A sleep-active basalocortical pathway crucial for generation and maintenance of chronic pain.

Poor sleep is associated with the risk of developing chronic pain, but how sleep contributes to pain chronicity remains unclear. Here we show that following peripheral nerve injury, cholinergic neurons in the anterior nucleus basalis (aNB) of the basal forebrain are increasingly active during nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in a mouse model of neuropathic pain. These neurons directly activate vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-expressing interneurons in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), causing disinhibition of pyramidal neurons and allodynia.

REM sleep promotes experience-dependent dendritic spine elimination in the mouse cortex.

In many parts of the nervous system, experience-dependent refinement of neuronal circuits predominantly involves synapse elimination. The role of sleep in this process remains unknown. We investigated the role of sleep in experience-dependent dendritic spine elimination of layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the visual (V1) and frontal association cortex (FrA) of 1-month-old mice.

Sevoflurane induces neuronal activation and behavioral hyperactivity in young mice.

Sevoflurane, a commonly used anesthetic, may cause agitation in patients. However, the mechanism underlying this clinical observation remains largely unknown. We thus assessed the effects of sevoflurane on neuronal activation and behaviors in mice.

Efficient Position Decoding Methods Based on Fluorescence Calcium Imaging in the Mouse Hippocampus.

Large-scale fluorescence calcium imaging methods have become widely adopted for studies of long-term hippocampal and cortical neuronal dynamics. Pyramidal neurons of the rodent hippocampus show spatial tuning in freely foraging or head-fixed navigation tasks. Development of efficient neural decoding methods for reconstructing the animal's position in real or virtual environments can provide a fast readout of spatial representations in closed-loop neuroscience experiments.

Somatostatin-Expressing Interneurons Enable and Maintain Learning-Dependent Sequential Activation of Pyramidal Neurons.

The activities of neuronal populations exhibit temporal sequences that are thought to mediate spatial navigation, cognitive processing, and motor actions. The mechanisms underlying the generation and maintenance of sequential neuronal activity remain unclear. We found that layer 2 and/or 3 pyramidal neurons (PNs) showed sequential activation in the mouse primary motor cortex during motor skill learning.

Neuropathic Pain Causes Pyramidal Neuronal Hyperactivity in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex.

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is thought to be important for acute pain perception as well as the development of chronic pain after peripheral nerve injury. Nevertheless, how ACC neurons respond to sensory stimulation under chronic pain states is not well understood. Here, we used an two-photon imaging technique to monitor the activity of individual neurons in the ACC of awake, head restrained mice.

Microglia limit the expansion of β-amyloid plaques in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Microglia are known as resident immune cells in the brain. β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques in the brain of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are surrounded by microglia, but whether and how microglia affect the formation and maintenance of plaques remains controversial.

Methods: We depleted microglia by injecting diphtheria toxin (DT) in CX CR1 :R26 (CX CR1-iDTR) mice crossed with APPswe/PSEN1dE9 (APP/PS1) mice.