Synaptic plasticity: Kainate receptors can LTP
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 194 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.34
Author: Sian Lewis
Classical synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP) requires NMDA receptor (NMDAR) activation, which drives AMPA receptor (AMPAR) insertion into the postsynaptic membrane. Here, activation of kainate receptors (KARs) in rat CA1 neurons triggered an increase in postsynaptic AMPAR surface expression and potentiated AMPAR-mediated CA1 excitatory postsynaptic responses. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - March 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Sleep: Gaining sleep while losing synapses
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 194 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.33
Author: Sian Lewis
It has been suggested that synaptic weakening occurs during sleep to counterbalance daytime synaptic strengthening. The authors found that sleep was associated with a reduction in the level of postsynaptic AMPA receptors compared with awake periods, indicating homeostatic scaling down. The mechanism involves expression of (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - March 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Neural development: Digit development
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 194 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.32
Author: Sian Lewis
The specification of the motor neuron subtypes that innervate digits is not well understood. Limb-innervating motor neuron specification is influenced by retinoic acid, the synthesis of which is regulated by specific expression patterns of homeobox (HOX) transcription factors and their cofactor FOXP1 (forkhead box protein (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - March 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Sensory processing: The eyes have it
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 194 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.31
Author: Sian Lewis
Direction selectivity is an important part of motion detection. Direction-selective cells have been found both in the retina and in their projection target, the superior colliculus (SC), but precisely where and how direction selectivity arises is not well understood. By optogenetically manipulating specific direction-selective retinal (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - March 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Pain: A gatekeeper circuit
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 195 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.28
Author: Katherine Whalley
The dissection of a circuit for the descending modulation of pain processing in the spinal cord that is recruited by stress. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 22, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Katherine Whalley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Cell biology of the neuron: Lightening the load
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 195 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.27
Author: Natasha Bray
Touch neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans eliminate aggregated or neurotoxic proteins and dysfunctional mitochondria by exporting them in large vesicles called exophers. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 22, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
The contribution of the human posterior parietal cortex to episodic memory
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 183 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.6
Authors: Carlo Sestieri, Gordon L. Shulman & Maurizio Corbetta
The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is traditionally associated with attention, perceptual decision making and sensorimotor transformations, but more recent human neuroimaging studies support an additional role in episodic memory retrieval. In this Opinion article, we present a functional–anatomical model of the involvement of the PPC (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 16, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Carlo Sestieri Gordon L. Shulman Maurizio Corbetta Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research
A distributed, hierarchical and recurrent framework for reward-based choice
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 172 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.7
Authors: Laurence T. Hunt & Benjamin Y. Hayden
Many accounts of reward-based choice argue for distinct component processes that are serial and functionally localized. In this Opinion article, we argue for an alternative viewpoint, in which choices emerge from repeated computations that are distributed across many brain regions. We emphasize how several features (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 16, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Laurence T. Hunt Benjamin Y. Hayden Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research
Fractionating impulsivity: neuropsychiatric implications
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 158 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.8
Authors: Jeffrey W. Dalley & Trevor W. Robbins
The ability to make decisions and act quickly without hesitation can be advantageous in many settings. However, when persistently expressed, impulsive decisions and actions are considered risky, maladaptive and symptomatic of such diverse brain disorders as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, drug addiction and affective disorders. Over (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 16, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Jeffrey W. Dalley Trevor W. Robbins Tags: Review Source Type: research
SHANK proteins: roles at the synapse and in autism spectrum disorder
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 147 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2016.183
Authors: Patricia Monteiro & Guoping Feng
Several large-scale genomic studies have supported an association between cases of autism spectrum disorder and mutations in the genes SH3 and multiple ankyrin repeat domains protein 1 (SHANK1), SHANK2 and SHANK3, which encode a family of postsynaptic scaffolding proteins that are (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Patricia Monteiro Guoping Feng Tags: Review Source Type: research
Neuromodulation: A circuit modulator
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 130 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.23
Author: Katherine Whalley
The cytokine IL-17 is expressed in the brain, but its function is not known. Chen et al. found that the Caenorhabditis elegans orthologue of IL-17 regulates the aggregation of worms following a rise in environmental oxygen and that it mediates this effect by (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Katherine Whalley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Pain: Improving opioids
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 130 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.22
Author: Katherine Whalley
Chronic use of opioid analgesics can cause analgesic tolerance and opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH), contributing to dose escalation in patients. Corder et al. here provide evidence that, in mice, these unwanted effects, and the underlying altered circuit plasticity, are mediated by μ opioid receptors (MORs) (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Katherine Whalley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Sleep and memory: REM sleep targets new synapses
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 130 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.21
Author: Katherine Whalley
To support neural circuit stability and memory function, new synapses must be selectively pruned or maintained. Li et al. used two-photon imaging of the dendritic spines of mouse primary motor cortex pyramidal neurons to demonstrate the role of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Katherine Whalley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Synaptic transmission: Recycling regulators
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 130 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.20
Author: Katherine Whalley
The mechanisms that regulate synaptic vesicle recycling are unclear. Here, Li et al. show that Ca2+ sensors that drive vesicle fusion also influence vesicle endocytosis. High-resolution recordings of fluorescently tagged vesicles revealed a role of synaptotagmin 1 in the regulation of the (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Katherine Whalley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Cell biology of the neuron: Adding fuel to the firing
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 129 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.19
Author: Natasha Bray
Neuronal activity promotes glycolysis at terminals to sustain synaptic vesicle (SV) recycling; however, the underlying mechanisms are not known. Ashrafi et al. expressed a pHluorin-tagged variant of the glucose transporter GLUT4 in rat hippocampal neurons and showed that, with sustained firing of action potentials, (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - February 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
