Neuron
June 17, 2026
Vincent Taschereau-Dumouchel, Jun Seo Hwang, Hakwan Lau et al.
Rising media attention regarding consciousness in animals, fetuses, organoids, and AI has led to some rather strong statements. Most of these claims are based on "markers" of consciousness that track the general capacity for information processing rather than subjective experience per se. Accordingly, their relevance for theory arbitration may actually be limited.
Neuron
May 6, 2026
Matthew D. Sacchet, Jonathan M. Lieberman
Third wave meditation research-the study of advanced meditation-investigates states, stages, and endpoints of meditation practice that emerge with increasing mastery. We review current neuroscientific progress, outline future research directions, and highlight far-reaching implications of this emerging scientific subfield.
Neuron
January 7, 2026
Jinsu Lee, Michael A. Wheeler
The lifetime prevalence of mood disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD) is thought to approach up to 50% of the world's population. Traditionally, research into the mechanisms of these disorders has focused on neurotransmission, but emerging evidence highlights neuroimmune interactions-the molecular signaling between immune and brain cells-as key regulators of brain plasticity,...
Neuron
November 19, 2025
Kyle A Brown, Musa I Ajibola, Gustavo C Medeiros et al.
6 citations
Recent antidepressant drug development focuses on a next generation of drugs to rapidly relieve symptoms. Yet, how ketamine, the prototype rapid-acting antidepressant, maintains symptom relief days after drug elimination, and how repeated doses sustain longer-lasting therapeutic effects, remains unclear. Derived from elements of metaplasticity (synaptic priming), this review discusses a...
Neuron
July 15, 2025
Manish K. Jain, Ryan H. Gumpper, Samuel T. Slocum et al.
42 citations
The classical psychedelics (+)-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, and mescaline exert their psychedelic effects via activation of the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor (5-HT2AR). Recent clinical studies have suggested that classical psychedelics may additionally have therapeutic potential for many neuropsychiatric conditions including depression, anxiety, migraine and cluster headaches, drug...
Neuron
May 7, 2025
Federica Lucantonio, Jacob Roeglin, Shuwen Li et al.
24 citations
Ketamine is recognized as a rapid and sustained antidepressant, particularly for major depression unresponsive to conventional treatments. Anhedonia is a common symptom of depression for which ketamine is highly efficacious, but the underlying circuits and synaptic changes are not well understood. Here, we show that the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is essential for ketamine's effect in rescuing...
Neuron
May 7, 2025
Colleen A McClung
In this issue of Neuron, Pignatelli et al.1 find that ketamine reverses stress-induced changes in excitatory synapses in nucleus accumbens D1 dopamine receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs) and that these changes are necessary for the treatment of anhedonia-like behavior.
Neuron
February 5, 2025
Marc Duque, Alex B. Chen, Eric Hsu et al.
27 citations
Transient exposure to ketamine can trigger lasting changes in behavior and mood. We found that brief ketamine exposure causes long-term suppression of futility-induced passivity in larval zebrafish, reversing the "giving-up" response that normally occurs when swimming fails to cause forward movement. Whole-brain imaging revealed that ketamine hyperactivates the norepinephrine-astroglia circuit...
Neuron
November 20, 2024
Praachi Tiwari, Pasha A. Davoudian, Darshana Kapri et al.
26 citations
There has been a recent renewal of interest in the therapeutic potential of serotonergic psychedelics. Here, we uncover the essential role of ventral hippocampus (vHpc) GABAergic interneurons in the anxiolytic effect evoked by the serotonergic psychedelic 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI). Integrating anatomical, pharmacological, and genetic approaches, we show that 5-HT2A receptors in the...
Neuron
October 9, 2024
Luyu Fan, Youwen Zhuang, Hongyu Wu et al.
6 citations
Understanding the kinetics of LSD in receptors and subsequent induced signaling is crucial for comprehending both the psychoactive and therapeutic effects of LSD. Despite extensive research on LSD's interactions with serotonin 2A and 2B receptors, its behavior on other targets, including dopamine receptors, has remained elusive. Here, we present cryo-EM structures of LSD/PF6142-bound dopamine...
Neuron
September 25, 2024
Ming Li, Xue-Ke Yang, Jian Yang et al.
30 citations
Erasing traumatic memory during memory reconsolidation is a promising retrieval-extinction strategy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we developed an acute social defeat stress (SDS) mouse model with short-term and re-exposure-evoked long-term social avoidance. SDS-associated traumatic memories were identified to be stored in basolateral amygdala (BLA) engram cells. A single...
Neuron
May 15, 2024
Johan F. Storm, P Christiaan Klink, Jaan Aru et al.
108 citations
How is conscious experience related to material brain processes? A variety of theories aiming to answer this age-old question have emerged from the recent surge in consciousness research, and some are now hotly debated. Although most researchers have so far focused on the development and validation of their preferred theory in relative isolation, this article, written by a group of scientists...
Neuron
May 15, 2024
Liad Mudrik, Rony Hirschhorn, Uri Korisky
15 citations
The study of consciousness has developed well-controlled, rigorous methods for manipulating and measuring consciousness. Yet, in the process, experimental paradigms grew farther away from everyday conscious and unconscious processes, which raises the concern of ecological validity. In this review, we suggest that the field can benefit from adopting a more ecological approach, akin to other...
Neuron
May 15, 2024
Stanislas Dehaene
1 citation
Stanislas Dehaene is a cognitive neuroscientist elucidating the biological mechanisms that give rise to human perception and cognition. In a conversation with Neuron, he talks about his ongoing interest in consciousness research, the role of theory in neuroscience, and his current work on education and the science of learning.
Neuron
May 15, 2024
Christof Koch
In this talk with Neuron, Christof Koch, a physicist and neuroscientist, advocates for a pragmatic program to track the footprints of consciousness in the brain and for team science, explains the recent pseudo-controversy regarding integrated information theory of consciousness, and speaks about the joy of exploring the mysteries around us.
Neuron
April 4, 2024
Anesthesia and the neurobiology of consciousness.
Neuron
April 3, 2024
Paul Zerr, Nico Adelhöfer, Martin Dresler
Lucid dreaming allows conscious awareness and control of vivid dream states; however, its rarity and instability make neuroscientific experimentation challenging. Recent advances in wearable neurotechnology, large-scale collaborations, citizen neuroscience, and artificial intelligence increasingly facilitate the decoding of this intriguing phenomenon.
Neuron
December 1, 2023
Joseph Giorgio, Jenna N. Adams, A. Maass et al.
In early Alzheimer's disease (AD) β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits throughout association cortex and tau appears in the entorhinal cortex (EC). Why these initially appear in disparate locations is not understood. Using task-based fMRI and multimodal PET imaging, we assess the impact of local AD pathology on network-to-network interactions. We show that AD pathologies flip interactions between the...
Neuron
October 1, 2023
Biyu J. He
Consciousness science has matured over the past three decades and is currently on the cusp of explosive growth, with the potential to transform medicine and technology. The global community recently met to synthesize the current state of knowledge and define the most exciting approaches to advance the field.
Neuron
May 10, 2023
Vinod Menon
832 citations
The discovery of the default mode network (DMN) has revolutionized our understanding of the workings of the human brain. Here, I review developments that led to the discovery of the DMN, offer a personal reflection, and consider how our ideas of DMN function have evolved over the past two decades. I summarize literature examining the role of the DMN in self-reference, social cognition, episodic...
Neuron
February 1, 2023
Nephi Stella
Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its sibling, cannabidiol (CBD), are produced by the same Cannabis plant and have similar chemical structures but differ dramatically in their mechanisms of action and effects on brain functions. Both THC and CBD exhibit promising therapeutic properties; however, impairments and increased incidence of mental health diseases are associated with acute and chronic...
Neuron
January 20, 2023
Ceyda Sayalı, Frederick S. Barrett
40 citations
Anecdotal evidence has indicated that psychedelic substances may acutely enhance creative task performance, although empirical support for this claim is mixed at best. Clinical research has shown that psychedelics might have enduring effects on mood and well-being. However, there is no neurocognitive framework that ties acute changes in cognition to long-term effects in mood. In this review, we...
Neuron
October 5, 2022
Can Cao, Ximena Barros-Álvarez, Shicheng Zhang et al.
158 citations
Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) 5-HT2-family receptors represent essential targets for lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and all other psychedelic drugs. Although the primary psychedelic drug effects are mediated by the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor (HTR2A), the 5-HT2B serotonin receptor (HTR2B) has been used as a model receptor to study the activation mechanisms of psychedelic drugs due to...
Neuron
May 1, 2022
J. Lopez, M. Lücken, E. Brivio et al.
78 citations
A single sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine produces a rapid and sustained antidepressant response, yet the molecular mechanisms responsible for this remain unclear. Here, we identified cell-type-specific transcriptional signatures associated with a sustained ketamine response in mice. Most interestingly, we identified the Kcnq2 gene as an important downstream regulator of ketamine action in...
Neuron
July 16, 2021
Yitzhak Norman, Omri Raccah, Su Liu et al.
SUMMARY Hippocampal ripples are prominent synchronization events generated by hippocampal neuronal assemblies. To date, ripples have been primarily associated with navigational memory in rodents and shortterm episodic recollections in humans. Here, we uncover different profiles of ripple activity in the human hippocampus during the retrieval of recent and remote autobiographical events and...