Articles in 2009

Five years after the launch of the Allen Brain Atlas, Jones and colleagues describe the challenges faced during the early years of the project, the contributions that it has made to neuroscience research to date and the opportunities for its use in the future.

An important role for zinc homeostasis in brain function has recently emerged. Sensi and colleagues review the evidence pointing to the physiological role of zinc in the regulation of synaptic excitability and to its pathophysiological role in brain trauma and Alzheimer's disease.

Vann and colleagues review anatomical, lesion and imaging studies suggesting that the retrosplenial cortex is involved in navigation and memory. They propose that it achieves this function through a key role in scene construction by translating between different perspectives of the environment.

What allows some species, but not others, to regenerate their nervous system? In this Review, the authors compare CNS regeneration among vertebrates looking for clues that might explain how this ability might have emerged or been restricted through evolution.

Focusing on mammalian species, Pasko Rakic uses evo–devo studies to model how gene mutations may have affected neuron number and neuronal migration, which in turn may have contributed to the species-specific expansion and elaboration of the cerebral cortex.

Brain activation during REM sleep and dreaming resembles that during waking, but what is the meaning of this activity? Allan Hobson discusses the emergence of REM sleep states during evolution and development and proposes that the activity constitutes a protoconscious state.

To reach their final destinations within the nervous system, glial cells must often migrate over long distances. Klämbt discusses the mechanisms of glial cell migration, highlighting common mechanisms and differences between vertebrate and invertebrate glial migration.

MicroRNAs have crucial regulatory roles at the post-transcriptional level and are emerging as key players in the development of the nervous system in many species. In this Opinion article, Kosik discusses how these non-coding transcripts could drive evolutionary change.

Tracing the phylogeny of the molecular components of synapses, Ryan and Grant speculate on the core components of the last common ancestor of all synapses and posit that the diversification of upstream signalling components contributed to increased signalling complexity later in evolution.