Skip to main content

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.

Volume 13 Issue 11, November 2010

Life experiences affect behavior, in part by altering DNA via epigenetic modifications. We present a special focus on the growing field of neural epigenetics with articles highlighting the latest advances in our understanding of these epigenetic mechanisms, their regulation and their role in the nervous system. The cover image is a painting by J. David Sweatt which portrays an abstract representation of the dynamic regulation of epigenetic mechanisms and the resulting downstream effects.12991319

Editorial

  • We present a special focus on epigenetics in the nervous system, highlighting recent advances in our understanding of epigenetic mechanisms and their regulation in neurons, as well as their role in nervous system function.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

Top of page ⤴

Book Review

Top of page ⤴

News & Views

  • Could similar changes in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) underlie both familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)? A new study finds that wild-type SOD1 from sporadic ALS tissues shows conformational changes similar to those seen in familial ALS and may be pathogenic as a result of the same mechanism.

    • Sami Barmada
    • Steven Finkbeiner
    News & Views
  • Using direct electrode recordings in patients undergoing preoperative surgery, a new study demonstrates that neural responses in the secondary auditory cortex mirror perception, showing categorical responses to continuous stimuli.

    • Sophie K Scott
    • Samuel Evans
    News & Views
  • In the mouse olfactory bulb, cells with common input respond to odors with similar firing rates but with different timing. This suggests that such 'sister' cells make independent and unique connections with local interneurons.

    • Timothy E Holy
    News & Views
  • The mature phenotype of CNS neurons is thought to be set at an early progenitor stage. A study now shows that expression of Fezf2 alone can turn striatal GABAergic precursors into glutamatergic corticofugal neurons.

    • Magdalena Götz
    News & Views
Top of page ⤴

Commentary

  • This commentary provides a nuanced discussion on the conceptual framework to study epigenetic mechanisms that regulate brain function and plasticity. By drawing from examples in genomic imprinting, the authors highlight the challenges facing epigenetics research in the context of neuroscience.

    • Michael J Meaney
    • Anne C Ferguson-Smith
    Commentary
Top of page ⤴

Perspective

  • Disruption of DNA methylation in the brain can impair learning and memory in rodents. In this Perspective, Day and Sweatt provide an overview of evidence that implicates this epigenetic mechanism in memory processes and discuss how past controversies can be explained in light of recent findings.

    • Jeremy J Day
    • J David Sweatt
    Perspective
Top of page ⤴

Review Article

Top of page ⤴

Brief Communication

  • The established conductance hierarchy of voltage-gated calcium channels, where conductance of CaV1 is greater than CaV2, which is in turn greater than CaV3, was determined using nonphysiological divalent ion concentrations. Weber et al. find that CaV2.2 conductance is greater than that of CaV1 and CaV3 and investigate implications for Ca2+ nanodomain signaling.

    • Alexander M Weber
    • Fiona K Wong
    • Elise F Stanley
    Brief Communication
  • Agetsuma and colleagues find that the pathway between the lateral subnucleus of the dorsal habenula (dHbL) and the interpeduncular nucleus is involved in mediating experience-dependent fear responses in zebrafish. Genetic inactivation of the dHbL biased fish towards freezing, rather than the typical flight behavior, in response to a conditioned fear stimulus.

    • Masakazu Agetsuma
    • Hidenori Aizawa
    • Hitoshi Okamoto
    Brief Communication
Top of page ⤴

Article

  • How extracellular signals, such as BDNF, regulate axonal branching is unclear. Here, Jeanneteau et al. find that MAP kinase phosphatase 1 expression is induced by BDNF signaling to deactivate JNK. This negatively regulates phosphorylation of JNK substrates that impinge on microtubule destabilization. Neurons from mkp-1 null mice were unable to produce BDNF-induced axon branches.

    • Freddy Jeanneteau
    • Katrin Deinhardt
    • Moses V Chao
    Article
  • Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is manifested as motor dysfunction stemming from axonal degeneration. Of the known 19 spastic paraplegia genes (SPGs), SPG3a encodes a multimeric integral membrane protein Atlastin. Here, the authors use zebrafish system to demonstrate the interplay between Atlastin and bone morphogenic protein signaling in motor axon development and stability.

    • Coralie Fassier
    • James A Hutt
    • Jamilé Hazan
    Article
  • Integrins connect cells to the extracellular matrix and mediate neuron-neuron or neuron-glia interactions during synapse maturation and synaptic plasticity. Here, Charrier et al. find that integrins β1 and β3 exert opposing actions via CaMKII to regulate glycine receptor lateral diffusion and gephyrin trafficking at the inhibitory synapses in spinal cord neurons.

    • Cécile Charrier
    • Patricia Machado
    • Antoine Triller
    Article
  • Could similar changes in SOD1 underlie both familial and sporadic ALS? Here, Bosco et al. find that wild-type SOD1 from sporadic ALS tissues shows conformational changes similar to those seen in familial ALS and that aberrant wild-type SOD1 can be pathogenic, potentially as a result of the same SOD1-dependent mechanism seen in familial ALS.

    • Daryl A Bosco
    • Gerardo Morfini
    • Robert H Brown Jr
    Article
  • Using optogenetic techniques, Dhawale et al. find that, although sister mitral cells (which receive input from the same olfactory glomerulus) have highly correlated average spike rate responses, their spike timing with respect to respiration differs. This suggests that sister cells carry both correlated and independent information.

    • Ashesh K Dhawale
    • Akari Hagiwara
    • Dinu F Albeanu
    Article
  • Lomber and colleagues find that enhanced visual localization and motion detection in deaf cats is subserved by cross-modal reorganization of cortex that is typically dedicated to auditory function. Furthermore, the authors localize the individual visual functions to discrete portions of reorganized auditory cortex.

    • Stephen G Lomber
    • M Alex Meredith
    • Andrej Kral
    Article
  • A continuum of acoustically varying speech sounds is not perceived as a continuum, but as distinct phonetic categories. Chang et al. recorded directly from human posterior superior temporal gyrus and found that this area has a similarly discontinuous coding of objectively continuous sound, matching perception and indicating higher-level processing.

    • Edward F Chang
    • Jochem W Rieger
    • Robert T Knight
    Article
Top of page ⤴

Technical Report

  • Dombeck and colleagues describe a method for two-photon calcium imaging using a genetically encoded indicator in the hippocampus of awake, behaving mice. This powerful approach permits the recording of multiple hippocampal place cells' activity with subcellular resolution as the mice run on a track in a virtual reality environment.

    • Daniel A Dombeck
    • Christopher D Harvey
    • David W Tank
    Technical Report
Top of page ⤴

Focus

  • Life experiences affect behavior, in part by altering DNA via epigenetic modifications. These epigenetic changes include histone or chromatin modifications and can silence genes or make them easier to read. Recently, neuroscientists have also begun to explore epigenetic mechanisms to help explain the influence of experiences on not only long-term behavior, but also on neural development and function. Nature Neuroscience presents a special focus on this growing field of neural epigenetics consisting of commentaries, perspectives and reviews. These articles highlight the latest advances in our understanding of these epigenetic mechanisms, their regulation and their role in the nervous system.

    Focus
Top of page ⤴

Search

Quick links