The overwhelming majority of research in the neurosciences employs P-values stemming from tests of statistical significance to decide on the presence or absence of an effect of some treatment variable. Although a continuous variable, the P-value is commonly used to reach a dichotomous decision about the presence of an effect around an arbitrary criterion of 0.05.

In the postnatal neurogenic niche, two populations of astrocyte-like cells (B cells) persist, one acting as neural progenitor cells (NPCs, B1 cells) and one forming a structural boundary between the neurogenic niche and the striatum (B2 cells, niche astrocytes). Despite being viewed as two distinct entities, we found that B1 and B2 cells express the gap junction protein connexin 43 and display functional coupling involving 50–60 cells.

Oligodendrocytes – best known for assembling central nervous system myelin – can be categorized as precursors, myelin-forming cells and non-myelinating perineuronal cells. Perineuronal oligodendrocytes have been well characterized morphologically and ultrastructurally, but knowledge about their function remains scanty.

The septohippocampal (SH) pathway comprises cholinergic and GABAergic fibers. Whereas the former establish synaptic contacts with all types of hippocampal neurons, the latter form complex baskets specifically on interneurons.

A solitary, elongated cluster of parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons has been previously observed in the rodent ventrolateral hypothalamus. However, the function of this so-called PV1 nucleus is unknown.

We used voltage-sensitive-dye-based imaging techniques to identify and characterize the insular auditory field (IAF) in mice. Previous research has identified five auditory fields in the mouse auditory cortex, including the primary field and the anterior auditory field. This study confirmed the existence of the primary field and anterior auditory field by examining the tonotopy in each field.

Elderly people often show degraded hearing performance and have difficulties in understanding speech, particularly in noisy environments. Although loss in peripheral hearing sensitivity is an important factor in explaining these low performances, central alterations also have an impact but their exact contributions remained unclear.

One must be quick and precise when foveating targets to be reached, because the eyes have to guide the hand trajectory by visual feedback, and we may miss a rapidly moving target if our grasping is not fast and accurate enough. To this end, our brains developed mechanisms coordinating gaze and hand movements to optimize the way in which we foveate and reach.

Phasic changes in dopamine activity play a critical role in learning and goal-directed behavior. Unpredicted reward and reward-predictive cues evoke phasic increases in the firing rate of the majority of midbrain dopamine neurons – results that predict uniformly broadcast increases in dopamine concentration throughout the striatum.

Disulfiram is an aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitor used for the treatment of alcohol dependence and of cocaine addiction. It has been demonstrated that subchronic administration of disulfiram or N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate (DEDTC), the main derivative of disulfiram, to rats can produce central–peripheral distal axonopathy.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are implicated in diverse processes, such as neuroinflammation, leakiness of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and direct cellular damage in neurodegenerative and other CNS diseases. Tissue destruction by MMPs is regulated by their endogenous tissue inhibitors (TIMPs).

The development of the posturo-motor control of movement is conditioned by Earth’s gravity. Missing or altered gravity during the critical periods of development delays development and induces durable changes in the vestibular, cerebellar, or muscular structures, but these are not consistently mirrored at a functional level.

In the present study, intracortical communication between mid/anterior insular and motor cortex was investigated during a fatiguing cycling exercise. From 16 healthy male subjects performing a constant-load test at 60% peak oxygen consumption (VO_2peak) until volitional exhaustion, electroencephalography data were analysed during repetitive, artefact-free periods of 1-min duration.

When we encode faces in memory, we often do so in association with biographical information regarding the person. To examine the neural dynamics underlying such encoding processes, we devised a face recognition task and recorded cortical activity using magnetoencephalography.

Chronic smoking is thought to cause changes in brain reward systems that result in overvaluation of cigarette-related stimuli and undervaluation of natural rewards. We tested the hypotheses that, in smokers, brain circuits involved in emotional processing: (i) would be more active during exposure to cigarette-related than neutral pictures; and (ii) would be less active to pleasant compared with cigarette-related pictures, suggesting a devaluation of intrinsically pleasant stimuli.