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Article
Multiple kinetic components of exocytosis distinguished by neurotoxin sensitivity
The secretion of synaptic and other vesicles is a complex process involving multiple steps. Many molecular components of the secretory apparatus have been identified, but how they relate to the different stage...
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Article
Visual input induces long-term potentiation of develo** retinotectal synapses
Early visual experience is essential in the refinement of develo** neural connections. In vivo whole-cell recording from the tectum of Xenopus tadpoles showed that repetitive dimming-light stimulation applied t...
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Article
Probing ion permeation and gating in a K+ channel with backbone mutations in the selectivity filter
Potassium channels selectively conduct K+ ions across cell membranes, and use diverse mechanisms to control their gating. We studied ion permeation and gating of an inwardly rectifying K+ channel by individually ...
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Article
Role of the chemokine SDF-1 as the meningeal attractant for embryonic cerebellar neurons
Migration of neuronal precursor cells from the external germinal layer (EGL) to the internal granular layer (IGL) is a crucial process in the development of the mammalian cerebellar cortex. These cells make up...
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Article
Differential regulation of synaptic and extra-synaptic NMDA receptors
A variety of processes limit NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor (NMDAR) activity in response to agonist exposure, including rundown—the decline of peak current with repeated, sustained agonist application1,2,3,
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Article
Molecular approaches to brain asymmetry and handedness
The left and right hemispheres of the human brain have distinct functions: for example, the left is normally dominant for language and logical processing, wher...
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Article
The virtue of simplicity
Multiple local motions must be combined to determine the direction of object motion, which is harder than it seems. A new paper proposes an elegant and simple solution to this problem, eminently realizable in ...
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Article
Defining cortical frequency tuning with recurrent excitatory circuitry
Neurons in the recipient layers of sensory cortices receive excitatory input from two major sources: the feedforward thalamocortical and recurrent intracortical inputs. To address their respective functional r...
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Article
Rapamycin activation of 4E-BP prevents parkinsonian dopaminergic neuron loss
Here, Tain et al. describe the genetic interaction between 4E-BP, an inhibitor of translation, with Parkinson's disease–associated park and Pink1 in Drosophila, where the manipulation of 4E-BP reduced the patholo...
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Article
Intervening inhibition underlies simple-cell receptive field structure in visual cortex
Simple cell receptive fields (RFs) consist of spatially segregated 'On' and 'Off' subregions. Previous work suggested that excitatory inputs underlie this segregation. This study uses voltage clamp recordings ...
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Article
CXCR2-positive neutrophils are essential for cuprizone-induced demyelination: relevance to multiple sclerosis
Cuprizone causes demyelination and oligodendrocyte death in mice. Cuprizone lesions resemble a particular form of white-matter lesions that is seen in multiple sclerosis. This study reports that infiltrating n...
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Article
C. elegans phototransduction requires a G protein–dependent cGMP pathway and a taste receptor homolog
The mechanism of light sensation in the worm C. elegans has been unclear. Liu and colleagues describe a G protein–dependent signaling cascade for light transduction that is similar to the mechanism for taste sens...
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Article
Calcium-channel number critically influences synaptic strength and plasticity at the active zone
This study uses single-channel current measurements, synaptic vesicle fusion–induced capacitance changes and structural modeling of the calyx of Held terminals to show that voltage-dependent calcium channel de...
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Article
Erbin interacts with TARP γ-2 for surface expression of AMPA receptors in cortical interneurons
This study describes the synaptogenic function of an ErbB2-interacting protein called Erbin, particularly its function in the formation of excitatory synapses on interneurons and its regulation of AMPA-type gl...
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Article
A long noncoding RNA contributes to neuropathic pain by silencing Kcna2 in primary afferent neurons
Zhao and colleagues find that neuropathic pain is accompanied by an increase in the expression of an antisense long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that downregulates Kcna2 currents and increases excitability in rat do...
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Article
Intracortical multiplication of thalamocortical signals in mouse auditory cortex
How the cortex processes and transforms sensory input coming from the thalamus is still a matter of debate. Here the authors optogenetically silence local cortical circuits to show that intracortical excitatio...
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Article
Suppression of eIF2α kinases alleviates Alzheimer's disease–related plasticity and memory deficits
Phosphorylation of the eukaryotic initiation factor 2 α subunit (eIF2α) is increased in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients and model mice. Here the authors show that knocking down two kinases that phos...
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Article
Linear transformation of thalamocortical input by intracortical excitation
By silencing intracortical excitation in mouse primary visual cortex, Li and colleagues find that the tuning of layer 4 pyramidal cells is independent of cortico-cortical inputs. Instead, intracortical excitat...
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Article
Correction: Corrigendum: Erbin interacts with TARP γ-2 for surface expression of AMPA receptors in cortical interneurons
Nat. Neurosci. 16, 290–299 (2013); published online 27 January 2013; corrected after print 30 July 2013 In the version of this article initially published, the email address for correspondence was given as lme...
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Article
Unbalanced excitability underlies offline reactivation of behaviorally activated neurons
The authors show that sharp-wave events recorded in mouse hippocampal slices are more likely to involve neurons that have been activated during a recent behavioral episode. The excitation/inhibition balance of...