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Direct and simultaneous recordings across the human brain during a memory encoding task involving emotionally valenced words revealed tightly clustered neuronal sites within the insular cortex with distinct roles — some tracked valence, whereas others predicted memory. Only memory-related insular sites, when electrically stimulated, sparked strong hippocampal responses, uncovering a specialized insula–hippocampus axis for successful memory encoding.
McGeachan et al. observe oligomeric tau in synapses from individuals with progressive supranuclear palsy and provide evidence that tau pathology may spread through the brain via synapses.
Ossenkoppele, Coomans and colleagues analyzed the tau PET data of 12,048 individuals from 42 cohorts worldwide. They found that age, amyloid-β status, presence of an APOE ε4 allele and female sex are key contributors to tau PET positivity, which should aid clinical decision-making and trial designs.
Combining behavioral data, electrophysiology and modeling, the authors show that the human brain synchronizes visual signals by adjusting axonal conduction speed in the retina, revealing a previously unknown mechanism for precise perceptual timing.
Intracranial stimulation maps human brain causal connectivity, uncovering distinct pathways. The authors show that thalamic pulses uniquely evoke delayed theta oscillations, offering new insights into the brain’s functional architecture.
The hippocampus and insula communicate when processing emotional memories. Discrete sites in the human insular cortex showed changes that predicted later memory recall, while others responded to emotional content.
The dynamics of microglia states adjacent to or far from amyloid-beta plaques are unclear. Here the authors show that non-plaque-associated microglia modulate the cell population expansion in response to amyloid deposition, and Csf1 signaling regulates their transition to the amyloid-associated state.
Time-resolved electron microscopy reveals that intersectin-1 and endophilin A1 condensates hold replacement synaptic vesicles close to release sites. Without this, replacement vesicles are unavailable for immediate use, causing synaptic depression in response to stimulation trains.
Unlike cortical progenitors, ventral telencephalic progenitors retain the ability to generate diverse neuron types during neurogenesis. Here, the authors show that ventral telencephalic progenitor maturation is gated by developmental timing, revealing a distinct regulatory logic underlying the development of inhibitory neurons.
Sydnor et al. developed a new tractography atlas of thalamocortical structural connections and applied it to three youth samples. They uncovered coordinated development between thalamic connectivity and hierarchical cortical plasticity in humans.
As large-scale neurodevelopmental MRI studies gain prominence, the authors identify tradeoffs between sample size and quality control that can dramatically affect results, and they evaluate a range of approaches to mitigate risk for error.
Regulation of gene expression is a facet of human brain specialization. Here, the authors show that human-like expression of the CLOCK gene in the mouse neocortex enhances cognitive flexibility and neural connectivity, suggesting an evolutionary gain of function that may have contributed to human cognitive specialization.
This study used fine-mapping to analyze genetic regions associated with bipolar disorder, identifying specific risk genes and providing new insights into the biology of the condition that may guide future research and treatment approaches.
Pathological neural communication drives the spread of the epileptic network and contributes to memory impairment in focal epilepsy. The authors show that closed-loop electrical stimulation in rodents can prevent this interaction and preserve long-term memory.
Neuropixels 1.0 NHP is a 45-mm, high-density silicon probe capable of recording large numbers of neurons with single-neuron resolution from most areas in a macaque’s brain.
