Table of contents
May 2006 Vol 7 No 5
From the editors
p325 | doi:10.1038/nrn1924
Research Highlights
Glia: Starring activity
p327 | doi:10.1038/nrn1911
Circadian rhythms: SCN synchronicity...hup, two, three, four
p328 | doi:10.1038/nrn1913
Cancer: Developing patterns
p328 | doi:10.1038/nrn1922
In the news
Premature babies feel pain
p328 | doi:10.1038/nrn1923
Neuroendocrinology: Hormonal hippocampus
p329 | doi:10.1038/nrn1917
Neurodegeneration: Malicious multimers
p330 | doi:10.1038/nrn1910
Neurodegeneration: Switch to the potassium channel
p330 | doi:10.1038/nrn1912
Development: Synaptic development and branch dynamics
p331 | doi:10.1038/nrn1921
Vision: Under the spotlight
p332 | doi:10.1038/nrn1915
Pain: Cut the mustard
p332 | doi:10.1038/nrn1916
In brief
Development | Neurotechniques | Ageing
p333 | doi:10.1038/nrn1920
Axon guidance: The worm that turned
p1918 | doi:10.1038/nrn1918
Reviews
The sympathetic control of blood pressure
Patrice G. Guyenet
p335 | doi:10.1038/nrn1902
The sympathetic nervous system is an important regulator of blood pressure. Guyenet describes the central control regions that influence the activity of sympathetic efferent neurons and their potential contribution to neurogenic hypertension.
Neural mechanisms of birdsong memory
Johan J. Bolhuis & Manfred Gahr
p347 | doi:10.1038/nrn1904
Birdsong learning in avian species has strong similarities with speech acquisition in human infants. Recent research on the song system has shed fresh light on the neural substrate of song memory and sensorimotor learning in both male and female songbirds.
Neural correlations, population coding and computation
Bruno B. Averbeck, Peter E. Latham & Alexandre Pouget
p358 | doi:10.1038/nrn1888
Sensory and motor information in the brain is represented as activity in populations of neurons. But how does correlated noise affect population coding? These authors evaluate empirical and theoretical evidence on the interactions between correlations, population codes and neural computations.
Typologies of attentional networks
Amir Raz & Jason Buhle
p367 | doi:10.1038/nrn1903
Attention represents the crucial links between the brain and behaviour, and has attracted increasing interest from neuroscience and psychology alike. Raz and Buhle review the recent evidence for the existence of several anatomically and functionally distinct attentional networks.
Neural mechanisms in Williams syndrome: a unique window to genetic influences on cognition and behaviour
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Carolyn B. Mervis & Karen Faith Berman
p380 | doi:10.1038/nrn1906
Williams syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder with a distinct behavioural and neuropsychological profile. Meyer-Lindenberg et al. describe new research relating structural and functional differences to the underlying genetics of this disorder and their influence on cognition and behaviour.
Perspectives
Opinion
The therapeutic potential of neural stem cells
Gianvito Martino & Stefano Pluchino
p395 | doi:10.1038/nrn1908
Transplantation of neural stem cells holds great promise for treating neurological disorders. Martino and Pluchino argue that neural stem cells achieve their therapeutic efficacy exculsively by a cell-replacement mechanism, rather than by the recently proposed alternative mechanism of bystander neuroprotection.
Science and society
Neuroscience and education: from research to practice?
Usha Goswami
p406 | doi:10.1038/nrn1907
The gap between neuroscience and education is being filled by packages aimed at helping teachers enhance learning in the classroom. Goswami considers the myths versus the science that is genuinely relevant for education and how we might bridge this gap.
