Glia in the heart and its nervous system have long been overlooked, despite their potential importance for cardiac neural control. In this Review, Scherschel et al. explore insights into the identity, distribution and function of cardiac glia in health and disease.

The blood–brain barrier was conventionally seen as a static protective structure, but a more complex, dynamic view of this barrier has now emerged. In this Review, Friedman et al. discuss the dynamic modulation of the blood–brain barrier under physiological conditions.

In this Journal Club, Chenyan Zhang highlights a 2005 study that showed that the amplification of task-relevant information makes a key contribution to cognitive control.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Simon Haziza describes the development of USMAART, an optical tool for the detection of high-frequency electrical oscillations in specific neuron types during natural behaviour.

In this Journal Club, Chenyan Zhang highlights a 2005 study that showed that the amplification of task-relevant information makes a key contribution to cognitive control.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Simon Haziza describes the development of USMAART, an optical tool for the detection of high-frequency electrical oscillations in specific neuron types during natural behaviour.

A new study finds that grid cells track a mouse’s position in local reference frames instead of a global frame of reference in a path integration task.

Single-nucleus RNA sequencing reveals early cellular responses in young atheletes exposed to repetitive head impacts that may lead to neurodegeneration.

The diverse sensory input provided by physically and socially enriched environments is shown in mice to increase sensory integration and responsiveness to environmental stimuli, whereas social isolation produced the opposite effects.

In this issue, we mark the 25th anniversary of Nature Reviews Neuroscience.