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A Cre-dependent capsid selection method, CREATE, was used to produce adeno-associated viral vectors that allow gene delivery to the entire central and peripheral nervous systems, with multicolor labeling of single cells.
A combination of computational modeling, neuroimaging and a causal manipulation of brain activity in humans reveals how the brain represents beliefs about how our choices will affect those of others we interact with.
Effectiveness of EGFR treatment is impaired through an early adaptive response. TNF–JNK–Axl–ERK signaling contributes to this primary resistance to EGFR inhibition and might serve as novel target to improve EGFR inhibition.
Loss of inhibition in a circuit in the primary somatosensory cortex that controls the activity of layer 5 neurons drives pain hypersensitivity. Restoring this inhibition resets the inhibitory–excitatory balance, producing analgesia.
Korin et al. use CyTOF mass cytometry to characterize immune cell populations in the naive mouse brain (parenchyma, choroid plexus and meninges). This single-cell analysis of cell-surface proteins reveals the presence and phenotype of distinctive immune populations in the mouse brain compartment.
The mechanisms underpinning neuronal death in Alzheimer's disease (AD) remain unclear. Caccamo and colleagues show that necroptosis contributes to neurodegeneration in AD. Blocking necroptosis reduced neuronal loss in a mouse model of AD, suggesting that necroptosis might be a therapeutic target in AD.
Yates and colleagues statistically dissect MT and LIP responses during motion discrimination. They show decreasing temporal weighting of motion in MT, consistent with psychophysical weighting, and show that LIP spikes encode the upcoming choice more than integrated motion or simultaneously recorded MT spikes, suggesting an indirect relationship between these areas.
An expanded repetition of a DNA sequence within the C9orf72 gene is the most common genetic cause for motor neuron disease and frontotemporal dementia. In this study, the authors show that this expansion causes increased genomic breaks and reduces the cell's ability to repair the breaks, ultimately leading to neuronal cell death.
Recent evidence supports a functional connection between gut microbiota and the nervous system. Here the authors show that gut microbiota plays a critical role in the development of chemotherapy-induced pain. This role of the microbiota is likely mediated, in part, by Tlr4 expressed on hematopoietic cells, including macrophages.
Survey of postzygotic mosaic mutations (PZMs) in 5,947 trios with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) discovers differences in mutational properties between germline mutations and PZMs. Spatiotemporal analyses of the PZMs also revealed the association of the amygdala with ASD and implicated risk genes, including recurrent potential gain-of-function mutations in SMARCA4.
The mechanistic basis of how novel stimuli become familiar with repeated exposures has remained elusive. Molas et al. demonstrate that familiarity activates the interpeduncular nucleus, thereby reducing motivation to explore. Familiarity signaling in the interpeduncular nucleus is bidirectionally modulated by habenula and ventral tegmental area afferents to control novelty preference.
The authors show that transcranial magnetic disruption of the right temporoparietal junction decreases strategic behavior during competitive interactions. The altered behavior relates to neural activity changes both locally and in interconnected prefrontal areas. These brain networks may causally underlie the ability to predict the behavior of other agents.
A fundamental goal of learning is to establish neural patterns that cause desired behaviors. This paper demonstrates that sleep-dependent processing is required for credit assignment and the establishment of task-related activity reflecting the causal neuron-behavior relationship. Decoupling of spiking to sleep slow oscillations using optogenetics methods disrupted this process.
Microglia are the macrophages of the CNS, with innate neuroimmune function, and play important roles in tissue homeostasis, CNS development and neurodegeneration. Here human microglial gene expression profiles were generated. Human and mouse microglia were highly similar, except for aging-regulated genes, indicating that microglial aging differs between humans and mice.
Corticospinal cells of the motor cortex act as a direct link between the cortex and movement-generating circuits within the spinal cord. The authors demonstrate that the relationship between activity of these cells and movement changes with time and learning, indicating a flexible cortical output to drive movements.