Many cognitive functions rely on the ability to link distinct but related memories, while retaining the capacity to recall the individual details of the linked memories. Inokuchi and colleagues describe evidence that memory linking involves engram overlap and discuss the mechanisms that regulate this process.

The developmental colonization of the brain by microglial progenitors and establishment of microglial cell identity set the stage for microglial function in the adult. Barry-Carroll and Gomez-Nicola describe the mechanisms that regulate the development of microglia, including their origins, infiltration and colonization of the brain, proliferation and fate determination.

Many brain areas support complex language processing behaviours. In this Review, Fedorenko et al. disentangle the ‘core’ language system as functionally distinct from the perceptual and motor brain areas and knowledge and reasoning systems it closely interacts with during language comprehension and production.

Parkinson disease (PD) has been linked to dysfunction in a number of key intracellular signalling pathways that contribute to disease pathology. Coukos and Krainc describe the physiological functions of a selection of PD-linked proteins and their convergent effects on mitochondrial, lysosomal and synaptic dysfunction in PD.

Mendelian randomization analyses reveal potential causal associations between dysfunction of brain functional networks and psychiatric disorders.

In this Journal Club, Tina Liu describes a 1988 paper that revealed the capacity of the sensory cortex for functional reorganization

A subset of female mice that show anxiety-related traits seek out a starvation-like state when exposed to repeated stress

The main direction of motor skill-specific information between rat primary motor cortex and dorsolateral striatum is shown to switch from cortex-predominant before learning to striatum-predominant after learning.

A large network of brain regions is involved in salient distractor processing.