Communication begins long before children learn to speak. Researchers at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) in Taiwan have now uncovered how early brain activity helps build developing communication circuits via regulating FOXP2/Foxp2, a gene linked to human speech and communication disorders.

Published in EMBO Reports, the study presents an integrated framework linking neural activity, vocal circuit development, and activity-dependent regulation of Foxp2 in early life. The researchers studied neonatal mice, which emit ultrasonic vocalizations when separated from their mothers. These vocalizations are widely used to study early social communication and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Using advanced activity tagging, live neural recording, and circuit manipulation techniques, the NYCU team identified a previously underappreciated communication circuit linking the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the striatum.

A new technology called LinCx allows scientists to create custom electrical connections between neurons with high precision. Researchers say it may help treat disorders caused by damaged brain circuits. Damage to brain circuits plays a major role in many neurological disorders. Researchers at Duk

The other 99% is used on the activity the brain generates on its own: neurons (nerve cells) firing and signalling to each other regardless of whether you’re thinking hard, watching television, dreaming, or simply closing your eyes.

Even in the brain areas dedicated to vision, the visuals coming in through your eyes shape the activity of your neurons less than this internal ongoing action.

In a paper just published in Psychological Review, we argue that our imagination sculpts the images we see in our mind’s eye by carving into this background brain activity. In fact, imagination may have more to do with the brain activity it silences than with the activity it creates.

The expected explanation was straightforward: resilient people would respond more strongly to rewards, allowing positive outcomes to outweigh the negatives. But the brain scans told a different story.

In ten prefrontal and parietal regions tied to cognitive control, the resilient group showed stronger increases in activity when negative information appeared.

Their brains were not muting losses. They were engaging more circuitry to handle them.

Ordinary dreams are, perhaps, the clearest articulation of what it is like to be.