Celebrating 10 Years | 2016

The Society for Neuroscience launched its gold open-access journal in November 2014. As founding Editor-in-Chief Christophe Bernard said in his editorial, “eNeuro at Ten: Just Warming Up,” “eNeuro was designed to serve the community of neuroscientists.”

To celebrate 10 years of eNeuro, throughout the year the blog will highlight findings of some of the most-cited papers published in each year of the journal’s history.

2016

Clozapine N-Oxide Administration Produces Behavioral Effects in Long–Evans Rats: Implications for Designing DREADD Experiments
Duncan A. A. MacLaren, Richard W. Browne, Jessica K. Shaw, Sandhya Krishnan Radhakrishnan, Prachi Khare, Rodrigo A. España, and Stewart D. Clark

MacLaren et al. presented their investigation on how to improve experimental design for Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) methodology. They emphasized the importance of including a control group of animals that do not express DREADD receptors but are given the same dose of DREADD ligand clozapine-N-Oxide as DREADD-expressing animals. DREADDs are widely used experimentally, so this finding was critical in improving experimental design for many areas of neuroscience.

 

Perineuronal Nets Enhance the Excitability of Fast-Spiking Neurons
Timothy S. Balmer

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) surround two neuron populations known for their fast-firing frequencies. In this study, Balmer investigated how PNNs affect the activity of these neurons, if at all. Degrading PNNs while measuring neuron activity following current stimulation diminished neuron excitability but not high-frequency firing, suggesting that PNNs increase evoked activity of fast-spiking neurons. This neurophysiological consequence of PNN degradation advanced our understanding of PNN function and opened doors to continued research on PNNs as a potential treatment target for disease states in which the cell populations they surround are dysregulated.