This Week in Neuroscience

TWiN explains research showing that interaction between glioma cells and neurons in the brain shares mechanistic features with synaptic plasticity that contributes to memory and learning in the healthy brain.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Glioma synapses recruit mechanisms of adaptive plasticity (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

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TWiN discusses research showing that sciatic nerve activation with electroacupuncture at the sciatic nerve controls systemic inflammation and rescues mice from polymicrobial peritonitis, by inducing vagal activation of aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase, leading to the production of dopamine in the adrenal medulla.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Electroacupuncture modulates the immune system (Nat Med)
• Electroacupuncture drives the vagal–adrenal axis (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN reviews a mouse model of ADHD to characterize hypersensitivity to pain, and that sensitization is further amplified in a pathological inflammatory state.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Pain hypersensitivity in ADHD model (PNAS)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN discusses a study of on the pathways that control opioid analgesic tolerance, a root cause of opioid overdose and misuse, which can develop through an associative learning.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Associative opioid analgesic tolerance (Sci Adv)
• Pavlovian-conditioned opioid tolerance (Sci Adv)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN explains how psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA, which are being explored for treating a wide range of neuropsychiatric diseases, reopen the social reward period for critical learning.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Click arrow to play Download TWiN 042 (34 MB .mp3, 57 min) Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Psychedelic drugs open critical period (Nature)
• Psychedelics reopen critical periods (News-Med)
• LSD microdosing doesn't work (U Chicago Med)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

Vivianne explains how early in Alzheimer's disease, the brain attempts to counteract the increased excitatory drive caused by amyloid deposition, and that melanin-concentrating hormone, produced during sleep, is involved in this protective response.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Melanin-concentrating hormone and Alzheimer's disease (Nat Neurosci)
• Alzforum
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

Tim takes TWiN through two studies on the role of dopamine: that syllables are natural units of spontaneous behavior used by the brain to structure action, and that mesolimbic dopamine release conveys causal associations but not reward prediction errors, thereby challenging the dominant theory of reward learning.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Spontaneous behavior without explicit reward (Nature)
• Dopamine release conveys causal associations (Science)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

Junjie from Jason's lab joins TWiN to discuss the observation that the cell gene PNMA2 encodes non-enveloped virus-like capsids that induce autoantibodies which underlie paraneoplastic syndrome.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Junjie Xu

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Virus-like capsids in paraneoplastic disease (bioRxiv)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN explains the finding that immunity to commensal bacteria promotes sensory neuron regeneration via the cytokine interleukin-17A.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Immunity to the microbiota promotes sensory neuron regeneration (Cell)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN reviews the field of microgial research, which has advanced in recent decades but is constrained by nomenclature that is necessary but often implies specific functions.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

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• Microglia states and nomenclature (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]