The brain bidirectionally communicates with the gut to control food intake and energy balance, which becomes dysregulated in obesity. For example, endocannabinoid (eCB) signaling in the small-intestinal (SI) epithelium is upregulated in diet-induced o…
Protein misfolding, aggregation, and spread through the brain are primary drivers of neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis. Phagocytic glia are responsible for regulating the load of pathological proteins in the brain, but emerging evidence suggests …
Many initial movements require subsequent corrective movements, but how the motor cortex transitions to make corrections and how similar the encoding is to initial movements is unclear. In our study, we explored how the brain’s motor cortex signals bo…
Microglia undergo two-stage activation in neurodegenerative diseases, known as disease-associated microglia (DAM). TREM2 mediates the DAM2 stage transition, but what regulates the first DAM1 stage transition is unknown. We report that glucose dyshomeo…
The human hand possesses both consolidated motor skills and remarkable flexibility in adapting to ongoing task demands. However, the underlying mechanisms by which the brain balances stability and flexibility remain unknown. In the absence of external…
The superior colliculus (SC) is a prominent and conserved visual center in all vertebrates. In mice, the most superficial lamina of the SC is enriched with neurons that are selective for the moving direction of visual stimuli. Here, we study how these…
The default mode network (DMN) typically deactivates to external tasks, yet supports semantic cognition. It comprises medial temporal (MT), core, and frontotemporal (FT) subsystems, but its functional organization is unclear: the requirement for perce…
Our prior research has identified neural correlates of cognitive control in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), leading us to hypothesize that the ACC is necessary for increasing attention as rats flexibly learn new contingencies during a complex rew…