Volume 8 Issue 1, January 2005

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is an incurable paralyzing disorder caused by the death of motor neurons in the spinal cord and brainstem. Patients typically die within three to five years. In this issue, Storkebaum and colleagues offer new evidence for VEGF action in motor neuron survival and new hope for direct delivery of VEGF into the nervous system as a therapy for ALS.

In a technical tour de force, whole-cell patch clamp in tiny C. elegans touch receptor neurons in vivo is used to directly record currents in response to mechanical force, providing the first direct evidence that specific proteins are mechanotransducers.

Many aspects of visual development are known to depend on activity. Two recent reports of rapid rewiring of connections in visual cortex and superior colliculus make clear that eye opening is an important event in the maturation of the visual system.

Neurons in the mammalian master clock can maintain circadian rhythms in isolation, but must synchronize to function as a time-keeping system. A new study finds that gap junctions between neurons promote synchronous electrical activity and rhythmic behavior.

Moving stimuli evoke a response from a large number of neurons in cortical area MT. A new study investigates how perceptual decisions may arise from that population response, with important implications for theories of neural coding.