Neural and Non-Neural Substrates of Behavior

Dear Colleagues,

Behavioral studies have long been the realm of psychology and neuroscience, where the term "behavior" is loosely framed as "movement of an organism in response to changes in internal state and external environment". By default, such a relationship requires a neural network for information processing, storage, and organismal execution. So to understand the neurobiology of behavior, the first step is to determine neural substrates that correlate with discrete aspects of behavioral sequences. Brain lesions and functional MRI studies have shed light on the regions and pathologies responsible for many human behaviors manifested by mental disorders and other neurological diseases. In animal models, rapid advancement in genetic tools and sophisticated imaging apparatus has provided tremendous opportunities to probe neuronal activities underlying behaviors. It is now possible to manipulate a single neuron to elicit certain behavioral traits and associate them with the large neural network. High-resolution whole-brain imaging techniques have enabled the correlation of neuronal activity patterns with behavioral variability and identification of pre-motor activities on a single-trial level, thus making it feasible to link sensory stimuli with internal state and motor output.

While most investigations are centered on neurons, recent findings highlighted the indispensable roles of glial cells in modulating behaviors, and studies focusing on the neurovascular unit (NVU) greatly improved our understanding of pathologies underlying behavioral disorders.

Behavioral traits are ultimately encoded in genes. As elegantly demonstrated in circadian behaviors, rhythmic expression of the clock genes at the transcriptional levels is directly correlated with rest–activity cycles. The molecular clock not only governs neuronal activities, but it is also widely present in the glia and other non-neural cells throughout the animal kingdom, in unicellular cells and plants, suggesting that behavioral regulation adopted common cellular mechanisms during evolution. In fact, information processing can be implemented by different cellular components on various levels. Non-neural cells display habituation and massed-spaced effect, both are hallmark features of learning and memory that are integral to behavior, suggesting that non-neural cells possess some neuronal characteristics of information processing (computing), storage (memory), and retrieval (learning). 

We are pleased to announce the Special Issue: neural and non-neural substrates of behavior, with the aim of understanding anatomical, cellular, and biochemical mechanisms underlying behavior.

In this Special Issue, original research articles, reviews, and technical notes are all welcome. Research area may include (but not limited to) the following: identification of neurons and supporting cells responsible for behavioral traits under normal or pathological conditions, biochemicals important for modulating behavior, neural network modeling, characterization of information processing in non-neural cells, development of new models (organismal or cellular) for behavioral studies, and phylogenetic analysis of cellular network underlying various behavioral traits. 

Dr. Sam Zheng
Guest Editor

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• neural substrate
• non-neural substrate
• neural network
• learning and memory
• information processing
• behavior