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Neuronal recordings show that primate superior colliculus encodes learned abstract visual categories. The authors demonstrate that it plays a causal role in categorization behavior, independent of its role in spatial orienting.
Gallego-Rudolf et al. report accelerated brain activity with initial amyloid-β deposition in asymptomatic individuals. In those where tau also starts accumulating, brain activity decelerates, correlating with subsequent cognitive decline.
ApoE4 is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. We report that in ApoE4 mice perivascular macrophages are the sole source and effectors of the ApoE4 mediating the neurovascular dysfunction, enhanced white matter damage and cognitive impairment.
Early in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), brain blood flow is reduced by pericytes constricting capillaries. Korte et al. show that oral nimodipine can reverse this and decrease brain hypoxia. Blocking capillary constriction is a potential add-on therapy in AD.
This study shows that the brain can link action to value through neural population subspaces, balancing reliable binding of action to value and generalization to novel stimuli.
Perceptual abilities can be improved by training, up to certain limits. Martin et al. show that vagus nerve stimulation in mice boosts performance on an auditory task via cholinergic modulation, beyond the level achieved by training alone.
Neural changes in pregnancy are not well understood. Here Pritschet et al. present an open-access precision brain imaging resource, mapping neuroanatomical change in an individual from preconception through postpartum.
Tonic and burst-like locus coeruleus firing distinctly tune brain topology toward associative and sensory regions, recruiting both astrocytic and neuronal inhibitory activity.
We reveal that lipid turnover in the myelin sheath generates a fatty acid pool in oligodendrocytes that can contribute to the energy balance of white matter tracts. We also demonstrate that when glucose levels are limiting, fatty acid metabolism can support glial cell survival and the basic functional integrity of myelinated axons.
The mechanisms underlying the ability to remyelinate in aging and disease are unclear. Here, the authors show that DOR-mediated activation of α-ketoglutarate in mature oligodendrocytes can promote myelin production in mice during demyelination and aging.
Defective neoangiogenesis and blood–brain barrier leakiness are pathological hallmarks of neuroinflammation. Here the authors show that vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) promotes venous endothelial cell proliferation, resulting in the formation of leaky vessels around demyelinating lesions in multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
Brain functions require a constant supply of glucose. However, the brain energy stores are unclear. Here, the authors show that oligodendroglial fatty acid metabolism can be an energy reserve for white matter axons, supporting their function.
The authors present DPAD, a deep learning method, for dynamical neural–behavioral modeling. It dissociates behaviorally relevant neural dynamics, better predicts neural–behavioral data and reveals insight into where their nonlinearities can be isolated.
Muir et al. explore threat discrimination in male and female mice and find that, despite similar behavioral acquisition, there are surprising sex differences in the neural encoding that drives suppression of reward seeking under threat.
The spatial relationship between neuronal and vascular activity remains highly debated. In this study, the authors used multiscale optical imaging to show how vascular architecture limits the spatial specificity of neurovascular coupling.