Research Highlight |
Featured
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Career Q&A |
Defying the stereotype of Black resilience
As head of the Black In Neuro network, Kaela S. Singleton argues that Black success should not require hardship or struggle.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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Research Briefing |
Monkey business: primates’ social life tracked with wireless neuronal recording
Primates have rich social lives orchestrated by brain circuits that are still poorly understood, partly because they have not been studied under naturalistic conditions. New wireless technology for recording neuronal activity in freely moving monkeys enabled insights into how neurons track natural social interactions, including reciprocity and social support towards a partner.
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Comment |
Heed lessons from past studies involving transgender people: first, do no harm
Decades of neuroscientific work have focused on exploring a biological basis for transgender identity — but researchers must take societal factors into account.
- Mathilde Kennis
- , Robin Staicu
- & Felix Duecker
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News |
Autistic people three times more likely to develop Parkinson’s-like symptoms
Largest study of its kind also finds increased risk in older adults with a range of intellectual disabilities.
- Miryam Naddaf
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: How does ChatGPT ‘think’? Psychology and neuroscience crack open AI large language models
To understand the 'brains' of LLMs, researchers are attempting to reverse-engineering artificial intelligence systems.
- Matthew Hutson
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News |
These crows have counting skills previously only seen in people
The corvids are the first animals other than humans known to produce a deliberate number of calls on command.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News & Views |
Seed-stashing chickadees overturn ideas about location memory
Certain neurons encode memories of events that occurred in specific physical locations known as place fields. Chickadees show patterns of neuronal activity that are specific to locations of hidden food but independent of place fields.
- Margaret M. Donahue
- & Laura Lee Colgin
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Article
| Open AccessMapping model units to visual neurons reveals population code for social behaviour
A deep neural network with ‘knockout training’ is used to model sensorimotor transformations and neural perturbations of male Drosophila melanogaster during visually guided social behaviour and provides predictions and insights into relationships between stimuli, neurons and behaviour.
- Benjamin R. Cowley
- , Adam J. Calhoun
- & Mala Murthy
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News & Views |
Neural pathways for reward and relief promote fentanyl addiction
Neuroscientists find that two distinct neural pathways are responsible for the addictive properties of the opioid fentanyl: one mediates reward, the other promotes the seeking of relief from symptoms of withdrawal.
- Markus Heilig
- & Michele Petrella
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News & Views |
AI networks reveal how flies find a mate
Artificial neural networks that model the visual system of a male fruit fly can accurately predict the insect’s behaviour in response to seeing a potential mate — paving the way for the building of more complex models of brain circuits.
- Pavan Ramdya
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Research Briefing |
How the same brain cells can represent both the perception and memory of faces
Long-term memories are thought to be represented by the same brain areas as those that encode sensory stimuli, but the mechanisms remain unclear. A study that recorded neural activity from face-selective regions of the macaque brain found that these regions represent familiar faces using a neural code that is distinct from the one for sensory representation.
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Article
| Open AccessDistinct µ-opioid ensembles trigger positive and negative fentanyl reinforcement
Experiments using fentanyl treatment of mice show that µ-opioid receptors mediate positive reinforcement in the ventral tegmental area and negative reinforcement in central amygdala, thereby identifying the circuits that lead to opioid addiction.
- Fabrice Chaudun
- , Laurena Python
- & Christian Lüscher
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Article
| Open AccessKainate receptor channel opening and gating mechanism
Structures of the kainate receptor GluK2 with and without concanavilin A and BPAM344 show how these ligands modulate channel activity and reveal the molecular basis of kainate receptor gating.
- Shanti Pal Gangwar
- , Maria V. Yelshanskaya
- & Alexander I. Sobolevsky
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News |
First ‘bilingual’ brain-reading device decodes Spanish and English words
Artificial-intelligence system allows a man who cannot speak coherently to have a conversation in the language of his choice.
- Amanda Heidt
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Nature Podcast |
Lizard-inspired building design could save lives
How knocking down a building helped researchers design a safer structure, and a sustainable 3D printing resin made from a bodybuilding supplement.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Elizabeth Gibney
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Article
| Open AccessTemporal multiplexing of perception and memory codes in IT cortex
We examined how familiar faces are encoded in inferotemporal, perirhinal and temporal pole face patches, and found that relative response magnitude to familiar versus unfamiliar faces was not a stable indicator of familiarity in any patch.
- Liang She
- , Marcus K. Benna
- & Doris Y. Tsao
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Article
| Open AccessVolatile working memory representations crystallize with practice
Delay- and choice-related activities that are essential for working-memory performance drift during learning and stabilize only after several days of expert performance.
- Arash Bellafard
- , Ghazal Namvar
- & Peyman Golshani
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Article |
Evolution of a novel adrenal cell type that promotes parental care
The adrenal gland of the oldfield mouse (Peromyscus polionotus) has a recently evolved cell type that promotes monogamous-typical parenting behaviour and is not present in closely related species.
- Natalie Niepoth
- , Jennifer R. Merritt
- & Andres Bendesky
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News Feature |
How does ChatGPT ‘think’? Psychology and neuroscience crack open AI large language models
Researchers are striving to reverse-engineer artificial intelligence and scan the ‘brains’ of LLMs to see what they are doing, how and why.
- Matthew Hutson
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News |
Brain-reading device is best yet at decoding ‘internal speech’
Technology that enables researchers to interpret brain signals could one day allow people to talk using only their thoughts.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
Cubic millimetre of brain mapped in spectacular detail
Google scientists have modelled a fragment of the human brain at nanoscale resolution, revealing cells with previously undiscovered features.
- Carissa Wong
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Article |
Retuning of hippocampal representations during sleep
Using a Bayesian learning approach, a study tracks the spatial representations by individual hippocampal cells over time in freely moving rats, and provides insights into how ensemble patterns form and reconfigure during sleep.
- Kourosh Maboudi
- , Bapun Giri
- & Kamran Diba
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Research Briefing |
Toad psychedelic points to biological target for antidepressants
A hallucinogenic compound secreted by toads has served as a springboard for research into the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. The findings suggest that these compounds exert antidepressant effects in part by binding an under-appreciated target in the brain.
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Article |
Structural pharmacology and therapeutic potential of 5-methoxytryptamines
Detailed analyses of the serotonin receptor 5-HT1A and the psychedelic 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine reveal the differences in receptor structural pharmacology that mediate signalling specificity, efficacy and potency, findings that may facilitate the development of new neuropsychiatric therapeutics.
- Audrey L. Warren
- , David Lankri
- & Daniel Wacker
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Article |
A body–brain circuit that regulates body inflammatory responses
- Hao Jin
- , Mengtong Li
- & Charles S. Zuker
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Comment |
Male–female comparisons are powerful in biomedical research — don’t abandon them
Binary sex studies have been denounced as too simplistic, but dropping them altogether would impede progress in a long-neglected area of biomedicine.
- Arthur P. Arnold
- , Sabra L. Klein
- & Jeffrey S. Mogil
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News |
Found: the dial in the brain that controls the immune system
Scientists identify the brain cells that regulate inflammation, and pinpoint how they keep tabs on the immune response.
- Giorgia Guglielmi
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Article
| Open AccessSleep pressure modulates single-neuron synapse number in zebrafish
Synapses are gained during spontaneous or forced periods of wake and lost during sleep in a neuron-subtype-dependent manner in zebrafish.
- Anya Suppermpool
- , Declan G. Lyons
- & Jason Rihel
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Article
| Open AccessChromatin accessibility during human first-trimester neurodevelopment
A study describes chromatin accessibility and paired gene expression across the entire developing human brain during the first trimester in the context of gene regulation and neurodevelopmental disease.
- Camiel C. A. Mannens
- , Lijuan Hu
- & Sten Linnarsson
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Article |
Structural and molecular basis of choline uptake into the brain by FLVCR2
FLVCR2 is expressed in the blood–brain barrier of mouse and human, and is the major mediator of choline uptake into the brain.
- Rosemary J. Cater
- , Dibyanti Mukherjee
- & Filippo Mancia
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Research Briefing |
Elephant-nose fish ‘see’ farther by electric sensing when in groups
The elephant-nose fish senses its environment by emitting electrical pulses. A multi-pronged investigation suggests that this remarkable sensing ability is amplified in social groups by individuals ‘listening in’ on the pulses of their neighbours.
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: Why loneliness is bad for your health
New research is revealing the mechanisms linking loneliness and conditions like dementia, depression and cardiovascular disease.
- Saima May Sidik
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News |
Rat neurons repair mouse brains — and restore sense of smell
Scientists develop hybrid mice by filling in missing cells and structures in their brains with rat stem cells.
- Sara Reardon
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Article
| Open AccessAntisense oligonucleotide therapeutic approach for Timothy syndrome
Antisense oligonucleotides effectively decrease the inclusion of exon 8A of CACNA1C in human cells both in vitro and in rodents transplanted with human brain organoids, and a single intrathecal administration rescued both calcium changes and in vivo dendrite morphology of patient neurons.
- Xiaoyu Chen
- , Fikri Birey
- & Sergiu P. Pașca
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Article
| Open AccessWhole-cortex in situ sequencing reveals input-dependent area identity
BARseq interrogates the expression of 104 cell-type marker genes in 10.3 million cells over nine mouse forebrain hemispheres to reveal the role of peripheral inputs on cortical area development.
- Xiaoyin Chen
- , Stephan Fischer
- & Anthony M. Zador
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News |
How to freeze a memory: putting worms on ice stops them forgetting
The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans is quick to forget a notable odour — unless it is chilled or given lithium.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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News |
Your perception of time is skewed by what you see
Features of a scene such as size and clutter can affect the brain’s sense of how much time has passed while observing it.
- Lilly Tozer
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News |
Do insects have an inner life? Animal consciousness needs a rethink
A declaration signed by dozens of scientists says there is ‘a realistic possibility’ for elements of consciousness in reptiles, insects and molluscs.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News |
Why queasiness kills hunger: brain circuit identified
Feelings of hunger, nausea and fullness seem to be governed by separate brain circuits, finds a study in mice.
- Gillian Dohrn
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Article
| Open AccessControl of working memory by phase–amplitude coupling of human hippocampal neurons
Hippocampal theta–gamma phase–amplitude coupling integrates cognitive control and working memory storage across brain areas in humans.
- Jonathan Daume
- , Jan Kamiński
- & Ueli Rutishauser
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News & Views |
Coupled neural activity controls working memory in humans
How does the human brain temporarily store information without losing track of it? Neuroscientists have discovered that neurons in the frontal and temporal lobes work together to hold information in working memory.
- Ziv Williams
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News & Views |
The sympathetic nervous system arose in the earliest vertebrates
The sympathetic nervous system, which enables the fight-or-flight response, was thought to be present only in jawed vertebrates. Analysis of a jawless vertebrate suggests that this system might be a feature of all animals with a spine.
- Uwe Ernsberger
- & Hermann Rohrer
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Article
| Open AccessNetwork-level encoding of local neurotransmitters in cortical astrocytes
A study investigates subcellular, single-cell and network-level comunication within the astrocyte network in response to the two major neurotransmitter inputs.
- Michelle K. Cahill
- , Max Collard
- & Kira E. Poskanzer
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Article
| Open AccessControl of neuronal excitation–inhibition balance by BMP–SMAD1 signalling
Signalling by the developmental morphogen BMP2 through the transcription factor SMAD1 has a key role in controlling the glutamatergic innervation of parvalbumin-expressing interneurons and maintaining the balance between excitation and inhibition in the mammalian cortex.
- Zeynep Okur
- , Nadia Schlauri
- & Peter Scheiffele
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Article |
Machine learning reveals the control mechanics of an insect wing hinge
Measurements of fly muscle activity using a genetically encoded calcium indicator and high-speed imaging of wing movement were used to construct a model of the insect wing hinge and the role of steering muscles in flight control.
- Johan M. Melis
- , Igor Siwanowicz
- & Michael H. Dickinson
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Nature Podcast |
Keys, wallet, phone: the neuroscience behind working memory
Brain areas work in tandem to temporarily store important information, and an aurora on a cool brown dwarf.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Noah Baker
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Technology Feature |
A milestone map of mouse-brain connectivity reveals challenging new terrain for scientists
A pioneering ‘connectomics’ collaboration has successfully reconstructed one cubic millimetre of brain tissue, but researchers are still just scratching the surface of the complexity it contains.
- Michael Eisenstein
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