Opposite forms of adaptation in mouse visual cortex are controlled by distinct inhibitory microcircuits.

Sensory processing in the cortex adapts to the history of stimulation but the mechanisms are not understood. Imaging the primary visual cortex of mice we find here that an increase in stimulus contrast is not followed by a simple decrease in gain of pyramidal cells; as many cells increase gain to improve detection of a subsequent decrease in contrast. Depressing and sensitizing forms of adaptation also occur in different types of interneurons (PV, SST and VIP) and the net effect within individual pyramidal cells reflects the balance of PV inputs, driving depression, and a subset of SST interneurons driving sensitization.

Extinction of cue-evoked food-seeking recruits a GABAergic interneuron ensemble in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex of mice.

Animals must quickly adapt food-seeking strategies to locate nutrient sources in dynamically changing environments. Learned associations between food and environmental cues that predict its availability promote food-seeking behaviors. However, when such cues cease to predict food availability, animals undergo "extinction" learning, resulting in the inhibition of food-seeking responses.

Regional Regulation of Purkinje Cell Dendritic Spines by Integrins and Eph/Ephrins.

Climbing fibres and parallel fibres compete for dendritic space on Purkinje cells in the cerebellum. Normally, climbing fibres populate the proximal dendrites, where they suppress the multiple small spines typical of parallel fibres, leading to their replacement by the few large spines that contact climbing fibres. Previous work has shown that ephrins acting via EphA4 are a signal for this change in spine type and density.

Kinesin KIF4A transports integrin β1 in developing axons of cortical neurons.

CNS axons have poor regenerative ability compared to PNS axons, and mature axons regenerate less well than immature embryonic axons. The loss of regenerative ability with maturity is accompanied by the setting up of a selective transport filter in axons, restricting the types of molecule that are present. We confirm that integrins (represented by subunits β1 and α5) are present in early cortical axons in vitro but are excluded from mature axons.

Kindlin-1 enhances axon growth on inhibitory chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans and promotes sensory axon regeneration.

Growing and regenerating axons need to interact with the molecules in the extracellular matrix as they traverse through their environment. An important group of receptors that serve this function is the integrin superfamily of cell surface receptors, which are evolutionarily conserved αβ heterodimeric transmembrane proteins. The function of integrins is controlled by regulating the affinity for ligands (also called "integrin activation").