Articles in 2013

Psychology and neuroscience studies have shown that memory is a reconstructive process that is susceptible to distortion. Lacy and Stark summarize the evidence and discuss how this insight could be applied to police and courtroom procedures.

Recent evidence suggests that mood disorders are associated with altered reward function. Russo and Nestler review studies that have shown alterations in the brain reward circuitry in patients with, and animal models of, depression, and discuss the cellular and molecular underpinnings of these alterations.

Activity-dependent changes in neuronal gene expression require a means of synapse-to-nucleus signalling, and changes in nuclear calcium concentration provide a major route for such communication. Bading discusses how nuclear calcium signals are induced by synaptic activity and describes their role as regulators of gene expression in neuroadaptations.

The location of glia is a key factor that determines synapse location during postembryonic growth inCaenorhabditis elegans.

A new study reveals a signalling pathway that stabilizes the expression of a single olfactory receptor by an olfactory sensory neuron.

Stopping a movement involves a race between distinct pathways through the basal ganglia that converge on the same neurons.

Oligodendrocytes support neurons by releasing exosomes that are internalized by neurons, and the cargo that they contain is shown to provide metabolic support under conditions of cellular stress.

Many cases of Parkinson's disease (PD) are characterized by not only deficits in movement but also cognitive dysfunction, which can develop into dementia. Here, Irwinet al. review the complex connections between the neuropathological aetiologies that underlie the cognitive deficits associated with PD.

The implications of compartmentalization of protein synthesis and distribution within dendrites are not well understood. In this Opinion article, Hanus and Schuman discuss how the morphological complexity of dendrites and specialist regulatory mechanisms influence protein distribution and therefore the synaptic response to activity.

Cheng and Ji show that in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, new spatial memory formation by hippocampal place cells is disrupted by an inability to encode external environmental information and by dominating internally generated brain activity.

Attention increases synaptic efficacy and improves signal-to-noise processing at thalamocortical synapses.

Hypnosis is used in treatment contexts and, recently, also as an investigative tool in cognitive neuroscience. Oakley and Halligan review the potential for hypnosis to provide insights into brain mechanisms involved in attention, motor control, pain perception, beliefs and volition and also to produce informative analogues of clinical conditions.