Vision and microsaccades: Time to pay attention!
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 26;34(4):R153-R154. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.032.ABSTRACTVisual perception of exceedingly small and highly detailed spatial regions depends on coordinated patterns of small shifts of the line of sight ('microsaccades') aided by pre-saccadic shifts of spatial attention directed precisely to the intended target of the saccade.PMID:38412827 | DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.032 (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - February 27, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Eileen Kowler Source Type: research
Neuroscience of eating: Pace and portion control
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 26;34(4):R155-R157. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.033.ABSTRACTSatiety-promoting neurons of the hindbrain have long been known for their role in meal termination. An innovative new study now reveals how different hindbrain cell types mediate appetite on distinct timescales.PMID:38412828 | DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.033 (Source: Current Biology)
Source: Current Biology - February 27, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Claire Gao Michael J Krashes Source Type: research
Medicinal plants meet modern biodiversity science
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 26;34(4):R158-R173. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.038.ABSTRACTPlants have been an essential source of human medicine for millennia. In this review, we argue that a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to the study of medicinal plants that combines methods and insights from three key disciplines - evolutionary ecology, molecular biology/biochemistry, and ethnopharmacology - is poised to facilitate new breakthroughs in science, including pharmacological discoveries and rapid advancements in human health and well-being. Such interdisciplinary research leverages data and methods spanning space, time, and speci...
Source: Current Biology - February 27, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Charles C Davis Patrick Choisy Source Type: research
Advanced feedback enhances sensorimotor adaptation
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 16:S0960-9822(24)00139-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.073. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTIt is widely recognized that sensorimotor adaptation is facilitated when feedback is provided throughout the movement compared with when it is provided at the end of the movement. However, the source of this advantage is unclear: continuous feedback is more ecological, dynamic, and available earlier than endpoint feedback. Here, we assess the relative merits of these factors using a method that allows us to manipulate feedback timing independent of actual hand position. By manipulating the onset time of "endpoint" fe...
Source: Current Biology - February 25, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Tianhe Wang Guy Avraham Jonathan S Tsay Tanvi Thummala Richard B Ivry Source Type: research
Organization of an ascending circuit that conveys flight motor state in Drosophila
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 13:S0960-9822(24)00113-1. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.071. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTNatural behaviors are a coordinated symphony of motor acts that drive reafferent (self-induced) sensory activation. Individual sensors cannot disambiguate exafferent (externally induced) from reafferent sources. Nevertheless, animals readily differentiate between these sources of sensory signals to carry out adaptive behaviors through corollary discharge circuits (CDCs), which provide predictive motor signals from motor pathways to sensory processing and other motor pathways. Yet, how CDCs comprehensively integrate i...
Source: Current Biology - February 25, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Han S J Cheong Kaitlyn N Boone Marryn M Bennett Farzaan Salman Jacob D Ralston Kaleb Hatch Raven F Allen Alec M Phelps Andrew P Cook Jasper S Phelps Mert Erginkaya Wei-Chung A Lee Gwyneth M Card Kevin C Daly Andrew M Dacks Source Type: research
Advanced feedback enhances sensorimotor adaptation
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 16:S0960-9822(24)00139-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.073. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTIt is widely recognized that sensorimotor adaptation is facilitated when feedback is provided throughout the movement compared with when it is provided at the end of the movement. However, the source of this advantage is unclear: continuous feedback is more ecological, dynamic, and available earlier than endpoint feedback. Here, we assess the relative merits of these factors using a method that allows us to manipulate feedback timing independent of actual hand position. By manipulating the onset time of "endpoint" fe...
Source: Current Biology - February 25, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Tianhe Wang Guy Avraham Jonathan S Tsay Tanvi Thummala Richard B Ivry Source Type: research
Organization of an ascending circuit that conveys flight motor state in Drosophila
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 13:S0960-9822(24)00113-1. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.071. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTNatural behaviors are a coordinated symphony of motor acts that drive reafferent (self-induced) sensory activation. Individual sensors cannot disambiguate exafferent (externally induced) from reafferent sources. Nevertheless, animals readily differentiate between these sources of sensory signals to carry out adaptive behaviors through corollary discharge circuits (CDCs), which provide predictive motor signals from motor pathways to sensory processing and other motor pathways. Yet, how CDCs comprehensively integrate i...
Source: Current Biology - February 25, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Han S J Cheong Kaitlyn N Boone Marryn M Bennett Farzaan Salman Jacob D Ralston Kaleb Hatch Raven F Allen Alec M Phelps Andrew P Cook Jasper S Phelps Mert Erginkaya Wei-Chung A Lee Gwyneth M Card Kevin C Daly Andrew M Dacks Source Type: research
Advanced feedback enhances sensorimotor adaptation
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 16:S0960-9822(24)00139-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.073. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTIt is widely recognized that sensorimotor adaptation is facilitated when feedback is provided throughout the movement compared with when it is provided at the end of the movement. However, the source of this advantage is unclear: continuous feedback is more ecological, dynamic, and available earlier than endpoint feedback. Here, we assess the relative merits of these factors using a method that allows us to manipulate feedback timing independent of actual hand position. By manipulating the onset time of "endpoint" fe...
Source: Current Biology - February 25, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Tianhe Wang Guy Avraham Jonathan S Tsay Tanvi Thummala Richard B Ivry Source Type: research
Organization of an ascending circuit that conveys flight motor state in Drosophila
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 13:S0960-9822(24)00113-1. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.071. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTNatural behaviors are a coordinated symphony of motor acts that drive reafferent (self-induced) sensory activation. Individual sensors cannot disambiguate exafferent (externally induced) from reafferent sources. Nevertheless, animals readily differentiate between these sources of sensory signals to carry out adaptive behaviors through corollary discharge circuits (CDCs), which provide predictive motor signals from motor pathways to sensory processing and other motor pathways. Yet, how CDCs comprehensively integrate i...
Source: Current Biology - February 25, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Han S J Cheong Kaitlyn N Boone Marryn M Bennett Farzaan Salman Jacob D Ralston Kaleb Hatch Raven F Allen Alec M Phelps Andrew P Cook Jasper S Phelps Mert Erginkaya Wei-Chung A Lee Gwyneth M Card Kevin C Daly Andrew M Dacks Source Type: research
Vestigial organs alter fossil placements in an ancient group of terrestrial chelicerates
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 20:S0960-9822(24)00153-2. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.011. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTVestigial organs provide a link between ancient and modern traits and therefore have great potential to resolve the phylogeny of contentious fossils that bear features not seen in extant species. Here we show that extant daddy-longlegs (Arachnida, Opiliones), a group once thought to possess only one pair of eyes, in fact additionally retain a pair of vestigial median eyes and a pair of vestigial lateral eyes. Neuroanatomical gene expression surveys of eye-patterning transcription factors, opsins, and other structural...
Source: Current Biology - February 24, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Guilherme Gainett Benjamin C Klementz Pola Blaszczyk Emily V W Setton Gabriel P Murayama Rodrigo Willemart Efrat Gavish-Regev Prashant P Sharma Source Type: research
Developmental remodeling repurposes larval neurons for sexual behaviors in adult Drosophila
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 10:S0960-9822(24)00102-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.065. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTMost larval neurons in Drosophila are repurposed during metamorphosis for functions in adult life, but their contribution to the neural circuits for sexually dimorphic behaviors is unknown. Here, we identify two interneurons in the nerve cord of adult Drosophila females that control ovipositor extrusion, a courtship rejection behavior performed by mated females. We show that these two neurons are present in the nerve cord of larvae as mature, sexually monomorphic interneurons. During pupal development, they acquire t...
Source: Current Biology - February 20, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Julia A Diamandi Julia C Duckhorn Kara E Miller Mason Weinstock Sofia Leone Micaela R Murphy Troy R Shirangi Source Type: research
Paleocene origin of a streamlined digestive symbiosis in leaf beetles
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 13:S0960-9822(24)00107-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.070. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTTiming the acquisition of a beneficial microbe relative to the evolutionary history of its host can shed light on the adaptive impact of a partnership. Here, we investigated the onset and molecular evolution of an obligate symbiosis between Cassidinae leaf beetles and Candidatus Stammera capleta, a γ-proteobacterium. Residing extracellularly within foregut symbiotic organs, Stammera upgrades the digestive physiology of its host by supplementing plant cell wall-degrading enzymes. We observe that Stammera is a shared ...
Source: Current Biology - February 20, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Marleny Garc ía-Lozano Christine Henzler Miguel Ángel González Porras In ès Pons Aileen Berasategui Christa Lanz Heike Budde Kohei Oguchi Yu Matsuura Yannick Pauchet Shana Goffredi Takema Fukatsu Donald Windsor Hassan Salem Source Type: research
Transcranial magnetic stimulation effects support an oscillatory model of ERP genesis
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 12:S0960-9822(24)00106-4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.069. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTWhether prestimulus oscillatory brain activity contributes to the generation of post-stimulus-evoked neural responses has long been debated, but findings remain inconclusive. We first investigated the hypothesized relationship via EEG recordings during a perceptual task with this correlational evidence causally probed subsequently by means of online rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation. Both approaches revealed a close link between prestimulus individual alpha frequency (IAF) and P1 latency, with faster IAF bei...
Source: Current Biology - February 20, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Jelena Trajkovic Francesco Di Gregorio Gregor Thut Vincenzo Romei Source Type: research
Dopamine neuron activity encodes the length of upcoming contralateral movement sequences
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 12:S0960-9822(24)00104-0. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.067. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTDopaminergic neurons (DANs) in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) have been related to movement speed, and loss of these neurons leads to bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, other aspects of movement vigor are also affected in PD; for example, movement sequences are typically shorter. However, the relationship between the activity of DANs and the length of movement sequences is unknown. We imaged activity of SNc DANs in mice trained in a freely moving operant task, which relies on individual fore...
Source: Current Biology - February 20, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Marcelo D Mendon ça Joaquim Alves da Silva Ledia F Hernandez Ivan Castela Jos é Obeso Rui M Costa Source Type: research
Developmental remodeling repurposes larval neurons for sexual behaviors in adult Drosophila
Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 10:S0960-9822(24)00102-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.065. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTMost larval neurons in Drosophila are repurposed during metamorphosis for functions in adult life, but their contribution to the neural circuits for sexually dimorphic behaviors is unknown. Here, we identify two interneurons in the nerve cord of adult Drosophila females that control ovipositor extrusion, a courtship rejection behavior performed by mated females. We show that these two neurons are present in the nerve cord of larvae as mature, sexually monomorphic interneurons. During pupal development, they acquire t...
Source: Current Biology - February 20, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Julia A Diamandi Julia C Duckhorn Kara E Miller Mason Weinstock Sofia Leone Micaela R Murphy Troy R Shirangi Source Type: research
