The entire central nervous system develops from the neural plate, initially a single-cell layered epithelium. Anterior–posterior patterning is established by signals emanating from tissues outside the neural plate, while local signaling centers that are established within the neural plate itself will refine this initial patterning. One signaling center that plays an important role in the early ...

Humans have a remarkable ability to track and understand speech in unfavorable conditions, such as in background noise, but speech understanding in noise does deteriorate with age. Results from several studies have shown that in younger adults, low-frequency auditory cortical activity reliably synchronizes to the speech envelope, even when the background noise is considerably louder than the sp...

Midbrain dopaminergic and hindbrain serotonergic neurons play an important role in the modulation of behavior and are involved in a series of neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite the importance of these cells, little is known about the molecular mechanisms governing their development. During embryogenesis, midbrain dopaminergic neurons are specified rostral to the midbrain-hindbrain organizer (M...

■ Abstract Transplantation studies performed in chicken embryos indicated that early anterior/posterior patterning of the vertebrate midbrain and cerebellum might be regulated by an organizing center at the junction between the midbrain and hindbrain. More than a decade of molecular and genetic studies have shown that such an organizer is indeed central to development of the midbrain and anteri...

Recent work from Agarwala et al. has uncovered exquisite ventral patterning in the mesencephalon. Using electroporation in chicks, they show that ectopic expression of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) in dorsal mesencephalon can recapitulate this patterning in its entirety. These results are discussed in the context of the purported role of Shh as a morphogen.

naling pathway. For this, we focused on Pea3/Ets (Pea3, Erm, Er81), a subfamily of Ets transcription factors, since it has been suggested that Pea3/Ets is a direct transcriptional target of Fgf signaling. We first checked that Pea3 and Erm are expressed in the midbrain and the hindbrain around stage10 of the chick embryos. We then obtained results that Pea3 and Erm expressions are regulated by ...

Our knowledge about the normal generation of midbrain dopaminergic neurons in vivois still rudimentary, despite many attempts to recapitulate the underlying events in vitro. Because the loss of these neurons is implicated in Parkinson's disease, this lack of information is one of the major drawbacks in the development of better therapies for this severe human neurological disorder. Recently, su...

Two adjacent groups of midbrain dopaminergic neurons, A9 (substantia nigra pars compacta) and A10 (ventral tegmental area), have distinct projections and exhibit differential vulnerability in Parkinson's disease. Little is known about transcription factors that influence midbrain dopaminergic subgroup phenotypes or their potential role in disease. Here, we demonstrate elevated expression of the...

Prospective midbrain and cerebellum formation are coordinated by FGF ligands produced by the isthmic organizer. Previous studies have suggested that midbrain and cerebellum development require different levels of FGF signaling. However, little is known about the extent to which specific regions within these two parts of the brain differ in their requirement for FGF signaling during embryogenesi...

naling pathway. For this, we focused on Pea3/Ets (Pea3, Erm, Er81), a subfamily of Ets transcription factors, since it has been suggested that Pea3/Ets is a direct transcriptional target of Fgf signaling. We first checked that Pea3 and Erm are expressed in the midbrain and the hindbrain around stage10 of the chick embryos. We then obtained results that Pea3 and Erm expressions are regulated by ...