{"title":"The convoluted path leading to neuronal circuit formation","authors":"Carla G. Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102941","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102941","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A limiting step of neuronal circuit formation is the extensive migration of interneurons from their birthplace to populate territories formed by excitatory neurons. Interneuron dynamics in the developing brain culminates with the organization of interneuron subtypes in specific configurations within layers of brain tissue. Decoding the logic behind these configurations is still matter of passionate debate. Do interneurons follow a sketched program from the progenitor state or is this organization sculpted from intricate cellular interactions? How do interneurons select interacting partners? How does interneuron diversity emerge? New technologies and access to brain tissue from different species are allowing us to reconstruct stone by stone, the convoluted path leading to the formation of neuronal cell assemblies made of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. The most recent research highlights that interneuron subtype circuit integration needs to be assessed case by case. Here, I highlight the need to keep delving into the complexities of interneuron interaction with their environment during development to accomplish this Herculean task.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102941"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142812668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Phase separation in the multi-compartment organization of synapses","authors":"Shihan Zhu , Zeyu Shen , Xiandeng Wu , Mingjie Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.102975","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.102975","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A neuronal synapse is formed by juxtaposition of a transmitter releasing presynaptic bouton of one neuron with a transmitter receiving postsynaptic compartment such as a spine protrusion of another neuron. Each presynaptic bouton and postsynaptic spine, though very small in their volumes already, are further compartmentalized to micro-/nano-domains with distinct molecular organizations and synaptic functions. This review summarizes studies in recent years demonstrating that multivalent protein–protein interaction-induced phase separation underlies formation and coexistence of multiple distinct molecular condensates within tiny synapses. In post-synapses where synaptic compartmentalization via phase separation was first demonstrated, phase separation allows clustering of transmitter receptors into distinct nanodomains and renders postsynaptic densities to be regulated by synaptic stimulation signals for plasticity. In pre-synapses, such phase separation-mediated synaptic condensates formation allows SVs to be stored as distinct pools and directly transported for activity-induced transmitter release.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102975"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143078859","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":"Signaling in autism: Relevance to nutrients and sex","authors":"Yi-Ping Hsueh","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102962","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102962","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are substantially heterogeneous neuropsychiatric conditions with over a thousand associated genetic factors and various environmental influences, such as infection and nutrition. Additionally, males are four times more likely than females to be affected. This heterogeneity underscores the need to uncover common molecular features within ASD. Recent studies have revealed interactions among genetic predispositions, environmental factors, and sex that may be critical to ASD etiology. This review focuses on emerging evidence for the impact of nutrients—particularly zinc and amino acids—on ASD, as demonstrated in mouse models and human studies. These nutrients have been shown to influence synaptic signaling, dendritic spine formation, and behaviors linked to autism. Furthermore, sex-based differences in nutritional requirements, especially for zinc and amino acids, may contribute to the observed male bias in autism, indicating that interactions between nutrients and genetic factors could be integral to understanding and potentially mitigating ASD symptoms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102962"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142892753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bridging the fields of cognition and birdsong with corvids","authors":"Diana A. Liao, Felix W. Moll, Andreas Nieder","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102965","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102965","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Corvids, readily adaptable across social and ecological contexts, successfully inhabit almost the entire world. They are seen as highly intelligent birds, and current research examines their cognitive abilities. Despite being songbirds with a complete ‘song system’, corvids have historically received less attention in studies of song production, learning, and perception compared to non-corvid songbirds. However, recent neurobiological studies have demonstrated that songbird vocal production and its neuronal representations are regularly influenced by environmental and cognitive factors. This opinion article discusses the literature on ‘corvid song’ before introducing other flexible vocal behaviors of corvids in both the wild and controlled laboratory studies. We suggest corvids with their flexible vocal control as promising model species to study the links between brain networks for cognition and vocalization. Studying corvid vocal flexibility and associated cognitive processes in both ecological and lab settings offers complementary insights, crucial for bridging the fields of cognition and birdsong.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102965"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142926895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neurobiological mechanisms of forgetting across timescales","authors":"Mitchell L. de Snoo , Paul W. Frankland","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.102972","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.102972","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Every species in the animal kingdom that learns, also forgets. Despite this balance between learning and forgetting, most neuroscientific explorations of memory have focused on how learning occurs, with recent studies identifying engrams as putative biological substrates for memory. Here we review an emerging literature that, in contrast, explores how our brains forget. These studies reveal that forgetting engages a broad collection of mechanisms that function to reduce engram accessibility. However, changes in accessibility emerge on vastly different timescales. At short timescales, forgetting is modulated by fluctuations in brain states that alter engram accessibility in a moment-to-moment fashion. In the intermediate- and long-term, forgetting depends, in part, on mechanisms that rewire engrams, rendering them gradually harder to access. Viewed this way, forgetting encompasses a family of plasticity mechanisms that modulate engram accessibility, perhaps in order to prioritize those memories that are most timely or relevant to the situation at hand.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102972"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143074176","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":"Animal models of the human brain: Successes, limitations, and alternatives","authors":"Nancy Kanwisher","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102969","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102969","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The last three decades of research in human cognitive neuroscience have given us an initial “parts list” for the human mind in the form of a set of cortical regions with distinct and often very specific functions. But current neuroscientific methods in humans have limited ability to reveal exactly what these regions represent and compute, the causal role of each in behavior, and the interactions among regions that produce real-world cognition. Animal models can help to answer these questions when homologues exist in other species, like the face system in macaques. When homologues do not exist in animals, for example for speech and music perception, and understanding of language or other people's thoughts, intracranial recordings in humans play a central role, along with a new alternative to animal models: artificial neural networks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102969"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143159112","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":"Genetic advances and translational phenotypes in rodent models for Tourette disorder","authors":"Tess F. Kowalski , Riley Wang , Max A. Tischfield","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102967","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102967","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Tourette disorder (TD) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting approximately 0.3%–1% of children and adolescents. It is defined by motor and vocal tics but encompasses wide ranging phenotypes due to its complex genetic origins, involving hundreds of risk genes across various signaling pathways. Traditional animal models of TD have focused on circuit manipulation or neuron ablation strategies to investigate its underlying causes and associated brain changes. However, the recent identification of high-confidence risk genes has opened new possibilities for creating models that express the exact genetic variants associated with TD. This review discusses early attempts to model TD in rodents and highlights advancements in next-generation models with true construct validity through the expression of orthologous human mutations in high-confidence risk genes. Additionally, we examine the translational potential of integrating cognitive and sensorimotor approaches to evaluate TD-related phenotypes in rodents, including changes to reinforcement learning, habitual behavior, and incentive motivation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102967"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142964010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Common alterations to astrocytes across neurodegenerative disorders","authors":"Aksinya Derevyanko , Tao Tao , Nicola J. Allen","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.102970","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2025.102970","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Astrocytes perform multiple functions in the nervous system, many of which are altered in neurodegenerative disorders. In this review, we explore shared astrocytic alterations across neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and frontotemporal lobe degeneration. Assessing recent datasets of single-nucleus RNA-sequencing of human brains, a theme emerges of common alterations in astrocyte state across disorders including in neuroinflammation, synaptic organization, metabolic support, and the cellular stress response. Immune pathways are upregulated by astrocytes across disorders and may exacerbate neurodegeneration. Dysregulated expression of synaptogenic factors could contribute to synaptic loss, while compromised metabolic support affects neuronal homeostasis. On the other hand, upregulated responses to cellular stress may represent a protective response of astrocytes and thus mitigate pathology. Understanding these shared responses offers insights into disease progression and provides potential therapeutic targets for various neurodegenerative disorders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102970"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143064392","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}
Arsen Petrovic , Thanh Thao Do , Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego
{"title":"New insights into the molecular architecture of neurons by cryo-electron tomography","authors":"Arsen Petrovic , Thanh Thao Do , Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102939","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102939","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) visualizes natively preserved cellular ultrastructure at molecular resolution. Recent developments in sample preparation workflows and image processing tools enable growing applications of cryo-ET in cellular neurobiology. As such, cryo-ET is beginning to unravel the <em>in situ</em> macromolecular organization of neurons using samples of increasing complexity. Here, we highlight advances in cryo-ET technology and review its recent use to study neuronal architecture and its alterations under disease conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102939"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142817501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erin Marie Smith , Maeve Louise Coughlan , Sandra Maday
{"title":"Turning garbage into gold: Autophagy in synaptic function","authors":"Erin Marie Smith , Maeve Louise Coughlan , Sandra Maday","doi":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102937","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conb.2024.102937","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Trillions of synapses in the human brain enable thought and behavior. Synaptic connections must be established and maintained, while retaining dynamic flexibility to respond to experiences. These processes require active remodeling of the synapse to control the composition and integrity of proteins and organelles. Macroautophagy (hereafter, autophagy) provides a mechanism to edit and prune the synaptic proteome. Canonically, autophagy has been viewed as a homeostatic process, which eliminates aged and damaged proteins to maintain neuronal survival. However, accumulating evidence suggests that autophagy also degrades specific cargoes in response to neuronal activity to impact neuronal transmission, excitability, and synaptic plasticity. Here, we will discuss the diverse roles, regulation, and mechanisms of neuronal autophagy in synaptic function and contributions from glial autophagy in these processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10999,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Neurobiology","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 102937"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142817583","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}