Volume 27 Issue 4, April 2024

Astrocytes have important roles in disease and are difficult to modulate, owing to a paucity of known targets. Clayton et al. develop a screening platform to unbiasedly identify modulators of astrocyte reactivity. They discover that HDAC3 inhibitors regulate astrocyte transitions into their reactive phenotype in vitro and in vivo.

The Sehgal lab presents data showing that the non-cell autonomous pathway of glial lipid droplet formation occurs during sleep and helps to resolve neuronal reactive oxygen species (ROS). This promotes neuronal function after an active day. Hence, this pathway has an important physiological function beyond its previously described role in ROS-associated diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Cold sensor identities in peripheral somatosensory neurons remain obscure. We show that GluK2, a kainate-type glutamate-sensing chemoreceptor that mediates synaptic transmission in the brain, mediates the sensing of cold but not cool temperatures in mouse dorsal root ganglia neurons in the periphery. Thus, we identify GluK2 as a cold-sensing thermoreceptor.

This paper provides recommendations for researchers on responsibly conceptualizing, contextualizing and communicating issues related to race and ethnicity, including examples of important terms and frameworks.

This paper identifies the evolutionarily conserved liprin-α protein family as key mediators of presynaptic assembly in human neurons. Their recruitment to sites formed by contacting neurons is the critical initial step that triggers presynaptic differentiation.

C9orf72 ALS/FTD polyGR and polyPR knock-in mice show cortical hyperexcitability and motor neuron loss accompanied by an increase in extracellular matrix proteins in the spinal cord that is conserved in patient iPS cell-derived neurons and is neuroprotective.

Astrocytes have important roles in disease. However, modulation of their reactive state is challenging. Here the authors present a phenotypic in vitro screening platform they can leverage to identify chemical compounds able to modulate astrocyte reactivity in vitro and in vivo.

Haynes et al. report a daily, sleep-dependent neuron–glia lipid metabolic cycle. ApoE-dependent lipid transfer from neurons to glia protects neurons from oxidative damage during waking, and lipids are cleared from glia during sleep.

The identity of receptors sensing cold temperatures in peripheral somatosensory neurons remains obscure. Cai et al. report that GluK2, a kainate receptor mediating synaptic transmission in the brain, is co-opted as a cold sensor in the periphery.

Using in vivo calcium imaging and cell-type-specific pharmacology, we reveal that synaptic inhibition in the cerebellar granule cell layer supports pattern separation and cerebellum-dependent behavior.

Minakuchi et al. find that separable inhibitory inputs to a critical hypothalamic aggression-control node can influence the evolution of an aggressive state by independently modulating either the motivational phase or the action phase.

The basal ganglia control the execution of motor actions. However, how they engage spinal motor networks is unclear. Here the authors show that the basal ganglia–spinal cord pathway controls locomotor asymmetries in adult mice.

Sias et al. show that dopamine projections to the basolateral amygdala drive the reward learning that supports the predictions and inferences needed for adaptive decision-making.

Mohebi et al. report that dopamine (DA) pulses in different rat striatal subregions signal prediction errors across different timescales. In this way, one learning process may achieve a range of adaptive behaviors.

Using dopamine photometry and reinforcement learning models in mice flexibly acquiring cue–action–outcome associations with rule switches, Bernklau et al. show that striatal dopamine reflects an animal’s current understanding of their task.

The authors show that sound-evoked activity in mouse visual cortex consists of both an auditory and a motor component. These have different temporal and spatial profiles (across neurons and layers) but limited impact on ongoing visual processing.

This study investigates self-paced actions in freely foraging macaques. Findings highlight continuously evolving neural components that capture beliefs about latent reward dynamics, which are crucial for informed decision-making in a natural setting.

Cortical excitatory neurons are narrowly tuned to sensory inputs, but the tuning of interneurons is perceived as broad and irregular. Duszkiewicz et al. demonstrate that interneuron tuning is structured and reflects the sum of local excitatory inputs.

Despite a long history of studying perceptual biases in neuroscience, many of the biases remain difficult to explain and even appear to be contradictory. The authors propose a unifying theory that sheds new light on such puzzling perceptual biases.