Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 15 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00835-3

Julian and Doeller show that trial-by-trial modulation of map-like representations in the human hippocampal–entorhinal system predicts contextual memory retrieval during virtual reality navigation independent of visual experience.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 15 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00837-1

Xu et al. developed and characterized a new animal model of maternal immune activation based on a parasite mimetic. They show that immune and behavioral abnormalities in adult offspring are reversed by adoptive transfer of regulatory T cells.

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 15 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00448-6

Neuroscience can explain cognition by considering single neurons and their connections (a ‘Sherringtonian’ view) or by considering neural spaces constructed by populations of neurons (a ‘Hopfieldian’ view). In this Perspective, Barack and Krakauer argue that the Hopfieldian view has the conceptual resources to explain cognition more fully the Sherringtonian view.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 12 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00832-6

Wingo et al. integrate depression GWAS results with human brain proteomes to perform proteome-wide association studies followed by Mendelian randomization. They identify 25 proteins as potential causal mediators of depression, of which 20 are new.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 12 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00831-7

McNamee et al. develop a theory of entorhinal–hippocampal processing. Distributed entorhinal input drives hippocampal activity between distinct statistical and dynamical regimes of activity, thereby unifying several empirical observations.

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 12 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00454-8

The impairment of brain fluid homeostasis is a feature of various conditions, highlighting the need to better understand brain water transport for drug development. Here, Nanna MacAulay reviews the molecular mechanisms underlying transmembrane water movement in neurons and glia and across brain barriers, emphasizing the part played by water cotransporters in this process.

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 09 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00455-7

Dopamine is often portrayed as a diffuse, slow neuromodulator, yet such signalling cannot explain its broad and sometimes rapid roles. Here, Liu, Goel and Kaeser review recent insights into dopamine release and receptors and present a new framework — the domain-overlap model — for dopamine signalling.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 08 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00848-y

Author Correction: Long-term behavioral and cell-type-specific molecular effects of early life stress are mediated by H3K79me2 dynamics in medium spiny neurons

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 07 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00462-8

Brain training

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 07 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00463-7

Astrocytes and alcohol

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 07 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00461-9

Shape-shifting organoids

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 07 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00464-6

In humans, the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex is crucial for assessing the likelihood that a future decision will be correct.

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 07 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00460-w

Attractive odours

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Published online: 07 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00445-9

Ion channel dysfunctions contribute significantly to fragile X pathophysiology. In this Review, Deng and Klyachko discuss the mechanisms underlying the effects of these channelopathies in fragile X syndrome, and the therapeutic potential of pharmacological interventions that target ion channels.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 05 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00828-2

Social interactions and relationships are often associated with a rewarding experience. Hu et al. show that mice display positive reinforcement of social interaction, and they identify an amygdala-to-hypothalamus circuit in mediating this social reward.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 05 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00823-7

The authors develop a genetically encoded GPCR-based sensor to image serotonin dynamics in behaving animals with high specificity, sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 05 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00821-9

During implicit learning, the authors find that sensory representations in mouse auditory cortex evolve over time, rotating into orthogonal memory representations. This allows short-term memories to avoid interference from new sensory inputs.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 01 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00834-4

Disrupting reconsolidation of the maladaptive memories underlying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could be transformative for treatment. However, patients cannot undergo the direct re-exposure to trauma-cues used to induce reconsolidation in animal studies. Ressler and colleagues report ‘covert’ memory reactivation in rats, bolstering hopes for translation of reconsolidation-based interventions.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 01 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00825-5

This study shows that hippocampus-dependent fear memories can be indirectly reactivated, captured and pharmacologically attenuated in rats. This reinforces the utility of imaginal reminders to target traumatic memories in humans.

Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 01 April 2021; doi:10.1038/s41593-021-00827-3

AAV9-SMN is used to treat SMA. This study shows that AAV9-mediated SMN overexpression in mice causes late-onset motor dysfunction and synaptic and neuronal loss through protein aggregation, suggesting caution on the long-term safety of SMN gene therapy.