This Week in The Journal

Toward Improving Brain–Computer Interfaces Ryan A. Canfield, Tomohiro Ouchi, Hao Fang, Beatrice Macagno, Lydia I. Smith et al. (see article e1965252026) Researchers are working on improving motor ...

jneurosci.org

Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency

Standard animal learning studies minimize individual reward magnitudes to maximize the repetitions of reinforced behaviors. We investigated how reward magnitude influences initial learning across five...

science.org

A spinal substrate for modular control of natural behavior

Natural behavior unfolds as coordinated sequences of body movements. This organization suggests that behavior may be built from discrete motor patterns, yet how such arrangements are implemented by neural circuits remains unknown. Here, we combined kinematic analysis, muscle recordings, genetically identified cell types, and closed-loop optogenetic perturbations to examine the organizational logic of natural gap-crossing jumps in mice. Jumping was characterized by a series of precisely defined phases and their associated modular motor patterns. The core phases, propulsion and flight, exhibited distinct signatures of neural control, including unique bursts of coordinated hindlimb muscle activity, differential tuning strategies for jump distance, and active requirements for spinal neural drive. Mapping activity across lumbar interneuron populations and functionally screening candidate cell types for their ability to drive coordinated movement revealed that a population of dorsal excitatory dILB6 neurons can autonomously evoke coordinated multi-joint hindlimb flexion characteristic of the jumping flight phase, across behavioral contexts. These findings provide a specific cellular substrate for the long-standing concept of spinal modular motor control: a flexible, preconfigured motor template that the mammalian CNS can recruit and modulate to meet the demands of natural behavior. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

biorxiv.org

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High-resolution in vivo kinematic tracking with customized injectable fluorescent nanoparticles

Injectable fluorescent nanoparticles were used to track positions on and inside of freely moving animals at high resolution.

science.org

A Chemically Stable Photocaged Noradrenaline

Photoactivatable neurotransmitters provide spatiotemporally precise experimenter control over endogenous receptor activation in living tissue. The resulting optical stimulus-neuronal response relationship provides a sensitive assay that can drive quantitative studies into receptor signaling. Here, we report a photocaged derivative of the prominent catecholamine neurotransmitter noradrenaline (NA). Appending a carboxynitroveratryl (CNV) caging group to the 4-hydroxyl of the catechol group produced CNV-NA, which displays good aqueous solubility and chemical stability. We verified CNV-NA’s lack of activity at α1B- and β2-adrenoreceptors expressed in HEK cells using a live-cell cAMP assay. We validated CNV-NA photoactivation at native α2-adrenoreceptors in brain slices of rat locus coeruleus using whole cell electrophysiological recordings. Monitoring the stereotyped outward current response to repeated CNV-NA photoactivation revealed that the neuropeptide substance P suppresses α2-adrenoreceptor signaling in locus coeruleus neurons. This work adds a new reagent to the growing library of photocaged neuroactive ligands, thereby expanding the scope and applications of photopharmacology.

pubs.acs.org

Dopaminergic action prediction errors serve as a value-free teaching signal - Nature

Dopaminergic action prediction error signals are used by mice as a value-free teaching signal to reinforce stable sound–action associations in the tail of the striatum.

nature.com

Striatal dopamine represents valence on dynamic regional scales

Adaptive decision making relies on dynamic updating of learned associations where environmental cues come to predict valenced stimuli, such as food or threat. Cue-guided behavior depends on a network ...

jneurosci.org

A spatial code governs olfactory receptor choice and aligns sensory maps in the nose and brain

Although topographical maps organize many peripheral sensory systems, it remains unclear whether olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) choose which of the ~1100 odor receptors (ORs) to express based upon t...

biorxiv.org

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Cosyne 2025 - Session 9: Building blocks of cognition

YouTube video by Cosyne Talks

youtube.com

Connectomic analysis of taste circuits in Drosophila - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Connectomic analysis of taste circuits in Drosophila

nature.com

Cortical control of innate behavior from subcortical demonstration

Motor control in mammals is traditionally viewed as a hierarchy of descending spinal-targeting pathways, with frontal cortex at the top. Many redundant muscle patterns can solve a given task, and this...

biorxiv.org

InterfaceNeuro | Conference on Neuroengineering

interfaceneuro.org

Dynamics of striatal action selection and reinforcement learning

elifesciences.org