News & Comment

A new study indicates that adult oligodendrogenesis is important for memory consolidation in mice.

Transcriptomic analysis of susceptible and resilient subtypes of retinal ganglion cells following injury reveal resilience-associated genes, which when overexpressed in susceptible types increase survival.

Gut-innervating sensory neurons drive host defensive responses against Salmonella infection in mice.

Functional deficits in a cortical–brainstem circuit predict which rats are likely to develop compulsive drinking behaviour.

Specific subpopulations of vagal mechanoreceptors that sense intestinal stretch are identified by transcriptomic approaches and are shown to induce satiety.

RHOA drives the formation of actin arcs in neuronal growth cones in mice, limiting microtubule protrusion and restricting axon growth.

Two studies show that, compared with microglia in anaesthetized mice, microglia in awake mice show reduced surveillance owing to an increase in noradrenaline signalling.

Dendritic activation and action potentials lead to the expression of distinct heterodimers of the inducible transcription factor NPAS4, which show distinct DNA binding patterns; these patterns were recapitulated on exposure of mice to a novel environment.

A population of hypothalamic neurons that are active during REM sleep are involved in forgetting.

Three studies show that synaptic interactions between neurons and glioma cells or cells of breast-cancer-to-brain metastases may promote tumour growth.

An innovative technique shows that mitochondria of different cell types in the CNS show differences in protein expression.

Detailed transcriptomic analysis of cells within the cortical layers of the human medium temporal gyrus revealed surprising homology with existing mouse transcriptomic data — but also some important differences.

In mice, CREB–Zfp189 interactions in the prefrontal cortex drive a transcriptional network that increases resilience to chronic social defeat stress.

Two studies demonstrate the power of combining induced pluripotent stem cell technology with CRISPR-mediated gene editing to investigate neurobiological mechanisms.

The 15q11.2 copy number deletion, which is associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders, is found in rodents to result in reduced myelin thickness, lower functional connectivity and motor deficits.

In zebrafish, pioneer axons of the dorsal root ganglia require the release of synaptic-like vesicles to enter the spinal cord, suggesting that synaptic vesicles have a role in circuit formation ahead of synaptogenesis.

A new study reports that a nociceptin circuit limits motivation during reward-seeking behaviour in mice.

A new study reports that Lewy pathology in brain tissue from individuals with Parkinson disease largely comprises membranes and organelles.

GABAergic neurons of the dorsal raphe nucleus play a role in energy balance regulation via indirect projections to brown adipose tissue where they regulate thermogenesis.

In a mouse model of stroke, induction of TREM1 expression on peripheral myeloid cells magnifies inflammatory responses and neurological dysfunction.