Neuroscience articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The temporal resolution of optical measurements of neural activity has traditionally been limited by the image or volume acquisition rate. Here, the authors describe an analysis that exploits the short duration of neural measurements within each image to extract neural responses at higher temporal resolution than the acquisition rate.

    • Omer Mano
    • , Matthew S. Creamer
    •  & Damon A. Clark

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The 302-neuron connectome of the nematode C. elegans has been completely mapped, yet the design principles that explain how the connectome structure determines its function are unknown. Here, the authors show that physical principles of symmetry and mathematical tools of symmetry groups can be used to understand C. elegans neural locomotion circuits.

    • Flaviano Morone
    •  & Hernán A. Makse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The brain can often continue to function despite lesions in many areas, but damage to particular locations may have serious effects. Here, the authors use the concept of Ollivier-Ricci curvature to investigate the robustness of brain networks.

    • Hamza Farooq
    • , Yongxin Chen
    •  & Christophe Lenglet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is difficult to fit mechanistic, biophysically constrained circuit models to spike train data from in vivo extracellular recordings. Here the authors present analytical methods that enable efficient parameter estimation for integrate-and-fire circuit models and inference of the underlying connectivity structure in subsampled networks.

    • Josef Ladenbauer
    • , Sam McKenzie
    •  & Srdjan Ostojic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Decision-making research has confounded the reward value of options with their goal-congruency, as the task goal was always to pick the most rewarding option. Here, authors separately asked participants to select the least rewarding of a set of options, revealing a dominant role for goal congruency.

    • Romy Frömer
    • , Carolyn K. Dean Wolf
    •  & Amitai Shenhav

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recording from monkey orbitofrontal cortex, the authors used composite reward bundles and found individual neuron and population responses that were suitable for economic choice. The responses followed behavioral indifference curves and predicted behavioral choices consistent with formalisms of Revealed Preference Theory.

    • Alexandre Pastor-Bernier
    • , Arkadiusz Stasiak
    •  & Wolfram Schultz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous studies on astrocyte development have led to controversial results due to a lack of pertinent tools. Here, authors analyze large numbers of astrocyte clones generated by nearby cortical progenitors using the MAGIC Markers strategy and ChroMS 3D imaging, and show that clonally-related astrocytes organize in a non-stereotyped manner and that cortical astrocyte subtypes are not intrinsically specified.

    • Solène Clavreul
    • , Lamiae Abdeladim
    •  & Karine Loulier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cortical responses are highly heterogeneous, making it difficult to describe how they behave as a population. Here, the author overcomes this problem by introducing a geometric approach to study the representation of orientation and its transformation under the presence of a mask.

    • Dario L. Ringach

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In order to perceive moving or changing objects, sensory information must be integrated over time. Here, using a visual sequential metacontrast paradigm, the authors show that integration occurs only when subsequent stimuli are presented within a discrete window of time after the initial stimulus.

    • Leila Drissi-Daoudi
    • , Adrien Doerig
    •  & Michael H. Herzog

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deposition of tau protein aggregates occurs during aging and Alzheimer disease. Here, the authors show that tau burden in the anterior-temporal memory network is associated with disrupted fMRI connectivity and functional isolation of the hippocampus from other memory network components.

    • Theresa M. Harrison
    • , Anne Maass
    •  & William J. Jagust

  • Article
    | Open Access

    “Genome-wide association studies have identified variants associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD); however, other than identifying this as a complement mediated inflammatory disease, little biology has emerged. Here, authors used novel computational tools from the Broad Institute to examine the relationship of single-cell transcriptomics and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in the human retina and demonstrate that GWAS-associated risk alleles associated with AMD are enriched in glia and vascular cells and that human retinal glia are more diverse than previously thought

    • Madhvi Menon
    • , Shahin Mohammadi
    •  & Brian P. Hafler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several cortical association areas have rapidly expanded in size during human evolution, including elements of the central cognitive default mode network (DMN). Here, the authors show that genes highly divergent between humans and other primates (HAR genes) are particularly expressed in these brain regions.

    • Yongbin Wei
    • , Siemon C. de Lange
    •  & Martijn P. van den Heuvel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fragile X syndrome and autism spectrum disorders are associated with circuit hyperexcitability, however, its cellular and synaptic bases are not well understood. Here, the authors report abnormal synaptogenesis with an increased prevalence of polysynaptic spines with normal morphology in a mouse model of fragile X.

    • Sam A. Booker
    • , Aleksander P. F. Domanski
    •  & Peter C. Kind

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Somatosensory hypersensitivity in Fmr-1 knockout mice is thought to arise from an increase in cortical circuit excitability. Here, the authors report that the loss of precision of sensory encoding in the Layer 4 of barrel cortex is the primary developmental circuit alteration that drives the other compensatory circuit dysfunction.

    • Aleksander P. F. Domanski
    • , Sam A. Booker
    •  & Peter C. Kind

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Network activity in primary motor cortex (M1) controls dexterous limb movements. Here, the authors show that the M1 population code varies according to contextual motor demands that are conveyed via the secondary motor cortex (M2).

    • Wolfgang Omlor
    • , Anna-Sophia Wahl
    •  & Fritjof Helmchen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It remains unclear how myelin is targeted specifically to axons while sparing neuronal cell bodies and dendrites, or how small gaps, the nodes of Ranvier, are left unmyelinated along the axon. In this study, authors used genetic analyses in zebrafish and mice to demonstrate that molecules of the paranodal axo-glial junction act jointly with molecules of the internodal domain to regulate axonal interactions and myelin wrapping, and that in the combined absence of these molecules myelin sheaths are misplaced.

    • Minou Djannatian
    • , Sebastian Timmler
    •  & Mikael Simons

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It’s well known that hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory are impaired in experimental models of metabolic diseases, however, it is unclear if maternal diet or metabolic alterations around the gestational age may multigenerationally affect learning and memory. In this study, authors demonstrate that maternal high fat diet-dependent insulin resistance affects synaptic plasticity and memory of descendants until the third generation via reduced exon specific brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression in the hippocampus of descendants

    • Salvatore Fusco
    • , Matteo Spinelli
    •  & Claudio Grassi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Numerous fluorescent Zn2+ sensors are available but most are unsuitable to detect physiological dynamics of cytosolic Zn2+. In this study, the authors present a genetically encoded sensor with sub-nanomolar sensitivity and show that Zn2 + is released from endolysosomal vesicles via TRPML1 in neurons.

    • Taylor F. Minckley
    • , Chen Zhang
    •  & Yan Qin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spinal interneurons (IN) coordinate motoneuron activity to modulate locomotion behavior. Here, the authors characterize a subset of IN subtypes expressing the Maf transcription factor Traffic Jam (TJ) and report the distinct effects of their activation on body posture and locomotion in Drosophila larvae.

    • H. Babski
    • , T. Jovanic
    •  & A. Garcès

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Disturbances in IP3 receptor-mediated release of Ca2+ from the endoplasmatic reticulum are associated with neurodegenerative disease. Here, the authors identify in four families with hereditary spastic paraplegia biallelic mutations in RNF170 that associate with increased basal levels of IP3 receptors.

    • Matias Wagner
    • , Daniel P. S. Osborn
    •  & Rebecca Schüle

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neuronal tuning is typically measured in response to a priori defined behavioural variables of interest. Here, the authors use an unsupervised learning approach to recover neuronal tuning with respect to the recorded network activity and show that this can reveal the relevant behavioural variables.

    • Alon Rubin
    • , Liron Sheintuch
    •  & Yaniv Ziv

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The extent to which brain structure and function are coupled remains a complex question. Here, the authors show that coupling strength between structural connectivity and functional activity can be quantified and reveals a cortical gradient spanning from lower-level sensory areas to high-level cognitive ones.

    • Maria Giulia Preti
    •  & Dimitri Van De Ville

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has been challenging to perform super-resolution imaging in large volumes due to aberrations encountered. Here, the authors combine single-wavelength Bessel lightsheet localization microscopy with tissue clearing techniques and image neurons across the whole brain of adult fruit flies.

    • Li-An Chu
    • , Chieh-Han Lu
    •  & Bi-Chang Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The degree of subjective confidence in deciding based on ambiguous sensory cues facilitates learning. Here, the authors report distinct functions of the basolateral amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex on implicit confidence judgements as well as flexible learning under uncertain conditions in rats.

    • A. Stolyarova
    • , M. Rakhshan
    •  & A. Izquierdo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monkeys were trained to use an artificial cortico-muscular connection (ACMC) to regain control over a paralyzed hand following subcortical stroke. Control over the paralyzed hand was accompanied by the appearance of localized high-gamma modulation in the cortex, which could be rapidly reset and relocalized to a different cortical site to reactivate motor control.

    • Kenji Kato
    • , Masahiro Sawada
    •  & Yukio Nishimura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are a heterogeneous group of diseases for which the genetic basis is still unknown in more than half of the cases. Here, the authors report a NDD associated with disruptive variants in the TANC2 gene and show that rols, the TANC2 homolog in flies, is required for synapse growth and function.

    • Hui Guo
    • , Elisa Bettella
    •  & Evan E. Eichler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In addition to serotonin neurons, the dorsal raphe nucleus (DR) also contains dopamine, glutamate, and GABA neurons. Here, the authors systematically compare the neurochemical identity, cell type specificity, anatomical distribution, and connectivity of DR cells targeted by commonly used Cre lines.

    • Daniel F. Cardozo Pinto
    • , Hongbin Yang
    •  & Stephan Lammel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The precise role of the thalamic reticular nucleus in fear is not understood. Here, the authors report that the rostroventral part of the reticular nucleus is involved in the extinction of tone conditioned fear memory through its inhibitory projections to the dorsal midline thalamus.

    • Joon-Hyuk Lee
    • , Charles-Francois V. Latchoumane
    •  & Hee-Sup Shin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) are a powerful tool for neuroscience, but the standard DREADD ligand, CNO, has significant drawbacks. Here the authors report two novel high-potency DREADD ligands and a novel DREADD radiotracer for imaging purposes.

    • Jordi Bonaventura
    • , Mark A. G. Eldridge
    •  & Michael Michaelides

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How do diversity (entropy) and integration of activity across brain regions interact to support consciousness? Here the authors show that anaesthetised individuals and patients with disorders of consciousness exhibit overlapping reductions in both diversity and integration in the brain’s default mode network.

    • Andrea I. Luppi
    • , Michael M. Craig
    •  & Emmanuel A. Stamatakis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The lymphatic vasculature is essential to maintain fluid homeostasis and immune surveillance, including in the brain where lymphatic vessels were only recently identified. Here, Jacob et al. provide an anatomical map of lymphatic vessels in the vertebral column, where they find these contribute to fluid drainage and immune responses.

    • Laurent Jacob
    • , Ligia Simoes Braga Boisserand
    •  & Jean-Leon Thomas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vocal development in humans and primate model systems is typically attributed to changing neural circuits. Here the authors show in marmoset monkeys that biomechanical changes in the vocal organ underlie the transition from infant cries to adult contact calls, demonstrating that vocal development is not solely due to neural control.

    • Yisi S. Zhang
    • , Daniel Y. Takahashi
    •  & Coen P. H. Elemans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hunger modulates perception of good and bad tastes. Here, the authors report that orexigenic AgRP neurons in the hypothalamus mediate these effects through glutamatergic lateral hypothalamic neurons that send distinct projections to the lateral septum and lateral habenula.

    • Ou Fu
    • , Yuu Iwai
    •  & Ken-ichiro Nakajima

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common mental health problem. Here, the authors report a GWAS from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium in which they identify two risk loci in European ancestry and one locus in African ancestry individuals and find that PTSD is genetically correlated with several other psychiatric traits.

    • Caroline M. Nievergelt
    • , Adam X. Maihofer
    •  & Karestan C. Koenen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is traditionally believed that callosal and non-callosal fates are determined early after a neuron’s birth, and that cortical layer (L) 4 excitatory neurons of the primary somatosensory (S1) barrel cortex project only ipsilaterally. However, here authors demonstrate, using a novel axonal retrotracing strategy, that L4 neurons develop transient interhemispheric axons that are refined in an area- and layer-specific manner during postnatal development.

    • N. S. De León Reyes
    • , S. Mederos
    •  & M. Nieto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The brain extracellular matrix (ECM) is altered in brain tumors, but its role in cancer progression and drug sensitivity are difficult to study. Here the authors develop a 3D bioengineered brain tissue model using patient-derived samples and tunable brain-derived ECM to examine the interplay between cells and the ECM.

    • Disha Sood
    • , Min Tang-Schomer
    •  & David L. Kaplan

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