Research Highlights in 2011

Adult hippocampal neural stem cells can give rise to persisting populations of stem cells and neurons, with cell fate being affected by an animal's experiences.

Flies use visual cues to guide their navigation and require neurons in the ellipsoid body to do so.

Calcium signalling mediates circadian regulation of extracellular ATP accumulation by astrocytes.

Odorants that cause prolonged activation of CO₂-sensing neurons in mosquitoes interfere with their host-seeking behaviour, and might lead to the development of a new class of insect repellents.

Blocking interactions between CRMP2 and the calcium channel CaV2.2 suppresses imflammatory and neuropathic pain.

Variation in BAD–BAX signalling alters the level of caspase 3 activity and determines the function of this protease.

Transcriptome analysis reveals a common molecular pathway in autism.

High-resolution X-ray computed tomography sheds new light on the early evolution of mammalian brains.

Conscious perception of auditory stimuli requires top-down, feedback connectivity from frontal to temporal cortices, which is absent in the vegetative state and present in the minimally conscious state.

Neuronal activity seems to regulate the brain area-specific distribution of amyloid-β pathology in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Synaptotagmin 10 regulates calcium-dependent insulin-like growth factor 1 exocytosis in olfactory bulb neurons.

Muskelin regulates the transport of GABA type A receptors (GABA_ARs) along actin filaments and microtubules in neurons.

Two papers show that theta oscillations are required for grid cell function.

Learning-related structural plasticity contributes to memory encoding and recall by increasing feedforward inhibition.

Neurons can be 'awake' during sleep and can be 'asleep' during wakefulness, indicating that sleep is a local phenomenon.

Neuronal activity is essential for the development of specific subtypes of cortical interneurons.

Glia-to-neuron signalling regulates circadian locomotor activity inDrosophila.

Neurons in the visual cortex connect preferentially to other local neurons with similar functional properties.

Fibroblasts from patients with schizophrenia have been reprogrammed into neurons, and reveal expected and unexpected changes in neuronal connectivity and gene expression.

New evidence indicates that mutations in the postsynaptic density protein SHANK3 causes defects in corticostriatal signalling and autism-like behaviours in mice.