In mice, localized mutant APP expression in the CA3 hippocampal region leads to progressive network dysfunction and hippocampus-dependent memory deficits.

A new biotinylation-based approach identifies previously unknown cell surface proteins of the axonal initial segment (AIS) and shows a role for contactin-1 in assembly of the AIS extracellular matrix.

Federica De Lazzari describes Arvid Carlsson’s 1957 paper, which provided evidence for the importance of dopamine in brain function.

The organization and diversity of neuronal and glial primary cilia and their connectivity in the human cortex is characterized in detail.

The macaque homologue of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex tracks the reliability of social information and determines whether this information is used to guide choices during decision making.

Ketamine is ‘trapped’ in the pores of NMDA receptors in the lateral habenula, mediating sustained antidepressant effects in mice.

Grid cells develop in rats soon after they leave the nest. Here, Ulsaker-Janke et al. show that preventing exposure to straight boundaries from birth delays, but does not prevent, grid cell maturation in adult rats.

A new study shows that, in a numerical judgement task, individuals show differences in neuronal coding of numbers below and above approximately four in the medial temporal lobe.

Data sharing is an essential component of open science practice. The Brain Imaging Data Structure project has pioneered a way to organize neuroimaging and behavioural data that enables easy sharing and reuse. We present experiences from the BIDS project and highlight how standards can promote open science.

Following synaptic vesicle exocytosis, synaptotagmin 1 recruits a lipid signalling pathway within the presynaptic plasma membrane that drives local dynamin recruitment and membrane retrieval by endocytosis, thus maintaining membrane homeostasis.

In this Journal Club, Nathan Anthony Smith discusses a 2008 paper that documented a link between the noradrenergic modulatory network in the locus coeruleus and cortical astrocytes in vivo.

A study dissects the neural circuit through which pup cries induce oxytocin release and maternal behaviour in mice.

A study reports that in the mouse hippocampus, the induction of long-term potentiation is dependent on the structural functions of CaMKII and not its enzymatic activity.

A juvenile hormone-degrading enzyme localized in the insect equivalent of the blood–brain barrier governs which social role, forager or soldier, worker carpenter ants fulfil.

During retinal development in the mouse, angiogenesis was unexpectedly found to depend on temporally restricted dopamine production by retinal ganglion cells, rather than by canonical retinal dopamine neurons.

A study identified two different blood biomarker profiles in people hospitalized for COVID-19 that predicted later cognitive deficits.

Two papers report the development of high performance brain–computer interfaces that can decode speech from cortical activity.

Increasing levels of glial-derived neurotrophic factor using a gene-therapy approach in a macaque model of alcohol use disorder resulted in a lower tendency to relapse into alcohol consumption after a period of abstinence.

The stress associated with early-life social deprivation in mice results in corticosterone-driven overstimulation of cortical synapse removal by astrocytes and behavioural abnormalities in mature animals.

A new study reveals a neural circuit that regulates innate sexual behaviour in male mice.

Cardiac disease drives the denervation of the pineal gland, resulting in a loss of neural control of melatonin release and disrupted sleep–wake patterns.

During cortical development, direct neurogenesis was found to generate key glutamatergic projection neuron subclasses and indirect neurogenesis generated and amplified specific subpopulations within these subclasses.

A co-released inhibitory neurotransmitter and stimulatory neuropeptide are shown to act on different timescales to enhance circuit output and optimize behaviour.

Findings suggest that the presence of a myelin sheath increases an axon’s vulnerability in autoimmune conditions.

Gut-resident macrophages are shown to have roles in circuit refinement and maintenance in the mouse enteric nervous system.

The increase in blood corticosterone triggered by the release of proinflammatory cytokines is shown to involve vagal regulation of a parabrachial nucleus–paraventricular nucleus pathway.

Understanding how the brain organizes information into functional representations and networks that support flexible cognitive behaviour is a major goal in neuroscience. In a 1994 paper, Markowitsch and Tulving identified a relationship between functional activations (observed by positron emission tomography (PET)) and the deepest points (fundi) in the indentations (sulci) of the human cerebral cortex

The binding of psychedelics to the BDNF receptor TrkB boosts plasticity in cultured neurons and underlies the antidepressant-like effects of these compounds in mice.

The number of neural stem cells in the brain decreases with age, which in the dentate gyrus of older mice is associated with a lower SIRT7-mediated mitochondrial unfolded protein response and reduced neural stem cell maintenance and neurogenesis.

A brain–computer interface can decode semantic representations of perceived and imagined stimuli at the level of words and phrases from functional MRI recordings of brain activity.