Articles in 2010

The authors develop a model of synaptic plasticity that can account for a large body of experimental data on connection patterns in the cortex. This model uses multiple parameters, including presynaptic spike interval and postsynaptic membrane potential.

The signals ensuring maintenance of the myelin sheath on peripheral nerves are distinct from those instructing myelination and are largely unknown. Here, the authors report that neuronal expression and regulated proteolysis of the prion protein are essential for myelin maintenance.

It is hard to dissociate the time taken for purely perceptual processes from motor reaction times when making responses to stimuli. Using a combination of a novel task design and computational modeling, this study dissociates these two processes and finds that monkeys can discriminate perceptual color information in as little time as 30 ms.

During refinement of inhibitory inputs to the lateral superior olive (LSO), terminals in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body express VGLUT3 and co-release glutamate with glycine or GABA. Using mice lacking VGLUT3, the authors show impaired refinement of inhibitory inputs to the LSO and degraded tonotopic precision.

Hägglund et al. have generated a transgenic mouse line that expresses channelrhodopsin2 selectively in cells expressing vesicular glutamate transporter 2. Using these mice, they find that activation of glutamatergic neurons in spinal cord is critical for initiating or maintaining locomotor-like activity.

Glutamate-induced kainate receptor activation can inhibit or facilitate inhibitory synaptic transmission. This study demonstrates that it is the concerted activity of presynaptic CB1 receptors and kainate receptors that together mediate short-term depression of inhibitory synaptic transmission.

Channelrhodopsins such as ChR2 can drive spiking with millisecond precision. However, when ChR2 is highly expressed, a single light pulse can produce extra spikes, and ChR2 does not allow sustained spike trains above about 40 Hz. Rapid ChR2-driven spike trains can also cause plateau potentials. Here, the authors report an engineered opsin gene, ChETA, that overcomes these limitations and allows sustained spike trains up to 200 Hz.

Light makes migraines worse. The authors show that this effect can be mediated by intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells projecting onto thalamic neurons that also receive nociceptive input from the dura mater.

Loss of function of the tuberous sclerosis complex, which leads to overactive mTOR signaling, disrupts EphA-dependent repulsive guidance of retinal axons. Growth cone collapse and repulsion by ephrin-A correlates with and requires the downregulation of mTOR signaling.

A study in this issue finds that the chemoattractant cue, Sonic Hedgehog, can activate a repulsive response of commissural axonal pathfinding to Semaphorins, thereby acting as a 'switch' in axon guidance.

The validity of a 1999 German patent on the derivation of neural precursors from human embryonic stem cells remains undecided, highlighting the inadequacy of European law for dealing with stem cell technology.

The frontal pole cortex is thought to be the most complex of all frontal cortex areas. Overcoming technical obstacles to direct recordings, a study in this issue finds that neurons in this area have unexpectedly simple response properties.

A study in this issue presents a new mouse model that directly tests the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia. The study reports that a decrease in NMDA receptor signaling during a particular developmental window in interneurons can induce cellular and behavioral changes similar to those seen in schizophrenia.

A new study shows that the Na⁺/K⁺ ATPase can function as an integrator of spike activity and interacts with a K⁺ conductance to provide a cellular short-term memory of locomotion in the Drosophila larval motor circuit.