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During vertebrate embryonic development, the spinal cord emerges from the posterior portion of the neural tube. Saade and Martí describe the complex series of morphogenetic events that shape the neural tube and the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate the formation of the embryonic spinal cord.
Midbrain dopamine neurons are widely assumed to signal a unidimensional value-based prediction error. In this Perspective, Kahnt and Schoenbaum overview accumulating evidence that challenges this assumption, highlighting the need for a new theory on the role of dopamine in error-based learning that goes beyond value.
A new study reveals an algorithm implemented by neurons in the medial frontal cortex that is involved in flexibly mapping appropriate actions during goal-oriented behaviour to novel situations.
A computational account of how schemas are learned through experience is lacking. In this Perspective, Bein and Niv synthesize schema theory and reinforcement learning research to derive computational principles that might govern schema learning and then propose their mediation via dimensionality reduction in the medial prefrontal cortex.
Cerebral small vessel disease is a common cause of dementia and stroke. In this Perspective, Wardlaw and co-workers describe evidence from human brain imaging and preclinical models that points to dysfunction in the endothelial cells that line the walls of cerebral blood vessels as a key driver of small vessel disease.
The brain enters an action-mode of function during goal-directed behaviour. In this Perspective, Dosenbach, Raiche and Gordon describe “action-mode” as an informative functional label that reduces anatomical network naming confusion, then characterize how the reannotated action-mode network supporting it counterbalances the default mode network.
In this Journal Club, Michaela Fencková discusses a study published in 2020 that examined the effects of acute systemic inflammation on brain glucose metabolism in the context of delirium.
A population of macrophages has been found in muscle spindles that release glutamate, activate primary sensory afferents that are part of the stretch reflex, and have a role in regulating locomotion.
Metastability is a concept from dynamical systems. In the brain, it is thought to reflect the balance between the cooperative and independent functioning of brain areas or neuronal populations. In this Review, Hancock, Rosas and colleagues provide an overview of metastability in neuroscience.
The influence anatomy exerts on communication between brain regions remains unclear. In this Review, Greaves et al. synthesize how methods of structural connectivity integration constrain inference-based or prediction-based models of directed connectivity to better understand how one brain region exerts control over another.
Substance-use disorders (SUDs) are characterized by chronic relapse. However, many of those affected eventually do achieve recovery. Engeln and Ahmed describe insights from clinical and preclinical studies of remission that suggest that recovery from substance-use disorders involves both reversal of drug-induced circuit changes and new neural circuit adaptations.
