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The activity of neurons in the basal ganglia contributes to the weighting of speed versus accuracy, rather than to deliberation, in a motor decision-making task.
Two pathways from CA1 to the entorhinal cortex — a direct pathway and an indirect pathway, that projects via the hippocampal subiculum — are shown to play dissociable roles in memory formation and retrieval, respectively.
By capturing and manipulating the self-organizing capacity of pluripotent stem cells, researchers have established protocols for the production ofin vitrobrain-like 'organoids'. Di Lullo and Kriegstein evaluate approaches to organoid generation and consider their potential as models of brain development and disease.
Neuronal trafficking has to meet the requirements of various intracellular compartments. In this Review, Nirschl, Ghiretti and Holzbaur examine how the transport machinery, including the cytoskeleton and molecular motors, is locally regulated to allow neuronal compartment-specific transport.
Neuroscience is going nanoscopic, but can it still rely on classical electrophysiology? In this Review, Savtchenko, Poo and Rusakov argue that accurate interpretation of physiological observations on the nanoscale must account for electrodiffusion phenomena arising from local perturbations of ionic concentrations.
Several of the spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) result from expansion of polyglutamine (polyQ)-encoding regions in different genes. Here, Orr and colleagues examine the clinical features of the the polyQ SCAs, and suggest that understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying polyQ SCAs can inform therapeutic strategies for these and other polyQ disorders.
Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been implicated in the pathophysiology of various neurodegenerative diseases. In this Review, Salta and De Strooper discuss the mechanisms by which ncRNAs may be linked to neurodegeneration and touch on the use of ncRNA-based biomarkers and therapies for these conditions.
