The detection of chemical synapses in 3-dimensional electron microscopy data has been automated such that synapses in large-scale connectivity maps of the cerebral cortex, connectomes, can be charted without the need for human interaction.

Photobleaching and recovery of a fluorescent glutamate sensor enable demonstration of the distinct spatial architectures of spontaneous versus evoked forms of glutamatergic neurotransmission within single synapses.

A knockin mouse line was made to label endogenous AMPA receptors, enabling direct observation of synaptic plasticity in behaving animals with single-synapse resolution across the entire brain.

Computational modeling offers an explanation for why animals learn more quickly or slowly when their environment becomes more variable or stable.

Apical and basal dendrites contribute differently to single-neuron orientation selectivity, highlighting the impact of feedforward and feedback signal interactions.

A complete connectome of the ON and OFF motion pathways of the Drosophila optic lobe is acquired using three-dimensional EM methods, and the similarities and differences of the two pathways are uncovered.

Connectomic analysis identifies the complex circuits of a visual motion-sensing neuron that qualify them to generate direction-selective motion sensing signals using both Hassenstein-Reichardt and Barlow-Levick models.

Spontaneous fusion of vesicles at synapses is regulated independently of fusion triggered by action potentials, adding to evidence that the two types of fusion have distinct functions.

New reconstruction methods are used to create a publicly available dense reconstruction of the neurons and chemical synapses of central brain of Drosophila, with analysis of its graph properties.

The development of a novel, high throughput method for the sub-synaptic analysis of protein localization in molecularly classified synapse classes allows sub-compartment, multiplexed detection of proteins in synapses using wide-field microscopes.