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The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) serves as a major output of this structure and plays a critical role in the expression of conditioned fear. By combining cell- and tissue-specific pharmacogenetic inhibition with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we identified circuits downstream of CeA that control fear expression in mice. Selective inhibition of a subset of neurons in CeA led...
SOD1 is a cause of the fatal, paralytic disorder ALS. Although mechanisms underlying mutant SOD1 neurotoxicity remain uncertain, this protein associates with mitochondria. In this issue of Neuron, Israelson et al. show that mutant SOD1 binds and inhibits the mitochondrial channel VDAC1. This finding sheds light onto possible molecular links between mutant SOD1, mitochondrial dysfunction, and spinal...
Reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton is essential for synaptic plasticity and memory formation. Presently, the mechanisms that trigger actin dynamics during these brain processes are poorly understood. In this study, we show that myosin II motor activity is downstream of LTP induction and is necessary for the emergence of specialized actin structures that stabilize an early phase of LTP. We also...
The pervasiveness of decision-making in every area of human endeavor highlights the importance of understanding choice mechanisms and their detailed relationship to underlying neurobiological function. This review surveys the recent and productive application of game-theoretic probes (economic games) to mental disorders. Such games typically possess concrete concepts of optimal play, thus providing...
Many important moral decisions, particularly at the policy level, require the evaluation of choices involving outcomes of variable magnitude and probability. Many economic decisions involve the same problem. It is not known whether and to what extent these structurally isomorphic decisions rely on common neural mechanisms. Subjects undergoing fMRI evaluated the moral acceptability of sacrificing a...
Although membrane trafficking pathways are involved in basic cellular functions, the evolutionally expanded number of their related family proteins suggests additional roles for membrane trafficking in higher organisms. Here, we show that several Rab-dependent trafficking pathways differentially participate in neuronal migration, an essential step for the formation of the mammalian-specific six-layered...
Odor signals received by odorant receptors (ORs) in the olfactory epithelium are represented as an odor map of activated glomeruli in the olfactory bulb. In the mouse olfactory system, it appears that much of axon pathfinding and sorting occurs autonomously by olfactory neuron axons. Here, we review the recent progress on the study of olfactory map formation in rodents. We will discuss how neuronal...
DEET is the most widely used insect repellent worldwide. In Drosophila olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs), DEET is detected through a mechanism employing the olfactory receptor, OR83b. However, it is controversial as to whether ORNs respond directly to DEET or whether DEET blocks the response to attractive odors. Here, we showed that DEET suppressed feeding behavior in Drosophila, and this effect was...
Mutations in superoxide dismutase (SOD1) cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss of motor neurons. With conformation-specific antibodies, we now demonstrate that misfolded mutant SOD1 binds directly to the voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC1), an integral membrane protein imbedded in the outer mitochondrial membrane. This interaction is found...
A central goal in sensory neuroscience is to fully characterize a neuron's input-output relation. However, strong nonlinearities in the responses of sensory neurons have made it difficult to develop models that generalize to arbitrary stimuli. Typically, the standard linear-nonlinear models break down when neurons exhibit stimulus-dependent modulations of their gain or selectivity. We studied these...
Cerebellar motor learning is required to obtain procedural skills. Studies have provided supportive evidence for a potential role of kinase-mediated long-term depression (LTD) at the parallel fiber to Purkinje cell synapse in cerebellar learning. Recently, phosphatases have been implicated in the induction of potentiation of Purkinje cell activities in vitro, but it remains to be shown whether and...
To understand fine-scale structure and function of single mammalian neuronal networks, we developed and validated a strategy to genetically target and trace monosynaptic inputs to a single neuron in vitro and in vivo. The strategy independently targets a neuron and its presynaptic network for specific gene expression and fine-scale labeling, using single-cell electroporation of DNA to target infection...
The behavioral expression of fear ranges from active, cognitive responses to passive, freezing-like reactions. In this issue of Neuron, Gozzi, Jain, and colleagues suggest that neurons in the central amygdala orchestrate output signals toward either the brainstem or cholinergic basal forebrain and thereby can shift fear reactions from passive to active.
In the precedence effect, sounds emanating directly from the source are localized preferentially over their reflections. Although most studies have focused on the delay between the onset of a sound and its echo, humans still experience the precedence effect when this onset delay is removed. We tested in barn owls the hypothesis that an ongoing delay, equivalent to the onset delay, is discernible from...
Investigations of the cellular substrate for cerebellar learning have focused largely on a single form of plasticity, kinase-dependent long-term depression (LTD). In this issue of Neuron, Schonewille et al. provide evidence that calcineurin, a protein phosphatase required for long-term potentiation (LTP) and other cellular processes, may be just as important.
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