Updated March 12, 2024
Research Spotlight
Chae and colleagues, researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea, discovered that motor cortical neurons exhibit distinct neural dynamics depending on whether or not animals can predict when to move. These findings highlight the ability of motor cortical neurons to capitalize on available time information.
Human prosocial preferences are related to slow-wave activity in sleep
Sleep deprivation studies suggest that lack of sleep makes us less helpful and altruistic, which are prosocial behaviors that benefit society. However, more significant differences in altruism are seen when drawing comparisons between people. Could differences in prosocial behaviors between people be linked to differences in individual sleep profiles? That is what Dr. Mirjam Studler, Dr. Lorena Gianotti, and colleagues at the University of Bern in Switzerland investigated in their study of 54 human participants. The scientists measured sleep physiology in the brain during a normal night of sleep and then determined prosocial preferences in a game in which participants were given points equating to real money and had to decide whether they wanted to keep the money or contribute any of it to the “public good”. Those with higher slow-wave sleep activity (which represents deeper sleep) measured by electrodes in the right temporal lobe of the brain were more likely to donate the money they were given in the “public good” game. Interestingly, the length of time study participants slept did not impact their prosocial behavior during the game. Taken together with the fact that this brain region is important for taking on the perspectives of others, these findings suggest that differences in prosocial behavior may be linked to differences in sleep quality that impact empathy and not necessarily the length of time people sleep.
Most-Discussed Research Published in February
Below are five Early Release articles that generated the most online discussion in February 2024, as measured by Altmetric. Altmetric data is available for all articles published in JNeurosci on the Info & Metrics tab. Learn more about how the Altmetric score is calculated.
Inferring the intentions from behavior is crucial for adaptive social functioning. A predisposition toward interpreting intentions as hostile is a significant predictor of interpersonal conflict and aggressive tendencies. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we found that individual differences in hostile attribution bias shaped neural synchrony in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex while processing real-world social situations. Additionally, we were able to distinguish between participants with high and low hostile attribution bias from their neural activity. These results reveal how subjective interpretations of social situations are influenced by hostile attribution bias and reflected in the temporal dynamics of brain activity. Our findings lay the groundwork for future studies aimed at understanding the neurobiological basis of sociocognitive biases and interventions that mitigate these biases.
Heterozygous pathogenic variants in STXBP1 are in the top five causes of pediatric epilepsies and one of the most frequent causes of neurodevelopmental disorders. They affect presynaptic neurotransmitter release and a broad spectrum of neurological features common among neurodevelopmental disorders, but the disease pathogenesis and cell types subserving these phenotypes remain unclear. Here we report the distinct roles of GABAergic/glycinergic and glutamatergic neurons in the pathogenesis of STXBP1 encephalopathy. These results will aid the development of therapeutic interventions by suggesting the potential outcomes of therapeutic strategies that target different neuronal types for treating STXBP1 encephalopathy.
Recent studies have shown that when rats are given a mutually exclusive choice between social interaction with a same-sex peer and opioid or psychostimulant drugs, they choose social interaction. In the present study, we examined if the peer-sex influences operant social interaction and the role of the estrous cycle and striatal dopamine in same- vs. opposite-sex social interaction. Responding was higher for the opposite-sex peer in male but not female rats, and estrous cycle had no effect on operant social interaction of either sex. Same-sex vs. opposite-sex operant social interaction was associated with different dopamine responses in NAc core and DMS. Our study shows that peer-sex influences operant responding for social interaction and associated neuronal responses.
Control over internal representations requires the prioritization of relevant information and suppression of irrelevant information. We targeted theta-frequency frontal-parietal coherence and lateralized alpha oscillations in posterior parietal cortex using online rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in human participants while they prioritized or suppressed internally maintained working memory (WM) representations. For suppression, alpha-TMS to posterior parietal cortex increased the amplitude of lateralized alpha oscillations contralateral to the irrelevant visual field. For prioritization, theta-TMS to prefrontal cortex increased theta-frequency connectivity in the prefrontal-parietal network contralateral to the relevant visual field. In a separate dataset of patients with implanted electrodes, we demonstrate anatomical specificity in that theta connectivity was directed from lateral prefrontal to posterior parietal cortex.
DNA G-quadruplex is a transcriptional control device that regulates memory.
For decades, many scientists have considered the topic of DNA structure to be solved, with the double-helix of DNA existing in one stable form. However, this is not the complete story; DNA structure has a variety of states that are functional. For example, G-quadruplex DNA (G4-DNA) is a structure that is associated with DNA damage and functional impairment. While there is abundant evidence demonstrating the involvement of G4-DNA in stalling replication or transcription, our work is the first causal evidence that G4-DNA is required for both neuronal transcription and the expression of different memory states.
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