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Volume 17 Issue 5, May 2016

'Baby talk' by Jennie Vallis, inspired by the Perspective on p323.

Research Highlight

  • Homeostatic mechanisms that maintain the firing rate of neurons in the visual cortex of rats within a stable range occur primarily during active wake and return the firing rates of individual cells to cell-specific set points.

    • Natasha Bray
    Research Highlight

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  • V1 inhibitory interneurons of the spinal cord can be divided into 50 subtypes based on the expression of transcription factors; these subtypes have distinct physiological characteristics and spatial locations and differentially interact with the motor circuits innervating muscles in different limbs.

    • Fiona Carr
    Research Highlight
  • A distinct set of neurons in the hippocampal CA2 region encodes current spatial position in the absence of movement.

    • Katherine Whalley
    Research Highlight
  • Fusion of ferritin with a transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) channel produces an ion channel that can be selectively targetted to specific neuronal populations and opened by application of a magnetic field.

    • Sian Lewis
    Research Highlight
  • Low-frequency oscillations in the hippocampus of individuals navigating a virtual environment are not associated with sensorimotor processing but instead carry task-related and spatial — including distance-related — information.

    • Natasha Bray
    Research Highlight
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In Brief

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Review Article

  • Alternative splicing is a key regulatory step in gene expression that affects all aspects of neuronal development and function. In this Review, Vuong and colleagues survey recent genetic studies of splicing regulators and the diverse parts they play in the mammalian nervous system.

    • Celine K. Vuong
    • Douglas L. Black
    • Sika Zheng
    Review Article
  • There is accumulating evidence that some neurotrophic factors, particularly brain-derived neurotrophic factor and ciliary neurotrophic factor, could have a role in preventing obesity. In this Review, Xu and Xie discuss the neural mechanisms by which these molecules regulate energy intake and expenditure.

    • Baoji Xu
    • Xiangyang Xie
    Review Article
  • Cannabis is used widely as a recreational drug, and its legalization is an ongoing issue in several countries. Curranet al. review the cognitive effects of acute and chronic cannabis use, before discussing cannabis addiction and the psychiatric problems often comorbid with it.

    • H. Valerie Curran
    • Tom P. Freeman
    • Loren H. Parsons
    Review Article
  • Several brain regions and physiological processes have been proposed to constitute the neural correlates of consciousness. In this Review, Koch and colleagues discuss studies that distinguish the neural correlates of consciousness from other neural processes that precede, accompany or follow it, and suggest that the neural correlates of consciousness are localized to posterior cortical regions.

    • Christof Koch
    • Marcello Massimini
    • Giulio Tononi
    Review Article
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Opinion

  • The understanding of spoken language is mediated by bottom-up and top-down processing in the brain. In this Opinion article, Skeide and Friederici propose how changes in the structure and function of children's brains are associated with the development of language-processing skills.

    • Michael A. Skeide
    • Angela D. Friederici
    Opinion
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