Cheil Moon

Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology | DGIST · Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences

Social interaction among conspecifics is essential for maintaining adaptive, cooperative, and social behaviors, along with survival among mammals. The 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) neuronal system is an important neurotransmitter system for regulating social behaviors; however, the circadian role of 5-HT in social interaction behaviors is unclear. To...

Dopamine (DA) homeostasis influences emotions, neural circuit development, cognition, and the reward system. Dysfunctions in DA regulation can lead to neurological disorders, including depression, developmental disorders, and addiction. DA homeostasis disruption is a primary cause of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Therefore, understanding the relationsh...

The key in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) therapy is a timely and accurate diagnosis for prompt drug intervention. However, due to the high cost and invasiveness of conventional biomarker analyses, including brain positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)‐based assays, easy accessibility to these screening tests is often hi...

Mammals recognize chemicals in the air via G protein-coupled odorant receptors (ORs). In addition to their orthosteric binding site, other segments of these receptors modulate ligand recognition. Focusing on human hOR1A1, which is considered prototypical of class II ORs, we used a combination of molecular modeling, site-directed mutagenesis, and in...

Neuritogenesis is critical for the establishment of proper neuronal connections during brain development. Thus, its failure causes neurodevelopmental defects such as intellectual disabilities. Cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin-ligase complexes are involved in neurodevelopmental processes including neurite outgrowth, migration, and differentiation via regula...

The key to current Alzheimer’s disease (AD) therapy is the early diagnosis for prompt intervention, since available treatments only slow the disease progression. Therefore, this lack of promising therapies has called for diagnostic screening tests to identify those likely to develop full-blown AD. Recent AD diagnosis guidelines incorporated core bi...

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive dopaminergic neuronal loss. Motor deficits experienced by patients with Parkinson's disease are well documented, but non-motor symptoms, including mood disorders associated with circadian disturbances, are also frequent features. One common phenomenon is "sundowning syn...

Animals detect and discriminate countless environmental chemicals for their well-being and survival. Although a single chemical can trigger opposing behavioral responses depending on its concentration, the mechanisms underlying such a concentration-dependent switching remain poorly understood. Here, we show that C. elegans exhibits either attractio...

Erythropoietin (EPO) is a well-known erythropoietic cytokine having a tissue-protective effect in various tissues against hypoxic stress, including the brain. Thus, its recombinants may function as neuroprotective compounds. However, despite considerable neuroprotective effects, the EPO-based therapeutic approach has side effects, including hyper-e...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of dementia. Key AD symptoms include memory and cognitive decline; however, comorbid symptoms such as depression and sensory-perceptual dysfunction are often reported. Among these, a deterioration of olfactory sensation is observed in approximately 90% of AD patients. However, the precise pathophy...

Detecting Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an important step in preventing pathological brain damage. Working memory (WM)-related network modulation can be a pathological feature of AD, but is usually modulated by untargeted cognitive processes and individual variance, resulting in the concealment of this key information. Therefore, in this study, we co...

The brain’s mechanisms for categorizing different odors have long been a research focus. Previous studies suggest that odor categorization may involve multiple neurological processes within the brain with temporal and spatial neuronal activation. However, there is limited evidence regarding temporally mediated mechanisms in humans, especially milli...

Background: Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive dopaminergic (DAergic) neuronal loss. Motor deficits experienced by patients with Parkinson’s disease are well documented, but non-motor symptoms, including mood disorders associated with circadian disturbances, are also frequent features. One common phenome...

Guanine nucleotide binding protein (G protein) gamma 8 (Gng8) is a subunit of G proteins and expressed in the medial habenula (MHb) and interpeduncular nucleus (IPN). Recent studies have demonstrated that Gng8 is involved in brain development; however, the roles of Gng8 on cognitive function have not yet been addressed. In the present study, we inv...

As a promising future treatment for stroke rehabilitation, researchers have developed direct brain stimulation to manipulate the neural excitability. However, there has been less interest in energy consumption and unexpected side effect caused by electrical stimulation to bring functional recovery for stroke rehabilitation. In this study, we propos...

Olfactory neuropathology is a cause of olfactory loss in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Olfactory dysfunction is also associated with memory and cognitive dysfunction and is an incidental finding of AD dementia. Here we review neuropathological research on the olfactory system in AD, considering both structural and functional evidence. Experimental and...

In article number 2002362, Ji‐Woong Choi, Jae Eun Jang, and co‐workers suggest a tactile avatar system as a surrogate for human tactile cognition producing smooth/soft and rough tactile sensation. Because the tactile responses vary among humans, the deep learning network is designed considering the cognitive processing of independent tactile featur...

As a promising future treatment for stroke rehabilitation, researchers have developed direct brain stimulation to manipulate the neural excitability. However, there has been less interest in energy consumption and unexpected side effect caused by electrical stimulation to bring functional recovery for stroke rehabilitation. In this study, we propos...

As a surrogate for human tactile cognition, an artificial tactile perception and cognition system are proposed to produce smooth/soft and rough tactile sensations by its user's tactile feeling; and named this system as “tactile avatar”. A piezoelectric tactile sensor is developed to record dynamically various physical information such as pressure,...

Background Hyposmia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a typical early symptom according to numerous previous clinical studies. Although amyloid-β (Aβ), which is one of the toxic factors upregulated early in AD, has been identified in many studies, even in the peripheral areas of the olfactory system, the pathology involving olfactory sensory neurons (...

During mid-life, women experienced not only physical but also neurological transition. Because of this, many women suffer from physiological and/or psychological menopausal symptoms. Although hormone therapy (HT) was broadly used to alleviate menopausal symptoms, HT showed inconsistent effects in case of psychological symptoms. Moreover, mid-life w...

Odor habituation is a phenomenon that after repeated exposure to an odor, is characterized by decreased responses to it. The central nervous system is involved in odor habituation. To study odor habituation in humans, measurement of event-related potentials (ERPs) has been widely used in the olfactory system and other sensory systems, because of th...

Background: Hyposmia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a typical early symptom according to numerous previous clinical studies. Although the causes of damage have been proposed in every olfactory system including olfactory epithelium, olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex, the main causes of AD- related hyposmia are largely unknown. Methods: We here foc...

Background: Hyposmia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a typical early symptom according to numerous previous clinical studies. Although amyloid-β (Aβ), which is one of the toxic factors upregulated early in AD, has been identified in many studies, even in the peripheral areas. The pathology involving olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) remains poorly un...

Background: Hyposmia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a typical early symptom according to numerous previous clinical studies. Although amyloid-β (Aβ), which is one of the toxic factors upregulated early in AD, has been identified in many studies, even in the peripheral areas. The pathology involving olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) remains poorly un...

Total tau (t-tau) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) protein elevations in cerebrospinal fluid (CFS) are well-established hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), while the associations of serum t-tau and p-tau levels with AD have been inconsistent across studies. To identify more accessible non-invasive AD biomarkers, we measured serum tau proteins and...

Despite clinical evidence indicating a close relationship between olfactory dysfunction and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), further investigations are warranted to determine the diagnostic potential of nasal surrogate biomarkers for AD. In this study, we first identified soluble amyloid-β (Aβ), the key biomarker of AD, in patient nasal discharge using pr...

Plasmonic sensors have received much attention in recent years since they are highly sensitive to the refractive index changes of surrounding dielectric and can be applied to spectrometer-free biosensing. In particular, the sensing based on the color factors and the imaging is considered as a powerful method due to its simplified sensing process as...

More than one-half of the interneurons in a mouse olfactory bulb (OB) develop during the first week after birth and predominantly connect to excitatory tufted cells near the superficial granule cell layer (sGCL), unlike late-born interneurons. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the temporal specification are yet to be identified. In this...

Characterizing an odor quality is difficult for humans. Ever-increasing physiological and behavioral studies have characterized odor quality and demonstrated high performance of human odor categorization. However, there are no precise methods for measuring the multidimensional axis of an odor quality. Furthermore, it can be altered by individual ex...

Hypothalamic glial cells named tanycytes, which line the 3rd ventricle (3V), are components of the hypothalamic network that regulates a diverse array of metabolic functions for energy homeostasis. Herein, we report that TSPO (translocator protein), an outer mitochondrial protein, is highly enriched in tanycytes and regulates homeostatic responses...

An artificial tactile system has attracted tremendous interest and intensive study, since it can be applied as a new functional interface between humans and electronic devices. Unfortunately, most previous works focused on improving the sensitivity of sensors. However, humans also respond to psychological feelings for sensations such as pain, softn...

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Magnetic microrobots were developed for three-dimensional culture and the precise delivery of stem cells in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo. Hippocampal neural stem cells attached to the microrobots proliferated and differentiated into astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and neurons. Moreover, microrobots were used to transport colorectal carcinoma cancer ce...

Among the genetic variations in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene, upstream variable number tandem repeats (uVNTRs) of the promoter have been associated with individual differences in human physiology and aggressive behaviour. However, the evidence for a molecular or neural link between MAOA uVNTRs and aggression remains ambiguous. Additionally,...

Regulated cell death (RCD) plays a fundamental role in human health and disease. Apoptosis is the best-studied mode of RCD, but the importance of other modes has recently been gaining attention. We have previously demonstrated that adult rat hippocampal neural stem (HCN) cells undergo autophagy-dependent cell death (ADCD) following insulin withdraw...

Aggression is a complex, ubiquitous phenomenon that impacts behavioral traits and psychological health. Assessing aggression is challenging because aggression constitutes multiple subtraits, such as anger, reactive aggression, and overt aggression. Conventional methods of assessing aggression are susceptible to bias because they mainly rely upon se...

A color-sensitive and spectrometer-free sensing method using plasmonic nanohole arrays and the color components, L* a* and b* of the CIELAB defined by the international commission on illumination (CIE) is introduced for the analysis of optically transparent materials in the visible range. Spectral analysis based on plasmonic nanoparticles or nanost...

The olfactory system can detect many odorants with high sensitivity and selectivity based on the expression of nearly a thousand types of olfactory receptors (ORs) in olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). These ORs have a dynamic odorant detection range and contribute to signal encoding processes in the olfactory bulb (OB). To harness the capabilities...

Classification of waforms measured in the MEA. (a) Representative waveforms measured near supporting cells, (b) representative waveforms measured near somatic area of ORNs, and (c) representative waveforms measured near dendritic area of ORNs.

Waveform of measured field potential. (A) Waveforms of field potential upon IBMP(1 µM, 10 µM, 100 µM) stimulation in the first session. (B) Waveforms of field potential upon IBMP(1 µM, 10 µM, 100 µM) stimulation in the second session.

Waveform of measured field potential. (A) Waveforms of field potential upon three times of 100µM IVA stimulation. (B) Waveforms of field potential upon three times of 100µM citralva stimulation. (C) Waveforms of field potential upon three times of 100µM IBMP stimulation.

Olfactory receptors (ORs) are G protein-coupled receptors that perform important physiological functions beyond their role as odorant detectors in the olfactory sensory neurons. In the present study, we describe a novel role for one of these ORs, mouse olfactory receptor 23 (MOR23), as a regulator of adipogenesis and thermogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells....

A capsule‐type microrobot exhibits “Pick‐and‐Drop” (P&D) motion for possible drug and cell transport via a corkscrew motion. Drugs or cells can be encapsulated in the microrobot's container by the P&D motion or attached to the surface of the cap, which can be used as a cell supporting structure. This work is discussed in article number 1700985 by H...

A capsule-type microrobot exhibits "pick-and-drop" (P&D) motion to hold a particle within a confined volume and transports it via a corkscrewing motion. The P&D motion is possible because the capsule-type microrobot has two parts: a plunger and a cap. The fabricated microrobots are wirelessly controlled by a magnetic manipulator. Drugs or cells can...

The sense of smell, mediated by specialized sensory neurons in the nasal cavity, plays a variety of critical roles in fundamental life events. Mammals have two distinct olfactory systems—the main, and the accessory olfactory system, the latter of which is used mainly to detect pheromones. Similar to the sense of taste, the sense of smell is a form...

Mammalian genomes are well established, and highly conserved regions within odorant receptors that are unique from other G-protein coupled receptors have been identified. Numerous functional studies have focused on specific conserved amino acids motifs, however, not all conserved motifs have been sufficiently characterized. Here, we identified a hi...

Processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) occurs through sequential cleavages first by β-secretase and then by the γ-secretase complex. However, abnormal processing of APP leads to excessive production of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the central nervous system (CNS), an event which is regarded as a primary cause of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In particular,...

A novel cell-stimulation system was fabricated using 10 × 29 piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) arrays for targeted ultrasonic cell stimulation. Both the diameter of a single pMUT element and the edge-to-edge gap were 120 μm, and the size of a pMUT array was 2.27 × 6.84 mm, to be placed at the bottom of a Transwell. The measur...