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A study shows that elevated levels of the microRNA encoded by the schizophrenia-linked genemir-137impair presynaptic plasticity and hippocampus-dependent learning and memory in mice.
Interactions among semaphorin 6A, plexin A2 and plexin A4, and between contactin 4 and amyloid precursor protein, are crucial for the normal development of the circuits underlying vertical and horizontal optokinetic reflexes, respectively.
Disruption of actin polymerization in the frontal cortex, which causes abnormal dendritic spine structures, results in locomotor hyperactivity owing to dysregulation of a midbrain dopaminergic circuit.
Research into the underlying pathology of c9FTD/ALS has been hampered by a lack of good mouse models, but a new study reports a mouse model that recapitulates both the cellular and the behavioural pathology associated with these disorders.
Exposure to one stressor can lead to altered responses to subsequent stressors, implying that the neural circuits that mediate stress responses undergo adaptive changes. Bains and colleagues review mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus that may contribute to such responses.
Bidirectional signalling between nociceptors and immune cells protects the host from potential threats to homeostasis. In this Review, McMahon and colleagues discuss how, when such signalling becomes uncontrolled or dysfunctional, it can contribute to immune-mediated diseases and persistent pain states.
Placebo effects are positive effects on health that arise from the response of the brain to the contextual information that accompanies the delivery of a treatment. In this Review, Wager and Atlas examine the neural mechanisms that underlie such effects, focusing on placebo analgesia.
The brain is increasingly thought to predict sensory inputs, based on previous experience. In this Opinion article, Barrett and Simmons integrate this active inference account with an anatomical model of corticocortical connections, and describe how such a system may unify allostatic control and interoception within an integrated neural architecture.
The brain balances the segregation and integration of incoming information to facilitate flexible cognition and behaviour. In this Opinion article, Deco and colleagues argue that whole-brain computational modelling based on neuroimaging data can provide insights into these segregation and integration processes.
