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The primary treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy is surgical removal of brain regions causing seizures, but outcomes are poor because there is no biomarker of epileptogenicity. Li and colleagues developed an EEG marker, neural fragility, that pinpoints brain regions likely to cause seizures. The cover art illustrates fragile (orange) epileptogenic neurons on the chalice triggering a seizure, represented by flames and smoke, resulting in a hyperactive EEG (light blue traces).
Placental allopregnanolone affects oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination in the developing cerebellum. Male mice deprived of allopregnanolone in utero show impaired sociability and communication in later life; their female littermates are unaffected. Allopregnanolone replacement restores normal myelination and behavior.
Visually guided behavior begins with inputs to sensory cortices, but the decision to initiate actions engages the frontal cortex. A new study dissects a microcircuit for visual-to-motor transformation in the anterior cingulate cortex of the mouse with implications for impulsivity and disease states.
In this Perspective, Tononi and colleagues argue that while knowledge of elementary mechanisms is enough to predict everything about the dynamics of a system, only the analysis of causal structures can provide a coherent account of ‘what caused what’.
Multiphoton holographic optogenetics is opening the era of ‘tailored’ optogenetics. The authors review the underlying technology and discuss how it can be used to bridge the gap between experimental and theoretical neuroscience.
This paper identified >500 genetic loci associated with behaviors and disorders related to self-regulation, including addiction and child behavior problems. The resulting genetic risk scores predict several behavioral, medical and social outcomes.
Using a human forebrain organoid model of fragile X syndrome, Kang et al. reveal a critical role of FMRP in human brain development and identify a large number of human-specific mRNAs that could be regulated by FMRP.
Placental dysfunction has been implicated in abnormal neurodevelopment. Vacher et al. found that loss of a neuroactive hormone from the placenta alters brain development in a regional and sex-linked manner, resulting in autism-like behaviors in male offspring.
Al-Hasani, Gowrishankar et al. show that long-range GABAergic projections from the ventral tegmental area to the ventral nucleus accumbens shell inhibit cholinergic activity to promote reward reinforcement.
Ma et al. show that the PVT biases the selection of passive and active defensive behaviors via mostly segregated projections to the CeA and the NAc. Their results update current views on the role of the midline thalamus in fear-related behaviors.
Goltstein et al. investigate the role of mouse visual cortical areas in information-integration category learning. They report widespread changes in neuronal response properties, most prominently in a higher visual area, the postrhinal cortex.
Kim et al. found that visual inputs trigger gated feedforward inhibition of ACC neurons, which disinhibits striatal motor neurons and initiates precise responses in mice performing a visual Go/No-go task.
Li et al. develop neural fragility, a networked dynamic system biomarker, for localizing seizures in patients with epilepsy and find that it is more robust compared to traditional features that clinicians and researchers look at in a 91-patient study.
Using single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, Hasel et al. uncover complex reactive astrocyte subtypes that occupy distinct areas of the brain. They find two super-responders expressing unique genes in strategic locations in the brain.
This paper explores neural network and cellular complexity within human cortical and subcortical fusion organoids. The platform is used to model network dysfunction associated with Rett syndrome and to identify new therapeutic candidates.