Neuroscience

Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) acts as a brake for the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-AKT-mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) pathway, the deletion of which promotes potent central nervous system (CNS) axon regeneration. Previously, we demonstrated that AKT activation is sufficient to promote CNS axon regeneration to a lesser extent than PTEN deletion. It is still questionable whether AKT is entirely responsible for the regenerative effect of PTEN deletion on CNS axons.

Avoidance of innate threats is often in conflict with motivations to engage in exploratory approach behavior. The neural pathways that mediate this approach-avoidance conflict are not well resolved.

Transient brain insults including status epilepticus (SE) can trigger a period of epileptogenesis during which functional and structural reorganization of neuronal networks occurs resulting in the onset of focal epileptic seizures.

The locus coeruleus (LC)-norepinephrine (NE) system modulates a range of salient brain functions, including memory and response to stress. The LC-NE system is regulated by neurochemically diverse inputs, including a range of neuropeptides such as arginine-vasopressin (AVP). Whilst the origins of many of these LC inputs, their synaptic connectivity with LC neurons, and their contribution to LC-mediated brain functions, have been well characterized, this is not the case for the AVP-LC system.

HSV-1 establishes latency in both peripheral nerve ganglia and the central nervous system (CNS). The outcome of acute and latent infections in these different anatomic sites appear to be distinct.

Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), which express the photopigment melanopsin, are photosensitive neurons in the retina and are essential for non-image-forming functions, circadian photoentrainment, and pupillary light refle

Fluorescent detection of transcripts using RNAscope has quickly become a standard in situ hybridization (ISH) approach in neuroscience with over 400 publications since its introduction in 2012. RNAscope's sensitivity and specificity allow the simultaneously detection of up to three low abundance mRNAs in single cells (i.e., multiplexing) and, in contrast to other ISH techniques, RNAscope is performed in 1 day.

The ventral pallidum (VP) is a critical component of the basal ganglia neurocircuitry regulating learning and decision making; however, its precise role in controlling associative learning of environmental stimuli conditioned to appetitive or aversive outcomes is still unclear.

Potassium (K+) channels shape the response properties of neurons.

Cortical networks are characterized by sparse connectivity, with synapses found at only a subset of axo-dendritic contacts. Yet within these networks, neurons can exhibit high connection probabilities, suggesting that cell-intrinsic factors, not proximity, determine connectivity. Here, we identify ephrin-B3 (eB3) as a factor that determines synapse density by mediating a cell-cell competition that requires ephrin-B-EphB signaling.