An activity-regulated transcriptional program directly drives synaptogenesis

by Clinical Neuropsychologist | Monday, August 5, 2024 | Neuroscience

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 05 August 2024; doi:10.1038/s41593-024-01728-xNeuronal activity contributes to synapse formation and plasticity. Here the authors demonstrate that activity stimulates developmental programs to directly modulate synapse formation....

A GnRH neuronal population in the olfactory bulb translates socially relevant odors into reproductive behavior in male mice

by Clinical Neuropsychologist | Friday, August 2, 2024 | Neuroscience

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 02 August 2024; doi:10.1038/s41593-024-01724-1Studying GnRH neuroendocrine cells in the mouse olfactory bulb (GnRHOB neurons), Decoster et al. show that these cells respond to female odors and their activation regulates males’...

Centering cognitive neuroscience on task demands and generalization

by Clinical Neuropsychologist | Monday, July 29, 2024 | Neuroscience

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 29 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41593-024-01711-6Task demands are a primary determiner of behavior and neurophysiology. Here the authors discuss how understanding their influence through multitask studies and tests of generalization...

Population-level coding of avoidance learning in medial prefrontal cortex

by Clinical Neuropsychologist | Monday, July 29, 2024 | Neuroscience

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 29 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41593-024-01704-5Ehret et al. uncover neural activity patterns in the prefrontal cortex that link sensory stimuli to learned behavioral responses by isolating interpretable activity patterns that are...

Explaining dopamine through prediction errors and beyond

by Clinical Neuropsychologist | Thursday, July 25, 2024 | Neuroscience

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 25 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41593-024-01705-4The hypothesis that dopamine reports reward prediction errors has been both influential and controversial. This Perspective characterizes the present state of evidence, indicating where...

Endoplasmic Reticulum and Mitochondrial Calcium Handling Dynamically Shape Slow Afterhyperpolarizations in Vasopressin Magnocellular Neurons

by Clinical Neuropsychologist | Thursday, July 25, 2024 | Neuroscience

Many neurons including vasopressin (VP) magnocellular neurosecretory cells (MNCs) of the hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus (SON) generate afterhyperpolarizations (AHPs) during spiking to slow firing, a phenomenon known as spike frequency adaptation. The AHP is underlain...