{"title":"Learning, prediction accuracy, and neural plasticity in sensory cortex","authors":"Alison L. Barth, Joseph A. Christian, Ajit Ray","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103088","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103088","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Causal inference during association learning is a cardinal feature of complex nervous systems. In reinforcement learning, a stimulus or context becomes linked to a negative or positive outcome to inform future behavior. Although prefrontal cortex and striatal circuits have been implicated in reinforcement learning, sensory cortex also undergoes marked short-term and long-lasting changes. Here we review studies demonstrating anatomical, synaptic, and task-dependent response plasticity in sensory cortex during learning. A contrast between plasticity induced by sensory association learning, where stimuli predict reinforcement outcomes, and pseudotraining, where sensory inputs are uncoupled, is consistent with sensory cortex's role in prediction evaluation and reinforcement signaling. We propose that plasticity in sensory cortex–a site for collision of internally-generated expectations and incoming sensory input–reflects the relative accuracy of expected versus actual sensory signals as they develop during learning. Sensory learning may thus be a useful tool to probe the function of neocortical circuits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103088"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144604448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cracking the cadherin codes that wire the nervous system","authors":"Madison T. Gray , Julie L. Lefebvre","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103086","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103086","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Synaptic partner recognition and precise connectivity are essential components of neural circuit formation and function. Cell adhesion molecules with selective binding properties provide instructive cues for synapse specificity. Yet, we know little about how they guide the stereotyped organization of neural circuits. Advances in transcriptomics, genetic manipulations, neural tracing and imaging in intact nervous systems enable new avenues to identify mechanisms by which adhesion molecules regulate synapse specificity. Here we discuss the Cadherin superfamily, which forms one of the most functionally versatile families of cell adhesion molecules. Focusing on the classical cadherins and clustered protocadherins, we discuss recent findings that demonstrate roles in regulating synaptic partnerships and signaling properties, and optimizing neurite wiring. We highlight studies that demonstrate instructive roles through genetic manipulations with assays of synaptic connectivity. Understanding how neurons leverage a Cadherin code for specifying neural connectivity provides insights into the broader principles of circuit assembly and function.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103086"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144570878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Charles Verdonk , Olujimi A. Ajijola , Sahib S. Khalsa
{"title":"Toward a multidisciplinary neurobiology of interoception and mental health","authors":"Charles Verdonk , Olujimi A. Ajijola , Sahib S. Khalsa","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103084","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103084","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Interoception, the process by which the nervous system senses, interprets and integrates internal physiological signals, is fundamental to health, playing a key role in brain-body feedback loops that maintain homeostasis. Disruptions in interoceptive processing are common across psychiatric disorders, highlighting its relevance for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. This review examines recent translational advances in interoception research, with a focus on anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, and functional gastrointestinal disorders, where altered interoceptive signaling contributes to core symptoms. We discuss emerging cellular and molecular insights from animal models and address barriers to translating these findings to human psychopathology. To bridge this gap, we propose a “roving lens” approach, a multidisciplinary framework that dynamically integrates findings across biological scales, species, and methods. Here, multidisciplinary denotes team-based collaboration in which multiple fields contribute complementary expertise to a shared question, without fully dissolving disciplinary boundaries. By uniting mechanistic animal research with human clinical insight, this approach can advance interoceptive neuroscience and inform novel therapeutic strategies for psychiatric disorders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"94 ","pages":"Article 103084"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144557684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sexual dimorphism in the behaviour and sensory systems of mosquitoes","authors":"Prashali Bansal, Sonia Q. Sen","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103070","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103070","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the animal kingdom, sexual dimorphism often creates marked differences between males and females. These can be so pronounced that individuals of the same species may even appear unrelated. Such dimorphism also extends to behaviours. Males often perform elaborate courtship rituals to attract females, while females usually invest in offspring care. Among insects too, sexual dimorphism in form and behaviour is readily observed. Here, we discuss sexual dimorphism in mosquitoes, whose males and females exhibit distinct anatomical, physiological, and behavioural differences. We focus on two behaviours: female-specific blood-feeding and male-specific courtship and mating. These behaviours rely on distinct sensory modalities resulting in sexual dimorphism within their sensory organs, neural circuits, and molecular genetics. We explore these differences in the context of olfaction, gustation, and audition in mosquitoes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103070"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144536115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What’s the occasion? Phasic dopamine signaling and interoception","authors":"Mitchell F. Roitman , James E. McCutcheon","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103074","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103074","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Phasic dopamine is critically important in reward-related learning and assigns value to actions triggered by cues. Outcomes of actions in turn adjust the probability that a behavior will be repeated. That is, outcomes reinforce behavior—a process that also involves phasic dopamine. The value of actions and their outcomes, though, is ever fluctuating. Internal state—from physiological need through satiation—gates or applies gain to cue-evoked actions and the evaluation of their outcomes. We focus on how interoceptive signals may influence dopamine neurons to modify the phasic signaling underlying cue and reward-directed behaviors. We focus on interoceptive signals that arise from food or fluid deficit since the peripheral hormonal responses to such needs are relatively well established. A puzzle for the field is understanding how slowly accumulating and more tonic-like physiological signals are integrated to tune the brief and tightly time-locked phasic dopamine responses to environmental stimuli.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103074"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144523749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The different roles of learning recent and accumulative statistics","authors":"Aviel Sulem , Merav Ahissar","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103072","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103072","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We perceive key aspects of familiar environments almost immediately, while perception in unfamiliar environments is slower. In this review, we examine the distinct roles of recent versus accumulative long-term exposure in enabling this efficiency. Accumulative statistics underlie the formation of stable categories (e.g. syllables in our native language), whereas recent events bias our online predictions toward the current context. Typically developing individuals place greater weight on recent events than single earlier events, but also weight accumulative statistics. However, individuals with developmental atypicalities show atypical patterns of statistical learning: individuals with dyslexia tend to assign less weight to long-term statistics, which affects their long-term categories. By contrast, autistics utilize long-term statistics like neurotypicals, but are slower in updating their priors and motor plans by recent events, which reduces their flexibility. These observations suggest that the dynamics of statistical learning impact the strengths and weaknesses of people's social and cognitive skill acquisition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103072"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144501645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aggression across sexes from a contextual- and circuit-based perspective","authors":"Catherine E. Schretter","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103071","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103071","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Often referred to as a ‘fight,’ survival involves intense competition over resources. Threat displays and high-intensity attacks are just a few of the aggressive actions exhibited during these contests. Certain motor programs are species-specific, like the vibration of a rattlesnake tail. However, conserved behavioral features are found across species, which appear to be mirrored within the brain. Further parallels have been found across sexes between aggression-promoting contexts and the underlying neuronal circuits. Unraveling the complex web of conserved and variable circuit mechanisms has been considerably advanced by the generation of brain-wiring diagrams in adult female and male <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>. Here, I will summarize current research, primarily in <em>Drosophila</em>, on how contexts, sensory cues, and internal states regulate aggression across sexes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103071"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144481308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nicholas S. Bourdon , Sarah Y. Dickinson , Joseph F. Bergan
{"title":"Aromatase and its role in shaping sex-differentiated brain networks","authors":"Nicholas S. Bourdon , Sarah Y. Dickinson , Joseph F. Bergan","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103066","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103066","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Steroid hormone signaling drives sex-differentiated brain development and function, with the social behavior network (SBN) as a primary site of these differences. Aromatase, densely expressed in the SBN, is essential for estrogen production in the brain, shaping brain organization during development and dynamically regulating neural function and behavior throughout life. This review explores how aromatase-dependent mechanisms establish sex differences at multiple anatomical levels, from gene expression and cellular morphology to brain-wide differences in the connectivity of neural circuits. These structural differences, in cooperation with dynamic estrogen signaling, are thought to mediate sex-differences in social behavior. Advancing our understanding of how aromatase-dependent sex differences shape brain function will require grounding both new and existing findings within the heterogeneous and interconnected circuitry of the SBN.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103066"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144491632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Renal interoception: form, function, and open questions","authors":"Rose Z. Hill","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103067","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.103067","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The kidneys filter the blood and balance fluid and electrolytes to keep the composition of the internal environment within the narrow parameters essential for life. A perturbation to the internal state, such as a sudden loss of blood or dehydration, engages autonomic efferent and neuroendocrine pathways to adjust kidney function rapidly and robustly. The mechanisms of these multiorgan pathways are extensively studied. By contrast, the roles of sensory afferent nerves in regulating renal function are just beginning to be understood. In this review, we examine recent advances in understanding the morphology, identity, and functions of the renal sensory nerves that form the first node in the interoceptive pathways that update the kidney on its own internal state. We end by highlighting open questions in the field, influenced by recent work in other areas of interoception neuroscience, and the outstanding gaps in our knowledge of kidney biology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 103067"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144470338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}