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The CNS critically relies on an extensive and complex vasculature to function properly. In this Review, Wälchli and colleagues examine the general and CNS-specific mechanisms that underlie angiogenesis in brain development, brain vascular malformations and brain tumours.
New findings indicate a role for SMN protein in assembly of the synaptic SNARE complex at neuromuscular junctions, providing insight into mechanisms of pathology in spinal muscular atrophy.
The centrosome is crucial for the microtubule dynamics that underlie the radial migration of developing rodent neurons but is not required for axon growth.
A new study examines thalamic innervation of cortical layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons and models how this thalamic connectivity affects visual responses in these cells.
The ability to be woken from deep sleep by a sound (such as an alarm) is shown to be mediated by a specialized glutamatergic brainstem–mediodorsal thalamic pathway.
A 1997 paper, described here by Hiromasa Takemura, showed that variations in the size of the visual cortex in humans are correlated with those of other parts of the visual system.
Different defensive responses are characterized by transient behavioural and cardiac components, which are constrained by cardiovascular dynamics occurring across the duration of threat exposure.
Through their widespread connectivity, cholinergic projection neurons in the basal forebrain can modulate diverse cognitive functions. In this Review, Ananth and colleagues provide a comprehensive overview of the development, organization and function of different populations of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons.
Seung-Hee Lee describes findings published in 2000 that gave us insight into the principles by which different types of GABAergic synapses are organized in cortical networks.
The advanced cognitive capacities of humans are linked to the evolution of a number of species-specific cortical features. In this Review, Pierre Vanderhaeghen and Franck Polleux discuss the genomic modifications and changes in neurodevelopmental mechanisms that underpin the human brain’s unique complexity and function.
In both human radiation-induced brain injury and a mouse model of this condition, activated microglia release chemokines that attract cytotoxic T cells from the periphery to the lesion site, and this exacerbates neuronal damage in the area.
The representational geometry of neural population activity in the somatosensory cortex of mice allows for high flexibility needed to perform complex tasks and for generalization to novel tasks at the same time.
Primates can quickly detect situations in which their performance deviates from the intended goal by the process of error monitoring. In this Review, Rutishauser and colleagues discuss the neuronal mechanisms that underlie such monitoring in macaques and humans.
In this Journal Club, Janelle Drouin-Ouellet describes the 1989 paper that provided the first evidence for mitochondrial dysfunction in individuals with idiopathic Parkinson disease.
Spectrins are abundant cytoskeletal proteins with multifaceted roles in the nervous system whose dysfunction leads to neurological syndromes. In this review, Lorenzo et al. provide an update on the neurobiology of spectrins and the genetics of neuronal spectrinopathies, together with insights into the pathophysiology of these disorders.
Ion channels in primary sensory neurons are molecular targets for the treatment of chronic pain. In this Perspective, Ovsepian and Waxman assess prospective gene therapies directed towards such targets and discuss their translational potential to enable precision pain medicine.
