Reviews & Analysis

A new study reveals that maternal immune activation promotes sex-biased activation of the integrated stress response in the developing mouse brain and that this mechanistically contributes to the onset of autism-related behaviors uniquely in male offspring.

A new study proposes an exciting new model of neuronal diversification in the developing enteric nervous system (ENS) and establishes a detailed molecular taxonomy for enteric neurons. Their findings open new horizons for ENS research and for developing cell-based therapies for ENS disorders.

Recent research has discovered new connections between cerebellar neurons, revealed abundant inputs related to reward, demonstrated a cellular solution for the temporal credit assignment problem and restructured theories of cerebellar learning.

One of the mechanisms driving aging and neurodegenerative diseases is the accumulation of senescent cells, while their elimination mitigates age-related decline. A new report details how, with aging, changes in the dentate gyrus microenvironment lead to natural-killer-cell-mediated clearance of neurogenic senescent cells, resulting in cognitive decline.

This Review discusses two high-throughput techniques—massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) and CRISPR screens—focusing on their potential to validate non-coding genetic risk variants in human stem cell models of complex brain disorders.

This review summarizes advances in electrical, optical and microfluidic neural interfaces with characteristics that suggest near-term potential for broad deployment to the neuroscience community.

Gangopadhyay, Chawla et al. examine the neural bases of social decision-making at different processing stages and across humans, non-human primates and rodents. These examinations underscore the importance of the medial prefrontal–amygdala pathways.

Behavioral quantification is changing neuroscience. Pereira et al. provide an overview of the latest advances in motion tracking and behavior prediction and discuss how these methods are used to understand the brain in ways not previously possible.

Network neuroscientists envision the brain as a network of nodes (regions) linked via edges (connections). A long-held assumption is that node-centric interactions are the primary phenomena of interest. Faskowitz et al. introduce a novel edge-centric framework with the potential to usher in a new era of discovery in connectomics research.

Chiaradia and Lancaster review applications and limitations of brain organoids, placing them in context with other technologies and describing how these methods are heavily informed by in vivo development.

In this Primer article, Bijsterbosch and colleagues provide an accessible discussion of the challenges faced in analytical representations of functional brain organization and provide clear recommendations to unite a fractionated field.

Chiot and colleagues investigated whether peripheral macrophages play a role in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathology, finding that macrophages along peripheral motor neuron axons react to neurodegeneration. Modifying reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling in peripheral macrophages, using bone marrow cell replacement, reduces both macrophage and microglia inflammatory response, delays pathology and increases survival in ALS mouse models.

Aggression is an instinctive behavior supported by hardwired neural circuits. Julieta Lischinsky and Dayu Lin review our current understanding of the neural circuits of aggression across species and their modulation by internal state.

By building a richer behavioral vocabulary, Wiltschko et al. tease apart subtle differences in how pharmacological agents affect animal behavior, mapping on- and off-target effects of drugs with improved precision.

Abrupt spatial changes in anatomic and functional properties of the brain demarcate boundaries between discrete functional areas. While previous work has identified these boundaries in cortex, a new study by Tian et al. applies this approach for the first time to subcortical structures within the in vivo human brain.

The Organization for Human Brain Mapping presents its best practices report for reproducible EEG and MEG research, highlighting issues and main recommendations in this Perspective.

A new study shows that, immediately after axon injury, glycolysis is increased in Schwann cells to provide axons with energy and prevent them from degenerating. The authors also identify possible therapeutic targets that could be modulated to promote axonal protection.

Sleep is controlled by a cocktail of neurotransmitters, but it is difficult to measure these in the brain. A new study by Tamaki et al. reveals how the balance between excitation and inhibition oscillates as the brain moves through sleep stages and how this impacts upon memory consolidation and stabilization.

Pathological tau disrupts the association between nitric oxide (NO) synthase and PSD95, impairing NO signaling and neurovascular coupling before causing neurodegeneration. Stopping production of pathological tau rescues NO signaling, neurovascular coupling and neuronal function, but doesn’t remove tangles, suggesting that (like amyloid-β) soluble tau is an important driver of early neurovascular dysfunction and subsequent neuronal damage.

Busche and Hyman review emerging evidence for an interaction between Aβ and tau during Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression that challenges the classical linear trajectory model and offers a new perspective on AD pathophysiology and therapy.