Review Articles in 2013

From FM dyes, cypHers, pHluorin and Q-dots to electron tomography and super-resolution microscopy, Kavalali and Jorgensen present a critical survey of the optical paraphernalia currently available to investigate presynaptic function, highlighting the specific strengths and limitations inherent to these various approaches.

In this review, the authors examine how the identification and analysis of genes associated with ALS have begun to provide insight into the onset and pathology of this motor disease. In addition, they discuss some emerging themes that are poised to inform future efforts to identify further gene targets.

In this review, the author brings together research on the neuro-computational basis of decision-making and the homeostatic regulation of feeding behavior, emphasizing what is unique about feeding decisions, and how homeostatic signals influence the decision-making circuitry.

Brain enriched RNA editing of Adenosine-to-Inosine (A-to-I) increases the amount of information encoded in the genome and diversifies the transcriptome. Here the authors discuss how recent technological and analytical developments may facilitate the discovery of RNA editing sites and the understanding of their functions and regulation.

This review article by Peter McKinnon discusses the latest progress in understanding the complexity of DNA damage and related repair pathways in the nervous system. The piece highlights DNA damage/repair in both normal course of brain development and in aging, and discusses possible dysfunction of this mechanism in disease as uniquely faced by postmitotic neurons in the brain.

Here the authors review emerging evidence from circadian systems, indicating an important role for post-transcriptional regulation, from splicing, polyadenylation and mRNA stability to translation and noncoding functions exemplified by microRNAs. They hypothesize that post-transcriptional control confers to circadian clocks enhanced robustness as well as the ability to adapt to different environments.

Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) integrates a variety of inputs and regulates diverse cellular functions. In this review, the authors discuss recent studies implicating mTOR signaling in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diseases, and the mechanisms that may underlie these effects.

Computational neuroscientists have started to shed light on how probabilistic representations and computations might be implemented in neural circuits, and here the authors review the application of these theories thus far. They further discuss the challenges that will emerge as researchers start expanding their use to more sophisticated, real-life computations.

The authors review recent work using functional connectivity in fMRI and discuss the issues that constrain the interpretation of these studies, as well as the potential uses of this analysis technique.

The use of patient-derived stem cells for in vitro neurodegenerative disease modeling has gained much traction in recent years. In this review, the authors examine the potential caveats and pitfalls of stem cell use and highlight insights from the literature that suggest methods for overcoming these difficulties.

The strength and versatility of optogenetics rely not only on the diversity of the optogene toolkit but also on the ability to achieve spatially selective and temporally precise control of electrical activity in specific neural circuits, individual cells or subcellular compartments. This remains a challenge and requires sophisticated experimental designs. In this article, Packer, Roska and Häusser discuss the myriad combinations of optical, anatomical and genetic strategies that can be used to manipulate neuronal activity with light.

In this review article, the authors give a brief overview of the sensory capabilities of rodents and of their cortical areas devoted to sensation and decision. They also review methods of psychophysics, focusing on the technical issues that arise in their implementation in rodents.

Immunogold techniques allow target proteins to be localized subcellularly quantitatively and with high precision. In this review, the authors discuss applications of these techniques, as well as limitations and possible pitfalls to be avoided in their use.

The authors provide an overview of the uses and limitations of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and suggest ways to advance the field.

This review discusses recent advances in optogenetic pharmacology, discussing its potential to manipulate endogenous neuronal signaling proteins. These approaches include caged agonists and antagonists and reversibly photoswitchable ligands.

Standard light microscopy techniques cannot resolve the subcellular structures of neurons: axons, presynaptic active zones, postsynaptic densities and dendritic spines. In this review, the authors discuss the use of recently developed super-resolution light microscopic techniques to resolve these structures, and how such techniques can be most effectively used in the future.

In this review, the authors discuss the function of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) in regulating the synthesis of plasticity-related target proteins. The authors review the known mRNA targets of FMRP and discuss the potential therapeutic implications of this research.

In this review, György Buzsáki and Edvard Moser discuss the most recent evidence suggesting that the navigation and memory functions of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex are supported by the same neuronal algorithms. They propose that the mechanisms fueling the memory and mental travel engines in the hippocampal-entorhinal system evolved from the mechanisms supporting navigation in the physical world.

In this review, the authors highlight recent progress made in fear learning and memory, differential susceptibility to disorders of fear, and how these findings are being applied to understanding, treatment, and possible prevention of fear disorders in the clinic.

This Review article discusses in the context of learning and memory the function of sleep to earmark which daily event or information should be consolidated and which mundane information should be discarded, and how this 'memory triage' process is a selective and yet generalization process that can also bind features together in a non-congruous manner when they are recalled.