Perspectives

Due to recent technological developments in acquisition techniques, the field of electron microscopy-based connectomics now produces colossal amounts of data. Here, the authors discuss the practical and analytical challenges associated with such large amounts of data and propose some solutions to surmount them.

Orexins (hypocretins) are involved in a large variety of behaviors and physiological processes including feeding, sleep/wake regulation, and reward. In this perspective, the authors propose a unifying function for orexins in translating motivational activation into sets of processes that support adaptive behaviors.

Large-scale collaborative efforts coupled with new genomic technologies now allow reliable detection of genetic variants influencing risk for major psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. In this Perspective the authors provide a primer on current genome-wide efforts to identify risk variants and how these may be translated into neurobiological insights.

The authors review the recently observed relationships between breathing and the sensations of smell and vibrissa-based touch. These data and other experimental evidence are used to support the hypothesis that the breathing rhythm serves not only as a motor drive signal, but also as a common clock that binds these two senses into a common percept.

The authors examine papers in high profile journals and find that while collection of multiple observations from a single research object is common practice, such nested data are often analyzed using inappropriate statistical techniques. The authors show that this results in increased Type I error rates, and propose multilevel modelling to address this issue.

In this Perspective, the authors review the literature and suggest that the cognitive pathology that often accompanies preterm birth and/or very low birth weight may be a direct result of perinatal hypoxia that, in turn, leads to perturbations in the maturation and development of interneurons, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes.

In this Perspective, the author examines how reading and writing the neural code may be linked. He reviews evidence defining the nature of neural coding of sensory input and asks how these constraints, particularly precise timing, might be critical for approaches that seek to ‘write the neural code’ through the artificial control of microcircuits to activate downstream structures.

In their Perspective article, Lattal and Wood discuss the latest progresses on behavioral features of persistent memory formation, and how epigenetics is forcing a re-evaluation of behavioral and molecular distinctions between memory extinction and memory reconsolidation.

Although the nervous and immune systems have been classically considered to modulate physiologically distinct functions, recent evidence points to coordinated activities during neurogenic inflammation. In this perspective, the authors examine the interactions between the peripheral nervous system and the immune response during health and disease.

Multiple sclerosis is a debilitating inflammatory demyelinating disease of the CNS. In this perspective, the author examines the strengths and weaknesses of the numerous animal models that are currently being used to analyze the pathogenesis of this disease with an eye toward the precise pathological aspect that each model recapitulates.

Neuropathic pain often results from trauma or insult to peripheral nerves. In this Perspective, the authors examine recent evidence that implicates the microglia-expressed purinergic receptor P2X4 in the induction of neuropathic pain and suggest that this pathway marks a spinal mechanism distinct from those that mediate acute or inflammatory pain.

In this perspective, the authors review new developments that suggest that many diseases share features with prion infections. They also highlight some of the critical open questions in prion biology, including how prions damage their hosts and how hosts attempt to neutralize invading prions.

Although the relationship between social factors and physical health outcomes is well-recognized, the modulatory role of neural processing in this link is less well understood. This perspective describes the way in which neurophysiological processes respond to social connection and disconnection to influence health outcomes.

This review discusses how social factors modulate risks for mental disorders, and the neural systems that implement this modulation.

In this perspective, the authors critically evaluate the research on the neural systems supporting empathy.

This perspective describes how neural oscillations are likely to play an important role in speech processing, particularly in creating a discrete neural code.

This perspective discusses newly discovered mechanisms leading to cellular ionic imbalances, as well as underappreciated signaling cascades that mediate cell death and that may add to the traditional glutamatergic mechanisms to which ischemic brain injury is ascribed. An integrated consideration of such new mechanisms may aid in formulating better therapies.

There remains an urgent need to develop new strategies and therapies to help protect the brain from ischemic cell death. In this perspective, the authors suggest that learning more about the mechanisms that underlie brain self-preservation and developing multifaceted approaches that act on multiple pathways involved in both cell death and neuroprotection may advance our efforts to treat stroke.

The authors analyze a large corpus of the neuroscience literature and demonstrate that nearly half of the published studies considered incorrectly compared effect sizes by comparing their significance levels.

The immediate early gene product Arc has been broadly implicated in synaptic and experience-dependent plasticity. In this perspective, the authors synthesize disparate views of Arc in molecular signaling and its relevance to neurological disorders.