Experience shapes brain function throughout life to varying degrees. In a recent issue of Nature, Donato et al. identify reversible shifts in focal parvalbumin cell state during adult learning, placing it on a mechanistic continuum with developmental critical periods. A disinhibitory microcircuit controls the plasticity switch to modulate memory formation.

Fish is one of the eight major foods causing type-I food allergy, and prevalence its allergy increasing in part due to changes consumption habits. One main drivers for these has been processing developments transforming fish muscle into seafood products. Most allergic patients react Ca2+-binding protein β-parvalbumin (β-PV) abundant muscle. Here we have analyzed effect content allergenic proper...

BACKGROUND Cytosolic Ca2+ buffers are members of the large family of Ca2+-binding proteins and are essential components of the Ca2+ signaling toolkit implicated in the precise regulation of intracellular Ca2+ signals. Their physiological role in excitable cells has been investigated in vivo by analyzing the phenotype of mice either lacking one of the Ca2+ buffers or mice with ectopic expression...

Members of the calbindin subfamily serve as markers of subpopulations of neurons within the vertebrate nervous system. Although markers of these proteins are widely available and used, their application to invertebrate nervous systems has been very limited. In this study we investigated the presence and distribution of members of the calbindin subfamily in the sea cucumber Holothuria glaberrima...

Presynaptic Ca2+ signaling plays a crucial role in short-term plasticity of synaptic transmission. Here, we studied the role of mobile endogenous presynaptic Ca2+ buffer(s) in modulating paired-pulse facilitation at a large excitatory nerve terminal in the auditory brainstem, the calyx of Held. To do so, we assessed the effect of presynaptic whole-cell recording, which should lead to the diffus...

OBJECTIVE Perineuronal nets (PN) form a specialized extracellular matrix around certain highly active neurons within the central nervous system and may help to stabilize synaptic contacts, promote local ion homeostasis, or play a protective role. Within the ocular motor system, excitatory burst neurons and omnipause neurons are highly active cells that generate rapid eye movements - saccades; b...