Volume 7 Issue 6, June 2004

Pyramidal neurons integrate synaptic inputs arriving on a structurally and functionally complex dendritic tree that has nonlinear responses. A study in this issue shows that nonlinear computation occurs in individual dendritic branches, and suggests a possible approach to building neural network models directly connected to the behavior of real neurons and synapses.

Flies show remarkable flight control, aided partly by motion-sensitive neurons in the visual ganglia. Haag and Borst now unravel the microcircuitry of some of these motion-analyzing cells, and suggest a mechanism for their receptive field tuning.

New findings reveal that steroid hormones masculinize some aspects of the rat brain via prostaglandins. Blocking prostaglandin synthesis with drugs like aspirin can interfere with sexual differentiation of the brain and impair sexual behavior later in life.

How does the brain learn the relevance of landmarks at key decision points? An imaging study now shows that the parahippocampal gyrus responds to the navigational relevance of landmarks, even those that were not remembered.