Buzsaki

Optogenetics has rocked the world of neuroscience for more than a decade now. But neuroscientists want more from the technique—and less, including more depth and less invasiveness. As neuroscientists progress in their application of optogenetics, they want to take it further. This is evidenced by an explosion in the development of light-sensitive opsins that allow researchers to target neurons with amazing specificity. The result has been an explosion in understanding the relationships between [...]

Science works best when qualified people can evaluate evidence without political pressure to draw poorly founded conclusions, say 15 neuroscientists and physicists. Read the full story below or at theguardian.com As neuroscientists and physicists we have no reason to dispute that US diplomats living in Cuba heard loud noises, or that they reported feeling ill afterwards. Some US politicians have seized on these reports to construct conspiracy theories in which they imagine a mysterious disease-causing “sound [...]

Review article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences about our recent paper, by Alik S. Widge Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) is a proposed tool for non-invasively modulating human brain circuits, but its ability to affect cortical physiology remains unclear. A recent study merged TES with live animal and human cadaveric recordings to verify intracranial electrical effects, then used these findings to develop a novel neuro-modulation protocol. Read the full review here and see our related [...]

English, McKenzie, et al. identify, validate, and quantify monosynaptic connections between pyramidal cells and interneurons, using the spike timing of pre- and postsynaptic neurons in vivo. Their large-scale method uncovers a backbone of connectivity rules in the hippocampus CA1 circuit. Highlights Pyramidal cell-interneuron monosynaptic connections identified using spike timing Skewed distribution of connection probability and strength Short-term plasticity of connection strength is synapse specific Presynaptic cooperativity and postsynaptic timing impact spike transmission probability [...]

Nightmares may not be an experience exclusive to humans alone. New research finds that rats might have scary dreams when they fall asleep too. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, was performed by scientists from New York University, who did an experiment that demonstrated that when rats go through frightening stages, the panic reaction they feel is reactivated during sleep. An experience perhaps similar to what some of us face [...]