Journal of Neuroscience最新文献

{"title":"Bright light shapes diurnal sleep-wake rhythms with associated cFos activity in the anterior paraventricular thalamus in the Nile grass rat.","authors":"Sakura Tamogami, Shoya Ikeda, Hiromu Amano, Ryoei Suzuki, Riona Yamamoto, Ryunosuke Mise, Suzue Kitade, Takatoshi Mochizuki, Tomoko Yoshikawa, Eri Morioka, Masayuki Ikeda","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0253-26.2026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0253-26.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep profiles of the Nile grass rat (<i>Arvicanthis niloticus</i>), a day-active rodent that is widely used in research, have not been fully characterized. Sleep electroencephalograms were therefore recorded in male Nile grass rats maintained under 12/12-hour light-dark (LD) cycles with different light intensities and spectra. A crepuscular elevation in wakefulness was observed under LD cycles of 150-lux white light. Moreover, a stepwise increase in daytime wakefulness and a reduction in daytime non-rapid eye movement sleep were observed at higher light intensities (300 or 1000 lux). The amount of nighttime non-rapid eye movement sleep remained stable regardless of preceding light conditions, whereas delta electroencephalogram power was enhanced during the day and early nighttime under 1000-lux LD cycles, suggesting homeostatic control of sleep quality. Although Nile grass rats have ultraviolet-sensitive photoreceptors, daytime co-exposures of ultraviolet light did not affect daily sleep amounts or quality under 300-lux LD cycles. We then explored correlations between brain activity and sleep-wake levels or light intensities (150 or 1000 lux) using cFos immunostaining in brains sampled at four different times of the day. cFos immunoreactivity in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus-the central circadian clock-displayed the highest signal at light onset under 1000-lux LD cycles. Furthermore, cFos immunoreactivity in the anterior paraventricular thalamic nucleus increased at dawn and dusk, and the midday signal was amplified by 1000-lux light. These results elucidate light-dependent sleep-wake profiles in Nile grass rats and suggest the possible involvement of the anterior paraventricular thalamic nucleus in daytime arousal control.<b>Significance Statement</b> Understanding how environmental light shapes sleep-wake regulation in diurnal mammals is essential for developing experimental models relevant to human physiology and sleep disorders. This study provides a comprehensive EEG/EMG-based characterization of sleep architecture in the Nile grass rat, a diurnal rodent with strong potential as a model for seasonal affective disorders. Bright daytime light enhanced arousal, reduced NREM and REM sleep, and increased delta power, revealing intensity-dependent modulation of sleep quantity and quality. cFos mapping further identified the anterior paraventricular thalamus as a candidate node linking light exposure to arousal regulation. These findings position the Nile grass rat as a valuable experimental species for investigating the mechanisms underlying human circadian sleep-wake organization and its modulation by environmental light.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147823078","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":"Acceleration and Velocity Dissociate Temporal Phases of Postural Control in Rhesus Macaques.","authors":"Olivia M E Leavitt Brown, Bassil A Ramadan, Kathleen E Cullen","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0121-26.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0121-26.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maintaining balance requires the nervous system to transform sensory signals about unexpected postural perturbations into precisely timed motor commands. Although human studies have established that postural responses unfold in distinct temporal phases, how specific kinematic variables structure these phases during rotational perturbations remains unresolved, because angular acceleration and velocity are typically confounded. Here, we developed a rhesus macaque model of postural control that independently manipulates angular acceleration and peak velocity during transient pitch and roll tilts in monkeys of either sex. By simultaneously measuring head kinematics-directly relevant to vestibular signaling-and center-of-pressure dynamics, we quantified how sensory inputs and motor outputs evolve across successive phases of the postural response. We show that short-latency postural responses (<100 ms) are primarily governed by angular acceleration, whereas medium-latency responses (100-200 ms) scale with angular velocity. This dissociation was robust across perturbation axes and accompanied by axis-dependent control strategies: roll tilts elicited constrained head motion consistent with active stabilization in space, whereas pitch tilts produced more compliant, platform-following behavior. Together, these findings identify distinct kinematic variables governing successive phases of balance control and establish a primate framework for linking neural circuit activity to the temporal organization of postural responses.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13129614/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147582746","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":"A Dorsal versus Ventral Network for Understanding Others in the Developing Brain.","authors":"Clara Schüler, Philipp Berger, Charlotte Grosse Wiesmann","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1419-24.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1419-24.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Young children strongly depend on others, and learning to understand their mental states (referred to as theory of mind, ToM) is a key challenge of early cognitive development. Traditionally, ToM is thought to emerge around the age of 4 years. Yet, in nonverbal tasks, preverbal infants already seem to consider others' mental states when predicting their actions. These early nonverbal capacities, however, seem fragile and distinct from later-developing verbal ToM. So far, little is known about the nature of these early capacities and the neural networks supporting them. To identify these networks, we investigated the maturation of nerve fiber connections associated with children's correct nonverbal action prediction and compared them with connections supporting verbal ToM reasoning in 3- to 4-year-old children of both sexes, that is, before and after their breakthrough in verbal ToM. This revealed a ventral network for nonverbal action prediction versus a dorsal network for verbal ToM. Nonverbal capacities were associated with maturational indices in ventral fiber tracts connecting regions of the salience network, involved in bottom-up social attention processes. In contrast, verbal ToM performance correlated with maturational indices of the arcuate fascicle and cingulum, which dorsally connect regions of the default network, involved in higher-order social cognitive processes including ToM in adults. As nonverbal tasks were linked to connections of the salience network, young children may make use of salient perceptual social cues to predict others' actions, questioning theories of mature ToM before 4 years.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13129659/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147488292","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":"Hierarchical Afferent Connectivity Drives Population-Wide Bursting Dynamics in a Computational Model of Human-Derived Excitatory Neuronal Networks.","authors":"Valerio Barabino, Francesca Callegari, Sergio Martinoia, Paolo Massobrio","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0912-25.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0912-25.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This work presents a computational model of excitatory neuronal networks derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells, whose activity was recorded with microelectrode arrays. A key feature of in vitro neuronal cultures is the emergence of network bursts (NBs)-population events involving most neurons, characterized by different durations, firing frequencies, and recruitment patterns. Our numerical approach investigates the mechanisms underlying these dynamics, addressing the limitations of experimental systems that make it difficult to isolate specific parameters and processes. The model aims to investigate how local neuronal dynamics and global structural connectivity interact to shape the emergence, propagation, and termination of NBs, highlighting the interdependence between intrinsic and network-level mechanisms. We demonstrate the critical role of noise in triggering NBs. At the same time, nonrandom, structured network topologies are essential for sustaining and shaping the resulting collective spatiotemporal firing patterns. In particular, we showed that the organization of incoming and outgoing degrees significantly modulates population recruitment and burst structure, with a hierarchical organization of afferent connectivity emerging as the dominant determinant of collective dynamics. By integrating in vitro observations into in silico simulations, the present study provides a solid foundation for understanding the principles governing human neuronal network function. Also, it sets the stage for investigating how alterations of network properties may contribute to pathological conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13129645/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147516512","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":"Substantia Nigra Pars Reticulata Regulates the Prefrontal Cortex via the Ventromedial Thalamus.","authors":"Sanne M Casello, Adam G Carter","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0067-26.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0067-26.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ventromedial thalamus (VM) innervates layer 1 (L1) of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to influence executive function and arousal. Thalamocortical (TC) cells in VM process inputs from the cortex that are important for generating persistent activity in closed reciprocal loops. However, little is known about the connectivity and influence of subcortical inputs to TC cells and how they are routed through VM to circuits in the mPFC. Here, we use anatomical tracing, electrophysiology, and optogenetics to investigate subcortico-thalamo-cortical circuits involving VM in mice of either sex. We first characterize the morphology and physiology of TC cells in VM and determine their main subcortical input arises from substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr). We then show how SNr inputs make strong inhibitory connections onto TC cells, which are mediated by GABA_A receptors and effectively suppress action potential firing. Lastly, we utilize intersectional approaches to show how SNr inputs are channeled via TC cells in VM to engage specific inhibitory networks in L1 of mPFC. Together, our results indicate how subcortical inputs engage higher-order thalamus to influence the frontal cortex, highlighting differences from equivalent circuits in motor systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13129639/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147515686","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-Locking Saccades to Posterior Alpha Oscillations Improves the Neural Representation of Visual Objects during Memory Formation.","authors":"Graham Flick, Jed Meltzer, Jennifer D Ryan, Rosanna K Olsen","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1901-25.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1901-25.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Visual memory formation relies on the intake and neural processing of discrete samples provided by gaze fixations and saccades. Past research has highlighted a functional relationship between the timing of saccades and oscillations in neural activity over posterior brain areas: saccades phase-lock to alpha oscillations (8-12 Hz) and the degree of phase-locking, in natural scenes, has been associated with subsequent recognition memory. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the putative memory encoding benefit arises due to improved neuronal processing and, ultimately, better neural representation of foveated items, when saccades are locked to alpha phase. In a coregistered magnetoencephalography (MEG) and eye-tracking paradigm, 32 participants (23 females, 9 males) executed saccades from central fixation to images that appeared in the periphery, attempting to remember those images for later testing. Replicating past results, saccades to subsequently remembered images were preceded by greater intertrial phase coherence in the alpha frequency band, at posterior MEG channels, consistent with the notion that the eye movements were phase-locked. Crucially, the degree of saccade phase-locking was positively associated with how well visual and semantic properties of the images were represented in neural activity, within 200 ms of their foveation. This relationship was evident in responses localized to parieto-occipital cortex, where greater saccade phase-locking was associated with improved visual and semantic representations. These results support the hypothesis that phase-locking saccades to alpha oscillations leads to improved neuronal representation of foveated stimuli, providing new mechanistic insight into how episodic memories are formed from discrete visual samples.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13129653/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147516495","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":"Repeated Viewing of a Film Clip Changes Event Timescales in the Brain.","authors":"Narjes Al-Zahli, Mariam Aly, Christopher Baldassano","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1657-25.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1657-25.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Many everyday experiences share a recurring structure: routines, familiar routes, rewatched films, and replayed songs. How do repeated encounters with such structure alter the brain's representations of events? We hypothesized that, with repeated viewing of a film clip, event representations in the brain may adapt by becoming either finer (more detailed) or coarser (more generalized). To test this hypothesis, we analyzed data from 30 human participants (12 males, 18 females) who underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while watching three 90 s clips from \"The Grand Budapest Hotel\" six times each. We used hidden Markov models and pattern similarity analysis applied to searchlights across the brain to quantify the strength of event structure at different timescales for each clip presentation. We then tested how event structure strength changed at both slow and fast timescales with repeated viewings. Most brain regions exhibited stability in the strength of event structure at both slow and fast timescales. Other regions, however, showed flexible event representations that became more or less granular across repeated clip presentations. Notably, several brain regions exhibited consistent changes in the strength of event structure at a slow timescale across different movie clips. Furthermore, in lateral occipital cortex and middle temporal gyrus, slow-timescale structure was correlated with subsequent memory for the clips. These results highlight that event dynamics in the brain are not fixed but can change flexibly with experience.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13085092/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147516498","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":"Advances in Cell Therapy for Neural Repair.","authors":"Lyandysha V Zholudeva, Soshana P Svendsen, Irene L Llorente, Vanessa Kan, Eve C Tsai, Victor Ogbolu, Liang Qiang, Edward D Wirth, Carlos A Paladini, Clive N Svendsen, Michael A Lane","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1675-25.2026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1675-25.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neural repair remains one of the foremost challenges in modern neuroscience, as damage to the central nervous system caused by injury or neurodegenerative disease often leads to irreversible loss of function. The advent and rapid evolution of utilizing stem cell biology have provided unprecedented opportunities to advance regenerative strategies aimed at restoring brain and spinal cord integrity, with the goal of regaining lost functions and improving outcomes for individuals living with injury and disease. Among these, cell therapies using derivatives of pluripotent stem cells have emerged as promising approaches, driving innovation from primary tissue transplants to the engineering of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neuronal and glial progenitors and now to complex multicellular brain and spinal cord organoids. Complementing these biological innovations, artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming regenerative neuroscience by enabling large-scale data analysis and predictive modeling. This review synthesizes recent progress across these areas, highlighting emerging technologies and therapeutic adjuncts that enhance the applicability and efficacy of neural repair paradigms.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":"46 17","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147787694","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":"Sparse Spatial Scaffolding for Visual Working Memory.","authors":"Baiwei Liu, Zampeta-Sofia Alexopoulou, Siyang Kong, Anne Zonneveld, Freek van Ede","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0318-25.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0318-25.2026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When holding information \"in mind,\" it is vital to keep individual representations separated and selectively accessible for guiding behavior. Space is known to serve as a foundational scaffold for mnemonic individuation, yet the format and flexibility of spatial scaffolding for working memory remain elusive. We hypothesized that information in working memory can be recoded from its native format at encoding to organize and retain internal representations sparsely. To test this, we presented to-be-memorized visual items at distinct directions and distances and leveraged gaze biases during mnemonic selection as an implicit read-out of spatial scaffolding for working memory. We report how male and female humans abstract away over incidental item distance when direction alone suffices as a scaffold but incorporate distance when it aids mnemonic individuation. This suggests the flexible use of a sparse spatial scaffold for working memory, resorting to the minimal spatial scaffold required for the individuation of internal representations.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13129650/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147595817","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":"On Endogenous Social Impact and Neural Similarity among Friends.","authors":"Ann L M P Hogenhuis","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2106-25.2026","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2106-25.2026","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":"46 17","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13129641/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147786842","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}