Synaptic transmission articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    Accumulation of prion protein during prion replication causes persistent translational repression of global protein synthesis, which is mediated by eIF2α-P and is associated with synaptic failure and neuronal loss in prion-diseased mice; promoting translational recovery in hippocampi of prion-infected mice is neuroprotective.

    • Julie A. Moreno
    • , Helois Radford
    •  & Giovanna R. Mallucci

  • Letter |

    It has been proposed that, during development, clonally related neurons migrate along the same radial glial fibre to form clusters of functionally similar cells; here, sister neurons in the same radial clone are shown to have similar orientation preferences in mice, providing support for this hypothesis.

    • Ye Li
    • , Hui Lu
    •  & Yang Dan

  • Letter |

    Altered glutamatergic neurotransmission can lead to the core symptoms of autism, and ProSAP1/Shank2 and ProSAP2/Shank3 proteins seem to serve different interrelated functions at excitatory synapses, especially in glutamate receptor targeting/assembly.

    • Michael J. Schmeisser
    • , Elodie Ey
    •  & Tobias M. Boeckers

  • Letter |

    The X-ray crystal structure of the M3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor bound to the bronchodilator drug tiotropium is reported; comparison of this structure with that of the M2 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor reveals key differences that could potentially be exploited to develop subtype-selective drugs.

    • Andrew C. Kruse
    • , Jianxin Hu
    •  & Brian K. Kobilka

  • News |

    Researchers home in on structures that help the brain avoid faulty recall.

    • David Cyranoski

  • News & Views |

    The placenta does not only act as the essential link between the developing embryo and its mother. Unexpectedly, it is also a source of serotonin — a neurotransmitter that is crucial for embryonic brain development. See Letter p.347

    • Ron McKay

  • Article |

    To date, various aspects of connectivity have been inferred from electron microscopy (EM) of synaptic contacts, light microscopy of axonal and dendritic arbors, and correlations in activity. However, until now it has not been possible to relate the complex structural wiring between neurons to the function of individual cells. Using a combination of functional imaging and three-dimensional serial EM reconstruction at unprecedented scale, two papers now describe the connectivity of single cells in the mouse visual system. This study investigates the connectivity of inhibitory interneurons in primary visual cortex.

    • Davi D. Bock
    • , Wei-Chung Allen Lee
    •  & R. Clay Reid

  • Article |

    To date, various aspects of connectivity have been inferred from electron microscopy (EM) of synaptic contacts, light microscopy of axonal and dendritic arbors, and correlations in activity. However, until now it has not been possible to relate the complex structural wiring between neurons to the function of individual cells. Using a combination of functional imaging and three-dimensional serial EM reconstruction at unprecedented scale, two papers now describe the connectivity of single cells in the mouse visual system. This study examines how the selectivity of directionally selective retinal ganglion cells may arise from their asymmetry in the wiring with amacrine cells.

    • Kevin L. Briggman
    • , Moritz Helmstaedter
    •  & Winfried Denk

  • Letter |

    Place cells in the hippocampus track an animal's position as it travels through space. Previous work contends that sequential place cell maps are produced upon the initial navigation of a new area and subsequently consolidated at rest or during sleep. Here, place-cell firing patterns during rest or sleep are observed before a novel spatial experience, a phenomenon termed 'preplay'. These sequences were separate from the replay of pervious experience and suggest that internal dynamics during rest may organize cell assemblies to be ready for any novel encoding that may occur in the immediate future.

    • George Dragoi
    •  & Susumu Tonegawa

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    Neuronal networks in the brain that develop early in life underlie our ability to learn, remember and communicate. Genetic defects that perturb the fine-tuning of such neuronal connectivity can cause disease.

    • Peter Scheiffele
    •  & Asim A. Beg

  • Article |

    Humans and animals readily learn to associate neutral cues paired with rewards, but the exact role that dopamine release has in this learning is controversial. Using previously established rat strains selectively bred for many generations to have greater or lesser propensity to assign value to learned cues, this study uses cyclic voltammetry to measure dopamine signals in the different strains and also examines the effect of blocking dopamine. It is concluded that dopamine selectively mediates motivational, rather than predictive, aspects of the cues.

    • Shelly B. Flagel
    • , Jeremy J. Clark
    •  & Huda Akil

  • Introduction |

    • Tanguy Chouard
    •  & Noah Gray

  • News & Views |

    In both fruitflies and vertebrates, signals from photoreceptor cells are immediately split into two opposing channels in the downstream neurons. This might facilitate the computation of visual motion. See Letter p.300

    • Chi -Hon Lee

  • News & Views |

    Once a blood vessel supplying the brain has been blocked, the opportunity to prevent brain damage is fleeting. An alternative strategy might be to guide the damaged area onto the path to recovery. See Letter p.305

    • Kevin Staley

  • Article |

    Mutations in the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) gene cause Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder with features of autism. Multiple mouse models of MeCP2 have been generated, but show only a subset of the symptoms of Rett syndrome. These authors find that mice with selective deletion of MeCP2 in GABA-mediated neurons show not only impaired GABA-mediated function, but capitulate multiple key features of Rett, further suggesting a role of inhibitory function in neuropsychiatric disease.

    • Hsiao-Tuan Chao
    • , Hongmei Chen
    •  & Huda Y. Zoghbi

  • News & Views |

    Coat proteins of vesicles involved in intracellular membrane trafficking have closely related molecular architectures. The structure of COPI extends known similarities, and strengthens the case for a common evolutionary origin.

    • Stephen C. Harrison
    •  & Tomas Kirchhausen

  • Article |

    The appropriate initiation and termination of behavioural action sequences is imperative, but the neural mechanisms underlying the learning and execution of fixed behavioural patterns are poorly understood. Here the authors reveal start/stop neuronal activity in basal ganglia circuits that emerge during task training in mice. Genetically altering these circuits disrupted the activity and impaired performance, providing evidence for a causal relationship between the specific neuronal activity and task learning.

    • Xin Jin
    •  & Rui M. Costa

  • News & Views |

    The neocortex of the mammalian brain mediates functions such as sensory perception and ultimately consciousness and language. The spread of local signals across large distances in this brain region has now been clarified.

    • Dirk Feldmeyer

  • News & Views |

    A neuron can receive thousands of inputs that, together, tell it when to fire. New techniques can image the activity of many inputs, and shed light on how single neurons perform computations in response.

    • Nicholas J. Priebe
    •  & David Ferster

  • Letter |

    The involvement of astroglia in long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission remains controversial. Clamping internal Ca2+ in individual astrocytes in the CA1 area of the hippocampus is now shown to block LTP induction at nearby excitatory synapses through an effect on the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor. This LTP blockade can be reversed by exogenous D-serine, normally released in a Ca2+-dependent manner from astrocytes.

    • Christian Henneberger
    • , Thomas Papouin
    •  & Dmitri A. Rusakov

  • News & Views |

    Memory formation is known to occur at the level of synaptic contacts between neurons. It therefore comes as a surprise that another type of brain cell, the astrocyte, is also involved in establishing memory.

    • Mirko Santello
    •  & Andrea Volterra

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