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...

Cognitive-behavioral testing in preclinical models of Alzheimer’s disease has failed to capture deficits in goal-directed action control. Here, we provide the first comprehensive investigation of goal-directed action in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, we tested outcome devaluation performance in male and female human amyloid precursor protein (hAPP)-J20 mice. Mice were first trained to press left and right levers for pellet and sucrose outcomes, respectively (counterbalanced), over 4 d. On test, mice were prefed one of the outcomes to satiety and given a choice between levers. Devaluation performance was intact for 36-week-old wild-types of both sexes, who responded more on the valued relative to the devalued lever (Valued > Devalued). By contrast, devaluation was impaired (Valued = Devalued) for J20 mice of both sexes, and for 52-week-old male mice regardless of genotype. After additional lever press training (i.e., 8-d lever pressing in total), devaluation was intact for al...

Hyperactivation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is linked to more than a dozen neurologic diseases, causing a range of pathologies, including excess neuronal growth, disrupted neuronal migration, cortical dysplasia, epilepsy and autism. The mTOR pathway also regulates angiogenesis. For the present study, therefore, we queried whether loss of Pten or Tsc2 , both mTOR negative regulators, alters brain vasculature in three mouse models: one with Pten loss restricted to hippocampal dentate granule cells [DGC- Pten knock-outs (KOs)], a second with widespread Pten loss from excitatory forebrain neurons (FB- Pten KOs) and a third with focal loss of Tsc2 from cortical excitatory neurons (f- Tsc2 KOs). Total hippocampal vessel length and volume per dentate gyrus were dramatically increased in DGC- Pten knock-outs. DGC- Pten knock-outs had larger dentate gyri overall, however, and when normalized to these larger structures, vessel density was preserved. In addition, tests of blood-bra...

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>...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that comprises a range of motor and nonmotor symptoms. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) promotes the survival of dopamine neurons in vitro and in vivo , and intracranial delivery of GDNF has been tested in six clinical trials for treating PD. However, clinical trials with ectopic GDNF have yielded variable results, which could in part result from abnormal expression site and levels caused by ectopic overexpression. Therefore, an important open question is whether an increase in endogenous GDNF expression could be potent in reversing PD progression. Here, we tested the therapeutic potential of endogenous GDNF using mice in which endogenous GDNF can be conditionally upregulated specifically in cells that express GDNF naturally (conditional GDNF hypermorphic mice; GdnfcHyper ). We analyzed the impact of endogenous GDNF upregulation in both neuroprotection and neurorestoration procedures, and for both motor and nonmotor sympt...

Facial expressions are an increasingly used tool to assess emotional experience and affective state during experimental procedures in animal models. Previous studies have successfully related specific facial features with different positive and negative valence situations, most notably in relation to pain. However, characterizing and interpreting such expressions remains a major challenge. We identified seven easily visualizable facial parameters on mouse profiles, accounting for changes in eye, ear, mouth, snout and face orientation. We monitored their relative position on the face across time and throughout sequences of positive and aversive gustatory and somatosensory stimuli in freely moving mice. Facial parameters successfully captured response profiles to each stimulus and reflected spontaneous movements in response to stimulus valence, as well as contextual elements such as habituation. Notably, eye opening was increased by palatable tastants and innocuous touch, while this parameter was reduced by ...