SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease activates nociceptors to drive sneeze and pain.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, triggers symptoms such as sneezing, aches and pain. These symptoms are mediated by a subset of sensory neurons, known as nociceptors, that detect noxious stimuli, densely innervate the airway epithelium, and interact with airway resident epithelial and immune cells. However, the mechanisms by which viral infection activates these neurons to trigger pain and airway reflexes are unknown.

Moving bar of light evokes vectorial spatial selectivity in the immobile rat hippocampus.

Visual cortical neurons encode the position and motion direction of specific stimuli retrospectively, without any locomotion or task demand. The hippocampus, which is a part of the visual system, is hypothesized to require self-motion or a cognitive task to generate allocentric spatial selectivity that is scalar, abstract and prospective. Here we measured rodent hippocampal selectivity to a moving bar of light in a body-fixed rat to bridge these seeming disparities.

Dissecting the precise nature of itch-evoked scratching.

Itch is a discrete and irritating sensation tightly coupled to a drive to scratch. Acute scratching developed evolutionarily as an adaptive defense against skin irritants, pathogens, or parasites. In contrast, the itch-scratch cycle in chronic itch is harmful, inducing escalating itch and skin damage.

Dynamics of cortical dendritic membrane potential and spikes in freely behaving rats.

Neural activity in vivo is primarily measured using extracellular somatic spikes, which provide limited information about neural computation. Hence, it is necessary to record from neuronal dendrites, which can generate dendritic action potentials (DAPs) in vitro, which can profoundly influence neural computation and plasticity. We measured neocortical sub- and suprathreshold dendritic membrane potential (DMP) from putative distal-most dendrites using tetrodes in freely behaving rats over multiple days with a high degree of stability and submillisecond temporal resolution.

Causal Influence of Visual Cues on Hippocampal Directional Selectivity.

Hippocampal neurons show selectivity with respect to visual cues in primates, including humans, but this has never been found in rodents. To address this long-standing discrepancy, we measured hippocampal activity from rodents during real-world random foraging. Surprisingly, ∼ 25% of neurons exhibited significant directional modulation with respect to visual cues.

Multisensory control of multimodal behavior: do the legs know what the tongue is doing?

Understanding of adaptive behavior requires the precisely controlled presentation of multisensory stimuli combined with simultaneous measurement of multiple behavioral modalities. Hence, we developed a virtual reality apparatus that allows for simultaneous measurement of reward checking, a commonly used measure in associative learning paradigms, and navigational behavior, along with precisely controlled presentation of visual, auditory and reward stimuli. Rats performed a virtual spatial navigation task analogous to the Morris maze where only distal visual or auditory cues provided spatial information.