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Excitability is a property of a cell, allowing it to respond to stimulation by rapid changes in membrane potential produced by ion fluxes across the plasma membrane. This is most commonly associated with neurons, but more recently astrocytes have also been shown to exhibit ‘cellular excitability’, resulting from changes in calcium ion concentration in the cytosol.
The axon initial segment was known to receive GABAergic synaptic inputs. Yang et al. show that it can be excited directly via specialized ‘axonic spines’. These spines thus boost neuronal firing and act as a fast track to route circuit information.
Földi, Szoboszlay et al. evaluate Intersectional Short-Pulse (ISP) stimulation, a transcranial brain-stimulation approach, through modelling, cadaver measurements, intracellular recordings, and in vivo testing in a rat model. ISP stimulation shows strong epileptic seizure-suppressing effects and improves deep-brain engagement.
It remains unclear how opponent serotonin and dopamine signals regulate striatal activity to exert opposing effects on behavior. This study reveals how the complement of serotonin and dopamine receptors expressed by cells in the striatum enable the two neuromodulators to exert opposing functions during reward learning.
Here authors demonstrate that distinct muscarinic receptor types drive coordinated salivary output in the tick Ixodes ricinus. Mapping the underlying circuits reveals functional neural pathways that could be targeted to disrupt tick feeding.
A new positron emission tomography radiotracer enables imaging of the human glutamate receptor AMPA-R, a fundamental component of neurotransmission involved in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Two new studies demonstrate the importance of awake imaging to investigate microglia–neuron interactions. These studies show that microglial dynamics are influenced by neuronal activity, and they provide evidence that norepinergic signaling plays an important role in this effect.
