Neuroscience

Coordinated spinal locomotor network dynamics emerge from cell-type-specific connectivity patterns

1. F David Wandler
2. Benjamin K Lemberger
3. David L McLean
4. James M Murray

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this valuable study, Wandler et al. provide convincing theoretical evidence for alternate mechanisms of rhythm generation by CPGs. Their model shows that cell-type-specific connectivity and an inhibitory drive could underlie rhythm generation. Excitatory input could act to enhance the frequency range of these rhythms. This modeling study could motivate further experimental investigation of these mechanisms to understand CPG rhythmogenesis.

Reviewed by eLife

Circadian control of dopaminergic signaling to the mushroom body regulates sleep through rhythmic Pka-C1 transcription in Drosophila

1. Blanca Lago Solis
2. Emi Nagoshi

Reviewed by PREreview

Population analyses reveal heterogenous encoding in the medial prefrontal cortex during naturalistic foraging

1. Ji Hoon Jeong
2. June-Seek Choi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study by Jeong and Choi studied neural activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) while rats performed a foraging paradigm in which rats forage for rewards in the absence or presence of a threatening object (Lobsterbot). The authors present interesting observations suggesting that the mPFC population activity switches between distinct functional modes conveying distinct task variables- such as the distance to the reward location and types of threat-avoidance behaviors-depending on the location of the animal. The reviewers thought that the results are overall convincing, appreciated the value of studying neural coding in naturalistic settings, and felt that this work offers significant insights into how the mPFC operates during foraging behavior involving reward-threat conflict.

Reviewed by eLife

GPR30 in spinal cholecystokinin-positive neurons modulates neuropathic pain

1. Qing Chen
2. Hui Wu
3. Shulan Xie
4. Fangfang Zhu
5. Fang Xu
6. Qi Xu
7. Lihong Sun
8. Yue Yang
9. Linghua Xie
10. Jiaqian Xie
11. Hua Li
12. Ange Dai
13. Wenxin Zhang
14. Luyang Wang
15. Cuicui Jiao
16. Honghai Zhang
17. Xuelong Zhou
18. Zhen-Zhong Xu
19. Xinzhong Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study investigates nerve-injury-induced allodynia by studying the role of a subpopulation of excitatory dorsal horn CCK+ neurons that express the estrogen receptor GPR30 and potentially modulate nociceptive sensitivity via direct inputs from primary somatosensory cortex. In this revised version, the authors addressed many of the critiques raised through added analyses that convincingly support the notion that spinal GPR30 neurons are indeed an excitatory subpopulation of CCK+ neurons that contribute to neuropathic pain. While evidence of a direct functional corticospinal projection to CCK+/GPR30+neurons is not fully demonstrated, this work will be of broad interest to researchers interested in the neural circuitry of pain.

Reviewed by eLife

Twelve phosphomimetic mutations induce the assembly of recombinant full-length human tau into paired helical filaments

1. Sofia Lövestam
2. Jane L Wagstaff
3. Taxiarchis Katsinelos
4. Jenny Shi
5. Stefan MV Freund
6. Michel Goedert
7. Sjors HW Scheres

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript describes the identification and characterization of 12 specific phosphomimetic mutations in the recombinant full-length human tau protein that trigger tau to form fibrils. This fundamental study will allow in vitro mechanistic investigations. The presented evidence is convincing. This manuscript will be of interest to all scientists in the amyloid formation field.

Reviewed by eLife

Microsaccades track shifting but not necessarily maintaining covert visual-spatial attention

1. Anna M van Harmelen
2. Freek van Ede

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study demonstrates that microsaccade direction primarily indexes shifts rather than the maintenance of covert spatial attention, offering a focused interpretation that may help reconcile inconsistencies in the prior literature. However, the evidence remains incomplete due to limited engagement with the broader body of existing work and the absence of independent measures, single-trial analyses, and neutral-condition controls needed to substantiate the central claims. The work will be of broad interest to researchers investigating attention, eye movements, and visuomotor mechanisms.

Reviewed by eLife

Cholinergic blockade reveals a role for human hippocampal theta in memory encoding but not retrieval

1. Tamara Gedankien
2. Jennifer Kriegel
3. Erfan Zabeh
4. David McDonagh
5. Bradley Lega
6. Joshua Jacobs

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work significantly advances our understanding of the role of human hippocampal theta oscillations in memory encoding and retrieval. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, using both scopolamine administration and intracranial EEG recordings. This work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists and has translational implications.

Reviewed by eLife

Dissociable memory modulation mechanisms facilitate fear amnesia at different timescales

1. Yinmei Ni
2. Ye Wang
3. Zijian Zhu
4. Jingchu Hu
5. Daniela Schiller
6. Jian Li

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents valuable findings which reveal an intricate pattern of memory expression following retrieval extinction at different intervals from retrieval-extinction to test. The novel advance is in the demonstration that, relative to a standard extinction procedure, the retrieval-extinction procedure more effectively suppresses responses to a conditioned threat stimulus when testing occurs just minutes after extinction. While the data provide solid evidence that the "short-term" suppression of responding involves engagement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, there are inconsistencies in the analyses reported which obscure the interpretation and leave some of the claims with limited evidence.

Reviewed by eLife

Detecting Regime Shifts: Neurocomputational Substrates for Over- and Underreactions to Change

1. Mu-Chen Wang
2. George Wu
3. Shih-Wei Wu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study offers valuable insights into how humans detect and adapt to regime shifts, highlighting distinct contributions of the frontoparietal network and ventromedial prefrontal cortex to sensitivity to signal diagnosticity and transition probabilities. The combination of an innovative task design, behavioral modeling, and model-based fMRI analyses provides a solid foundation for the conclusions; however, the neuroimaging results have several limitations, particularly a potential confound between the posterior probability of a switch and the passage of time that may not be fully controlled by including trial number as a regressor. The control experiments intended to address this issue also appear conceptually inconsistent and, at the behavioral level, while informing participants of conditional probabilities rather than requiring learning is theoretically elegant, such information is difficult to apply accurately, as shown by well-documented challenges with conditional reasoning and base-rate neglect. Expressing these probabilities as natural frequencies rather than percentages may have improved comprehension. Overall, the study advances understanding of belief updating under uncertainty but would benefit from more intuitive probabilistic framing and stronger control of temporal confounds in future work.

Reviewed by eLife

Cerebellar climbing fibers impact experience-dependent plasticity in the mouse primary somatosensory cortex

1. Abby Silbaugh
2. Kevin P Koster
3. Christian Hansel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a fundamental discovery of how cerebellar climbing fibers modulate plastic changes in the somatosensory cortex by identifying both the responsible cortical circuit and the anatomical pathways. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing and well supported by modern neuroscience methodologies. Overall, this work represents a significant contribution that will be of broad interest to neuroscientists, especially those studying the long-distance cerebellar influence on non-motor brain functions.

Reviewed by eLife