Neural circuits articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Drosophila visual system first computes motion in the dendrites of T4 and T5 neurons via a linear mechanism that uses ON and OFF information. Here, the authors show that the Tm9, Tm2, and CT1 neurons provide both ON and OFF information to direction-selective T5 cells in the OFF pathway.

    • Giordano Ramos-Traslosheros
    •  & Marion Silies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the cerebral cortex, information is processed by multiple hierarchically organized areas, reciprocally connected via feedforward and feedback circuits. Here the authors show that in primate visual cortex, feedforward projection neurons receive monosynaptic feedback contacts selectively from the area to which they project.

    • Caitlin Siu
    • , Justin Balsor
    •  & Alessandra Angelucci

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relationship between the human structural and functional connectome is still not well established. Here the authors show the interindividual variability that exists in regional coupling of structural and functional connectivity across the brain, and that this is heritable.

    • Zijin Gu
    • , Keith Wakefield Jamison
    •  & Amy Kuceyeski

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanisms stimulating adult neurogenesis are unclear. Here, the authors show the contribution of cholinergic and GABAergic signalling within the locomotor network to spinal cord neurogenesis during homeostasis and regeneration, showing neurogenesis depends on circuit activity in the adult zebrafish.

    • Weipang Chang
    • , Andrea Pedroni
    •  & Konstantinos Ampatzis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hippocampal pyramidal cells encode an animal’s location by single action potentials and complex spike bursts. The authors show that Kcnq3-containing M-channels synergistically with GABAergic inputs coordinate complex spike bursts during theta oscillations, which is a key mechanism for spatial coding by single spikes.

    • Xiaojie Gao
    • , Franziska Bender
    •  & Alexey Ponomarenko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Engineering de novo synapse-like connections between neurons could enhance our understanding of neuronal circuits and how they generate behaviour. The authors present a two-component system that creates synthetic neuromodulatory connections to manipulate intracellular Ca2+ levels in in vivo neural circuits.

    • Josh D. Hawk
    • , Elias M. Wisdom
    •  & Daniel A. Colón-Ramos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbial rhodopsins can be used to control action potentials, while animal opsins can be used to control intracellular signaling pathways. The authors identify Opn7b as constitutively active Gi/o coupled receptor that can be deactivated by light and used to modulate neuronal activity.

    • Raziye Karapinar
    • , Jan Claudius Schwitalla
    •  & Stefan Herlitze

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multi-sensory input can lead to dendritic integration at the single neuron level. Here the authors show that combined auditory and somatosensory input increases distal dendritic and somatic activity in layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons of the primary somatosensory cortex and decreases response latency during somatosensory-based goal-directed behaviour.

    • L. Godenzini
    • , D. Alwis
    •  & L. M. Palmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intratelencephalic and pyramidal tract neurons are two major types of cortical excitatory neurons that project to cortical and subcortical structures. The authors show that in the prefrontal cortex the two populations have different roles for the maintenance of working memory and for tracking the passage of time.

    • Jung Won Bae
    • , Huijeong Jeong
    •  & Min Whan Jung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in neurofibromin and associated with disruptions in physiology and behavior. Here the authors show that neurofibromin regulates metabolic homeostasis via a discrete brain circuit in a Drosophila model of NF1.

    • Valentina Botero
    • , Bethany A. Stanhope
    •  & Seth M. Tomchik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How genes sculpt the complex architecture of the human connectome remains unclear. Here, the authors show that genes preferentially influence the strength of connectivity between functionally valuable, metabolically costly connections between brain network hubs.

    • Aurina Arnatkeviciute
    • , Ben D. Fulcher
    •  & Alex Fornito

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The central amygdala inhibitory microcircuits mediate fear extinction by reversible, stimulus- and context-specific changes in neuronal responses. These alterations are absent when extinction is deficient and selective silencing of PKCδ neurons impairs fear extinction.

    • Nigel Whittle
    • , Jonathan Fadok
    •  & Stéphane Ciocchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The representation of space in mouse visual cortex was considered to be relatively uniform. The authors show that mice have improved visual resolution in a cortical region representing a location in space directly in front and slightly above them, showing that the representation of space in mouse visual cortex is non-uniform.

    • Enny H. van Beest
    • , Sreedeep Mukherjee
    •  & Matthew W. Self

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The superior colliculus (SC) receives diverse cortical inputs to drive many behaviors. Here, based on comprehensive mapping of cortico-tectal projections, the authors refined the superior colliculus into medial, centromedial, centrolateral, and lateral zones, and characterized the input-output connectivity and morphology of neurons in each zone that serve the role of SC in goal-directed behaviors.

    • Nora L. Benavidez
    • , Michael S. Bienkowski
    •  & Hong-Wei Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Voltage-sensitive dye imaging (VSDI) is a powerful technique for measuring membrane potential dynamics of neurons but the effective resolution is limited. Here, the authors developed an in silico model of VSDI to probe activity in a biologically detailed reconstruction of rodent neocortical microcircuits.

    • Taylor H. Newton
    • , Michael W. Reimann
    •  & Henry Markram

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hippocampal place cells contribute to navigation and memory formation. Here, the authors use in vivo glutamate imaging to reveal patterns of excitatory input received by place cell dendrites and find more spatially tuned and functionally organized inputs arriving in the place field.

    • Michael D. Adoff
    • , Jason R. Climer
    •  & Daniel A. Dombeck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active responses to stressors involve motor planning, execution, and feedback. The authors identify a neuronal projection from the insular cortex to the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis that is activated during motor struggling in response to restraint stress as a potential active coping response.

    • Joseph R. Luchsinger
    • , Tracy L. Fetterly
    •  & Samuel W. Centanni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Acute stress transiently disrupts reward-seeking behaviour and repeated stress exposure produces lasting anhedonia-like behaviour in rodents. Here, the authors show that stress triggers GABAergic activity in the ventral tegmental area which blunts reward-seeking behaviour in mice.

    • Daniel C. Lowes
    • , Linda A. Chamberlin
    •  & Alexander Z. Harris

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aggression in females is understudied in model organisms. Here, the authors establish a model of enhanced aggression in virgin female rats and show that oxytocin and vasopressin systems differentially modulate aggression in distinct neuronal populations of the lateral septum of female rats.

    • Vinícius Elias de Moura Oliveira
    • , Michael Lukas
    •  & Inga D. Neumann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The basolateral amygdala is implicated in several behavior-related states including anxiety, autism, and addiction. The authors apply circuit-level pathway tracing methods combined with computational techniques to provide a comprehensive connectivity atlas of the mouse basolateral amygdala complex.

    • Houri Hintiryan
    • , Ian Bowman
    •  & Hong-Wei Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large-scale connectomes from the mammalian brain are becoming available, but it remains unclear how informative these are for the distinction of circuit models. Here, the authors use connectome statistics to test competing models of local cortical circuits with approximate Bayesian computation.

    • Emmanuel Klinger
    • , Alessandro Motta
    •  & Moritz Helmstaedter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Innate and learned fear can induce rapid changes in body temperature of mammals. The authors identify the posterior subthalamic nucleus as a major thermoregulatory hub that connects the external lateral parabrachial subnucleus to the nucleus of the solitary tract to mediate fear-evoked hypothermia.

    • Can Liu
    • , Chia-Ying Lee
    •  & Qinghua Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Combining optogenetics, behavioral modelling and neural population analysis, the authors show in mice that during fear-related freezing the olfactory bulb transmits 4 Hz breathing rhythm to the prefrontal cortex where this oscillation organizes local activity and regulates freezing episode duration.

    • Sophie Bagur
    • , Julie M. Lefort
    •  & Karim Benchenane

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dopamine neurons in the mushroom body help Drosophila learn to approach rewards and avoid punishments. Here, the authors propose a model in which dopaminergic learning signals encode reinforcement prediction errors by utilising feedback reinforcement predictions from mushroom body output neurons.

    • James E. M. Bennett
    • , Andrew Philippides
    •  & Thomas Nowotny

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Animals constantly balance seeking food with avoiding predators. Here, the authors report that CRF positive neurons in the paraventricular thalamus projecting to the nucleus accumbens in rats are an indispensable component of a feedback circuit that can interrupt appetitive behaviour in favor of a defensive response in the presence of a competing threat stimulus.

    • D. S. Engelke
    • , X. O. Zhang
    •  & F. H. Do-Monte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spontaneous activity generated in the cochleae propagates into the central auditory system to promote circuit formation before hearing onset. Here, the authors reveal the important role of cholinergic efferent modulation in coordinating bilateral spontaneous activity and the emergence of functional responses.

    • Yixiang Wang
    • , Maya Sanghvi
    •  & Michael Crair

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parasitoids exploit host bodies for reproduction, selecting for host defences. A new host defence is reported, in which adult Drosophila accelerate mating behaviour at the sight of certain parasitoid wasps, mediated by the upregulation of a nervous system gene that encodes a 41-amino acid micropeptide.

    • Shimaa A. M. Ebrahim
    • , Gaëlle J. S. Talross
    •  & John R. Carlson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How thalamic sensory relays participate in plasticity upon associative fear learning and stable long-term sensory coding remains unknown. The authors show that auditory thalamus neurons exhibit heterogeneous plasticity patterns after learning while population level encoding of auditory stimuli remains stable across days.

    • James Alexander Taylor
    • , Masashi Hasegawa
    •  & Jan Gründemann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stimulus feature maps are found in primary visual cortex of many species. Here the authors show color maps in trichromatic primates containing segregated ensembles of neurons with distinct chromatic signatures that associate with cortical modules known as blobs.

    • Soumya Chatterjee
    • , Kenichi Ohki
    •  & R. Clay Reid

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mitochondria play a pivotal role in the generation of signals coupling metabolism with neurotransmitter release, though underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Here the authors show that endogenously produced hydrogen peroxide originating from axonal mitochondria functions as a signaling cue to selectively regulate neuropeptide secretion in C. elegans.

    • Qi Jia
    •  & Derek Sieburth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Simões, Levy et al. use a combination of experiments and models to study how Drosophila flies steer away from dangerous heat. They discover that flies use small temperature differences between the antennae to turn clear of thermal danger; they also demonstrate that heat avoidance, a simple innate behavior, contains unexpected plasticity.

    • José Miguel Simões
    • , Joshua I. Levy
    •  & Marco Gallio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study presents an anatomical, neurophysiological and functional characterization of four distinct prefrontal populations that project to striatal and thalamic sub-regions. The authors show that each of these populations have a discrete role in the regulation of cognitive control.

    • Sybren F. de Kloet
    • , Bastiaan Bruinsma
    •  & Huibert D. Mansvelder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Attractor networks and drift diffusion models are two approaches to model the perceptual decision making process. Here, the authors identify an intermediate regime only for the attractor model that allows flexible categorization of two choice decisions for long duration and noisy stimuli and validate these model predictions with psychophysical experiments.

    • Genís Prat-Ortega
    • , Klaus Wimmer
    •  & Jaime de la Rocha

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Innate defense behaviours in animals in response to approaching threats are mostly studied in response to visual stimuli. Here, the authors show that looming sounds elicit stereotypical sequential defensive reactions that require the auditory cortex, superior colliculus and the striatum.

    • Zhong Li
    • , Jin-Xing Wei
    •  & Li I. Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors show that mouse medial entorhinal cortex encodes three-dimensional head movement as well as eye position and velocity. These self-motion signals are represented conjunctively in individual neurons alongside body position, running speed, and azimuthal head direction.

    • Caitlin S. Mallory
    • , Kiah Hardcastle
    •  & Lisa M. Giocomo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aberrant synchronous oscillations have been associated with numerous brain disorders, including essential tremor. The authors show that synchronous cerebellar activity can casually affect essential tremor and that its underlying mechanism may be related to the temporal coherence of the tremulous movement.

    • Sebastian R. Schreglmann
    • , David Wang
    •  & Nir Grossman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Identifying the frequency, temporal location, duration, and amplitude of finite oscillation packets in neurophysiological signals with high precision is challenging. The authors present a method based on multiple wavelets to improve the detection of localized time-frequency packets.

    • Vasile V. Moca
    • , Harald Bârzan
    •  & Raul C. Mureșan

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