Many physical, social, lifestyle and systemic body factors — collectively termed the ‘exposome’ — can influence brain and behavioural phenotypes across the lifespan. In this Perspective, Sarah Genon and colleagues examine how we can gain a better understanding of the exposome’s neurocognitive effects.

Structured social hierarchies, in which individuals differ in their access to resources and influence over other group members, are a characteristic of many social species. Rongzhen Yan and Dayu Lin describe the diverse routes through which social hierarchies arise in different species and outline our current understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms.

The auditory system differs from other senses in the complexity of its subcortical pathways. King and colleagues examine how subcortical structures transform sound representations and integrate sensory and behavioural context, highlighting their fundamental role in shaping cortical activity and in active listening.

Lung diseases drive substantial hospitalization, but available therapies remain limited. In this Review, Talbot and colleagues highlight pulmonary neuroimmunology — the bidirectional crosstalk between lung-innervating neurons and immune cells — and discuss how this axis may open new avenues for disease-modifying therapies.

Neuronal loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer disease occurs through necroptosis and is shown to be dependent on low-glucose conditions, which increase hyperphosphorylated tau levels; in turn, this simultaneously activates pro-necroptotic pathways and disables a key checkpoint mechanism.

Two studies use single-nucleus multiomic sequencing to profile molecular and cellular dysfunction in the prenatal and early postnatal cortex in Down syndrome.

In this Journal Club, Baolin Guo highlights a 2011 study that linked altered excitation–inhibition balance in prefrontal circuits to social dysfunction in mice.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Hao Li describes the development of a mesoscale optogenetics platform for targeted and precise stimulation of the primate cortex.

Perturbing female Drosophila behaviour during courtship induces adaptive changes in innate male fly courtship song patterns; these changes are initially retained in subsequent courtship encounters with normal female behaviour, but songs gradually return to innate patterns.