Nature Neuroscience

doi: 10.1038/nn1201-1151pmid: 11723453

Plomin, Robert; Kosslyn, Stephen M.

doi: 10.1038/nn1201-1153pmid: 11723454

By making maps of the differences in cortical gray matter volume between twins, Thompson et al. describe which brain regions are strongly determined by genetic factors; they further investigate how these brain differences correlate with measures of cognitive performance.

Murthy, Venkatesh N.

doi: 10.1038/nn1201-1155pmid: 11723455

Fluorescent synapsins were used to study the dissociation–reassociation cycle of this synaptic vesicle protein in situ, and how this process relates to regulation of exocytosis.

Zador, Anthony M.

doi: 10.1038/nn1201-1157pmid: 11723456

A new study finds two classes of synapses between layer 2/3 neurons in auditory cortex, and suggests they may be involved in processing transient versus sustained acoustic stimuli

Wagner, Anthony D.

doi: 10.1038/nn1201-1159pmid: 11723457

Recordings from the human medial temporal lobe suggest that synchronization of oscillations between rhinal cortex and hippocampus may contribute to building declarative memories.

Roskies, Adina L.

doi: 10.1038/nn1201-1161pmid: N/A

Haruta, Masatoshi; Kosaka, Mitsuko; Kanegae, Yumi; Saito, Izumu; Inoue, Tomoyuki; Kageyama, Ryoichiro; Nishida, Akihiro; Honda, Yoshihito; Takahashi, Masayo

doi: 10.1038/nn762pmid: 11704762

We show that iris tissue in the adult rat eye, which is embryonically related to the neural retina, can generate cells expressing differentiated neuronal antigens. In addition, the Crx gene transfer induced the specific antigens for rod photoreceptors in the iris-derived cells, which was not seen in the adult hippocampus-derived neural stem cells. Our findings demonstrate a remarkable plasticity of adult iris tissue with potential clinical applications, as autologous iris tissue can be feasibly obtained with peripheral iridectomy.

Gooley, Joshua J.; Lu, Jun; Chou, Thomas C.; Scammell, Thomas E.; Saper, Clifford B.

doi: 10.1038/nn768pmid: 11713469

All known eukaryotic organisms exhibit physiological and behavioral rhythms termed circadian rhythms that cycle with a near-24-hour period; in mammals, light is the most potent stimulus for entraining endogenous rhythms to the daily light cycle. Photic information is transmitted via the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT) to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus, where circadian rhythms are generated, but the retinal photopigment that mediates circadian entrainment has remained elusive. Here we show that most retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) that project to the SCN express the photopigment melanopsin.

Anderson, John C.; Martin, Kevan A. C.

doi: 10.1038/nn772pmid: 11713473

The total length of cortical axons could be reduced if the parent axons maintained straight trajectories and simply connected to dendritic shafts via spine-like terminaux boutons and to dendritic spines via bead-like en passant boutons. Cortical axons from cat area 17 were reconstructed from serial electron micrographs and their bouton morphology was correlated with their synaptic targets. En passant or terminaux boutons did not differ in the proportion of synapses they formed with dendritic spines and shafts, and thus, the two morphological variants of synaptic bouton do not contribute directly to optimizing axon length.

Zella, J. Curtis; Brugge, John F.; Schnupp, Jan W. H.

doi: 10.1038/nn773pmid: 11713474

The superior colliculus (SC) is thought to use a set of superimposed, topographically organized neural maps of visual, auditory, somatosensory and motor space to direct the eyes toward novel stimuli 1,2 . Auditory spatial response fields (SRFs) of SC neurons may change when an animal moves its eyes, presumably to compensate for the resulting misalignment of visual and auditory sensory spatial reference frames 3,4,5,6 , but the mechanisms responsible for these SRF changes remain unknown. Here we report that passive deviation of the eye in anesthetized, paralyzed animals can profoundly affect the auditory responsiveness of SC neurons, but seems insufficient by itself to provide adaptive shifts of auditory SRFs.