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A recently described form of synaptic plasticity results in dynamic changes in the calcium permeability of synaptic AMPA receptors. Since the AMPA receptor GluR2 subunit confers calcium permeability, this plasticity is thought to occur through the dynamic exchange of synaptic GluR2-lacking and GluR2-containing receptors. To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying this calcium-permeable AMPA...
Developmental axon competition plays a key role in sculpting neural circuitry. Here, we have asked how activity and neurotrophins could interact to select one axon over another. Using compartmented cultures of sympathetic neurons, we show that, in the presence of NGF, local depolarization confers a competitive growth advantage on the depolarized axon collaterals and at the same time disadvantages...
Movement sequences, defined both by the component movements and by the serial order in which they are produced, are fundamental building blocks of motor behavior. The serial order of sequence production is strongly encoded in medial motor areas. It is not known to what extent sequences are further elaborated or encoded in primary motor cortex. Here, we describe cells in the primary motor cortex of...
Transgenic (Tg) mice overexpressing human wild-type α-synuclein in oligodendrocytes under the control of the 2,′ 3′-cyclic nucleotide 3′-phosphodiesterase (CNP) promoter are shown here to recapitulate features of multiple system atrophy (MSA), including the accumulation of filamentous human α-synuclein aggregates in oligodendrocytes linked to their degeneration and autophagocytosis of myelin. Significantly,...
GABAergic signaling is central to the function of the thalamus and has been traditionally attributed primarily to the nucleus reticularis thalami (nRT). Here we present a GABAergic pathway, distinct from the nRT, that exerts a powerful inhibitory effect selectively in higher-order thalamic relays of the rat. Axons originating in the anterior pretectal nucleus (APT) innervated the proximal dendrites...
It has been debated whether asymmetric distribution of cell surface receptors during mitosis could generate asymmetric cell divisions by yielding daughters with different environmental responsiveness and, thus, different fates. We have found that in mouse embryonic forebrain ventricular and subventricular zones, the EGFR can distribute asymmetrically during mitosis in vivo and in vitro. This occurs...
Asymmetric cell division plays a major role in the generation of cell diversity during development. In this issue of Neuron, Sun and colleagues present evidence that the epidermal growth factor receptor is asymmetrically distributed in mitotic cerebral cortical precursors, and the resulting unequal inheritance generates offspring with different responsiveness to growth factor and unique cell fates.
In this issue of Neuron, Hubbard et al. show individual differences in how grapheme-color synesthetes perform on cognitive tasks. Importantly, these behavioral differences were correlated with fMRI measures. Such individual differences have important ramifications for synesthesia research. If individual differences are ignored, then synesthesia research will be characterized by erroneous conclusions...
The receptive field (RF) of single visual neurons undergoes progressive refinement during development. It remains largely unknown how the excitatory and inhibitory inputs on single developing neurons are refined in a coordinated manner to allow the formation of functionally correct circuits. Using whole-cell voltage-clamp recording from Xenopus tectal neurons, we found that RFs determined by excitatory...
Grapheme-color synesthetes experience specific colors associated with specific number or letter characters. To determine the neural locus of this condition, we compared behavioral and fMRI responses in six grapheme-color synesthetes to control subjects. In our behavioral experiments, we found that a subject’s synesthetic experience can aid in texture segregation (experiment 1) and reduce the effects...
Complex actions often can be decomposed into sequences of individual movements. Primate medial motor areas (SMA and pre-SMA) have been shown to be key players in the concert of such sequential actions. In this issue of Neuron, Lu and Ashe show for the first time that neurons in primate M1—the ultimate output stage of cortex—have anticipatory activity related to specific movement sequences. These findings...
Local interneurons provide feed-forward inhibition from retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) to thalamocortical (TC) neurons, but questions remain regarding the timing, magnitude, and functions of this inhibition. Here, we identify two types of inhibition that are suited to play distinctive roles. We recorded excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs/IPSCs) in TC neurons in mouse brain slices...
Lithium inhibits inositol monophosphatase at therapeutically effective concentrations, and it has been hypothesized that depletion of brain inositol levels is an important chemical alteration for lithium’s therapeutic efficacy in bipolar disorder. We have employed adult rat cortical slices as a model to investigate the gene regulatory consequences of inositol depletion effected by lithium using cytidine...
While firing rate is well established as a relevant parameter for encoding information exchanged between neurons, the significance of other parameters is more conjectural. Here, we show that regularity of neuronal spike activities affects sensorimotor processing in tottering mutants, which suffer from a mutation in P/Q-type voltage-gated calcium channels. While the modulation amplitude of the simple...
Application of Clostridium difficile toxin B, an inhibitor of the Rho family of GTPases, at the Aplysia sensory to motor neuron synapse blocks long-term facilitation and the associated growth of new sensory neuron varicosities induced by repeated pulses of serotonin (5-HT). We have isolated cDNAs encoding Aplysia Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 and found that Rho and Rac had no effect but that overexpression...
The visual pathway from the retina to the optic tectum in fish and frogs has long been studied as a model for neural circuit formation. Although morphological aspects, such as axonal and dendritic arborization, have been well characterized, less is known about how this translates into functional properties of tectal neurons during development. We developed a system to provide controlled visual stimuli...
The receptive field properties of neurons in the developing brain can in many cases be remarkably similar to those of adult neurons. This raises the question of why these same neurons need the capacity for such impressive developmental plasticity, most clearly demonstrated by the rewiring that occurs in response to sensory deprivation. The roles of developmental neuronal plasticity in the assimilation...
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