Cortex articles from across Nature Portfolio

The neural processes underlying vocal self-monitoring are unclear. Here, the authors show that vocal suppression of auditory cortex operates on two time-scales with different temporal and acoustic precision, suggesting distinct predictive modulations.

Auditory cortex sends dense projections to layer 1 of mouse V1. Here the authors show these axons convey rich sound localization signals and that their auditory receptive fields do not align with the retinotopic map of V1.

Recent research has focused on restoring speech in populations with neurological deficits. Chen, Wang et al. develop a framework for decoding speech from neural signals, which could lead to innovative speech prostheses.

Grid cells develop in rats soon after they leave the nest. Here, Ulsaker-Janke et al. show that preventing exposure to straight boundaries from birth delays, but does not prevent, grid cell maturation in adult rats.

Stegemann et al. have unraveled a long-lasting role for fear engrams in future pain perception. Prefrontal pain and fear representations become entangled following a fearful event. As subsequent painful experiences also reactivate the fear network, silencing the fear engram alone can alleviate both tonic pain and hypersensitivity in chronic pain.

Despite rich behavioral evidence, it is unclear how the brain expands its behavior repertoire. By building theoretical models with a deep reinforcement learning algorithm, I show that the brain composes a behavior to solve a novel task by combining previously acquired skills and augmenting their variability.

Robotic fingers and arms that augment the motor abilities of non-disabled individuals are increasingly feasible yet face neurocognitive barriers and hurdles in efferent motor control.

Selective and transient erasure of LTP reveals the roles of synaptic plasticity at multiple stages of memory consolidation.