Journal of Neuroscience最新文献

{"title":"Presynaptic Mu Opioid Receptors Suppress the Functional Connectivity of Ventral Tegmental Area Dopaminergic Neurons with Aversion-Related Brain Regions.","authors":"Yichen Wu, Tamara Perez-Rosello, Rajeshwar Awatramani, Dalton James Surmeier","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1194-24.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1194-24.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Opioid abuse poses a major healthcare challenge. To meet this challenge, the brain mechanisms underlying opioid abuse need to be more systematically characterized. It is commonly thought that the addictive potential of opioids stems from their ability to enhance the activity of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopaminergic neurons. Indeed, activation of mu opioid receptors (MORs) disinhibits VTA dopaminergic neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens, providing a substrate for the rewarding effects of opioids. However, the abuse potential of opioids has also been linked to their ability to suppress pain and aversive states. Although medial VTA dopaminergic neurons are commonly excited by aversive stimuli, the effects of MOR signaling on this circuitry have not been systematically explored. To fill this gap, a combination of anatomical, optogenetic, and electrophysiological approaches were used to study the afferent circuitry of paranigral VTA (pnVTA) dopaminergic neurons and its modulation by MOR signaling in male and female mice. These studies revealed that aversion-linked glutamatergic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus, ventrolateral periaqueductal gray, and lateral habenula innervated a subset of pnVTA dopaminergic neurons and that activation of presynaptic MORs suppressed their ability to drive pnVTA spiking. A distinct set of pnVTA dopaminergic neurons were innervated by lateral hypothalamus GABAergic neurons, which also were subject to MOR modulation. Thus, MORs robustly inhibit the ability of brain circuits coding aversive states to drive the activity of pnVTA dopaminergic neurons, suggesting that the addictive potential of opioids may stem in part from their ability to act as negative reinforcers.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12244320/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144295175","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":"Interference of mid-level speech and noise statistics underlies human speech recognition sensitivity in natural environmental noise.","authors":"Alex C Clonan,Xiu Zhai,Ian H Stevenson,Monty A Escabí","doi":"10.1523/jneurosci.1751-24.2025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1751-24.2025","url":null,"abstract":"Recognizing speech in noise, such as in a busy restaurant, is an essential cognitive skill where the task difficulty varies across environments and noise levels. Although there is growing evidence that the auditory system relies on statistical representations for perceiving and coding natural sounds, it's less clear how statistical cues and neural representations contribute to segregating speech in natural auditory scenes. Here we demonstrate that male and female human listeners rely on mid-level statistics to segregate and recognize speech in environmental noise. Using natural backgrounds and variants with perturbed spectrotemporal statistics, we show that speech recognition accuracy at a fixed noise level varies extensively across natural backgrounds (0% to 100%). Furthermore, for each background the unique interference created by summary statistics can mask or unmask speech, thus hindering or improving speech recognition. To identify the neural coding strategy and statistical cues that influence accuracy, we developed generalized perceptual regression, a framework that links summary statistics from a neural model to word recognition accuracy. Whereas summary statistics from a peripheral cochlear model account for only 60% of perceptual variance, summary statistics from a mid-level auditory midbrain model accurately predict single trial sensory judgments, accounting for more than 90% of the perceptual variance. Furthermore, perceptual weights from the regression framework identify which statistics and tuned neural filters are influential and how they impact recognition. Thus, perception of speech in natural backgrounds relies on a mid-level auditory representation involving interference of multiple summary statistics that impact recognition beneficially or detrimentally across natural background sounds.Significance Statement Recognizing speech in natural auditory scenes with competing talkers and environmental noise is a critical cognitive skill. Although normal listeners effortlessly perform this task, for instance in a crowded restaurant, it challenges individuals with hearing loss and our most sophisticated machine systems. We tested human participants listening to speech in natural noises with varied statistical characteristics and demonstrate that they rely on a statistical representation of sounds to segregate speech from environmental noise. Using a model of the auditory system, we then demonstrate that a brain inspired statistical representation of natural sounds accurately predicts human perceptual trends across wide range of natural backgrounds and noise levels and reveals key statistical features and neural computations underlying human abilities for this task.","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":"109 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144586703","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":"Cell type-dependent short-term plasticity and dopaminergic modulation of sensory synapses onto mouse superficial dorsal horn neurons.","authors":"Jie Li,Mark L Baccei","doi":"10.1523/jneurosci.0593-25.2025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0593-25.2025","url":null,"abstract":"While transient changes in synaptic strength occurring during the repetitive firing of primary afferent inputs to the spinal superficial dorsal horn (SDH) are predicted to strongly influence the fidelity with which nociceptive signals are transmitted through the SDH network, little is known about whether the properties of short-term plasticity (STP) at sensory synapses depend on the identity of the postsynaptic target, or whether STP is under the control of neuromodulators such as dopamine. Here we investigate these issues using ex vivo patch clamp recordings from identified lamina I spinoparabrachial neurons, inhibitory interneurons (VGAT+) and putative excitatory interneurons (VGAT-) in spinal cord slices from adult mice of both sexes. Repeated activation of A-fiber inputs to the SDH evoked short-term depression (STD) across all major subtypes of SDH neurons, although the magnitude of STD was greatest in projection neurons with high-frequency stimulation. Meanwhile, repetitive activation of C-fiber synapses onto GABAergic interneurons evoked more pronounced STD compared to excitatory neurons across a range of stimulation frequencies. Both A-fiber and C-fiber synapses recovered from STD at a similar rate across the different SDH cell types examined. Dopamine (20 μM) significantly depressed the overall glutamatergic drive, and reduced afferent-evoked firing, selectively in spinoparabrachial neurons and excitatory interneurons without changes in the properties of STP. Collectively, these findings reveal novel potential mechanisms by which the efficacy of the spinal inhibitory \"gate\", and thus the gain of ascending nociceptive transmission to the brain, may be rapidly altered during periods of strong sensory input to the SDH network.Significance Statement Short-term plasticity (STP) serves as a temporal filter to preferentially transmit low- or high-frequency inputs across CNS synapses. Here we demonstrate that STP occurs in a cell type-dependent manner at sensory synapses onto mouse superficial dorsal horn (SDH) neurons. During repetitive stimulation, putative unmyelinated nociceptors exhibit stronger short-term depression (STD) at their synapses onto GABAergic interneurons compared to other SDH neurons, which could transiently compromise the function of the spinal inhibitory 'gate' controlling ascending nociceptive signaling to the brain. While dopamine failed to alter STD at sensory synapses in the adult SDH, it selectively reduced primary afferent-evoked drive onto spinoparabrachial neurons and excitatory interneurons, which may contribute to the previously documented anti-nociceptive effects of dopamine released into the spinal cord.","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":"153 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144586702","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":"Strategies to decipher neuron identity from extracellular recordings in behaving non-human primates.","authors":"David J Herzfeld, Nathan J Hall, Stephen G Lisberger","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0230-25.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0230-25.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Identification of neuron type is critical when using extracellular recordings in awake, behaving animal subjects to understand computation in neural circuits. Yet, modern recording probes have limited power to resolve neuron identity. Here, we present a generalizable framework for assigning neuron type from extracellular recordings in non-human primates. The framework uses a combination of logic, circuit architecture, laminar information, and functional discharge properties. We apply the framework to the well-characterized architecture of the cerebellar circuit by using well-validated strategies to perform expert identification for a subset of extracellular neural recordings in behaving male rhesus macaques. We then use the subpopulation of expert-labeled neurons to train deep-learning classifiers to perform neuron identification with readily-accessible extracellular features as inputs. Waveform, discharge statistics, and anatomical layer each provide information about neuron identity for a sizable fraction of cerebellar units. Together, as inputs to a deep-learning classifier, the features perform even better. Our tools and methodologies, validated during smooth pursuit eye movements in the cerebellar floccular complex of awake behaving monkeys, can guide expert identification of neuron type across neural circuits and species by leveraging circuit layer, waveforms, discharge statistics, anatomical context, and circuit-specific knowledge. Although validated here for the cerebellum, our framework has potential efficacy for many brain areas. Thus, our generalized methodology lays essential groundwork for characterization of information processing at the level of neural circuits.<b>Significance statement</b> To understand how the brain performs computations in the service of behavior, we develop a generalizable framework to link neuron type to functional activity within well-characterized neural circuits. Here, we show how features derived from extracellular recordings provide complementary information to disambiguate neuron identity, using the cerebellar circuit as an exemplar.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144592817","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":"Sleep state influences early sound encoding at cortical but not subcortical levels.","authors":"Hugo R Jourde,Emily B J Coffey","doi":"10.1523/jneurosci.0368-25.2025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0368-25.2025","url":null,"abstract":"In sleep, the brain balances protecting processes like memory consolidation with preserving responsiveness to significant external stimuli. Although reductions in higher-level auditory processes during deeper sleep have been described, the sleep-dependent changes across levels of auditory hierarchy, particularly as regards early sound representations, remain undefined. The frequency-following response (FFR) is an evoked auditory response that indexes neural encoding of sound periodicity. It is generated by neural populations in the brainstem, thalamus, and auditory cortex that phase-lock to periodic auditory stimuli and encode pitch information. The FFR's neural sources, which can be resolved using magnetoencephalography (MEG), allow evaluation of neural representation strength throughout the auditory neuraxis as a function of sleep state, as well as neural events like slow waves and sleep spindles that are hypothesized to attenuate acoustic processing as a means of preserving the sleep state. We recorded FFRs during a 2.5 hour nap from fourteen healthy male and female human adults to investigate how sleep depth and microarchitecture affect auditory encoding. We show that FFR strength is maintained across non-rapid eye movement sleep stages in subcortical nuclei, yet decreases in deeper sleep in the auditory cortex. FFR strength was not influenced by slow wave or spindle activity, but rather by reduced communication between the thalamus and cortex. This differentiation in sound representation across the auditory hierarchy suggests ameans by which the brainmight balance environmental monitoring with preserving critical restorative processes.Significance statement Sleep balances memory consolidation with responsiveness to important external sounds, yet how auditory processing changes across sleep stages remains unclear. The frequency-following response (FFR) reflects neural encoding of sound periodicity and allows assessment of auditory processing from the brainstem to the cortex. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we show that while subcortical FFR strength remains stable across non-rapid eye movement sleep, cortical responses weaken in deeper sleep due to reduced thalamocortical communication. Notably, FFR strength is unaffected by sleep spindles or slow waves. These findings document how the brain selectively dampens cortical auditory processing during sleep.","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578801","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":"Identification of new ciliary signaling pathways in the brain and insights into neurological disorders.","authors":"Abdelhalim Loukil, Emma Ebright, Karama Hamdi, Elizabeth Menzel, Akiyoshi Uezu, Yudong Gao, Scott H Soderling, Sarah C Goetz","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0800-24.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0800-24.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Primary cilia are conserved sensory hubs essential for signaling transduction and embryonic development. Ciliary dysfunction causes a variety of developmental syndromes with neurological features and cognitive impairment whose basis mostly remains unknown. Despite connections to neural function, the primary cilium remains an overlooked organelle in the brain. Most neurons have a primary cilium; however, it is still unclear how this organelle modulates brain architecture and function, given the lack of any systemic dissection of neuronal ciliary signaling. Here, we present the first in vivo glance at the molecular composition of cilia in the mouse brain. We have adapted in vivo BioID (iBioID), targeting the biotin ligase BioID2 to primary cilia in neurons of male and female mice. We identified tissue-specific signaling networks residing in neuronal cilia, including Eph/Ephrin signaling. We also uncovered a novel connection between primary cilia and GABA signaling. Our iBioID ciliary network presents a wealth of new and neural-specific ciliary signaling proteins and yields new insights into neurological disorders. Our findings are a promising first step in defining the fundamentals of ciliary signaling and their roles in shaping neural circuits and behavior. In the future, this work can be extended to pathological conditions of the brain, with the goal of identifying ciliary signaling pathways disrupted in these disorders and the ultimate aim of finding novel therapeutic strategies.<b>Significance statement</b> Primary cilia are sensory hubs crucial for signal transduction and embryonic development. Mutations in ciliary genes can lead to developmental disorders characterized by a wide spectrum of neurological impairments, the molecular basis of which is unknown. Despite its importance, the cilium's functions in the brain remain poorly understood. In this manuscript, we have adapted the in vivo proximity-dependent biotin identification (BioID) to identify the signaling outputs of cilia in neurons. We uncovered novel protein networks in neuronal cilia, including Eph/Ephrin and GABA receptor pathways. We also generated the first ciliary protein network in neurons and shared a wealth of neural hits that can help uncover how cilia mediate neural function and can become perturbed in neurological disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144585510","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":"Conceptual knowledge shapes the neural representations of learned faces in non-visual regions of the brain.","authors":"Kira N Noad,David M Watson,Timothy J Andrews","doi":"10.1523/jneurosci.0122-25.2025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0122-25.2025","url":null,"abstract":"When we encounter people in real life, increased visual experience with their face is accompanied by an accumulation of conceptual knowledge about them. This conceptual knowledge has been shown to play an important role in face recognition. However, the extent to which conceptual knowledge influences neural responses to faces in visual or non-visual regions of the brain is not clear. To address this question, participants (male and female) learned faces in a naturalistic viewing paradigm in which conceptual information was modulated by presenting a movie to participants in either its original sequence, or a scrambled sequence. Although participants in both groups had the same overall perceptual experience, this manipulation had a significant effect on the conceptual understanding of events. After a delay, participants viewed a new movie featuring the previously learned faces while neural activity was measured using fMRI. No significant differences were observed between the Original and Scrambled groups in core face-selective regions of the visual brain. This aligns with the fact that overall exposure to faces was consistent across groups, ensuring that our manipulation did not impact visual processing of faces. In contrast, differences between the groups were evident within a network of regions that are typically associated with processing person knowledge. This network of regions was also able to discriminate the identity of the key characters based on the response to the faces. These findings provide important insights into the level of neural processing at which conceptual knowledge influences familiar face recognition during natural viewing.Significance statement The ability to recognize faces relies on the depth of processing during encoding, not just perceptual exposure. Associating faces with conceptual information enhances recognition by fostering deeper processing. However, the neural level at which this occurs remains unclear. One possibility is that conceptual information strengthens visual representations; alternatively, it may directly influence non-visual regions involved in processing person knowledge. Using a naturalistic movie-viewing paradigm, this study found consistent neural responses in visual regions regardless of conceptual coherence. However, a network linked to person recognition showed significant effects of conceptual knowledge. These findings provide new insights into how real-world learning integrates perceptual and conceptual information, enriching our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying face recognition.","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":"196 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578802","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":"Stress-responsive neuronal ensembles and β-adrenergic signaling in the basolateral amygdala modulate the infra-limbic cortical activity and govern the delayed stress-induced fear extinction deficit.","authors":"Vitor A L Juliano,Amadeu Shigeo-de-Almeida,Taynara Cruz-Nascimento,Lucas L Sampaio,Fábio C Cruz,Leonardo S Novaes,Carolina D Munhoz","doi":"10.1523/jneurosci.2392-24.2025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.2392-24.2025","url":null,"abstract":"Stress is a critical risk factor for the development of psychological disorders, including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Key brain regions, including the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the infralimbic cortex (IL-mPFC), play crucial roles in fear regulation. Our previous research demonstrated that neuronal genomic activity of glucocorticoid receptors in the BLA during a 2-hour acute restraint stress is essential for inducing anxiety-like behavior 10 days later. Additionally, blocking BLA β-adrenergic signaling during the elevated plus maze is crucial for preventing this stress-induced delayed anxiety-like behavior. Here, we utilized adult male Wistar rats to expand on these findings, revealing that a single acute restraint stress session increases the activity of BLA neurons and their projections to the IL-mPFC, while decreasing the activity of IL-mPFC neurons and their projections to the BLA during fear extinction. This finding highlights the key role of the BLA↔IL-mPFC circuitry in fear extinction and its susceptibility to acute stress-induced changes. Notably, the delayed stress-induced fear extinction deficit and decreased IL-mPFC activity during fear extinction depend on the stress-responsive BLA neuronal ensemble and BLA β-adrenergic signaling during contextual fear conditioning 10 days post-stress. Our findings demonstrate the significance of BLA β-adrenergic signaling during contextual fear conditioning, as it induces delayed stress-induced impairments in extinction and regulates IL-mPFC activity during fear extinction. Furthermore, this study indicates that the BLA is a pivotal regulator of delayed stress effects at both the circuitry and behavioral levels, thus shedding new light on the mechanisms underlying stress-related psychiatric conditions.Significance statement We uncover how stress reshapes brain circuits that regulate fear, offering new insights into the neurobiology of stress-related disorders. Stress powerfully triggers mental health conditions like anxiety and PTSD, making it crucial to understand its effects on the brain. We focused on two key players in fear regulation: the BLA, which processes emotional responses, and the IL-mPFC, which helps manage them. By examining how a single acute stress experience alters communication between these regions during fear extinction, we identified the significance of BLA β-adrenergic signaling and stress-responsive neuronal ensembles in influencing behavior. Our findings enhance our understanding of how stress shapes fear-related behaviors and highlight the BLA↔IL-mPFC pathway as a promising target for developing better treatments for stress-related disorders.","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":"265 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578799","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":"Positive Emotion Enhances Memory by Promoting Memory Reinstatement across Repeated Learning.","authors":"Rong Pan,Chuanji Gao,Xiaoman Zhu,Bao-Ming Li,Xi Jia","doi":"10.1523/jneurosci.0009-25.2025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0009-25.2025","url":null,"abstract":"In daily life, we frequently encounter items within emotional contexts through repeated exposure. However, it remains unclear how emotion influences the memory of items learned across multiple repetitions and how neural representations during repeated learning are associated with subsequent memory performance. In the current study, participants learned meaningless squiggles, each followed by an emotional image (positive, neutral, or negative), with each squiggle-image pair presented three times during encoding. After a 24-hours delay, a recognition memory test for the squiggles was performed. The results indicated that behaviorally squiggles were more accurately retrieved in the positive condition compared to the negative condition. An old/new ERP effect was observed between 400 and 1200 ms at the mid-parietal cluster, specific to the positive condition, and correlated with memory performance. Notably, greater EEG representational similarity of neural patterns across repeated learning was observed for subsequently remembered items compared to forgotten items in the positive condition, specifically at the right frontal region between 380 and 600 ms. These findings suggest that positive emotion enhances memory of neutral items across repeated learning through neural representational reinstatement, offering insights into how emotional differences in episodic memory retrieval are linked to neural patterns established during repeated learning.Significance Statement Items are often repeatedly encountered within emotional contexts, and their memorability varies depending on the associated emotional context. In this study, we investigated neural activation pattern similarity across repetitions for items paired with different emotional contexts. Our findings revealed that positive emotions enhanced the retrieval of meaningless squiggles compared to negative emotions. Importantly, greater item-specific spatiotemporal pattern similarity across repetitions during encoding in the positive emotion condition predicted better subsequent memory performance. These results provide neural evidence for the enhanced memory performance of items associated with positive emotions and shed light on the mechanisms underlying memory formation in emotional contexts.","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":"72 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578800","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":"Neural sensitivity to radial frequency patterns in the visual cortex of developing macaques.","authors":"C L Rodríguez Deliz, Gerick M Lee, Brittany N Bushnell, Najib J Majaj, J Anthony Movshon, Lynne Kiorpes","doi":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0179-25.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0179-25.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Visual resolution, contrast sensitivity and form perception improve gradually with age. In nonhuman primates, the sensitivity and resolution of cells in the retina, lateral geniculate nucleus and primary visual cortex (V1) also improve, but not enough to account for the perceptual changes. So, what aspects of visual system development limit visual sensitivity in infants? Improvements in behavioral sensitivity might arise from maturation of regions downstream of V1 such as V2, V4 and pIT, which are thought to support increasingly complex perceptual abilities. We recorded the responses of populations of neurons in areas V1, V2, V4, and pIT to radial frequency patterns - a type of global form stimulus. Subjects were three young monkeys (2 female, 1 male) between the ages of 19 and 54 weeks, and a single adult animal (male). We found that neurons and neural populations in V4 reliably encoded global form in radial frequency stimuli at the earliest ages we studied, while V1 neurons do not. V2 and pIT populations also showed some degree of selectivity for these patterns at early ages, especially at higher radial frequency values. We did not find significant, systematic changes in neural decoding performance that could account for the improvement in behavioral performance over the same age range in an overlapping group of animals (Rodriguez Deliz et al., 2024). Finally, consistent with our prior behavioral results, neural populations in V4 show highest sensitivity for the higher radial frequency values which contain the highest concentration of curvature and orientation cues.<b>Significance statement</b> Infants have remarkably limited ability to discriminate shapes. These limitations cannot be fully explained by postnatal changes in their eyes, visual thalamus, or primary visual cortex. The perception of shape requires integration of local cues across space to create global form information. We therefore examined populations of neurons in extrastriate visual cortex to learn whether information represented in these regions might limit infants' abilities to process global forms. We found instead that extrastriate areas involved in global form processing function maturely early in life, by the age of 4-6 months, suggesting that infants' perceptual limits are set by other aspects of brain development.</p>","PeriodicalId":50114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144561794","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}