Metastability is a concept from dynamical systems. In the brain, it is thought to reflect the balance between the cooperative and independent functioning of brain areas or neuronal populations. In this Review, Hancock, Rosas and colleagues provide an overview of metastability in neuroscience.

The influence anatomy exerts on communication between brain regions remains unclear. In this Review, Greaves et al. synthesize how methods of structural connectivity integration constrain inference-based or prediction-based models of directed connectivity to better understand how one brain region exerts control over another.

Substance-use disorders (SUDs) are characterized by chronic relapse. However, many of those affected eventually do achieve recovery. Engeln and Ahmed describe insights from clinical and preclinical studies of remission that suggest that recovery from substance-use disorders involves both reversal of drug-induced circuit changes and new neural circuit adaptations.

The set of proteins present at synapses determines their heterogeneous functions and properties. In this Review, van Oostrum and Schuman describe the molecular mechanisms that contribute to the diversity of the synaptic proteome and consider how this molecular complexity can be captured by approaches for synapse classification.

Inhibition of CaMKII blocks short-term memory but not long-term memory of inhibitory avoidance in mice.

A study explores the circuits through which the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex orchestrates social competition in mice.

A new study reveals an algorithm implemented by neurons in the medial frontal cortex that is involved in flexibly mapping appropriate actions during goal-oriented behaviour to novel situations.