Reviews & Analysis

In this Review, Panzeri, Moroni, Safaai and Harvey explain how the levels and structures of correlations among the activity of neurons in a population shape information encoding, transmission and readout, and describe how future research could determine how the structures of correlations are optimized.

Comparisons of real networks with null models enable researchers to test how statistically unexpected a particular network feature is. In this Review, Váša and Mišić describe different null-model approaches and instantiations, as well as their emerging uses and limitations.

Hippocampal inhibitory interneurons shape memory formation and storage through cell type-specific mechanisms. In this review, Topolnik and Tamboli discuss how soma-targeting, dendrite-targeting and interneuron-targeting interneurons may specialize in supporting hippocampal oscillations, synaptic plasticity and memory processes.

Pathological forms of amyloid proteins, such as tau and α-synuclein, are thought to drive neurodegeneration. Li and Liu describe how techniques that reveal high-resolution protein structures can provide insight into polymorphic amyloid fibril formation and the relationships between amyloid protein conformation and disease.

In this Review, Bradley, Nydam, Dux and Mattingley explore state-dependent variations in brain activity and behaviour with brain stimulation. They focus on transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial electrical stimulation and several domains — conscious state, attention and working memory.

Various theories have been developed for the biological and physical basis of consciousness. In this Review, Anil Seth and Tim Bayne discuss four prominent theoretical approaches to consciousness, namely higher-order theories, global workspace theories, re-entry and predictive processing theories and integrated information theory.

Macroautophagy involves the delivery of various macromolecules and organelles to lysosomes for degradation. In this Review, Christopher Griffey and Ai Yamamoto provide an overview of this intracellular process and consider its modulation under physiological conditions and in brain disorders.

Accumulating evidence indicates that the anterior thalamic nuclei make important contributions to cognition. Aggleton and O’Mara review these findings and propose that the anterior thalamic nuclei, hippocampus and cortex act together to support episodic memory function.

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has long been thought to track value, but new data implicate the OFC in the representation of cognitive maps of associative relationships. Here, Knudsen and Wallis review these hypotheses and examine how they might be reconciled.

In this Review, Siddiqi et al. examine causal approaches to mapping human brain function. They provide a definition of causality for translational research, propose a framework for assessing causality strength in brain mapping studies and cover advances in techniques and their use in developing treatments for brain disorders.

A large number of genes have been associated with risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this Review, State and colleagues examine the genetics and genomics of ASD and discuss findings from convergent neuroscience approaches that aim to understand how such genes may contribute to ASD pathobiology.

In this Review, Arber and Costa discuss the anatomical and functional specificity of circuitry essential for executing diverse body movements. They focus on specific neuronal populations in the brainstem and the basal ganglia, and the integration of these circuits into systems-level networks that afford flexibility and learning.

During brain development, cortical circuits form in a stepwise manner through self-organization and activity-dependent adjustment. Cossart and Garel describe the stages that characterize this process and highlight the crucial contributions made by cortical neurons that adopt multiple cellular functions as their development progresses.

Prioritization of visual inputs manifests itself in different behavioural signatures. In this Review, Rust and Cohen describe these signatures and their neural correlates and suggest that the brain uses a unified priority signal from which downstream areas can decode different types of priority.

The past two decades have witnessed considerable interest in linking interindividual differences in behaviour to differences in brain structure. In this Perspective, Genon et al. examine how the study of brain structure–behaviour associations in healthy populations has developed during this period and the current challenges for this field.

The levels of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators have been difficult to track. In this Review, Wu et al. give an overview of conventional and modern tools and imaging methods for monitoring neurochemicals, with a focus on genetically encoded sensors.

People may respond to listening to music by physically moving or feeling emotions. In this Review, Peter Vuust and colleagues discuss how music perception and related actions, emotions and learning are associated with the predictive capabilities of the human brain, with a focus on their predictive coding of music model.

Genetic mosaicism has provided a new conceptual framework for the study of the human brain. In this Review, Bizzotto and Walsh discuss mechanisms of brain somatic mutations, what they reveal about development and pathology, and the major associated technical challenges.

There is a dichotomy in human neuroscience research between task-based cognition and characterization of intrinsic neural patterns (for example, resting-state networks), In this Review, Liu and colleagues discuss a new paradigm for bridging this gap based on decoding of task-related representations.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting both upper and lower motor neurons. Various genes have been linked to ALS, leading to the generation of many rodent models of this disease. In this Review, Todd and Petrucelli provide a broad overview of these models.