Research Highlight |
Featured
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Article |
Heteromeric amyloid filaments of ANXA11 and TDP-43 in FTLD-TDP Type C
- Diana Arseni
- , Takashi Nonaka
- & Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon
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Article
| Open Access
Brain-wide dynamics linking sensation to action during decision-making
Brain-wide recordings in mice show that learning leads to sensory evidence integration in many brain areas simultaneously, allowing sensory input to drive global movement preparatory dynamics, which collapse upon movement onset.
- Andrei Khilkevich
- , Michael Lohse
- & Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel
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Article
| Open Access
Connectome-constrained networks predict neural activity across the fly visual system
A study demonstrates how experimental measurements of only the connectivity of a biological neural network can be used to predict neural responses across the fly visual system at single-neuron resolution using deep learning techniques.
- Janne K. Lappalainen
- , Fabian D. Tschopp
- & Srinivas C. Turaga
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Research Briefing |
Fat absorption controlled by a brain–gut circuit
The absorption of fat across the gut wall had been thought to depend on passive diffusion. However, a brain–gut circuit has been found that controls the size of surface area for absorption. A compound that inactivates this circuit causes weight loss in mice, suggesting that the circuit could be a target for anti-obesity drugs.
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Research Briefing |
Fly-brain connectome helps to make predictions about neural activity
It has been unclear how to build simulations of entire neural circuits with only measurements from a dead fly’s brain. Using machine learning to combine a wiring diagram with knowledge of the computation performed by a given circuit enables neural activity to be accurately predicted.
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Article |
Molecular programs guiding arealization of descending cortical pathways
Using cross-areal mapping of axonal projections in the mouse neocortex, we identify the subtype-specific developmental dynamics of extratelencephalic neurons and show the functional transcriptional programs driving extratelencephalic neuron diversity.
- Philipp Abe
- , Adrien Lavalley
- & Denis Jabaudon
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World View |
Europe sidelines Alzheimer’s drug: lessons must be learnt
If the European Medicines Agency takes an overly cautious approach to selecting specialists to advise on new medicines, people could be left without treatments.
- Henrik Zetterberg
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News |
Cough or sneeze? How the brain knows what to unleash
‘Sneeze neurons’ activated by triggers such as pollen or a viral infection send an achoo signal, whereas cough neurons induce a hack.
- Saima Sidik
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Nature Podcast |
Long-sought 'nuclear clocks' are one tick closer
Physicists make breakthrough towards building a clock based on atomic nuclei — plus how engineered T cells could improve spinal injury outcomes.
- Elizabeth Gibney
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News |
Found: a brain-wiring pattern linked to depression
The disease has a consistent mark in the brain even when symptoms are absent.
- Sara Reardon
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Article
| Open Access
Frontostriatal salience network expansion in individuals in depression
Precision functional mapping shows that the frontostriatal salience network occupies nearly twice as much of the cortex in people with depression, and this was unaffected by mood changes and detected in children before onset of symptoms.
- Charles J. Lynch
- , Immanuel G. Elbau
- & Conor Liston
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Article
| Open Access
DNA methylation controls stemness of astrocytes in health and ischaemia
Single-cell analysis of the transcriptome, chromatin accessibility and methylome of adult neural stem cells and astrocytes demonstrates that stemness is driven by methylation profiles distinct from those of astrocytes.
- Lukas P. M. Kremer
- , Santiago Cerrizuela
- & Ana Martin-Villalba
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Article |
Engineered T cell therapy for central nervous system injury
This study presents a new T cell therapy targeting spinal cord injury, providing a potential new approach for injured CNS.
- Wenqing Gao
- , Min Woo Kim
- & Jonathan Kipnis
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News Feature |
The biology of smell is a mystery — AI is helping to solve it
Scientists are beginning to crack the fiendishly complex code that helps us to sense odours.
- Kerri Smith
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Outlook |
Detecting hidden brain injuries
Biomarker tests could help to diagnose people with mild traumatic brain injury when scans show nothing.
- Amanda B. Keener
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News |
Humanity’s newest brain gains are most at risk from ageing
The large prefrontal cortex provides evolutionary and cognitive advantages over non-human primates — but there’s a cost.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News & Views |
LLMs produce racist output when prompted in African American English
Large language models (LLMs) are becoming less overtly racist, but respond negatively to text in African American English. Such ‘covert’ racism could harm speakers of this dialect when LLMs are used for decision-making.
- Su Lin Blodgett
- & Zeerak Talat
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Article |
Cellular communities reveal trajectories of brain ageing and Alzheimer’s disease
A comprehensive cell atlas of the aged prefrontal cortex identifies two distinct cellular trajectories of ageing driven by specific glial and neuronal subpopulations, some of which are associated with clinicopathologic traits that define Alzheimer’s disease.
- Gilad Sahar Green
- , Masashi Fujita
- & Philip L. De Jager
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Article
| Open Access
Mating proximity blinds threat perception
A state-dependent dopamine filter system in the male Drosophila brain balances threat perception against the drive to mate.
- Laurie Cazalé-Debat
- , Lisa Scheunemann
- & Carolina Rezaval
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Article
| Open Access
A population code for spatial representation in the zebrafish telencephalon
Using a tracking microscope for freely moving animals, the authors discover a population of place cells in the zebrafish brain and demonstrate that a non-amniote brain is capable of integrating allothetic and idiothetic information to create a neural map of space.
- Chuyu Yang
- , Lorenz Mammen
- & Jennifer M. Li
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Article
| Open Access
Cooperative thalamocortical circuit mechanism for sensory prediction errors
Experiments in mice show that a cortico-thalamic circuit generates prediction-error signals in primary visual cortex that amplify visual input that deviates from animals’ expectations.
- Shohei Furutachi
- , Alexis D. Franklin
- & Sonja B. Hofer
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Article
| Open Access
Sympathetic neuropeptide Y protects from obesity by sustaining thermogenic fat
We find that, relative to central neuropeptide Y, peripheral neuropeptide Y produced by sympathetic nerves has the opposite effect on body weight by sustaining energy expenditure independently of food intake.
- Yitao Zhu
- , Lu Yao
- & Ana I. Domingos
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News |
Debate rages over Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab as UK limits approval
The medicine is being assessed by agencies including the European Union regulator, but the community is divided on its efficacy and safety.
- Diana Kwon
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Nature Index |
How South Korea’s science stars are finding success
Four notable emerging scientists discuss their work and the country’s research scene.
- Sandy Ong
- & Benjamin Plackett
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News & Views |
Placebo effect involves unexpected brain regions
By tracing the neural circuits that are active when mice anticipate pain relief, neuroscientists find that the placebo effect involves the cerebellum and brainstem — areas that typically mediate ‘lower’ brain functions.
- Jeffrey S. Mogil
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Article
| Open Access
Oligodendrocytes and myelin limit neuronal plasticity in visual cortex
Through genetic blocking of oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination in adolescent mice, we demonstrate that oligodendrocytes have a critical role in shaping the maturation and stabilization of visual cortical circuits.
- Wendy Xin
- , Megumi Kaneko
- & Jonah R. Chan
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Article |
Prefrontal and lateral entorhinal neurons co-dependently learn item–outcome rules
The bidirectional loop circuit between layers 5/6 of the lateral entorhinal cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex encodes item–outcome associative memory in mice.
- Heechul Jun
- , Jason Y. Lee
- & Kei M. Igarashi
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Article
| Open Access
Thermal infrared directs host-seeking behaviour in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
The mosquito Aedes aegypti can detect humans through infrared radiation for highly effective mid-range navigation.
- Avinash Chandel
- , Nicolas A. DeBeaubien
- & Craig Montell
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Correspondence |
Are brains rewired for caring during pregnancy? Why the jury’s out
- Kathryn L. Humphreys
- & Autumn Kujawa
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News |
Five ways the brain can age: 50,000 scans reveal possible patterns of damage
Results raise hopes that methods could be developed to detect the earliest stages of neurodegenerative disease.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Article |
Causal evidence of a line attractor encoding an affective state
- Amit Vinograd
- , Aditya Nair
- & David J. Anderson
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Article |
Encoding of female mating dynamics by a hypothalamic line attractor
- Mengyu Liu
- , Aditya Nair
- & David J. Anderson
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Article
| Open Access
Abstract representations emerge in human hippocampal neurons during inference
A task in which participants learned to perform inference led to the formation of hippocampal representations whose geometric properties reflected the latent structure of the task, indicating that abstract or disentangled neural representations are important for complex cognition.
- Hristos S. Courellis
- , Juri Minxha
- & Ueli Rutishauser
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Research Briefing |
A virtual rat tests theories of motor control
How the brain controls complex movements has been a mystery. Advances in artificial intelligence now make it possible to simulate this process in virtual animals. Comparing activations in artificial control networks with brain activity in real animals enables long-standing theories of motor control at the level of neural circuits to be probed.
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News & Views |
How the human brain creates cognitive maps of related concepts
Neural activity in human brains rapidly restructures to reflect hidden relationships needed to adapt to a changing environment. Surprisingly, trial-and-error learning and verbal instruction induce similar changes.
- Mitchell Ostrow
- & Ila Fiete
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News |
One-quarter of unresponsive people with brain injuries are conscious
More people than we thought who are in comas or similar states can hear what is happening around them, a study shows.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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Article |
Substrate binding and inhibition mechanism of norepinephrine transporter
Structures of human NET in the apo state and bound to meta-iodobenzylguanidine and radafaxine provide insights into the mechanism of substrate recognition and orthosteric inhibition of hNET.
- Wenming Ji
- , Anran Miao
- & Jing-Xiang Wu
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News |
FDA rejects ecstasy as a therapy: what’s next for psychedelics?
Following the US drug agency’s decision, Nature examines the outlook for other hallucinogens that are in clinical trials as psychiatric treatments.
- Sara Reardon
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Book Review |
Silicon Valley is cheerleading the prospect of human–AI hybrids — we should be worried
A pseudo-religion dressed up as technoscience promises human transcendence at the cost of extinction.
- Alex Gomez-Marin
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News |
How the stressed-out brain can weaken the immune system
Stress leads to disarray of the gut microbiome, which in turn causes inflammation and a drop in the body’s ability to fend off infection.
- Sara Reardon
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News Feature |
Blood tests could soon predict your risk of Alzheimer’s
Scientists are closing in on biomarkers that reflect the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and could improve treatments.
- Alison Abbott
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Research Briefing |
Neural circuit underlying asthma reinforces the lung’s role as a sensory organ
Molecular, anatomical and functional evidence point to a multi-nodal neural circuit that senses allergenic particles in inhaled air and induces exaggerated airway constriction, a hallmark of asthma. This is the first description of a full circuit that starts in the lung and returns to control lung function.
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News & Views |
Structures of the dopamine transporter point to ways to target addiction and disease
Three studies of the human dopamine transporter reveal how it binds to molecules such as dopamine and cocaine. Dopamine imbalances underlie some brain conditions and these data will aid targeted drug design.
- Harald H. Sitte
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News |
Breast-cancer cells enlist nerves to spread throughout the body
Surprising results show that ‘sensory’ nerves, which carry information to the brain, have a direct role in helping tumours to metastasize.
- Heidi Ledford
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Article
| Open Access
Structure of the human dopamine transporter and mechanisms of inhibition
Cryo-electron microscopy structure of the human dopamine transporter in complex with multiple inhibitors illuminates mechanisms of allosteric inhibition.
- Dushyant Kumar Srivastava
- , Vikas Navratna
- & Eric Gouaux
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Article |
Structure of the human dopamine transporter in complex with cocaine
A study using cryo-electron microscopy has determined the structure of the human dopamine transporter with bound cocaine, revealing molecular details about neurotransmitter transport and how it is affected by neuropsychiatric drugs.
- Jeppe C. Nielsen
- , Kristine Salomon
- & Claus J. Loland
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Correspondence |
Basic neuroscience is integral to transgender people’s health care
- Doug P. VanderLaan
- & Philippa Hüpen
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News |
Second brain implant by Elon Musk’s Neuralink: will it fare better than the first?
Device allowing the user to control a computer cursor using their thoughts has been adjusted in a bid to prevent glitches with the first implant.
- Miryam Naddaf
- & Liam Drew
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Research Highlight |
How neurons make a memory
Loosely packaged DNA might make these nerve cells better able to encode memories.
Brain region boosts avoidance of unpleasantness and pain — in miceBrowse broader subjects
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