Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Using cryo-electron tomography to detect individual GABAA receptors in hippocampal synapses, we discovered a hierarchical and mesophasic organization of inhibitory postsynaptic density proteins that enables efficient synaptic transmission.
When co-cultured with activated microglia, iPSC-derived interneurons from individuals with schizophrenia and from healthy controls show defects in metabolic pathways, but only the interneurons from individuals with schizophrenia showed prolonged metabolic deficits.
Peripheral macrophages located along motor axons react differently to neurodegeneration compared to CNS microglia in ALS mice. Modifying peripheral macrophages suppresses proinflammatory microglial responses, shifting them toward neuronal support.
Donegan et al. show that hippocampal CA2 neurons contribute to social memory by encoding social novelty. Abnormal CA2 coding and social memory in a mouse model of the 22q11.2 microdeletion are rescued by blocking elevated CA2 TREK-1 K+ current.
Aoi et al. used a new dimensionality-reduction method to disentangle the contributions of different task variables to neural population activity, which revealed rotational dynamics in monkey PFC during context-dependent decision-making.
Kohro et al. identify a population of astrocytes located in the superficial dorsal horn of adult spinal cord (genetically defined by Hes5) that acts as a gate for locus coeruleus descending noradrenergic control of mechanosensory hypersensitivity.
This work by Tian and colleagues unveils the extraordinarily complex layout of the human subcortex by identifying 27 new functional regions that organize hierarchically across four scales and adapt to changing cognitive demands.
This study demonstrates that basal ganglia functional topography is maintained across and downstream of its output nuclei, and in closed loops. Focal stimulation of distinct striatal subregions induces distinct action, supporting a model of parallel behavioral control.
Kusick et al. capture snapshots of synaptic vesicle docking and fusion using a new time-resolved electron microscopy technique. They find that vesicles are replaced milliseconds after they fuse, which may contribute to short-term synaptic plasticity.
The authors demonstrate that strongly recurrent circuits inferred from neural activity, even with unlimited data from every neuron, are biased. Synapses are inferred between unconnected but correlated neurons. Inference based on non-equilibrium activity may help remedy this.
Han et al. find that, in addition to powerfully exciting Purkinje cells, climbing fibers rapidly suppress firing in nearby Purkinje cells. Current from glutamate receptor activation generates large extracellular signals that inhibit neighboring cells.
Yamamuro et al. show that juvenile social isolation disrupts prefrontal neurons projecting to the paraventricular thalamus and associated prefrontal somatostatin interneurons, and thereby impairs sociability in adulthood.
Babetto et al. demonstrate an axonal injury-induced glycolytic surge in Schwann cells that supplies perturbed axons with glycolytic energy substrates. Disruption of this metabolic coupling of axons and glial cells promotes axonal degeneration.
Parkinson’s disease brain neurons exhibit a widespread epigenetic dysregulation of enhancers that is linked to an upregulation of TET2. Inactivation of TET2 protects against nigral dopaminergic neuronal loss and neuroinflammation.
Neural oscillations, transients and variability are widely observed in sensory cortices. All these features emerge in neural networks optimized for the singular task of representing perceptual uncertainty in the variability of neural responses.
The nervous system is hypothesized to calculate reward prediction errors to estimate reward availability in the environment. The authors quantify a robust prediction error signal in the ventral pallidum derived from recently received rewarding outcomes.
Park et al. demonstrate in tauopathy models that tau disrupts the interaction between neuronal nitric oxide synthase and PSD95, uncoupling glutamatergic synaptic activity from nitric oxide production and dampening the hemodynamic response to activation.
The authors showed that the ‘moment of perception’ is causally related to dendritic activity in subcortically projecting layer 5 pyramidal neurons that project to the higher-order thalamus, superior colliculus and striatum.
Mazzone and Liang-Guallpa et al. demonstrate that consuming high-fat foods rapidly and durably tunes parallel brain circuits to drive intake of a high-fat diet while devaluing a nutritionally balanced, standard diet even under states of intense hunger.
Kol et al. show that the foundation of remote memory is formed during acquisition by the massive recruitment of ACC-projecting CA1 neurons. Remote memory acquisition involves projection-specific effects of astrocytes on CA1-to-ACC neuronal communication.