Using R to improve rigour and transparency in translational neuroscience-or is it just a rabbit hole?

Our Editor explores the use of R for improving rigour, reproducibility and transparency in translational neuroscience. She also provides an example of how to waste enormous amounts of time playing with data in R instead of doing her day job

Spines, Plasticity, and Cognition in Alzheimer's Model Mice

The pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD)—widespread synaptic and neuronal loss and the pathological accumulation of amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) in senile plaques, as well as hyperphosphorylated tau in neurofibrillary tangles—have been known for many decades, but the links between AD pathology and dementia and effective therapeutic strategies remain elusive. Transgenic mice have been developed based on rare familial forms of AD and frontotemporal dementia, allowing investigators to test in detail the structural, functional, and behavioral consequences of AD-associated pathology. Here, we review work on transgenic AD models that investigate the degeneration of dendritic spine structure, synaptic function, and cognition. Together, these data support a model of AD pathogenesis in which soluble Aβ initiates synaptic dysfunction and loss, as well as pathological changes in tau, which contribute to both synaptic and neuronal loss. These changes in synapse structure and function as well as frank synapse and neuronal loss contribute to the neural system dysfunction which causes cognitive deficits. Understanding the underpinnings of dementia in AD will be essential to develop and evaluate therapeutic approaches for this widespread and devastating disease

Interactions of pathological proteins in neurodegenerative diseases

status: publishe

Microglial contribution to synaptic uptake in the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia

Microglia in human post-mortem tissue in schizophrenia patients' brains engulf synaptic material, but not differently to age-matched non-neurological control brains. Also, schizophrenia brains display similar levels of microgliosis to control brains