Probabilistic inference of Homonymous and Heteronymous Recurrent Inhibition in Human Muscles from Large-Scale Motor Neuron Recordings

By combining large-scale motor unit recordings with a novel simulation-based inference framework, this study successfully quantifies previously inaccessible patterns of homonymous and heteronymous recurrent inhibition across multiple human muscles, revealing distinct muscle- and intensity-dependent modulation during voluntary contractions.

Dernoncourt, F., Avrillon, S., Cattagni, T. + 2 more2026-04-01🧠 neuroscience

Expression of Calca gene-derived peptides in the murine taste system

This study reveals that while the *Calca* gene-derived CGRP is expressed in trigeminal and geniculate neurons, its alternative transcript preprocalcitonin is uniquely found in murine type II taste cells, suggesting a novel reciprocal regulatory mechanism involving CGRP1R-expressing progenitor and stromal cells that may influence taste signaling and regeneration.

Palayyan, S. R., Siddiqui, A. H., Jiang, P. + 2 more2026-04-01🧠 neuroscience

The Periaqueductal Gray Selectively Supports Reversal Learning During a Flexible Discrimination Task in Mice

Using whole-brain fMRI in behaving mice combined with reinforcement learning modeling, this study reveals that the periaqueductal gray (PAG) is selectively recruited during reversal learning to suppress previously rewarded actions and update behavior, highlighting a novel role for this midbrain structure in cognitive flexibility beyond its traditional association with threat processing.

Lichtman, D., Bergmann, E., Nicholas, J. + 2 more2026-04-01🧠 neuroscience

Kainate receptors are critical for permissivity to sustained, disorganized, and network-wide pathological activity in the epileptic dentate gyrus

This study demonstrates that kainate receptors are critical determinants in the epileptic dentate gyrus, where their slow excitatory signaling synergizes with sodium currents to lower the threshold for seizure initiation, sustain pathological activity, and drive a transition from organized to highly disordered network dynamics.

Goirand-Lopez, L., Benquet, P., Alharrach, M. + 2 more2026-04-01🧠 neuroscience

Dissociable pupil-linked arousal during overt and inner speech

Using pupillometry across three experiments, this study reveals that while overt speech consistently triggers pupil dilation, inner speech exhibits a dissociable, load-dependent arousal profile characterized by constriction or minimal dilation, indicating that covert verbal production operates at a reduced and flexibly scaled arousal cost compared to overt speech despite shared cortical substrates.

Kuwamizu, R., Watanabe, R., Yamamoto, N. + 2 more2026-04-01🧠 neuroscience

The nanoscale mobility of calcium channels is driven by readily releasable synaptic vesicles to support precise neurotransmission in live C. elegans

This study reveals that in live *C. elegans*, the nanoscale mobility and organization of voltage-gated calcium channels at active zones are actively controlled by pools of readily releasable synaptic vesicles through distinct mechanisms involving SNARE assembly and specific regulatory proteins, thereby ensuring precise neurotransmission.

Zhao, Y., Zhai, D., Pinaud, F.2026-04-01🧠 neuroscience

Optimizing Intermediate Representations: A Framework for Low-Cost, High-Accuracy Behavior Quantification

This study challenges the prevailing reliance on dense pose estimation for animal behavior analysis by demonstrating that whole-body segmentation combined with temporal feature engineering achieves comparable accuracy to complex keypoint tracking, suggesting that researchers should prioritize behavioral dataset volume and temporal dynamics over anatomical detail to optimize cost and performance.

Choi, J. D., Geuther, B. Q., Kumar, V.2026-04-01🧠 neuroscience

State-Dependent Organization of Microscale Functional Circuitry in Visual Cortex

By constructing a large-scale microscale directed functional circuit map from calcium imaging of over 57,000 neurons, this study reveals how brain state modulates the multi-scale organization of visual cortex circuitry, identifying specific dominant pathways, laminar dynamics, and structure-function coupling patterns across arousal levels.

Biswas, R., Wickrama Senevirathne, H., Wang, Y. + 3 more2026-04-01🧠 neuroscience

The extended language network: Language responsive brain areas whose contributions to language remain to be discovered

Using a large-scale fMRI study of 772 participants, this paper identifies a distinct "extended language network" comprising 17 language-selective brain areas outside the canonical fronto-temporal system, demonstrating that while language processing is more widespread than previously thought, it remains highly localized to a small fraction of the brain's grey matter.

Wolna, A., Wright, A., Casto, C. + 3 more2026-03-31🧠 neuroscience

Layer-specific spatiotemporal dynamics of feedforward and feedback in human visual object perception

By combining layer-specific fMRI and EEG recordings with deep neural network modeling, this study reveals that human visual object perception involves early feedforward signals encoding medium-to-high complexity features in the middle layers of visual cortex, followed by later feedback signals in superficial layers that refine representations to high complexity.

Carricarte, T., Xie, S., Singer, J. + 6 more2026-03-31🧠 neuroscience

Neural entrainment predicts the anticipatory P300 component during musical meter perception: An EEG study using dual-meter sound stimuli

Using dual-meter stimuli to isolate attentional effects, this EEG study demonstrates that individual differences in neural entrainment to attended metrical structures predict the magnitude of the anticipatory P300 response to metrical violations, suggesting a direct link between bottom-up entrainment and top-down anticipation in musical meter perception.

Kondoh, S., Okanoya, K., Tachibana, R. O.2026-03-31🧠 neuroscience