Vahid Sheibani

• PhD
• Head of Department at Kerman Neuroscience Research Center

Background: Ischemic stroke can lead to cognitive impairment, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been shown to slow down the progression of Alzheimer›s disease (AD). This study focused on rodent models to investigate the impact of ischemic stroke and the potential benefits of aspirin in reducing cognitive impairment. Methods: Th...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent social communication deficits and restricted, repetitive behaviours, with significant overlap in anxiety‐related symptoms. Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the development of ASD, with early‐life stressors, such as maternal separation (M...

Introduction Cortical lesions can cause major sensory and motor impairments, representing a significant challenge in neuroscience and clinical medicine. Limbal mesenchymal stem cells (LMSCs), renowned for their remarkable ability to proliferate and distinct characteristics within the corneal epithelium, offer a promising opportunity for regenerativ...

Introduction In this study, we aimed to investigate the inflammatory factors, oxidative stress, and histopathological consequences of the brain‐gut axis in male and female rats prenatally exposed to VPA. Methods Pregnant Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups. The animals received saline, and valproic acid (VPA) (600 mg/kg, i.p.) on emb...

Monitoring errors consumes limited cognitive resources and can disrupt subsequent task performance in multitasking scenarios. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence concerning this interference with prospective estimation of time. In this study, we sought to investigate this issue through a serial multitasking experiment, employing a temp...

The likelihood of substance dependency in offspring is increased in cases when there is a family history of drug or alcohol use. Mothering is limited by maternal addiction because of the separation. Maternal separation (MS) leads to the development of behavioural and neuropsychiatric issues in the future. Despite the importance of this issue, empir...

Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents an inheritable neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social communication deficits and repetitive behaviors. Numerous studies have underscored the significant roles played by genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of ASD, and these factors are known to perpetuate behavioral imp...

Humans demonstrate significant behavioural advantages with particular perceptual dimensions (such as colour or shape) and when the relevant dimension is repeated in consecutive trials. These dimension‐related behavioural modulations are significantly altered in neuropsychological and addiction disorders; however, their underlying mechanisms remain...

Objectives Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a neurocognitive disorder in which the cognitive and mental abilities of humans are declined. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) is an emerging noninvasive brain stimulation technique aimed at neuromodulation. In this study, we investigate whether high-definition anodal tDCS stimulation (ano...

Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairment in reciprocal social interactions, deficits in communication, and restrictive and repetitive behaviors and interests. In previous studies, music has been identified as an intervention therapy for children with ASD. Objectives The present study ev...

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a highly aggressive malignant primary tumor in the central nervous system. Despite extensive efforts in radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and neurosurgery, there remains an inadequate level of improvement in treatment outcomes. The development of large-scale genomic and proteomic analysis suggests that GBMs are characteri...

Objective Stem cells (SCs) can improve the functional defects of brain injury. Rodents use their whiskers to get tactile information from their surroundings. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the transplantation of SCs into the lesioned barrel cortex can help neuronal function in the contralateral cortex. Materials and Methods Sixte...

Asthma is an inflammatory disorder with significant health problems. It generally affects the lungs but can also impact brain performance via several mechanisms. Some investigations have proposed that asthma impairs cognition. This study assessed the impacts of myrtenol as a monoterpene on cognitive disorders following asthma at behavioral, molecul...

Introduction: Both sleep deprivation (SD) and inflammation can negatively affect cognitive function. This study aimed to investigate how SD impacts the brain’s inflammatory response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and its subsequent effects on cognitive functions. Methods: To this end, male rats were tested through a Morris water maze (MWM) to assess t...

The positive and protective effects of regular exercise on the learning and memory impairments induced by sleep deprivation (SD) have been demonstrated in previous studies, and recently, it was found that miR-191-5p by targeting BDNF as an essential factor in cognitive function causes memory and learning impairments in sleep deprivation conditions....

Maternal morphine exposure has negative consequences for learning and memory in the offspring. Interaction between mothers and pups has a crucial effect on the mammal's development. Maternal Separation (MS) can cause behavioral and neuropsychiatric problems later in life. It seems that adolescents are more susceptible to the effects of early life s...

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that can affect sensory-motor behaviors in the valproic acid (Val) rodent model of autism. Although whisker deprivation (WD) induces plastic changes in the cortical neurons, tactile stimulation (TS) during the neonatal period may reverse it. Here, we investigate the interaction eff...

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and repetitive behavior. Many studies show that the number of cognitive impairmentscan be reduced by antagonists of the histamine H3 receptor (H3R). In this study, the effects of ciproxifan (CPX) (1 and 3 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) on cognitiv...

Purpose: Chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) induces long-term neuronal and synaptic plasticity with a neurohormonal disbalance leading to the development of co-existing anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline. The side effects and delayed onset of current clinically used antidepressants has prompted a quest for antidepressants with minimum drawb...

Background: Neuropathy is a prevalent and debilitating complication of poorly managed diabetes, contributing towards poor quality of life, amputation risk, and increased mortality. The available therapies for diabetic neuropathic pain (DPN) have limitations in terms of efficacy, tolerability and patient compliance. Dysfunction in the peripheral and...

There are general inhibitory effects of exo-cannabinoids on dopamine-mediated behaviors. Many studies suggested the interaction between cannabinoid receptors and dopamine receptors in the brain that affect cognition behaviors. In this paper, we investigate the effects of marijuana on 6-OHDA-induced cognitive impairments and the expression of dopami...

Maternal morphine exposure reduces motivation for basic cognitive tasks, followed by executive function deficits in attention and accuracy. It also induces depression-like behaviors, and has negative consequences for learning and memory in offspring. Interaction between mothers and pups has a crucial effect on the mammal's development. Maternal Sep...

The fungicide mancozeb increases oxygen-free radicals in the central nervous system. As an antioxidant, L-carnitine protects DNA and cell membranes from damage caused by oxygen-free radicals. The present study investigated how L-carnitine affected the acoustic startle response (ASR) in rats exposed to mancozeb. In this experimental study, male Wist...

We do not fully understand the resolution at which temporal information is processed by different species. Here we employed a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task in rats and humans to test the temporal precision with which these species can detect the order of presentation of simple stimuli across two modalities of vision and audition. Both species...

Aim: Disruption in cerebellar inputs, as well as dysfunction of Purkinje cells (PCs), causes a change in the timing of electrical signaling in the cerebellum resulting in disorders such as cerebellar ataxia. Although much clinical and molecular genetics research has been conducted to understand this disorder, there is no specific treatment for cere...

Although ataxia is associated with cerebellar dysfunction, little is known about the effects of ataxia on Purkinje cell electrophysiological properties. Here, we evaluated these parameters in cerebellar vermis brain slices. Purkinje cells were exposed to aCSF (control) or to 1 mM 3-acetyl pyridine (3-AP) in the recording chamber. Effects of a canna...

Background Deficits in cognitive control, particularly inhibition ability, play crucial roles in susceptibility, progress, and relapse to opioid addiction. However, it is unclear when and how such deficits develop and interact with repeated exposures to prescribed opioids. Aim Using macaque monkey ( Macaca mulatta), as an animal model with high tr...

Rationale Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and cognitive behaviors. Histamine H3 receptor (H3R) antagonists are considered as therapeutic factors for treating cognitive impairments. Objectives The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of the H3R antagon...

Cerebellar ataxia is a neurodegenerative disorder leading to severe motor incoordination. Recently, it has been suggested that cannabinoids play a role in modulating ataxic symptoms. To understand the possible therapeutic effect of cannabinoids for the management of cerebellar ataxia, we used cannabinoid agonist/antagonists to target the cannabinoi...

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that can affect social interactions and sensory‐motor behaviors. The present study investigates the effect of environmental enrichment (EE) on behavioral alterations and neuron responses associated with the barrel cortex of young adult female and male rats exposed prenatally to valproic acid (VPA...

The dopaminergic system is a powerful candidate targeted for changes of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Higher incidence of Parkinson's disease (PD) in men than women indicates the influence of sex hormones on the PD development. Previous studies have shown that neurodegenerative diseases such as PD are related to the decline of Allopregnan...

Early life events are known to greatly affect brain development, cortical neurogenesis, and Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity. Mainly characterized by impairment in social communication, language, and cognitive development, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a class of neuropsychiatric disorders with numerous genetic and environmental r...

Cerebellar ataxia is a neurodegenerative disorder leading to severe motor incoordination. Recently it has been suggested that cannabinoids play a role in modulation of ataxic symptoms. In order to understand the possible therapeutic effect of cannabinoids for management of cerebellar ataxia, we used cannabinoid agonist/antagonists to target the can...

Adverse early life experiences influence behavioral and physiological functions and increase vulnerability to neuropsychiatric disorders. Maternal separation (MS) is an established animal model that reproduces the features of chronic stress or adverse experiences during early life. Previous studies have been shown that MS may lead to impairments of...

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is a neuroinvasive protozoa pathogen that could manipulate its intermediate host's behavior. However, the possible link between T. gondii infection and the development of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) has been proposed, we tested the hypothesis that in chronic toxoplasmosis neuroinflamma...

Introduction: Success in anesthesia administration relieves the perception of pain during surgery. Lidocaine is the most commonly used local anesthetic agent in clinical medicine. Moreover, anesthetic agents' temperature changes can influence cell membrane permeability. Here, the effectiveness of different temperatures of Lidocaine (Lid.) on anest...

Maternal separation (MS) is a model to induce permanent alternations in the central nervous system (CNS) and is associated with increased levels of anxiety and cognitive deficiencies. Since Methyl donor choline (Ch) has been shown to play a significant role in learning and memory and enhances synaptic plasticity, the authors hypothesized that Ch ma...

Early-life experiences, including parental care, affect cognitive performance later in life. Being exposed to early-life maternal separation (MS) increases susceptibility to stress-related psychopathology. Previous studies suggest that MS could induce learning and memory impairments. Since enriched environment (EE) provides more opportunities for e...

It has been shown that systemic and local administration of ultra-low dose morphine induced a hyperalgesic response via mu-opioid receptors. However, its exact mechanism(s) has not fully been clarified. It is documented that mu-opioid receptors functionally couple to T-type voltage dependent Ca⁺² channels. Here, we investigated the role of T-type c...

Humans and macaque monkeys, performing a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), show a significant behavioral bias to a particular sensory dimension (e.g. color or shape); however, lesions in prefrontal cortical regions do not abolish the dimensional biases in monkeys and, therefore, it has been proposed that these biases emerge in earlier stages of v...

Objective: Separation of pups from their dam during the infancy not only has detrimental effects on the pups' brain but also affects dams' behavior. Postpartum stress may affect mothers' cognitive functions. In the present study, by using a 180 min/day maternal separation (MS) paradigm, we assessed anxiety- like behavior and locomotor activity of...

Background: Cannabinoid system affects memory and has anticonvulsant effects in epileptic models. In the current study, the role of cannabinoid 1 (CB1) receptors was investigated in amelioration of the effects of low-frequency stimulation (LFS) on learning and memory impairments in kindled rats. Methods: Electrical stimulation of the hippocampal...

Social and emotional content of environmental stimuli influence executive control of behavior. There has been a great variability in the behavioral effects of emotional stimuli in humans. These variabilities might arise from other contextual factors, such as specific task demands or natural hormones, which potentially interact with emotional stimul...

Damage to somatosensory "barrel" cortex reduces the rats' behavioral sensitivity in discrimination of tactile stimuli. Here, we examined how transplantation of stem cells into the lesioned barrel cortex can help in recovery of sensory capacities. We induced mechanical lesions in the right barrel cortex area of male rats. Three days after lesioning,...

Using marijuana has become popular and is allowed for medical purposes in some countries. The effect of marijuana on Parkinson's disease is controversial and Medical marijuana may benefit for motor and non-motor symptoms of patients with Parkinson's disease. No research has been conducted to fully prove the benefits, risks, and uses of marijuana as...

Kindling results in abnormal synaptic potentiation and significant impairment in learning and memory. Electromagnetic field (EMF) effects on learning and memory in kindled animals and its effects on hippocampal neural activity are largely unknown. In the current study, the effects of EMF on learning and memory, as well as hippocampal synaptic plast...

Objectives: The contribution of classic progesterone receptors (PR) in interceding the neuroprotective efficacy of progesterone (P4) on the prevention of brain edema and long-time behavioral disturbances was assessed in traumatic brain injury (TBI). Materials and methods: Female Wistar rats were ovariectomized and apportioned into 6 groups: sham...

Introduction Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive brain disorder accompanied with synaptic failures and decline in cognitive and learning processes. Protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1) is the major thrombin receptor in the brain that is implicated in synaptic plasticity and memory formation. In the current study, we hypothesized that inhibiti...

Background: Separation of pups from their dam during the infancy not only has detrimental effects on the pups’ brain but also affects dams’ behavior. Postpartum stress may affect mothers’ cognitive functions. In the present study, by using a 180 min/day maternal separation (MS) paradigm, we assessed anxiety- like behavior (in the elevated plus maze...

Methamphetamine (METH) may cause long‒lasting neurotoxic effects and cognitive impairment. On the other hand, the ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone have neuroprotective effects. In the current study, we aimed to examine the effects of estrogen and progesterone on anxiety‒like behavior and neuronal damage in METH‒exposed ovariectomized (OVX...

Processing advantages for particular colors (color‐hierarchies) influence emotional regulation and cognitive functions in humans and manifest as an advantage of the red color, compared with the green color, in triggering response inhibition but not in response execution. It remains unknown how such color‐hierarchies emerge in human cognition and wh...

The amygdala has been demonstrated to contribute to pain-related behavior and food preference. Here, the effect of pain on food preference and food-matched visual-cue memory, in the presence or absence of a basolateral amygdala (BLA) lesion, has been evaluated using a novel innovative apparatus and protocol. Forty adult male Wistar rats were random...

The hippocampus is involved in learning and memory for novel information and implicated within the cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease. Long-term potentiation (LTP), the most type of synaptic plasticity, is the base of learning and memory. We evaluated the consequences of apelin-13 on early long-term potentiation (E-LTP) in the Cornu Ammon...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most prevalent disorder that occurs after experiencing life-threatening traumatic or stressful events. The most prevalent problems among PTSD patients are cognitive dysfunctions, including learning and memory impairments. Listening to music has constructive effects on brain functions, neurogenesis, and n...

Maternal separation (MS) is known to induce permanent changes in the central nervous system and is associated with increased levels of anxiety and cognitive impairments. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has been implicated in a broad spectrum of social and nonsocial and behaviors. Since it plays a significant role in learning and memory and enhances...

Purpose/aim of the study Whiskers are important sensory organs that play a key role in rodents' discriminative and exploration behaviours and unilateral injuries of the somatosensory cortex related to whisker barrel cortex can change the activity of neurons in the intact contralateral barrel cortex. We evaluated the effects of unilateral mechanical...

Abstract Background: Opioids are effective analgesics in the management of chronic pain. However, their clinical use is hindered by adverse side effects such as addiction and analgesic tolerance. Naringenin is a common polyphenolic constituent of the citrus fruits and is one of the most commonly consumed flavonoids within our regular diet. However...

Early life adversity (ELA) is a predisposing factor for the development of behavioral and emotional disorders later in life. In humans, primates and rodents, interruption in the mother-infant relationships, and disorganized maternal care negatively influence appropriate behavioral responses and may cause cognitive deficits. Epidemiological studies...

Introduction: Previous studies demonstrated that forced and voluntary exercise had ameliorative effects on behavioral tasks followed by Sleep Deprivation (SD) in intact female rats. The main goal of this research was evaluating the impact of voluntary exercise on cognitive functions while SD and ovariectomization is induced in female wistar rats....

Aim of study This investigation evaluated the capacity of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) as the main polyphenolic compound in the green tea extract against memory impairment and neurotoxicity in morphine-treated rats. Methods To measure the EGCG effect (5 and 50 mg/kg, i.p., co-treated with morphine) on spatial learning and memory of morphine-a...

This study aims to explore whether orexin 1 receptors (Orx1R) in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray matter (vlPAG) play a role in the modulation of migraine headaches in adult male Wistar rats. To model chronic migraine-associated pain, nitroglycerin (NTG) (5 mg/kg/IP) was administered to test subjects every second day for 9 days. After the last...

Methylphenidate (MPH) abuse is prevalent among youth. Drug abuse results in pain perception. We sought to investigate whether Maternal separation (MS) prone to MPH addiction. The next question was whether MPH abusers with MS differ in pain perception. We investigated the impact of MS on addiction and drug reward as well as pain perception following...

Rodents are highly dependent on maternal care after birth. Maternal separation (MS) is an animal model for studying neglect and abuse. Depriving the pup of such care renders the animal with Hypothalamic–Pituitary–adrenal (HPA) dysfunction and these animals are more susceptible to anxiety and stress as well as poor cognition. These effects are due t...

Prenatal stress (PS) exposure leads to cognitive and behavioral alterations in offspring including an increased risk of substance abuse and anxiety disorders. Signalling from dopamine (DA) neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in the mesoaccumbal and mesocortical pathways plays a vital role in drug dependency and anxiety behavior. To provide...

The TGF-β1-Smad pathway is a well-known negative regulator of muscle growth; however, its potential role in resistance training-induced muscle hypertrophy is not clear. The present study proposed to determine whether and how this pathway may be involved in resistance training-induced muscle hypertrophy. Skeletal muscle samples were collected from t...

Early-life experiences, including parental care, affects cognitive performance later in life. In primates and rodents, being exposed to long early-life maternal separation (MS) increases susceptibility to stress-related psychopathology. Previous studies suggest that MS leads to learning and memory impairments. Since enriched environment (EE) provid...

Previous studies have indicated that forced exercise plays a preventive role in synaptic plasticity deficits in the hippocampus and behavioral impairments in sleep-deprived male and female rats. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of voluntary exercise on early long-term potentiation (E-LTP) at the Cornu Ammonis (CA1) are...

The present study investigated the impacts of alcohol, nicotine, and their co-administration during pregnancy and lactation on sensory information processing including visual, tactile, and auditory discrimination in adult NMRI mice offspring. Pregnant mice were injected with saline or 20% alcohol (3g/kg), or nicotine (1mg/kg) or their co-administra...

Objective: Zataria multiflora (Zm) has been proposed for memory enhancing in Persian traditional medicine; but to now, no study has been carried out in this field yet. The aim of this research was to study the plant effect on spatial memory in scopolamine-induced amnesia and investigate in vivo anticholinesterase effect of Zm. Material and method...

Racing thought, when patients incessantly shift from one word or sentence to another while pending previous ones unfinished, is a symptom of (hypo)mania in bipolar disorders received less attention hitherto. Here, based on few evidence, we aim to unfold our hypothetical viewpoint that the frontopolar cortex that is believed to play a part in multit...

Chronic exposure to opioids is the most common treatment plan to reduce the pain. In this study, the stereotyped behaviors and cognitive functions related to different types of tactile and auditory inputs were investigated in the rats following chronic exposure to the morphine, methadone, and buprenorphine. Here, three addicted groups received morp...

Mother-infant interactions influence the development of physiology and behavior during the first weeks after birth. As an adverse early life experience, maternal separation (MS) produces behavioral and neuroendocrine functions disorders associated with the hippocampus. Considering the critical role of long-term potentiation (LTP) in learning and me...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive and loss of dopaminergic neurons in the SNpc. Behavioral symptoms and cognitive impairments even dementia are common in Parkinson disease. Physical activity impacts functional recovery in humans, however, its effects in experimental animals submitted to Parkinson m...

Introduction: MS (Multiple Sclerosis) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Cognitive impairments occurs in MS patients including learning and memory impairments. More than 50% of MS patients suffer from sleep problems. It has been suggested that in animal models exercise has direct neuroprotective effects o...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of paradoxical sleep deprivation (PSD) on the BDNF-related miRNA expression in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. The animals were randomly divided into eight groups (control, PSD, wide platform, sham surgery, anti-miR-191, anti-miR-191/PSD, scrambled and PSD in intact). Bilateral-ovariectomy was performe...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the acute effects of combined use of marijuana and Methylphenidate (MPD) on cognition performance of male rats. Rats received marijuana, MPD and co-administration of effective & ineffective doses of both. Spatial learning and memory were evaluated by Morris Water Maze (MWM) apparatus. MPD revealed signif...

Objectives: The protective effect of regular running on sleep deprivation (SD)-induced cognitive impairment has been revealed. In this study, we focused on the effects of regular exercise, sleep deprivation and both of them together on the microRNA-1b (miR-1b) expression and their relation to the behavioral parameters and brain-derived neurotrophi...

Background music is one of the most frequently encountered contextual factors that affects cognitive and emotional functions in humans. However, it is still unclear whether music induces similar effects in non-human primates. Answering this question might bring insight to the long-lasting question regarding the ability of non-human primates in perc...

The striatum plays a critical role in motor control and also learning and memory of motor skills. It has been reported that striatal synaptic components are significantly decreased in dopaminergic-denervated striatum. In this study the effects of apelin-13 were investigated on motor disorders and striatal synaptosomal expression of PSD-95, neurexin...

Introduction: The current study aimed at evaluating the effects of Zataria Multiflora (ZM) on learning and memory of adult male offspring rats with prenatal lead-exposure. Methods: Pregnant rats in the case group received tap water containing 0.2% lead acetate throughout the gestation period. Control rats had free access to lead-free tap water. Two...

Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) has been considered as an effective medication for opioid dependence. However there are reports of methamphetamine abuse among MMT patients due to greater desired effects and fewer side effects than either substance alone. Little research has been done on the effects of methamphetamine abuse on cognitive behavior...

Background: Ducrosia anethifolia has been recommended as a remedy for neurological disorders. However, the anticonvulsant effects of D. anethifolia essential oil (DAEO) and its major constituent α-pinene have not yet been clarified. Methods: A rat model of pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced convulsions was used. Oxidant and antioxidant parameters...

Males and females can respond differentially to the same environmental stimuli and experimental conditions. Chronic sleep loss is a frequent and growing problem in many modern societies and has a broad variety of negative outcomes for health and well-being. While much has been done to explore the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation (SD) on cog...

Introduction Transient cerebral ischemia is a pandemic neurological disorder and the main aim of medical intervention is to reduce complications. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal cells (hUCMs) are capable of differentiating into neural-like cells (NLC) in vitro , therefore we investigated the neuroprotective potential of these cells in comparison t...

Background and Aim: The positive effects of exercise on brain function and increased expression of neuronal growth factors, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor or (BDNF), have been proven. To the further investigate the molecular mechanisms of these changes, As well a s knowing that miR-10b is one of the BDNF expression regulators, the eff...

Current models suggest that neuropeptide oxytocin modulates the salience of emotional/social stimuli and consequently influences perceptual, attentional and learning processes that underlie social behaviour. Therefore, oxytocin has been considered as a potential treatment in managing social and communication deficits in neuropsychological disorders...