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Parcellation of the cortex into functionally modular brain areas is foundational to neuroscience. Here, Hayden, Heilbronner and Yoo question the central status of brain areas in neuroscience from the perspectives of neuroanatomy and electrophysiology and propose an alternative approach.

A portion of the orbitofrontal cortex can be subdivided by its connectivity with the posterior cingulate cortex. This connectivity-based parcellation shows differences in functional connectivity and economic choice signals.

The functional relevance of neural timescales is not fully understood. Here the authors demonstrate that neural timescales change with behavioral demands in freely moving macaques.

How the brain evaluates options to make a reward-based choice is unclear. Here, authors show that, prior to choice, neural activity patterns to the potential outcomes are reactivated in macaque orbitofrontal cortex, in a way that reflects the unique event sequences leading up to the outcomes.

Choice-relevant computations across the medial prefrontal cortex differ only quantitatively between areas. Here the authors suggest these computations may be organized along a functional gradient.

The rhesus macaque is an important model species in several branches of science, but the utility of this model would be enhanced by the ability to measure behaviour throughout pose. Here, the authors describe a deep learning-based markerless motion capture system for estimating 3D pose in freely moving macaques.

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex is one of the most beguiling regions of the brain. Understanding its essential function has become a holy grail for many cognitive neuroscientists. With this scrutiny has come contention. In this issue, two teams of neuroscientists with different views argue for their favored interpretation of neural activity in this region. Here, we provide some background and context for this debate.

Post-infectious myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (PI-ME/CFS) is a disabling disorder, yet the clinical phenotype is poorly defined and the pathophysiology unknown. Here, the authors conduct deep phenotyping of a cohort of PI-ME/CFS patients.

Low frequency brain waves convey information between regions. Here, the authors demonstrate that for patients with major depression, mood becomes more negative as low frequency waves increase intensity  across the prefrontal cortex.

Previous work shows that a small population of quiescent SOX2⁺ medulloblastoma (MB) stem cells can drive tumour growth in early tumorigenesis and relapse. Here, the authors identify OLIG2 as a transcriptional mediator of the transition from quiescent to rapidly proliferating progenitor states and therapeutically target this axis in preclinical models of MB.

Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine-mapping, 298 loci and 36 credible genes are identified in the aetiology of bipolar disorder.

Understanding how rewards can override our initial sensory judgments and influence decision-making is crucial. Here the authors show that the anterior cingulate cortex plays an important role in mediating reward biasing.

Here, the authors identify PHF6 as a dependency in SMARCB1-deficient rhabdoid cancers. Mechanistically, this study suggests a regulatory role for PHF6 in recruiting SWI/SNF complexes to enable RNA polymerase progression.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

This study shows that the brain can link action to value through neural population subspaces, balancing reliable binding of action to value and generalization to novel stimuli.

Using large-scale data describing five decades of wheat breeding progress in western Europe, a study shows that breeding for high performance enhances wheat productivity under not only optimal conditions but also conditions with reduced agrochemical inputs.

Smale and colleagues explore evolutionary divergence in the NF-κB family. They show that intrinsic DNA-binding affinity rather than specificity led to neofunctionalization in mammals within this transcription factor family, supporting immunoregulatory rewiring in mammalian species.

Neural mechanisms underlying the canonical computations underlying economic choice are not fully understood. Here authors show that gaze is highly relevant in decision processes, both at the behavioral level and at the neural level for value encoding gating and reactivation, for choice evaluation and reevaluation.

It is often assumed that neuronal responses to value are linear, in part because this is important for rational economic decision-making. Here, the authors find, in two male macaques, that value is encoded along a curved manifold in the prefrontal cortex and that this curvature imposes bounds on rational decision-making.

Machine learning classifiers generated using chronic neural measurements in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder accurately predicted clinical status and deep brain stimulation response.

In this Opinion article, Hunt and Hayden highlight that many of the models for reward-based choice are based on distinct component processes that occur in series and are functionally localized. They argue that, instead, such choice emerges from repeated computations that are undertaken in many brain areas.

Comparing the behaviour of humans and monkeys, Farashahi et al. show that both species take uncertainty into account when weighing reward value and probability. Both species switch to a more flexible strategy for weighing information during learning.

Yoo and colleagues find that while pursuing virtual prey, monkeys predict the prey’s upcoming movements, and neurons in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex tracked prey position, velocity and acceleration to facilitate these predictions.

Genome assembly of durum wheat cultivar Svevo enables genome-wide genetic diversity analyses highlighting modifications imposed by thousands of years of empirical selection and breeding.

In this issue, Shenhav et al. critically evaluate the idea that neural correlates of value actually represent value. They describe how, in many situations, value correlates can reflect other cognitive factors, such as decisional difficulty.

Using unique barcodes for tumour cells, the authors explore the dynamics of human glioblastoma subpopulations, and suggest that clonal heterogeneity emerges through stochastic fate decisions of a neutral proliferative hierarchy.

Astrocytes can influence several steps of the metastatic process in the brain. Here the authors show that type I interferon response in astrocytes facilitates brain metastasis by increasing recruitment of tumor promoting monocytic myeloid cells.

Pursuit or evasion requires world-centric and agent-centric representation to coordinate navigation and motor control. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, which communicates bi-directionally with both the hippocampal complex and premotor areas serve a mapping role in this process.

Using intracranial recordings in humans, the authors found decision conflict-related effects on firing rate in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), on spike-phase coupling in the dACC, and on spike-field coherence in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Michael Talkowski and colleagues analyze balanced chromosomal abnormalities in 273 individuals by whole-genome sequencing. Their findings suggest that sequence-level resolution improves prediction of clinical outcomes for balanced rearrangements and provides insight into pathogenic mechanisms such as altered gene regulation due to changes in chromosome topology.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports the observation of the electroweak production of two jets and a Z-boson pair. This process is related to vector-boson scattering and allows the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking to be probed.

The authors record from primate dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) during a foraging task. They find that dACC neuronal responses were correlated with behavioral decisions about when to leave a depleting resource to exploit another.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports a measurement of the ratio of the decay rates of W bosons to τ leptons and muons, in agreement with universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model of particle physics.

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider reports a search for charged-lepton-flavour violation in decays of Z bosons into a τ lepton and an electron or muon of opposite charge.

A randomized trial in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showed no benefit and potentially increased harm associated with the use of convalescent plasma, with subgroup analyses suggesting that the antibody profile in donor plasma is critical in determining clinical outcomes.

Quantum electrodynamics predicts a rare process in which light is scattered by light. The ATLAS Collaboration reports signs of this elusive effect in the collisions of ultra-relativistic lead ions.

The measurement of the total cross-section of proton–proton collisions is of fundamental importance for particle physics. Here, the first measurement of the inelastic cross-section is presented for proton–proton collisions at an energy of 7 teraelectronvolts using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.

Ten years after the discovery of the Higgs boson, the ATLAS  experiment at CERN probes its kinematic properties with a significantly larger dataset from 2015–2018 and provides further insights on its interaction with other known particles.

Using asteroseismology to analyse 7,000 helium-burning red giants observed by NASA’s Kepler mission results in the separation of two classes of stars that must have undergone considerable mass loss, presumably due to stripping in binary interactions.

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is thought to detect unfavorable outcomes and thus influence behavior. A new paper reports that ACC-lesioned monkeys respond normally to reduced rewards, but do not maintain their improved behavioral strategy. The ACC thus is not a simple error detector, but an integrator of past reward experience.

In this Perspective article, Foster and colleagues describe converging evidence supporting an anatomical and functional division of the posterior cingulate cortex into three subregions that contribute to different cognitive tasks.