Reflexes articles from across Nature Portfolio

Single motor neurons in Drosophila are stimulated to show that they direct head movements towards specific postures rather than generating fixed movement vectors, suggesting that the brain controls movements through a continuing proprioceptive–motor loop.

The visual cortex adapts innate behaviors through its corticofugal projections to the brainstem. Here, authors show that this pathway sends unique brainstem neurons distinct behaviorally relevant signals, whose strength can plastically change to promote behavioral adaptation.

The role of presynaptic modulation on peripheral sensory input during voluntary movement is unclear. Here, the authors found it flexibly facilitates and suppresses proprioceptive input to the monkey’s spinal cord, relevant to motor behavior.

Although axonal GABA_A receptors are thought to cause presynaptic inhibition, we show that instead they often facilitate sodium channel activation at nodes of myelinated axons. This facilitation determines which branches of sensory axons conduct action potentials to motor neurons, enabling computation at the level of the node to regulate sensory feedback.

A neuropeptidergic neural pathway that drives sneezing in mice is identified.