This Week in Neuroscience

TWiN reviews evidence in mice that brain neurons encode and retrieve specific immune responses.

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Links for this episode

• Memory of immunity (Cell)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN answers listener questions on sex in neuroscience studies, rotating memories in the brain, odorant receptors in the brain, and neutrophils that promote neuron survival.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

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Links for this episode

• Males and females in neuroscience studies (New Scientist)
• Brain rotates memories (Quanta)
• Odorant receptors in brain (one, two)
• Neutrophils promote neuron survival (Nat Imm)
• Letters read on TWiN 25
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

Ioana and Robert join TWiN to discuss their work demonstrating that rodents acquire maternal behavior by social transmission from an experienced mother to a virgin female how to care for a litter via endogenous oxytocin.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Timothy Cheung

Guests: Ioana Carcea and Robert Froemke

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Links for this episode

• Oxytocin neurons and social transmission of behavior (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe

Bruce Carter joins TWiN to discuss the peripheral nervous system: the development of nerves that convey sensory information like touch from the tips of your toes to the brain, and Schwann cells, which are necessary for ensuring that those sensory signals are sustained as they travel long distances to the brain.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Guest: Bruce Carter

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Links for this episode

• Control of neuron survival by p75 (J Neurosci)
• Sympathetic nervous system (Nat Rev Neurosci)
• Charcot-Marie-Tooth and PMP22 protein (J Biol Chem)
• Satellite glial cells (Nat Rev Neurosci)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN explains how anti-DNA antibodies present in lupus patients bind to GluN2A-containing NMDA receptors, act as positive allosteric modulators, and impair spatial memory.

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

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

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Links for this episode

• Lupus autoantibodies bind GluN2A-containing NMDA receptors (Nat Commun)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiN explores a study of hallucination-like perception in mice which supports the idea that hallucinations arise as faulty perceptual inferences due to elevated dopamine in the striatum.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, and Timothy Cheung

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Links for this episode

• Listener poll - please take it
• Striatal dopamine and hallucination in mice (Science)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

While perceptual constancy requires the brain to maintain a stable representation of sensory input, TWiN explores a study showing that odor-evoked responses in the olfactory cortex drift over periods of days to weeks.

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

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Links for this episode

• Representational drift in olfactory cortex (Nature) (open preprint)
• Ed Yong on representational drift (Atlantic)
• Letters read on TWiN 20
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

On this episode, Vivianne gives a primer on glial cells, with the goal of thinking about the central nervous system holistically and appreciating the different cell types that contribute to its function.

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

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Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

Mauro Costa-Mattioli joins TWiN to discuss how his laboratory dissects the contribution of host genetics and the microbiome in complex neurodevelopment disorders such as autism spectrum disorders.

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

Guest: Mauro Costa-Mattioli

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Links for this episode

• Mauro's work on TWiM 131 and 193
• Separating genetics and microbiome in autism (Cell)
• Please take our listener poll
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]

Michael Nitabach joins TWiN to discuss the finding that the nematode C. elegans, which do not have eyes, can discriminate between colors to guide foraging decisions and move them away from harmful bacteria that produce a blue-pigment toxin.

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

Guest: Michael Nitabach

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

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Links for this episode

• C. elegans discriminates colors (Science)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to [email protected]