Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
    • Special Collections
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
    • Editorial Board
    • ECR Advisory Board
    • Journal Staff
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
    • Accessibility
  • SUBSCRIBE

User menu

  • Log out
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Neuroscience
  • Log out
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Neuroscience

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
    • Special Collections
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
    • Editorial Board
    • ECR Advisory Board
    • Journal Staff
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
    • Accessibility
  • SUBSCRIBE
PreviousNext
This Week in The Journal

This Week in The Journal

Journal of Neuroscience 19 March 2025, 45 (12) etwij45122025; https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.twij.45.12.2025
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

A Potassium Channel on Axons Reduces Ectopic Spikes

Nooshin Abdollahi, Yu-Feng Xie, Stephanie Ratte, and Steven A. Prescott

(see article e1889242025)

Action potentials, or spikes, transmit information between neurons over long distances by propagating down the axon. The axon must be excitable enough to propagate spikes reliably, but not so excitable that new spikes are initiated ectopically in the axon. Abdollahi and colleagues explored what channels reduce the risk of ectopic spikes. They evoked spikes in different subcellular compartments of hippocampal pyramidal neurons using targeted optogenetic stimulation. Abdollahi et al. discovered that spike initiation differed between the soma and axon. The soma used a low-pass filter that allows graded depolarization to evoke spikes de novo, whereas the axon used a high-pass filter that allows only rapid depolarization to evoke spikes. This high-pass filter was driven by type 1 voltage-gated potassium channels whose activation dampened slow depolarization. This study advances our understanding of this potassium channel by suggesting it controls ectopic spike initiation.

Figure
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

Pictured are two oligodendrocytes in layer 1 of the mouse cerebral cortex. Both cells are labeled by CNP (cyan), an oligodendrocyte marker. At the left is a mature oligodendrocyte, as evidenced by colabeling with carbonic anhydrase II (blue). At the right is a differentiating oligodendrocyte, as evidenced by a larger soma and labeling with procaspase-3 (red). See Kamen et al. for more information.

Identifying a Regulator of Oligodendrocyte Fate

Yasmine Kamen, Timothy W. Chapman, Enrique T. Piedra, Matthew E. Ciolkowski, and Robert A. Hill

(see article e2066242025)

Oligodendrocyte death occurs during aging and characterizes several disorders. While oligodendrocyte regeneration even in neurodegenerative conditions is possible throughout life, the regenerative process has a high failure rate and is not efficient. In this issue, Kamen et al. explored regulators of oligodendrocyte development during stages of generation. A barrier to delineating stages of oligodendrocyte development is the lack of known unique molecular markers at each stage. In their study, the authors identified a marker that is upregulated during oligodendrocyte differentiation in both males and females: the cytoplasmic inactive enzyme precursor procaspase-3. This marker enabled Kamen and colleagues to discover that oligodendrocyte differentiation continues in the cortex and white matter into old age. Inhibiting both the active and inactive form of caspase-3 resulted in less oligodendrocytes, suggesting that procaspase-3 upregulation promotes oligodendrocyte development. These findings shed light on underlying mechanisms of oligodendrocyte fate and point to procaspase-3 as an effective marker for differentiation.

Footnotes

  • This Week in The Journal was written by Paige McKeon

Back to top

In this issue

The Journal of Neuroscience: 45 (12)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 45, Issue 12
19 Mar 2025
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Masthead (PDF)
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Neuroscience article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
This Week in The Journal
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Neuroscience
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Neuroscience.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
View Full Page PDF
Citation Tools
This Week in The Journal
Journal of Neuroscience 19 March 2025, 45 (12) etwij45122025; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.twij.45.12.2025

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Request Permissions
Share
This Week in The Journal
Journal of Neuroscience 19 March 2025, 45 (12) etwij45122025; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.twij.45.12.2025
Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Responses to this article

Respond to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

  • This Week in The Journal
  • This Week in The Journal
  • This Week in The Journal
Show more This Week in The Journal
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Follow SFN on BlueSky
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Issue Archive
  • Collections

Information

  • For Authors
  • For Advertisers
  • For the Media
  • For Subscribers

About

  • About the Journal
  • Editorial Board
  • Privacy Notice
  • Contact
  • Accessibility
(JNeurosci logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2025 by the Society for Neuroscience.
JNeurosci Online ISSN: 1529-2401

The ideas and opinions expressed in JNeurosci do not necessarily reflect those of SfN or the JNeurosci Editorial Board. Publication of an advertisement or other product mention in JNeurosci should not be construed as an endorsement of the manufacturer’s claims. SfN does not assume any responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from or related to any use of any material contained in JNeurosci.