When we recall an unpleasant memory, we do not simply replay it as detached observers watching a scene from a film: we often re-experience the emotion, including the fear, associated with the original event. Researchers at the HUN-REN Institute of Experimental Medicine are helping to explain how the brain links the retrieval of a memory to the accompanying feeling of fear. Their findings shed light on how persistent activity in this system may contribute to anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

A new study in mice has found that COVID-19 or influenza vaccination during pregnancy does not cause the neurological changes that a real infection can trigger in the offspring. Researchers at the HUN-REN Institute of Experimental Medicine found that a treatment mimicking a viral infection produced a lasting, autism-like behavioural pattern in mouse pups, whereas the vaccines caused only mild, transient differences. The results therefore point clearly in favour of getting vaccinated.

Every time one nerve cell communicates with another, small structures at the synapse called vesicles release chemical messengers into the synaptic cleft between the cells. Before a vesicle can release its contents, however, it must first be prepared, or “primed” for release. The new study by Aldahabi and colleagues examines how this priming step affects the strength and diversity of connections between nerve cells.

The Association of Women in Science (NaTE), which won the first Nature Innovating Science Award established by Nature and the Estee Lauder Company in 2018, began in 2008 with just 10 female researchers, with the goal of supporting women and girls in pursuing careers in science and technology. In 2013, the first Women in Science Excellence Award, established to recognize female researchers working in the fields of engineering, physics, astronomy, and space research, was presented; in recent years, the award has also been given to support research activities. This latter award was won by Katalin Lengyel, a research assistant in Balázs Hangya’s group.