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Mouse and human fibroblasts can be reprogrammed to become peripheral sensory neuronsin vitrothrough overexpression of certain combinations of transcription factors.
Age-related memory impairment is thought to result from cumulative oxidative damage in neurons, but this study shows that in Drosophila melanogaster, these memory impairments are as a result of reduced D-serine production by glia.
Reduced sociability in frontotemporal dementia may be due, at least in part, to a reduction in miR-124 levels resulting in altered AMPA receptor composition and function in the frontal cortex.
Events that cause circadian arrhythmia such as travel across time zones or shift work impair memory formation and in hamsters this is shown to require intact circuitry in the suprachiasmatic nucleus.
The majority of neurons in the geniculate ganglion — which receives inputs from taste receptor cells on the tongue — are singly tuned to a particular taste quality.
It was traditionally assumed that the spontaneous release of neurotransmitter-containing vesicles at neuronal synapses results from the random activation of the vesicle fusion machinery that underlies action potential-driven evoked release. However, the recent evidence described by Kavalali in this Review now suggests that the mechanisms, regulation and functions of spontaneous neurotransmitter release are distinct from those of evoked neurotransmission.
Recent discoveries have shown that both hormonal and brain-derived oestradiol have neuroprotective effects. This Review provides a comprehensive review of the multiple cell types, receptors and signalling cascades that underlie oestradiol-mediated neuroprotection.
Neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders — as well as normal ageing — are accompanied by changes in endocannabinoid signalling. In this Review, Di Marzo and colleagues discuss the different mechanisms through which endocannabinoid signalling both contributes to and mitigates these conditions, and how they could serve as targets for novel therapeutics.
Developmental dyslexia occurs across languages and has a major impact on the lives of affected individuals. Here, Usha Goswami considers the evidence for several prominent 'sensory' theories of dyslexia and outlines the key challenges for research in this area.
Recent work suggests that the insula forms part of a network that mediates the processing of salient stimuli. In this Opinion article, Lucina Q. Uddin examines the role of the insula in salience processing before outlining that dysfunction of such processing in insular subdivisions might accompany several brain disorders.
