Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
A study finds that sound textures are stored in auditory memory as summary statistics representing the sound over long time scales; specific events are superimposed, forming a 'skeleton of events on a bed of texture'.
To be become long-lasting, short-term memories must be transformed into more permanent forms. mTORC2 has now been found to be crucial for the molecular reorganization of the cytoskeleton needed for memory consolidation.
A report suggests that leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) can be degraded through chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) in the lysosome, and several Parkinson's disease–causing LRRK2 mutants impair CMA-mediated selective degradation of cytosolic substrates.
A study reporting spatiotemporal stimulation and inhibition of synaptic activity is made possible by the development of synaptically targeted, light-controlled G protein–coupled receptors.
A study recording directly from the human brain shows that connectivity between the prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex and the medial temporal lobe across different frequency bands underlies successful memory retrieval.
The onset of puberty in mammals is determined by a poorly understood mix of genetics and environment. A survey of the epigenetic methylation landscape provides insight into a potential mechanism for the onset of puberty in females involving emancipation from a repressive gene complex in hypothalamic neurons.
Two studies show that local inhibitory connectivity and hippocampal excitatory input support the spatial firing patterns of entorhinal grid cells, providing support for continuous attractor model of grid cell firing.
Microglia have been regarded as the tissue macrophages of the brain. A study now finds that microglia are quite distinct from blood-borne macrophages and derive from an erythromyeloid precursor cell of the embryonic hematopoiesis.
A study optogenetically generating or suppressing activity in excitatory neocortical neurons in vivo finds that layer 5 pyramidal cells initiate and maintain widespread UP states, whereas layer 2/3 cells are subsidiary.
Matthew Larkum discusses the results of a large-scale patch-clamp study revealing the existence of two new cortical microcircuits. These circuits both originate in layer I and either inhibit or disinhibit layer V pyramidal cells.
Work reported in this issue has derived the long-sought analytical link between neural readout weights and choice signals in the standard model of perceptual decision making. This fresh perspective opens the door to experimental assessments of percept formation from the activity of sensory neurons.
Nociceptors respond to both painful and itchy stimuli. MrgprA3-expressing neurons have now been found that are sparsely distributed in the skin and sense a wide variety of pruritogens.
