This Week in Neuroscience

TWiN answers listener questions about Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma and the microbiota, Dravet's Syndrome, schizophrenia, brain development, and chips implanted in the human brain.

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

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

Links for this episode

• Letters read on TWiN 36
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

Jason and Tim review the use of an implanted chronic deep brain sensing and stimulation device to carry out biomarker-driven closed-loop therapy that resulted in a rapid and sustained improvement in depression.

Hosts: Jason Shepherd and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Links for this episode

• Closed-loop neuromodulation for depression (Nat Med)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN explains how central nervous system resident macrophages known as microglia coordinate cellular interactions during spinal cord repair in mice.

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

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Links for this episode

• Microglia coordinate spinal cord repair (Nat Commun)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN describes how neurotropic viruses leave the brain via meningeal lymphatic vessels located dorsally and basally beneath the skull.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Links for this episode

• Meningeal lymph vessels and viral exit from brain (Nature Neuroscience)
• Clearing mouse brain video (YouTube)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN reviews how, in a mouse stroke model, recovery of movement is associated with the remaining cortex and the striatum coordinating their activity together.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Links for this episode

• Recovery after stroke in mice (Cell Rep)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN explains the observation that in mice, the HIV-1 co-receptor CCR5 closes the temporal window for linking different memories.

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

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Links for this episode

• CCR5 and memory linking (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN describes experiments demonstrating that gut injection of alpha-synuclein fibrils in mice converts endogenous alpha-synuclein to a pathologic form that spreads to the brain and leads to features of Parkinson's disease.

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

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Links for this episode

• Gut-brain alpha-synuclein transport in PD (Neuron)
• Gut has a mind of its own (Colbert Report)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN explains the finding that in the mouse visual cortex, astrocytes are key elements in the experience-dependent wiring of brain circuits.

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

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Links for this episode

• Astrocytes close the critical period (Science)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN reveals how oligodendrocytes enhance axonal energy metabolism by transcellular delivery of a protein, SIRT2, that deacetylates mitochondrial proteins.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Click arrow to play Download TWiN 028 (77 MB .mp3, 64 min) Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Links for this episode

• Glia 101 (TWiN 19)
• Oligodendrocytes enhance axonal energy metabolism (Neuron)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN discusses the finding that rewiring retinal projections to the auditory thalamus in ferrets leads to visually responsive cells that are typical of cells in the visual cortex.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Links for this episode

• Remapping retinal projections (Nature)
• Sweet vs bitter taste (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]