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Most species exhibit instinctive risk-avoidance, e.g., lab mice avoid predator smells despite having never encountered predators. Here the authors show how innate risk-avoidance arises from accumbal dopamine receptor neurons tuned by orexin signals.
The authors show that PKC-δ-expressing neurons in the central amygdala, are essential for synaptic plasticity underlying learning in the lateral amygdala, as they convey information about unconditioned stimulus to the lateral amygdala as a teaching signal.
Human perception can improve through repeated practice, enabling perceptual learning. The authors report findings challenging the fundamental ‘practice makes perfect’ basis of procedural learning theory. They show that brief periods in which visual memory is reactivated are sufficient to improve basic perceptual thresholds, supporting a new account of perceptual learning dynamics.
Zika virus infection is associated with neurological disorders, yet few studies have directly examined its impact on the peripheral nervous system. Oh et al. show that Zika virus can infect peripheral neurons in the mouse in vivo, as well as human peripheral neurons in vitro, leading to increased cell death and transcriptional dysregulation.
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.
This study on neurodevelopment of functional networks reveals a network tuning process that transforms the human connectome into a stable, individualized wiring pattern. Delay in this tuning was associated with disordered mental health, revealing the detrimental paths that brain plasticity can take during adolescence, when initial symptoms of mental illness occur.
The identity of the cell types contributing to the [18F]FDG positron emission tomography signal remain highly controversial. In this study, the authors demonstrate that activating glutamate astrocytic transport increases brain [18F]FDG uptake. These findings indicate that astrocytes may also impact [18F]FDG positron emission tomography signal.
Dysfunction of the neuroendocrine HPA axis is associated with a variety of physiological and psychological pathologies. The authors show that corticotropin-releasing factor type 1 receptors within the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus are a key central component of HPA axis regulation that prepares the organism for chronic exposure to stressful stimuli.
Using large-network calcium imaging in alert mouse frontal cortex, the authors identify a significant covariance of responses of VIP interneurons and pyramidal cells. Optogenetic interrogation of this brain region revealed a pull–push inhibitory circuit driven by neuromodulation of VIP interneurons that contrasts with canonical feedforward push–pull excitation.
Using an environment composed of interconnected paths, the authors demonstrate that subiculum encodes a previously unrecognized form of spatial information, the axis of travel. This discovery has implications for how path positions and orientations can be related to the larger environment.
The authors report on a subpopulation of neurons in retrosplenial cortex that is more sensitive to head direction in a local, visually defined reference frame than to global head direction. These neurons may be the means by which visual landmark information can influence the overall sense of direction.
Activation of putative aldosterone-sensitive neurons in the hindbrain drives mice to drink sodium solutions, and this appetite is distinct from thirst and hunger. These neurons are critical for animals to fully develop a sodium appetite following sodium depletion, although there is likely redundant circuitry.
In this study, the authors reveal distinct developmental programs underlying innate and learned olfactory behaviors by demonstrating that chemogenetic inactivation of neurons generated in neonatal mice impairs the behavioral response to aversive odorants, whereas inactivation of adult-born neurons impairs learning of novel food-related odors.
The authors describe a glutamatergic septoentorhinal pathway that provides running-speed-correlated input to MEC layer 2/3. The speed signal is integrated by several MEC cell classes and converted into speed-dependent output. This speed circuit may be important for the spatial computations of MEC neurons.
The authors describe neurons in the macaque anterior thalamus tuned to pitch and roll orientation relative to gravity, independently of visual landmarks. Individual cells exhibit two-dimensional tuning curves peaking at a preferred vertical orientation. These results identify a thalamic pathway for gravity cues to influence three-dimensional spatial orientation.
In the CNS, the primary signal initiating myelination and its cellular origin remain unclear. Goebbels et al. find that deleting PTEN from cerebellar granule cells drives radial axon growth, oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) proliferation, oligodendrocyte differentiation and de novo myelination of parallel fibers. This suggests that myelination is downstream of a neuronal PI(3,4,5)P3-dependent signal.
Rare genetic mutations that disrupt the functionality of important genes increase the risk of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorder. This study found that, in the general population not diagnosed with such disorders, these same mutations affect the average educational level. Carriers of these mutations have on average half a semester less of education than noncarriers.
In this study, the authors show that LTP lacks synapse specificity in hippocampi of aged (21–28 months) mice, possibly resulting from diminished levels of the K+/Cl− cotransporter KCC2 and depolarizing GABAA receptors. The KCC2 enhancer CLP257 restored synapse specificity of LTP, providing a possible new target for repairing memory loss in senescence.
Prefrontal–hippocampal communication has been implicated in memory, but the temporal dynamics of information flow are not fully understood. In this study, the authors demonstrate that information flows between hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in different directions depending on the behavioral phase of a spatial-context-guided object discrimination task.
The authors analyzed the exome sequences of 2,104 intellectual disability patients and their parents. They identified 10 novel candidate genes associated with specific clinical phenotypes.