Updated July 16, 2025
Research Spotlight
A neuron’s intrinsic timescale reflects its temporal receptive field, which is to say, over how long of time periods does it integrate information. It’s well-known that these timescales vary hierarchically in mice and macaque monkeys, but Zeisler et al. extend this approach to study single neurons recorded from humans alongside those from mice and monkeys. The authors identify largely consistent hierarchies across all three species -- with hippocampus having the shortest timescale and anterior cingulate cortex the longest -- with some variation in amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. These results suggest that timescale hierarchies might be a common organizing principle for mammalian brains and highlight the complex interaction of diverse anatomical and physiological factors in setting up these hierarchies.
Many leading causes of blindness involve the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye that breaks down in diseases such as age-related macular degeneration. Some progress has been made to restore vision with retinal prosthetics, devices that perform the function of the retina. A challenge, however, is that when retinal neurons stop working properly, it can lead to the loss of function in neurons downstream in the visual system. Yang et al. demonstrate that loss of retinal neurons causes significantly reduced functionality in downstream neurons that are specialized for acuity, while downstream neurons specialized for motion perception are relatively spared. These results suggest that vision restoration might include therapies to recover neuronal pathways specialized for acuity.
Higher-order cognitive functions in the mammalian brain rely on precisely organized connections between areas of the cerebral cortex. Here, Sudarsanam, Guzman-Clavel, et al. show that Mef2c determines the developmental targeting of axonal projections that connect the two cortical hemispheres. The authors demonstrate that Mef2c, which encodes a transcription factor, represses Eph receptor expression in cortical neurons to regulate axonal sensitivity to Ephrin repulsion at target domains. This work sheds new light on the genetic basis of ordered interhemispheric cortical connectivity, which is frequently disrupted in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders.
In sleep and quiet wakefulness, network states oscillate between a depolarized Up-state, resembling circuit dynamics during active processing, and hyperpolarized Down-states. Quaresima et al. show that Up-Down states occur in single cells when dendritic input fluctuates around the excitatory/inhibitory balance. They emerge due to NMDA receptor activation in segregated dendrites, even in the absence of network oscillations. This emphasizes the importance of active dendritic processes in determining cortical states.
People typically evaluate the preferences of both themselves and others before making decisions in moral dilemmas. Researchers have theorized how people face moral dilemmas, but experimental data is lacking. In this study, JuYoung Kim and Hackjin Kim at Korea University provide what they claim is the first experimental data to address the question of how people face moral dilemmas. The researchers assessed study participants’ awareness of their own bodily signals and how closely they aligned with unknown group moral preferences in different scenarios. Awareness of internal states was measured using self-reports and self-evaluations of heartbeats. Group consensus was measured by the number of participants selecting the same ethical option across various scenarios. The researchers found a link between internal bodily awareness and making decisions that aligned with the group consensus. This link was mediated by brain activity states during rest that featured activity in brain regions associated with self-referential processing and internal attention. Thus, according to the authors, this newfound link between internal state sensitivity and moral alignment may influence the moral intuitions a person develops as they learn the moral expectations of others.
Most-Discussed Research Published in June
Below are five Early Release articles that generated the most online discussion in June 2025, 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.
Cocaine use disorder (CUD) is a highly heritable condition for which there are no effective treatments. Testing the many human genetic variants linked to CUD requires a cost-effective, genetically tractable model. Here, we show that bitter-sensing neurons prevent cocaine self-administration in Drosophila. Furthermore, we demonstrate that disrupting Drosophila bitter perception enables a model for experience-dependent cocaine preference. Our findings underscore the potential of Drosophila as a crucial tool for identifying the genetic mechanisms underlying CUD, aiding in the discovery of new therapeutic targets, and contributing to the development of effective treatments for this highly heritable disease.
Role of Hypothalamic CRH Neurons in Regulating the Impact of Stress on Memory and Sleep
Stress significantly affects both sleep and memory, with spatial memory being particularly vulnerable. In this study, we combine acute restraint stress with optogenetic manipulations and a spatial object recognition task to investigate how corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (CRHPVN), and their projections to the lateral hypothalamus (LH), influence memory performance and sleep–wake states following stress. Our findings reveal that activating CRHPVN neurons impairs memory performance and increases wakefulness, whereas inhibiting CRHPVN neurons during stress improves memory and sleep. Inhibiting CRHPVN neuronal projections to the LH similarly improves memory performance and sleep. This work highlights the role of CRHPVN neurons and their projections to the LH in modulating stress-induced alterations in memory and sleep–wake states.
Fine-tuning the details: post-encoding music differentially impacts general and detailed memory
Music may be a powerful tool for modulating memory and mood, offering therapeutic potential for disorders like Alzheimer’s and depression. We found that individual differences in emotional arousal following music exposure influenced both general memory and detailed memory performance. Compared to controls, music specifically impacted memory for details, highlighting its potential to target specific memory aspects. These findings suggest that music interventions may not uniformly enhance memory, emphasizing the need for personalized approaches in treating memory and mood impairments.
EEG correlates of active removal from working memory
The removal of no-longer-relevant information from working memory is critical for the flexible control of behavior. However, to our knowledge, the only explicit accounts of this operation describe the simple withdrawal of attention from that information (i.e., “passive removal”). Here, with measurements of behavior and electroencephalography (EEG), we provide evidence for a specific mechanism for the active removal of information from WM–hijacked adaptation–via the top-down triggering of an adaptation-like down-regulation of gain of the perceptual circuits tuned to the to-be-removed information. These results may have implications for disorders of mental health, including rumination, intrusion of negative thoughts, and hallucination.
Understanding how the brain adapts to cognitive and emotional demands with age is key to promoting healthy aging. This study examined whether the locus coeruleus (LC), a brain region critical for regulating attention and arousal, undergoes adaptive changes with age, especially during emotional ambiguity task. Using ultra-high-field imaging, we explored younger and older adults recognize facial expressions with varying ambiguity levels. Our findings indicated that compared to young, older adults showed heightened LC activity and LC-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) connectivity when processing absolute-ambiguous facial expressions, with enhanced connectivity linked to improved mental well-being. These results suggest higher LC activity supports cognitive demands of ambiguity processing with LC-dlPFC connectivity promoting emotional well-being and resilience, offering insights into mechanisms underlying healthy aging.
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