Does our mood change as time passes, and is this change different in people with depression? These questions are central to affective neuroscience, yet they remain largely unexamined. Here we demonstrate that rest and simple task periods lowered partici...

The Society’s open-access journal, eNeuro, launched almost five years ago and has just published its 1,000th paper! Editor-in-Chief Christophe Bernard reflects on the journal’s growth and says thank you.

Evolutionary pressures adapted insect chemosensation to the respective insect’s physiological needs and tasks in their ecological niches. Solitary nocturnal moths rely on their acute olfactory sense to find mates at night. Pheromones are detected with maximized sensitivity and high temporal resolution through mechanisms that are mostly unknown. While the inverse topology of insect olfactory receptors and heteromerization with the coreceptor Orco suggest ionotropic transduction via odorant-gated receptor-ion channel complexes, contradictory data propose amplifying G protein-coupled transduction. Here, we used in vivo tip-recordings of pheromone-sensitive sensilla of male Manduca sexta hawkmoths at specific times of day (rest vs. activity). Since the olfactory receptor neurons distinguish signal parameters in three consecutive temporal windows of their pheromone response (phasic; tonic; late, long-lasting), respective response parameters were analyzed separately. Disruption of G protein-coupled transduction ...

Distinct neural mechanisms are hypothesized to mediate the separate cognitive processes of selective attention (what information to process) and intention (output selection). Separating the circuitry that determines what information to process from that responsible for the preparation for action has important clinical implications. As such, we subjected 9 healthy control subjects to an event related fMRI paradigm that independently manipulated attentional and intentional cues based on Verfaellie et al (Neuropsychologia 26, 435, 1988). The task consists of trials each with 1 of 3 prime types (an arrow predicting target location, an image of a hand predicting response or a neutral prime), 20% invalid, followed by a target that determines which hand responds. Whole brain EPI was obtained (Siemens 3T) over 5 runs, each 260 s in duration with TR=2.3 s. Data were modeled with the GLM with regressors for combinations of prime, hand, target side and correct/incorrect, convolved with a hemodynamic response. Behavio...

Sources of caffeine with beneficial antioxidant properties include teas that are derived from the holly Ilex species. These teas are unique and not related to green or black tea. Tea derived from I. guayusa is used by the Kichwa people in the Ecuadorian...

Exposure to injury as a neonate has the potential to prime the nervous system to subsequent re-injury later in life, which can have lasting effects on nociceptive processing into adulthood. We have recently found in a murine surgical pain model that hin...

The size and shape of dendritic arbors are prime determinants of neuronal connectivity and function in the central nervous system. In the retina, for example, dendrites of different types of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) are confined to one or a few of ~1...

Neurotransmitters are released from nerve terminals and neuroendocrine cells by calcium-dependent exocytosis of vesicles. Before fusion, vesicles are docked to the plasma membrane and rendered release competent through a process called priming. Electrophysiological methods such as membrane capacitance measurements and carbon fiber amperometry accurately measure the fusion step of exocytosis with high time resolution but provide only indirect information about priming and docking. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) enables the real-time visualization of vesicles, near the plasma membrane, as they undergo changes from one molecular state to the other. We devised a new method to analyze the mobility of vesicles, which not only allowed us to classify the movement of vesicles in three different categories but also to monitor dynamic changes in the mobility of vesicles over time. We selectively enhanced priming by treating bovine chromaffin cells with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) or by ...

Hippocampal impairments are reliably associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, little research has characterized how increased threat-sensitivity may interact with arousal responses to alter hippocampal reactivity, and further how these interactions relate to the sequelae of trauma-related symptoms. In a sample of individuals recently exposed to trauma (N=116, 76 Female), we found that PTSD symptoms at 2-weeks were associated with decreased hippocampal responses to threat as assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Further, the relationship between hippocampal threat sensitivity and PTSD symptomology only emerged in individuals who showed transient, high threat-related arousal, as assayed by an independently collected measure of Fear Potentiated Startle. Collectively, our finding suggests that development of PTSD is associated with threat-related decreases in hippocampal function, due to increases in fear-potentiated arousal. Significance Statement Alterations in...

A standing subject, who pulls a handle by flexing the elbow, will force the body forward unless muscles, which oppose the forward movement, are activated. The prime mover in that case is the biceps brachii while the ankle extensors are subject to an anticipatory activation and precedes the biceps activation (Nashner 1982). The mechanisms for this anticipatory activation are not fully understood. Here we investigate the corticospinal activation of the soleus muscle by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) when the muscle is activated as part of an anticipatory response and when the muscle is activated by volition as a prime mover. Seven subjects participated in the experiments. In the anticipatory task subjects were instructed to stand on both legs and hold a handle in their right hand which they were to pull by performing an elbow flexion on an auditory go-signal. During the prime mover task the subjects were told to match by volition the soleus EMG activity observed during the anticipatory response. Alt...