Showing papers in "Current Biology in 2013"

TL;DR: A new model of how the hippocampus forms and replays memories and how the prefrontal cortex engages representations of the meaningful contexts in which related memories occur is led to, as well as how these areas interact during memory retrieval.

TL;DR: It is found that large concentrations of microplastic and additives can harm ecophysiological functions performed by organisms, and this work indicates that global microplastics contamination accelerates.

TL;DR: It is shown that deposit-feeding marine worms maintained in sediments spiked with microscopic unplasticised polyvinylchloride at concentrations overlapping those in the environment had significantly depleted energy reserves by up to 50% (Figure 1).

TL;DR: Buoyant plastic particles accumulate in pelagic habitats whereas non-floating debris accumulates on the seafloor and in beach sediments, posing risk to the respective communities.

TL;DR: This work uses mitochondrial genome sequences from ten securely dated ancient modern humans spanning 40,000 years as calibration points for the mitochondrial clock, thus yielding a direct estimate of the mitochondrial substitution rate and implies a separation of non-Africans from the most closely related sub-Saharan African mitochondrial DNAs that occurred less than 62-95 kya.

TL;DR: It is shown that electrical lighting and the constructed environment is associated with reduced exposure to sunlight during the day, increased light exposure after sunset, and a delayed timing of the circadian clock as compared to a summer natural 14 hr 40 min:9 hr 20 min light-dark cycle camping.

TL;DR: The first draft assembly of a dinoflagellate nuclear genome is described, providing insights into its genome organization and gene inventory and laying the foundation for future studies of this remarkable group of eukaryotes.

TL;DR: This work explores the behavior of mice under a visual display that simulates an approaching object, which causes defensive reactions in some other species, and shows that mice respond to this stimulus either by initiating escape within a second or by freezing for an extended period.

TL;DR: FRET-based tension sensors for VE-cadherin and PECAM-1 are developed and validated using the previously developed FRET tension biosensor and argue against the current model of passive transfer of force through the cytoskeleton to the junctions, showing instead that flow triggers cytoskeletal remodeling, which alters forces across the junctional receptors.

TL;DR: With increasing age, the influence of a number of factors, such as peers and food availability, continue to mold food preferences and eating behaviors.

TL;DR: It is shown that guard cells possess the entire ABA biosynthesis pathway and that it appears upregulated by positive feedback by ABA, highlighting the primacy of abscisic acid (ABA) in the stomatal response to drying air.

TL;DR: It is found that only playing action video games improved children's reading speed, without any cost in accuracy, more so than 1 year of spontaneous reading development and more than or equal to highly demanding traditional reading treatments.

TL;DR: Cross-descriptive level findings demonstrate that the unique neurobiology of sleep exerts powerful effects on molecular, cellular and network mechanisms of plasticity that govern both initial learning and subsequent long-term memory consolidation.

TL;DR: It is proposed that the evolution of brain size is mediated by a functional trade-off between increased cognitive ability and reproductive performance and the implications of these findings for vertebrate brain evolution are discussed.

TL;DR: This work considers individual movement decisions to be based explicitly on the sensory information available to the organism, and finds that structural properties of visual interaction networks differ markedly from those of metric and topological counterparts, suggesting that previous assumptions may not appropriately reflect information flow in animal groups.

TL;DR: The findings suggest that the visual cortex serves as a dynamic "blackboard" that is used during both bottom-up stimulus processing and top-down internal generation of mental content.

TL;DR: It is proposed that the phosphorylation of S176 in Amot is a critical step for activation of the Hippo pathway in AJs and that cell polarity disconnects the HippO pathway from cell-cell adhesion by sequestering Amot from AJs.

TL;DR: The data demonstrate that even under static conditions, there is a moment-to-moment reweighting of attentional priorities based on object properties, revealed through rhythmic patterns of visual-target detection both within (at 8 Hz) and between (at 4 Hz).

TL;DR: A broadly comparative approach that would identify core components of fear conserved across phylogeny and an ecological theory of fear that is essentially functional are urged, which would aim even to incorporate the conscious experience of being afraid, reinvigorating the study of feelings across species.

TL;DR: This study provides rigorous documentation for a circadian rhythm of insulin action and demonstrates that disturbing the natural rhythmicity of insulinaction will disrupt the rhythmic internal environment of insulin sensitive tissue, thereby predisposing the animals to insulin resistance and obesity.

TL;DR: It is shown that positive rheotaxis, the ability of organisms to orient and swim against the flow of surrounding fluid, is a major taxic factor for mouse and human sperm.

TL;DR: It is shown that vinculin, through its links to the talin-integrin complex and F-actin, regulates the transmission of mechanical signals from the extracellular matrix to the actomyosin machinery, leading to the reorganization of cell polarity.

TL;DR: It is concluded that essential components of the ancestral shoot stemness regulatory system also act in the root and that the specific interaction of CLV1 with ACR4 serves to moderate and control stemness homeostasis in theroot meristem.

TL;DR: The evolved taste abilities of humans are still useful for the one billion humans living with very low food security by helping them identify nutrients.

TL;DR: An overview of how LINC complex proteins and lamins facilitate nucleo-cytoskeletal coupling is provided, recent findings regarding the role of the nucleus in cellular mechanotransduction and cell motility in 3D environments are highlighted, and mutations and/or changes in the expression of these nuclear envelope proteins are discussed.

TL;DR: This study demonstrates for the first time the feasibility of using FUS stimulation to causally modulate behavior in the awake nonhuman primate brain and supports the use of this approach to study brain function.

TL;DR: This work directly addresses how boundaries of gene expression emerge in the Drosophila embryo by measuring the absolute number of actively transcribing polymerases in real time in individual nuclei and shows that the formation of a boundary cannot be quantitatively explained by the rate of mRNA production, but instead requires amplification of the dynamic range of the expression boundary.

TL;DR: A timescale of ecdysozoan evolution is presented based on multiple molecular data sets, the most complete set of fossil calibrations to date, and a thorough series of validation analyses, which converge on an Ediacaran origin of all major ecdy sozoan lineages.

TL;DR: It is proposed that during evolution and adaptation to their cave habitat, cavefish have undergone a behavioral shift, due to modifications of their serotonergic neuronal network, and a link between the development of a neuronal network and the likely adaptive behaviors it controls is demonstrated.

TL;DR: What is currently known (and not known) about mirror neurons is reviewed to try to cut through some of this hyperbole and review what is currentlyknown about these neurons.