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Head direction cells have been hypothesized to form representations of an animal's spatial orientation through internal network interactions. New data from mice show the predicted signatures of these internal dynamics.
Chronic cocaine exposure induces long-lasting, transcription-dependent changes in neuronal function. A genome-wide sequencing study shows how cocaine changes the epigenome to exert specific, long-lasting effects on neuronal transcription.
A study shows that reward and punishment have distinct influences on motor adaptation. Punishing mistakes accelerates adaptation, whereas rewarding good behavior improves retention.
Reductions in brain glucose metabolism have long been associated with Alzheimer's disease. A study now demonstrates that the endothelial glucose transporter GLUT1 is vital for maintaining brain energy metabolism and vascular clearance of amyloid-β.
Cortical circuits are shaped by sensory experience. These changes have now been visualized with single-synapse resolution in vivo, revealing clustered potentiation along stretches of dendrite.
Skilled behavior is thought to rely on the dorsal striatum. A study now reports that skills depend on striatal encoding of movement kinematics, linking learned sequences of movements with temporally distributed striatal activity.
Neurofeedback that tracks attentional focus in real time using fMRI and alerts subjects to impending lapses by modulating the difficulty of the task itself has been demonstrated to improve behavioral performance.
What drives us to pursue distant, more valuable goals over more proximate, lesser ones? Counter to what you might expect, this type of advanced goal-directed planning and foresight in primates may involve the amygdala. In a reward savings task, neurons in the amygdala track the length and subjective value of internally generated plans.
The hippocampus, a structure critical for memory and navigation, contains both place and episodic cell assemblies. Synchronous input from the medial septum is crucial for inducing spatial and temporal neural sequences. These sequences are, in turn, necessary for constructing episodic cells and, in the absence of sensory input, place cells.
Spatial hearing in birds and mammals is more alike than previously thought in its patterns of developmental plasticity, physiological responses, and the computations employed to interpret binaural cues and map the environment.
Glutamate transporters influence the kinetics of synaptic transmission by acutely buffering synaptically released glutamate. In addition to high synaptic density of EAAT2, the transporter's high mobility contributes to function.
A study reports for the first time on the importance of post-translational modification by neddylation in postnatal brain development. In particular, it is critical to synapse maturation and stability, and thus to cognition.
