Retinal Inputs to the Thalamus Are Selectively Gated by Arousal.

The brain can flexibly filter out sensory information in a manner that depends on behavioral state. In the visual thalamus and cortex, arousal and locomotion are associated with changes in the magnitude of responses to visual stimuli. Here, we asked whether such modulation of visual responses might already occur at an earlier stage in this visual pathway.

Altered interplay between endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria in Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2A neuropathy.

Mutations in the gene encoding Mitofusin 2 lead to the development of Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2A (CMT2A), a dominant axonal form of peripheral neuropathy. Mitofusin 2 is localized at both the outer membrane of mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum and is particularly enriched at specialized contact regions known as mitochondria-associated membranes (MAM). We observed that expression of MFN2 induces distal axonal degeneration in the absence of overt neuronal death.