Articles in 2012

Two independent studies link mutant huntingtin to inactivation of the deacetylase enzyme SIRT1 and highlight a neuroprotective role for SIRT1 in mouse models of Huntington's disease.

The antidepressant fluoxetine increases synaptic plasticity in the amygdala and thereby facilitates fear erasure through extinction.

Repetitive spontaneous activity in developing neural networks causes spatiotemporal clustering of functional synapses on dendrites.

Maintaining cognitive function and reducing the risk of cognitive decline is a major concern in ageing populations. In this Perspective, the authors discuss the determinants of healthy and pathological brain ageing, and provide insights into how these processes are accelerated and might be prevented.

The notion that the disruption of inhibitory circuits might underlie certain clinical features — notably cognitive impairment — in various neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism, is receiving considerable attention. Focusing heavily on studies in animal models, Oscar Marín reviews the evidence indicating that the basis of such disruption is linked to specific defects in interneuron development and function.

The neurotransmitters expressed by neurons were thought to be fixed, but recent evidence suggests that during development, and also in the mature nervous system, neurotransmitter expression can be respecified by activity. This respecification seems to have a homeostatic role at synapses and influences behaviour.

Two immune-related molecules regulate network rhythmicity by controlling GABA transmission.

Cognition results from large-scale interactions among widely distributed brain regions. Siegel and colleagues review studies showing that these interactions are reflected by correlated neuronal oscillations. They propose that correlated oscillations in large-scale cortical networks may be 'fingerprints' of canonical neuronal computations underlying cognitive processes.

NEURL1A-mediated ubiquitylation of CPEB3 alters its activity and regulates hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory formation.

The distribution of mitochondria to regions of the neuron that have the greatest requirement for ATP supply maintenance and sequestration of Ca²⁺is essential for neuronal function. Sheng and Cai describe the molecular mechanisms regulating mitochondrial transport in neurons and discuss its contribution to aspects of neuronal function.

The study of speech production has largely been divided into investigations of lower-level articulatory motor control and of higher-level linguistic processing, with these research traditions rarely interacting. In this Opinion article, Hickok argues that these approaches have much to offer each other, and he presents a model of speech production that incorporates ideas from both research traditions and findings from neuroscientific studies of sensorimotor integration.