Science is changing: the volume and complexity of data is increasing, the number of studies is growing and the goal of achieving reproducible results requires new solutions for scientific data management. In the field of neuroscience, the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI-Neuro) initiative aims to develop sustainable solutions for research data management (RDM). To obtain an understanding of the present RDM situation in the neuroscience community, NFDI-Neuro conducted a comprehensive survey amongst the neuroscience community. Here, we report and analyse the results of the survey. We focused the survey and our analysis on current needs, challenges, and opinions about RDM. The German neuroscience community perceives barriers with respect to RDM and data sharing mainly linked to (1) lack of data and metadata standards, (2) lack of community adopted provenance tracking methods, 3) lack of secure and privacy preserving research infrastructure for sensitive data (4) lack of RDM literacy and (5)...

Rhythmic neural activity, which coordinates brain regions and neurons to achieve multiple brain functions, is impaired in many diseases. Despite the therapeutic potential of driving brain rhythms, methods to noninvasively target deep brain regions are limited. Accordingly, we recently introduced a noninvasive stimulation approach using flickering lights and sounds (“flicker”). Flicker drives rhythmic activity in deep and superficial brain regions. Gamma flicker spurs immune function, clears pathogens, and rescues memory performance in mice with amyloid pathology. Here we present substantial improvements to this approach that is flexible, user-friendly, and generalizable across multiple experimental settings and species. We present novel open-source methods for flicker stimulation across rodents and humans. We demonstrate rapid, cross-species induction of rhythmic activity without behavioral confounds in multiple settings from electrophysiology to neuroimaging. This flicker approach provides an exceptional ...

Shifts in spatial attention are associated with variations in alpha-band (α, 8–14 Hz) activity, specifically in inter-hemispheric imbalance. The underlying mechanism is attributed to local α-synchronisation, which regulates local inhibition of neural excitability, and fronto-parietal synchronisation reflecting long-range communication. The direction-specific nature of this neural correlate brings forward its potential as a control signal in brain-computer interfaces (BCI). In the present study, we explored whether long-range α-synchronisation presents lateralised patterns dependent on voluntary attention orienting and whether these neural patterns can be picked up at a single-trial level to provide a control signal for active BCI. We collected electroencephalography (EEG) data from a cohort of healthy adults (n = 10) while performing a covert visuospatial attention (CVSA) task. The data shows a lateralised pattern of α-band phase coupling between frontal and parieto-occipital regions after target presentat...

The motor cortex controls skilled arm movement by recruiting a variety of targets in the nervous system, and it is important to understand the emergent activity in these regions as refinement of a motor skill occurs. One fundamental projection of the motor cortex (M1) is to the cerebellum. However, the emergent activity in the motor cortex and the cerebellum that appears as a dexterous motor skill is consolidated is incompletely understood. Here, we report on low-frequency oscillatory (LFO) activity that emerges in cortico-cerebellar networks with learning the reach-to-grasp motor skill. We chronically recorded the motor and the cerebellar cortices in rats which revealed the emergence of coordinated movement-related activity in the local-field potentials (LFPs) as the reaching skill consolidated. Interestingly, we found this emergent activity only in the rats that gained expertise in the task. We found that the local and cross-area spiking activity was coordinated with LFOs in proficient rats. Finally, we ...

Peripheral nerve injuries (PNI) induce the retraction from the ventral horn of the synaptic collaterals of Ia afferents injured in the nerve, effectively removing Ia synapses from a-motoneurons. The loss of Ia input impairs functional recovery and could explain, in part, better recovery after PNIs with better Ia synaptic preservation. Synaptic losses correlate with injury severity, speed and efficiency of muscle reinnervation and requires ventral microglia activation. It is unknown whether this plasticity is age dependent. In neonates, axotomized motoneurons and sensory neurons undergo apoptosis, but after postnatal day 10 most survive. This goal was to analyze vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGLUT1) labeled Ia synapses (which might also include II afferents) after nerve crush in 10 day old Sprague Dawley rats, a PNI causing little Ia/II synapse loss in adult. We confirmed fast and efficient reinnervation of leg muscles, however a massive number of VGLUT1/Ia/II synapses were permanently lost. This synap...

Memory consolidation processes have traditionally been investigated from the perspective of hours or days. However, recent developments in memory research have shown that memory consolidation processes could occur even within seconds, possibly because of the neural replay of just practiced memory traces during short breaks. Here, we investigate this rapid form of consolidation during statistical learning. We aim to answer (1) whether this rapid consolidation occurs in implicit statistical learning and general skill learning, and (2) whether the duration of rest periods affects these two learning types differently. Human participants performed a widely used statistical learning task—the alternating serial reaction time (ASRT) task—that enables us to measure implicit statistical and general skill learning separately. The ASRT task consisted of 25 learning blocks with a rest period between the blocks. In a between-subjects design, the length of the rest periods was fixed at 15 or 30 s, or the participants cou...

Voluntary movements are prepared before they are executed. Preparatory activity has been observed across the CNS and recently documented in first-order neurons of the human PNS (i.e., in muscle spindles). Changes seen in sensory organs suggest that independent modulation of stretch reflex gains may represent an important component of movement preparation. The aim of the current study was to further investigate the preparatory modulation of short-latency stretch reflex responses (SLRs) and long-latency stretch reflex responses (LLRs) of the dominant upper limb of human subjects. Specifically, we investigated how different target parameters (target distance and direction) affect the preparatory tuning of stretch reflex gains in the context of goal-directed reaching, and whether any such tuning depends on preparation duration and the direction of background loads. We found that target distance produced only small variations in reflex gains. In contrast, both SLR and LLR gains were strongly modulated as a func...

Morphologically similar axon boutons form synaptic contacts with diverse types of postsynaptic cells. However, it is less known to what extent the local axonal excitability, presynaptic action potentials (APs), and AP-evoked calcium influx contribute to the functional diversity of synapses and neuronal activity. This is particularly interesting in synapses that contact cell types that show only subtle cellular differences but fulfill completely different physiological functions. Here, we tested these questions in two synapses that are formed by rat hippocampal granule cells (GCs) onto hilar mossy cells (MCs) and CA3 pyramidal cells, which albeit share several morphologic and synaptic properties but contribute to distinct physiological functions. We were interested in the deterministic steps of the action potential-calcium ion influx coupling as these complex modules may underlie the functional segregation between and within the two cell types. Our systematic comparison using direct axonal recordings showed...

Microglia invade the neuroblast migratory corridor of the rostral migratory stream (RMS) early in development. The early postnatal RMS does not yet have the dense astrocyte and vascular scaffold that helps propel forward migrating neuroblasts, which led us to consider whether microglia help regulate conditions permissive to neuroblast migration in the RMS. GFP-labeled microglia in CX3CR-1GFP/+ mice assemble primarily along the outer borders of the RMS during the first postnatal week, where they exhibit predominantly an ameboid morphology and associate with migrating neuroblasts. Microglia ablation for 3 d postnatally does not impact the density of pulse labeled BrdU+ neuroblasts nor the distance migrated by tdTomato electroporated neuroblasts in the RMS. However, microglia wrap DsRed-labeled neuroblasts in the RMS of P7 CX3CR-1GFP/+;DCXDsRed/+ mice and express the markers CD68, CLEC7A, MERTK, and IGF-1, suggesting active regulation in the developing RMS. Microglia depletion for 14 d postnatally further ind...

We must often decide how much effort to exert or withhold to avoid undesirable outcomes or obtain rewards. In depression and anxiety, levels of avoidance can be excessive and reward-seeking may be reduced. Yet outstanding questions remain about the links between motivated action/inhibition and anxiety and depression levels, and whether they differ between men and women. Here, we examined the relationship between anxiety and depression scores, and performance on effortful active and inhibitory avoidance (Study 1) and reward seeking (Study 2) in humans. Undergraduates and paid online workers (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>N</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mi>A</mml:mi><mml:mi>v</mml:mi><mml:mi>o</mml:mi><mml:mi>i</mml:mi><mml:mi>d</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math> = 545, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>N</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mi>e</mml:mi>...