Neuroscience articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Saccades have been extensively used to report choices in perceptual decision making studies yet little is known about the influence of covert decision-related processes on saccade metrics. Here, the authors demonstrate that saccade kinematics is a reliable tell about the degree of decision certainty.

    • Joshua A. Seideman
    • , Terrence R. Stanford
    •  & Emilio Salinas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound with injected microbubbles has been used to temporarily open the blood–brain barrier (BBB) in animal models of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, the authors use this technology to non-invasively open the BBB in 5 patients with mild-to-moderate AD in a phase I trial, and show that the procedure is safe.

    • Nir Lipsman
    • , Ying Meng
    •  & Sandra E. Black

  • Article
    | Open Access

    CRISPR-guided cytidine deaminases, including BE3 (Base Editor 3) and Target-AID (activation-induced cytidine deaminase), can covert C:G base pairs to T:A at target site. Here, the authors generate missense mutations of mouse Psen1 gene and find BE3 has higher editing efficiency than Target-AID.

    • Hiroki Sasaguri
    • , Kenichi Nagata
    •  & Takaomi C. Saido

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Odorous chemicals broadly activate subsets of olfactory receptors in the nose, but how individual receptors contribute to behavioral sensitivity is not clear. Here, the authors demonstrate that detection thresholds in mice are set solely by the highest affinity receptor for a given odorant.

    • Adam Dewan
    • , Annika Cichy
    •  & Thomas Bozza

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In primates, the superior colliculus (SC) contributes to rapid visual exploration with saccades. Here the authors show that the superior colliculus preferentially represents low spatial frequencies, which are the most prevalent in natural scenes.

    • Chih-Yang Chen
    • , Lukas Sonnenberg
    •  & Ziad M. Hafed

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Acetylcholine (ACh) release in the central nervous system is thought to be unitary and mediated non-synaptically in volume transmission. Here, Takács and colleagues show cholinergic terminals juxtapose GABAergic synapses anatomically and functionally, and GABA and ACh molecules are co-transmitted.

    • Virág T. Takács
    • , Csaba Cserép
    •  & Gábor Nyiri

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Economists have observed that many people seem unwilling to save for the future. Here, the authors show that earning and saving are subject to a basic asymmetry in attentional choice, such that cues that are associated with saving are perceived as occurring later than cues associated with earning.

    • Kesong Hu
    • , Eve De Rosa
    •  & Adam K. Anderson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fibroblasts can be reprogrammed into induced neural stem cells (iNSCs) using transcription factors expressed in neural progenitors. Here the authors show that Ptf1a, which is normally expressed in postmitotic neurons, can reprogram fibroblasts to iNSCs through Notch independent interaction with Rbpj.

    • Dongchang Xiao
    • , Xiaoning Liu
    •  & Mengqing Xiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    RNA instability may be a contributing factor in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Here the authors carry out genome-wide assessment of RNA synthesis and stability in cells derived from patients with C9orf72 ALS, sporadic ALS and healthy controls.

    • E. M. Tank
    • , C. Figueroa-Romero
    •  & S. J. Barmada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Finding one’s way to a food source along a complex gradient is central to survival for many animals. Here, the authors report that in C. elegans, the distinct response dynamics of two sensory neurons to odor gradients can support a navigation model more efficient than the biased-random walk.

    • Eyal Itskovits
    • , Rotem Ruach
    •  & Alon Zaslaver

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Myelin-forming cells derive from oligodendrocyte progenitors. Here the authors identify histone arginine methyl-transferase PRMT5 as critical for developmental myelination by modulating the cross-talk between histone arginine methylation and lysine acetylation, to favor differentiation.

    • Antonella Scaglione
    • , Julia Patzig
    •  & Patrizia Casaccia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The noradrenergic system plays numerous physiological roles but tools to study it are scarce. Here the authors develop a fluorescent analogue of norepinephrine that can be used to label noradrenergic neurons and the synaptic vesicles, and use it to measure single synaptic vesicle release sites in living mice.

    • Matthew Dunn
    • , Adam Henke
    •  & Dalibor Sames

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Data sharing is recognized as a way to promote scientific collaboration and reproducibility, but some are concerned over whether research based on shared data can achieve high impact. Here, the authors show that neuroimaging papers using shared data are no less likely to appear in top-ranked journals.

    • Michael P. Milham
    • , R. Cameron Craddock
    •  & Arno Klein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Decoding or predicting cognitive traits from brain activity is an exciting prospect. Here, the authors show that task-based functional connectivity better predicts intelligence-related measures than rest-based connectivity, suggesting that cognitive tasks amplify individual differences in trait-relevant circuitry.

    • Abigail S. Greene
    • , Siyuan Gao
    •  & R. Todd Constable

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microtubules in dendrites are characterized by mixed polarity orientation. Here, the authors show a role for adenomatous polyposis coli 2 (APC2) in regulating dendrite microtubule dynamics and dendrite development.

    • Olga I. Kahn
    • , Philipp Schätzle
    •  & Casper C. Hoogenraad

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hippocampus is necessary for integrating the context with sensory cues to retrieve memory for unique episodes. Here, the authors show that inhibiting topographically organized projections from hippocampus to the anterior olfactory nucleus independently impairs spatial and temporal odour memory recall.

    • Afif J. Aqrabawi
    •  & Jun Chul Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When brain metastases form, the blood–brain barrier morphs into the blood–tumor barrier (BTB), surrounded by neuroinflammatory response. Here, the authors show that S1P3 is upregulated in neuroinflammatory response in highly BTB permeable lesions, and modulation of S1P3 could impact BTB permeability.

    • Brunilde Gril
    • , Anurag N. Paranjape
    •  & Patricia S. Steeg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neural activation can have wide ranging effects beyond central and peripheral nervous system. This work shows that chemogenetic activation of the brain’s reward system ventral tegmental area (VTA) can boost mice’s immune function, confer anti-tumor immunity, and reduce tumor mass in experimental rodent models of lung carcinoma and melanoma.

    • Tamar L Ben-Shaanan
    • , Maya Schiller
    •  & Asya Rolls

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The optimal Aβ species to target for the potential treatment of Alzheimer’s disease has not yet been established. Here, the authors describe an in vitro assay that uses extracts from brain tissue from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and application to human iPSC-derived neurons, to compare the neuroprotective potential of several anti-Aβ antibodies.

    • Ming Jin
    • , Brian O’Nuallain
    •  & Dominic M. Walsh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In mammals, crosstalk between O2 and CO2 sensing central and peripheral chemoreceptors has been linked to functions of the hematopoietic system. Here, the authors show an evolutionarily relevant cascade involving multiple organs that links CO2- and O2-chemosensation to immune cell maturation in Drosophila.

    • Bumsik Cho
    • , Carrie M. Spratford
    •  & Jiwon Shim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Attention reduces correlated variability in population activity, however the effect of fluctuations in attentional state has not been studied. Here, the authors report in a novel visual task that fluctuations in attentional allocation have a pronounced effect on correlated variability at longer timescales.

    • George H. Denfield
    • , Alexander S. Ecker
    •  & Andreas S. Tolias

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is known about the genetic determinants of social isolation and loneliness despite their well-established importance for health. Here, using multi-trait GWAS, Day et al. identify 15 genomic loci for loneliness and further show a bidirectional causal relationship between BMI and loneliness by MR.

    • Felix R. Day
    • , Ken K. Ong
    •  & John R. B. Perry

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The precise role of PPC in transforming sensory signals to relevant actions is not yet clear. Here, the authors show that unlike V1, which is largely driven by visual input, PPC is strongly task-dependent and exhibits a mixture of stimulus and choice signals in a visual decision task.

    • Gerald N. Pho
    • , Michael J. Goard
    •  & Mriganka Sur

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sex differences in placental O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT) activity mediate the effects of prenatal stress on neurodevelopmental programming. Here authors provide evidence that OGT confers variation in vulnerability to prenatal insults by establishing sex-specific trophoblast gene expression via regulation of H3K27me3.

    • Bridget M. Nugent
    • , Carly M. O’Donnell
    •  & Tracy L. Bale

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During vocalization, mammals change their vocal production to compensate for altered auditory feedback. Here, Eliades and Tsunada show that neural activity in the marmoset’s auditory cortex mediates this effect, and that stimulation of the auditory cortex evokes similar changes in vocalization.

    • Steven J. Eliades
    •  & Joji Tsunada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sensory areas are thought to process stimulus information while higher-order processing occurs in association cortices. Here the authors report that during task engagement population activity in ferret primary auditory cortex shifts away from encoding stimulus features toward detection of the behaviourally relevant targets.

    • Sophie Bagur
    • , Martin Averseng
    •  & Srdjan Ostojic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neuroeconomic theories suggest that conflict during decision, such as exhibited by relapsing drug addicts who continue drug use despite stated wishes not to, might arise from separable processes in decision making. Here the authors test mice in a foraging task designed to separate these processes and find that mice show alterations in separable components of decision conflict following abstinence from cocaine versus morphine.

    • Brian M. Sweis
    • , A. David Redish
    •  & Mark J. Thomas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Memristive technology is a promising avenue towards realizing efficient non-von Neumann neuromorphic hardware. Boybat et al. proposes a multi-memristive synaptic architecture with a counter-based global arbitration scheme to address challenges associated with the non-ideal memristive device behavior.

    • Irem Boybat
    • , Manuel Le Gallo
    •  & Evangelos Eleftheriou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fear memories are overcome only when it is ascertained that fearful responses are not appropriate. Here the authors demonstrate that activity in dopamine neurons is necessary to extinguish fear responses and two distinct dopamine neuron projections exert opposing effects on extinction learning.

    • Ray Luo
    • , Akira Uematsu
    •  & Joshua P. Johansen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Serotonin (5-HT) plays many important roles in reward, punishment, patience and beyond, and optogenetic stimulation of 5-HT neurons has not crisply parsed them. The authors report a novel analysis of a reward-based decision-making experiment, and show that 5-HT stimulation increases the learning rate, but only on a select subset of choices.

    • Kiyohito Iigaya
    • , Madalena S. Fonseca
    •  & Peter Dayan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Humans give and receive social influence—e.g. advice—in many situations, but it is not known whether social influence is a reciprocal process, like trade. Here, the authors show that people are more likely to follow a partner's advice if that partner has previously complied with their advice.

    • Ali Mahmoodi
    • , Bahador Bahrami
    •  & Carsten Mehring

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Translation of mRNA contributes to neuronal function and complex behaviours, and inflammation is thought to contribute to depression. Here the authors show that mice lacking phosphorylation sites in eIF4E (eukaryotic initiation factor 4E) display anxiety- and depression-like behaviour and decreased IkBα expression; furthermore TNFα delivery to the medial prefrontal cortex induces depression-like behaviour and deficits in serotonergic transmission.

    • Argel Aguilar-Valles
    • , Nabila Haji
    •  & Nahum Sonenberg

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