{"title":"Non-invasive deep-brain neuromodulation by transcranial radio frequency stimulation","authors":"Omid Yaghmazadeh","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01060-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01060-2","url":null,"abstract":"In this Tools of the Trade article, Omid Yaghmazadeh describes the proof-of-concept development of transcranial radio frequency stimulation in mice, a potentially scalable and effective therapeutic platform for non-invasive deep-brain stimulation.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 8","pages":"525-525"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148272020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Derek Bowie, Xin-Tong Wang, Federico Miguez-Cabello, Amanda M. Perozzo
{"title":"The AMPA receptor life cycle: assembly, regulation and synaptic diversity","authors":"Derek Bowie, Xin-Tong Wang, Federico Miguez-Cabello, Amanda M. Perozzo","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01055-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01055-z","url":null,"abstract":"AMPA receptors (AMPARs) mediate the majority of fast excitatory neurotransmission in the mammalian brain. Recent structural, functional and proteomic advances have reshaped our understanding of how these receptors assemble, gate and diversify within distinct synaptic environments. Notably, AMPAR function is governed by an interlocking set of regulatory layers that include alternative splicing and RNA editing within regions of the receptor subunits responsible for gating and permeation, and direct allosteric coupling with different families of auxiliary proteins. The assembly of AMPARs through a dedicated endoplasmic reticulum biogenesis pathway ensures accurate tetramer formation and provides a regulatory checkpoint for synaptic receptor abundance. Brain development introduces additional layers of control as editing, splicing and auxiliary-subunit expression shift from embryonic to adult states, whereas interactions with extracellular proteins contribute to the organization and diversification of synaptic architecture across circuits. Thus, AMPARs are dynamic macromolecular assemblies whose diversity underlies the breadth of glutamatergic signalling in health and disease. This Review synthesizes these emerging principles, highlighting how AMPARs transition from their molecular ‘birth’ to their deployment at functionally specialized synapses. AMPA receptors (AMPARs) mediate fast excitatory neurotransmission in the brain. Derek Bowie and colleagues describe recent advances in our understanding of the regulatory layers that operate across the lifespan of an AMPAR to govern its assembly, structure and function.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 8","pages":"551-570"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148239776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resolving rapid cell-surface proteome remodelling in intact neural circuits","authors":"Colleen N. McLaughlin","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01052-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01052-2","url":null,"abstract":"In this Tools of the Trade article, Colleen McLaughlin describes endocytome profiling, a systematic and quantitative approach for monitoring of cell-surface protein remodelling in the intact brain.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 7","pages":"461-461"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148176064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When inhibition organizes the brain","authors":"Renata Batista-Brito","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01051-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01051-3","url":null,"abstract":"In this Journal Club, Renata Batista-Brito discusses a 2009 study that showed that a population of inhibitory hub neurons orchestrate network synchrony in the developing hippocampus.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 7","pages":"464-464"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148150710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Metabolic vulnerability and tau pathology in combination drive necroptosis","authors":"Sian Lewis","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01053-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01053-1","url":null,"abstract":"Neuronal loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer disease occurs through necroptosis and is shown to be dependent on low-glucose conditions, which increase hyperphosphorylated tau levels; in turn, this simultaneously activates pro-necroptotic pathways and disables a key checkpoint mechanism.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 7","pages":"463-463"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147988475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neural basis of social hierarchy across species","authors":"Rongzhen Yan, Dayu Lin","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01047-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01047-z","url":null,"abstract":"A social hierarchy is an ordered ranking of individuals that arises through their interactions and governs relative access to resources and social influence. This form of social organization is pervasive across animal species and has a crucial role in shaping survival and reproductive outcomes. Across species, the routes to high status vary widely. As social groups become more complex, the basis of hierarchy shifts from simple residency rules to fighting-based dominance and finally to alliance-based systems. In this Review, we first examine the neuroendocrine and subcortical mechanisms that support status transitions in residency-based hierarchies. We then discuss plasticity within hypothalamic and mesolimbic circuits that underlie fighting-outcome-based social learning, through which fighting-based hierarchies emerge. Finally, we explore alliance-based hierarchies in cognitively complex species, in which individuals attain status through coalition formation, cooperation and reputation. We review evidence that cortical regions encode information about the strengths, emotions, experiences and intentions of other individuals and use this to navigate complex social interactions and attain status. As social hierarchies have shifted from primarily fighting-based to increasingly alliance-based strategies over evolutionary time, neural control of status has, thus, transitioned from subcortical social behaviour circuits to a more elaborated cortical network in humans. Structured social hierarchies, in which individuals differ in their access to resources and influence over other group members, are a characteristic of many social species. Rongzhen Yan and Dayu Lin describe the diverse routes through which social hierarchies arise in different species and outline our current understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 7","pages":"494-512"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147942259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sarah Genon, Agustin Ibanez, Masoud Tahmasian, Simon B. Eickhoff
{"title":"Linking the exposome to the brain–behaviour phenotype","authors":"Sarah Genon, Agustin Ibanez, Masoud Tahmasian, Simon B. Eickhoff","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01049-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01049-x","url":null,"abstract":"A range of environmental, lifestyle and biological exposures across the lifespan — varying in timing, duration and intensity — interact with genetic factors to shape an individual’s neurocognitive phenotype. By referring to the totality of exposures that an individual has experienced in their life so far, the exposome offers a valuable concept to better understand interindividual variability in not only brain–behaviour phenotype but also vulnerability and resilience to brain diseases. Numerous large-scale neuroimaging projects are enriched with extended exposomic data including sociodemographic, biomedical, lifestyle and environmental measurements. Yet, deciphering how this complex web of influences collectively and dynamically shapes individual brain–behaviour phenotypes comes with substantial challenges. In this Perspective, we first emphasize how the exposome concept refers to a set of interrelated and interacting factors and outline how multivariate pattern learning enables us to account for this complexity. We also highlight temporality as a key challenge, as the timing, duration and sequencing of exposures importantly shape their associations with brain–behaviour phenotypes, and we discuss existing approaches to address these dynamics and their limitations. We further underscore the challenge of causal inferences in population datasets, especially given bidirectional exposome–brain relationships. We then refer to traditional statistical design, as well as generative models and causal machine learning, as promising perspectives to approach data entanglement. Finally, we conclude that, to truly benefit global health, the field also needs to address the lack of global diversity in brain–behaviour exposomic research. Many physical, social, lifestyle and systemic body factors — collectively termed the ‘exposome’ — can influence brain and behavioural phenotypes across the lifespan. In this Perspective, Sarah Genon and colleagues examine how we can gain a better understanding of the exposome’s neurocognitive effects.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 7","pages":"513-524"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147942274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mapping the molecular effects of Down syndrome in the developing brain","authors":"Katherine Whalley","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01050-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01050-4","url":null,"abstract":"Two studies use single-nucleus multiomic sequencing to profile molecular and cellular dysfunction in the prenatal and early postnatal cortex in Down syndrome.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 7","pages":"462-462"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147931876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking hierarchy: the auditory system as an integrated cortical–subcortical network","authors":"Michael Lohse, Ben D. B. Willmore, Andrew J. King","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01045-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01045-1","url":null,"abstract":"Mammalian sensory systems are traditionally viewed as hierarchical pathways in which subcortical nuclei relay signals from peripheral receptors to the cortex, where sensory information is contextualized for perception and behaviour. However, the auditory pathway contains an unusually large number of anatomically complex, recurrently connected subcortical nuclei that transmit heavily pre-processed information to the cortex. Emerging evidence shows that the auditory system functions as an integrated cortical–subcortical network that is heavily influenced by non-auditory inputs and extensive bidirectional connectivity at nearly all levels. Subcortical structures are not passive relays but active participants in computations traditionally attributed to cortex, including adaptive coding of sound statistics, multisensory integration, encoding of behavioural relevance and action, and learning. Although certain transformations occur hierarchically — such as brainstem spatial processing — sensitivity to most sound features forms a continuum across the auditory pathway, with modulation by other sensory, motor and cognitive systems at every stage. The degree of subcortical pre-processing may explain why emergent cortical properties are harder to identify in audition than in vision, in which cortical and subcortical receptive field properties are more distinct. This distributed circuit organization opens new avenues for understanding how the brain constructs perception and guides behaviour from the fusion of sensory evidence and contextual knowledge. The auditory system differs from other senses in the complexity of its subcortical pathways. King and colleagues examine how subcortical structures transform sound representations and integrate sensory and behavioural context, highlighting their fundamental role in shaping cortical activity and in active listening.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 7","pages":"465-480"},"PeriodicalIF":29.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147875165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Large-scale electrophysiology at single-spike resolution","authors":"Joshua H. Siegle, Nicholas A. Steinmetz","doi":"10.1038/s41583-026-01042-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41583-026-01042-4","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advances in electrode technology — including the development of Neuropixels and SiNAPS probes — have made it possible to routinely capture spike trains from thousands of neurons distributed across the brain. Widespread dissemination of these tools has not only yielded new discoveries but also changed the way in which neuroscientific questions are asked and answered. In this article, we describe the motivations for collecting electrophysiological recordings on this scale, review the basic physical principles underlying these measurements and discuss key considerations for generating optimally useful datasets. We compare the latest devices for large-scale recordings and address challenges and opportunities in data analysis, rigour, reproducibility and data sharing. Finally, we provide a roadmap for future advances in this space. We argue that widely available hardware, software and protocols are now empowering scientists to perform experiments matched to the scale and complexity of the neural circuits that underlie complex mammalian behaviours. Recent advances in large-scale electrophysiology now enable researchers to record from thousands of neurons distributed across the brain. Siegle and Steinmetz describe the principles underlying this technology and outline the key considerations, challenges and opportunities associated with collecting, analysing and sharing large electrophysiological datasets.","PeriodicalId":49142,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience","volume":"27 6","pages":"395-415"},"PeriodicalIF":26.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147817922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}