Neuroscience

Defensive behaviors induced by innate fear or Pavlovian fear conditioning are crucial for animals to avoid threats and ensure survival. The zona incerta (ZI) has been demonstrated to play important roles in fear learning and fear memory, as well as modulating auditory-induced innate defensive behavior. However, whether the neuronal subtypes in the ZI and specific circuits can mediate the innate fear response is largely unknown. Here, we found that somatostatin (SST)-positive neurons in the rostral ZI of mice were activated by a visual innate fear stimulus.

Microglia are widely distributed in the central nervous system (CNS), where they aid in the maintenance of neuronal function and perform key auxiliary roles in phagocytosis, neural repair, immunological control, and nutrition delivery. Microglia in the undamaged spinal cord is in a stable state and serve as immune monitors. In the event of spinal cord injury (SCI), severe changes in the microenvironment and glial scar formation lead to axonal regeneration failure.

Patients with cholestatic liver disease, including those with primary biliary cholangitis, can experience symptoms of impaired cognition or brain fog. This phenomenon remains unexplained and is currently untreatable. Bile duct ligation (BDL) is an established rodent model of cholestasis. In addition to liver changes, BDL animals develop cognitive symptoms early in the disease process (before development of cirrhosis and/or liver failure). The cellular mechanisms underpinning these cognitive symptoms are poorly understood.

X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a genetic disorder that presents neurologically as either a rapid and fatal cerebral demyelinating disease in childhood (childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy; ccALD) or slow degeneration of the spinal cord in adulthood (adrenomyeloneuropathy; AMN).

A model was previously proposed that DA neurons provide SHH ligand to striatal interneurons, which in turn support the survival of DA neurons through the release of trophic factors such as Glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). However, some key clinical observations do not support this proposed model, and a recent independent study shows that striatal cholinergic neuron survival does not rely on intact DA neuron projections.

Prosaposin (PSAP) and progranulin (PGRN) are two lysosomal proteins that interact and modulate the metabolism of lipids, particularly sphingolipids. Alterations in sphingolipid metabolism have been found in schizophrenia. Genetic associations of PSAP and PGRN with schizophrenia have been reported. To further clarify the role of PSAP and PGRN in schizophrenia, we examined PSAP and PGRN levels in postmortem cingulate cortex tissue from healthy controls along with patients who had suffered from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder.

Nuclear depletion and cytoplasmic mislocalisation of the RNA-binding protein heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K) within pyramidal neurons of the frontal cortex have been shown to be a common neuropathological feature in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and elderly control brain. Here, we describe a second neuronal subtype vulnerable to mislocalisation within the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum.

Satellite glial cells (SGCs) that surround sensory neurons in the peripheral nervous system ganglia originate from neural crest cells. Although several studies have focused on SGCs, the origin and characteristics of SGCs are unknown, and their lineage remains unidentified. Traditionally, it has been considered that SGCs regulate the environment around neurons under pathological conditions, and perform functions of supporting, nourishing, and protecting neurons. However, recent studies demonstrated that SGCs may have the characteristics of stem cells.

Twenty of the last one hundred years of vitamin D research have involved investigations of the brain as a target organ for this hormone. Our group was one of the first to investigate brain outcomes resulting from primarily restricting dietary vitamin D during brain development. With the advent of new molecular and neurochemical techniques in neuroscience, there has been increasing interest in the potential neuroprotective actions of vitamin D in response to a variety of adverse exposures and how this hormone could affect brain development and function.

The central extended amygdala (CEA) and ventral pallidum (VP) are involved in diverse motivated behaviors based on rodent models. These structures are conserved, but expanded, in higher primates including human. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), a canonical 'stress molecule' associated with the CEA and VP circuitry across species, is dynamically regulated by stress and drugs of abuse and misuse. CRF's effects on circuits critically depend on its colocation with primary 'fast' transmitters, making this crucial for understanding circuit effects.