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Li et al. develop neural fragility, a networked dynamic system biomarker, for localizing seizures in patients with epilepsy and find that it is more robust compared to traditional features that clinicians and researchers look at in a 91-patient study.
The authors utilize information theory to show that four of the output pathways in the primate retina encode predictive information about visual motion. They further show the nonlinear circuit mechanisms that contribute to this computation.
The conventional view is that the cortex generates brain oscillations, while subcortical structures control global sleep–wake switching. This study shows that the cortex plays an important role in both global state control and sleep homeostasis.
Rupprecht et al. compiled a large database of simultaneous electrophysiological and calcium recordings from the same neurons. An algorithm (termed CASCADE) trained with this ground truth enables reliable spike inference without the need to tune parameters.
Shamash et al. examine how mice learn to get past an obstacle blocking their path to a goal. They found that mice instinctively adopt a subgoal memory strategy, which combines elements from both habitual learning and the cognitive map theory.
The authors construct brain-wide coexpression networks to characterize regional versus global features, determine if disease susceptibility maps onto regional or brain-wide processes and assess how these networks capture genetic models of disease risk.
Mallard et al. study the often overlooked X-chromosome’s influences on the human brain. They find that X-chromosome influences on cortical surface area are sex biased and concentrated in specific cortical systems.
By recording and manipulating neural activity in rats performing a skilled behavior, the authors show that the basal ganglia control the detailed kinematics of learned skills and can do so independently of the motor cortex.
The skull dura contains B cells and B lineage precursors under homeostatic conditions. These cells are long-term tissue resident and mature upon neuroinflammation. This identifies the dura as a site of B cell residence and potentially development.
Lee et al. show that in male Shank3-mutant mice, mPFC neurons are impaired in encoding of social agency. Shank3 reexpression in mPFC restored this ability in real time, and this was accompanied by rescue of normal social behavior.
In the nucleus, specific stretches of DNA are ‘anchored’ to distinct membrane-less compartments that harbor gene regulatory function. Using GO-CaRT, the authors discovered unique aspects of genome architecture in neural precursors in vivo, providing new insights into brain development and disease.
Yang et al. generated a genomic atlas of protein levels in brain, cerebrospinal fluid and plasma and used human genetics approaches to identify proteins implicated in neurological diseases as well as druggable targets.
How ketamine and scopolamine produce sustained antidepressant effects remains unknown. Kim et al. show that BDNF-dependent MeCP2 phosphorylation drives sustained antidepressant effects of ketamine and scopolamine with distinct synaptic plasticity changes.
Unilateral inactivation of the superior colliculus in monkeys reveals that a brainstem structure plays a causal role in how evidence is computed for decisions, a process usually attributed to the forebrain.
Hippocampal ~8-Hz theta rhythmicity is enhanced in virtual reality, seen in the local field potential, pyramidal cells and interneurons. It is accompanied by the emergence of a novel ~4-Hz eta rhythm, seen in the local field potential and interneurons.
An analysis of the largest exome sequencing dataset of people with obsessive–compulsive disorder to date (n = 1,313 affected individuals), where both case–control and de novo variant studies support a contribution of rare damaging coding variants to risk.
Tuberal nucleus SST+ neurons respond to palatable food. The activity of these SST neurons together with their plastic inputs from the ventral subiculum play critical roles in contextually conditioned feeding.
By recording from hundreds of cerebellar granule cell axons with three-dimensional two-photon calcium imaging, Lanore et al. show that population activity is high-dimensional and that quiet wakeful and active states are orthogonally arranged in neuronal activity space.
This work provides a first molecular view of dendritic spines, for both the mushroom and stubby classes, obtained by integrating electron microscopy, quantitative biochemistry, super-resolution microscopy and 3D molecular visualizations.
SPLiT-seq single-nucleus RNA sequencing of the developing human cerebellum reveals cell-type complexities and prolonged maturation compared to mouse with important disease implications.