Recent advances in neuroscience have revealed how neural population activity underlying behavior can be well described by topological objects called neural manifolds. Understanding how nature, nurture...

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a dimensionality reduction method that is known for being simple and easy to interpret. Principal components ...

UCLA neurologist S. Thomas Carmichael, lung specialist Paul W. Noble and public health pioneer Ninez A.

Neural mechanisms underlying flexible learning and decision-making are not fully understood. Using single-cell calcium imaging, authors here found that neurons in orbitofrontal and secondary motor cortex exhibit complementary roles in reward learning, with neurons in the former exerting a sustained role in conditions of uncertainty.

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Studies in mice show that acute stress activates hyperglycaemia via activation of a medial amygdala–ventral hypothalamic circuit that controls glucose metabolic responses in the liver, independen...

The mechanisms linking neuropsychiatric and metabolic disorders remain unclear. The authors show a pancreas–hippocampus feedback loop whereby metabolic and circadian factors drive behavioral fluctuati...

Our weekly podcast on China. This week, why the country’s alcohol business is getting hammered

Wang discusses why he decided the time was right for a new theoretical neuroscience textbook and how bifurcation is a key missing concept in neuroscience explanations.

Neuroscience research on primates will help us learn how to build an efficient thinking machine.

by Marco Ghibaudi, Chiara La Rosa, Nikita Telitsyn, Jean-Marie Graїc, Chris G. Faulkes, Chet C. Sherwood, Luca Bonfanti Structural changes involving new neurons can occur through stem cell-driven neurogenesis, and through incorporation of late-maturing “immature” neurons into networks, namely undifferentiated neuronal precursors frozen in a state of arrested maturation. The latter have been found in the cerebral cortex and are particularly abundant in large-brained mammals, covarying with the size of the brain and cortex. Similar cells have been described in the amygdala of some species, although their features and interspecies variation remain poorly understood. Here, their occurrence, number, morphology, molecular expression, age-related changes, and anatomical distribution in amygdala subdivisions were systematically analyzed in eight diverse mammalian species (including mouse, naked mole rat, rabbit, marmoset, cat, sheep, horse, and chimpanzee) widely differing in neuroanatomy, brain size, life span, and socioecology. We identify converging evidence that these amygdala cells are immature neurons and show marked phylogenetic variation, with a significantly greater prevalence in primates. The immature cells are largely located within the amygdala’s basolateral complex, a region that has expanded in primate brain evolution in conjunction with cortical projections. In addition, amygdala immature neurons also appear to stabilize in number through adulthood and old age, unlike other forms of plasticity that undergo marked age-related reduction. These results support the emerging view that large brains performing complex socio-cognitive functions rely on wide reservoirs of immature neurons.

In dynamic environments where stimuli predicting reward or punishment unexpectedly change, it is critical to flexibly update behavior while preserving…

Nature Communications - Accurate future predictions are essential for guiding behavior, and disruptions in this process are associated with psychiatric disorders. Here the authors show that changes...

Forget your trip to the dentist. A new check-up is required

When choosing between options with multiple attributes, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is thought to integrate across those attributes, aiding in value comparisons. This study shows in monkeys that OF...

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