Reviews & Analysis

The idea that specialized cognitive processes or brain regions are devoted to particular cognitive functions — known as domain specificity — remains an area of substantial debate. Adolphs and Spunt outline the challenges in defining and assessing domain specificity and use social neuroscience findings to suggest a new approach.

Mammals detect the nutrient content, palatability and potential toxicity of food through taste buds that are present mainly in the tongue. In this Review, Roper and Chaudhari discuss the taste bud cells, receptors and transmitters that are involved in taste detection, how these cells communicate with sensory afferent fibres, and peripheral taste coding.

Empathy is a characteristic of all mammals that ranges from being sensitive to another's emotions to adopting their perspective. In this Review, de Waal and Preston discuss current hypotheses concerning how the emotional states of others are understood in a variety of species.

The prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus have distinct and complementary roles in episodic memory, and their interactions are also crucial for memory. Eichenbaum describes the pathways and mechanisms mediating these interactions and suggests a model of how these regions communicate to retrieve cued memories.

Sex differences in behaviour and disease vulnerability are mirrored by the cellular and molecular sexual dimorphism of the brain. McCarthy and colleagues review findings that have highlighted the roles of inflammation and epigenetics in sex-specific brain differentiation and function.

Thirst is a homeostatic response to changes in fluid balance and is governed by a set of interconnected brain structures known as the lamina terminalis. In this Progress article, Knight and colleagues summarize recent updates to our understanding of the neural circuitry underlying thirst and drinking behaviour in mammals.

Small-molecule–neuropeptide co-transmission is pervasive throughout the nervous system of all animals. In this Review, Nusbaum, Blitz and Marder discuss how co-transmission is an important source for the considerable flexibility that has been established for synapses, circuits and behaviour.

Parkinson disease is often characterized as a disorder of movement; however, it is also associated with many non-motor features, some of which appear early in the disease course. In this article, Schapira and colleagues provide an overview of these diverse features and their neurobiological basis.

How does sleep deprivation affect the human brain? Walker and colleagues review neuroimaging studies on the consequences of sleep deprivation on cognition and emotion — with specific focuses on attention and working memory, positive and negative emotion, and hippocampal learning — and the mechanisms underlying these effects.

Sirtuins and the neuron–microglia network have a key role in the ageing process. In this Review article, Satoh and colleagues discuss the role of sirtuins in age-related changes in communication between peripheral tissues and the brain, which has a key influence on ageing and longevity in mammals.

The contribution of epigenetics to many aspects of neuronal development and function is becoming apparent. In this Review, Zukin and colleagues describe how the dysregulation of epigenetic mechanisms may contribute to neurodegenerative diseases.

Cerebral blood flow regulation is essential for normal brain function. In this Review, Kisler and colleagues examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie cerebral blood flow regulation at the arteriole and capillary level, and how neurovascular dysfunction contributes to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer disease.

In this Review, Anacker and Hen explore how regulation of dentate gyrus function by adult hippocampal neurogenesis may link the memory and mood functions of the hippocampus. They also examine the potential of targeting such regulation for mood disorders.

Recent evidence suggests that T cells and their derived cytokines affect the brain in disease and health. In this Opinion article, Kipnis and colleagues describe their effects and possible underlying mechanisms, and propose an evolutionary model to explain why the T cell-derived cytokine interferon-γ has both pro-social and immune effects.

Recent studies suggest that progranulin has an important role in lysosome biogenesis and innate immunity in the brain. In this Progress article, Kao and colleagues suggest that progranulin also plays a part in suppressing excessive neuroinflammation during ageing.

Our growing understanding of cortical interneuron diversity has been matched by increasing interest in the underlying developmental mechanisms. Wamsley and Fishell describe current models of interneuron specification, highlighting the contribution of activity-dependent mechanisms to this process.

There is little agreement on the definition of emotions or the neural mechanisms by which they are realized. Bach and Dayan here use decision theory to shed light on the nature and implementation of the algorithms that underlie emotion-related behaviours.

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) has been heavily implicated in Alzheimer disease, but the physiological roles of APP and the related APP-like proteins (APLPs) remain less well understood. This Review examines the functions of the APP family and its fragments in CNS development, synaptic function, brain injury and ageing.

Stroke survivors often adapt to the loss of upper-limb function by adopting compensatory strategies. Jones discusses evidence that these compensatory strategies may influence the neural remodelling processes that occur after the initial stroke and can have mixed effects on functional outcome of the paretic limb.

Kinetic models of NMDA receptor activation derived from single-molecule observations explain the biologically salient features of the excitatory current as a dynamic sequence of quasi-stable receptor states. In this Review, Iacobucci and Popescu discuss how these models will help to match emerging atomic structures with biologically important functional states.