Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Wang et al. identify a molecularly defined tetra-synaptic pathway for olfaction-evoked innate fear and anxiety in mice. These findings reveal a forebrain-to-hindbrain neural substrate for sensory-triggered fear and anxiety that bypasses the amygdala.
Minakuchi et al. find that separable inhibitory inputs to a critical hypothalamic aggression-control node can influence the evolution of an aggressive state by independently modulating either the motivational phase or the action phase.
The basal ganglia control the execution of motor actions. However, how they engage spinal motor networks is unclear. Here the authors show that the basal ganglia–spinal cord pathway controls locomotor asymmetries in adult mice.
Using in vivo calcium imaging and cell-type-specific pharmacology, we reveal that synaptic inhibition in the cerebellar granule cell layer supports pattern separation and cerebellum-dependent behavior.
Mohebi et al. report that dopamine (DA) pulses in different rat striatal subregions signal prediction errors across different timescales. In this way, one learning process may achieve a range of adaptive behaviors.
The authors show that sound-evoked activity in mouse visual cortex consists of both an auditory and a motor component. These have different temporal and spatial profiles (across neurons and layers) but limited impact on ongoing visual processing.
Using dopamine photometry and reinforcement learning models in mice flexibly acquiring cue–action–outcome associations with rule switches, Bernklau et al. show that striatal dopamine reflects an animal’s current understanding of their task.
Banerjee and colleagues find that activity within the orofacial motor cortex in a highly vocal rodent reflects different features of the produced song, forming a hierarchical control network with downstream structures to guide vocal production.
The primary somatosensory cortex and central nucleus of the amygdala project to the spleen via the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve and regulate the T helper 2 (TH2) immune cell response in models of neuropathic pain.
Monosynaptic cerebellar projections to the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) increase the activity of SNc neurons and striatal dopamine levels. These projections may convey information related to movement initiation, vigor and reward processing.
The authors find that neuronal subpopulations in lateral entorhinal cortex provide reward-centric information during spatial navigation, which may contextualize spatial information from medial entorhinal cortex for forming hippocampal episodic memories.
Looser et al. reveal that oligodendrocytes detect and respond to axonal activity using K+ signaling to regulate vital metabolic support and maintain axon health.
Dopp et al. profiled gene expression in single cells from the whole fly brain, revealing how it changes with sleep/wakefulness states and circadian times. The findings highlight the role of glia in integrating sleep drive and circadian processes.
This paper shows that memory engrams are dynamic: neurons drop in and out as engrams become selective during memory consolidation. Inhibition and inhibitory plasticity are crucial for the expression and emergence of memory selectivity, respectively.
Immune activity can influence sleep, but the role of microglia has remained unclear. Ma, Li and colleagues show that microglia can promote sleep through P2Y12–Gi-coupled GPCR signaling, intracellular calcium increase and suppression of norepinephrine transmission.
This study reports a motif of local field potentials that maps onto the anatomical layers of the cortex, is preserved across macaque cortical areas and across primates and may represent a ubiquitous layer-based and frequency-based cortical mechanism.
Tasnim et al. show that ASD-associated genes act in different compartments of somatosensory circuits and that differences in developmental timing of ASD gene function and circuit maturation contribute to phenotypic heterogeneity across ASD models.
Using in vivo imaging in zebrafish, Li and colleagues found that neuron–oligodendrocyte precursor cell (OPC) synapses regulate OPC development and myelination via Ca2+ signaling, elucidating a new role for neuron–glia interactions in shaping the CNS.
Reward can both update values and convey information about the state of the world. Dopamine recordings and manipulations in highly trained mice making decisions, alongside modeling, show that dopamine supports the former but not the latter process.
de Jong et al. identify two dopamine cell subtypes with sustained or transient activity patterns in both cell bodies and axon terminals. They propose that these subtypes represent the parallel encoding of a behavioral state and its temporal dynamics.