Neurodevelopmental disorders: Taking on FXS with a diabetes drug
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 387 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.80
Author: Darran Yates
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is characterized by learning disabilities and behavioural problems and is linked to dysregulated mRNA translation. Here, the authors treated a mouse model of FXS with the type 2 diabetes drug metformin, which, among other effects, suppresses translation. Metformin treatment rescued various (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - June 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Darran Yates Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Neural circuits: An angle on navigation
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 387 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.79
Author: Darran Yates
Various animals use an internal sense of heading to aid navigation, but the underlying neural circuits are unclear. Green et al. used tethered flies walking on a ball to examine the role of neurons that directly connect the protocerebral bridge and the ellipsoid body (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - June 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Darran Yates Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Neurodevelopment: Organizing the second brain
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 387 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.78
Author: Darran Yates
How enteric nervous system (ENS) circuits are assembled and organized is not well understood. Most ENS neurons and glia are derived from SOX10-expressing enteric neural crest-derived cells (ENCCs). Here, cell-fate mapping showed that ENCCs give rise to clonal clusters of cells in the small intestine, (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - June 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Darran Yates Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Sleep: Labelling sleep generators
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 387 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.77
Author: Darran Yates
The preoptic area (POA) of the hypothalamus is implicated in sleep generation, but deciphering exactly which POA neurons promote sleep has been difficult. The POA sends inhibitory projections to the wakefulness-promoting tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN). Through the use of virus-mediated retrograde tracing and optogenetics, Chung et (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - June 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Darran Yates Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Non-motor features of Parkinson disease
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 435 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.62
Authors: Anthony H.V. Schapira, K. Ray Chaudhuri & Peter Jenner
Many of the motor symptoms of Parkinson disease (PD) can be preceded, sometimes for several years, by non-motor symptoms that include hyposmia, sleep disorders, depression and constipation. These non-motor features appear across the spectrum of patients with PD, including individuals with genetic causes of PD. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - June 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Anthony H.V. Schapira K. Ray Chaudhuri Peter Jenner Tags: Review Source Type: research
Functional consequences of neuropeptide and small-molecule co-transmission
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 389 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.56
Authors: Michael P. Nusbaum, Dawn M. Blitz & Eve Marder
Colocalization of small-molecule and neuropeptide transmitters is common throughout the nervous system of all animals. The resulting co-transmission, which provides conjoint ionotropic ('classical') and metabotropic ('modulatory') actions, includes neuropeptide- specific aspects that are qualitatively different from those that result from metabotropic actions of small-molecule transmitter (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - June 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Michael P. Nusbaum Dawn M. Blitz Eve Marder Tags: Review Source Type: research
Learning and memory: When novel becomes familiar
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 386 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.73
Author: Sian Lewis
The transition from an odour being novel to being familiar in Drosophila Melanogaster involves dopaminergic modulation of the kenyon cell–α′3 mushroom body output neuron synapse in the fly mushroom body. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - June 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Neuron — glia interactions: Waking the synapse
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 386 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.69
Author: Katherine Whalley
Wakefulness influences synaptic function in the hippocampus through the modulation of NMDA receptor co-agonist availability by astrocytes. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - May 25, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Katherine Whalley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Working memory: Persistence is key
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 385 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.70
Author: Natasha Bray
Three studies demonstrate that thalamocortical connections are necessary to maintain cortical delay activity in mice. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - May 25, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Cerebral blood flow regulation and neurovascular dysfunction in Alzheimer disease
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 419 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.48
Authors: Kassandra Kisler, Amy R. Nelson, Axel Montagne & Berislav V. Zlokovic
Cerebral blood flow (CBF) regulation is essential for normal brain function. The mammalian brain has evolved a unique mechanism for CBF control known as neurovascular coupling. This mechanism ensures a rapid increase in the rate of CBF and oxygen delivery to activated brain structures. The (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - May 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Kassandra Kisler Amy R. Nelson Axel Montagne Berislav V. Zlokovic Tags: Review Source Type: research
The sleep-deprived human brain
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 404 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.55
Authors: Adam J. Krause, Eti Ben Simon, Bryce A. Mander, Stephanie M. Greer, Jared M. Saletin, Andrea N. Goldstein-Piekarski & Matthew P. Walker
How does a lack of sleep affect our brains? In contrast to the benefits of sleep, frameworks exploring the impact of sleep loss are relatively lacking. Importantly, the effects of sleep deprivation (SD) do not simply reflect the absence of sleep and the benefits attributed (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - May 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Adam J. Krause Eti Ben Simon Bryce A. Mander Stephanie M. Greer Jared M. Saletin Andrea N. Goldstein-Piekarski Matthew P. Walker Tags: Review Source Type: research
The brain, sirtuins, and ageing
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 362 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.42
Authors: Akiko Satoh, Shin-ichiro Imai & Leonard Guarente
In mammals, recent studies have demonstrated that the brain, the hypothalamus in particular, is a key bidirectional integrator of humoral and neural information from peripheral tissues, thus influencing ageing both in the brain and at the 'systemic' level. CNS decline drives the progressive impairment of (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - May 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Akiko Satoh Shin-ichiro Imai Leonard Guarente Tags: Review Source Type: research
The emerging field of epigenetics in neurodegeneration and neuroprotection
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 347 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.46
Authors: Jee-Yeon Hwang, Kelly A. Aromolaran & R. Suzanne Zukin
Epigenetic mechanisms — including DNA methylation, histone post-translational modifications and changes in nucleosome positioning — regulate gene expression, cellular differentiation and development in almost all tissues, including the brain. In adulthood, changes in the epigenome are crucial for higher cognitive functions such as learning and (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - May 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Jee-Yeon Hwang Kelly A. Aromolaran R. Suzanne Zukin Tags: Review Source Type: research
Sleep: Dream a little dream
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 324 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.66
Author: Sian Lewis
Dreaming was thought to be confined to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which occurs during periods of high-frequency electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, but, more recently, dreaming has been observed during periods of non-REM sleep, which is characterized by low-frequency EEG activity. Monitoring brain activity using high-density (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - May 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Brain evolution: Genetic layering
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 324 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.65
Author: Sian Lewis
The neocortex is the most recently evolved part of the brain, and, in this study, RNA sequencing was performed on individual layers of the prefrontal cortex from humans, macaques and chimpanzees and revealed that, although the expression of most genes was conserved across all three (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - May 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
