Action Potential

The P2Y12 receptor regulates microglial activation by extracellular nucleotides

This study identifies in mice a metabotropic ATP/ADP receptor that is essential for the activation of microglia in response to injury to the cortex .

Posted by Annette Markus at 09:00 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

In vivo time-lapse imaging shows dynamic oligodendrocyte progenitor behavior during zebrafish development

Watch oligodendrocyte precursors migrate through the zebrafish embryonic spinal cord, and orderly align themselves along the axons they are going to myelinate. Amazing videos.

Posted by Annette Markus at 08:50 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

A diacylglycerol kinase modulates long-term thermotactic behavioral plasticity in C. elegans

Worms can be 'taught' to prefer different temperatures. Here the authors report that worms lacking the kinase DGK-3 are very slow temperature learners. As DGK-3 is a crucial enzyme in the degradation of the signaling mediator DAG, authors hypothesize that DAG levels in thermosensory neurons determine worms' temperature preferences, and confirm this idea experimentally.

Posted by Annette Markus at 08:29 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

Hierarchical assembly of presynaptic components in defined C. elegans synapses

Dazzling worm genetics draws a signaling cascade that controls construction of the presynaptic specialization. It is triggered by the transient interaction of cell adhesion molecules SYG-1 and SYG-2, and coordinated by liprin-alpha as the master builder.

Posted by Annette Markus at 08:19 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

SYD-2 Liprin-alpha organizes presynaptic active zone formation through ELKS

These authors use elegant worm genetics to unravel the link between liprin-alpha, which is crucial for the integrity of the presynaptic active zone, and the synaptic vesicle docking machinery.

Posted by Annette Markus at 08:09 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

A neuregulin 1 variant associated with abnormal cortical function and psychotic symptoms

Variants in the NRG1 gene may confer an elevated risk for schizophrenia. The authors here have followed for up to 10 years a group of young people from families affected by schizophrenia. They found that one particular SNP in the NRG1 gene promotor region, substituting a T for a C nucleotide, correlates with low IQ and high risk for the disease.

Posted by Annette Markus at 07:57 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

Cochlear efferent feedback balances interaural sensitivity

Sound location requires that the brainstem compare the very slim difference in input from the two ears. This study suggests that feedback from the olivary complex to the auditory nerve is required to keep the signals from both cochleas in balance, enabling this comparison. One of our referees called this paper "one of the most interesting manuscripts I have ever reviewed."

Posted by Annette Markus at 07:46 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

Cortical feed-forward networks for binding different streams of sensory information

In a technical tour de force, the authors find specific connections between layer2/3 and layer 5 'subnetworks' in the rat somatosensory cortex.

Posted by Annette Markus at 07:38 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

fruitless regulates aggression and dominance in Drosophila

Splicing of a transcription factor determines whether a fruit fly prefers to get rid of its rival by boxing, or by head-butting! Watch some hilarious videos of highly confused flies here, and let us know what you think about the paper.

Posted by Annette Markus at 07:29 PMon November 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Annette Markus

Yesterday, I went to see Michael Crichton speak at the National Press Club. I was hoping he'd speak about his new book Next, which is a novel about the danger of being ill-prepared for advances in genetics. According to the New York Times, the book includes subplots about ethical missteps by autism researchers and the legal ramifications of the 'thrill-seeking gene.' Instead of directly discussing his book, Crichton, whose scientific qualifications include fictional works about cloned dinosaurs and evil monkeys, lectured about science policy and ethics.

It's not that I didn't agree with some of Crichton's points. He discussed the folly of gene patents, the problems with peer review, the need for data replication and the importance of open access. He called on the media to publicize the limitations in scientific studies and suggested that the government should police the release and replication of data.

What I resented was that he presented himself as a lone watchdog in a world in which scientists have taken advantage of the public. He's right that truth has become a casualty in our society. But there's something wrong when the public relies on a fiction writer to inform them of the truth.

Posted by Debra Speert at 10:28 AMon November 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Debra Speert

Happy Thanksgiving! If you are heading to a Thanksgiving feast, chances are that you'll be stuck in at least one conversation about tryptophan. Yes, we all know the claim that the loud snoring that begins after the Thanksgiving meal is caused by that rogue amino acid. However, tryptophan may be innocent! True, tryptophan can be converted to serotonin, which causes sleepiness. But, tryptophan needs to be consumed on an empty stomach to be effective, and the protein in turkey (let alone all the other foods consumed at the Thanksgiving table) prevents this possibility. It's possible that excessive carbohydrate consumption (think stuffing and sweet potato pie) is to blame. The carbs cause the pancreas to pump out insulin. Insulin busies the other chemicals running through your bloodstream, clearing the way for tryptophan to arrive unhindered at the transporters that shuttle amno acids into the brain. Most likely of all, post-Thanksgiving fatigue is caused by the diversion of blood from the nervous system to the stomach to deal with the excessive amount of food there.

Posted by Debra Speert at 06:29 PMon November 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Debra Speert

"His brain is amazingly plump." That's what Sandra Witelson says of Albert Einstein in this interview in last week's New York Times. In 1999, she found that Einstein's parietal lobe was bigger than average, and unlike everyone else's parietal lobe, it wasn't divided by the Sylvian fissure.

Witelson has built a career studying the human brain. At McMaster University, she studies a brain bank filled with donations from cancer patients who went through a battery of physiological and some psychological tests before death. So, she can correlate these measures with human brain anatomy.

Witelson has some interesting findings on sex differences in the human brain. In a 1995 Journal of Neuroscience paper, she found that women have 11% more neurons in cytoarchitectonic area TA1, a portion of the temporal lobe that is thought to be involved in language. Unlike her study of Einstein's brain, which makes for great cocktail party conversation, her studies of sex differences in the brain have become politically charged, quoted most recently by the supporters of Lawrence Summers, the embattled former president of Harvard.

Personally, I'm far more surprised by anatomical differences in Einstein's brain than in anatomical differences between the sexes. At the very least, male and female brains are bathed in different hormones that could influence gene expression, cell division and cell death throughout development. So what was Einstein's brain bathed in, and how did it develop so unusually?

Posted by Debra Speert at 04:44 PMon November 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Debra Speert

If anyone has happened to check the “About the Editors” section on our webpage, you may have noticed that I am in the midst of my second stint at the journal. I worked here back in 2001 in between completing a master’s degree in the UK and a PhD at MIT, and then returned this year while I looked into postdoc options. I will be leaving at the end of January to start a postdoc in Andrew Oxenham’s lab at the University of Minnesota, and so the journal is looking for someone to take my place.

I would encourage anyone considering alternatives to the standard academic career in science to think about applying. I have enjoyed my time here tremendously and highly recommend the position.

I get asked all the time what it’s like to be an editor. The primary duties involve reading and evaluating manuscripts. Over 70% of submitted papers are rejected without review, and reading the submissions and then making those calls is one of the main responsibilities. Once a decision is made to send a paper out for review, you have to choose appropriate reviewers, and once the reviews are in, you have to come to a decision on what to do with the paper. Other responsibilities include commissioning and editing News and Views pieces and review articles, writing press releases, and attending scientific meetings. So there is not that much editing in the traditional sense of the word, although it is a component of the job. The job mostly involves thinking critically about science.

I really enjoy the work, so much so that I came back to work for the journal a second time. One of my favorite aspects of the job is that you get to be very broad, reading papers from quite a large expanse of the field. It’s quite different from scientific research, where typically we focus on very particular problems for long periods of time. You stay up to date on the entire field and continually learn new things. It’s also very different from research in that the rewards are more immediate. Every decision you make has tangible short-term consequences, and matters to a lot of people. Because the editorial decisions are so important to the people involved, and to the community at large, it’s easy to get excited about the day to day activities on the job. You are also constantly exposed to cutting edge work, sometimes being the first to hear about it. And you spend a lot of time talking with scientists, so you stay close to the research world even though you are not doing primary research.

The main official requirement is a PhD in neuroscience. My background is in the higher end of the field, but someone with molecular or cellular training would be equally welcome.

If you think you might be interested, you should submit a CV and cover letter to admin@natureny.com, and cc the editor in chief, Sandra Aamodt, at s.aamodt@natureny.com. If you have any questions about what is involved feel free to email me as well.

Posted by Josh McDermott at 04:22 PMon November 07, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Categories: Other Contributors