Incorporating sex as a biological variable in neuroscience: what do we gain?
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 707 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.137
Authors: Margaret M. McCarthy, Catherine S. Woolley & Arthur P. Arnold
New policies requiring preclinical studies to incorporate sex as a biological variable are impacting neuroscience research. It is too soon to know whether this change justifies the administrative and financial burdens that it imposes; however, the potential gains in fundamental knowledge and therapeutic target identification are likely to outweigh the potential costs. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - November 3, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Margaret M. McCarthy Catherine S. Woolley Arthur P. Arnold Tags: Comment Source Type: research
Genetic insights into the neurodevelopmental origins of schizophrenia
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 727 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.125
Authors: Rebecca Birnbaum & Daniel R. Weinberger
Schizophrenia is a severe neuropsychiatric disorder with a longstanding history of neurobiological investigation. Although the underlying causal mechanisms remain unknown, early neurodevelopmental events have been implicated in pathogenesis, initially by epidemiological and circumstantial data but more recently by brain-specific molecular and genetic findings. Notably, genomic (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 26, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Rebecca Birnbaum Daniel R. Weinberger Tags: Review Source Type: research
Motor cortex — to act or not to act?
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 694 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.119
Authors: Christian Laut Ebbesen & Michael Brecht
The motor cortex is a large frontal structure in the cerebral cortex of eutherian mammals. A vast array of evidence implicates the motor cortex in the volitional control of motor output, but how does the motor cortex exert this 'control'? Historically, ideas regarding motor cortex (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Christian Laut Ebbesen Michael Brecht Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research
Cognitive neuroscience: Spatial navigation takes two
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 643 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.135
Author: Sian Lewis
The medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) contains parvalbumin (PV)- and somatostatin (SOM)-expressing interneurons, but their individual roles in grid formation by grid cells in the MEC is poorly understood. The authors recorded MEC grid cell activity in freely moving mice while selectively silencing PV-expressing interneurons and (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Cancer: Growth restriction
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 643 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.134
Author: Sian Lewis
High-grade gliomas (HGGs) are difficult to treat. The growth of a number of HGG subtypes is promoted by neural activity that is mediated by activity-dependent cleavage of neuroligin-3 (NLGN3) by ADAM10 and subsequent NLGN3 ectodomain secretion. Here, secreted NLGN3 was found to stimulate a number (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Glia: Pulling in opposite directions
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 643 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.133
Author: Sian Lewis
The influence of gliotransmitter release from astrocytes on synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus remains unclear. Hippocampal astrocytes express two vesicular SNARE proteins, synaptobrevin II (SYB2) and cellubrevin (CEB), which are located on glutamatergic vesicles and neuropeptide-Y (NPY)-containing vesicles, respectively. Working with hippocampal cell culture and (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Behavioural neuroscience: Fighting females
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 643 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.132
Author: Sian Lewis
The ventromedial hypothalamus (VMLvl) has been shown to play a key role in aggression in male mice, but whether it plays a similar role in females remains controversial. Both aggression-inducing conditions and mating increased directly measured neural activity in oestrogen-expressing neurons in the VMLvl. In (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Neurodegeneration: An independent route to toxicity
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 641 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.131
Author: Darran Yates
Apolipoprotein E4 promotes tau neurotoxicity in a mouse model of tau-mediated neurodegenerative disease. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Darran Yates Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Synaptic plasticity: Strength through movement
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 642 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.127
Author: Sian Lewis
Surface diffusion of AMPA receptors at the postsynpatic membrane of hippocampal synapses is shown to be crucial for the expression of both short-term plasticity and early long-term potentiation. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 5, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Neuroimmunology: Scratching the surface of chronic itch
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 642 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.126
Author: Katherine Whalley
The type 2 cytokine interleukin-4 directly stimulates and sensitizes sensory neurons to drive chronic itch. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - October 5, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Katherine Whalley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Rehabilitating the addicted brain with transcranial magnetic stimulation
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 685 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.113
Authors: Marco Diana, Tommi Raij, Miriam Melis, Aapo Nummenmaa, Lorenzo Leggio & Antonello Bonci
Substance use disorders (SUDs) are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In spite of considerable advances in understanding the neural underpinnings of SUDs, therapeutic options remain limited. Recent studies have highlighted the potential of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as an innovative, (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 29, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Marco Diana Tommi Raij Miriam Melis Aapo Nummenmaa Lorenzo Leggio Antonello Bonci Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research
Sensory perception in autism
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 671 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.112
Authors: Caroline E. Robertson & Simon Baron-Cohen
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition, and little is known about its neurobiology. Much of autism research has focused on the social, communication and cognitive difficulties associated with the condition. However, the recent revision of the diagnostic criteria for autism has brought another key domain (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 29, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Caroline E. Robertson Simon Baron-Cohen Tags: Review Source Type: research
Managing competing goals — a key role for the frontopolar cortex
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 645 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.111
Authors: Farshad Alizadeh Mansouri, Etienne Koechlin, Marcello G. P. Rosa & Mark J. Buckley
Humans are set apart from other animals by many elements of advanced cognition and behaviour, including language, judgement and reasoning. What is special about the human brain that gives rise to these abilities? Could the foremost part of the prefrontal cortex (the frontopolar cortex), which (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 29, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Farshad Alizadeh Mansouri Etienne Koechlin Marcello G. P. Rosa Mark J. Buckley Tags: Review Source Type: research
Errant gardeners: glial-cell-dependent synaptic pruning and neurodevelopmental disorders
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 658 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.110
Authors: Urte Neniskyte & Cornelius T. Gross
The final stage of brain development is associated with the generation and maturation of neuronal synapses. However, the same period is also associated with a peak in synapse elimination — a process known as synaptic pruning — that has been proposed to be crucial for (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 21, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Urte Neniskyte Cornelius T. Gross Tags: Review Source Type: research
Electrodiffusion phenomena in neuroscience: a neglected companion
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 598 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.101
Authors: Leonid P. Savtchenko, Mu Ming Poo & Dmitri A. Rusakov
The emerging technological revolution in genetically encoded molecular sensors and super-resolution imaging provides neuroscientists with a pass to the real-time nano-world. On this small scale, however, classical principles of electrophysiology do not always apply. This is in large part because the nanoscopic heterogeneities in ionic (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Leonid P. Savtchenko Mu Ming Poo Dmitri A. Rusakov Tags: Review Source Type: research
