In this special issue of Neuroscience Bulletin, the topics range over emerging techniques from the nanoscopic to the macroscopic scales.

At the nanoscopic level, new ways to obtain images at the individual protein level in synapses take the re-construction of synaptic architecture to a new level, while using chromophores to disable specific proteins at selected subcellular locations allows the assessment of their functional roles in such dynamic processes as growth-cone extension and cell division. The subtle influences of axonal channels and receptors on neurotransmission are revealed by recording from the blebs induced by axotomy, while methods from cloning to chemical computation are being applied to dissecting the structural-functional rules by which ion channels operate.

At the macroscopic level, the network of networks in the human brain in health and diseases being constructed in the “brain-net-ome” initiative requires new tools to han-dle the vast quantities of data, such as multi-voxel pattern analysis and its potential for a form of “mind-reading”, new approaches to localization, especially in brain disease such as epilepsy, and novel tasks to activate and expose the networks underlying higher functions such as atten-tion. While multi-electrode arrays and optogenetic techniques that allow remarkable spatial and temporal control of stimuli and responses are as yet far from ap-plication in humans, their development in animal models for studies of such key issues as neuronal plasticity and the sequelae of stress provide essential information for under- rmation mation under-standing the human condition.

We hope that this collection of thoughtful, exciting, and thorough papers on new and emerging techniques will encourage and stimulate, no matter which level of resolu-tion our readers are working at. After all, our ultimate goal is to generate a concept that integrates events at all levels of analysis and explains how the brain does what it does.

Editorial

Iain C. Bruce. Special issue on new techniques and approaches for neuroscience. [Download]

Read this issue online

http://www.neurosci.cn/ep1-1.asp

http://www.springerlink.com/content/1673-7067/28/4/