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It is now clear that most classical ‘cell types’ are composed of collections of cells with heterogeneous features. Cembrowski and Spruston describe the heterogeneity of hippocampal pyramidal cells and argue that these cells can act as a model of within-cell-type heterogeneity in the brain.
Recent years have seen a growing interest in the neurobiological basis of paternal caregiving. Feldman and colleagues review studies that have shed light on the circuits that underlie paternal care in mammals and the consequences of this care for fathers and their offspring.
During nervous system development, secretion of netrin 1 from both the floorplate and the ventricular zone is shown to be important for guidance of commissural axons towards the ventral midline of the spinal cord.
Oxidative damage plays a key role in the development of Alzheimer disease. In this Review, Butterfield and Halliwell discuss how this damage relates to impaired brain glucose metabolism and proteostasis defects and how knowledge of it may suggest potential therapies.
Environmental enrichment is a classical experimental paradigm for the study of the interaction between genes and the environment. In this Opinion, Kempermann discusses how this paradigm can be further developed in order to capture the essence of interindividual differences in brain function.
How does the brain generate positive or negative hedonic or motivational reactions (such as liking or disgust) to particular stimuli or events? In this Opinion article, Berridge evaluates two proposed mechanisms for the generation of affective valance in the brain.
In a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, calcium enters neurons via ‘nanoruptures’ in the cell membrane and accumulates in the cytoplasm of axons, driving axonal degeneration.
Epigenetic mechanisms play an important part in learning and memory. Here, Campbell and Wood give an overview of epigenetic mechanisms that are necessary for such processes, with a particular focus on the bidirectional relationship between the epigenome and the synapse.
Neurons in the mouse postrhinal cortex receive visual inputs from the superior colliculus and respond to visual motion independently of the primary visual cortex.
Neurosecretion is controlled by SNAREs and SNARE-binding proteins and is initiated by the influx of Ca2+ ions through voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs). In this Review, Dittman and Ryan discuss progress in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the function of VGCCs and fusion machinery.
Understanding the complex interplay of cells that protect neurons early in Alzheimer disease but later contribute to neurodegeneration is important for developing effective therapeutics. In this Review, Henstridge and colleagues discuss the contributions of multiple cell types to disease pathogenesis.
Why is the human cerebral cortex folded? Llinares-Benadero and Borrell provide an overview of the mechanical, cellular and molecular factors — and the interactions among them — that influence cortical folding in gyrencephalic species.
