Whatever the final answers to these many remaining questions will be, the experiments by Xu and colleagues (2012) clearly demonstrate that the newly emerging molecular tools (Fenno et al., 2011, Magnus et al., 2011 and Nakashiba et al., 2009) for blocking or enhancing synaptic activity open new possibilities to examine neuronal communication in the behaving animal. The findings of Xu et al. (2012) are an important milestone in this direction. A perceived

handicap of molecular biological tools, compared to electrophysiological methods, is their slow time resolution. However, it has become increasing clear not only that efficient timing in the brain depends on fast acting chemical mechanisms but that such processes can be precisely explored this website by targeted molecular biological approaches, such as demonstrated Xu et al. (2012). Who would have thought Z VAD FMK just a few years ago that words like “high-pass filtering” and “oscillations” might

become part of the everyday discourse in molecular biology labs? “
“Interpersonal interactions frequently involve balancing the desires of another person with one’s own interests in order to achieve a mutually satisfactory outcome. Take the example of a storeowner or street vendor. The seller will try to name a price that the customer is willing to pay, but not any less, in order to maximize profit. Strategic actions such as this price setting are common in economic transactions and the neural mechanisms that mediate the balancing of self versus other’s goals are of great interest to scientists studying the neurobiology of decision making. Previous reports have indicated a role for prefrontal cortex in strategic

social decisions (Bhatt et al., 2010, Coricelli and Nagel, 2009 and Spitzer et al., 2007). Given the relatively late maturation of prefrontal regions (Durston et al., 2006 and Giedd et al., 1999), developmental studies of strategic behavior could provide insights into the role of prefrontal cortex in decision making. Clearly, the causal nature of child development and brain maturation is complex, and both age-dependent and -independent changes in neural systems may be linked Vasopressin Receptor to specific aspects of behavior. In this issue of Neuron, Steinbeis and colleagues (2012) have examined how age and developmental differences in impulsivity along with the structure and function of prefrontal cortex relate to strategic decision making. These results provide novel insights about the development of prefrontal cortex and its role in strategic economic decisions. Moreover, the findings raise several interesting questions for future research. Children ranging in age from 6–13 were asked to choose how to split a reward between themselves and another person in two contexts.