Hot Off the Press! – January 2017
Tejeda, Hugo A; Wu, Jocelyn; Kornspun, Alana R; Pignatelli, Marco; Kashtelyan, Vadim; Krashes, Michael J; Lowell, Brad B; Carlezon, William Jr A; Bonci, Antonello
Nat Neurosci, 20 (3), pp. 438–448, 2017, ISSN: 1546-1726 (Electronic); 1097-6256 (Linking).
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The Sigma-1 Receptor as a Pluripotent Modulator in Living Systems.
Reviews To Read – January 2017
Su, Tsung-Ping; Su, Tzu-Chieh; Nakamura, Yoki; Tsai, Shang-Yi
Trends Pharmacol Sci, 37 (4), pp. 262–278, 2016, ISSN: 1873-3735 (Electronic); 0165-6147 (Linking).
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Pontomesencephalic Tegmental Afferents to VTA Non-dopamine Neurons Are Necessary for Appetitive Pavlovian Learning
Featured Paper of the Month – January 2017
Published in Cell Reports by Yau, Hau-Jie; Wang, Dong V; Tsou, Jen-Hui; Chuang, Yi-Fang; Chen, Billy T; Deisseroth, Karl; Ikemoto, Satoshi; Bonci, Antonello
The ventral tegmental area (VTA) receives phenotypically distinct innervations from the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg). While PPTg-to-VTA inputs are thought to play a critical role in stimulus-reward learning, direct evidence linking PPTg-to-VTA phenotypically distinct inputs in the learning process remains lacking…
Glutamate neurons are intermixed with midbrain dopamine neurons in nonhuman primates and humans
Featured Paper of the Month – December 2016
Published in Scientific Reports by Root, David H; Wang, Hui-Ling; Liu, Bing; Barker, David J; Mod, Laszlo; Szocsics, Peter; Silva, Afonso C; Magloczky, Zsofia; Morales, Marisela
The rodent ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNC) contain dopamine neurons intermixed with glutamate neurons (expressing vesicular glutamate transporter 2; VGluT2), which play roles in reward and aversion. However, identifying the neuronal compositions of the VTA and SNC in higher mammals has remained challenging…
Distinct Fos-Expressing Neuronal Ensembles in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Mediate Food Reward and Extinction Memories
Featured Paper of the Month – November 2016
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Warren, Brandon L; Mendoza, Michael P; Cruz, Fabio C; Leao, Rodrigo M; Caprioli, Daniele; Rubio, Javier F; Whitaker, Leslie R; McPherson, Kylie B; Bossert, Jennifer M; Shaham, Yavin; Hope, Bruce T
In operant learning, initial reward-associated memories are thought to be distinct from subsequent extinction-associated memories. Memories formed during operant learning are thought to be stored in “neuronal ensembles.” Thus, we hypothesize that different neuronal ensembles encode reward- and extinction-associated memories…
Spatially Compact Neural Clusters in the Dorsal Striatum Encode Locomotion Relevant Information.
Hot Off the Press! – January 2017
Barbera, Giovanni; Liang, Bo; Zhang, Lifeng; Gerfen, Charles R; Culurciello, Eugenio; Chen, Rong; Li, Yun; Lin, Da-Ting
Neuron, 92 (1), pp. 202–213, 2016, ISSN: 1097-4199 (Electronic); 0896-6273 (Linking).
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Mechanism of the Association between Na+ Binding and Conformations at the Intracellular Gate in Neurotransmitter:Sodium Symporters.
Featured Paper of the Month – October 2016
Published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry by Stolzenberg, Sebastian; Quick, Matthias; Zhao, Chunfeng; Gotfryd, Kamil; Khelashvili, George; Gether, Ulrik; Loland, Claus J; Javitch, Jonathan A; Noskov, Sergei; Weinstein, Harel; Shi, Lei
Neurotransmitter:sodium symporters (NSSs) terminate neurotransmission by Na(+)-dependent reuptake of released neurotransmitters. Previous studies suggested that Na(+)-binding reconfigures dynamically coupled structural elements in an allosteric interaction network (AIN) responsible for function-related conformational changes, but the intramolecular pathway of this mechanism has remained uncharted…
Midbrain dopamine neurons compute inferred and cached value prediction errors in a common framework
Featured Paper of the Month – September 2016
Published in Elife by Sadacca, Brian F; Jones, Joshua L; Schoenbaum, Geoffrey
Midbrain dopamine neurons have been proposed to signal reward prediction errors as defined in temporal difference (TD) learning algorithms. While these models have been extremely powerful in interpreting dopamine activity, they typically do not use value derived through inference in computing errors…
Constituents and functional implications of the rat default mode network
Hot Off the Press! – August 2016
Hsu, Li-Ming; Liang, Xia; Gu, Hong; Brynildsen, Julia K; Stark, Jennifer A; Ash, Jessica A; Lin, Ching-Po; Lu, Hanbing; Rapp, Peter R; Stein, Elliot A; Yang, Yihong
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 113 (31), pp. E4541-7, 2016, ISSN: 1091-6490 (Electronic); 0027-8424 (Linking).
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Role of Ventral Subiculum in Context-Induced Relapse to Alcohol Seeking after Punishment-Imposed Abstinence
Featured Paper of the Month – August 2016
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Marchant, Nathan J; Campbell, Erin J; Whitaker, Leslie R; Harvey, Brandon K; Kaganovsky, Konstantin; Adhikary, Sweta; Hope, Bruce T; Heins, Robert C; Prisinzano, Thomas E; Vardy, Eyal; Bonci, Antonello; Bossert, Jennifer M; Shaham, Yavin
In many human alcoholics, abstinence is self-imposed because of the negative consequences of excessive alcohol use, and relapse is often triggered by exposure to environmental contexts associated with prior alcohol drinking…
