Reviews & Analysis

Dyskinesia is a treatment-limiting side effect of dopaminergic replacement therapies in Parkinson's disease. Here Jenner discusses what we know about the molecular causes of dyskinesia induction and expression, highlighting recent findings that suggest that altered glutamatergic transmission might be important.

Computational neuroscience contributes to our understanding of complex diseases. Here, Rolls and colleagues review several models of schizophrenia, focusing on those that include attractor networks. They show how reduced stability of attractor networks in the prefrontal cortex might produce symptoms of schizophrenia.

The development of real-time fMRI has enabled us to watch our own brain in action 'live'. Christopher deCharms provides an overview of current and potential applications of this technique, including its use as a brain–machine interface and in learned control over brain activation.

The detection of a moving object's velocity by the visual system is thought to require several sequential computational steps. Bradley and Goyal outline current theoretical models that explain how local-velocity estimates are obtained and integrated, and consider the experimental evidence for each model.

Brain activity has been used as an intermediate phenotype that links genetic polymorphisms with cognitive (dys)function. Gray and colleagues discuss how this approach can be refined to ultimately reveal how variations in DNA can lead to changes in cognitive function.

The genetic interactions that pattern the embryonic telencephalon are highly complex. Fishell and Hébert bring clarity to these events by describing the key genetic interactions that underlie the patterning of the early telencephalon into distinct proliferative zones.

Conflicting findings from neuroimaging and patient-lesion studies have led to confusion regarding the parietal cortex's contribution to episodic memory. Cabeza and colleagues evaluate the hypotheses that have been put forward to explain these findings and discuss their attention-based hypothesis.

Many animals use their whiskers to collect information about the environment. Diamond and colleagues explain how the brain creates a neuronal representation of the location and identity of objects from sensory signals and argue that this involves integration of knowledge about the self-generated whisker motion.

Psychologists have long known that human cognition and behaviour vary across cultures. Han and Northoff review recent neuroimaging studies which show that one's cultural background also influences the neural activity that underlies cognitive functions.

When an animal moves, it must distinguish between sensory inputs caused by its own movement and those caused by another agent. Sommer and Crapse review how corollary discharge, neural signals that travel from the motor to the sensory structures, enable the coordination of movements and sensory analyses across a wide range of species.

Antidepressant treatments are often selected on a trial-and-error basis, resulting in limited average treatment efficacy. Florian Holsboer argues that combining pharmacogenetic data with biomarkers identified using genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, neuroimaging and neuroendocrinological studies might lead to personalized antidepressant medications with superior efficacy and fewer adverse effects.

As a dynamical disorder, epilepsy is an attractive target for computer modelling. Here, Lytton provides an overview of the different types of computer model that have been used to describe epilepsy and shows how they can provide new insights into the disorder.

There is mounting evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction is an early and causal event in neurodegeneration. Here, Bossy-Wetzel and colleagues discuss how aberrant mitochondrial fission and fusion can contribute to neurodegenerative disease.

Debate continues over how best to classify cortical interneurons. Standardizing the nomenclature used to describe these cells might aid classification efforts. Here, a committee of interneuron researchers propose a standardized set of terms to describe the morphological, molecular and physiological features of an interneuron.

Transgenic animal models have been instrumental for the growth of our knowledge about neurodegenerative diseases. Götz and Ittner review what we have learned from the study of mouse, fly and worm models of Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.

The past decade has seen an increasing interest in the mechanisms by which the human brain decides what actions to take. Here, Rangel and colleagues provide a framework for the exploration of the neurobiological and computational basis of value-based decision making.

A growing field of neuroscience aims to understand how immune responses can promote CNS repair. Popovich and Longbrake discuss current approaches to manipulate neuroimmune interactions and give their opinion on the challenges ahead.

Fowler and colleagues review the pathways and neurotransmitters in the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system that regulate the lower urinary tract, and discuss how disruption of the control of micturition leads to incontinence.

Mammals have evolved a complex set of mechanisms that maintain extracellular fluid osmolality within a narrow range to preserve cellular function. Bourque uncovers the sensory mechanisms, central pathways and peripheral responses that comprise the mammalian osmoregulatory system.

Polymorphisms in the genes that encode neuregulin 1 (NRG1) and its receptor ErbB4 have been associated with schizophrenia. Mei and Xiong review the role of NRG1 signalling in neural development and synaptic plasticity and discuss how alterations in NRG1 signalling might contribute to schizophrenia.