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News from 2015

PERCEIVING SMELLS WITH SPARSE CONNECTIONS

Many regions of the brain are organized in such a way that they form an ordered representation of our sensory experiences. Similar physical stimuli –nearby points of light…

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ENGINEERING BINOCULARITY IN THE ZEBRAFISH BRAIN

(left panel) Monocular retinal innervation in a normal larval zebrafish. The right optic tectal lobe receives input solely from the contralateral (red) retina. (right panel) Following rewiring, the…

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WATCHING SYNAPSES CHANGE IN ANIMALS

Some of the authors (left to right): Corey M McCann, Juan Carlos Tapia, and Jeff W Lichtman Image shows submandibular ganglion neurons (blue) that express Cyan Fluorescent Protein…

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ASTROCYTES SPY ON NEURONAL CONVERSATION TO BRING A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD

The human brain represents approximately 2% of the total body weight, but accounts for about 20% of the energy consumed. Functional hyperemia (local increases in blood flow triggered…

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SMALL BUT MIGHTY

In a behaving animal, the brain processes information from sensory inputs, and communicates its intentions to muscles via the pattern of activity in descending projection neurons. In vertebrates,…

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DULAC LAB: SMALL RNAS AND THE SENSE OF SMELL

Modern genetics textbooks highlight the concept of the ‘central dogma’ which states that DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA) and that mRNA is subsequently translated into proteins. …

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FINE-TUNING HEAT SENSITIVITY

This illustration is a surface representation of the TRPV1ankyrin repeat structure (in green) with a bound ATP molecule (multicolor sticks) on a background of capsaicin-laden red pepper flakes.…

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