Neuronal physiology articles within Nature

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  • News & Views |

    Piezo proteins have been shown to form large ion channels that serve a sensory function in fruitflies. The findings help to explain how Piezos convert mechanical force into biological signals. See Article p.176 & Letter p.209

    • Philip A. Gottlieb
    •  & Frederick Sachs

  • News & Views Forum |

    Purkinje cells in the brain region known as the cerebellum act by inhibiting their target neurons. A paper in this issue provides an explanation for how this inhibition might be used to control the timing of action potentials. But experts are not equally convinced about the functional relevance of this finding. See Letter p.502

    • Javier F. Medina
    •  & Kamran Khodakhah

  • Letter |

    The function of the KCNH family of potassium channels is critical for the repolarization of the cardiac action potential and the regulation of neuronal excitability; here, the X-ray crystal structure of the cyclic-nuclotide-binding homology domain of the zebrafish ELK channel is reported.

    • Tinatin I. Brelidze
    • , Anne E. Carlson
    •  & William N. Zagotta

  • Article |

    Optogenetic stimulation in the zebrafish olfactory bulb and downstream read out of activity in the homologue of olfactory cortex demonstrate how temporal filtering can extract specific components of neuronal codes.

    • Francisca Blumhagen
    • , Peixin Zhu
    •  & Rainer W. Friedrich

  • News & Views |

    Sodium channels in cell membranes have a crucial role in triggering bioelectrical events that lead to processes such as muscle contraction or hormone release. A crystal structure reveals how one such channel might work. See Article p.353

    • Richard Horn

  • News & Views |

    To understand the brain, the thousands of synaptic connections made by each of billions of neurons should be mapped and related to neuronal function. First steps towards this formidable goal are now reported. See Articles p.177 & p.183

    • H. Sebastian Seung

  • Letter |

    It has recently been shown that neurons in the lateral habenula (LHb), a nucleus that projects to midbrain reward areas, can signal aversive outcomes and may be disrupted in depressive disorders. This study now shows that in rats exhibiting learned helplessness (a model of major depression) excitatory synapses onto LHb neurons are potentiated, and that this correlates with helplessness behaviour. Furthermore, depleting transmitter release by repeated electrical stimulation of LHb using a protocol similar to deep brain stimulation rescues both synaptic changes and learned helplessness behaviour.

    • Bo Li
    • , Joaquin Piriz
    •  & Roberto Malinow

  • Letter |

    In the retina, highly selective wiring from inhibitory cells contributes to determine the direction-selection characteristics of an individual ganglion cell, yet how the asymmetric wiring inherent to these connections is established was unknown. Here, two independent studies using complementary techniques, including pharmacology, electrophysiology and optogenetics, find that although inhibitory inputs to both sides of the direction-selective cell are uniform early in development, by the second postnatal week, inhibitory synapses on the null side strengthen whereas those on the preferred side remain constant. These plasticity changes occur independent of neural activity, indicating that a specific developmental program is executed to produce the direction-selective circuitry in the retina.

    • Keisuke Yonehara
    • , Kamill Balint
    •  & Botond Roska

  • Letter |

    In the retina, highly selective wiring from inhibitory cells contributes to determine the direction-selection characteristics of an individual ganglion cell, yet how the asymmetric wiring inherent to these connections is established was unknown. Here, two independent studies using complementary techniques, including pharmacology, electrophysiology and optogenetics, find that although inhibitory inputs to both sides of the direction-selective cell are uniform early in development, by the second postnatal week, inhibitory synapses on the null side strengthen whereas those on the preferred side remain constant. These plasticity changes occur independent of neural activity, indicating that a specific developmental program is executed to produce the direction-selective circuitry in the retina.

    • Wei Wei
    • , Aaron M. Hamby
    •  & Marla B. Feller

  • Letter |

    Ramón y Cajal, the founding father of neuroscience, observed similarities between the vertebrate retina and the insect eye, but that was based purely on anatomy. Using state-of-the-art genetics and electrophysiology in the fruitfly, these authors distinguish motion-sensitive neurons responding to abrupt increases in light from those specific to light decrements, thus bringing the similarity with vertebrate circuitry to the functional level.

    • Maximilian Joesch
    • , Bettina Schnell
    •  & Alexander Borst

  • News & Views |

    The organization of behaviour as sequences of actions requires proper initiation and termination of each action sequence. The neural circuit that signals instructions to start and stop is now revealed.

    • Paolo Calabresi
    •  & Massimiliano Di Filippo

  • Letter |

    Here the authors show that in non-excitable LNCaP prostate cancer cells, the large-conductance, voltage- and calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel can be activated at negative voltages without rises in intracellular Ca2+ concentration, by interacting with an auxiliary protein, the leucine-rich repeat containing protein 26. This auxiliary protein modulates BK channel gating by enhancing the allosteric coupling between voltage-sensor activation and the channel's closed–open transition.

    • Jiusheng Yan
    •  & Richard W. Aldrich

  • News & Views |

    Neurons generate their output signal — the action potential — in a distinct region of the axon called the initial segment. The location and extent of this trigger zone can be modified by neural activity to control excitability.

    • Jan Gründemann
    •  & Michael Häusser

  • Letter |

    Large-conductance Ca2+-gated K+ (BK) channels are essential for many biological processes, such as smooth muscle contraction and neurotransmitter release. Here, the X-ray crystal structure is presented of the entire cytoplasmic region of the human BK channel in a Ca2+-free state. Moreover, a voltage-gated K+ channel pore of known structure is 'docked' onto the gating ring to generate a structural model for the full BK channel.

    • Yunkun Wu
    • , Yi Yang
    •  & Youxing Jiang

  • Letter |

    A nerve cell sends signals to others through action potentials, which begin at the 'initial segment' of the neuron's axon. It is now shown that changes in electrical activity can alter the position of this initial segment in cultured rat hippocampal neurons. The resulting increase in intrinsic excitability — the tendency to fire action potentials — represents a new form of neuronal plasticity and could provide a new target in the control of epilepsy.

    • Matthew S. Grubb
    •  & Juan Burrone

  • Letter |

    Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals are the basis for much of the work on which regions of the human brain are active during particular tasks or behaviours, but there is controversy over their source and interpretation. Here a combination of optogenetics and BOLD signal monitoring shows that specific excitatory neurons within a mixed population are sufficient to produce positive BOLD signals, and could be used to map connections.

    • Jin Hyung Lee
    • , Remy Durand
    •  & Karl Deisseroth

  • Article |

    A common anatomical feature of the sensory cortex in many species is that neurons with similar features cluster into vertically orientated domains spanning all layers of the cortex. Moreover, neurons in one domain modulate neurons in neighbouring domains through horizontal connections. A combination of techniques has now been used to show that such horizontal projections suppress layers of cortex devoted to processing inputs, but facilitate layers devoted to outputs.

    • Hillel Adesnik
    •  & Massimo Scanziani

  • Article |

    The brain is apt to sort sensory stimuli into discrete perceptual categories, but the neuronal activity behind this capability has been unclear. Here, the problem has been investigated by presenting zebrafish with different concentrations or types of odours. The results show that the activity of neuronal populations in the olfactory bulb is largely insensitive to changes in odour concentration, but that morphing one odour into another produces abrupt transitions between odour representations.

    • Jörn Niessing
    •  & Rainer W. Friedrich

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