Neuronal physiology articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    CRISPR–Cas9 mutagenesis studies in mice demonstrate co-release of a neurotransmitter and a neuropeptide with opposing signals that stimulate the ventral tegmental area dopamine system through coordinated actions on different cells at different time scales.

    • Marta E. Soden
    • , Joshua X. Yee
    •  & Larry S. Zweifel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A neuron-specific activity-dependent DNA repair mechanism is identified, the impairment of which may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegeneration and ageing.

    • Elizabeth A. Pollina
    • , Daniel T. Gilliam
    •  & Michael E. Greenberg

  • Perspective |

    The concept of dendrocentric learning artificial intelligence is proposed to replace synaptocentric learning, reducing the energy use requirement and removing the thermal constraint.

    • Kwabena Boahen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experiments in mice show that the mechanically activated ion channel PIEZO1 is expressed in itch-specific sensory neurons and has a role in transducing mechanical itch.

    • Rose Z. Hill
    • , Meaghan C. Loud
    •  & Ardem Patapoutian

  • Article |

    Experiments measuring light-evoked responses in postmortem mouse and human retinas are used to quantify decay of photoreceptors following death and optimise conditions for reviving trans-synaptic transmission.

    • Fatima Abbas
    • , Silke Becker
    •  & Frans Vinberg

  • Article |

    Novel experiences in mice lead to opposing effects on inhibition of Fos-activated hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons by parvalbumin- and cholecystokinin-expressing interneurons, revealing the roles of FOS and SCG2 in neural plasticity and consolidation of memories.

    • Ee-Lynn Yap
    • , Noah L. Pettit
    •  & Michael E. Greenberg

  • Article |

    Dissociative states in mouse and human brains are traced to low-frequency rhythmic neural activity—with distinct molecular, cellular and physiological properties—in the deep retrosplenial cortex and the posteromedial cortex.

    • Sam Vesuna
    • , Isaac V. Kauvar
    •  & Karl Deisseroth

  • Letter |

    A genetically encoded fluorescent voltage indicator, SomArchon, is used to image changes in membrane voltage from many neurons simultaneously in multiple brain regions of awake, behaving mice.

    • Kiryl D. Piatkevich
    • , Seth Bensussen
    •  & Xue Han

  • Letter |

    Whole-cell recordings in mouse somatosensory cortex in vivo show that rhythmic sensory-whisker stimulation induces long-term synaptic potentiation (LTP) in layer 2/3 (L2/3) pyramidal cells, in the absence of somatic spikes, through long-lasting NMDAR-mediated depolarizations that are generated by synaptic networks originating from the posteromedial complex of the thalamus.

    • Frédéric Gambino
    • , Stéphane Pagès
    •  & Anthony Holtmaat

  • Outlook |

    The development of effective antiepilepsy drugs is moving on from trial-and-error approaches to sophisticated molecular solutions.

    • Megan Cully

  • Article |

    A population of spinal interneurons that form axo–axonic connections with the terminals of proprioceptive afferents are shown to mediate presynaptic inhibition; their ablation elicits harmonic oscillations during goal-directed forelimb movements, which can be modelled as the consequence of an increase in sensory feedback gain.

    • Andrew J. P. Fink
    • , Katherine R. Croce
    •  & Eiman Azim

  • Letter |

    In monkeys performing a visual spatial attention task, stimulation of neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus and recording of shock-evoked responses from monosynaptically connected primary-visual-cortex neurons shows that attention enhances neuronal communication by increasing the efficacy of presynaptic input, increasing synchronous responses, and by decreasing redundant signals.

    • Farran Briggs
    • , George R. Mangun
    •  & W. Martin Usrey

  • Article |

    Olfactory receptor neurons of fruitflies are shown to communicate with one another through ephaptic interactions with significant impact on olfactory behaviour; the results indicate that ephaptic effects may be more widespread than previously appreciated.

    • Chih-Ying Su
    • , Karen Menuz
    •  & John R. Carlson

  • Article |

    Simultaneous electrophysiological recordings in hippocampus and neural-activity-triggered whole-brain imaging in the monkey show that most of the cerebral cortex is activated during the fast hippocampal oscillations (ripples), whereas most diencephalic, midbrain and brainstem regions are inhibited; this may function to optimize information transfer from hippocampus to cortex during off-line memory consolidation.

    • N. K. Logothetis
    • , O. Eschenko
    •  & A. Oeltermann

  • Letter |

    High-speed tracking of effortful responses and neuronal activity in rats during a forced swim test identifies medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons that respond during escape-related swimming but not normal locomotion, and optogenetics shows that mPFC neurons projecting to the brainstem dorsal raphe nucleus, which is implicated in depression, modulate this behavioural response to challenge

    • Melissa R. Warden
    • , Aslihan Selimbeyoglu
    •  & Karl Deisseroth

  • Letter |

    Examination of spatial representations in the entorhinal cortex of monkeys performing a visual memory task reveals individual neurons that emit action potentials when the monkey fixates multiple discrete locations in the visual field, and suggests that entorhinal cortex neurons encode space during visual exploration, even without locomotion.

    • Nathaniel J. Killian
    • , Michael J. Jutras
    •  & Elizabeth A. Buffalo

  • Article |

    Through the use of a combination of state-of-the-art techniques, different populations of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons in the mouse are shown to form separate circuits with distinct connectivity: neurons receiving input from the laterodorsal tegmentum and lateral habenula are found to mediate reward and aversion, respectively.

    • Stephan Lammel
    • , Byung Kook Lim
    •  & Robert C. Malenka

  • News & Views |

    The discovery of different classes of neuronal progenitor cell, destined to give rise to neurons in specific layers of the cerebral cortex, could presage the revision of a 50-year-old model of brain development.

    • Oscar Marín

  • News & Views |

    The unexpected finding that neurons can co-release two neurotransmitter molecules, dopamine and GABA, through a common mechanism provides a further advance in our understanding of the nervous system. See Letter p.262

    • John T. Williams

  • Letter |

    Transient inactivation of the superior colliculus in primates during a motion-change-detection task is shown to lead to large deficits in visual attention while the enhanced response of neurons in the visual cortex to attended stimuli remains unchanged; this shows that processes independent of those occurring in the visual cortex have key roles in visual attention.

    • Alexandre Zénon
    •  & Richard J. Krauzlis

  • Letter |

    In vivo whole-cell recordings combined with an intracellular N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) blocker and membrane hyperpolarization are used to examine the contribution of dendritic NMDAR-dependent regenerative responses to the angular tuning of layer 4 neurons; the results show that active dendritic processing sharpens the sensory responses of cortical neurons in vivo.

    • Maria Lavzin
    • , Sophia Rapoport
    •  & Jackie Schiller

  • Letter |

    Imaging of activity in long-range axons is reported in mice performing tactile object-localization with their whiskers; the feedback projection from the motor cortex to the somatosensory cortex provides information to integrate whisker movement information and touch, which are key components of object identification.

    • Leopoldo Petreanu
    • , Diego A. Gutnisky
    •  & Karel Svoboda

  • News |

    Fluids coursing through the nervous system could help clear the brain of toxic detritus that leads to Alzheimer's and Huntington's disorders.

    • Daisy Yuhas

  • News & Views |

    Neurons of the same type can show functional differences. It turns out that this diversity is in part the result of the cells' adaptation to their specific neural networks. See Letter p.375

    • Nathaniel Urban
    •  & Shreejoy Tripathy

  • Letter |

    Optogenetic activation of parvalbumin-expressing versus other classes of interneurons is found to have distinct effects on the response properties of individual and populations of excitatory cells, as well as on visual behaviour in awake mice, providing evidence that this specific interneuron subtype has a unique role in visual coding and perception.

    • Seung-Hee Lee
    • , Alex C. Kwan
    •  & Yang Dan

  • Article |

    Use of a two-way optical system to activate subclasses of inhibitory neurons, while simultaneously monitoring responses in target cells within cortical circuits in vivo, reveals that parvalbumin-expressing and somatostatin-expressing neurons exert distinct effects on cellular responses across the network.

    • Nathan R. Wilson
    • , Caroline A. Runyan
    •  & Mriganka Sur

  • Brief Communications Arising |

    • Michael M. Yartsev
    • , Menno P. Witter
    •  & Nachum Ulanovsky

  • Article |

    Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are voltage-independent ion channels that participate in a broad range of biological processes, including nociception and mechanosensation; here X-ray crystal structures of the complexes of chicken ASIC1a with psalmotoxin, a peptide toxin from tarantula, indicate that toxin binding triggers an expansion of the extracellular vestibule and stabilization of the open channel pore.

    • Isabelle Baconguis
    •  & Eric Gouaux

  • Letter |

    Functional heterogeneity within a class of neurons is investigated by comparing the intrinsic properties of pairs of mitral cells belonging to either the same or different glomerular circuits; this shows that neuronal excitability is stereotypic for mitral cells from the same olfactory network, indicating that local circuits are functionally adapted to process subtly distinct information.

    • Kamilla Angelo
    • , Ede A. Rancz
    •  & Troy W. Margrie

  • Letter |

    In Bengalese finches, a basal ganglia circuit, the anterior forebrain pathway, can covertly acquire the ability to adaptively modify song without contributing to song production during practice or training.

    • Jonathan D. Charlesworth
    • , Timothy L. Warren
    •  & Michael S. Brainard

  • Letter |

    Neurotransmitter release and activity are modulated in the striatum of mice to demonstrate that the balance of activity within the two antagonistic, inhibitory pathways co-mingled in this nucleus regulates excitatory innervation of the basal ganglia during development.

    • Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy
    • , Arpiar Saunders
    •  & Bernardo L. Sabatini

  • Article |

    Neural activity is recorded at the cellular level, throughout the brain of larval zebrafish, while the animals interact with a virtual environment and adapt their motor output to changes in visual feedback; this is used to derive candidates of functional elements driving motor learning.

    • Misha B. Ahrens
    • , Jennifer M. Li
    •  & Ruben Portugues

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