Volume 27 Issue 2, February 2024

Using in vivo imaging in zebrafish, we unveiled critical components (PSD-95, gephyrin and neuroligin-3) and dynamic properties of synapses between neurons and oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPC). Furthermore, we showed that neuron–OPC synapses have a pivotal role in regulating OPC development and CNS myelination.

Using in vivo imaging in zebrafish, Li and colleagues found that neuron–oligodendrocyte precursor cell (OPC) synapses regulate OPC development and myelination via Ca²⁺ signaling, elucidating a new role for neuron–glia interactions in shaping the CNS.

In the CNS, glutamatergic neurons directly control functional hyperemia via synaptic-like transmission onto arteriolar smooth muscle cells. Inhibiting this process reduces brain atrophy following cerebral ischemia.

Immune activity can influence sleep, but the role of microglia has remained unclear. Ma, Li and colleagues show that microglia can promote sleep through P2Y12–G_i-coupled GPCR signaling, intracellular calcium increase and suppression of norepinephrine transmission.

Bush and Ramirez show that the activity of neuronal populations implicated in generating breathing evolves along a rotational low-dimensional trajectory that is stably maintained even when challenged with opioids but collapses during gasping.

This study identifies a positive-feedback loop between the ACC and the VTA that mediates the mutual exacerbation between hyperalgesia and comorbid anxiodepressive-like behaviors and, thereby, the chronicity of neuropathic pain.

Reward can both update values and convey information about the state of the world. Dopamine recordings and manipulations in highly trained mice making decisions, alongside modeling, show that dopamine supports the former but not the latter process.

Han and Helmchen demonstrate that the dynamic interactions between a higher association area and a primary sensory area in the neocortex can shape sensory representation and govern behavioral choices.

de Jong et al. identify two dopamine cell subtypes with sustained or transient activity patterns in both cell bodies and axon terminals. They propose that these subtypes represent the parallel encoding of a behavioral state and its temporal dynamics.

This longitudinal study tracked the brains of 139 first-time mothers. Mothers showed lower cortical volume before childbirth that attenuated during the postpartum, with a distinct recovery rate as a function of the brain network and birth type.

Xu et al. show that waking progressively disrupts neural dynamics criticality in the visual cortex and that sleep restores it. Deviations from criticality predict future sleep/wake behavior better than prior behavior and slow-wave activity.

The authors show that functionally paired visual and memory brain areas share a common neural code, which structures their communication. This code is visual in nature and uses a push–pull dynamic to translate information between vision and memory.

This paper introduces ‘prospective configuration’, a new principle for learning in neural networks, which differs from backpropagation and is more efficient in learning and more consistent with data on neural activity and behavior.

Dopp et al. profiled gene expression in single cells from the whole fly brain, revealing how it changes with sleep/wakefulness states and circadian times. The findings highlight the role of glia in integrating sleep drive and circadian processes.

Rabies-virus-based tracing is a widely used technique for mapping neural circuitry, but its cytotoxicity has limited its applications. Here Jin et al. present a second-generation system with minimal toxicity, using double-deletion-mutant rabies viruses.