Neuroscience articles within Nature Communications

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  • Editorial
    | Open Access

    The validity of conclusions drawn from functional MRI research has been questioned for some time now. Nature Neuroscience and Nature Communications are committed to working with neuroimaging researchers to improve the robustness and reproducibility of their work.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neuronal migration is vital for neuronal circuit morphogenesis and is thought to rely on microtubule-actomyosin crosstalk. Here, the authors use super-resolution imaging and the drebrin microtubule-actin crosslinking protein to show that microtubule-actomyosin coupling controls the direction of centrosome and somal motility.

    • Niraj Trivedi
    • , Daniel R. Stabley
    •  & David J. Solecki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unlike males, female mice are resistant to hypothalamic inflammation and weight gain when fed a high-fat diet. Here, the authors reveal sex-specific regulation of hypothalamic microglial activation through CX3CR1 signalling, providing a potential mechanism for differential susceptibility to diet-induced obesity.

    • Mauricio D. Dorfman
    • , Jordan E. Krull
    •  & Joshua P. Thaler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some adolescents seek novelty, but it is unknown whether the brain circuits underlying this behaviour can be used to predict later, problematic behaviour. Here, authors show that diminished ventral striatal and prefrontal activity in response to anticipated rewards at age 14 in these individuals predicts problematic drug use at age 16.

    • Christian Büchel
    • , Jan Peters
    •  & Veronika Ziesch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Disruption of circadian rhythms leads to reduced healthspan, but the mechanisms by which the normal clock protects aging organisms are not known. Here, the authors show that a subset of genes becomes more rhythmically expressed in older flies, and these are enriched for response to oxidative stress.

    • Rachael C. Kuintzle
    • , Eileen S. Chow
    •  & David A Hendrix

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A point mutation in the gap-junction protein connexin 30 stops early onset age-related hearing loss. Here, the authors show that gap junctions contribute to cochlear micromechanics and that cochlear amplification is likely controlled by extracellular potentials in vicinity of the cochlear sensory cells.

    • Victoria A. Lukashkina
    • , Snezana Levic
    •  & Ian J. Russell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is known to modulate anxiety-related behaviours. Here the authors show that excitatory inputs from infralimbic cortex and ventral subiculum/CA1 converge onto the same BNST neurons; stimulation of vSUB/CA1 triggers LTP in BNST and reduces anxiety in rats.

    • Christelle Glangetas
    • , Léma Massi
    •  & François Georges

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Environmental cues affect the way mouse hippocampal place cells respond, but whether this information is integrated versus segregated in distinct hippocampal cell populations is unclear. Here, the authors record neuronal activity in the hippocampus of mice on a treadmill enriched with visual-tactile landmarks, and show anatomically segregated cells with variable ties to the cues.

    • Tristan Geiller
    • , Mohammad Fattahi
    •  & Sébastien Royer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a leading cause of autism and neurons lacking FMRP show aberrant mRNA translation and intracellular signalling. Here, the authors show that neurons from Fmr1 knockout mice have increased levels of ADCY1 protein, producing abnormal ERK1/2 signalling, dysregulated protein synthesis and behavioural symptoms associated with FXS.

    • Ferzin Sethna
    • , Wei Feng
    •  & Hongbing Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hidden hearing loss (HHL) is an auditory neuropathy that impairs one’s ability to hear, particularly in a noisy environment. Here the authors show that in mice, transient loss of cochlear Schwann cells results in permanent disruption of the cochlear heminodal structure, leading to auditory deficits characteristic of HHL.

    • Guoqiang Wan
    •  & Gabriel Corfas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Partial agonists weakly activate receptors even when occupying all available binding sites. Here the authors show that partial agonists of the AMPA receptor drive the adoption of multiple inactive forms, accounting for their limited efficacy.

    • Hector Salazar
    • , Clarissa Eibl
    •  & Andrew Plested

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels are crucial for action potential initiation in excitable cells. Here the authors present the complete structure of prokaryotic NavMs in a fully open state, providing structural insight into the opening and closure of the channel's intracellular gate.

    • Altin Sula
    • , Jennifer Booker
    •  & B. A. Wallace

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pain is affected by cerebral processes in addition to afferent nociceptive input. Here the authors develop an fMRI-based signature that predicts pain independent of the intensity of nociceptive signals and mediates the pain-modulating effects of several cognitive interventions.

    • Choong-Wan Woo
    • , Liane Schmidt
    •  & Tor D. Wager

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Huntington’s disease (HD) is caused by misfolding of mutant Htt protein. The authors find that in HD models, the decreased expression of heat shock transcription factor 1 that usually protects against protein misfolding, is in part caused by elevated CK2α’ kinase and Fbxw7 E3 ligase expression.

    • Rocio Gomez-Pastor
    • , Eileen T. Burchfiel
    •  & Dennis J. Thiele

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Emerging evidence suggests that spontaneous neurotransmitter release contributes to the maintenance of synaptic efficacy. Here the authors selectively reduce spontaneous glutamatergic transmission while leaving the stimulus-evoked responses intact and show that this leads to homeostatic scaling at the postsynaptic side in cultured neurons and alters synaptic plasticity in acute brain slices.

    • Devon C. Crawford
    • , Denise M. O. Ramirez
    •  & Ege T. Kavalali

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Core clock genes, such asBmal1, are expressed in astrocytes, but their contribution to the timekeeping system is unknown. Barca-Mayo et al. report that deletion of Bmal1in Glast+ astrocytes alters the neuronal clock through GABA signalling, leading to abnormal circadian locomotor behaviour and impaired cognition in mice.

    • Olga Barca-Mayo
    • , Meritxell Pons-Espinal
    •  & Davide De Pietri Tonelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Amygdala and hippocampus are involved in processing motivationally salient stimuli but the precise circuit dynamics of the interaction is not understood. Here the authors show that in response to fearful faces in humans, theta/alpha oscillations in the amygdala modulate hippocampal activity dynamics.

    • Jie Zheng
    • , Kristopher L. Anderson
    •  & Jack J. Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Frontal eye fields (FEF) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are coactivated during cognitive tasks, but the precise format of their interaction is not known. Here the authors show that phase coupling between ACC -FEF in theta and beta frequency bands better predicts behavioural performance.

    • Sahand Babapoor-Farrokhran
    • , Martin Vinck
    •  & Stefan Everling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The engulfment receptor Draper is known to promote glial activation and phagocytosis of debris upon axonal injury. Luet al. identify TNF receptor associated factor 4 (TRAF4) as a binding partner of Draper, and map out the signalling cascade leading to reactive gliosis in Drosophila.

    • Tsai-Yi Lu
    • , Jennifer M. MacDonald
    •  & Marc R. Freeman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The transcription factor EB (TFEB) is a master regulator of lysosomal biogenesis. Here authors show that trehalose, an mTOR-independent autophagy inducer, alleviates the pathological phenotypes in a mouse model of neurodegenerative disease. Trehalose acts by inhibiting Akt, which normally suppresses TFEB via an mTORC1-independent mechanism.

    • Michela Palmieri
    • , Rituraj Pal
    •  & Marco Sardiello

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How sensory maps are formed in the brain is only partially understood. Here the authors describe spontaneous calcium waves that propagate across different sensory nuclei in the embryonic thalamus; disrupting the wave pattern triggers thalamic gene expression changes and eventually alters the size of cortical areas.

    • Verónica Moreno-Juan
    • , Anton Filipchuk
    •  & Guillermina López-Bendito

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Alignment or anisotropic organisation within and between cells enables biological function but is challenging to engineer. Here, the authors align collagen fibres in a pre-strained polydimethylsiloxane mould to generate a 3D scaffold that guides hippocampal neuron axon growth to form CA3–CA1 neural circuits.

    • So Hyun Kim
    • , Sun-Kyoung Im
    •  & Eun-Mi Hur

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parental care involves shifts in numerous behaviours related to mating, feeding, aggression and social interaction. Here, the authors show that, in burying beetles, parenting is associated with increased levels of neuropeptides known to mediate these precursor behaviours, suggesting co-option of existing genetic pathways.

    • Christopher B. Cunningham
    • , Majors J. Badgett
    •  & Allen J. Moore

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by hallucinations and delusions. Here the authors report a novel probabilistic inference task in which compared to healthy subjects, schizophrenia patients show greater degree of circular inference that matches the severity of their clinical symptoms.

    • Renaud Jardri
    • , Sandrine Duverne
    •  & Sophie Denève

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The dynamics of progenitor cells in human neocortex development has not been studied directly. Here, the authors timelapse image human neuroepithelial (NE) and radial glial (RG) cells in embryonic brain slices and find properties of NE cells and RG that are mimicked in cerebral organoids.

    • Lakshmi Subramanian
    • , Marina Bershteyn
    •  & Arnold R. Kriegstein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Combination of optogenetics and BOLD fMRI is routinely used to map neuronal activity upon photostimulation. Here the authors show that light, shone at intensities used in optogenetic studies, dilates vessels and increases blood flow independently of exogenous light-sensitive proteins in the mouse brain.

    • Ravi L Rungta
    • , Bruno-Félix Osmanski
    •  & Serge Charpak

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cortical GABAergic interneurons are highly diverse in their gene expression, electrophysiological properties, and connectivity. Here the authors reveal three distinct subtypes of Htr3a-GFP+ interneurons using the single-cell RNA-seq approach, and identify MEIS2 as a marker for one such subtype.

    • Sarah Frazer
    • , Julien Prados
    •  & Alexandre Dayer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying food texture detection are poorly understood. Here the authors show thatDrosophilacan discriminate food texture when feeding, and that this ability depends on NOMPC, a mechanosensory channel expressed in gustatory sensilla neurons.

    • Juan Antonio Sánchez-Alcañiz
    • , Giovanna Zappia
    •  & Richard Benton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Astrocyte in the brain regulates synaptic transmission by releasing gliotransmitters. Here, Tan and colleagues use optogenetic stimulation of astrocytes to show differential neuronal subtype-specific purinoceptor responses to astrocytic ATP release to affect network excitability.

    • Zhibing Tan
    • , Yu Liu
    •  & Shumin Duan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cholesterol is important for axonal myelination during development. Here the authors show that cholesterol levels are reduced in a cuprizone mouse model of multiple sclerosis and that dietary cholesterol supplementation enhances remyelination and recovery.

    • Stefan A. Berghoff
    • , Nina Gerndt
    •  & Gesine Saher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Saliency maps have been proposed to guide visual attention, yet the underlying neural correlates remain undetermined. Here, the authors record from monkeys as they watch videos of natural scenes, and find superior colliculus superficial visual-layer neurons exhibit activity patterns consistent with a visual saliency map.

    • Brian J. White
    • , David J. Berg
    •  & Douglas P. Munoz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    PrPC protein plays a key role in prion transmission across species. Here, the authors compare transmission of a representative scrapie isolate to transgenic mice expressing variable levels of the same Prnp allele as the donor sheep, and find divergent strain propagation regulated by PrPCgene dosage.

    • Annick Le Dur
    • , Thanh Lan Laï
    •  & Hubert Laude

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Glut1-deficiency syndrome is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by low brain glucose and epileptic seizures. Tanget al. show that in model mice, low Glut1 leads to defects of the brain vasculature, and that AAV9-based gene therapy at pre- or early-symptomatic stages prevents the defects and mitigates disease.

    • Maoxue Tang
    • , Guangping Gao
    •  & Umrao R. Monani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Protein feeding is known to induce strong inhibition on further food intake, though the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, the authors identify a protein-specific satiety hormone inDrosophila, and show that it suppresses feeding via promoting DILP2 release in the central nervous system.

    • Jinghan Sun
    • , Chang Liu
    •  & Yan Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transplantation of cells into the central nervous system has developed into a major avenue for replacing neurons lost to neurodegenerative disease. Here the authors develop an approach combining viral-based transynaptic tracing labeling and whole brain imaging to trace synaptic innervation of human neurons transplanted into a mouse background.

    • Jonas Doerr
    • , Martin Karl Schwarz
    •  & Oliver Brüstle

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The human serotonin transporter (SERT) mediates the uptake of neurotransmitters to terminate neuronal signalling. Here the authors use single-molecule imaging to get insight into the molecular origin of SERT oligomerization and their pre-set stoichiometry at the plasma membrane.

    • Andreas Anderluh
    • , Tina Hofmaier
    •  & Gerhard J. Schütz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rett syndrome is associated with impaired synaptic connectivity beginning in early development. Here the authors show in female mice heterozygous forMecp2, a model of Rett syndrome, that during adulthood, auditory cortex plasticity associated with a learned maternal behaviour is also impaired.

    • Keerthi Krishnan
    • , Billy Y. B. Lau
    •  & Stephen D. Shea

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tools to label single neurons and track their development inC. elegans have been lacking. Singhal et al. optimized a method, which applies infrared laser to induce heat-dependent gene expression at cellular resolution in developing C. elegansembryos, and show that it can uncover new aspects of embryo morphogenesis.

    • Anupriya Singhal
    •  & Shai Shaham

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Black individuals are racially stereotyped as threatening but how bodily signals may affect these misperceptions is not known. Here Azevedo and colleagues show that these race-driven responses are affected by the cardiac cycle, being more biased when arterial baroreceptor activation is maximal.

    • Ruben T. Azevedo
    • , Sarah N. Garfinkel
    •  & Manos Tsakiris

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of mature vocal patterns is shaped by parental influence in many animals. Here, Gultekin and Hage show that parental feedback not only influences vocal development, but is indeed necessary for juvenile marmosets to acquire normal vocal behaviour.

    • Yasemin B. Gultekin
    •  & Steffen R. Hage

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sex differences in reward processing are at present poorly understood. Calipari and Juarezet al. report oestrous cycle-dependent fluctuations in firing of VTA dopamine neurons that drive alterations in DAT function expressed in terminals in the NAc. These differences underlie enhanced cocaine reward processing during oestrus.

    • Erin S. Calipari
    • , Barbara Juarez
    •  & Eric J Nestler

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