Volume 24 Issue 12, December 2021

Using a deep neural network, Frey et al. are able to track participants’ eye movements using functional magnetic resonance imaging of the eyes. This technique can be applied across studies to new and old data alike, allowing retrospective analyses of past studies.

Describing cognitive processes without reference to their neural underpinnings has led to conceptualizations that do not match how the brain functions. A data-driven re-examination of the neuroimaging literature reveals an alternate conceptual framework combining mind and brain that disrupts current neuroscientific thought.

The death of George Floyd in 2020 sparked intense emotion, and increased recognition of the need to take active measures in matters of race within science and academia. This piece considers the field’s immediate actions with regard to Black representation at neuroscience conferences, and whether we are rising to the occasion in an area under our control.

This Review discusses evidence from human studies and mouse models that cortical interneurons are involved in the pathophysiology of autism and that parvalbumin cell hypofunction may be a primary driver of circuit dysfunction in autism.

GnRH neurons control their own connectivity and function as well as the sexual maturation of the individual by using prostaglandin D₂ DP1 signaling to recruit and stably associate with newborn astrocytes in the preoptic region during infancy in rodents.

By comparing human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived spinal and ocular motor neurons, the authors identify low levels of a natural 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) spinal motor neurons. Functional analogs of 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors can ameliorate in vitro and in vivo ALS phenotypes.

Zhang et al. show that astrocytes develop responses to fear-conditioned auditory stimuli mediated by α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and that astrocytic α7-nAChRs in the auditory cortex are required for memory persistence and retrieval.

Despite their discovery in the 19th century, the islands of Calleja, clusters of densely packed granule cells in the ventral striatum, remain enigmatic. This study reveals that islands of Calleja neurons are critical for grooming control in mice.

The authors show that retinotopically organized feedback from the primary visual cortex sharpens receptive fields and contributes to surround suppression in mouse visual thalamus, probably by recruiting inhibition through the thalamic reticular nucleus.

The authors detail principles underlying the innervation of spinal and striatal circuits by populations of corticospinal neurons, and characterize the behavioral information broadcast through this motor control network.

Beam et al. created a data-driven mapping of human brain function, drawing on full texts and coordinate data reported in neuroimaging studies. This validated framework outperformed leading and widely used knowledge frameworks, namely Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

The authors profile interneuron origin and molecular diversity in the human fetal brain by single-cell RNA sequencing and in situ sequencing and reveal the logic and complexity of specification of diverse interneurons in humans.

The authors generated a cell census of mouse nucleus accumbens using single-cell RNA sequencing and multiplexed error-robust FISH. These data suggest that transcriptional and spatial diversity of neuron subtypes underlies nucleus accumbens anatomic and functional heterogeneity.

Viewing behavior is a key variable of interest but also a confound in fMRI studies. This paper presents a deep learning framework to decode gaze position from the magnetic resonance signal of the eyeballs, which enables eye tracking in fMRI data without a camera.