Neuroscience articles within Nature

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  • News |

    Canadian scientists vindicated after being accused of mistreating laboratory animals.

    • Janelle Weaver

  • Letter |

    LRRK2 activity is dysregulated in Parkinson's disease, but how it contributes to the pathogenesis is unknown. These authors show that Drosophila LRRK2 interacts with the Argonaute component (dAgo1) of the RNA-induced silencing complex. This is associated with reduced levels of dAgo1, interaction between phospho-4E-BP1 and hAgo2, and impairment of microRNA-mediated repression. This leads to overexpression of the cell cycle genes e2f1 and dp, and consequent degeneration of dopaminergic neurons.

    • Stephan Gehrke
    • , Yuzuru Imai
    •  & Bingwei Lu

  • Article |

    The appropriate initiation and termination of behavioural action sequences is imperative, but the neural mechanisms underlying the learning and execution of fixed behavioural patterns are poorly understood. Here the authors reveal start/stop neuronal activity in basal ganglia circuits that emerge during task training in mice. Genetically altering these circuits disrupted the activity and impaired performance, providing evidence for a causal relationship between the specific neuronal activity and task learning.

    • Xin Jin
    •  & Rui M. Costa

  • News & Views |

    The organization of behaviour as sequences of actions requires proper initiation and termination of each action sequence. The neural circuit that signals instructions to start and stop is now revealed.

    • Paolo Calabresi
    •  & Massimiliano Di Filippo

  • Column |

    A survey of the cognitive benefits of music makes a valid case for its educational importance. But that's not the best reason to teach all children music, says Philip Ball.

    • Philip Ball

  • Letter |

    The deacetylase SIRT1 has been suggested to function in normal brain physiology, but it is not known whether it participates in higher-order brain functions. These authors demonstrate a role for SIRT1 in synaptic plasticity and memory formation, with activation enhancing synaptic strength and memory formation. These effects were regulated through a post-transcriptional mechanism involving CREB activation and miR-134 production. This interplay represents another mechanism of plasticity regulation with behavioural consequences.

    • Jun Gao
    • , Wen-Yuan Wang
    •  & Li-Huei Tsai

  • News & Views |

    Cocaine abuse results in increased craving for the drug. But in the long run, cocaine intake induces the expression of a microRNA in the brain, and this seems to limit further drug intake.

    • Marina R. Picciotto

  • Letter |

    Here the authors show that in non-excitable LNCaP prostate cancer cells, the large-conductance, voltage- and calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel can be activated at negative voltages without rises in intracellular Ca2+ concentration, by interacting with an auxiliary protein, the leucine-rich repeat containing protein 26. This auxiliary protein modulates BK channel gating by enhancing the allosteric coupling between voltage-sensor activation and the channel's closed–open transition.

    • Jiusheng Yan
    •  & Richard W. Aldrich

  • Letter |

    It has long been thought that motor control is achieved through the balanced activity of two distinct pathways through the basal ganglia that have opposing effects, but this has never been functionally verified. These authors directly test this hypothesis with optogenetic activation of different populations of mouse striatal neurons, and not only trace functional connectivity but demonstrate opposing effects on motor behaviour in a parkinsonian model.

    • Alexxai V. Kravitz
    • , Benjamin S. Freeze
    •  & Anatol C. Kreitzer

  • Letter |

    Sensory cortical neurons are interconnected at different scales, and this could be related to differences in functional interactions. Using maximum entropy models, these authors explore the correlation structure of neurons in primary visual cortex of anaesthetized monkeys recorded using multiple tetrodes. They conclude that distant neurons display pairwise correlations but that local networks can have more complex interactions that may act to sparsify the neural code.

    • Ifije E. Ohiorhenuan
    • , Ferenc Mechler
    •  & Jonathan D. Victor

  • Letter |

    Neural responses are variable, but it is unclear whether this variability carries important information or is just noise. Here the authors characterize the sensitivity to small fluctuations of in vivo cortical networks in rat barrel cortex in the context of neural coding, finding that perturbations are amplified and cause an increase in local firing rate. Simulations suggest that this amplification leads to variations in the system that are pure noise and, therefore, unsuited for carrying a reliable temporal code.

    • Michael London
    • , Arnd Roth
    •  & Peter E. Latham

  • Letter |

    Although pheromones and their detection by the vomeronasal organ are known to govern social behaviour in mice, specific chemical signals have rarely been linked to selective behavioural responses. Here the authors show that the ESP1 peptide secreted in male tears makes females sexually receptive, and identify its specific vomeronasal receptor and the sex-specific neuronal circuits activated during the behavioural response.

    • Sachiko Haga
    • , Tatsuya Hattori
    •  & Kazushige Touhara

  • Letter |

    The European corn borer consists of two sex pheromone races, leading to strong reproductive isolation which could represent a first step in speciation. Female sex pheromone production and male behavioural response are under the control of different genes, but the identity of these genes is unknown. These authors show that allelic variation in a gene essential for pheromone biosynthesis accounts for the phenotypic variation in female pheromone production, leading to race-specific signals.

    • Jean-Marc Lassance
    • , Astrid T. Groot
    •  & Christer Löfstedt

  • News & Views |

    Neurons generate their output signal — the action potential — in a distinct region of the axon called the initial segment. The location and extent of this trigger zone can be modified by neural activity to control excitability.

    • Jan Gründemann
    •  & Michael Häusser

  • Letter |

    Large-conductance Ca2+-gated K+ (BK) channels are essential for many biological processes, such as smooth muscle contraction and neurotransmitter release. Here, the X-ray crystal structure is presented of the entire cytoplasmic region of the human BK channel in a Ca2+-free state. Moreover, a voltage-gated K+ channel pore of known structure is 'docked' onto the gating ring to generate a structural model for the full BK channel.

    • Yunkun Wu
    • , Yi Yang
    •  & Youxing Jiang

  • Letter |

    The primary visual cortex (V1) is crucial for vision, yet people with V1 injuries might still point to or avoid visual stimuli, despite having no conscious perception of them. It has been thought that this 'blindsight' relies on visual pathways that bypass the usual route from lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) to V1. But it is shown here — using a combination of permanent and reversible lesions, behavioural testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) mapping — that a critical link in the alternative pathway is in fact the LGN.

    • Michael C. Schmid
    • , Sylwia W. Mrowka
    •  & David A. Leopold

  • Letter |

    Circadian rhythms control many physiological functions. During periods of feeding, pancreatic islets secrete insulin to maintain glucose homeostasis — a rhythmic process that is disturbed in people with diabetes. These authors show that pancreatic islets contain their own clock: they have self-sustained circadian oscillations of CLOCK and BMAL1 genes and proteins, which are vital for the regulation of circadian rhythms. Without this clock, a cascade of cellular failure and pathology initiates the onset of diabetes mellitus.

    • Biliana Marcheva
    • , Kathryn Moynihan Ramsey
    •  & Joseph Bass

  • Letter |

    To build a representation of the auditory world, neuronal circuits in neonatal rodents exhibit plasticity, allowing sensitivity to the pattern of sensory inputs. At this time, neurons construct a receptive field, which relies on a balance of excitatory and inhibitory inputs. Here, excitation and inhibition were found to be co-tuned upon hearing onset, but later an adjustment in the excitatory input strength occurred. Thus a fine adjustment in synaptic inputs, rather than more radical changes such as input pruning, may refine mature receptive fields.

    • Yujiao J. Sun
    • , Guangying K. Wu
    •  & Li I. Zhang

  • Letter |

    To build a representation of the auditory world, neuronal circuits in neonatal rodents exhibit plasticity, allowing sensitivity to the pattern of sensory inputs. At this time, neurons construct a receptive field, which relies on a balance of excitatory and inhibitory inputs. Here, excitation and inhibition were found to be co-tuned upon hearing onset, but an experience-dependent refinement of inhibition later occurred. Thus a fine adjustment in synaptic inputs, rather than more radical changes such as input pruning, may refine mature receptive fields.

    • Anja L. Dorrn
    • , Kexin Yuan
    •  & Robert C. Froemke

  • Letter |

    A nerve cell sends signals to others through action potentials, which begin at the 'initial segment' of the neuron's axon. Here it is shown that the length of this initial segment increases in bird auditory neurons that have been deprived of auditory stimulation. The resulting increase in intrinsic excitability — the tendency to fire action potentials — represents a new form of neuronal plasticity and might contribute to the maintenance of the auditory pathway after hearing loss.

    • Hiroshi Kuba
    • , Yuki Oichi
    •  & Harunori Ohmori

  • Letter |

    A nerve cell sends signals to others through action potentials, which begin at the 'initial segment' of the neuron's axon. It is now shown that changes in electrical activity can alter the position of this initial segment in cultured rat hippocampal neurons. The resulting increase in intrinsic excitability — the tendency to fire action potentials — represents a new form of neuronal plasticity and could provide a new target in the control of epilepsy.

    • Matthew S. Grubb
    •  & Juan Burrone

  • Letter |

    Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals are the basis for much of the work on which regions of the human brain are active during particular tasks or behaviours, but there is controversy over their source and interpretation. Here a combination of optogenetics and BOLD signal monitoring shows that specific excitatory neurons within a mixed population are sufficient to produce positive BOLD signals, and could be used to map connections.

    • Jin Hyung Lee
    • , Remy Durand
    •  & Karl Deisseroth

  • Editorial |

    Biomedical research continues to use many more male subjects than females in both animal studies and human clinical trials. The unintended effect is to short-change women's health care.

  • Editorial |

    • Magdalena Skipper
    • , Ursula Weiss
    •  & Noah Gray

  • News & Views |

    Analysis of a selected class of neuron in the brains of live animals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) opens the door to mapping genetically specified neural circuits.

    • David A. Leopold

  • Letter |

    The autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) are highly heritable, yet the underlying genetic determinants remain largely unknown. Here, a genome-wide analysis of rare copy number variants (CNVs) has been carried out, revealing that ASD sufferers carry a higher load of rare, genic CNVs than do controls. Many of these CNVs are de novo and inherited. The results implicate several novel genes in ASDs, and point to the importance of cellular proliferation, projection and motility, as well as specific signalling pathways, in these disorders.

    • Dalila Pinto
    • , Alistair T. Pagnamenta
    •  & Catalina Betancur

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