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Neurobiology: Paper alert

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Abstract

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in neurobiology.

Section snippets

Development

Selected by Jack Price Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

Rab23 is an essential negative regulator of the mouse sonic hedgehog signalling pathway. Egenschwiler JT, Espinoza E, Anderson KV: Nature 2001, 412:194-198.

•• Significance: The identification of an important regulator of the sonic hedgehog (shh) signalling pathway. Findings: Open brain (opb) is a mouse mutation whose phenotype suggests a role in shh signalling. This paper shows that the gene encoded by opb

Cognitive neuroscience

Selected by Alcino J Silva and Steven A Kushner University of California-Los Angeles, California, USA e-mail: [email protected]

•• Fear conditioning and LTP in the lateral amygdala are sensitive to the same stimulus contingencies. Bauer EP, LeDoux JE, Nader K: Nat Neurosci 2001, 4:687-688.

Significance: Pavlovian conditioning has previously been shown to depend greatly on stimulus contingency, the ability of the conditioned stimulus to predict the occurrence of the unconditioned stimulus.

Signalling mechanisms

Selected by Michael Häusser University College London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

Synchronous activity of inhibitory networks in neocortex requires electrical synapses containing connexin36. Deans MR, Gibson JR, Sellitto C, Connors BW, Paul DL: Neuron 2001, 31:477-485.

Impaired electrical signaling disrupts gamma frequency oscillations in connexin 36-deficient mice. Sheriar G, Hormuzdi SG, Pais I, LeBeau FEN, Towers SK, Rozov A, Buhl EH, Whittington MA, Monyer H: Neuron 2001, 31

Sensory systems

Selected by John N Wood University College London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is released in the dorsal horn by distinctive patterns of afferent fiber stimulation. Lever IJ, Bradbury EJ, Cunningham JR, Adelson DW, Jones MG, McMahon SB, Marvizon JC, Malcangio M: J Neurosci 2001, 21:4469-4477.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor increases in the uninjured dorsal root ganglion neurons in selective spinal nerve ligation model. Fukuoka T, Kondo E, Dai Y,

Neuronal and glial cell biology

Selected by David S Bredt University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California e-mail: [email protected]

•• Absence of junctional glutamate receptor clusters in Drosophila mutants lacking spontaneous transmitter release. Saitoe M, Schwarz TL, Umbach JA, Gundersen CB, Kidokoro Y: Science 2001, 293:514-517.

Significance: Spontaneous release of neurotrasmitter-containing vesicles is ubiquitous in the nervous system, though the functions of the miniature end-plate potentials that

Motor systems

Selected by James Ashe*, Matthew Chafee and Hugo Merchant Brain Sciences Center, VAMC, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA *e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

•• Learning to move amid uncertainty. Scheidt RA, Dingwell JB, Mussa-Ivaldi FA: J Neurophysiol 2001, 86:971-985.

Significance: This study investigates motor adaptation in a stochastically changing force field and demonstrates two new properties of adaptation. First, under conditions when the direction of the perturbing

Neurobiology of behaviour

Selected by Stephen Goodwin* and Bambos Kyriacou

*University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK e-mail: [email protected]

University of Leicester, Leicester, UK e-mail: [email protected]

A polymorphic genomic duplication on human chromosome 15 is a susceptibility factor for panic and phobic disorders. Gratacòs M, Nadal M, Martı́n-Santos R, Pujana MA, Gago J, Peral B, Armengol L, Ponsa I, Miró R, Bulbena A, Estivill X: Cell 2001, 106:367-379

Significance: In the minefield of human behaviour

Neurobiology of disease

Selected by Gerd Kempermann* and Juergen Winkler

*Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Berlin, Germany e-mail: [email protected]

Department of Neurology, University of Regensburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected]

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of human prefrontal cortex induces dopamine release in the caudate nucleus. Strafella AP, Paus T, Barrett J, Dagher A: J Neurosci 2001, 21:RC157 (1-4).

Significance: This study has interesting

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