Cellular neuroscience articles from across Nature Portfolio

Mechanisms of sleep remain elusive. Here, authors developed mouse sleep fMRI based on simultaneous electrophysiology and mapped global and sequential state transition patterns, together with global patterns triggered by SWRs in NREM and awake states.

The role of dopamine in the cerebellum remains relatively unexplored. Here, the authors report a dopamine system in the cerebellum in mice, where Purkinje cells supply dopamine and Bergmann glia express D1 receptors. Activation of D1 receptors is found to modulate Purkinje cell activity and to affect locomotor and social behaviors.

Fluorescence imaging of the spinal cord poses challenges, including depth of imaging. Here the authors describe a custom microscope and chronically implanted microprism that enables multicolor translaminar imaging of sensory and motor evoked activity in behaving mice, and show that spinal astrocytes show sensorimotor program-dependent calcium excitation.