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This paper shows that maternal immune activation in mice induces changes in the mRNA translation machinery in the fetal brain and activates the integrated stress response in male fetuses, which mediates neurobehavioral abnormalities.
Overexpression of complement C4A is associated with schizophrenia risk. Using a novel mouse model, Yilmaz et al. find that increased expression of C4A leads to abnormal synaptic pruning and behavior, suggesting its importance as a therapeutic target.
Neurons are generated throughout life in the mammalian hippocampus. Bottes et al. used intravital imaging and comparative single-cell transcriptomics to identify long-term self-renewing neural stem cells in the adult mouse hippocampus.
Poulter et al. report on vector trace cells (VTCs) in the hippocampal subiculum. VTCs support vector coding for previously encountered, now absent, objects and boundaries, potentially facilitating navigation to remembered goals.
Efficient repair of demyelinated CNS lesions involves the resolution of inflammation and induction of remyelination. Berghoff et al. show that sterol synthesis in microglia is key to both processes, which can be supported by squalene therapy.
A transcriptome-wide characterization of the molecular pathology of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) postmortem brains provides a comprehensive resource for mechanistic insight and therapeutic development.
Rhea at al. show that intravenously injected, radiolabeled SARS-CoV-2 spike 1 protein crosses the mouse blood–brain barrier, likely through the mechanism of adsorptive transcytosis and is also taken up by peripheral tissues.
Merlini, Rafalski et al. show that dynamic microglial brain surveillance prevents hyperexcitability and seizures by Gi-dependent microglia–neuron interactions in response to evoked neuronal activity to maintain physiological network synchronization.
Mederos et al. show that GABAB receptor signaling in astrocytes regulates prefrontal cortex activity to impact goal-directed behaviors. Thus, the coordinated activity of GABAergic neurons and astrocytes helps decision-making.
Imaging and transcriptomic approaches to investigate mouse enteric nervous system diversity and development reveal a new classification of intestinal myenteric neurons and a novel principle of neuronal diversification by postmitotic transitions.
By analyzing computational models and neural data from the primate prefrontal cortex, the authors show that inhibitory-to-inhibitory signaling is critical for the stable temporal dynamics required for performing working memory tasks.
Schwaller et al. show that the USH2A protein, present in Meissner’s corpuscles, is necessary in humans and mice to perceive tiny vibrations. USH2A may facilitate force transfer to mechanoreceptors as the fingertip probes rough surfaces.
Jin et al. discover the accumulation of natural killer (NK) cells in the aged brains of humans and mice. Neuroblast senescence in the dentate gyrus augments NK cell cytotoxicity that impairs neurogenesis and cognition during normal brain aging.
The authors demonstrate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the nasopharynx and brain, suggesting that the virus is present in the CNS and may enter through the olfactory mucosa, exploiting the close vicinity of olfactory mucosal, endothelial and nervous tissue.
When people are isolated, they crave social interactions. Midbrain craving regions were activated by food in hungry people, and by social interactions in people mandated to be isolated.
Cooler and Schwartz describe a retinal ganglion cell type with receptive field properties generated by asymmetric morphology and an electrical connection, via gap junctions, to a different type of retinal ganglion cell.
Pacheco et al. present new methods for the unbiased recording and cataloging of sensory activity throughout the Drosophila brain and across trials and individuals. They find auditory activity is temporally diverse but present in neurons throughout nearly all central brain regions.
Ong et al. analyzed behavior, gaze patterns and neuronal activity of monkeys playing the game ‘chicken’. Monkeys seemed to develop models of the behavior of the partner, and neurons in the mSTS and the ACCg signaled strategic information to guide their decisions.
A method for parameterizing electrophysiological neural power spectra into periodic and aperiodic components is introduced, addressing limitations of common approaches. The method is validated in simulation and demonstrated on real data applications.
Chun et al. find that a severe model of reactive astrocytes overproduces hydrogen peroxide, leading to the development of Alzheimer’s disease-like pathologies, including neurodegeneration, tauopathy and memory impairment.