News & Comment

Fear is actively maintained in balance in mice by the insular cortex, which gates extinction learning according to an animal’s fear level using interoceptive signals related to fear expression that are sent to the brain via the vagus nerve.

New evidence from a study in mice suggests that neurons in the anterior claustrum contribute to premotor planning.

Selective and transient erasure of LTP reveals the roles of synaptic plasticity at multiple stages of memory consolidation.

Mapping promoter–enhancer interactions reveals that increased diversity of cell types in the vertebrate CNS coincides with the evolutionary expansion of complexity in noncoding regions of the genome

In the brain of the ant species Harpegnathos saltator, the switch from worker ant to gamergate is regulated by the steroid hormones JH3 and 20E, which induce expression of Kr-h1, a transcription factor that regulates caste-specific gene expression via transcriptional repression.

In mice, peripheral immune responses can be encoded by neurons in the insular cortex, and reactivation of these neurons can lead to retrieval of peripheral inflammation.

In their flagship paper, the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) describes the classification and analysis of cell types in the mammalian primary motor cortex.

Targeting two neuronal populations simultaneously with brief bursts of deep brain stimulation (DBS) induces longer-lasting beneficial effects on motor function than conventional DBS in dopamine-depleted mice.

Gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) signalling regulates vasoactive-intestinal peptide (VIP)-expressing cortical cells in a disinhibitory microcircuit that modulates a cortex-dependent behaviour.

In a mouse model of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, reactive hippocampal glia were reprogrammed into functional GABAergic interneurons that integrated into local circuits and reduced seizure incidence.

Two studies probe the mechanisms of gene expression regulation that have contributed to human-specific features of the prefrontal cortex.

A new study describes opposing cell-specific RhoA-dependent mechanisms linking the intrinsic regulation of neuronal microtubule dynamics and the extrinsic regulation of reactive astrocyte signalling that restrain axon regeneration.

The raphe nucleus contains specific populations of serotonergic neurons that express either orexin type 1 or type 2 receptors that directionally regulate plasma glucose and peripheral energy metabolism.

Clathrin undergoes axonal transport as stable ‘packets’, which become more dynamic at synapses.

Cortical–subcortical fusion organoids replicate complex features of human brain activity and are used to explore altered network function in Rett syndrome.

A new study reports gene coexpression networks from across 12 major human brain regions and insights obtained from them into the biology and disorders of the brain.