Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Knoch, Daria; Wyss, Annika M.

doi: 10.1038/s41583-026-01026-4pmid: 41566032

Climate change is driven by individual behaviour, yet little is known about how people make environmental choices. Environmental decision neuroscience examines the neural processes behind consequential climate-relevant decisions, and has revealed three core mechanisms that are beginning to crystallize as central to sustainable action.

Rogers, Jake

doi: 10.1038/s41583-025-01018-wpmid: 41491218

To flexibly perform multiple tasks, non-human primates compose appropriate behavioural responses by sharing subspaces of neural activity from which representations of task-related sensory, motor and cognitive information can be reused.

Lewis, Sian

doi: 10.1038/s41583-025-01019-9pmid: 41495463

A single dose of psilocybin is shown here to induce neural plasticity in specific large-scale networks in the mouse.

Yates, Darran

doi: 10.1038/s41583-025-01020-2pmid: 41491217

A new study shows that two variants of apolipoprotein E that offer some protection against Alzheimer disease extract oxidized phospholipids from neurons via the ABCA7 transporter, supporting neuronal function.

Whalley, Katherine

doi: 10.1038/s41583-025-01017-xpmid: 41402625

Examination of human brain tissue infiltrated by gliomas of different clinical grades indicates that heightened neuron–glioma synapse activity drives increased proliferation in high-grade gliomas.

Lewis, Sian

doi: 10.1038/s41583-025-01013-1pmid: 41381721

Across the animal kingdom, those who are sick self isolate. Here, this behaviour is shown — in mice — to be driven by systemic IL-1β release and mediated by an IL-1R1-expressing subpopulation of neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus.

Boender, Arjen J.

doi: 10.1038/s41583-026-01022-8pmid: 41545674

In this Journal Club, Arjen Boender describes a 2017 study that showed that diffusible peptidergic signals coordinate behaviour in Trichoplax adhaerens, a tiny marine animal that lacks a nervous system.

Ye, Lihua

doi: 10.1038/s41583-026-01023-7pmid: 41578134

In this Journal Club, Lihua Ye highlights a 2016 paper that characterized the vagal sensory neuron subtypes that transmit different sensory signals from the digestive tract, advancing our understanding of gut–brain communication.

van Weperen, Valerie Y. H.; Vaseghi, Marmar

doi: 10.1038/s41583-025-01000-6pmid: 41381719

Bidirectional, multilevel communication between the heart and the brain is pivotal for the beat-to-beat regulation of cardiac function and the close titration of cardiac output to meet metabolic demand. Given this bidirectional communication, it is perhaps not surprising that cardiac pathologies lead to changes in the central and peripheral autonomic nervous system, which in turn lead to further progression of cardiovascular disease. Within the CNS, structural and functional changes have been reported in the setting of hypertension and heart failure in multiple autonomic regions and nuclei, including the spinal cord, brainstem, hypothalamus and higher centres, such as the amygdala and thalamus. These alterations enhance the excitability of sympathetic neuronal populations and diminish the excitability of neurons within the parasympathetic nuclei, resulting in sympathovagal imbalance. The primary drivers of these structural and functional changes appear to be a combination of increased angiotensin signalling (both central and peripheral), neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and glial activation. Targeting the CNS in the setting of cardiovascular disease presents an exciting avenue for the field of neuromodulation.

Kim, Yeji; Park, Seongjun

doi: 10.1038/s41583-025-01003-3pmid: 41381720

Neurochemical signalling has emerged as a rapid, versatile and indispensable layer of neural computation, operating alongside electrical activity to shape circuit dynamics, behaviour and disease progression. Decoding these signals in vivo requires sensing platforms that combine spatiotemporal resolution, molecular specificity and anatomical compatibility, capabilities beyond those of traditional sampling methods. Electrochemical technologies, from fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to molecular recognition sensors, deliver subsecond temporal resolution without genetic manipulation, whereas optical approaches using genetically encoded indicators achieve cell-specific measurements with high spatial precision. However, most existing implementations provide only a single sensing function, restricting measurements to a passive chemical dimension and limiting comprehensive or causal circuit analysis. Hybrid systems begin to bridge this gap by coupling stimulation and sensing within unified interfaces, enabling richer interrogation of brain networks. Building on this foundation, transformative multimodal platforms fundamentally expand the boundaries of chemical sensing, overcoming limitations in scope, resolution and accessibility, to enable brain-wide, multianalyte and remote operation. In doing so, they elevate in vivo neurochemical sensing to a frontier discipline, offering unprecedented opportunities to map, decode and therapeutically modulate the chemical logic that underlies cognition, behaviour and pathology.