Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0020175 (hunger)
 5,670 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Little is known about the physiological mechanisms subserving the experience of air hunger and the affective control of breathing in humans. Acute hunger for air after inhalation of CO(2) was studied in nine healthy volunteers with positron emission tomography. Subjective breathlessness was manipulated while end-tidal CO(2-) was held constant. Subjects experienced a significantly greater sense of air hunger breathing through a face mask than through a mouthpiece. The statistical contrast between the two conditions delineated a distributed network of primarily limbic/paralimbic brain regions, including multiple foci in dorsal anterior and middle cingulate gyrus, insula/claustrum, amygdala/periamygdala, lingual and middle temporal gyrus, hypothalamus, pulvinar, and midbrain. This pattern of activations was confirmed by a correlational analysis with breathlessness ratings. The commonality of regions of mesencephalon, diencephalon and limbic/paralimbic areas involved in primal emotions engendered by the basic vegetative systems including hunger for air, thirst, hunger, pain, micturition, and sleep, is discussed with particular reference to the cingulate gyrus. A theory that the phylogenetic origin of consciousness came from primal emotions engendered by immediate threat to the existence of the organism is discussed along with an alternative hypothesis by Edelman that primary awareness emerged with processes of ongoing perceptual categorization giving rise to a scene [Edelman, G. M. (1992) Bright Air, Brilliant Fire (Penguin, London)].
 ...
PMID:Brain responses associated with consciousness of breathlessness (air hunger). 1117 71

Male Wistar rats were separated according to the "emotional resonance" method (groups of animals avoiding ("altruists") and not avoiding ("egotists") the pain cries of partner rats) and neuron activity in the prefrontal areas of the cortex was studied in the right and left hemispheres. Assessments were made of changes in the frequency of nerve cell spike activity (in relation to the baseline activity of neurons in sated animals) in rats subjected to one day of food deprivation and after electrical stimulation of emotionally positive (lateral hypothalamus) and negative (tegmentum of the midbrain) brain structures and after exposure to the pain cries of partner rats. The results of these experiments revealed a series of differences in the cell activities of the two groups of rats. In conditions of hunger, the discharge frequency in the "altruists" was higher than that in "egotists." Cortical neuron responses to positive stimulation were greater than those to negative stimulation in rats of both groups. Intracerebral stimulation produced significantly greater increases in discharge frequency in neurons of both prefrontal areas of the cortex in "altruists" than in "egotists." In both groups of rats, neurons in the right hemisphere responded to emotionally negative stimulation with significantly greater activation than cells in the left hemisphere, while activity in the left hemisphere was greater in conditions of emotionally positive stimulation. "Altruists" showed significantly greater neuron responses during exposure to pain cries from "victim" rats in both the right and left hemispheres. The responses of "egotists" to "victim" cries were not significantly different from baseline activity levels.
 ...
PMID:Neuron activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain in rats with different typological characteristics in conditions of emotional stimulation. 1143 May 74

A questionnaire to diagnose dyspepsia was created. The questionnaire consists in 9 items written in very clear and understandable language and related to the cardinal symptoms of dyspepsia (easy sensation of fullness, postprandial epigastric fullness, heartburn, regurgitation, nausea, vomiting, postprandial epigastric pain, excessive belching and hunger pain). The questionnaire also includes a system of quantification levels for each symptom, taking into account its frequency and intensity of presentation in the previous two weeks: 1 point, if the symptom did not bother at all or only infrequently; 2 points, if it bothered only a little; 3 points, if it bothered moderately; and 4 points, if it bothered a lot. The questionnaire was applied to 40 patients with dyspepsia and 20 healthy control subjects, and their answers were compared with data obtained by anamnesis. For the comparison, three criteria were considered to define, with the questionnaire, the existence of dyspepsia: A) Presence of a minimum of 2 symptoms, and at least one of them with a quantification level of 2 points or more; B) Presence of a minimum of 2 symptoms, and at least one of them with a quantification level of 3 points or more; and C) Presence of a minimum of 2 symptoms with a quantification level of 3 points or more. Of these three criteria, criterion B was found to be the best, and following it, the sensitivity and specificity of the questionnaire were, respectively, 95% and 100%. The new questionnaire will be, for sure, a useful instrument to accurately investigate dyspepsia, specially in large population groups.
 ...
PMID:A new questionnaire for the diagnosis of dyspepsia. 1213 88

Air hunger (uncomfortable urge to breathe) is a component of dyspnea (shortness of breath). Three human H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography (PET) studies have identified activation of phylogenetically ancient structures in limbic and paralimbic regions during dyspnea. Other studies have shown activation of these structures during other sensations that alert the organism to urgent homeostatic imbalance: pain, thirst, and hunger for food. We employed blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine activation during air hunger. fMRI conferred several advantages over PET: enhanced signal-to-noise, greater spatial resolution, and lack of ionizing radiation, enabling a greater number of trials in each subject. Six healthy men and women were mechanically ventilated at 12-14 breaths/min. The primary experiment was conducted at mean end-tidal PCO(2) of 41 Torr. Moderate to severe air hunger was evoked during 42-s epochs of lower tidal volume (mean = 0.75 L). Subjects described the sensation as "like breath-hold," "urge to breathe," and "starved for air." In the baseline condition, air hunger was consistently relieved by epochs of higher tidal volume (mean = 1.47 L). A control experiment in the same subjects under a background of mild hypocapnia (mean end-tidal PCO(2) = 33 Torr) employed similar tidal volumes but did not evoke air hunger, controlling for stimulus variables not related to dyspnea. During each experiment, we maintained constant end-tidal PCO(2) and PO(2) to avoid systematic changes in global cerebral blood flow. Whole-brain images were acquired every 5 s (T2*, 56 slices, voxel resolution 3 x 3 x 3 mm). Activations associated with air hunger were determined using voxel-based interaction analysis of covariance that compared data between primary and control experiments (SPM99). We detected activations not seen in the earlier PET study using a similar air hunger stimulus (Banzett et al. 2000). Limbic and paralimbic loci activated in the present study were within anterior insula (seen in all 3 published studies of dyspnea), anterior cingulate, operculum, cerebellum, amygdala, thalamus, and basal ganglia. Elements of frontoparietal attentional networks were also identified. The consistency of anterior insular activation across subjects in this study and across published studies suggests that the insula is essential to dyspnea perception, although present data suggest that the insula acts in concert with a larger neural network.
 ...
PMID:BOLD fMRI identifies limbic, paralimbic, and cerebellar activation during air hunger. 1220 70

In order to best understand the impact of AIDS on a national level, it may be more important to understand its impact on the magnitude and severity of poverty than on national economic growth. It may also be true that the primary economic impact of AIDS is the concentrated breakdown of vulnerable structures such as the family, community, or even nations. The larger the structure, the more likely it can withstand collapse by distributing the impact, but vulnerability to collapse must be understood to avoid the catastrophe of breakdown. Rwanda may present the first example of the latter. Its AIDS prevalence was among the highest in the world, and the prevalence rate among members of the military was even higher. If studies consider the impact of HIV infection in terms of direct and indirect costs only, more dollars would be saved by preventing one case in the US than in most other countries. If, on the other hand, a hunger index is used (for each case of HIV how many people will go hungry and how many formerly hungry people will become malnourished), the greatest prevention benefit would probably occur in Uganda. In order to understand how economic factors fuel the epidemic and determine its impact, more socioeconomic data must be collected. When making the economic choices that maximize benefits to AIDS victims, the difficulty occurs in defining benefit. Most developing countries cannot provide the resources to prolong life and avert disability. However, there are ways to alleviate the impact of AIDS which all countries can afford: reducing pain, removing the barriers of discrimination, providing support groups, and helping people with the activities of daily life. In order to design the appropriate comprehensive care approaches in different settings, more data must be collected on how HIV-infected individuals perceive the impact of the disease on their lives.
 ...
PMID:Adding the human dimension to economic analysis: why DALYs don't tell the whole story. 1228 11

BACKGROUND: The aims of this study were to investigate the frequency of halitosis before and after eradication therapy and to determine whether halitosis is a valid indication for eradication therapy in patients with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)-positive non-ulcer dyspepsia. METHODS: Dyspepsia, related symptoms, and halitosis were investigated by way of a questionnaire. Only H. pylori-positive patients who showed no organic lesions on endoscopic examination and no atrophy histopathologically were included. A total of 148 patients fulfilled the above criteria and completed the study. Four weeks after the end of eradication treatment, the symptoms were re-evaluated and repeat endoscopy was done to check for H. pylori in the gastric mucosa. Results: H. pylori eradication was successful in 109 patients (73.6%). Prior to treatment, bloating was the most frequent symptom (74.3%), followed by diurnal pain (62.2%) and halitosis (61.5%). The most successfully resolved symptoms in the group as a whole, regardless of eradication status, were halitosis, diurnal pain, and hunger-like pain, respectively. In the patients with confirmed H. pylori eradication, the most successfully resolved symptoms were halitosis and hunger-like pain, respectively. CONCLUSION: Halitosis is a frequent, but treatable, symptom of H. pylori-positive non-ulcer dyspepsia and may be a valid indication for eradication therapy.
 ...
PMID:Halitosis in patients with Helicobacter pylori-positive non-ulcer dyspepsia: an indication for eradication therapy? 1255 10

We propose that neural representations of motivational drives, including sexual desire, hunger, thirst, fear, power-dominance, the motivational aspect of pain, the need for sleep, and nurturance, are represented in four areas in the brain. These are located in the medial hypothalamic/preoptic area, the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) in the midbrain/pons, the midline and intralaminar thalamic nuclei, and in the anterior part of the mesial cortex, including the medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate areas. We attempt to determine the locations of each of these representations within the hypothalamus/preoptic area, periaqueductal gray and cortex, based on the available literature on activation of brain structures by stimuli that evoke these forms of motivation, on the effects of electrical and chemical stimulation and lesions of candidate structures, and on hodological data. We discuss the hierarchical organization of the representations for a given drive, outputs from these representations to premotor structures in the medulla, caudate-putamen, and cortex, and their contributions to involuntary, learned-sequential (operant) and voluntary behaviors.
 ...
PMID:Representations of motivational drives in mesial cortex, medial thalamus, hypothalamus and midbrain. 1278 5

Pain is conventionally viewed as a pattern of convergent activity within the somatosensory system that represents the exteroceptive sense of touch. Accumulating functional, anatomical and imaging findings indicate that pain is generated by specific sensory channels that ascend in a central homeostatic afferent pathway. Phylogenetically new thalamocortical projections in primates provide a sensory image of the physiological condition of the body and, in addition, direct activation of limbic motor cortex. These findings indicate that the human feeling of pain is both a distinct sensation and a motivation - that is, a specific emotion that reflects homeostatic behavioral drive, similar to temperature, itch, hunger and thirst.
 ...
PMID:A new view of pain as a homeostatic emotion. 1279 99

Converging evidence indicates that primates have a distinct cortical image of homeostatic afferent activity that reflects all aspects of the physiological condition of all tissues of the body. This interoceptive system, associated with autonomic motor control, is distinct from the exteroceptive system (cutaneous mechanoreception and proprioception) that guides somatic motor activity. The primary interoceptive representation in the dorsal posterior insula engenders distinct highly resolved feelings from the body that include pain, temperature, itch, sensual touch, muscular and visceral sensations, vasomotor activity, hunger, thirst, and 'air hunger'. In humans, a meta-representation of the primary interoceptive activity is engendered in the right anterior insula, which seems to provide the basis for the subjective image of the material self as a feeling (sentient) entity, that is, emotional awareness.
 ...
PMID:Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. 1296

My conclusions are these: (i) The cells which mediate primary rewarding effects are located in a midline system running from the midbrain through the hypothalamus and midline thalamus and into the subcortical and cortical groups of the rhinencephalon. (ii) The cell groups which mediate primary rewarding effects are different from those which mediate primary punishing effects. (iii) Despite this relative independence, there are, undoubtedly, relationships of mutual inhibition existing between these two systems. Rewards do, among other things, tend to reduce sensitivity to pain, and punishments do tend to reduce rewarding effects. (iv) These primary reward systems of the brain are subdivided into specific drive-reward subsystems mediating the specific drives such as hunger and sex. (v) Because there are also subsystems of this set of rewarding structures sensitive to different chemical effects, it is reasonable to hope that eventually it will be possible to control the reward systems pharmacologically in cases where behavior disorders seem to result from deficits or surfeits of positive motivation.
 ...
PMID:Self-stimulation of the brain; its use to study local effects of hunger, sex, and drugs. 1350 79


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>