Nature on Neuroscience

Learning and memory: piRNA-regulated memory?

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 363 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3268

Author: Darran Yates

Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that have an unclear function. piRNA expression was thought to be limited to germline cells, but in a new study, Kandel and colleagues have detected piRNAs in a microRNA library from the CNS of Aplysia californica. Experiments

Neurodegenerative disease: The pyroglutamylated seed

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 363 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3269

Author: Darran Yates

Pyroglutamylated (pE) forms of amyloid-β (Aβ) have been proposed to have a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. A new study shows that Aβ3(pE)–42 can form short oligomers with Aβ1–42 — which is widely

Neurodegenerative disease: The interneuron link

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 363 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3270

Author: Darran Yates

Cognitive decline and altered network activity are features of Alzheimer's disease, but it is unknown how they are mechanistically linked. Epileptiform discharges, indicating network hypersynchrony, have been detected in a mouse model of this disorder (hAPP mice). Here, the authors show that this hypersynchrony is

Regulation of neuronal GABAB receptor functions by subunit composition

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 380 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3249

Authors: Martin Gassmann & Bernhard Bettler

GABAB receptors (GABABRs) are G protein-coupled receptors for GABA, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS. In the past 5 years, notable advances have been made in our understanding of the molecular composition of these receptors. GABABRs are now

Apoptotic and non-apoptotic roles of caspases in neuronal physiology and pathophysiology

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 395 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3228

Authors: Bradley T. Hyman & Junying Yuan

Caspases are cysteine proteases that mediate apoptosis, which is a form of regulated cell death that effectively and efficiently removes extra and unnecessary cells during development. In the mature nervous system, caspases are not only involved in mediating cell death but also regulatory events that

The origin of extracellular fields and currents — EEG, ECoG, LFP and spikes

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 407 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3241

Authors: György Buzsáki, Costas A. Anastassiou & Christof Koch

Neuronal activity in the brain gives rise to transmembrane currents that can be measured in the extracellular medium. Although the major contributor of the extracellular signal is the synaptic transmembrane current, other sources — including Na+ and Ca2+ spikes, ionic fluxes

Neurotransmission: Autophagy regulates transmission

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 362 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3266

Author: Leonie Welberg

mTOR-regulated autophagy influences neurotransmission.

Sensory systems: Great (taste) expectations

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 362 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3267

Author: Darran Yates

A study in rats shows that cue-induced expectation alters cortical processing of taste stimuli.

Neurogenetics: Unravelling the genetics of autism

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 359 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3259

Author: Darran Yates

Four new studies provide insight into the heterogeneous nature of the genetic component of autism spectrum disorders.

Brain–machine interfaces: Restoring movement in a paralysed hand

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 360 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3260

Author: Leonie Welberg

Motor activity in a paralysed hand is restored by directly translating neural signals in the motor cortex into muscle contractions, bypassing the spinal cord.

Neurodegenerative disorders: Transplanted photoreceptors see the light

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 360 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3265

Author: Sian Lewis

A new study shows that transplanted rod photoreceptors can become integrated into retinal circuits and restore functional vision in mice.

Addiction: RAC1 signalling remodels dendrites

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 361 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3261

Author: Katherine Whalley

Structural changes in neurons in the brain's reward circuits are thought to underlie the changes in behaviour that follow exposure to addictive substances, but little is known about the molecular pathways involved. Here, the authors show that dendritic remodelling in medium spiny neurons in the

Gene expression: Profiling expression in the human cortex

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 361 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3262

Author: Katherine Whalley

An understanding of how gene expression varies across different cell types and brain regions may provide insights into brain function and evolution. Zeng et al. profiled the expression of 995 genes at cellular resolution in the visual and temporal cortices of the human brain,

Depression: Biomarker discovery

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 361 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3263

Author: Katherine Whalley

The discovery of reliable biomarkers for psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD) could help to improve diagnosis and treatment. The authors used two animal models of depression to identify 26 candidate biomarker transcripts and compared their expression in human subjects with and without

Neuronal circuits: Social status defines circuits

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 361 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3264

Author: Katherine Whalley

Variations in behaviour that relate to an individual's position in a social hierarchy are likely to correspond to differences in the underlying neural circuits. Here, the authors provide evidence for this contention by showing that subordinate or dominant crayfish have divergent motor responses to unexpected

Deep molecular diversity of mammalian synapses: why it matters and how to measure it

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 365 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3170

Authors: Nancy A. O'Rourke, Nicholas C. Weiler, Kristina D. Micheva & Stephen J. Smith

Pioneering studies in the middle of the twentieth century revealed substantial diversity among mammalian chemical synapses and led to a widely accepted classification of synapse type on the basis of neurotransmitter molecule identity. Subsequently, powerful new physiological, genetic and structural methods have enabled the discovery

Insights into CNS ageing from animal models of senescence

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 435 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3230

Authors: Mark Yeoman, Greg Scutt & Richard Faragher

In recent years, novel model systems have made significant contributions to our understanding of the processes that control the ageing of whole organisms. However, there are limited data to show that the mechanisms that gerontologists have identified as having a role in organismal ageing contribute

Neurodevelopmental disorders: Reversing the fragile X phenotype

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 360 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3255

Author: Katherine Whalley

Chronic mGluR5 inhibition can reverse fragile X phenotypes in adult mice.

The pain of social disconnection: examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 421 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3231

Author: Naomi I. Eisenberger

Experiences of social rejection, exclusion or loss are generally considered to be some of the most 'painful' experiences that we endure. Indeed, many of us go to great lengths to avoid situations that may engender these experiences (such as public speaking). Why is it that

Axonal mRNA localization and local protein synthesis in nervous system assembly, maintenance and repair

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13, 445 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrn3254

Author: Hosung Jung, Byung C. Yoon & Christine E. Holt

Nature Reviews Neuroscience13, 308–324 (2012)In the acknowledgements an omission was made. It should read as follows:We apologize to the authors of papers we could not include in this Review owing to space limitations. We thank J.