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Development of sensory epithelia in the inner ear involves the progressive restriction of epithelial progenitors to give rise to specific types of hair or supporting cells. Kelley reviews current knowledge about the factors that regulate these cell fate decisions.
A common apolipoprotein E (APOE) isoform confers risk for Alzheimer's disease. New evidence that APOE, cholesterol, reelin and APOE receptors are vital for synaptic plasticity in the adult brain might help to unravel some key pathological mechanisms in neurodegenerative disorders.
Macular degeneration is a principal cause of visual loss in the Western world. Advances in imaging technologies, the identification of genes and the development of animal models are now paving the way for new therapeutic strategies for this disorder.
Phantom limb pain frequently occurs following limb amputation or deafferentiation. Emerging evidence suggests that in addition to peripheral changes, plasticity in the CNS has an important role in the pathophysiological mechanisms of phantom pain, highlighting potential targets for therapeutic interventions.
An enormous expansion in cortical surface area was crucial for the evolution of the primate gyrencephalic cortex. Kriegstein and colleagues evaluate models of progenitor cell division that might underlie cortical expansion during development and provide an insight into this evolutionary step.
The gustatory system is crucial for detecting and discriminating between foods and selecting nutritious diets. Simon and colleagues now propose that this system achieves its complex tasks through distributed neural codes that represent the sensory and postingestive properties of tastants.
