Research Highlights in 2016

It is not known how mammals sense potentially life-threatening reductions in oxygen in the ambient air, but a novel mechanism has been found in mice that involves a novel subpopulation of olfactory sensory neurons that express the soluble guanylate cyclase GUCY1β2.

Unattended information can lie latent in working memory and then be reactivated by transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Shank3deficiency disrupts TRPV1 signalling, pain processing and the induction of heat hyperalgesia in mice.

Deletion ofDgcr8in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome leads to decreased processing of miR-338-3p, leading to an upregulation of thalamic dopamine D2 receptors and auditory thalamocortical deficits that might be associated with antipsychotic-sensitive auditory hallucinations.

The genetic programmes involved in axonal pruning during development are poorly elucidated but are shown to involve a balance between the anti-apoptotic protein DUSP16 and the pro-degenerative protein PUMA.

A brain–spine interface that uses decoded neural activity from motor cortex delivered to an electrical stimulation system in the spine was used to restore locomotor function in a monkey whose leg was paralyzed by spinal injury.

Transplanted embryonic neurons can functionally replace ablated neurons in the primary visual cortex in adult mice.

Following injection into the brain, different strains of tau aggregates induce different presentations of tau neuropathology in a mouse model of tauopathy.

Reductions in the response of the amygdala to dishonesty predict the escalation of self-serving dishonesty.

Cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain of mice influence the intake of food and body weight by regulating appetite suppression.

In rats, stress promotes alcohol use by altering chloride gradients across the membranes of GABAergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area.

This study suggests that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is released from dendritic spines in response to activity and acts in an autocrine manner to mediate structural plasticity of the spine from which it was released.

A loss of cholinergic inputs to the hippocampus in a mouse model of Alzheimer disease leads to memory deficits by affecting interneurons in the oriens lacunosum moleculare.

Inputs to the ventral tegmental area, which computes the reward prediction error, carry diverse signals about the actual and expected reward from distributed areas.

Early in development, GABA released from interneurons is excitatory and induces the formation of functional inhibitory and excitatory synapses in cortical layer 2/3.

Adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus is regulated by existing hippocampal connectivity and can be manipulated to enhance memory function in aged mice.

Two studies show that cortical feedback and metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 are necessary for the proper refinement of reticulogeniculate synapses during visual system development.

Interviews with this year's winners of the Kavli prize in neuroscience, Eve Marder, Michael M. Merzenich and Carla J. Shatz.

The connectivity pattern of the left occipitotemporal cortex of 5-year-olds who cannot yet read can predict where the functionally specific 'visual word form area' will form once the children learn to read.

InDrosophila melanogaster, signals of water satiety and hunger converge on interoceptive neurons in the suboesophageal zone that in turn influence water intake and feeding.