BiomedicalPublications

What neuroscience is citing right now

The 40 most-cited open-access neuroscience papers published since 2023. Every one is free to read, and each links to the journal that published it — so you can see what that venue costs to publish in while you are there.

Ranked by citations recorded in OpenAlex. The leading paper here has 2,617. Citation counts favour older papers, so treat this as what the field is building on, not what is newest.

Prevalence and Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2020

Matthew J. Maenner, Zachary Warren, Ashley Robinson Williams, Esther Amoakohene and 32 more · 2023

Problem/Condition: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Period Covered: 2020. Description of System: The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network is an active surveillance program that provides estimates of the prevalence of ASD among children aged 8 years. In 2020, there were 11 ADDM Network sites across the United States (Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin). To ascertain ASD among children aged 8 years, ADDM Network staff review and abstract developmental evaluations and records from community me…

MMWR Surveillance Summaries2,617 citationsDOI

The blood–brain barrier: Structure, regulation and drug delivery

Di Wu, Qi Chen, Xiaojie Chen, Feng Han and 2 more · 2023

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a natural protective membrane that prevents central nervous system (CNS) from toxins and pathogens in blood. However, the presence of BBB complicates the pharmacotherapy for CNS disorders as the most chemical drugs and biopharmaceuticals have been impeded to enter the brain. Insufficient drug delivery into the brain leads to low therapeutic efficacy as well as aggravated side effects due to the accumulation in other organs and tissues. Recent breakthrough in materials science and nanotechnology provides a library of advanced materials with customized structure and…

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy1,741 citationsDOI

Microglia in neurodegenerative diseases: mechanism and potential therapeutic targets

Chao Gao, Jingwen Jiang, Yuyan Tan, Shengdi Chen · 2023

Microglia activation is observed in various neurodegenerative diseases. Recent advances in single-cell technologies have revealed that these reactive microglia were with high spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Some identified microglia in specific states correlate with pathological hallmarks and are associated with specific functions. Microglia both exert protective function by phagocytosing and clearing pathological protein aggregates and play detrimental roles due to excessive uptake of protein aggregates, which would lead to microglial phagocytic ability impairment, neuroinflammation, and…

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy1,503 citationsDOI

Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 Years - Autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 Sites, United States, 2014

Naarden Braun, K.V., Michael López, Tiffany White, Dowling, N.F. and 22 more · 2023

Problem/Condition: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Period Covered: 2014. Description of System: The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network is an active surveillance system that provides estimates of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children aged 8 years whose parents or guardians reside within 11 ADDM sites in the United States (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin). ADDM surveillance is conducted in two phases. The first phase involves review and abstraction of c…

UNC Libraries1,383 citationsDOI

A draft human pangenome reference

Wen‐Wei Liao, Mobin Asri, Jana Ebler, Daniel Doerr and 96 more · 2023

Abstract Here the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium presents a first draft of the human pangenome reference. The pangenome contains 47 phased, diploid assemblies from a cohort of genetically diverse individuals 1 . These assemblies cover more than 99% of the expected sequence in each genome and are more than 99% accurate at the structural and base pair levels. Based on alignments of the assemblies, we generate a draft pangenome that captures known variants and haplotypes and reveals new alleles at structurally complex loci. We also add 119 million base pairs of euchromatic polymorphic seque…

Nature1,196 citationsDOI

Major depressive disorder: hypothesis, mechanism, prevention and treatment

Lulu Cui, Shu Li, Siman Wang, Xiafang Wu and 6 more · 2024

Worldwide, the incidence of major depressive disorder (MDD) is increasing annually, resulting in greater economic and social burdens. Moreover, the pathological mechanisms of MDD and the mechanisms underlying the effects of pharmacological treatments for MDD are complex and unclear, and additional diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for MDD still are needed. The currently widely accepted theories of MDD pathogenesis include the neurotransmitter and receptor hypothesis, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hypothesis, cytokine hypothesis, neuroplasticity hypothesis and systemic influence…

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy1,006 citationsDOI

Tryptophan metabolism in health and disease

Xue Chen, Ganglei Li, Qiuxian Zheng, Xinyu Gu and 7 more · 2023

Tryptophan (Trp) metabolism primarily involves the kynurenine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, and indole pathways. A variety of bioactive compounds produced via Trp metabolism can regulate various physiological functions, including inflammation, metabolism, immune responses, and neurological function. Emerging evidence supports an intimate relationship between Trp metabolism disorder and diseases. The levels or ratios of Trp metabolites are significantly associated with many clinical features. Additionally, studies have shown that disease progression can be controlled by modulating Trp metabolism. Indol…

Cell Metabolism910 citationsDOI

Prevalence and Early Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 4 and 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 16 Sites, United States, 2022

Kelly Shaw, Susan P. Williams, Mary Patrick, Miguel Valencia‐Prado and 48 more · 2025

Problem/Condition: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Period Covered: 2022. Description of System: The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network is an active surveillance program that estimates prevalence and characteristics of ASD and monitors timing of ASD identification among children aged 4 and 8 years. In 2022, a total of 16 sites (located in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Texas [two sites: Austin and Laredo], Utah, and Wisconsin) conducted surveillance for ASD among children age…

MMWR Surveillance Summaries695 citationsDOI

Oxidative stress and inflammation in the pathogenesis of neurological disorders: Mechanisms and implications

Umesh Chandra Dash, Nitish Kumar Bhol, Sandeep Kumar Swain, Rashmi Rekha Samal and 6 more · 2024

Neuroprotection is a proactive approach to safeguarding the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, by preventing or limiting damage to nerve cells and other components. It primarily defends the central nervous system against injury from acute and progressive neurodegenerative disorders. Oxidative stress, an imbalance between the body's natural defense mechanisms and the generation of reactive oxygen species, is crucial in developing neurological disorders. Due to its high metabolic rate and oxygen consumption, the brain is particularly vulnerable to oxidative…

Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B634 citationsDOI

A somato-cognitive action network alternates with effector regions in motor cortex

Evan M. Gordon, Roselyne J. Chauvin, Andrew N. Van, Aishwarya Rajesh and 44 more · 2023

Abstract Motor cortex (M1) has been thought to form a continuous somatotopic homunculus extending down the precentral gyrus from foot to face representations 1,2 , despite evidence for concentric functional zones 3 and maps of complex actions 4 . Here, using precision functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods, we find that the classic homunculus is interrupted by regions with distinct connectivity, structure and function, alternating with effector-specific (foot, hand and mouth) areas. These inter-effector regions exhibit decreased cortical thickness and strong functional connectivi…

Nature619 citationsDOI

Walking naturally after spinal cord injury using a brain–spine interface

Henri Lorach, Andrea Gálvez, Valeria Spagnolo, Félix Martel and 30 more · 2023

Abstract A spinal cord injury interrupts the communication between the brain and the region of the spinal cord that produces walking, leading to paralysis 1,2 . Here, we restored this communication with a digital bridge between the brain and spinal cord that enabled an individual with chronic tetraplegia to stand and walk naturally in community settings. This brain–spine interface (BSI) consists of fully implanted recording and stimulation systems that establish a direct link between cortical signals 3 and the analogue modulation of epidural electrical stimulation targeting the spinal cord reg…

Nature616 citationsDOI

MRI-based brain tumor detection using convolutional deep learning methods and chosen machine learning techniques

Soheila Saeedi, Sorayya Rezayi, Hamidreza Keshavarz, Sharareh Rostam Niakan Kalhori · 2023

BACKGROUND: Detecting brain tumors in their early stages is crucial. Brain tumors are classified by biopsy, which can only be performed through definitive brain surgery. Computational intelligence-oriented techniques can help physicians identify and classify brain tumors. Herein, we proposed two deep learning methods and several machine learning approaches for diagnosing three types of tumor, i.e., glioma, meningioma, and pituitary gland tumors, as well as healthy brains without tumors, using magnetic resonance brain images to enable physicians to detect with high accuracy tumors in early stag…

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making598 citationsDOI

A high-performance speech neuroprosthesis

Francis R. Willett, Erin M. Kunz, Chaofei Fan, Donald T. Avansino and 8 more · 2023

Abstract Speech brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have the potential to restore rapid communication to people with paralysis by decoding neural activity evoked by attempted speech into text 1,2 or sound 3,4 . Early demonstrations, although promising, have not yet achieved accuracies sufficiently high for communication of unconstrained sentences from a large vocabulary 1–7 . Here we demonstrate a speech-to-text BCI that records spiking activity from intracortical microelectrode arrays. Enabled by these high-resolution recordings, our study participant—who can no longer speak intelligibly owing t…

Nature568 citationsDOI

Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain

Sven Dorkenwald, Arie Matsliah, Amy Sterling, Philipp Schlegel and 96 more · 2024

Abstract Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analysing electron microscopic brain images. In recent years, this approach has been applied to chunks of brains to reconstruct local connectivity maps that are highly informative 1–6 , but nevertheless inadequate for understanding brain function more globally. Here we present a neuronal wiring diagram of a whole brain containing 5 × 10 7 chemical synapses 7 between 139,255 neurons reconstructed from an adult female Drosophila melanogaster 8,9 . The resource also incorporates annotations of cell classes and types, nerves, hemi…

Nature527 citationsDOI

The Role of Cortisol in Chronic Stress, Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Psychological Disorders

Emilija Knezevic, Katarina Nenic, Vladislav Milanovic, Nebojša Nick Knežević · 2023

Cortisol, a critical glucocorticoid hormone produced by the adrenal glands, plays a pivotal role in various physiological processes. Its release is finely orchestrated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus, governing the circadian rhythm and activating the intricate hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a vital neuroendocrine system responsible for stress response and maintaining homeostasis. Disruptions in cortisol regulation due to chronic stress, disease, and aging have profound implications for multiple bodily systems. Animal models have been instrumental in elucidating these complex cortiso…

Cells524 citationsDOI

Chronic stress, neuroinflammation, and depression: an overview of pathophysiological mechanisms and emerging anti-inflammatories

Sameer Hassamal · 2023

In a subset of patients, chronic exposure to stress is an etiological risk factor for neuroinflammation and depression. Neuroinflammation affects up to 27% of patients with MDD and is associated with a more severe, chronic, and treatment-resistant trajectory. Inflammation is not unique to depression and has transdiagnostic effects suggesting a shared etiological risk factor underlying psychopathologies and metabolic disorders. Research supports an association but not necessarily a causation with depression. Putative mechanisms link chronic stress to dysregulation of the HPA axis and immune cel…

Frontiers in Psychiatry520 citationsDOI

TRP (transient receptor potential) ion channel family: structures, biological functions and therapeutic interventions for diseases

Miao Zhang, Yueming Ma, Xianglu Ye, Ning Zhang and 2 more · 2023

Abstract Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are sensors for a variety of cellular and environmental signals. Mammals express a total of 28 different TRP channel proteins, which can be divided into seven subfamilies based on amino acid sequence homology: TRPA (Ankyrin), TRPC (Canonical), TRPM (Melastatin), TRPML (Mucolipin), TRPN (NO-mechano-potential, NOMP), TRPP (Polycystin), TRPV (Vanilloid). They are a class of ion channels found in numerous tissues and cell types and are permeable to a wide range of cations such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, and others. TRP channels are responsible for…

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy502 citationsDOI

Brain Tumor Detection Based on Deep Learning Approaches and Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Akmalbek Abdusalomov, Mukhriddin Mukhiddinov, Taeg Keun Whangbo · 2023

The rapid development of abnormal brain cells that characterizes a brain tumor is a major health risk for adults since it can cause severe impairment of organ function and even death. These tumors come in a wide variety of sizes, textures, and locations. When trying to locate cancerous tumors, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a crucial tool. However, detecting brain tumors manually is a difficult and time-consuming activity that might lead to inaccuracies. In order to solve this, we provide a refined You Only Look Once version 7 (YOLOv7) model for the accurate detection of meningioma, gliom…

Cancers472 citationsDOI

The role of neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases: current understanding and future therapeutic targets

Alhamdu Adamu, Shuo Li, Fankai Gao, Guofang Xue · 2024

Neuroinflammation refers to a highly complicated reaction of the central nervous system (CNS) to certain stimuli such as trauma, infection, and neurodegenerative diseases. This is a cellular immune response whereby glial cells are activated, inflammatory mediators are liberated and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are synthesized. Neuroinflammation is a key process that helps protect the brain from pathogens, but inappropriate, or protracted inflammation yields pathological states such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis, and other neurodegenerative disorders that showc…

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience470 citationsDOI

The connectome of an insect brain

Michael Winding, Benjamin D. Pedigo, Christopher L. Barnes, Heather G. Patsolic and 16 more · 2023

Brains contain networks of interconnected neurons and so knowing the network architecture is essential for understanding brain function. We therefore mapped the synaptic-resolution connectome of an entire insect brain ( Drosophila larva) with rich behavior, including learning, value computation, and action selection, comprising 3016 neurons and 548,000 synapses. We characterized neuron types, hubs, feedforward and feedback pathways, as well as cross-hemisphere and brain-nerve cord interactions. We found pervasive multisensory and interhemispheric integration, highly recurrent architecture, abu…

Science461 citationsDOI

Myelin dysfunction drives amyloid-β deposition in models of Alzheimer’s disease

Constanze Depp, Ting Sun, Andrew Octavian Sasmita, Lena Spieth and 26 more · 2023

Abstract The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia, increases rapidly with age, but why age constitutes the main risk factor is still poorly understood. Brain ageing affects oligodendrocytes and the structural integrity of myelin sheaths 1 , the latter of which is associated with secondary neuroinflammation 2,3 . As oligodendrocytes support axonal energy metabolism and neuronal health 4–7 , we hypothesized that loss of myelin integrity could be an upstream risk factor for neuronal amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition, the central neuropathological hallmark of AD. Here we id…

Nature454 citationsDOI

Signaling pathways in Parkinson’s disease: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic interventions

Dong-Chen Xu, Chen Yong, Yang Xu, ShenTu Chen-Yu and 1 more · 2023

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, and its treatment remains a big challenge. The pathogenesis of PD may be related to environmental and genetic factors, and exposure to toxins and gene mutations may be the beginning of brain lesions. The identified mechanisms of PD include α-synuclein aggregation, oxidative stress, ferroptosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and gut dysbiosis. The interactions among these molecular mechanisms complicate the pathogenesis of PD and pose great challenges to drug development. At the same time, th…

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy450 citationsDOI

Geometric constraints on human brain function

James C. Pang, Kevin Aquino, Marianne Oldehinkel, P. A. Robinson and 3 more · 2023

Abstract The anatomy of the brain necessarily constrains its function, but precisely how remains unclear. The classical and dominant paradigm in neuroscience is that neuronal dynamics are driven by interactions between discrete, functionally specialized cell populations connected by a complex array of axonal fibres 1–3 . However, predictions from neural field theory, an established mathematical framework for modelling large-scale brain activity 4–6 , suggest that the geometry of the brain may represent a more fundamental constraint on dynamics than complex interregional connectivity 7,8 . Here…

Nature445 citationsDOI

Human microglial state dynamics in Alzheimer’s disease progression

Na Sun, Matheus B. Victor, Yongjin Park, Xushen Xiong and 15 more · 2023

Altered microglial states affect neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and disease but remain poorly understood. Here, we report 194,000 single-nucleus microglial transcriptomes and epigenomes across 443 human subjects and diverse Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathological phenotypes. We annotate 12 microglial transcriptional states, including AD-dysregulated homeostatic, inflammatory, and lipid-processing states. We identify 1,542 AD-differentially-expressed genes, including both microglia-state-specific and disease-stage-specific alterations. By integrating epigenomic, transcriptomic, and motif i…

Cell440 citationsDOI

Spike sorting with Kilosort4

Marius Pachitariu, Shashwat Sridhar, Jacob R. Pennington, Carsen Stringer · 2024

Spike sorting is the computational process of extracting the firing times of single neurons from recordings of local electrical fields. This is an important but hard problem in neuroscience, made complicated by the nonstationarity of the recordings and the dense overlap in electrical fields between nearby neurons. To address the spike-sorting problem, we have been openly developing the Kilosort framework. Here we describe the various algorithmic steps introduced in different versions of Kilosort. We also report the development of Kilosort4, a version with substantially improved performance due…

Nature Methods422 citationsDOI

Astrocytes in human central nervous system diseases: a frontier for new therapies

Alexei Verkhratsky, Arthur M. Butt, Baoman Li, Péter Illés and 4 more · 2023

Astroglia are a broad class of neural parenchymal cells primarily dedicated to homoeostasis and defence of the central nervous system (CNS). Astroglia contribute to the pathophysiology of all neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental to disorder outcome. Pathophysiological changes in astroglia can be primary or secondary and can result in gain or loss of functions. Astroglia respond to external, non-cell autonomous signals associated with any form of CNS pathology by undergoing complex and variable changes in their structure, molecular exp…

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy419 citationsDOI

Generative artificial intelligence, human creativity, and art

Eric Zhou, Dokyun Lee · 2024

Recent artificial intelligence (AI) tools have demonstrated the ability to produce outputs traditionally considered creative. One such system is text-to-image generative AI (e.g. Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E), which automates humans' artistic execution to generate digital artworks. Utilizing a dataset of over 4 million artworks from more than 50,000 unique users, our research shows that over time, text-to-image AI significantly enhances human creative productivity by 25% and increases the value as measured by the likelihood of receiving a favorite per view by 50%. While peak artwork Co…

PNAS Nexus399 citationsDOI

Blood–brain barrier disruption and sustained systemic inflammation in individuals with long COVID-associated cognitive impairment

Chris Greene, Ruairi Connolly, Declan Brennan, Aoife Laffan and 13 more · 2024

Vascular disruption has been implicated in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pathogenesis and may predispose to the neurological sequelae associated with long COVID, yet it is unclear how blood-brain barrier (BBB) function is affected in these conditions. Here we show that BBB disruption is evident during acute infection and in patients with long COVID with cognitive impairment, commonly referred to as brain fog. Using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, we show BBB disruption in patients with long COVID-associated brain fog. Transcriptomic analysis of peripheral blood mono…

Nature Neuroscience393 citationsDOI

Whole-brain annotation and multi-connectome cell typing of Drosophila

Philipp Schlegel, Yijie Yin, Alexander Shakeel Bates, Sven Dorkenwald and 96 more · 2024

Abstract The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as a key model organism in neuroscience, in large part due to the concentration of collaboratively generated molecular, genetic and digital resources available for it. Here we complement the approximately 140,000 neuron FlyWire whole-brain connectome1 with a systematic and hierarchical annotation of neuronal classes, cell types and developmental units (hemilineages). Of 8,453 annotated cell types, 3,643 were previously proposed in the partial hemibrain connectome2, and 4,581 are new types, mostly from brain regions outside the hemibrai…

Nature392 citationsDOI

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2023/24: G protein-coupled receptors

S P H Alexander, Arthur Christopoulos, Anthony P. Davenport, Eamonn Kelly and 96 more · 2023

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2023/24 is the sixth in this series of biennial publications. The Concise Guide provides concise overviews, mostly in tabular format, of the key properties of approximately 1800 drug targets, and about 6000 interactions with about 3900 ligands. There is an emphasis on selective pharmacology (where available), plus links to the open access knowledgebase source of drug targets and their ligands (https://www.guidetopharmacology.org), which provides more detailed views of target and ligand properties. Although the Concise Guide constitutes almost 500 pages, the ma…

British Journal of Pharmacology392 citationsDOI

Role of oxidative stress in neurodegenerative disorders: a review of reactive oxygen species and prevention by antioxidants

Annwyne Houldsworth · 2023

Neurological disorders include a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, motor neuron disease and Parkinson's disease, affecting longevity and quality of life, and their pathogenesis is associated with oxidative stress. Several of the chronic neurodegenerative pathologies of the CNS share some common features, such as oxidative stress, inflammation, synapse dysfunctions, protein misfolding and defective autophagia. Neuroinflammation can involve the activation of mast cells, contributing to oxidative stress, in addition to other sources of reactive oxygen species. Antioxidants can…

Brain Communications390 citationsDOI