Articles in 2022

Cortical inhibitory interneurons undergo diverse forms of long-term synaptic plasticity. In this Review, Sjöström and colleagues describe the diversity of this interneuron plasticity and highlight that the plasticitome, a comprehensive database of plasticity rules, is needed to understand circuit plasticity complexity.

Hyperactivity in a subset of lateral septum neurons inhibits social reward processing and drives social avoidance following chronic social defeat in mice.

Deletion of Gabrb3, which encodes the β3 subunit of the GABA_A receptor selectively in pyramidal neurons of developing mouse sensory cortex, increased contralateral connectivity, network synchrony and sensitivity to tactile stimuli, suggesting that this receptor is involved in refinement of interhemispheric sensory pathways.

Evidence for the presence of silent synapses in the visual cortex of adult mice is uncovered.

In this Journal Club, Xiang Yu describes a 1986 study that provided crucial evidence for synaptic pruning in cortical development.

Neural oscillations are thought to have an important role in syntactic structure building but views differ on their exact function in this context. In this Perspective, Kazanina and Tavano explore two proposed functions for neural oscillations in this process, namely chunking and multiscale information integration.

In this Perspective article, Foster and colleagues describe converging evidence supporting an anatomical and functional division of the posterior cingulate cortex into three subregions that contribute to different cognitive tasks.

Human and animal studies reveal a neurobiological pathway that connects polygenic risks and behavioural changes that are shared between schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder.

The increased tissue stiffness that results from the presence of Aβ aggregates activates microglial mechanosensitive PIEZO1 channels and drives Aβ engulfment, reducing plaque burden, synapse loss and spatial memory impairment in mice.

Bogdan and colleagues consider how the findings of recent genome-wide association studies of substance use and addiction risk can be integrated with our current understanding of the neurobiological contributions to substance use disorders, and propose a new genetically informed model of addiction.

Schemas are structured bodies of prior knowledge that reflect common patterns of information from related experiences. In this Review, Farzanfar et al. discuss evidence for spatial schemas, how they form and how they differ from cognitive maps.

A gut–brain circuit that mediates retching and nausea in response to enterotoxins and chemotheraputic drugs is characterized in mice.

Mackenzie Mathis highlights an essay by Vernon Mountcastle that shaped our understanding of the organization and function of the neocortex.

The molecular organization of the synapse is both highly organized and dynamic. Triller and colleagues outline advances in single-particle tracking technologies that have enabled us to gain quantitative insights into the mechanisms that regulate postsynaptic receptor dynamics.

When humans attempt two tasks at once, there are costs to task performance. In this Perspective, Garner and Dux discuss neurophysiological evidence for whether these multitasking costs are linked to the human capability for rapid knowledge generalization to perform novel tasks.

Attractor network dynamics can support several computations performed by the brain. In their Review, Khona and Fiete introduce different attractor dynamics and their computational utility, describe evidence of attractor networks across the brain and explain how such networks could be recombined to increase their flexibility and versatility.

In mice, a neurodegenerative pathway involving Tbk1 gene mutations and chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 repeat expansions impairs endosome maturation and induces cytoplasmic TBP-43 aggregation.

Barosensitive neurons in the medullary nucleus of the solitary tract can decrease wakefulness and increase non-REM sleep in mice through the same circuitry that regulates cardiovascular function.

There is increasing evidence that neurons are not the only cells affected by and contributing to neurodegenerative disorders. In this Review, Brandebura and colleagues discuss the role astrocytes play in neurodegenerative disorders as initiators of and contributors to disease progression.

Understanding how brain circuits have been altered by evolution can provide insight into their development and function. Prieto-Godino and colleagues provide an overview of our current understanding of the principles of central circuit evolution, drawing on numerous examples from across the animal kingdom.