The roundworm C. elegans is a simple animal whose nervous system has exactly 302 neurons. Each of the connections between those neurons has been comprehensively mapped, allowing researchers to study how they work together to generate the animal’s different behaviors. Steven Flavell, an MIT associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and investigator with the… Continue reading Modeling complex behavior with a simple organism
Tag: Neuroanatomy and Structure
Fibromyalgia Pain Might Start in the Spinal Cord
Researchers found spinal disinhibition in people with fibromyalgia, adding new clues about the role of central pain processing in this condition. Medscape Medical News
An extensive dataset of spiking activity to reveal the syntax of the ventral stream
Papale et al. present an extensive public dataset of spiking activity of V1, V4, and IT neurons in monkeys viewing thousands of natural scenes. The THINGS ventral stream spiking dataset (TVSD) can provide novel insights into the contribution of visual neurons at different levels of the visual hierarchy to object recognition.
Color and Spatial Frequency Provide Functional Signatures of Retinotopic Visual Areas
Primate vision relies on retinotopically organized cortical parcels defined by representations of hemifield (upper vs lower visual field), eccentricity (fovea vs periphery), and area (V1, V2, V3, V4). Here we test for functional signatures of these organizing principles. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure responses to gratings varying in spatial frequency, color, and… Continue reading Color and Spatial Frequency Provide Functional Signatures of Retinotopic Visual Areas
Input/Output Relationships for the Primary Hippocampal Circuit
The hippocampus is the most studied brain region, but little is known about signal throughput—the simplest, yet most essential of circuit operations—across its multiple stages from perforant path input to CA1 output. Using hippocampal slices derived from male mice, we have found that single-pulse lateral perforant path (LPP) stimulation produces a two-part CA1 response generated… Continue reading Input/Output Relationships for the Primary Hippocampal Circuit
GPe Projections to the Retrorubral Field Give Rise to Diverging GABAergic and DAergic Circuits
The external segment of the globus pallidus (GPe) is involved in the modulation of the motor output and limbic components of behavior. The circuitry by which the GPe contributes to limbic components of behavior remains unknown. While many investigations have focused on the local circuitry within the basal ganglia, numerous GPe projections to target regions… Continue reading GPe Projections to the Retrorubral Field Give Rise to Diverging GABAergic and DAergic Circuits
Breathing Modulates Network Activity in Frontal Brain Regions during Anxiety
Anxiety elicits various physiological responses, including changes in the respiratory rate and neuronal activity within specific brain regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Previous research suggests that the olfactory bulb (OB) modulates the mPFC through respiration-coupled oscillations (RCOs), which have been linked to fear-related freezing behavior. Nevertheless, the impact of breathing on frontal… Continue reading Breathing Modulates Network Activity in Frontal Brain Regions during Anxiety
An Eccentricity Gradient Reversal across High-Level Visual Cortex
Human visual cortex contains regions selectively involved in perceiving and recognizing ecologically important visual stimuli such as people and places. Located in the ventral temporal lobe, these regions are organized consistently relative to cortical folding, a phenomenon thought to be inherited from how centrally or peripherally these stimuli are viewed with the retina. While this… Continue reading An Eccentricity Gradient Reversal across High-Level Visual Cortex
Dissecting the Causal Role of Early Inferior Frontal Activation in Reading
Cognitive models of reading assume that speech production occurs after visual and phonological processing of written words. This traditional view is at odds with more recent magnetoencephalography studies showing that the left posterior inferior frontal cortex (pIFC) classically associated with spoken production responds to print at 100–150 ms after word-onset, almost simultaneously with posterior brain regions… Continue reading Dissecting the Causal Role of Early Inferior Frontal Activation in Reading
Astrocytes in aging
In this review, Labarta-Bajo and Allen discuss how astrocytes, glial cells that regulate neural circuit function in development and adulthood, are altered in the aged brain. The nature of the alterations to astrocytes with aging, what triggers these changes, and how aged astrocytes impact brain function are presented.