Cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding (CPEB) proteins are thought to contribute to the local protein synthesis that underlies long-term changes in synaptic efficacy. In this issue, Keleman and colleagues show that the Drosophila CPEB protein Orb2 is required for long-term conditioning of male courtship behavior. On the cover is a confocal image of the Drosophila brain, with mushroom body neurons marked in magenta and green. (p 1587)

Glial cells contribute significantly to neuronal health and disease. Glia are implicated in the regulation of brain vasculature (and therefore ischemia and stroke) as well as myelination and repair, suggesting a role in neurodegenerative diseases. In this issue, we present six reviews and perspectives on the importance of glia in disease. The cover shows astrocytes in human parietal cortex, identified by GFAP labeling, courtesy of NancyAnn Oberheim and Takahiro Takano. (pp 1349-1394)

The neocortex is hierarchically organized around three sensory areas and one motor area, but little is known about the developmental mechanisms that regulate this patterning. In this issue, Armentano and colleagues use a cortex-specific deletion of COUP-TFI to show that this transcription factor is required to balance patterning of neocortex into frontal/motor and sensory areas. The cover is a coronal section of newborn mouse brain with anterogradely labeled visual axons in red and somatosensory axons in green. (p 1277)

People's quality of life depends on the ability to experience emotions appropriately and to regulate them in response to stressful events. Consequently, it is important to understand how the brain regulates emotions and how this regulation becomes impaired by disorders of emotion. In this issue, we present a collection of reviews on the neurobiology of emotion and disorders of emotion. (pp 1089, 1095, 1110 & 1116)

Dellisanti and colleagues solved the crystal structure of the N-terminal extracellular domain of the mouse nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) α1 subunit, then used structure-guided mutagenesis and patch-clamp recording to identify a hydrophilic patch inside the beta sandwich that is important for agonist-induced channel opening. The cover shows a ribbon model of mouse nAChR α1 subunit extracellular domain (dark blue) mounted into a surface model of intact nAChR based on electron microscopy of Torpedo nAChR. Magenta, carbohydrate chain; red, buried water; light blue, α-bungarotoxin. (pp 937 and 953)

Peripheral nerve myelination requires close contact between Schwann cells and the axon. Spiegel and colleagues report that Necl4 mediates glia-axon interaction during myelination. On the cover is an electron microscopy image of a myelinating Schwann cell in co-culture. (p 861)

Acoustic flutter is the perception of a sequence of acoustic events as a stream of temporally discrete sounds. Bendor and colleagues report that the neural representation of stimuli associated with the perception of acoustic flutter varies smoothly along the caudal-to-rostral axis of auditory cortex in the marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus). (p 763)

An eye position signal is required by the cortex, but its source has long been unknown. In this issue, Wang and colleagues identify a proprioceptive eye position signal in primate primary somatosensory cortex. The cover is an abstract image inspired by these findings, courtesy of Ellen Levy. (pp 538 and 640)

Synaptic activity regulates protein synthesis, both locally and in the nucleus. Jordan and colleagues now report that AIDA-1d, a newly identified component of postsynaptic densities, links synaptic activity to nuclear protein synthesis by regulating nucleolar assembly. The cover image is a cultured hippocampal neuron with AIDA-1 labeled in green, the dendritic marker MAP-2 labeled in red, and the nucleus labeled in blue. (pp 399 and 427)

Neurotransmitter is released from vesicles at synapses within gray matter. Ziskin and colleagues now show that action potentials also induce the vesicular release of glutamate from unmyelinated axons in the corpus callosum. The image shows NG2+ glial precursors labeled with DsRed (red) in gray matter and corpus callosum, and neuronal dendrites labeled for Map2 (blue) only in the gray matter. (pp 267 and 321; see also p 311)

Bats use echolocation to navigate and find food. Ulanovsky and colleagues now show that the bat hippocampus contains 'place' cells and exhibits ripple and theta oscillations, known to characterize the rodent hippocampus. The cover shows a big brown bat, the species studied in the paper, with a moth in its mouth. Superimposed is a spectrogram of an echolocation call. Credit: Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle/Bat Conservation International/Photo Researchers, Inc. (p 224)

Human olfaction is often held to be poor compared to that of many other species. Sobel and colleagues now show that humans can track scent trails across the ground. The cover shows one subject performing the task; subjects were blindfolded and given earplugs and thick gloves to eliminate nonolfactory cues. The red trace is the path traversed by the subject's head as he followed the odor trail (in yellow). The backpack contains telemetry equipment for recording airflow into the nose. (p 27)