Yet the field as a whole has raised as many questions as it has answered, and an increasingly complex and often discordant view of MeCP2 function is emerging. For example, MeCP2, previously thought to have effects primarily on excitatory synaptic transmission, now appears IWR-1 mouse to play an important role in inhibitory transmission, and knocking out MeCP2 in all inhibitory neurons produces many of the same phenotypes

seen in the germline null (Chao et al., 2010). Unlike the phosphomutant, the knockout produces decreased, rather than increased inhibitory input to L2/3 cortical pyramidal neurons. Other studies have suggested that MeCP2 action, initially thought to function primarily in neurons, also has critical functions in glia, and that specific disruption of MeCP2 in glia causes neuronal phenotypes

(Lioy et al., 2011). Together, these studies raise the possibility that MeCP2 has both global Vorinostat cost and local roles. It may play an important part in the maintenance of chromatin integrity in many cell types, but also perform more local functions in regulating subsets of genes in specific cell types. We can only hope that the kind of targeted in vivo manipulation performed by Cohen et al. (2011) coupled to highly discriminating analyses of neuronal and behavioral phenotypes will help resolve this apparent local/global confusion. “
“Most of today’s communication tools utilize waves to carry information. We rely on not electromagnetic oscillations with frequencies spanning multiple

orders of magnitudes to make phone calls, watch TV, and remotely open our garage door. Waves at different frequencies act as channels, efficiently conveying different kinds of messages without any interference. Similarly, the brain uses oscillations as a means to link processing ongoing in multiple brain areas. Here as well, a wide variety of frequencies come into play, from the slow oscillations of sleep (starting at a fraction of a Hertz) to gamma oscillations reaching 80–100 Hz. By transiently engaging and disengaging oscillatory coherence, that is, the degree by which oscillations in the two structures keep a constant phase relationship, brain areas can modulate the extent to which their computations interact. Thus, the effective functional network can be reconfigured instant by instant. For example, by shifting the phase relationship between gamma oscillations, a higher visual area such as V4 can “tune in” on a V1 column whose receptive field contains a relevant stimulus, thereby steering visual attention (Womelsdorf et al., 2007). As in radio communication, oscillations at different frequencies may channel information from different sources.