Cognitive deficits are a major contributor to disability in numerous neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, yet effective pharmacological treatments remain limited. Ferulic acid eicosyl ester (FAE-20), a natural constituent of the plant Rhodiola rosea, has previously been identified as an enhancer of simple forms of Pavlovian conditioning in flies, bees, and mice. Here, we investigated whether FAE-20 has further potential to enhance cognitive flexibility, working memory, or spatial learning in mice, and explored potential neurobiological mechanisms underlying such enhancement. Cognitive flexibility was assessed using the attentional set-shifting task (ASST). Subchronic FAE-20 treatment significantly improved ASST performance in both male and female young adult mice, indicating enhanced cognitive flexibility. In contrast, no effects were observed on spatial working memory, assessed by spontaneous alternations in the Y-maze, or on spatial learning in the Barnes maze in either young or aged mice. Notably, FAE-20 enabled spatial learning in the Barnes maze in a subgroup of aged mice that failed to learn the task under vehicle treatment. Histological analyses using c-Fos immunohistochemistry as a marker of neural activity and doublecortin expression and spine density as markers of hippocampal plasticity revealed sex-specific effects on components of the ascending arousal system. FAE-20 increased the activation of orexinergic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus of male mice, whereas it reduced the activity of cholinergic neurons in the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus of females. No effects were detected on hippocampal neurogenesis or dendritic spine density. These findings suggest that the cognitive effects of FAE-20 are selective, depending on the cognitive demands of the task and the baseline cognitive abilities of the animals, and may be mediated, at least in part, by modulation of arousal-related neural circuits.

Abstract Innovative therapeutic approaches providing clinically effective medication for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients are urgently needed. In recent years, monoclonal antibodies against Amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers were approved as the first disease modifying AD therapies. However, their effects on cognitive decline of AD patients are still limited – most likely because neuroinflammatory processes downstream of Aβ plaques remain activated, even when plaques are depleted. Accordingly, anti-inflammatory drugs are currently considered as valuable (co-)treatments to target Aβ associated neuro-inflammation. The anti-inflammatory sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor (S1PR) modulator fingolimod (FTY720) has been shown to alleviate synaptic and cognitive deficits in numerous mouse models of AD. Whether other S1PR modulators exert similar beneficial effects is largely unknown. Here we used a transgenic APP/PS1 AD mouse model to investigate whether the S1PR modulator Ozanimod (RPC1063) can rescue AD pathology and synaptic dysfunctions even when treatment is initiated at 16-17 months of age, which is 10 months after onset of cognitive deficits. We performed quantitative dendritic spine analysis in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons and immunohistochemical labelling of Iba1-positive activated microglia, GFAP-positive reactive astrocytes, and Aβ plaques in hippocampus and neocortex. Our results reveal that 6 weeks of Ozanimod treatment via drinking water rescues synaptic spine deficits, counteracts Aβ pathology and reduces neuro-inflammation in the hippocampus and neocortex of APP/PS1 mice. Therefore, it might hold promise to examine a potential disease-modifying effect of S1PR modulators in clinical trials with AD patients.

Therapeutic approaches providing effective medication for Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients after disease onset are urgently needed. Previous studies in AD mouse models and in humans suggested that physical exercise or changed lifestyle can delay AD-related synaptic and memory dysfunctions when treatment started in juvenile animals or in elderly humans before onset of disease symptoms. However, a pharmacological treatment that can reverse memory deficits in AD patients was thus far not identified. Importantly, AD disease-related dysfunctions have increasingly been associated with neuro-inflammatory mechanisms and searching for anti-inflammatory medication to treat AD seems promising. Like for other diseases, repurposing of FDA-approved drugs for treatment of AD is an ideally suited strategy to reduce the time to bring such medication into clinical practice. Of note, the sphingosine-1-phosphate analogue fingolimod (FTY720) was FDA-approved in 2010 for treatment of multiple sclerosis patients. It binds to the five different isoforms of Sphingosine-1-phosphate receptors (S1PRs) that are widely distributed across human organs. Interestingly, recent studies in five different mouse models of AD suggest that FTY720 treatment, even when starting after onset of AD symptoms, can reverse synaptic deficits and memory dysfunction in these AD mouse models. Furthermore, a very recent multi-omics study identified mutations in the sphingosine/ceramide pathway as a risk factor for sporadic AD, suggesting S1PRs as promising drug target in AD patients. Therefore, progressing with FDA-approved S1PR modulators into human clinical trials might pave the way for these potential disease modifying anti-AD drugs.

Neurotrophins are secreted proteins that control survival, differentiation, and synaptic plasticity. While mature neurotrophins regulate these functions via tyrosine kinase signaling (Trk), uncleaved pro-neurotrophins bind preferentially to the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) and often exert opposite effects to those of mature neurotrophins. In the amygdala, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) enables long-term potentiation as well as fear and fear extinction learning. In the present study, we focused on the impact of mature BDNF and proBDNF signaling on long-term depression (LTD) in the lateral amygdala (LA). Hence, we conducted extracellular field potential recordings in an in vitro slice preparation and recorded LTD in cortical and thalamic afferents to the LA. LTD was unchanged by acute block of BDNF/TrkB signaling. In contrast, LTD was inhibited by blocking p75NTR signaling, by disinhibition of the proteolytic cleavage of proBDNF into mature BDNF, and by preincubation with a function-blocking anti-proBDNF antibody. Since LTD-like processes in the amygdala are supposed to be related to fear extinction learning, we locally inhibited p75NTR signaling in the amygdala during or after fear extinction training, resulting in impaired fear extinction memory. Overall, these results suggest that in the amygdala proBDNF/p75NTR signaling plays a pivotal role in LTD and fear extinction learning.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is implicated in a number of processes that are crucial for healthy functioning of the brain. Schizophrenia is associated with low BDNF levels in the brain and blood, however, not much is known about BDNF’s role in the different symptoms of schizophrenia. Here, we used BDNF-haploinsufficient (BDNF+/−) mice to investigate the role of BDNF in different mouse behavioral endophenotypes of schizophrenia. Furthermore, we assessed if an enriched environment can prevent the observed changes. In this study, male mature adult wild-type and BDNF+/− mice were tested in mouse paradigms for cognitive flexibility (attentional set shifting), sensorimotor gating (prepulse inhibition), and associative emotional learning (safety and fear conditioning). Before these tests, half of the mice had a 2-month exposure to an enriched environment, including running wheels. After the tests, BDNF brain levels were quantified. BDNF+/− mice had general deficits in the attentional set-shifting task, increased startle magnitudes, and prepulse inhibition deficits. Contextual fear learning was not affected but safety learning was absent. Enriched environment housing completely prevented the observed behavioral deficits in BDNF+/− mice. Notably, the behavioral performance of the mice was negatively correlated with BDNF protein levels. These novel findings strongly suggest that decreased BDNF levels are associated with several behavioral endophenotypes of schizophrenia. Furthermore, an enriched environment increases BDNF protein to wild-type levels and is thereby able to rescue these behavioral endophenotypes.

Mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and cellular workload are tightly balanced by the key cellular regulator, calcium (Ca2+). Current models assume that cytosolic Ca2+ regulates workload and that mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake precedes activation of matrix dehydrogenases, thereby matching OXPHOS substrate supply to ATP demand. Surprisingly, knockout (KO) of the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU) in mice results in only minimal phenotypic changes and does not alter OXPHOS. This implies that adaptive activation of mitochondrial dehydrogenases by intramitochondrial Ca2+ cannot be the exclusive mechanism for OXPHOS control. We hypothesized that cytosolic Ca2+, but not mitochondrial matrix Ca2+, may adapt OXPHOS to workload by adjusting the rate of pyruvate supply from the cytosol to the mitochondria. Here, we studied the role of malate-aspartate shuttle (MAS)-dependent substrate supply in OXPHOS responses to changing Ca2+ concentrations in isolated brain and heart mitochondria, synaptosomes, fibroblasts, and thymocytes from WT and MCU KO mice and the isolated working rat heart. Our results indicate that extramitochondrial Ca2+ controls up to 85% of maximal pyruvate-driven OXPHOS rates, mediated by the activity of the complete MAS, and that intramitochondrial Ca2+ accounts for the remaining 15%. Of note, the complete MAS, as applied here, included besides its classical NADH oxidation reaction the generation of cytosolic pyruvate. Part of this largely neglected mechanism has previously been described as the “mitochondrial gas pedal.” Its implementation into OXPHOS control models integrates seemingly contradictory results and warrants a critical reappraisal of metabolic control mechanisms in health and disease.

Background: Spine loss is a hallmark of Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases, and testing candidate therapeutic drugs needs quantitative analysis of dendritic spine densities. Golgi-Cox impregnation of neurons is a classical method to visualize dendritic spines in diseased brains. Importantly, at early disease stages spine loss occurs locally in the vicinity of amyloid plaques, and concomitant fluorescence labeling of amyloid plaques is required to detect local spine damage. New Method: Because Golgi-Cox impregnation is done on unsectioned brains, whereas fluorescence staining is performed on sectioned material, the combination is technically challenging. We have now developed a novel combination of Golgi-Cox impregnation with methoxy-X04 fluorescence labeling of plaques that is performed on unsectioned brains. Results: We used this new combination method to quantify dendritic spine densities in mouse hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. Comparison of neurons from wildtype and APP/PS1 mice revealed local spine loss in the vicinity of amyloid plaques in both male and female APP/PS1 mice. Comparison with existing method: Golgi-Cox impregnation of neurons combined with methoxy-X04 staining of amyloid plaques is a highly reliable, easy-to-use method for permanent visualization of spines as compared to the technically more sophisticated and less stable fluorescence imaging of spines. Conclusion: Our novel combination method will be highly useful for testing potential therapeutic drugs in Alzheimer mouse models.

The amygdala is a central hub for fear learning assessed by Pavlovian fear conditioning. Indeed, the prevailing hypothesis that learning and memory are mediated by changes in synaptic strength was shown most convincingly at thalamic and cortical afferents to the lateral amygdala. The neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is known to regulate synaptic plasticity and memory formation in many areas of the mammalian brain including the amygdala, where BDNF signalling via tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB) receptors is prominently involved in fear learning. This review updates the current understanding of BDNF/TrkB signalling in the amygdala related to fear learning and extinction. In addition, actions of proBDNF/p75NTR and NGF/TrkA as well as NT-3/TrkC signalling in the amygdala are introduced.

A better understanding of context in decision-making-that is, the internal and external conditions that modulate decisions-is required to help bridge the gap between natural behaviors that evolved by natural selection and more arbitrary laboratory models of anxiety and fear. Because anxiety and fear are mechanisms evolved to manage threats from predators and other exigencies, the large behavioral, ecological and evolutionary literature on predation risk is useful for re-framing experimental research on human anxiety-related disorders. We review the trade-offs that are commonly made during antipredator decision-making in wild animals along with the context under which the behavior is performed and measured, and highlight their relevance for focused laboratory models of fear and anxiety. We then develop an integrative mechanistic model of decision-making under risk which, when applied to laboratory and field settings, should improve studies of the biological basis of normal and pathological anxiety and may therefore improve translational outcomes.

Therapeutic approaches providing effective medication for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients after disease onset are urgently needed. Previous studies in AD mouse models suggested that physical exercise or changed lifestyle can delay AD-related synaptic and memory dysfunctions when treatment started in juvenile animals long before onset of disease symptoms, while a pharmacological treatment that can reverse synaptic and memory deficits in AD mice was thus far not identified. Repurposing food and drug administration (FDA)-approved drugs for treatment of AD is a promising way to reduce the time to bring such medication into clinical practice. The sphingosine-1 phosphate analog fingolimod (FTY720) was approved recently for treatment of multiple sclerosis patients. Here, we addressed whether fingolimod rescues AD-related synaptic deficits and memory dysfunction in an amyloid precursor protein/presenilin-1 (APP/PS1) AD mouse model when medication starts after onset of symptoms (at five months). Male mice received intraperitoneal injections of fingolimod for one to two months starting at five to six months. This treatment rescued spine density as well as long-term potentiation in hippocampal cornu ammonis-1 (CA1) pyramidal neurons, that were both impaired in untreated APP/PS1 animals at six to seven months of age. Immunohistochemical analysis with markers of microgliosis (ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1; Iba1) and astrogliosis (glial fibrillary acid protein; GFAP) revealed that our fingolimod treatment regime strongly down regulated neuroinflammation in the hippocampus and neocortex of this AD model. These effects were accompanied by a moderate reduction of Aβ accumulation in hippocampus and neocortex. Our results suggest that fingolimod, when applied after onset of disease symptoms in an APP/PS1 mouse model, rescues synaptic pathology that is believed to underlie memory deficits in AD mice, and that this beneficial effect is mediated via anti-neuroinflammatory actions of the drug on microglia and astrocytes.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has previously been shown to play an important role in glutamatergic synaptic plasticity in the amygdala, correlating with cued fear learning. While glutamatergic neurotransmission is facilitated by BDNF signaling in the amygdala, its mechanism of action at inhibitory synapses in this nucleus is far less understood. We therefore analyzed the impact of chronic BDNF depletion on GABA(A)-mediated synaptic transmission in BDNF heterozygous knockout mice (BDNF+/-). Analysis of miniature and evoked inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) in the lateral amygdala (LA) revealed neither pre- nor postsynaptic differences in BDNF+/- mice compared to wild-type littermates. In addition, long-term potentiation (LTP) of IPSCs was similar in both genotypes. In contrast, facilitation of spontaneous IPSCs (sIPSCs) by norepinephrine (NE) was significantly reduced in BDNF+/- mice. These results argue against a generally impaired efficacy and plasticity at GABAergic synapses due to a chronic BDNF deficit. Importantly, the increase in GABAergic tone mediated by NE is reduced in BDNF+/- mice. As release of NE is elevated during aversive behavioral states in the amygdala, effects of a chronic BDNF deficit on GABAergic inhibition may become evident in response to states of high arousal, leading to amygdala hyper-excitability and impaired amygdala function.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a secreted messenger molecule that is crucial for neuronal function and induction of synaptic plasticity. Although altered availability of BDNF underlies many neurological deficits and neurodegenerative disorders, secretion dynamics of endogenous BDNF are unexplored. We generated a BDNF-GFP knock-in (KiBE) mouse, in which GFP-labeled BDNF is expressed under the control of the unaltered endogenous mouse BDNF gene regulatory elements. This KiBE mouse model enables for the first time live cell imaging analysis of endogenous BDNF dynamics. We show that BDNF-GFP release and biological activity in vivo are unaffected by the GFP tag, since homozygous KiBE mice, which lack wild-type BDNF, are healthy and have a normal life expectancy. STED superresolution microscopy shows that 70% of BDNF-GFP vesicles in KiBE mouse neurites are localized in dendrites, being typically 200 nm away from synaptic release sites. Live cell imaging in hippocampal slices also reveals prominent targeting of endogenous BDNF-GFP vesicles to dendrites. Fusion pore opening and cargo release of dendritic BDNF vesicles start within 30 s after a strong depolarizing stimulus and continue for > 100 s thereafter, revealing an astonishingly delayed and prolonged release of endogenous BDNF.

Disturbed iron (Fe) ion homeostasis and mitochondrial dysfunction have been implicated in neurodegeneration. Both processes are related, because central Fe ion consuming biogenetic pathways take place in mitochondria and affect their oxidative energy metabolism. Iron is imported into mitochondria by the two homologous Fe ion importers mitoferrin-1 and mitoferrin-2. To elucidate more specifically the role of mitochondrial Fe ions for brain energy metabolism and for proper neuronal function, we generated mice with a neuron-specific knockout of mitoferrin-1 (Slc25a37(-/-) or mfrn-1(-/-)) and compared them with corresponding control littermates (mfrn-1(flox/flox)). Mice lacking neuronal mfrn-1 exhibited no obvious anatomical or behavioral abnormalities as neonates, young or adult animals. However, they exhibited a moderate decrease in brain mitochondrial O-2-consumption with complex-I substrates of the electron transport chain (p < 0.05), indicating a moderate suppression of electron transport. While these mice did not exhibit altered basal fear levels, inquisitiveness or motor skills in specific neurobiological test batteries, they clearly exhibited decreased spatial learning skills and missing establishment of stable spatial memory in Morris water maze, as compared to foxed controls (p < 0.05). We thus conclude that mitochondrial Fe ion supply is an important player in neuronal energy metabolism and proper brain function and that the carrier mitoferrin-1 cannot be completely replaced by mitoferrin-2 or other as yet unknown Fe ion carriers.

Tonic inhibition mediated by ambient levels of GABA that activate extrasynaptic GABA A receptors emerges as an essential factor that tunes neuronal network excitability in vitro and shapes behavioral responses in vivo. To address the role of neuromodulatory transmitter systems on this type of inhibition, we employed patch clamp recordings in mouse amygdala slice preparations. Our results show that the current amplitude of tonic inhibition ( I tonic ) in projection neurons of the basal amygdala (BA) is increased by preincubation with the neurosteroid THDOC, while the benzodiazepine diazepam is ineffective. This suggests involvement of THDOC sensitive δ subunit containing GABA A receptors in mediating tonic inhibition. Moreover, we provide evidence that the neuromodulatory transmitters NE, 5HT, and ACh strongly enhance spontaneous IPSCs as well as I tonic in the BA. As the increase in frequency, amplitude, and charge of sIPSCs by these neuromodulatory transmitters strongly correlated with the amplitude of I tonic , we conclude that spill-over of synaptic GABA leads to activation of I tonic and thereby to dampening of amygdala excitability. Since local injection of THDOC, as a positive modulator of tonic inhibition, into the BA interfered with the expression of contextual fear memory, our results point to a prominent role of I tonic in fear learning.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) heterozygous knockout mice (BDNF+/- mice) show fear learning deficits from 3 months of age onwards. Here, we addressed the question how this learning deficit correlates with altered long-term potentiation (LTP) in the cortical synaptic input to the lateral amygdala (LA) and at downstream intra-amygdala synapses in BDNF+/- mice. Our results reveal that the fear learning deficit in BDNF+/- mice was not paralleled by a loss of LTP, neither at cortical inputs to the LA nor at downstream intra-amygdala glutamatergic synapses. As we did observe early fear memory (30 min after training) in BDNF+/- mice while long-term memory (24 h post-training) was absent, the stable LTP in cortico-LA and downstream synapses is in line with the intact acquisition of fear memories. Ex vivo recordings in acute slices of fear-conditioned wildtype (WT) mice revealed that fear learning induces long-lasting changes at cortico-LA synapses that occluded generation of LTP 4 and 24 h after training. Overall, our data show that the intact LTP in the tested amygdala circuits is consistent with intact acquisition of fear memories in both WT and BDNF+/- mice. In addition, the lack of learning-induced long-term changes at cortico-LA synapses in BDNF+/- mice parallels the observed deficit in fear memory consolidation.

Cognitive impairments can be devastating for quality of life, and thus, preventing or counteracting them is of great value. To this end, the present study exploits the potential of the plant Rhodiola rosea and identifies the constituent ferulic acid eicosyl ester [icosyl-(2E)-3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-prop-2-enoate (FAE-20)] as a memory enhancer. We show that food supplementation with dried root material from R. rosea dose-dependently improves odor-taste reward associative memory scores in larval Drosophila and prevents the age-related decline of this appetitive memory in adult flies. Task-relevant sensorimotor faculties remain unaltered. From a parallel approach, a list of candidate compounds has been derived, including R. rosea-derived FAE-20. Here, we show that both R. rosea-derived FAE-20 and synthetic FAE-20 are effective as memory enhancers in larval Drosophila. Synthetic FAE-20 also partially compensates for age-related memory decline in adult flies, as well as genetically induced early-onset loss of memory function in young flies. Furthermore, it increases excitability in mouse hippocampal CA1 neurons, leads to more stable context-shock aversive associative memory in young adult (3-month-old) mice, and increases memory scores in old (>2-year-old) mice. Given these effects, and given the utility of R. rosea-the plant from which we discovered FAE-20-as a memory enhancer, these results may hold potential for clinical applications.

Mammals can recognize a large variety of scents that give information about the environment, conspecifics, and other species. The present research topic is focused on “scents that matter,” i.e., scents that indicate stimuli which are crucial for the survival of an organism. These can be positively related stimuli like the smell of familiar conspecifics, mating partners, or food, but also negatively related stimuli like the scent of potential predators, spoiled food, or territorial and aggressive conspecifics. A prerequisite for this important role of scents in animals' lives is that they can be well detected and recognized. During the last decades, our understanding of olfactory perception has been largely improved, mainly inspired by the work of Linda Buck and Richard Axel (e.g., Buck and Axel, 1991), which was awarded by the Nobel Prize in 2004. Many of the scents studied in this research topic are processed by the vomeronasal system (e.g., Haga-Yamanaka et al.; Yu), but quite often the main olfactory system is additionally involved (e.g., Rattazzi et al.). A lot of current research addresses the questions about which molecules activate which olfactory receptors and which molecular cascades are modulated by these receptors, or how the different olfactory receptors and the two olfactory systems work together. In the current research topic the articles of Ben-Shaul, Kelliher and Munger, Rattazzi et al. and Yu provide new perspectives in this interesting field of research. Besides the detection mechanisms of relevant scents, many studies are focusing on the behavioral changes induced by these scents. Most of these studies are analyzing scents signaling potential dangers. One reason for focusing on danger-signaling odors may be that the behavioral effects of these scents are easier to be induced and measured. In addition, it is widely believed that these scents are more critical for fostering the survival of animals. Basically, such danger-signaling scents with aversive-like effects are classified as (a) kairomones, which are emitted by another species such as predators (e.g., Apfelbach et al.; Osada et al.) or (b) pheromones, that are emitted by conspecifics such as alarm pheromones (e.g., Kobayashi et al.; Breitfeld et al.). Both classes of scents warn about a potential threat, which is intended in the case of pheromones, but unintended in the case of kairomones as they lead to a detriment of the emitter (see Nielsen et al.). It is widely believed that predator odors and alarm pheromones are innately recognized, as these stimuli are still effective in laboratory animals that have lived many generations in the absence of predators (Apfelbach et al.; Fendt et al., 2005). In addition to the general impact of predator odors on the behavior of prey animals, an interesting line of research is the identification of active components in these scents. In the case of predator odors, several molecules have been identified so far: trimethlythiazoline (Taugher et al.; Fortes-Marco et al.; summarized in Rosen et al.), different pyrazines (Osada et al.), and pyridines (Brechbuhl et al.), or 2-phenylethylamine (Ferrero et al., 2011). In the present research topic, a number of studies demonstrating that these compounds are able to induce a wide array of defensive responses in laboratory rodents such as avoidance behavior (Wernecke and Fendt; Brechbuhl et al.; Fortes-Marco et al.), freezing (Taugher et al.; Fortes-Marco et al.), risk assessment behavior (Breitfeld et al.), or an inhibition of appetitive-like behavior (Kobayashi et al.), as well as physiological changes like a modulation of blood pressure (Brechbuhl et al.), or breathing (Taugher et al.). Although these single molecules have the advantage that they can be better controlled in an experimental procedure (e.g., concentration), the natural scents, i.e., blends, are usually more efficient in inducing behavioral changes (summarized in Apfelbach et al.). The neural mechanisms underlying the behavioral and physiological changes induced by danger-signaling scents are meanwhile partly understood. In the current research topic, studies are focused on brain sites like the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (Breitfeld et al.; Taugher et al.), the medial amygdala (Carvalho et al.), the periaqueductal gray (Canteras et al.), and different subnuclei of the hypothalamus (Canteras et al.; Kobayashi et al.). Interestingly, these brain sites are of minor or no importance for learned fear whose neural basis is well understood (Fendt and Fanselow, 1999; LeDoux, 2012), suggesting a clear neuronal differentiation between innate and learned fear. In fear learning, the danger-predicting property of a stimulus is learned by Pavlovian associative learning. Of course, olfactory stimuli can be used for such associative learning, either as unconditioned (Yuan et al.; Fortes-Marco et al.) or conditioned stimuli (Ferry et al.; Yuan et al.). The latter means that a scent without emotional valance can gain danger-predicting, i.e., fear-inducing, properties. Notably, even if a stimulus from another sensory modality is used as a conditioned stimulus in such a fear learning experiment, scents may still play some roles, since they are usually part of the experimental context (e.g., conditioning box, experimenter) and may be associated with the danger simultaneously. In fear learning, the lateral amygdala is important for associating a discrete cue with a danger stimulus, whereas the hippocampus plays an important role in contextual fear learning. Interestingly, novel work of the present research topic demonstrated that different regions of the hippocampus have different roles during contextual fear conditioning with odors (Yuan et al.). In addition to the hippocampus, several cortical areas such as the entorhinal cortex are involved in contextual fear learning (Ferry et al.). So far, there is little research on the effects of danger signaling scents in humans. However, the defensive behaviors induced by danger-predicting scents and the respective physiological changes observed in animals are connected to anxiety in humans. Therefore, one perspective is that a deeper understanding of the neuroanatomical and neuropharmacological basis of odor-induced fear in animals may also help to find new treatment strategies for anxiety disorders in humans. As noted above, scents can also serve as positive stimuli. This is of specific interest in the context of social behavior (Wohr; Noack et al.; Fuzzo et al.) and foraging (Kelliher and Munger). These aspects are also covered by several articles in this special issue. It has been shown that one important function of these scents is to help to recognize social partners (Ben-Shaul; Noack et al.). Thereby, they induce and modulate a variety of behaviors, including ultrasonic calls which are typical for pleasant situations (Wohr). In the case of social buffering, the scent of a conspecific is able to reduce fear (Fuzzo et al.). These two, quite different effects of social scents are mediated by different subnuclei of the amygdala (Fuzzo et al.; Noack et al.). Notably, there is also potential for translational research with “social scents.” For example, a genetic mouse model of autism is less able to modulate ultrasonic vocalization in response to familiar scents (Wohr). The present research topic nicely represents the different approaches used in “olfactory research” of relevant scents. These approaches include cell biology, genetics, behavioral pharmacology, neuroanatomy, as well as computational neuroscience. Scientists from all these fields work effectively together to unravel the mechanisms of how scents matter in humans and animals. We are grateful to all contributors of this research topic. Eighty-five different authors from 10 different countries contributed with research and review articles. Furthermore, we thank the reviewers which helped us and the authors to create an interesting and high-quality research topic. We hope that you enjoy reading this research topic as much as we have enjoyed editing it.