Research articles

The authors live-image zebrafish myelin sheath Ca²⁺ activity in vivo and find that high-amplitude long-duration Ca²⁺ transients precede calpain-dependent sheath retractions while frequent low-amplitude short-duration transients drive sheath growth.

Myelin formed by oligodendrocytes enables rapid, energy-efficient information transmission in CNS, but its development is unclear. The authors show that the rate of intracellular calcium transients regulates elongation of developing myelin sheaths.

A genome-wide association study of delay discounting (DD) on 23,127 subjects found that genotype accounted for 12% of variance in DD; the DD genetic signature overlapped with ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, smoking, personality, cognition and weight.

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.