The Third Reviewer

Neuronal oscillations of different frequencies can interact in several ways. There has been particular interest in the modulation of the amplitude of high-frequency oscillations by the phase of low-frequency oscillations, since recent evidence suggest… . . . → Read More: Measuring Phase-Amplitude Coupling Between Neuronal Oscillations of Different Frequencies

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Journal of Neurophysiology . . . → Read More: Corrigendum

Previous neuroimaging research has identified a number of brain regions sensitive to different aspects of linguistic processing, but precise functional characterization of these regions has proven challenging. We hypothesize that clearer functional sp… . . . → Read More: New Method for fMRI Investigations of Language: Defining ROIs Functionally in Individual Subjects

Windup is characterized as a frequency-dependent increase in the number of evoked action potentials in dorsal horn neurons in response to electrical stimulation of afferent C-fibers. This phenomenon was first described in the mid-60s, but the core mec… . . . → Read More: NMDA Channels Together With L-Type Calcium Currents and Calcium-Activated Nonspecific Cationic Currents Are Sufficient to Generate Windup in WDR Neurons

The ability to modulate digit forces during grasping relies on the coordination of multiple hand muscles. Because many muscles innervate each digit, the CNS can potentially choose from a large number of muscle coordination patterns to generate a given… . . . → Read More: Force-Independent Distribution of Correlated Neural Inputs to Hand Muscles During Three-Digit Grasping

Rehabilitation following spinal cord injury is likely to depend on recovery of corticospinal systems. Here we investigate whether transmission in the corticospinal tract may explain foot drop (inability to dorsiflex ankle) in persons with spinal cord … . . . → Read More: Impaired Transmission in the Corticospinal Tract and Gait Disability in Spinal Cord Injured Persons

The recovery of voluntary quadrupedal locomotion after an incomplete spinal cord injury can involve different levels of the CNS, including the spinal locomotor circuitry. The latter conclusion was reached using a dual spinal lesion paradigm in which a… . . . → Read More: Dual Spinal Lesion Paradigm in the Cat: Evolution of the Kinematic Locomotor Pattern

The influence of stance width on frontal plane postural dynamics and coordination in human bipedal stance was studied. We tested the hypothesis that when subjects adopt a narrow stance width, they will rely heavily on nonlinear control strategies and … . . . → Read More: Influence of Stance Width on Frontal Plane Postural Dynamics and Coordination in Human Balance Control

The primary motor cortex (M1) area recruitment enlarges while learning a finger tapping sequence. Also M1 excitability increases during procedural consolidation. Our aim was to investigate whether increasing M1 excitability by anodal transcranial DC s… . . . → Read More: Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Enhances Procedural Consolidation

Many lines of evidence point to a tight linkage between the perceptual and motoric representations of actions. Numerous demonstrations show how the visual perception of an action engages compatible activity in the observer’s motor system. This is seen… . . . → Read More: Surface-Based Information Mapping Reveals Crossmodal Vision-Action Representations in Human Parietal and Occipitotemporal Cortex

The reward value of a stimulus can be learned through two distinct mechanisms: reinforcement learning through repeated stimulus-reward pairings and abstract inference based on knowledge of the task at hand. The reinforcement mechanism is often identif… . . . → Read More: A Pallidus-Habenula-Dopamine Pathway Signals Inferred Stimulus Values

Posture and movement are fundamental, intermixed components of motor coordination. Current approaches consider either that 1) movement is an active, anticipatory process and posture is a passive feedback process or 2) movement and posture result from … . . . → Read More: Active Control of Bias for the Control of Posture and Movement

The effects of neuronal density on morphological and functional attributes of the evolving networks were studied in cultured dissociated hippocampal neurons. Plating at different densities affected connectivity among the neurons, such that sparse netw… . . . → Read More: Neuronal Density Determines Network Connectivity and Spontaneous Activity in Cultured Hippocampus

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), the most common inherited form of intellectual disability, is caused by loss of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). FMRP is a negative regulator of local mRNA translation downstream of group 1 metabotropic glutam… . . . → Read More: Loss of the Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein Decouples Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Dependent Priming of Long-Term Potentiation From Protein Synthesis

Movements are inherently variable. When we move to a particular point in space, a cloud of final limb positions is observed around the target. Previously we noted that patterns of variability at the end of movement to a circular target were not circul… . . . → Read More: Postural Constraints on Movement Variability

Hebbian synaptic plasticity acts as a positive feedback mechanism and can destabilize a neuronal network unless concomitant homeostatic processes that counterbalance this instability are activated. Within a Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro (BCM)-like plastici… . . . → Read More: The h Current Is a Candidate Mechanism for Regulating the Sliding Modification Threshold in a BCM-Like Synaptic Learning Rule

The Drosophila antennal lobe (AL) has become an excellent model for studying early olfactory processing mechanisms. Local interneurons (LNs) connect a large number of glomeruli and are ideally positioned to increase computational capabilities of odor … . . . → Read More: Physiological and Morphological Characterization of Local Interneurons in the Drosophila Antennal Lobe

We used surface EMG signal decomposition technology to study the control properties of numerous simultaneously active motor units. Six healthy human subjects of comparable age (21 ± 0.63 yr) and physical fitness were recruited to perform isomet… . . . → Read More: Relationship Between Firing Rate and Recruitment Threshold of Motoneurons in Voluntary Isometric Contractions

Vocal learning, a key behavior in human speech development, occurs only in a small number of animal taxa. Ontogeny of vocal behavior in humans and songbirds involves acquisition of an acoustic model, which guides the development of self-generated voca… . . . → Read More: Acquisition of an Acoustic Template Leads to Refinement of Song Motor Gestures

The present study investigated the selection for action hypothesis, according to which a subject’s action intention to perform a movement influences the way in which visual information is being processed. Subjects were instructed in separate blocks ei… . . . → Read More: Neural and Temporal Dynamics Underlying Visual Selection for Action

Hippocampal neurons show a strong modulation by theta frequency oscillations. This modulation is thought to be important not only for temporal encoding and decoding of information in the hippocampal system, but also for temporal ordering of neuronal a… . . . → Read More: Theta Modulation in the Medial and the Lateral Entorhinal Cortices

Our sense of body posture and movement is mainly mediated by densely packed populations of tiny mechanoreceptors present in the muscles. Signals triggered in muscle spindles by our own actions contribute crucially to our consciousness of positions and… . . . → Read More: Predicting Any Arm Movement Feedback to Induce Three-Dimensional Illusory Movements in Humans

Approximately half of the cells in the mouse inferior colliculus have the hyperpolarization-activated mixed cation current Ih, yet little is known about its functional relevance in vivo. We therefore studied its contribution to the processing of sound… . . . → Read More: In Vivo Dynamic Clamp Study of Ih in the Mouse Inferior Colliculus

It remains unclear how attention affects the tuning of individual neurons in visual cerebral cortex. Some observations suggest that attention preferentially enhances responses to low contrast stimuli, whereas others suggest that attention proportional… . . . → Read More: The Effect of Attention on Neuronal Responses to High and Low Contrast Stimuli

Repeated cocaine exposure and withdrawal leads to long-term changes, including behavioral and dopamine sensitization to an acute cocaine challenge, that are most pronounced after long withdrawal periods. However, the changes in dopamine neurotransmiss… . . . → Read More: Sensitization of Rapid Dopamine Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens Core and Shell After Repeated Cocaine in Rats

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the basal ganglia can alleviate the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease although the therapeutic mechanisms are unclear. We hypothesize that DBS relieves symptoms by minimizing pathologically disordered neuronal activ… . . . → Read More: Deep Brain Stimulation Alleviates Parkinsonian Bradykinesia by Regularizing Pallidal Activity

During sleep and anesthesia, a slow (≤1 Hz) synchronized rhythmic fluctuation of the network activity in the neocortex (nCTX) is prominent. This rhythm, called the slow oscillation (SO), corresponds to sequences of neuronal activity and inactivity … . . . → Read More: A Comparison of Sleeplike Slow Oscillations in the Hippocampus Under Ketamine and Urethane Anesthesia

Only some taste cells fire action potentials in response to sapid stimuli. Type II taste cells express many taste transduction molecules but lack well-elaborated synapses, bringing into question the functional significance of action potentials in thes… . . . → Read More: Action Potential-Enhanced ATP Release From Taste Cells Through Hemichannels

A previous study identified neuronal activity in area 5 of the monkey posterior parietal cortex that reflects the numerosity of a series of self-performed actions. It is not known, however, whether area 5 is crucially involved in the selection of an a… . . . → Read More: Deficits in Action Selection Based on Numerical Information After Inactivation of the Posterior Parietal Cortex in Monkeys

The Ca2+ increase in dendrites that is evoked by the backpropagation of somatic action potentials (APs) is involved in the activity-dependent modulation of dendritic and synaptic functions that are location dependent. In the present study, we investig… . . . → Read More: Subtype-Specific Dendritic Ca2+ Dynamics of Inhibitory Interneurons in the Rat Visual Cortex

Although Substance P (SP) acts primarily through neurokinin 1 (NK1) receptors to increase the excitability of virtually all motoneurons (MNs) tested, the ontogeny of this transmitter system is not known for any MN pool. Hypoglossal (XII) MNs innervate… . . . → Read More: Substance P Modulation of Hypoglossal Motoneuron Excitability During Development: Changing Balance Between Conductances

Dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) is known to be involved in the planning and execution of reaching movements. However, it is not understood how PMd plan activity—often present in the very same neurons that respond during movement—is prevented … . . . → Read More: Roles of Monkey Premotor Neuron Classes in Movement Preparation and Execution

We previously showed that in a two-alternative choice (2AC) task, olfactory bulb (OB) gamma oscillations (~70 Hz in rats) were enhanced during discrimination of structurally similar odorants (fine discrimination) versus discrimination of dissimilar od… . . . → Read More: A Beta Oscillation Network in the Rat Olfactory System During a 2-Alternative Choice Odor Discrimination Task

High-frequency burst neurons in the pons provide the eye velocity command (equivalently, the primary oculomotor drive) to the abducens nucleus for generation of the horizontal component of both head-restrained (HR) and head-unrestrained (HU) gaze shif… . . . → Read More: Matching the Oculomotor Drive During Head-Restrained and Head-Unrestrained Gaze Shifts in Monkey

Gravitational signals arising from the otolith organs and vertical plane rotational signals arising from the semicircular canals interact extensively for accurate estimation of tilt and inertial acceleration. Here we used a classical signal detection … . . . → Read More: Canal-Otolith Interactions and Detection Thresholds of Linear and Angular Components During Curved-Path Self-Motion

We estimated the spectrotemporal receptive fields of neurons in the songbird auditory thalamus, nucleus ovoidalis, and compared the neural representation of complex sounds in the auditory thalamus to those found in the upstream auditory midbrain nucle… . . . → Read More: Role of the Zebra Finch Auditory Thalamus in Generating Complex Representations for Natural Sounds

Although there is converging experimental and clinical evidences suggesting that mental training with motor imagery can improve motor performance, it is unclear how humans can learn movements through mental training despite the lack of sensory feedbac… . . . → Read More: Motor Learning Without Doing: Trial-by-Trial Improvement in Motor Performance During Mental Training

A pH-sensitive cAMP-gated cation current (INa,cAMP) is widely distributed in neurons of the feeding motor networks of gastropods. In the sea slug Pleurobranchaea this current is potentiated by nitric oxide (NO), which itself is produced by many feedin… . . . → Read More: Nitric Oxide Potentiates cAMP-Gated Cation Current by Intracellular Acidification in Feeding Neurons of Pleurobranchaea

Enhancements in the strength of corticospinal projections to muscles are induced in conscious humans by paired associative stimulation (PAS) to the motor cortex. Although most of the previous studies support the hypothesis that the increase of the amp… . . . → Read More: Paired Associative Stimulation Induces Change in Presynaptic Inhibition of Ia Terminals in Wrist Flexors in Humans

Pairing tactile stimulation of whiskers with a tail shock is known to result in expansion of cortical representation of stimulated vibrissae and in the increase in synaptic GABAergic transmission. However, the impact of such sensory learning in classi… . . . → Read More: Sensory Learning Differentially Affects GABAergic Tonic Currents in Excitatory Neurons and Fast Spiking Interneurons in Layer 4 of Mouse Barrel Cortex

To accommodate the wide input range over which the visual system operates within the narrow output range of spiking neurons, the retina adjusts its sensitivity to the mean light level so that retinal ganglion cells can faithfully signal contrast, or r… . . . → Read More: Retinal Ganglion Cell Adaptation to Small Luminance Fluctuations

Previous studies have shown that corticofugal input to the first central synapse of the ascending gustatory system, the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST), can alter the way taste information is processed. Activity in other forebrain structures, such… . . . → Read More: Amygdalofugal Influence on Processing of Taste Information in the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract of the Rat

Bidirectional interactions between neurons and glial cells are crucial to the genesis of pathological pain. The mechanisms regulating these interactions and the role of this process in relaying synaptic input in the spinal dorsal horn remain to be est… . . . → Read More: Bidirectional Neuron-Glia Interactions Triggered by Deficiency of Glutamate Uptake at Spinal Sensory Synapses

Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) have bilateral pairs of giant interneurons that control rapid escape movements in response to predatory threats. The medial giant neurons (MGs) can be made to fire an action potential by visual or tactile stimuli directe… . . . → Read More: Sensory Activation and Receptive Field Organization of the Lateral Giant Escape Neurons in Crayfish

The inability to rapidly (within minutes to hours) improve behavioral function after severance of peripheral nervous system axons is an ongoing clinical problem. We have previously reported that polyethylene glycol (PEG) can rapidly restore axonal int… . . . → Read More: Polyethylene Glycol Rapidly Restores Axonal Integrity and Improves the Rate of Motor Behavior Recovery After Sciatic Nerve Crush Injury

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is generally associated with a withdrawal of parasympathetic activity and heart rate increases; however, episodic vagally mediated heart rate decelerations also occur during REM sleep. This alternating pattern of autonom… . . . → Read More: The Lateral Paragigantocellular Nucleus Modulates Parasympathetic Cardiac Neurons: A Mechanism for Rapid Eye Movement Sleep-Dependent Changes in Heart Rate

When we manipulate an object, grip force is adjusted in anticipation of the mechanical consequences of hand motion (i.e., load force) to prevent the object from slipping. This predictive behavior is assumed to rely on an internal representation of the… . . . → Read More: Delayed Visual Feedback Affects Both Manual Tracking and Grip Force Control When Transporting a Handheld Object

Norepinephrine (NE) is widely implicated in various forms of associative olfactory learning in rodents, including early learning preference in neonates. Here we used patch-clamp recordings in rat olfactory bulb slices to assess cellular actions of NE,… . . . → Read More: Adrenergic Receptor-Mediated Disinhibition of Mitral Cells Triggers Long-Term Enhancement of Synchronized Oscillations in the Olfactory Bulb

Neuromodulation is well known to provide plasticity in pattern generating circuits, but few details are available concerning modulation of motor pattern coordination. We are using the crustacean stomatogastric nervous system to examine how co-expresse… . . . → Read More: Hormonal Modulation of Two Coordinated Rhythmic Motor Patterns

Dysregulation of the cholinergic transmitter system is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease and contributes to an age-associated decline in memory performance. The current study examined the influence of carbachol, a cholinergic receptor agonist, on syna… . . . → Read More: Carbachol-Induced Long-Term Synaptic Depression Is Enhanced During Senescence at Hippocampal CA3-CA1 Synapses

Trace eyelid conditioning is a form of associative learning that requires several forebrain structures and cerebellum. Previous work suggests that at least two conditioned stimulus (CS)-driven signals are available to the cerebellum via mossy fiber in… . . . → Read More: Temporal Patterns of Inputs to Cerebellum Necessary and Sufficient for Trace Eyelid Conditioning

Whole cell patch-clamp recordings were performed in GABAergic interneurons labeled by green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the lateral amygdala (LA) in vitro from glutamic acid decarboxylase 67 (GAD67)-GFP mice. Neurons were characterized by electrotoni… . . . → Read More: GABAergic Interneurons in the Mouse Lateral Amygdala: A Classification Study

The understanding of others’ feelings and emotional states is commonly defined by the term empathy. Here, I discuss recent findings regarding the differential contribution of anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortices to this function. For the fi… . . . → Read More: The Role of Anterior Insula and Anterior Cingulate in Empathy for Pain

The neocortex contains multiple types of inhibitory neurons whose properties suggest they may play different roles within the cortical circuit. By recording from three cell types during two distinct network states (up and down states) in vitro, we wer… . . . → Read More: The Roles of Somatostatin-Expressing (GIN) and Fast-Spiking Inhibitory Interneurons in UP-DOWN States of Mouse Neocortex

Initially reported in dopamine neurons, neural correlates of prediction errors have now been shown in a variety of areas, including orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, and amygdala. Yet changes in neural activity to an outcome or cues that precede… . . . → Read More: All That Glitters … Dissociating Attention and Outcome Expectancy From Prediction Errors Signals

Dopamine (DA) modifies the motor pattern generated by the pyloric network in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) of the spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus, by directly acting on each of the circuit neurons. The 14 pyloric neurons fall into six cell ty… . . . → Read More: Cell Specific Dopamine Modulation of the Transient Potassium Current in the Pyloric Network by the Canonical D1 Receptor Signal Transduction Cascade

Selective attention enables sensory input from behaviorally relevant stimuli to be processed in greater detail, so that these stimuli can more accurately influence thoughts, actions, and future goals. Attention has been shown to modulate the spiking a… . . . → Read More: Spatial Attention Improves the Quality of Population Codes in Human Visual Cortex

Faces and bodies are arguably the visual stimuli most relevant for human social interactions. Only recently, however, has research begun to reveal the interaction between face and body perception. Here we report on a recent study by Ghuman and colleag… . . . → Read More: Cross-Category Adaptation Reveals Tight Coupling of Face and Body Perception