Neurodevelopmental disorders: A transcription-targeting target
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 572 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.123
Author: Natasha Bray
Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) represses the transcription of many target genes, including genes that encode chromatin-associated proteins. Loss of FMRP leads to fragile X syndrome (FXS); however, whether misregulation of chromatin-associated proteins contributes to FXS is unclear. Korb et al. showed that (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Techniques: Having a field day
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 572 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.122
Author: Natasha Bray
Recording magnetic fields associated with neuronal activity could have certain advantages over voltage recordings, but current probes to detect such fields are too large for in vivo use. Caruso et al. developed micron-scale 'magnetrodes' and used these in the cat visual cortex to (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Visual processing: Face off
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 572 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.121
Author: Natasha Bray
How face patches — areas of cortex that process visual faces — develop is not known. Livingstone and colleagues reared three macaques for ∼200 days without any visual exposure to faces and used functional MRI to measure neural responses to images of faces, objects and (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Neurodegenerative disease: Towards transplant therapy
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 572 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.120
Author: Natasha Bray
The long-term safety and efficacy of using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons to replace midbrain dopaminergic neurons lost in Parkinson disease (PD) have not been tested in primates. Kikuchi et al. grafted human iPSC-derived midbrain dopaminergic progenitors into the putamen of macaques that (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Learning and memory: Memories take the sub-way
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 571 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.117
Author: Sian Lewis
Two pathways from CA1 to the entorhinal cortex — a direct pathway and an indirect pathway, that projects via the hippocampal subiculum — are shown to play dissociable roles in memory formation and retrieval, respectively. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sian Lewis Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Non-coding RNA: Regulatory circles
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 570 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.118
Author: Darran Yates
In mice, the circular RNA Cdr1as regulates microRNA expression in the brain and sensorimotor gating. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 19, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Darran Yates Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
The use of brain organoids to investigate neural development and disease
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 573 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.107
Authors: Elizabeth Di Lullo & Arnold R. Kriegstein
Understanding the development and dysfunction of the human brain is a major goal of neurobiology. Much of our current understanding of human brain development has been derived from the examination of post-mortem and pathological specimens, bolstered by observations of developing non-human primates and experimental studies (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 7, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Elizabeth Di Lullo Arnold R. Kriegstein Tags: Review Source Type: research
Reward: Eating goes down a treat
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 572 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.115
Author: Natasha Bray
A study in mice identified neurons in the central amygdala that express the serotonin 2A receptor and positively reinforce the consumption of food. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 7, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Reward: Restraint from risky reward
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 570 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.114
Author: Natasha Bray
In mice, a set of projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to the nucleus accumbens suppress reward seeking under risky conditions. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 7, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Decision making: Making hasty decisions
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 569 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.116
Author: Katherine Whalley
The activity of neurons in the basal ganglia contributes to the weighting of speed versus accuracy, rather than to deliberation, in a motor decision-making task. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - September 7, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Katherine Whalley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
The impact of cytoskeletal organization on the local regulation of neuronal transport
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 585 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.100
Authors: Jeffrey J. Nirschl, Amy E. Ghiretti & Erika L. F. Holzbaur
Neurons are akin to modern cities in that both are dependent on robust transport mechanisms. Like the best mass transit systems, trafficking in neurons must be tailored to respond to local requirements. Neurons depend on both high-speed, long-distance transport and localized dynamics to correctly deliver (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - August 31, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Jeffrey J. Nirschl Amy E. Ghiretti Erika L. F. Holzbaur Tags: Review Source Type: research
Motor systems: Mice get manual
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 512 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.108
Author: Natasha Bray
Species-dependent regulation of plexin A1 signalling may underlie the elimination and retention of cortico–motor neuronal contacts in developing mice and in developing primates, respectively. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - August 21, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Natasha Bray Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Ageing: Setting the speed
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 511 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.109
Author: Darran Yates
Hypothalamic neural stem cells may be important regulators of the speed at which ageing proceeds in mice. (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - August 21, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Darran Yates Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Noncoding RNAs in neurodegeneration
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 627 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.90
Authors: Evgenia Salta & Bart De Strooper
The emerging complexity of the transcriptional landscape poses great challenges to our conventional preconceptions of how the genome regulates brain function and dysfunction. Non-protein-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) confer a high level of intricate and dynamic regulation of various molecular processes in the CNS and they have (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - August 17, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Evgenia Salta Bart De Strooper Tags: Review Source Type: research
Polyglutamine spinocerebellar ataxias — from genes to potential treatments
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18, 613 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.92
Authors: Henry L. Paulson, Vikram G. Shakkottai, H. Brent Clark & Harry T. Orr
The dominantly inherited spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a large and diverse group of neurodegenerative diseases. The most prevalent SCAs (SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, SCA6 and SCA7) are caused by expansion of a glutamine-encoding CAG repeat in the affected gene. These SCAs represent a substantial portion of (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience - August 17, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Henry L. Paulson Vikram G. Shakkottai H. Brent Clark Harry T. Orr Tags: Review Source Type: research
