether they were transient or persisted over the successive waves of contagion. Furthermore, we studied the association between anti-COVID-19 vaccination and the high frequency of physical activity with GAD and depression levels to evaluate a possible protective role of these factors on mental health.
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    Time‑dependent inhibition of Rac1 in the VTA enhances long‑term aversive memory : implications in active forgetting mechanisms
    (Scientific Reports, 2023-08-19) Dalto, Juliana F.; Medina, Jorge H.
    The fate of memories depends mainly on two opposing forces: the mechanisms required for the storage and maintenance of memory and the mechanisms underlying forgetting, being the latter much less understood. Here, we show the effect of inhibiting the small Rho GTPase Rac1 on the fate of inhibitory avoidance memory in male rats. The immediate post-training micro-infusion of the specific Rac1 inhibitor NSC23766 (150 ng/0.5 µl/ side) into the ventral tegmental area (VTA) enhanced long-term memory at 1, 7, and 14 days after a single training. Additionally, an opposed effect occurred when the inhibitor was infused at 12 h after training while no effect was observed immediately after testing animals at 1 day. Control experiments ruled out the possibility that post-training memory enhancement was due to facilitation of memory formation since no effect was found when animals were tested at 1 h after acquisition and no memory enhancement was observed after the formation of a weak memory. Immediate post-training micro-infusion of Rac1 inhibitor into the dorsal hippocampus, or the amygdala did not affect memory. Our findings support the idea of a Rac1-dependent time-specific active forgetting mechanism in the VTA controlling the strength of a long-term aversive memory.