News & Comment

An international collaboration has mapped the transcriptome of the adult human brain in unprecedented detail, sampling around 900 defined anatomical sites and providing a wealth of freely available data.

Chronic stress causes a switch in the actions of corticotropin-releasing factor in the nucleus accumbens, from promoting dopamine release and inducing an appetitive state to inducing an aversive state.

The mechanisms underlying hearing loss following traumatic noise exposure are not well understood. In this study, Chenet al. show that the cellular energy depletion that occurs following traumatic noise exposure results in activation of small GTPases and downstream effectors that mediate apoptotic and necrotic cell death.

The transition in worker bees between nursing and foraging subcastes is shown to be associated with reversible changes in gene methylation in the honeybee brain.

Social isolation during a critical post-weaning period reduces myelination in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) by altering oligodendrocyte neuregulin 1–receptor tyrosine kinase ERBB3 signalling and impairs PFC function.

Since its emergence, the field of neuroeconomics has gained much attention but has also been subject to criticism. In this Perspective, the authors analyse the neuroeconomics literature and the social networks within the neuroeconomics community and consider whether the field represents a truly integrated discipline.

Gamma activity in neuron groups in visual area V4 synchronizes selectively with gamma activity in those neuron groups in primary visual cortex that provide behaviourally relevant input.

Investigation of the transcriptomes of samples from human, chimpanzee and macaque brains gives new insight into human brain evolution.

Chronic stress in mice causes ryanodine receptors in the brain to become leaky, and this leads to neuronal damage and cognitive dysfunction.

Selective attention-induced synchronous activity in cortical regions seems to depend on pulvinar–cortical interactions.

A study inDrosophila melanogastershows that the mechanism responsible for axon regrowth during development is distinct to that underlying initial axon growth.