Nature Neuroscience Contents: January 2015 Volume 18 Number 1, pp 1 - 161

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TABLE OF CONTENTS January 2015 Volume 18, Issue 1 Editorial News and Views Articles Resources Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter   Editorial Top A collaborative pipeline   p1 doi:10.1038/nn.3916 A meeting of the academic and industry minds may help fuel the development of a new generation of CNS drugs. News and Views Top Attentional flexibility in the thalamus: now we're getting SOMwhere   pp2 - 4 Christopher D Makinson and John R Huguenard doi:10.1038/nn.3902 Loss of the receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB4 in somatostatin (SOM) inhibitory neurons of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) enhances top-down cortical feedback, improving feature detection at the cost of reduced ability to switch attention. The study furthers our understanding of the circuit mechanisms underlying TRN function. See also: Article by Ahrens et al. Change the neural code, change the message   pp4 - 6 Maarten Kamermans doi:10.1038/nn.3899 The retina encodes visual information and sends it to the brain. We now learn that this neural code varies strongly with light adaptation. Does this mean a change in the message or a change in the way that the message is coded? See also: Article by Tikidji-Hamburyan et al. A place for motion in mapping   pp6 - 7 Douglas Nitz doi:10.1038/nn.3908 A study finds that formation of a cognitive map for a virtual reality environment demands associating specific movement trajectories with views to the constellation of peripheral landmarks. See also: Article by Aghajan et al. Gain from your own (moving) perspective   pp8 - 9 Bruce G Cumming doi:10.1038/nn.3910 Single-unit recording in primate cortical area MT shows surprising sensitivity to depth defined by dynamical perspective cues. Depth might then be computed through recurrent circuits involving signals downstream of MT. See also: Article by Kim et al. Neuroscience JOBS of the week Research Assistant / Technician in Behavioral Neuroscience Boston College Computational Neuroscience Faculty Positions University of Minnesota International Neuroscience Graduate Program Ecole des Neuroscience de Paris Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Behavioral Neuroscience Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology Postdoctoral position in circuit neuroscience and imaging Charité / Humboldt University Berlin More Science jobs from Neuroscience EVENT The Fourth Annual UAE Epilepsy Congress 2015 22.05.15 Dubai, UAE More science events from Articles Top PIEZO2 is required for mechanotransduction in human stem cell-derived touch receptors   pp10 - 16 Katrin Schrenk-Siemens, Hagen Wende, Vincenzo Prato, Kun Song, Charlotte Rostock et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3894 The authors used human embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells to derive sensory neurons that have biochemical and electrophysiological properties similar to touch receptors, including the ability to transduce mechanical stimuli into electrical activity. Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene targeting technology, they also show that the mechanosensitivity of these cells relies entirely on the expression of PIEZO2. Modeling pain in vitro using nociceptor neurons reprogrammed from fibroblasts   pp17 - 24 Brian J Wainger, Elizabeth D Buttermore, Julia T Oliveira, Cassidy Mellin, Seungkyu Lee et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3886 In this study, the authors show that they can induce the direct conversion of fibroblasts into nociceptor neurons via the expression of only five key transcription factors. They further confirm that these induced neurons are bona fide nociceptors by demonstrating that their expression profiles resemble that of their endogenous counterparts and show that they are responsive to common nociceptor agonists. Selective conversion of fibroblasts into peripheral sensory neurons   pp25 - 35 Joel W Blanchard, Kevin T Eade, Attila Szucs, Valentina Lo Sardo, Rachel K Tsunemoto et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3887 In this study, the authors show that expression of Brn3a with Ngn1 or 2 can induce the direct reprogramming of mouse and human fibroblasts into peripheral sensory neurons. They further demonstrate that these neurons exhibit the expression profiles and physiological properties of mature sensory neurons and are responsive to nociceptor agonists. PlexinA1 is a new Slit receptor and mediates axon guidance function of Slit C-terminal fragments   pp36 - 45 Celine Delloye-Bourgeois, Arnaud Jacquier, Camille Charoy, Florie Reynaud, Homaira Nawabi et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3893 Here the authors find that PlexinA1, a well-known Semaphorin receptor, is also a receptor for Slits. Utilizing phenotypic analysis of mouse models, they define an in vivo contribution of Plexin-Slit signaling during commissural axon guidance and demonstrate the role of the Slit C-terminal fragment in this process. A region-specific neurogenesis mode requires migratory progenitors in the Drosophila visual system   pp46 - 55 Holger Apitz and Iris Salecker doi:10.1038/nn.3896 Drosophila optic lobe neurons are generated from the outer and inner proliferation centers (IPC). The authors show a new mode of neurogenesis in which progenitors in one IPC domain migrate to a second domain where they mature into neural stem cells/neuroblasts. They also identify several genes that regulate this process. Synaptic and circuit mechanisms promoting broadband transmission of olfactory stimulus dynamics   pp56 - 65 Katherine I Nagel, Elizabeth J Hong and Rachel I Wilson doi:10.1038/nn.3895 Sensory stimuli fluctuate on many timescales but short-term plasticity causes synapses to act as temporal filters, limiting the range of frequencies they can transmit. Here, the authors show how the interaction of multiple synaptic and circuit mechanisms can reduce synaptic depression to promote faithful coding of both fast and slow stimuli. Retinal output changes qualitatively with every change in ambient illuminance   pp66 - 74 Alexandra Tikidji-Hamburyan, Katja Reinhard, Hartwig Seitter, Anahit Hovhannisyan, Christopher A Procyk et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3891 Light increments and decrements are encoded in the retina by ON and OFF ganglion cells. The polarity of these cells' responses is thought to be fixed, but Tikidji-Hamburyan and colleagues now demonstrate in mouse and pig retina that they can change depending on ambient illuminance. For instance, an OFF cell can gain or lose an ON response at different light levels. Such changes in response polarity propagate to higher visual centers in vivo. See also: News and Views by Kamermans Cell-specific STORM super-resolution imaging reveals nanoscale organization of cannabinoid signaling   pp75 - 86 Barna Dudok, László Barna, Marco Ledri, Szilárd I Szabó, Eszter Szabadits et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3892 Combining patch-clamp recordings and subsequent STORM imaging of individual cells, the authors show that the axon terminals of perisomatically- and dendritically-projecting GABAergic interneurons show differences in CB1 receptor number, active zone complexity, and receptor:effector ratio. Chronic exposure to THC evoked a dose-dependent and long-lasting downregulation of CB1 at these synapses. Early depolarizing GABA controls critical-period plasticity in the rat visual cortex   pp87 - 96 Gabriele Deidda, Manuela Allegra, Chiara Cerri, Shovan Naskar, Guillaume Bony et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3890 The inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA can lead to neuronal depolarization during early brain development caused by a shift in intracellular chloride concentration. Here Deidda et al. show that a brief alteration in depolarizing GABA during early development can modulate critical-period plasticity in the visual cortex later in development, and this effect is mediated by perinatal BDNF signaling. Columnar organization of spatial phase in visual cortex   pp97 - 103 Yushi Wang, Jianzhong Jin, Jens Kremkow, Reza Lashgari, Stanley J Komban et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3878 Earlier work suggests that spatial phase preferences are randomly distributed throughout visual cortex. In this study, the authors present evidence towards a columnar organization for spatial phase that resembles organization for orientation preference, which suggests that this phase organization may contribute to the emergence of orientation maps. ErbB4 regulation of a thalamic reticular nucleus circuit for sensory selection   pp104 - 111 Sandra Ahrens, Santiago Jaramillo, Kai Yu, Sanchari Ghosh, Ga-Ram Hwang et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3897 The authors show that mice lacking the gene Erbb4 in somatostatin-expressing (SOM) neurons of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) show selective behavioral deficits in tasks involving switching attention between cues of different sensory modalities. Slice recordings also showed enhanced cortical drive in Erbb4-deficient TRN SOM neurons. See also: News and Views by Makinson & Huguenard Neuronal encoding of the switch from specific to generalized fear   pp112 - 120 Supriya Ghosh and Sumantra Chattarji doi:10.1038/nn.3888 By recording neural activity in the lateral amygdala in awake and behaving rats, Ghosh and Chattarji show that neural encoding of fear generalization involves reduction of specific response to fear-associated cues at the single-neuron level. The study also shows that increasing neuronal excitability in the lateral amygdala can promote fear generalization and that the auditory cortex is not involved when fear-inducing conditioning stimulus is based on sound. Impaired spatial selectivity and intact phase precession in two-dimensional virtual reality   pp121 - 128 Zahra M Aghajan, Lavanya Acharya, Jason J Moore, Jesse D Cushman, Cliff Vuong et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3884 M. Aghajan and colleagues recorded hippocampal activity in rats foraging in a two-dimensional virtual reality (VR) environment. Spatial selectivity was absent but phase precession was intact, occurring within 2-s-long hippocampal motifs. Selectivity to space and distance traveled were greatly enhanced when the rats repeatedly followed systematic paths. The results demonstrate that distal visual cues alone are insufficient to generate a robust hippocampal rate code for space but are sufficient to generate a temporal code. See also: News and Views by Nitz A novel role for visual perspective cues in the neural computation of depth   pp129 - 137 HyungGoo R Kim, Dora E Angelaki and Gregory C DeAngelis doi:10.1038/nn.3889 Extraretinal signals such as efference copy are generally thought to be critical for discounting visual image motion caused by eye movements. However, theoretical work suggests that eye rotations could be estimated directly from optic flow. Here the authors show that MT neurons use such 'dynamic perspective' cues to disambiguate depth. See also: News and Views by Cumming A learning-based approach to artificial sensory feedback leads to optimal integration   pp138 - 144 Maria C Dadarlat, Joseph E O'Doherty and Philip N Sabes doi:10.1038/nn.3883 In this study, the authors show that monkeys can learn to use non-biomimetic proprioceptive feedback, delivered via electrical microstimulation of somatosensory cortex, to guide motor movements. The monkeys also integrated this artificial feedback with vision to optimize motor performance. The results suggest new learning-based approaches both to providing sensory feedback for brain-machine interfaces and to studying the neural mechanisms of adaptive sensory integration. Resources Top Unbiased classification of sensory neuron types by large-scale single-cell RNA sequencing   pp145 - 153 Dmitry Usoskin, Alessandro Furlan, Saiful Islam, Hind Abdo, Peter Lonnerberg et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3881 Based on single cell RNA-sequencing of 622 adult mouse sensory neurons, Usoskin et al. performed unbiased classification to identify the cellular and molecular complexity underlying somatic sensation. Eleven different subtypes were identified, including some previously unknown populations such as a new class of neuron which may be sensitive to inflammatory itch. Developmental regulation of human cortex transcription and its clinical relevance at single base resolution   pp154 - 161 Andrew E Jaffe, Jooheon Shin, Leonardo Collado-Torres, Jeffrey T Leek, Ran Tao et al. doi:10.1038/nn.3898 Brain transcriptomics is limited by existing annotations of expressed gene products. Here the authors identify differentially expressed regions of the genome across development and aging in the human brain. These transcripts were developmentally conserved across the human and mouse and enriched for genetic variants associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. Top Natureevents is a fully searchable, multi-disciplinary database designed to maximise exposure for events organisers. The contents of the Natureevents Directory are now live. The digital version is available here. Find the latest scientific conferences, courses, meetings and symposia on natureevents.com. For event advertising opportunities across the Nature Publishing Group portfolio please contact natureevents@nature.com More Nature Events

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