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Kodama et al. show that microglia from male and female adult mice have distinct microRNA profiles and that loss of microglial microRNAs leads to sex-specific changes in the microglial transcriptome and tau pathology.
Although Bayesian models provide good accounts of perceptual decisions, it is unclear how their components are represented in the brain. This paper addresses this question by showing that uncertainty decoded from visual cortex helps predict behavior.
Gulli et al. record neurons in the monkey hippocampus during multiple tasks in a virtual reality environment and find that spatial coding is task-dependent. Their analyses reveal rich nonspatial sensory and mnemonic coding of task-related features.
A new study shows that the enzyme monoamine oxidase funnels a byproduct of dopamine metabolism, H2O2, directly into the mitochondrial electron transport chain, stimulating ATP production. This alternative energy pathway may protect dopaminergic neurons from the toxicity induced by dopamine metabolism while supporting phasic firing.
Humans and animals are drawn to others in an altered affective state, whether sad or happy. A study published in this issue of Nature Neuroscience shows that a specific population of interneurons in the brain is critical for discrimination of affective states.
By comparing neural responses to diverse visual stimuli measured with a standardized two-photon imaging pipeline, the authors reveal response specializations within the mouse visual cortex.
Kappes et al. report a new confirmation bias mechanism. When faced with disagreement, a reduction in the neural sensitivity to the confidence of others is observed leading to a subsequent failure to use others’ confidence to alter one’s own.
Graves et al. demonstrate that as the neurotransmitter dopamine cycles through the cytosol at release sites, it can be metabolized by a mitochondrial enzyme to help generate the energy necessary to sustain synaptic function.
Scheggia et al. show that a specific subpopulation of cortical neurons expressing somatostatin in the prefrontal cortex has a primary role in orchestrating the ability of mice to discriminate positive and negative affective states in others.
Cummings and Clem demonstrate that cue-related activation and plasticity of prefrontal interneurons cause disinhibition of a distributed brain network that underlies fear memory.
Bahl and Engert show that larval zebrafish can temporally integrate sensory information. The authors then use brain-wide functional imaging to search for, characterize and model brain areas that are well-suited to implement the underlying processes.
Cocaine-generated silent synapses dictate the encoding, consolidation, retrieval-induced destabilization and reconsolidation of cocaine memories, and these syapses can be targeted to reduce drug seeking and relapse.
Bonnen et al. find that representations of 3D motion in primate cortical neurons have an unexpected structure that is shaped by the projection of the world onto the retinae. They demonstrate a link between this structure and human perceptual errors.
Dragomir et al. use a new decision-making assay in larval zebrafish to show that fish modulate their behavior depending on stimulus strength. A whole-brain imaging functional screen reveals neurons that integrate sensory evidence over the course of seconds.
Lau et al. find that α-synuclein strains initiate distinct diseases when injected into mice, which provides a potential molecular explanation for the clinical and pathological differences between Parkinson’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders.
Framed around the potential use of microglia as new cellular therapies for brain disease, Bennett and Bennett review new discoveries about the effects of developmental origin and environmental signals on brain macrophage identity and function.