Research Highlights in 2022

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.

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.

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

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.

Preventing transient defects in postnatal cortical circuit function limits disease progression in a mouse model of Huntington disease.

The modern human variant of the gene transketolase-like 1, but not the Neanderthal variant, promotes the production of basal radial glia during neocortical development.

Axo-ciliary synapses that enable rapid signalling to the nucleus are identified in the mouse hippocampus.

Neuromodulation with specific frequencies at specific brain locations selectively enhances either working memory or long-term memory in older adult humans.

A study in male mice finds that neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis shape hypothalamic neural representations to control the transition from appetitive to consummatory innate social behaviour towards conspecifics of both sexes.

A new study shows that many olfactory sensory neurons in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes express more than one type of chemosensory receptor and some of these neurons can respond to multiple olfactory cues.

Combining high-throughput fluorescence-activated cell sorting and single-cell RNA sequencing, neurons with and without neurofibrillary tangles from people with Alzheimer disease were shown to have different molecular signatures.

Subtypes of pyramidal neurons influence the transcriptomic states of nearby microglia in the mouse somatosensory cortex.

Dynamin mediates vesicle scission during endocytosis, and here is shown to exist with syndapin 1 in biomolecular condensates at the endocytic zone that enable its participation in ultrafast endocytosis.

A study in mice finds that different dopamine neuron subsystems in the midbrain track food and fluid ingestion at different stages of this process, and that animals can use this information to learn about the results of ingestion.

Core features of the language network in the brain are consistent across languages and language families.

A subpopulation of GABAergic neurons in the mouse VTA drives restorative sleep in response to social defeat stress.