Lateral entorhinal cortex afferents reconfigure the activity in piriform cortex circuits.

Odors are key signals for guiding spatial behaviors such as foraging and navigation in rodents. Recent findings reveal that odor representations in the piriform cortex (PCx) also encode spatial context information. However, the brain origins of this information and its integration into PCx microcircuitry remain unclear.

Tau reduction with artificial microRNAs modulates neuronal physiology and improves tauopathy phenotypes in mice.

Abnormal tau accumulation is the hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, named tauopathies. Strategies aimed at reducing tau in the brain are promising therapeutic interventions, yet more precise therapies would require targeting specific nuclei and neuronal subpopulations affected by disease while avoiding global reduction of physiological tau. Here, we developed artificial microRNAs directed against the human MAPT mRNA to dwindle tau protein by engaging the endogenous RNA interference pathway.

Cholinergic modulation of dentate gyrus processing through dynamic reconfiguration of inhibitory circuits.

The dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus plays a key role in memory formation, and it is known to be modulated by septal projections. By performing electrophysiology and optogenetics, we evaluated the role of cholinergic modulation in the processing of afferent inputs in the DG. We show that mature granule cells (GCs), but not adult-born immature neurons, have increased responses to afferent perforant path stimuli upon cholinergic modulation.

Producing or reproducing reasoning? Socratic dialog is very effective, but only for a few.

Successful communication between a teacher and a student is at the core of pedagogy. A well known example of a pedagogical dialog is 'Meno', a socratic lesson of geometry in which a student learns (or 'discovers') how to double the area of a given square 'in essence, a demonstration of Pythagoras' theorem. In previous studies we found that after engaging in the dialog participants can be divided in two kinds: those who can only apply a rule to solve the problem presented in the dialog and those who can go beyond and generalize that knowledge to solve any square problems.