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Sensorimotor processing refers to a process by which sensory information or input is coupled or integrated to a related motor response in the central nervous system. This process underlies both involuntary or reflexive actions and voluntary acts.
Neural coding of goal direction remains unclear in insects. Here, the authors describe goal-direction neurons in the monarch butterfly brain that specifically encode the insect’s desired flight direction during spatial orientation.
In rats performing automatic and flexible cue-guided motor sequences, the basal ganglia help shape low-level movement kinematics but are dispensable for high-level sequencing of cue-guided behaviors.
Increasing levels of glial-derived neurotrophic factor using a gene-therapy approach in a macaque model of alcohol use disorder resulted in a lower tendency to relapse into alcohol consumption after a period of abstinence.
Activating a specific subpopulation of glutamatergic neurons in the brainstem issues a motor command for global motor arrest. This motor arrest is distinct from defensive freezing and has a striking pause-and-play pattern accompanied by a reduction in respiration and heart rate.
Monteiro and colleagues used temperature manipulation to bidirectionally alter the speed of neuronal dynamics in the dorsal striatum of anesthetized rats. This manipulation selectively slowed down or sped up time perception, providing insights into the mechanisms of time-based decisions.
Thalamic activity onto a sparse population of premotor neurons in the zebra finch song nucleus initiates syllable onset, enabling the orchestration of song production.
Hyperactivity in a subset of lateral septum neurons inhibits social reward processing and drives social avoidance following chronic social defeat in mice.
