Research Highlights in 2012

Chronic mGluR5 inhibition can reverse fragile X phenotypes in adult mice.

Postnatal expansion of glia in the cortex is largely due to local production of astrocytes.

Two new studies involving graph theoretical analysis of healthy brain connectivity show that in neurodegenerative diseases, pathology might spread across neural networks via transneuronal propagation.

Two studies show that a memory trace can be artificially activated to induce fear behaviour.

A dendritically targetedBdnfmRNA transcript is required for the regulation of food intake in response to leptin.

Sexual rejection inDrosophila melanogasterhas been found to reduce activity in the neuropeptide F reward pathway, resulting in compensatory enhanced ethanol consumption.

Endoplasmic reticulum stress influences neurodegeneration in a mouse model of α-synucleinopathy.

The representation of natural odours in the olfactory bulb is dense, not sparse.

Newborn hippocampal granule cells are crucial in pattern separation, whereas older granule cells promote rapid pattern completion.

Hippocampal fast excitatory synapses exhibit both full collapse fusion and 'kiss and run'. Parket al. show that the type of fusion a vesicle will undergo depends on the location and the time spent at the active zone prior to fusion.

In mice, sound-induced activation of the primary auditory cortex can inhibit activity in the primary visual cortex and affect visual stimulus-induced behaviour.

The microRNA miR-34 and the transcription factor E74A are involved in adult-onset neurodegeneration inDrosophila melanogaster.

The primary cilium regulates the integration of adult-born dentate granule cells into functional circuits.

In the amygdala, oxytocin release from long-range hypothalamic axonal projections reduces fear responses.

The structural complexity of the ER restricts the diffusion of nascent proteins and influences the spatial scales of cargo transport to the dendritic membrane.

Complexin is involved in postsynaptic AMPA receptor exocytosis in long-term potentiation.

This study uses a cell reprogramming approach to investigate mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease.

GABA neurons encode the value of the expected reward — information that dopamine neurons need to compute prediction errors.

An acute high dose of an opioid agonist may be able to reverse the synaptic plasticity associated with chronic pain.

Two new studies highlight the contribution of dendrite–substrate interactions to dendritic morphogenesis inDrosophila melanogastersensory neurons.