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A sufficient number of microglia must be present during postnatal development to ensure normal long-range connectivity and social behaviour in adulthood.
In mice, behavioural training is effective at attenuating old fear memories in mice if these memories are epigenetically 'primed' after recall by treatment with a histone deacetylase inhibitor.
The membrane lipid arachidonic acid is released from the postsynaptic neuron and can potentiate synaptic transmission by inhibiting presynaptic voltage-gated potassium channels.
A new study shows that responsiveness of theCaenorhabditis elegansASH avoidance circuit to aversive stimuli is reduced during sleep and reveals that re-establishment of synchrony between interneurons in this circuit is crucial for rapid reversal to wakefulness.
Fear extinction induces a shift in the balance of activity between 'fear neurons' and 'extinction neurons' in the basal amygdala, which project to prelimbic and infralimbic portions of the medial prefrontal cortex, respectively.
In neurons, gephyrin self-assembles into a protein scaffold that interacts with the cytoskeleton and anchors glycine and type A GABA receptors at postsynaptic sites. Tyagarajan and Fritschy review the formation and regulation of these scaffolds and how they in turn regulate inhibitory synapse formation and function.
Memories are thought to be represented in the brain by the 'memory trace' — altered levels of activity in specific neurons and synapses in a neural network. In this Review, Silva and colleagues discuss emerging evidence that the neurons and synapses involved in encoding a particular memory are not random but are specifically 'allocated' based on complex molecular signatures that are determined by the recent activity history of the neuron.
This Review examines recent studies showing that music modulates activity in core brain structures involved in the processing of emotion. The ability of music to change activity in these structures has implications for the development of music therapies in the treatment of various neurological and psychiatric disorders.
In this Perspective, Seeburg and colleagues re-examine the role of the hippocampus in spatial learning in light of recent findings. They also suggest that the hippocampus has a role in resolving conflict or uncertainty that might also explain its role in anxiety.
Left-handers are often excluded from neuroscience and neurogenetics studies in order to reduce variance in the data. In this Perspective, Willemset al. discuss the potential of studying this substantial but often-ignored portion of the population.
