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Hallucinations and delusions are striking features of schizophrenia that have been difficult to explain. Fletcher and Frith discuss cognitive theories of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia and describe how abnormalities in error-dependent learning could underlie both hallucinations and delusions.
Facial expressions of emotion are universal, but the sensitivity with which these expressions are recognized differs between individuals. Leppänen and Nelson discuss how a network of emotional and visual processing areas develops through experience-expectant and experience-dependent mechanisms.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been widely used to investigate language processing in the brain. Lau and colleagues discuss how localization data can contribute to the functional interpretation of one particular component of the ERP — the N400 response.
Recent studies have identified networks of brain areas that underlie voluntary action. Patrick Haggard reviews these circuits, describes the types of decision that are involved in making a voluntary action and discusses how volition is linked to conscious experience.
Recent work has shown that VPS10P-domain receptors have important roles in neuronal signalling pathways. Willnow and colleagues outline the evidence for the contributions of two of these proteins, sortilin and SORLA, to neuronal viability and function.
Sleep has long been viewed as a property of the whole animal that is regulated by sleep- and wake-promoting neuronal networks. Here, Krueger and colleagues review the evidence that sleep might instead be regulated locally, at the level of neuronal assemblies.
The complex morphology of neurons requires distinctive adaptations for the molecular mechanisms of protein degradation. These are discussed by Tai and Schuman with respect to normal function and dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases.
In the CNS, remyelination of denuded axons occurs to reinstate neuronal function. Franklin and ffrench-Constant consider the cells and molecular signals that are required for remyelination and how this knowledge can be channelled towards more effective therapies for demyelinating diseases.
Silent synapses cannot mediate neurotransmission. Kerchner and Nicoll discuss different mechanisms that have been proposed to underlie synaptic silence, and conclude that LTP and synaptic unsilencing occur by a postsynaptic mechanism that involves AMPA receptor recruitment.
The supplementary motor complex has a role in regulating action, but whether each of its subregions has a distinct function is unclear. Husain and colleagues review the literature and discuss outstanding issues regarding the function of this complex.
Since their discovery as factors that were upregulated by psychostimulant drugs, CART peptides have emerged as major neurotransmitters and hormones. Here, Kuhar and colleagues provide an overview of the various effects of CART peptides.
Studies of the genetic causes of Alzheimer's disease have yielded a bewildering array of candidate genes. Bertram and Tanzi describe the results of ongoing systematic meta-analyses of these studies and discuss how some of the risk factors identified might contribute to disease pathology.
Aging is a major risk factor for the development of human neurodegenerative diseases. Here, Cohen and Dillin discuss the roles of insulin/IGF1 signalling in toxic protein aggregation and the links between this pathway and the emergence of late-onset neurodegenerative disease.
Dyskinesia is a treatment-limiting side effect of dopaminergic replacement therapies in Parkinson's disease. Here Jenner discusses what we know about the molecular causes of dyskinesia induction and expression, highlighting recent findings that suggest that altered glutamatergic transmission might be important.
Computational neuroscience contributes to our understanding of complex diseases. Here, Rolls and colleagues review several models of schizophrenia, focusing on those that include attractor networks. They show how reduced stability of attractor networks in the prefrontal cortex might produce symptoms of schizophrenia.
The detection of a moving object's velocity by the visual system is thought to require several sequential computational steps. Bradley and Goyal outline current theoretical models that explain how local-velocity estimates are obtained and integrated, and consider the experimental evidence for each model.
The genetic interactions that pattern the embryonic telencephalon are highly complex. Fishell and Hébert bring clarity to these events by describing the key genetic interactions that underlie the patterning of the early telencephalon into distinct proliferative zones.
Conflicting findings from neuroimaging and patient-lesion studies have led to confusion regarding the parietal cortex's contribution to episodic memory. Cabeza and colleagues evaluate the hypotheses that have been put forward to explain these findings and discuss their attention-based hypothesis.
Many animals use their whiskers to collect information about the environment. Diamond and colleagues explain how the brain creates a neuronal representation of the location and identity of objects from sensory signals and argue that this involves integration of knowledge about the self-generated whisker motion.
When an animal moves, it must distinguish between sensory inputs caused by its own movement and those caused by another agent. Sommer and Crapse review how corollary discharge, neural signals that travel from the motor to the sensory structures, enable the coordination of movements and sensory analyses across a wide range of species.
