Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Volume 10, No 7 July 2009
Featured Article
Mitochondrial membrane permeabilization in neuronal injury
Lorenzo Galluzzi, Klas Blomgren & Guido Kroemer
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2008 ISI Impact Factor 25.94(*Source of Impact Factor data)
Advance online publication
Review
Spinal muscular atrophy: why do low levels of survival motor neuron protein make motor neurons sick?
Arthur H. M. Burghes & Christine E. Beattie
How a reduction in the level of a ubiquitously expressed protein, SMN, causes the motor neuron–specific deficits that characterize spinal muscular atrophy is unknown. Burghes and Beattie discuss the function of SMN and the debate concerning the crucial pathways disrupted in SMA.
Advance online publication
Opinion
How the olfactory bulb got its glomeruli: a just so story?
Dong-Jing Zou, Alexander Chesler & Stuart Firestein
The olfactory glomeruli represent a remarkable example of nervous system organization — each glomerulus is innervated exclusively by sensory neurons expressing one of more than 1,000 olfactory receptors. Firestein and colleagues discuss recent insights into glomerular development that highlight the importance of signalling activity in this process.
Advance online publication
Review
The glutamate homeostasis hypothesis of addiction
Peter W. Kalivas
In addiction, the prefrontal cortex fails to control drug–seeking behaviours. Peter Kalivas reviews the hypothesis that a loss of glutamate homeostasis at prefrontal–to–accumbens synapses, resulting in altered dendritic spine morphology and synaptic plasticity, impairs the prefrontal regulation of striatal circuitry.
Advance online publication
Opinion
Inside the brain of an elite athlete: the neural processes that support high achievement in sports
Kielan Yarrow, Peter Brown & John W. Krakauer
What sets highly skilled sportspeople apart from novices? This article discusses the neural basis of sporting skills and emerging computational and physiological theories that help explain, and potentially predict, elite athletic performance.
Current Issue
Review
Circuits controlling vertebrate locomotion: moving in a new direction
Martyn Goulding
Intrinsic spinal cord networks generate the rhythmic patterns of motor activity that underlie locomotion. Goulding shows how genetic analyses, coupled with classical systems neuroscience approaches, are providing new information about the cellular components and functional organization of these circuits.
Advance online publication
Research Highlights
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Neurodegenerative disease:
Spreading the tau
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Neuronal plasticity:
Mossy fibres WNT more contact with CA3
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Neuron–glia interactions:
Kif1b motors mRNA
More Neuroscience
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Recommended Links
Links recommended by the editors
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Neuropod
Neuroscience podcast from Nature, produced in association with the Dana Foundation.
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Web Focus Collection
Selected articles from the Nature Publishing Group
Noticeboard
Focus on Neuroimmunology
Understanding the crosstalk between the nervous and immune systems and how it can be dysregulated provides us with crucial insights necessary for the treatment of neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Nature Reviews Immunology presents a special Focus issue featuring articles that review our current understanding of the immunopathogenesis of and emergent immunotherapies for these neurological diseases.
Focus on Stress
The body's response to stress has adaptive value, but exposure to chronic or severe stress — which is not uncommon in humans — can have long–lasting effects on brain structure and function, which can lead to changes in cognition and to disorders such as depression and post–traumatic stress disorder. This Focus issue highlights recent developments in this field, with a view to understanding the mechanisms that trigger and mediate stress responses, which will enable the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at treating stress–related disorders.
CNS precursors series
A series of articles highlighting recent advances in the identification of precursor cells and in our understanding of their regulation and functional roles.
Sleep series
A series of articles highlighting the genetic, cellular and systems basis of sleep and the importance of sleep for cognitive function and mental health.
Neuron–glia interactions series
A series of articles highlighting the interactions between different types of glia and neurons at the cellular and network levels.
Memory systems series
A special series of articles highlighting different types of memory and how they are represented in the brain.
Signalling in development series
A special series of articles highlighting recent progress in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that are involved in all aspects of neural development.
Neuroimaging series
A special series of articles highlighting applications of neuroimaging techniques in all areas of neuroscience, including basic neurobiology, cognitive and behavioural neuroscience, translational neurology and clinical practice.
Journal Citation Reports, Thomson, 2009
