News
Nature Neuroscience
A multidisciplinary journal that publishes papers of the highest quality and significance in all areas of neuroscience.
| 06/28/2008 08:00 PM |
| Regulating the expectation of reward via cognitive strategies |
| People can moderate their aversive emotional reactions. Delgado and colleagues now show that people can also downregulate expectations of reward, which can at times be maladaptive (for example, drug cravings), and that this results in an attenuation of the physiological and neural correlates of reward expectation. |
| 07/10/2008 08:00 PM |
| The stress hormone corticosterone conditions AMPAR surface trafficking and synaptic potentiation |
| Corticosterone triggers increased AMPA receptor membrane mobility and surface expression, according to a new study by Groc and colleagues. This mechanism helps to explain the observed modulation of synaptic plasticity and strength induced by this stress hormone. |
| 07/26/2008 08:00 PM |
| Control of thermotactic behavior via coupling of a TRP channel to a phospholipase C signaling cascade |
| Drosophila larvae maintain a very precise ability to sense small environmental temperature differences, influencing thermotactic behavior. Kwon et al. suggest a requirement for TRPA1 activation in mediating this sensitivity, but with channel responses arising from a PLC-based signaling cascade, not by direct thermal activation of the channel. |
| 06/28/2008 08:00 PM |
| Action potentials contribute to neuronal signaling in C. elegans |
| The physical properties of nematode neurons have led many to believe that neuronal signals in worms are passively propagated. Here, the authors present evidence for the production of regenerative action potentials in some nematode neurons, which can participate in the control of a bistable state. |
| 07/19/2008 08:00 PM |
| Suppression of male courtship by a Drosophila pheromone receptor |
| Chemosensory cues are important indicators during Drosophila courtship. This study reveals that disrupting the expression of a gustatory receptor (Gr32a) causes flies to exhibit enhanced courtship behavior towards males and equivalent reactions to mated or virgin females, establishing Gr32a as a receptor for inhibitory courtship pheromones. |
| 07/10/2008 08:00 PM |
| Patches of face-selective cortex in the macaque frontal lobe |
| Although the existence of face-selective processing in the temporal lobes is well-accepted, the existence of similar patches in frontal cortex is debated, with contradictory evidence. This study used fMRI in alert macaques to identify three face-selective regions in ventral prefrontal cortex, one of which was strongly lateralized to the right hemisphere. |
| 07/10/2008 08:00 PM |
| Cell type–specific regulation of DARPP-32 phosphorylation by psychostimulant and antipsychotic drugs |
| DARPP-32 phosphorylation is crucial to the actions of both psychostimulant and antipsychotic drugs. By using BAC transgenic mice to tag DARPP32 selectively in either striatonigral or striatopallidal neurons, the authors show that cocaine (a psychostimulant) and haloperidol (an antipsychotic) exert different effects on DARPP-32 in these two neuronal populations. This may help explain the opposing behavioral effects of these drugs. |
| 07/19/2008 08:00 PM |
| PICK1 uncoupling from mGluR7a causes absence-like seizures |
| Mice lacking the metabotropic glutamate receptor mGluR7 are hypersensitive to convulsant drugs. But how does mGluR7 act to prevent seizures? Here the authors show that interfering with the interaction between mGluR7 and the intracellular adaptor protein PICK1 causes a phenotype in mice and rats that is reminiscent of human absence epilepsy. |
| 07/05/2008 08:00 PM |
| Task difficulty modulates the activity of specific neuronal populations in primary visual cortex |
| Spatial attention works to modulate neuronal responses as early as V1, according to this study. Using electrophysiological recordings in monkey primary visual cortex, the authors found that there are two distinct cell populations (differentiated by direction selectivity, spike width, interspike interval distribution and contrast sensitivity) whose responses are either suppressed or enhanced by attention. |
| 07/26/2008 08:00 PM |
| The temporal precision of reward prediction in dopamine neurons |
| In this article, the authors report that the temporal precision of the reward prediction error signal encoded by midbrain dopamine neurons declines as the delay between a reward predicting stimulus and an expected reward increases. The temporal precision of the neural signal is qualitatively similar to that of anticipatory behavior. |
| 06/28/2008 08:00 PM |
| Directed differentiation of hippocampal stem/progenitor cells in the adult brain |
| The multipotency of adult CNS stem cells has been shown in vitro, but not in vivo. Progenitors in the adult hippocampal subgranular zone normally generate only granule neurons. Retrovirus-mediated expression of the transcription factor Ascl1, however, resulted in the generation of immature and mature oligodendrocytes, demonstrating the progenitors' latent multipotency. |
| 06/28/2008 08:00 PM |
| Gating the pore of P2X receptor channels |
| Trimeric P2X receptor channels are activated by ATP and function in neural signaling, pain transmission and inflammation-based pathways. Cysteine scanning analysis of the transmembrane regions revealed that the second domain lines the central ion-conductance pore and acts like a gate to limit ion flow in the closed state. |
| 06/28/2008 08:00 PM |
| Oxygen levels affect axon guidance and neuronal migration in Caenorhabditis elegans |
| Perinatal lack of oxygen can impair brain development. In the worm C. elegans, this study shows that oxygen deprivation during embryogenesis caused specific axon-pathfinding errors. The defects were absent in worms lacking the hypoxia-response transcription factor HIF-1. Overexpression of HIF-1 replicated the hypoxia-induced defects. Hypoxia or HIF-1 induced the Eph receptor Vab-1, which may in part explain the pathfinding errors. |
| 07/26/2008 08:00 PM |
| Bidirectional temperature-sensing by a single thermosensory neuron in C. elegans |
| It is currently unknown how some animals maintain such precise temperature sensation. Ramot et al. report that the thermosensory neurons in C. elegans utilize cGMP-dependent signaling machinery to alter ionic current responses and maintain a dynamic range of sensitivity. |
| 07/19/2008 08:00 PM |
| Pikachurin, a dystroglycan ligand, is essential for photoreceptor ribbon synapse formation |
| This study identifies a dystroglycan-interacting protein, pikachurin, that is localized in the extracellular space between photoreceptors and bipolar cells. The authors also demonstrate its requirement in normal ribbon synapse development and function. Kevin Campbell and Jakob Satz discuss this paper in an accompanying News and Views article. |
| 07/19/2008 08:00 PM |
| Increased dopamine after mating impairs olfaction and prevents odor interference with pregnancy |
| Pregnancy in mice is aborted if a female smells the urine of a new male up to 3 days after insemination, but not later. What changes? Dopamine increased in the female main olfactory bulb after copulation, peaking at 4 days. This diminished the mice's ability to recognize male urine. A dopamine receptor inhibitor improved recognition of male urine, and thereby increased the probability of abort. |
| 07/10/2008 08:00 PM |
| Neurons born in the adult dentate gyrus form functional synapses with target cells |
| Adult neurogenesis in hippocampus yields newly born granule cells that receive synaptic inputs from existing neurons. Characterizing morphological and functional features of newborn neurons in adult mice, Toni et al. demonstrate the functional maturation of their synaptic output onto the appropriate target cells in the hippocampus. |
| 07/05/2008 08:00 PM |
| Light-sensitive neurons and channels mediate phototaxis in C. elegans |
| C.elegans do not possess eyes and are believed to lack responses to light. Ward et al. report a photophobic response in these worms and map this behavior to a group of sensory neurons. Their results also suggest that there could be some conservation in phototransduction between nematodes and vertebrates. |
| 07/05/2008 08:00 PM |
| Manipulating critical period closure across different sectors of the primary auditory cortex |
| The neural circuitry of primary auditory cortex is known to have a critical period during which the representation of sound frequency is shaped to represent the external world. De Villers-Sidani and colleagues now show that the end of this critical period is driven by local patterns of activity reflecting environmental stimuli. |
| 08/20/2008 04:58 PM |
| Face to face with cortex |
| Two new studies in Science and Nature Neuroscience combine functional magnetic resonance imaging and electrical microstimulation to reveal face-selective temporal and frontal areas and their connectivity. |
| 08/20/2008 04:58 PM |
| Celebrating place cells |
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| 08/20/2008 04:58 PM |
| Fresh air is good for nerves: hypoxia disturbs axon guidance |
| The transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) triggers multiple cellular responses to cope with hypoxia. A study in this issue suggests that elevated HIF-1 also causes axon guidance defects under hypoxic conditions. |
| 08/20/2008 04:58 PM |
| Mapping the microcircuitry of attention |
| A study uses electrophysiological recordings from primary visual cortex of the monkey to demonstrate that the effects of attention are modulated by task difficulty and that two different neuronal populations mediate this effect. |
| 08/20/2008 04:58 PM |
| Unraveling the ribbon synapse |
| A new study identifies pikachurin, a previously-unknown dystroglycan-binding protein that is critical for the apposition of photoreceptor and bipolar cell dendrites at the ribbon synapse. This work could explain some of the visual defects seen in several muscular dystrophies. |
| 08/20/2008 04:58 PM |
| Exporting the Western university |
| As Western universities establish lucrative satellite programs overseas, they promise to draw new parts of the globe into the scientific endeavor. Faculty recruitment, however, emerges as a hurdle on the way to excellence. |
