Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
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.
The translation of analgesic drug candidates to the clinic relies upon successful preclinical pain modelling. In this Review, Stucky and colleagues describe recent trends in the methods used to model pain in laboratory animals and provide recommendations for experimental designs that may increase translational success.
Stress, a key risk factor for many neuropsychiatric disorders, drives a range of maladaptive physiological changes from genetic to behavioural levels. In this review, Sanacora et al. discuss the mechanisms underlying susceptibility and resilience to acute and chronic stress.
The recollection of memories and voluntary actions are often perceived to be generated spontaneously. In this Perspective, Itzhak Fried examines evidence from human single-neuron studies indicating that brain systems involved in these acts can form a conceptual–volition interface, where representations of actions and stored memories interact, sometimes in the absence of sensory input and sometimes allowing such input to be overridden.
A prevailing theory of Parkinson disease pathogenesis revolves around the spread of α-synuclein toxicity from the periphery to the brain. In this Review, Blesa and colleagues discuss the idea that, although these bottom-up mechanisms are involved, early neuronal loss in the nigrostriatal system also plays a prominent role.
