Volume 11 Issue 2, February 2008

Many aspects of sleep, including the how and why, are still mysterious, especially its relationship to learning and memory. A new study suggests that sleep may serve to reset synaptic potentiation, linking it to homeostatic plasticity.

New work in this issue shows that one principal endocannabinoid, anandamide, directly inhibits the synthesis of another, 2-arachidonoylglycerol. This finding could explain a number of puzzling observations in the endocannabinoid field.

Learning is believed to be a result of plasticity in synaptic architecture, but few studies have shown this directly. A new paper explores a mechanism that shapes the formation of associative connections between neurons in behaving animals.

Mice use pheromones to regulate social behavior. New work in mice now identifies the protein in urine that is essential for aggressive behavior, along with the specific subclass of neurons involved in its processing.