Annual review of neuroscience最新文献

The brain is a highly integrated organ, capable of dynamically adjusting its internal states through interactions with the ever-changing environment. This moment-to-moment control underlies the process from sensory perception to behavioral output, reflecting the essence of biological intelligence. However, the broad and ambiguous concept of "brain state" poses challenges for unifying research findings and deciphering the neural logic underlying sensory-induced state changes. Here, we focus on arousal-an essential and quantifiable dimension of brain state-which we further subdivide into general arousal and behavior-relevant specific arousal. Building on recent advances, we examine how salient sensory stimuli rapidly drive state transitions to promote adaptive behavior. We further highlight conserved features shared across subcortical sensory systems and provide an abstract framework for how distinct systems couple sensory input to arousal levels. This perspective clarifies mechanisms underlying behavioral flexibility and sensory consciousness, offering a unified framework for interpreting diverse findings in the field.

Sex hormones are a primary source for biological variation throughout the animal kingdom, from morphological characteristics to elaborate courtship displays. These steroids, such as estrogens and androgens, are indispensable for the development and function of the nervous tissues that mediate sex differences in reproduction, metabolism, and social behavior. Crucially, the cognate receptors for sex hormones are transcription factors that bind DNA to regulate expression of nearby genes. Although there has been substantial recent progress in dissecting the neural circuitry that regulates sex-differential behaviors, there is a dearth of understanding regarding how sex hormones act on this circuitry to modulate behavior. Here, we focus on the transcriptional actions of sex hormone receptors and the functions of their target genes, particularly voltage-gated ion channels. We put forth a framework in which sex hormone receptor modulation of gene expression affects cell activity states across interconnected brain regions, leading to emergent social behaviors.

In the adult mammalian brain, thalamocortical input supports key cortical functions by conveying ascending information from subcortical sensory and motor centers and linking different cortical areas. Studies in the 1980s revealed that these afferent projections are also critical for building the mature neocortex, which is composed of six layers and dozens of anatomically and functionally distinct areas. Recent studies have begun to provide a comprehensive view of cortical development, encompassing early regionalization of immature cortical tissue, distinct behaviors of various progenitor cell types, fate specification of neurons forming the six layers, and morphological and functional maturation of each neuronal type leading to the formation of distinct areas. Many of these processes are now known to be influenced by thalamocortical input. This review highlights the historical contexts in which the roles of the thalamus were uncovered, drawing on evidence from a wide range of organisms, cortical regions, and cell types.

Visual systems evolved to extract behaviorally relevant information while animals move through and interact with their world. Such ecological vision differs fundamentally from standard laboratory paradigms in many key aspects, making this a much harder problem for the brain to solve, and for the neuroscientist to study. However, emerging technologies and experimental approaches have enabled investigation of visual computations under these ecological conditions. These approaches are particularly powerful in the mouse, combining well-developed genetic tools, high-throughput recordings, and quantifiable ethological tasks. Here we review computations that are engaged in ecological contexts, including active sensing, motion processing, scene analysis, distance estimation, and spatial perception. We delineate experimental approaches that engage these computations and synthesize current understanding of their neural implementations based on mouse research. These studies reveal how ecological vision engages distinct processing strategies and novel neural circuitry, while highlighting the vast territory that remains unexplored in understanding real-world visual computation.

Somatosensory ganglia are often cast as passive relays, yet growing evidence shows the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) is a specialized sensory-immune organ. In the DRG, perineuronal and perivascular units act as sentinels that detect danger and calibrate immune tone. A permeable, macrophage-guarded blood-DRG barrier admits systemic cues, while neuron-glia microdomains set sensory gain and help restore homeostasis. Throughout the organ, neurons, glia, and vascular-stromal cells share immune receptors, enabling coordinated responses to infection, inflammation, and autoimmunity. In turn, neuronal signals reshape vascular tone and leukocyte trafficking, whereas immune mediators can promote recovery or drive pathology. Single-cell and spatial atlases reveal regenerative programs and zonation that organize these circuits. Together, these insights reframe the DRG as an integrator linking immune state to sensory encoding and pain. Preserving DRG structure-by fortifying barriers, stabilizing glial buffering, and steering macrophages toward resolution-could blunt maladaptive neuroimmune interactions and enable durable pain relief without compromising host defense.

Stressors, including those occurring in early development, predict an increased risk for psychopathology. The challenge is that of defining causal pathways that connect stressful conditions to specific health outcomes and then leveraging this knowledge toward treatments. This review focuses on glucocorticoids (GCs), the end products of stressor-induced hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, and reviews evidence, including recent multiomics analyses, regarding their role in mental health. We outline the challenges in translating this knowledge into effective treatments and recent evidence for the potential of gene network analyses to identify molecular pathways linking stress to psychopathology. A detailed examination of GC activity through the glucocorticoid receptor is presented as an example of the complexities involved in achieving this research objective and paths to novel interventions through gene network analyses.

The neuron is no longer viewed as a simple point-like integrator but as a sophisticated computational device whose power resides in its dendritic arbor. This review charts the paradigm shift driven by this new perspective. We synthesize recent in vivo findings from behaving animals, where active dendritic processes, from local nonlinear spikes to compartment-specific plasticity, are revealed to be fundamental for intelligence, including perception, action, and memory across key brain regions. We then explore how these biological mechanisms are formalized in theoretical and circuit models that explain complex neural computations at the network level. Finally, we highlight the potential of these findings for artificial intelligence, arguing that dendritic computation offers a compelling source of inspiration for future learning algorithms and hardware systems. This review solidifies dendritic computation as a cornerstone of modern neuroscience, linking cellular mechanisms to the principles of intelligent systems.

Social touch is a critical component of our daily lives, shaping our interactions with friends and loved ones. Reduced social touch, especially during early life, can have detrimental effects on health and well-being. A mechanistic understanding of the neural circuits for social touch is still underway, despite its centrality. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of social touch, a cellular and molecular emphasis must be placed on signaling and connectivity among neurons of the skin, spinal cord, and brain. Here, I review research on the molecules, cells, and circuits of the social touch network, highlighting insights from humans, nonhuman primates, and rodents. I conclude by exploring some of the exciting avenues for future research.

Human cortical development is dependent upon the structured proliferation and differentiation of progenitors into differentiated cell types. This process is tightly regulated by intrinsic and extrinsic cues, which converge to drive human-specific features of the cortex, most notably its expanded size and complexity. On the other hand, glioblastoma (GBM), a highly aggressive primary brain tumor, consists of a heterogeneous mix of neurodevelopmental-like cells that lack control of their proliferation and differentiation. These tumor cells exhibit uncontrollable growth and extreme plasticity, driven by somatic mutations, epigenetic rewiring, microenvironmental interactions, and maladaptive responses to therapy. Recent lineage-tracing and fate-mapping experiments have uncovered unconventional lineage relationships in both normal development and GBM, revealing new cell types along with their origins and progeny. We anticipate that neurodevelopmental perspectives will continue to deepen our understanding of GBM heterogeneity and plasticity, which can then inform the development of cell state reprogramming approaches for therapy.

Physiological needs, such as the need for food, water, and sleep, are fulfilled through homeostatic processes by which brain circuits monitor changes in internal states and trigger goal-directed behaviors, such as eating, drinking, and sleeping, that are aimed to restore physiological balance. Increasing evidence, in humans and animals alike, points to social interaction as yet another fundamental need regulated by homeostatic processes. In this review, we highlight recent efforts to identify neuronal circuits and cell populations underlying social drive, social satiety, and overall social homeostasis, and we compare newly identified neural and molecular mechanisms governing social and physiological needs. We summarize shared and distinct features across distinct needs at the levels of behavioral expression, neuronal circuit function, molecular mechanisms, and sensory modulation. Findings across distinct homeostatic systems offer broad insights into the organizational principles of homeostatic regulation and lay ground for new avenues of research on the brain response to social isolation.