The Third Reviewer

Ilan Dinstein, Cibu Thomas, Kate Humphreys, Nancy Minshew, Marlene Behrmann, David J. Heeger

It has been proposed that individuals with autism have difficulties understanding the goals and intentions of others because of a fundamental dysfunction in the mirror neuron system. Here, however, we show that individuals with autism exhibited not only normal fMRI . . . → Read More: Normal Movement Selectivity in Autism

Jung Hoon Sul, Hoseok Kim, Namjung Huh, Daeyeol Lee, Min Whan Jung

We investigated how different subregions of rodent prefrontal cortex contribute to value-based decision making, by comparing neural signals related to animal’s choice, its outcome, and action value in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of rats performing a dynamic two-armed . . . → Read More: Distinct Roles of Rodent Orbitofrontal and Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Decision Making

Daniel Durstewitz, Nicole M. Vittoz, Stan B. Floresco, Jeremy K. Seamans

One of the most intriguing aspects of adaptive behavior involves the inference of regularities and rules in ever-changing environments. Rules are often deduced through evidence-based learning which relies on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This is a highly dynamic process, evolving trial by . . . → Read More: Abrupt Transitions between Prefrontal Neural Ensemble States Accompany Behavioral Transitions during Rule Learning

Michiel W.H. Remme, Máté Lengyel, Boris S. Gutkin

Dendritic democracy and independence have been characterized for near-instantaneous processing of synaptic inputs. However, a wide class of neuronal computations requires input integration on long timescales. As a paradigmatic example, entorhinal grid fields have been thought to be generated by the democratic summation of independent . . . → Read More: Democracy-Independence Trade-Off in Oscillating Dendrites and Its Implications for Grid Cells

Gurprit S. Lall, Victoria L. Revell, Hiroshi Momiji, Jazi Al Enezi, Cara M. Altimus, Ali D. Güler, Carlos Aguilar, Morven A. Cameron, Susan Allender, Mark W. Hankins, Robert J. Lucas

Photoreceptive, melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells (mRGCs) encode ambient light (irradiance) for the circadian clock, the pupillomotor system, and other influential behavioral/physiological responses. . . . → Read More: Distinct Contributions of Rod, Cone, and Melanopsin Photoreceptors to Encoding Irradiance

Chen Zhang, Deniz Atasoy, Demet Araç, Xiaofei Yang, Marc V. Fucillo, Alfred J. Robison, Jaewon Ko, Axel T. Brunger, Thomas C. Südhof

Neurexins are presynaptic cell-adhesion molecules that form trans-synaptic complexes with postsynaptic neuroligins. When overexpressed in nonneuronal cells, neurexins induce formation of postsynaptic specializations in cocultured neurons, suggesting that neurexins are . . . → Read More: Neurexins Physically and Functionally Interact with GABAA Receptors

Joshua J. Buchman, Huan-Chung Tseng, Ying Zhou, Christopher L. Frank, Zhigang Xie, Li-Huei Tsai

Primary autosomal-recessive microcephaly (MCPH) and Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II (MOPDII) are both genetic diseases that result in decreased brain size at birth. MCPH is thought to arise from alterations in the size of the neural progenitor pool, but . . . → Read More: Cdk5rap2 Interacts with Pericentrin to Maintain the Neural Progenitor Pool in the Developing Neocortex

Chih-Hang Anthony Tang, Erica Hinteregger, Yuhua Shang, Michael Rosbash

Circadian systems are entrained and phase shifted by light. In Drosophila, the model of light-mediated phase shifting begins with photon capture by CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) followed by rapid TIMELESS (TIM) degradation. In this study, we focused on phase delays and assayed TIM degradation within individual . . . → Read More: Light-Mediated TIM Degradation within Drosophila Pacemaker Neurons (s-LNvs) Is Neither Necessary nor Sufficient for Delay Zone Phase Shifts

Takuro Tojima, Rurika Itofusa, Hiroyuki Kamiguchi

Asymmetric Ca2+ elevations across the axonal growth cone mediate its turning responses to attractive and repulsive guidance cues. Here we show that clathrin-mediated endocytosis acts downstream of Ca2+ signals as driving machinery for growth cone turning. In dorsal root ganglion neurons, the formation of clathrin-coated pits is facilitated . . . → Read More: Asymmetric Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis Drives Repulsive Growth Cone Guidance

Biyu J. He, John M. Zempel, Abraham Z. Snyder, Marcus E. Raichle

Scale-free dynamics, with a power spectrum following P ? f??, are an intrinsic feature of many complex processes in nature. In neural systems, scale-free activity is often neglected in electrophysiological research. Here, we investigate scale-free dynamics in human brain and . . . → Read More: The Temporal Structures and Functional Significance of Scale-free Brain Activity

Trevor R. Agus, Simon J. Thorpe, Daniel Pressnitzer

Before a natural sound can be recognized, an auditory signature of its source must be learned through experience. Here we used random waveforms to probe the formation of new memories for arbitrary complex sounds. A behavioral measure was designed, based on the detection of repetitions . . . → Read More: Rapid Formation of Robust Auditory Memories: Insights from Noise

Yong Gu, Christopher R. Fetsch, Babatunde Adeyemo, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki

Humans and monkeys use both vestibular and visual motion (optic flow) cues to discriminate their direction of self-motion during navigation. A striking property of heading perception from optic flow is that discrimination is most precise when subjects judge small variations . . . → Read More: Decoding of MSTd Population Activity Accounts for Variations in the Precision of Heading Perception

Jan Gläscher, Nathaniel Daw, Peter Dayan, John P. O’Doherty

Reinforcement learning (RL) uses sequential experience with situations (“states”) and outcomes to assess actions. Whereas model-free RL uses this experience directly, in the form of a reward prediction error (RPE), model-based RL uses it indirectly, building a model of the state transition and outcome . . . → Read More: States versus Rewards: Dissociable Neural Prediction Error Signals Underlying Model-Based and Model-Free Reinforcement Learning

Nathaniel B. Sawtell

The recoding of diverse sensory and motor signals by granule cells (GCs) is probably critical for the function of cerebellar circuits, yet the nature of these transformations and their significance for cerebellar information processing remain poorly understood. In cerebellum-like structures in fish, anti-Hebbian plasticity at parallel fiber synapses generates “negative . . . → Read More: Multimodal Integration in Granule Cells as a Basis for Associative Plasticity and Sensory Prediction in a Cerebellum-like Circuit

Vivien Chevaleyre, Steven A. Siegelbaum

Neurons propagate information through circuits by integrating thousands of synaptic inputs to generate an action potential output. Inputs from different origins are often targeted to distinct regions of a neuron’s dendritic tree, with synapses on more distal dendrites normally having a weaker influence on cellular output compared to . . . → Read More: Strong CA2 Pyramidal Neuron Synapses Define a Powerful Disynaptic Cortico-Hippocampal Loop

Abigail L. Person, Indira M. Raman

Long-term potentiation (LTP) of mossy fiber EPSCs in the cerebellar nuclei is controlled by synaptic inhibition from Purkinje neurons. EPSCs are potentiated by a sequence of excitation, inhibition, and disinhibition, raising the question of how these stimuli interact to induce plasticity. Here, we find that synaptic excitation, . . . → Read More: Deactivation of L-type Ca Current by Inhibition Controls LTP at Excitatory Synapses in the Cerebellar Nuclei

Robin W. Ball, Maude Warren-Paquin, Kazuya Tsurudome, Edward H. Liao, Fatima Elazzouzi, Chelsea Cavanagh, Beum-Soo An, Tian-Tian Wang, John H. White, A. Pejmun Haghighi

Retrograde signaling is essential for coordinating the growth of synaptic structures; however, it is not clear how it can lead to modulation of cytoskeletal dynamics and structural changes at . . . → Read More: Retrograde BMP Signaling Controls Synaptic Growth at the NMJ by Regulating Trio Expression in Motor Neurons

Beatriz Cubelos, Alvaro Sebastián-Serrano, Leonardo Beccari, Maria Elisa Calcagnotto, Elsa Cisneros, Seonhee Kim, Ana Dopazo, Manuel Alvarez-Dolado, Juan Miguel Redondo, Paola Bovolenta, Christopher A. Walsh, Marta Nieto

Dendrite branching and spine formation determines the function of morphologically distinct and specialized neuronal subclasses. However, little is known about the programs instructing specific branching . . . → Read More: Cux1 and Cux2 Regulate Dendritic Branching, Spine Morphology, and Synapses of the Upper Layer Neurons of the Cortex

Takeshi Y. Hiyama, Shinichi Matsuda, Akihiro Fujikawa, Masahito Matsumoto, Eiji Watanabe, Hiroshi Kajiwara, Fumio Niimura, Masaharu Noda

Nax is the sodium-level sensor of body fluids in the brain involved in sodium homeostasis. Nax-knockout mice do not stop ingesting salt even when dehydrated. Here we report a case with clinical features of essential hypernatremia . . . → Read More: Autoimmunity to the Sodium-Level Sensor in the Brain Causes Essential Hypernatremia

Takafumi Minamimoto, Richard C. Saunders, Barry J. Richmond

Categorization is a basic mental process that helps individuals distinguish among groups of negative and positive objects, e.g., poisons and nutrients, or predators and prey. Monkey experiments have suggested that lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) participates in learning and processing visual categories. However, in humans category . . . → Read More: Monkeys Quickly Learn and Generalize Visual Categories without Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

Lena A. Khibnik, Kathleen K.A. Cho, Mark F. Bear

Brief monocular deprivation (MD) shifts ocular dominance (OD) in primary visual cortex by causing depression of responses to the deprived eye. Here we address the extent to which the shift is expressed by a modification of excitatory synaptic transmission. An OD shift was . . . → Read More: Relative Contribution of Feedforward Excitatory Connections to Expression of Ocular Dominance Plasticity in Layer 4 of Visual Cortex