Neuroscience articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    The damaging effects of loud noise on auditory function are well established, but the effects of low-level noise are not so well understood. Zhou and Merzenich chronically expose adult rats to structured low-level noise and find that it causes auditory cortex damage and sound discrimination impairment.

    • Xiaoming Zhou
    •  & Michael M. Merzenich

  • Article |

    Adars are adenosine deaminases that act on RNAs, including those encoding proteins involved in neuronal transmission and also Adar RNA. Here, Savvaet al. engineered knock-in Drosophila mutants with altered Adar autoediting and found that this changed the spectrum of adenosine deamination and Drosophilabehaviour.

    • Yiannis A. Savva
    • , James E.C Jepson
    •  & Robert A. Reenan

  • Article |

    Bats use a process known as echolocation to measure the distance of an object by echo delay. Here, studies in newborn bats reveal that echo delay tuning of neurons in the auditory cortex is present at birth rather than acquired as a result of echolocation experience.

    • Manfred Kössl
    • , Cornelia Voss
    •  & Marianne Vater

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The amyloid-β-peptide is pivotal to the pathology of Alzheimer's disease, but its mechanism of action remains uncertain. This study utilizesin vivotwo-photon calcium imaging to investigate the effects of this peptide on single cortical neurons of the visual cortex in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

    • Christine Grienberger
    • , Nathalie L. Rochefort
    •  & Arthur Konnerth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Jurors can be influenced by mitigating circumstances when deciding on sentences for committed crimes. Yamadaet al. show that feelings of sympathy created by mitigating circumstances activate moral conflict regions of the brain that predict individual differences in the severity of the sentence.

    • Makiko Yamada
    • , Colin F. Camerer
    •  & Hidehiko Takahashi

  • Article |

    Some animals find the same odorant attractive at low concentrations and repulsive at high concentrations, but how this discrimination occurs is unclear. UsingCaenorhabditis elegans as a model system, Yoshida et al. show that different sets of sensory neurons respond to low and high concentrations of odours.

    • Kazushi Yoshida
    • , Takaaki Hirotsu
    •  & Takeshi Ishihara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tyrosyl DNA phosphodiesterase 1 (TDP1) repairs DNA breaks and is mutated in the disease Spinocerebellar Ataxia with Axonal Neuropathy. Here TDP1 is shown to be post-translationally modified by sumoylation of lysine 111, and cells carrying a mutation at this residue are inefficient at single-strand DNA break repair.

    • Jessica J.R. Hudson
    • , Shih-Chieh Chiang
    •  & Sherif F. El-Khamisy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The pentameric ligand gated ion channel fromErwinia chrysanthemi(ELIC) is similar in structure to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, a member of the Cys-loop receptor family. This study reports the crystal structure of ELIC bound to acetylcholine and shows that acetylcholine is a competitive antagonist of ELIC.

    • Jianjun Pan
    • , Qiang Chen
    •  & Pei Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Glutathione's key role as a modulator of reactive oxygen species levels has recently been challenged. Quintana-Cabreraet al. now provide in vivoevidence supporting an antioxidant and neuroprotective function for γ-glutamylcysteine, which replaces glutathione by acting as glutathione peroxidase-1 cofactor.

    • Ruben Quintana-Cabrera
    • , Seila Fernandez-Fernandez
    •  & Juan P. Bolaños

  • Article |

    Humans are a network of complex physiological systems, but quantifying these diverse systems is a challenge. This study presents a method to show that each physiological state is characterized by a specific network structure, demonstrating a connection between network topology and function.

    • Amir Bashan
    • , Ronny P. Bartsch
    •  & Plamen Ch. Ivanov

  • Article |

    The exact speed of spoken word processing by our brain is still unknown. Using MEG to compare brain responses to words and pseudowords, MacGregoret al. show that lexical processing occurs 50 ms after acoustic information is presented, suggesting that our brain's access to word information is near-instantaneous.

    • Lucy J MacGregor
    • , Friedemann Pulvermüller
    •  & Yury Shtyrov

  • Article |

    Animals track odour trails to find food, a mate or to steer clear of danger. Bhalla and colleagues combine behavioural and physiological measurements to show that rats can track surface-borne odours with near-optimal sampling and are able to predict the path direction on encountering a bifurcation.

    • Adil Ghani Khan
    • , Manaswini Sarangi
    •  & Upinder Singh Bhalla

  • Article |

    Humans understand actions by making inferences about the person's intentions. Comparing humans with chimpanzees, this study shows that humans refer to the actors' faces more than chimpanzees do when observing goal-directed actions, indicating that humans view actions by integrating information from the actor.

    • Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi
    • , Céline Scola
    •  & Satoshi Hirata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experience-dependent plasticity and functional adaptation are thought to be restricted to the central nervous and immune systems. This study shows that long-lasting experience-dependent plasticity is a key feature of endocrine cell networks, allowing improved tissue function and hormone output following repeat demand.

    • David J. Hodson
    • , Marie Schaeffer
    •  & Patrice Mollard

  • Article |

    Food availability elicits behavioural and developmental responses. Adamset al. show that, in sea urchin larvae, food availability mediates developmental plasticity by regulating changes in arm length through dopamine signalling, a pathway widely used to mediate food-induced behavioural responses.

    • Diane K. Adams
    • , Mary A. Sewell
    •  & Lynne M. Angerer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reinforcement learning quantifies the change in behaviour in response to past experience. Using field goal attempt data from basketball, Neiman and Loewenstein demonstrate that even one failed or made attempt has an impact on subsequent attempts, showing that players overgeneralize from their most recent actions.

    • Tal Neiman
    •  & Yonatan Loewenstein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Most excitatory synapses in the brain are found on dendritic spines, but the mechanisms underlying synapse formation are poorly understood. Niesmannet al. investigate the role of neurobeachin in synaptogenesis, and find that its deletion leads to fewer spinous synapses and altered postsynaptic currents.

    • Katharina Niesmann
    • , Dorothee Breuer
    •  & Markus Missler

  • Article |

    The health benefits of massage therapy, like the reduction of stress, have so far only been shown in humans. This study uses modelling to demonstrate that, while visiting cleaner fish to have ectoparasites removed, the physical stimulation also acts to reduce stress in the coral reef fish,Ctenochaetus striatus.

    • Marta C. Soares
    • , Rui F. Oliveira
    •  & Redouan Bshary

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the classical model, fast neuronal signalling occurs at specialized presynaptic terminals. Now, Ratnayakaet al. show that stimulus-driven fusion and recycling of synaptic vesicles can occur at axonal sites remote from conventional synapses. These findings have implications for dynamic forms of neuron–neuron communication.

    • Arjuna Ratnayaka
    • , Vincenzo Marra
    •  & Kevin Staras

  • Article |

    The microRNA miR-137 is enriched in the brain of mice and induces the differentiation of adult neural stem cells. Now, Sun and colleagues report that miR-137 negatively regulates proliferation of neurons in embryonic mice and that TLX and LSD1 cooperate to negatively regulate miR-137 expression, blocking premature differentiation.

    • GuoQiang Sun
    • , Peng Ye
    •  & Yanhong Shi

  • Review Article |

    Hair cells of the inner ear transduce vibrations of the basilar membrane into electrical signals by a process known as mechanotransduction. Recent advances in genetic and molecular tools have led to an improved understanding of mechanotransduction as Peng and colleagues summarize in this Review.

    • Anthony W. Peng
    • , Felipe T. Salles
    •  & Anthony J. Ricci

  • Article |

    Large scale synapse assays can facilitate identification of drug leads. Shiet al. develop a 'synapse microarray' technology that enables sensitive, high-throughput, quantitative screening of synaptogenic events, and use it to identify novel histone deacetylase inhibitors that enhance synaptogenesis.

    • Peng Shi
    • , Mark A. Scott
    •  & Mehmet Fatih Yanik

  • Article |

    Memory retrieval followed by extinction training has been shown to erase fear memories. Flavellet al. show that this approach also erases appetitive memories in rats and results from a modification of memory reconsolidation, which could be useful for the treatment of drug addiction.

    • Charlotte R. Flavell
    • , David J. Barber
    •  & Jonathan L.C. Lee

  • Article |

    In non-NMDA glutamate receptors, intersubunit contacts within agonist binding domains affect functional desensitization. Now, NMDA receptor activation, but not desensitization, is shown to involve rearrangements at the heterodimer interface, suggesting that the intersubunit contacts of NMDA and non-NMDA receptors may have distinct functional roles.

    • William F. Borschel
    • , Swetha E. Murthy
    •  & Gabriela K. Popescu

  • Article |

    Ampullary organs are involved in electroreception, but whether these are derived from placodes, thickened ectoderm, is unclear. In this study, the ampullary organs of the primitive ray-finned fish,Polyodon spathula, are shown to develop from lateral line placodes, suggesting that this is the ancestral state in bony fishes.

    • Melinda S. Modrell
    • , William E. Bemis
    •  & Clare V.H. Baker

  • Article |

    The role of phosphatidylinositol(4,5)bisphosphate in exocytosis is unclear. This study shows that inhibition of the p110δ isoform of PI3-kinase promotes a transient increase in phosphatidylinositol(4,5)bisphosphate, leading to a potentiation of exocytosis in chromaffin cells.

    • Peter J. Wen
    • , Shona L. Osborne
    •  & Frédéric A. Meunier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The paradigm of reservoir computing shows that, like the human brain, complex networks can perform efficient information processing. Here, a simple delay dynamical system is demonstrated that can efficiently perform computations capable of replacing a complex network in reservoir computing.

    • L. Appeltant
    • , M.C. Soriano
    •  & I. Fischer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Group BStreptococcuscauses meningitis in newborn infants but how the bacterium crosses the blood-brain barrier is unknown. Here, the bacterial pili adhesion molecule, PilA, is shown to bind to collagen and promote binding of the bacteria to integrins expressed on the blood-brain endothelium.

    • Anirban Banerjee
    • , Brandon J. Kim
    •  & Kelly S. Doran

  • Article |

    The development of radial progenitor cells and astroglia in the cerebral cortex depends on the microtubule cytoskeleton. Eomet al. have developed a new mouse model where the microtubules of astrocytes and radial glia cells are fluorescently tagged, facilitating the detailed study of microtubule dynamics and development in these cells.

    • Tae-Yeon Eom
    • , Amelia Stanco
    •  & E.S. Anton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Drosophila melanogaster larvae demonstrate chemotaxis towards odours but their navigation mechanism is poorly understood. Using computer-vision tracking, Gomez-Marinet al.show that larvae ascend odour gradients using an active sampling strategy that is analogous to sniffing in vertebrates.

    • Alex Gomez-Marin
    • , Greg J. Stephens
    •  & Matthieu Louis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pluripotent stem cells can be generated from the somatic cells of humans and are a useful model to study disease. Here, pluripotent stem cells are made from a patient with familial Parkinson's disease, and the resulting neurons exhibit elevated levels of α-synuclein, recapitulating the molecular features of the patient's disease.

    • Michael J. Devine
    • , Mina Ryten
    •  & Tilo Kunath

  • Article |

    How retinoganglion cell axons project correctly to the superior colliculus is poorly understood. Here, projections are shown to require EphB1, EphB2 and ephrin-B1 to terminate in the medial superior colliculus, while ephrin-B2 is essential for the mapping of both dorsal and ventral axons.

    • Sonal Thakar
    • , George Chenaux
    •  & Mark Henkemeyer

  • Article |

    Male túngara frogs produce overlapping mating calls, which poses a challenge for the female frog to group and assign multiple auditory signals to the correct source. Farris and Ryan shows that, like humans, the female frogs compare and group signals using the smallest relative difference in call parameters.

    • Hamilton E. Farris
    •  & Michael J. Ryan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ambient levels of the neurotransmitter GABA tonically activate GABAA. Song et al.show that GABA can have both excitatory and inhibitory effects on hippocampal interneurons and find that low levels of GABA-mediated conductance are excitatory, whereas higher levels result in shunting inhibition.

    • Inseon Song
    • , Leonid Savtchenko
    •  & Alexey Semyanov

  • Article |

    Nitric oxide can be produced by nitric oxide synthase or by nitrite reduction, but whether the latter occurs inside cells is unknown. Here, the TRPV3 ion channel is shown to induce nitrite-dependent nitric oxide production in keratinocytes, where it has a role in thermosensory behaviour and wound healing.

    • Takashi Miyamoto
    • , Matt J. Petrus
    •  & Ardem Patapoutian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In animals, cryptochrome proteins are thought to be the detectors of the Earth's magnetic field, but humans have not been shown to posess mangetosensing capabilities. Foleyet al. demonstrate that the human cryptochrome protein, CRY2, when expressed in Drosophila melanogastercan mediate magnetoreception in a light-dependent manner.

    • Lauren E. Foley
    • , Robert J. Gegear
    •  & Steven M. Reppert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The vomeronasal organ detects pheromones, which are thought to activate TRPC2 channels on the surface of vomeronasal neurons. Using TRPC2 knockout mice, the authors show that urinary pheromones can also activate these neurons via calcium-activated chloride channels, suggesting a TRPC2-independent pathway for sensing pheromones.

    • SangSeong Kim
    • , Limei Ma
    •  & C. Ron Yu

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