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Interleukin-12 (IL-12) can have anti-inflammatory properties; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors show that IL-12-sensing neurons mediate IL-12-induced neuroprotective tissue adaptation in autoimmune conditions of the CNS.
The sleep drive builds with time spent awake. Tossell et al. show in mice that tiredness triggers neurons in the prefrontal cortex to instruct the hypothalamus to initiate nesting and then sleep itself, ensuring that sleep occurs in a safe place.
Hong et al. show that activation of the medial prefrontal cortex induces REM sleep via its projections to the lateral hypothalamus, thus demonstrating a critical role of the cortex in the regulation of REM sleep.
Release of glutamate at high frequency involves a distinct subset of synaptic vesicles made by adaptor protein AP-3. Sorting of the phospholipid flippase ATP8A1 by AP-3 confers release at high frequency by recruiting synapsin to synaptic vesicles.
Su et al. show that loss of GluN2A in adult mice is sufficient to elicit antidepressant-like responses without evoking psychomimetic effects, and that GluN2A is necessary for ketamine and MK-801 to induce rapid antidepressant-like effects.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions are initiated by the infiltration of T cells to the CNS. Here, Kendirli et al. use a genome-wide CRISPR screen in an MS model to define the molecules that regulate T cell entry to the CNS.
Calcium dynamics and their role in oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are unclear. In this study, the authors show that calcium dynamics at the processes of OPCs are modulated by norepinephrine and influence OPC proliferation during arousal in awake adult mice.
The transcriptional program underlying the origin of glial cells is unclear. Here the authors leverage single-cell/single-nucleus transcriptional and chromatin accessibility profiling to identify candidate cell fate specification genes and optimize a rapid astrocyte differentiation protocol.
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.
Carbo-Tano and colleagues investigate the mesencephalic locomotor region in larval zebrafish and its role in triggering forward locomotion by activating specific sets of hindbrain V2a reticulospinal neurons.
Spontaneous population activity bursts promote the development of brain circuits. This study shows that single GABAergic hub neurons exert a strong influence on spontaneous and sensory-evoked population bursts in the mouse barrel cortex.
The authors used precision functional imaging and computational modeling to uncover the structure of perceptual odor coding in the human brain. Olfactory areas differ in the granularity, dimensionality and subjectivity of perceptual coding.
Jorfi et al. developed a three-dimensional human neuroimmune axis model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The authors demonstrated an increase in T cell infiltration into AD cultures, which led to microglial activation and exacerbation of neurodegeneration.
A multiplane confocal microscope provides high-contrast volumetric imaging at kilohertz rates. This system enables imaging of densely expressed genetically encoded voltage indicators with cellular resolution in the mouse brain in vivo and in vitro.
Sensorimotor inputs are first compressed before being routed to the cerebellum and similar brain structures. The authors develop a theory to understand the computational role of this compression, leading to anatomical and functional predictions.
In a birth cohort, Holz et al. found widespread structural brain changes at the age of 25 years as a function of adversity. This pattern was replicated at the age of 33 years and in another cohort. Individual-level volume reductions on top of this pattern predicted anxiety.
The authors show that choice information is relayed from the ventrolateral orbitofrontal cortex to the dorsomedial striatum to lead accurate economic decision-making.
A new brain mapping approach tailored to individual people reveals that volume changes in psychiatric illness occur in highly variable locations across individuals, but that these differences often aggregate within common brain systems.
During decision-making, neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex flip-flop between representing the value of alternative options, which influences ramping signals in the downstream anterior cingulate cortex that encode the choice response.