News & Comment

The transcription regulator MeCP2 — loss of which causes Rett syndrome — is shown to have an essential role in maintaining homeostatic plasticity.

An international collaboration has mapped the transcriptome of the adult human brain in unprecedented detail, sampling around 900 defined anatomical sites and providing a wealth of freely available data.

Chronic stress causes a switch in the actions of corticotropin-releasing factor in the nucleus accumbens, from promoting dopamine release and inducing an appetitive state to inducing an aversive state.

The mechanisms underlying hearing loss following traumatic noise exposure are not well understood. In this study, Chenet al. show that the cellular energy depletion that occurs following traumatic noise exposure results in activation of small GTPases and downstream effectors that mediate apoptotic and necrotic cell death.

The transition in worker bees between nursing and foraging subcastes is shown to be associated with reversible changes in gene methylation in the honeybee brain.

Social isolation during a critical post-weaning period reduces myelination in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) by altering oligodendrocyte neuregulin 1–receptor tyrosine kinase ERBB3 signalling and impairs PFC function.

Gamma activity in neuron groups in visual area V4 synchronizes selectively with gamma activity in those neuron groups in primary visual cortex that provide behaviourally relevant input.

Investigation of the transcriptomes of samples from human, chimpanzee and macaque brains gives new insight into human brain evolution.

Chronic stress in mice causes ryanodine receptors in the brain to become leaky, and this leads to neuronal damage and cognitive dysfunction.

Selective attention-induced synchronous activity in cortical regions seems to depend on pulvinar–cortical interactions.

A study inDrosophila melanogastershows that the mechanism responsible for axon regrowth during development is distinct to that underlying initial axon growth.

Theta waves travel along the entire long axis of the hippocampus, resulting in a phase difference of 180° between the dorsal and ventral poles.

Hippocampal pyramidal cell synapses have NMDA receptors located synaptically and extrasynaptically. Papouinet al. now show that these two populations of receptors have different subunit compositions, are gated by different co-agonists and have different functional and pathological roles.

β-amyloid, known as the bad guy in Alzheimer's disease, seems to have a good side — it can reduce the symptoms in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

Local GABA release from parvalbumin-positive interneurons regulates neural stem cell fate decisions in the adult mouse hippocampus.

MIF mediates the antidepressant effects of voluntary exercise by increasing hippocampalBdnftranscription and serotonin synthesis.

Swimming tadpoles use motor feedforward signals without sensory feedback to produce eye movements that stabilize their gaze.

Protein-rich diets reduce food intake by activating gut–brain pathways through μ-opioid receptors in the portal vein. This activation promotes gluconeogenesis in the gut, which acts as a satiety signal.

The dorsal premotor cortex encodes both target direction and movement direction during a complex reaching task.

Oligodendrocytes use a lactate transporter to provide metabolic support to axons and neurons.