What is this collection about?
Diverse sensory and cognitive functions rely on complex and dynamic neural interactions between cortical and subcortical brain areas to coordinate incoming inputs and feedback processes, creating cortical-subcortical loops. Although these neural networks are believed to support the ability of the mammalian brains to produce adequate behavioral responses in changing environments, their investigation has been limited by technological constraints. Thanks to the recent development of novel genetic tools and technical advances in high density electrophysiology and brain-wide imaging, scientists can now visualize and manipulate the activity of both cortical and subcortical projections, offering novel research perspectives on sensory processing, perception and cognition.
In this Collection, the editors at Communications Biology, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications and Scientific Reports welcome original research Articles presenting novel insights into structural and functional cortical-subcortical interactions across sensory modalities and cognitive functions, in humans and animal models, under physiological or pathological conditions. This call for papers includes but is not limited to studies presenting novel cortical-subcortical circuit mechanisms underlying adaptive sensing, perception, attention, decision-making, learning & memory, and language. We also encourage submissions that showcase novel innovative tools and computational models to explore the biology of cortical-subcortical brain loops.
Why is this collection important?
This is a cross-journal collection between Communications Biology, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications and Scientific Reports. Authors are welcome to submit to any of the participating journals. All manuscripts published in the collection are hosted on a dedicated nature portfolio portal, giving articles high visibility beyond the journal they are published in.
Why submit to a collection?
Collections like this one help promote high-quality science. They are led by Guest Editors and In-House Editors who are experts in their fields and supported by a dedicated team of Commissioning Editors and Managing Editors at Springer Nature. Collection manuscripts typically see higher citations, downloads, and Altmetric scores, and provide a one-stop-shop on a cutting-edge topic of interest.
Who is involved?
Julio C. Hechavarria, PhD, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Julio Hechavarria is a Heisenberg Professor for Animal Behavior at Freie Universität Berlin with expertise in neuroethology, sensory neurobiology, and animal communication. He earned his doctorate in natural sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt, where he later advanced from postdoctoral fellow to independent research group leader in neurobiology. His research, combines neurophysiology, behavior, and computational analysis to investigate how animals process and adapt sensory information. Julio is one of the initiators of the Priority Programme 2411 established by the German Research Council to study cortico-subcortical brain loops.
Stefanie Liebe, PhD, MD, University of Tübingen, Germany
Stefanie Liebe is a neuroscientist with expertise in neurology, psychology, and systems neuroscience, including invasive electrophysiology in humans and non-human primates. She studied psychology at the Technical University of Dresden and Indiana University Bloomington (USA) and earned her doctorate at the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. After combining clinical training in neurology with research in epilepsy and cognitive neuroscience in Bonn and Tübingen, she is now a Clinician Scientist at the University of Tübingen. Her research uses high-dimensional human brain recordings and clinical data combined with advanced computational methods to study neural mechanisms of memory, perception, and their disruption in neurological disease.
Markus Rothermel, PhD, Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany
Markus studied biology at the Ruhr University Bochum where he received his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Hanns Hatt. For his postdoctoral time, he joined the laboratory of Matt Wachowiak (Boston University and the University of Utah, USA), focusing on information processing in the rodent olfactory system. In 2014, he returned to Germany to establish a DFG-funded Emmy Noether research group at the RWTH Aachen University (Prof. Marc Spehr). After being appointed a Professorship in Hanover he moved in 2023 to the Medical Faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg. His main interests are a systematic investigation of sensory filtering processes in health and disease.
Communications Biology is edited by both in-house professional editors and Editorial Board Members. Dr. Hechavarria, Dr. Liebe and Dr. Rothermel will act as guest editors for submissions to Communications Biology.
Nature Neuroscience is edited by in-house professional editors.
Nature Communications is edited by in-house professional editors.
Scientific Reports is managed by in-house professional editors and edited by Editorial Board Members.
Our editors work closely together to ensure the quality of our published papers and consistency in author experience.