Review Articles in 2020

There have been a number of recent advances in the use of transplanted cells to enable functional recovery in animal models of spinal cord injury. Fischer and colleagues review this work and describe the use of neural progenitor cell transplants to restore connectivity in key neural systems following spinal damage.

Historically, preclinical pain research has been dominated by studies in male subjects. Jeffrey Mogil describes recent trends towards the inclusion of male and female subjects in research and the subsequent identification of qualitative sex differences in the mechanisms of pain processing.

Models of dendrites have been instrumental in our understanding of their functions. Poirazi and Papoutsi review the major contributions of dendritic models, including those already proved or waiting to be experimentally verified, and highlight successful interactions between the modelling and experimental neuroscience communities.

Syllables play a central role in speech production and perception. In this Review, Poeppel and Assaneo outline how a simple biophysical model of the speech production system as an oscillator explains the remarkably stable rhythmic structure of spoken language.

Early processing in subcortical areas has been underemphasized in models of how perception and cognition are altered in psychiatric disorders. Here, McFadyen and colleagues review recent discoveries in how subcortical–cortical dynamics contribute to perception and higher-order cognition.

The lateral habenula (LHb) has received increasing attention in part because dysfunction of this region may play a part in several psychiatric disorders, notably depression. In this Review, Hu et al. examine the neural circuits, physiological functions and potential pathophysiological roles of the LHb.

Compulsion is a key symptom of drug addiction. In this Review, Lüscher, Robbins and Everitt integrate the neural and psychological mechanisms that underlie the transition to compulsion within a learning theory framework, highlighting the distinctions between compulsive drug taking and compulsive drug seeking.

Learning the value of stimuli and actions from others — social learning — is crucial for survival. In this review, Olsson, Knapska and Lindström discuss the neural and computational systems underlying social and self-experienced learning, and integrate this knowledge with behavioural phenomena of varying complexity.

Voltage-gated calcium channels have an essential role in the regulation of neurotransmitter release. Dolphin and Lee describe here how advances in the techniques available to study presynaptic voltage-gated calcium channels have provided insight into their composition, trafficking, regulation and contributions to presynaptic function.

In recent decades, our understanding of the molecules and pathways involved in the classical axon degeneration pathway, Wallerian degeneration, has been transformed. Coleman and Höke synthesize the recent developments in the field and discuss how the findings might be translated to aid the treatment of human disease.

Interactions between immune cells and neurons are now widely believed to be important for the regulation of brain function. In their Review, Greenhalgh, David and Bennett highlight the importance of interactions between resident and infiltrating immune cells and the brain’s other major cellular population — glial cells — for brain function.

The dentate gyrus has an important role in memory formation in the hippocampus. In this Review, Thomas Hainmueller and Marlene Bartos examine the cells and circuits of the dentate gyrus, and discuss the evidence indicating that this brain region has multiple mnemonic functions.

Much progress has been made in understanding astrocytes, but details on their functions and interactions remain difficult to determine. Yu, Nagai and Khakh give an overview of recent advances in the toolbox for molecular, genetic, morphological and physiological investigations into astrocytes.

Cell-extrinsic changes in the systemic environment, transported to the site of action by the blood, have recently been shown to contribute to brain ageing. In this Review, Pluvinage and Wyss-Coray discuss how circulating molecules in the blood modulate brain function in health, ageing and disease.

Changes in cortical gain enable neurons to respond adaptively to changing inputs. In this Review, Ferguson and Cardin describe the mechanisms that modulate cortical gain, and its effects on and relevance for cognition and behaviour.

There has been considerable interest in cell-replacement strategies for the treatment of Parkinson disease. In this Review, Parmar, Grealish and Henchcliffe highlight some of the key developments in this field, with a focus on therapies based on dopamine neurons derived from human pluripotent stem cells.

Tissue-clearing methods are now allowing 3D imaging of intact tissues and some entire mammals. In this Review, Ueda and colleagues discuss the various tissue-clearing methods, related techniques and data analysis and management, as well as the application of these methods in neuroscience.