Reviews & Analysis

The striatum is crucial for learning and decision-making. Cox and Witten provide an updated overview of the roles of different parts of the striatal circuit in learning and decision-making, showing how recent experiments support and contradict previous models.

Successful learning and decision-making require estimates of expected uncertainty and unexpected uncertainty. Soltani and Izquierdo define these concepts, describe proposed models of how they may be computed and discuss their neural substrates.

Studies that examine brain activity during real-time social interactions may advance our understanding of human social behaviour. Redcay and Schilbach describe progress in ‘second-person’ neuroscience and discuss the insights into the brain mechanisms of social behaviour that have been gained.

In this Opinion article, Martijn van den Heuvel and Olaf Sporns examine alterations in structural and functional brain connectivity across brain disorders. They propose a common landscape for such alterations that is based on principles of network organization.

The short-term retention of working memory is accompanied by neural delay activity. Sreenivasan and D’Esposito describe how delay activity can be assessed, discuss where in the brain it occurs and why, and examine the possible mechanisms that underlie it.

Spinal neural circuits are established through the navigation of multiple types of neuronal axon to their appropriate synaptic targets. Chédotal reviews the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control this complex wiring, incorporating recent discoveries of new guidance factors.

Much of the mammalian nervous system is innervated by neurons that express and release 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). In this Review, Okaty, Commons and Dymecki explore the diversity in the properties and function of the 5-HT neuronal system.

How is the processing of auditory information by the cortex organized? Scott and colleagues describe differences in the connectivity and properties of the rostral and caudal auditory cortex and propose links to the functional specializations of the rostral and caudal auditory streams.

Recent studies indicate that cerebellar dysfunction contributes to the aetiology of many neurodevelopmental disorders. In this review, Gallo and colleagues cover recent discoveries in basic cerebellar research, linking them to human imaging and preclinical work on complex brain disorders with motor and non-motor deficits.

In addition to ensuring stable gaze and posture, the vestibular system contributes to the perception of self-motion and orientation. In this Review, Cullen provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in our understanding of sensory encoding and integration in the vestibular pathways.

The cerebral cortex is made of cells originating in distinct brain regions. In this Review, Silva and colleagues discuss the dual role played by cell migration to bring cells in and to provide crosstalk that shapes cortical morphogenesis.

In this Opinion, Yonelinas et al. propose that the hippocampus binds together item-related and content-related information to form memories. They compare the evidence for this contextual binding theory with that for another theory of memory, standard systems consolidation theory.

There is growing evidence for activity-dependent plasticity at inhibitory GABAergic synapses. In this Review, Chiu and colleagues propose that an array of molecular mechanisms promotes the parallel regulation of synapses formed by distinct presynaptic interneurons innervating perisomatic or dendritic targets.

Here, Hong and Lieber review recent developments in electrode technologies for the recording of single-unit spiking activity. They focus on advances in electrodes with high spatial integration, long-term stability and multifunctional capacities.

Electrical synapses comprise intercellular channels termed gap junctions and are found in vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems. In this Review, Pepe Alcamí and Alberto Pereda examine the properties of electrical synapses that influence neural circuit dynamics without modifying gap junction conductance.

The role of glia in supporting and modulating neuronal activity has been an active area of research. In this Review, Patel et al. discuss the evidence and mechanisms whereby reactivated glia contribute to the development and progression of epilepsy.

It is now clear that most classical ‘cell types’ are composed of collections of cells with heterogeneous features. Cembrowski and Spruston describe the heterogeneity of hippocampal pyramidal cells and argue that these cells can act as a model of within-cell-type heterogeneity in the brain.

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the neurobiological basis of paternal caregiving. Feldman and colleagues review studies that have shed light on the circuits that underlie paternal care in mammals and the consequences of this care for fathers and their offspring.

Oxidative damage plays a key role in the development of Alzheimer disease. In this Review, Butterfield and Halliwell discuss how this damage relates to impaired brain glucose metabolism and proteostasis defects and how knowledge of it may suggest potential therapies.

Environmental enrichment is a classical experimental paradigm for the study of the interaction between genes and the environment. In this Opinion, Kempermann discusses how this paradigm can be further developed in order to capture the essence of interindividual differences in brain function.