News & Comment

Oxytocin tunes the responses of neurons in the left auditory cortex to pup calls and may thus promote pup retrieval by virgin female mice.

Two studies use zebrafish models to investigate the mechanisms through which neuronal activity influences myelination.

How the firing of neurons in a population generates cortical representations has not been fully elucidated, but a new study shows that population activity can be understood in terms of the degree of coupling of the spiking of a single neuron to the spiking of the overall population.

Two studies show that the ventromedial hypothalamus is a key regulator of defensive behaviours.

The probabilistic behaviour ofCaenorhabditis elegansin response to a fixed olfactory stimulus arises owing to variability in the activity state of the neural circuit that receives the sensory input.

This study shows that the circadian geneClockdrives the maturation of parvalbumin-expressing interneuron networks, and therefore critical period plasticity, in the mouse visual cortex.

A novel functional MRI technique that tracks the pattern of cortical activation associated with specific memories reveals that 'competitor' memories in the ventral visual cortex are actively suppressed by remembering.

Cannabinoids promote food intake in mice by activating pro-opiomelanocortin neurons in the hypothalamus and selectively increasing β-endorphin release.

Chronic morphine treatment reduces brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) expression by influencing various epigenetic mechanisms, including histone modification and reduced transcription factor binding to Bdnf.

Per1b-mutant zebrafish exhibit symptoms that mimic those of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and can be used to provide insight into the pathogenic disease mechanisms.

The GABA receptor subunit GABA_B1inhibits sensitization of the heat-activated transient receptor potential cation channel TRPV1 in peripheral nociceptors.

A subset of perineuronal satellite microglia interact specifically with the axon initial segment in a subpopulation of cortical neurons.

A set of neurons in the cochlear organ of Corti is activated in response to noxious sound levels and thus mediates 'auditory nociception'.

Two studies show that the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus is a component of fear-processing circuits.

A new study shows that high dietary salt causes hypertension through disruption of a feedback circuit from arterial baroreceptors to the hypothalamus,which leads to unregulated vasopressin release and peripheral vasoconstriction.

Saccadic eye movements elicit travelling waves of neural activity in area V4 in macaques that might have a role in the reorganization of spatiotemporal visual information.

RNA-binding motif protein 3, a cold-shock protein, promotes synaptic regeneration and is neuroprotective in mouse models of Alzheimer disease and prion infection.

A functional MRI study demonstrates that the nucleus accumbens and ventromedial prefrontal cortex mediate the effects of self-regulation on pain rating.

The subtype of motor neurons that is most likely to degenerate early in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is prone to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in mice, owing to low levels of SIL1, an ER-associated protein.

A new study shows thatDrosophila melanogasterexhibits collective odour-avoidance behaviour that is dependent on mechanosensory interactions between individual flies.