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Although the technique of somatic voltage clamp is widely used, computational models have predicted that this controls voltage in the dendritic tree poorly. Williams and Mitchell directly quantify this error using simultaneous recordings from the soma and apical dendrites of rat neocortical pyramidal neurons. Spruston and Johnston also highlight this in an associated news and views.
The fornix is the major fiber tract connecting the medial temporal lobe and the medial diencephalon. This structural imaging study of individuals with fornix atropy finds that the fornix is important for recall, but not recognition, consistent with the idea that hippocampal inputs are selectively important for recall, rather than recognition.
This behavioral study finds that when subjects pose expressions of fear, they have a subjectively larger visual field, faster eye movements, and an increase in nasal volume and air velocity during breathing in. Posing expressions of disgust, an expression objectively opposite to fear, produced opposite results. Emotional facial expressions may therefore modify preparedness for perception and action.
Grant and colleagues used comparative proteomics and genomics to examine the evolution of the postsynaptic density and MAGUK-associated signaling complexes implicated in learning and memory. They found conservation of synaptic components amidst diverse species, but also found species-specific adaptation and increased signaling complexity in vertebrates.
Diffusible axon guidance molecules can modulate membrane potential shifts in the growth cone, producing either attraction or repulsion. This is accomplished through the manipulation of Na+ or Cl− currents by cGMP-based signaling mechanisms, producing a differential change in the Ca2+ influx into the growth cone.
Acidosis can stop seizures, but it is unclear how it does this. This study demonstrates that the acid-sensing channel ASIC1a is required for either spontaneous or CO2-induced termination of convulsant-induced seizures in mice. Moreover, ASIC1a strongly activates inhibitory interneurons under acidotic conditions, which may explain the effect.
The exact function of glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in catecholaminergic cell survival in adulthood is unclear. Using a conditional GDNF-null mouse that suppresses GDNF expression in adulthood, Pascual et al. show that GDNF is an essential factor whose downregulation results in massive catecholaminergic neuronal death. Carlos Ibáñez discusses this paper in an accompanying News and Views.
In synaptically connected layer 4 and 2/3 cells, NMDA receptors are required postsynaptically for the expression of LTP and presynaptically for the expression of LTD.
TRPC6 promotes the formation of synapses in a CaMKIV-CREB–dependent manner. TRPC6-expressing transgenic animals showed increased numbers of spines and demonstrated enhanced learning on behavioral tasks.
Sound detection in mammalian cochlear involves a mechanoelectrical sensory transduction whose signal can be amplified by the outer hair cells in the organ of Corti. By recording the mechanical responses of cochlear taken from genetically modified mice, the current study provides evidence for hair-cell somatic motility as the underlying mechanism of cochlear amplification.
Fujisawa and colleagues report that during a working memory task, firing patterns in ensembles of rat medial prefrontal cortex neurons reflect behavioral outcomes on coarser time scales and short-term synaptic plasticity on finer time scales. These results suggest that short-term plasticity plays a role in the neural computations guiding behavior.