Endocannabinoid–Dopamine Interactions in Striatal Synaptic Plasticity

The nigrostriatal dopaminergic system is implicated in action control and learning. A large body of work has focused on the contribution of this system to modulation of the corticostriatal synapse, the predominant synapse type in the striatum. Signaling through the D2 dopamine receptor is necessary for endocannabinoid-mediated depression of corticostriatal glutamate release. Here we review the known details of this mechanism and discuss newly discovered signaling pathways interacting with this system that ultimately exert dynamic control of cortical input to the striatum and striatal output. This topic is timely with respect to Parkinson’s disease given recent data indicating changes in the striatal endocannabinoid system in patients with this disorder

Structural Connectivity of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex, Claustrum, and the Anterior Insula of the Mouse

The claustrum is a narrow subcortical brain structure that resides between the striatum and insular cortex. The function of the claustrum is not fully described, and while our previous work supports a role for the claustrum in top-down cognitive control of action, other evidence suggests the claustrum may be involved in detecting salient changes in the external environment. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the anterior insular (aINS) are the two major participants in the salience network of human brain regions that activate in response to salient stimuli. While bidirectional connections between the ACC and the claustrum exist from mouse to non-human primate, the aINS connectivity with claustrum remains unclear, particularly in mouse. Here, we explored structural connections of the aINS with the claustrum and ACC through adeno-associated virus neuronal tract tracer injections into the ACC and aINS of the mouse. We detected sparse projections from the claustrum to the aINS and diffuse projections from the aINS to the borders of the claustrum were observed in some cases. In contrast, the insular cortex and endopiriform nucleus surrounding the claustrum had rich interconnectivity with aINS. Additionally, we observed a modest interconnectivity between ACC and the aINS. These data support the idea that claustrum neuron responses to salient stimuli may be driven by the ACC rather than the aINS

Resting State Functional Connectivity of the Rat Claustrum

The claustrum is structurally connected with many cortical areas.A major hurdle standing in the way of understanding claustrum function is the difficulty in assessing the global functional connectivity (FC) of this structure. The primary issues lie in the inability to isolate claustrum signal from the adjacent insular cortex (Ins), caudate/putamen (CPu), and endopiriform nucleus (Endo). To address this issue, we used (7T) fMRI in the rat and describe a novel analytic method to study claustrum without signal contamination from the surrounding structures. Using this approach, we acquired claustrum signal distinct from Ins, CPu, and Endo, and used this claustrum signal to determine whole brain resting state functional connectivity (RSFC). Claustrum RSFC was distinct from the adjacent structures and displayed extensive connections with sensory cortices and the cingulate cortex, consistent with known structural connectivity of the claustrum. These results suggest fMRI and improved analysis can be combined to accurately assay claustrum function

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified

Many Labs 5:Testing pre-data collection peer review as an intervention to increase replicability

Replication studies in psychological science sometimes fail to reproduce prior findings. If these studies use methods that are unfaithful to the original study or ineffective in eliciting the phenomenon of interest, then a failure to replicate may be a failure of the protocol rather than a challenge to the original finding. Formal pre-data-collection peer review by experts may address shortcomings and increase replicability rates. We selected 10 replication studies from the Reproducibility Project: Psychology (RP:P; Open Science Collaboration, 2015) for which the original authors had expressed concerns about the replication designs before data collection; only one of these studies had yielded a statistically significant effect (p < .05). Commenters suggested that lack of adherence to expert review and low-powered tests were the reasons that most of these RP:P studies failed to replicate the original effects. We revised the replication protocols and received formal peer review prior to conducting new replication studies. We administered the RP:P and revised protocols in multiple laboratories (median number of laboratories per original study = 6.5, range = 3?9; median total sample = 1,279.5, range = 276?3,512) for high-powered tests of each original finding with both protocols. Overall, following the preregistered analysis plan, we found that the revised protocols produced effect sizes similar to those of the RP:P protocols (?r = .002 or .014, depending on analytic approach). The median effect size for the revised protocols (r = .05) was similar to that of the RP:P protocols (r = .04) and the original RP:P replications (r = .11), and smaller than that of the original studies (r = .37). Analysis of the cumulative evidence across the original studies and the corresponding three replication attempts provided very precise estimates of the 10 tested effects and indicated that their effect sizes (median r = .07, range = .00?.15) were 78% smaller, on average, than the original effect sizes (median r = .37, range = .19?.50)

Genetic diversity fuels gene discovery for tobacco and alcohol use

Tobacco and alcohol use are heritable behaviours associated with 15% and 5.3% of worldwide deaths, respectively, due largely to broad increased risk for disease and injury(1-4). These substances are used across the globe, yet genome-wide association studies have focused largely on individuals of European ancestries(5). Here we leveraged global genetic diversity across 3.4 million individuals from four major clines of global ancestry (approximately 21% non-European) to power the discovery and fine-mapping of genomic loci associated with tobacco and alcohol use, to inform function of these loci via ancestry-aware transcriptome-wide association studies, and to evaluate the genetic architecture and predictive power of polygenic risk within and across populations. We found that increases in sample size and genetic diversity improved locus identification and fine-mapping resolution, and that a large majority of the 3,823 associated variants (from 2,143 loci) showed consistent effect sizes across ancestry dimensions. However, polygenic risk scores developed in one ancestry performed poorly in others, highlighting the continued need to increase sample sizes of diverse ancestries to realize any potential benefit of polygenic prediction.Peer reviewe

The Seventeenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: Complete Release of MaNGA, MaStar and APOGEE-2 Data

This paper documents the seventeenth data release (DR17) from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys; the fifth and final release from the fourth phase (SDSS-IV). DR17 contains the complete release of the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, which reached its goal of surveying over 10,000 nearby galaxies. The complete release of the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar) accompanies this data, providing observations of almost 30,000 stars through the MaNGA instrument during bright time. DR17 also contains the complete release of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) survey which publicly releases infra-red spectra of over 650,000 stars. The main sample from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), as well as the sub-survey Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) data were fully released in DR16. New single-fiber optical spectroscopy released in DR17 is from the SPectroscipic IDentification of ERosita Survey (SPIDERS) sub-survey and the eBOSS-RM program. Along with the primary data sets, DR17 includes 25 new or updated Value Added Catalogs (VACs). This paper concludes the release of SDSS-IV survey data. SDSS continues into its fifth phase with observations already underway for the Milky Way Mapper (MWM), Local Volume Mapper (LVM) and Black Hole Mapper (BHM) surveys