Neuroscience

Inhibitory circuits control leg movements during Drosophila grooming

1. Durafshan Sakeena Syed
2. Primoz Ravbar
3. Julie H Simpson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Combining connectomics, optogenetics, behavioral analysis and modeling, this study delivers important findings on the role of inhibitory neurons in the generation of leg grooming movements in Drosophila. The results include convincing evidence that the identified neuronal populations are key in the generation of rhythmic leg movements, structured in distinct polysynaptic pathways articulating inhibition and disinhibition of antagonistic sets of motor neurons, as mapped from an electron microscopy volume of the ventral nerve cord, which orchestrate an alternation of flexion and extension. By analyzing limb kinematics upon experimentally silencing specific populations of premotor inhibitory neurons, together with computational modelling, the potential role of these neurons in rhythmic leg movement is shown. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists working in motor control and limbed locomotion.

  From the editor:

  Do please note the last comment on the revision. Addressing this is up to you of course, but in the editor's opinion completing the separation of empirical findings from modeling and fully annotating the model code would dramatically increase the potential for this work to be used as lecture material for senior undergraduates, in addition to enabling its full reproducibility.

Reviewed by eLife

Sex-peptide targets distinct higher order processing neurons in the brain to induce the female post-mating response

1. Mohanakarthik P Nallasivan
2. Deepanshu ND Singh
3. Mohammed Syahir RS Saleh
4. Matthias Soller

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study delivers valuable new insights into the neural circuits involved in post-mating responses (PMR) in Drosophila females, supported by convincing evidence that the circuits for mating receptivity and egg-laying are distinct. The new experimental evidence adds to the current understanding the neural circuits and molecular mechanisms underpinning PMR.

Reviewed by eLife

Distributed neural computation and the evolution of the first brains

1. Vikram Chandra
2. Mehrana R. Nejad
3. Allison P. Kann
4. Ananya Salem
5. Karl A.P. Hill
6. L. Mahadevan
7. Mansi Srivastava

Reviewed by PREreview

PKD2L1 channels segregated to the apical compartment are the exclusive dual-mode pH sensor in cerebrospinal fluid-contacting neurons

1. Magdalena Vitar
2. Daniel Prieto
3. Stavros Malas
4. Raúl E. Russo
5. Federico F. Trigo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study on the sensory roles of Cerebrospinal fluid-contacting neurons (CBF-cn) in mammals. The authors identify PKD2L1 as the predominant pH-sensing channel CBF-cn and show how the apical extension is used as an amplifier of chemical changes in the content of the Cerebrospinal fluid. The evidence is solid in experimental design but limited in mechanistic interpretation, as the electrophysiological analyses require re-evaluation.

Reviewed by eLife

The Drosophila EGF domain protein Uninflatable sets the switch between wrapping glia growth and axon wrapping instructed by Notch

1. Marie Baldenius
2. Steffen Kautzmann
3. Rita Kottmeier
4. Christian Klämbt

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study identifies a new key factor in orchestrating the process of glial wrapping of axons in Drosophila wandering larvae. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing and the EM studies are of outstanding quality. After the revision, the authors have addressed most of the concerns and the manuscript has been significantly improved. Both reviewers have agreed on the significance of the work. The work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on glial cell biology.

Reviewed by eLife

Heterochronic transcription factor expression drives cone-dominant retina development in 13-lined ground squirrels

1. Kurt Weir
2. Pin Lyu
3. Sangeetha Kandoi
4. Roujin An
5. Nicole Pannullo
6. Isabella Palazzo
7. Jared A Tangeman
8. Jun Shi
9. Steven H DeVries
10. Dana K Merriman
11. Jiang Qian
12. Seth Blackshaw

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study investigates why the 13-lined ground squirrel (13LGS) retina is unusually rich in cone photoreceptors, the cells responsible for color and daylight vision. The authors perform deep transcriptomic and epigenetic comparisons between the mouse and the 13-lined ground squirrel (13LGS) to provide convincing evidence that identifies mechanisms that drive rod vs cone-rich retina development. Overall, this key question is investigated using an impressive collection of new data, cross-species analysis, and subsequent in vivo experiments.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamic updating of spatial working memory across eye movements: a computational investigation of transsaccadic integration

1. Sijia Zhao
2. Thomas Parr
3. Rob Udale
4. Verena Klar
5. Gabriel David Jones
6. Anna Scholcz
7. Sofia Toniolo
8. Sanjay G Manohar
9. Masud Husain

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study makes an important contribution by revealing how saccades selectively disrupt spatial working memory while sparing other object features, and by demonstrating how this mechanism is altered in aging and neurodegeneration. The findings are supported by convincing evidence derived from well-controlled eye-tracking experiments and systematic generative model comparisons. Together, the work provides a computationally grounded framework that is of importance for understanding trans-saccadic memory and its clinical relevance.

Reviewed by eLife

From Syllables to Words: EEG Evidence of Different Age Trajectories in Speech Tracking and Statistical Learning in Infants at High and Low Likelihood for Autism

1. Michel Godel
2. Ana Fló
3. Lucas Benjamin
4. Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz
5. Marie Schaer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study addresses a key question in developmental cognitive neuroscience by identifying early neural correlates of variability in language learning and showing how syllable tracking and word segmentation develop from birth to two years in infants with differing likelihoods of autism. The evidence is generally strong, with rigorous longitudinal EEG acquisition, careful preprocessing, and validated statistical approaches, though several methodological clarifications would further strengthen confidence in the inferences. Overall, the findings offer important insights with clear theoretical implications for understanding early mechanisms of speech perception and statistical learning, supported by convincing evidence.

Reviewed by eLife

How individual vigor shapes human-human physical interaction

1. Dorian Verdel
2. Bastien Berret
3. Etienne Burdet

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study showing that movement vigor is not solely an individual property but emerges through interaction when two people are physically linked. The evidence is convincing, supported by a well-controlled experimental design and modeling that closely match the observed behavior. While the authors provided a helpful comparison of several candidate models of human-human interaction dynamics, the statistical power and the statistical analyses could be further improved.

Reviewed by eLife

Retrosplenial cortex enables context-dependent goal-directed sensorimotor transformation

1. Pol Bech
2. Robin F Dard
3. Jules Lebert
4. Lana Smith
5. Axel Bisi
6. Anthony Renard
7. Sylvain Crochet
8. Carl CH Petersen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study combines optogenetic manipulations and wide-field imaging to show that the retrosplenial cortex controls behavioral responses to whisker deflection in a context-dependent manner. The evidence is convincing, but the study would benefit from additional analyses to disentangle the contributions of movement initiation to the recorded neural signals. The paper should be of strong interest to neuroscientists studying cortical mechanisms of sensorimotor processing.

Reviewed by eLife