Neuroscience

Characterisation of cold-selective lamina I spinal projection neurons

1. Aimi N Razlan
2. Wenhui Ma
3. Allen C Dickie
4. Erika Polgár
5. Anna McFarlane
6. Mansi Yadav
7. Andrew H Cooper
8. Douglas Strathdee
9. Masahiko Watanabe
10. Andrew M Bell
11. Andrew J Todd
12. Junichi Hachisuka

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study offers insights into the anatomical and physiological features of cold-selective lamina I spinal projection neurons. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is convincing, although including a larger sample size and more quantification would have strengthened the study, and the claims of monosynaptic connectivity would benefit from further experimental evidence. The work will interest those in the field of somatosensory biology, especially researchers studying spinal cord dorsal horn circuits and projection neuron cell types

Reviewed by eLife

The Locomoting State Selectively Amplifies Activity of Sensitizing Neurons in Primary Visual Cortex

1. A.J. Hinojosa
2. Ye. Kosiachkin
3. S.E. Dominiak
4. B.D. Evans
5. L. Lagnado

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents a valuable analysis of how locomotion modulates the activity of different subtypes of cortical neurons in the mouse primary visual cortex, showing that locomotion more strongly increases responses in sensitizing than in depressing excitatory cells. This data is then used to constrain a model of the responses. While the data are very interesting, the analyses remain incomplete, in particular due to concerns surrounding the modelling.

Reviewed by eLife

Consciously detecting and recognizing a past visual word after its sensory trace is gone

1. Daphné Rimsky Robert
2. Matteo Lisi
3. Kevin Nguy
4. Roxane Jannin
5. Thomas Hardy
6. Nathan Beraud
7. Claire Sergent

Reviewed by preLights

Trial-by-trial inter-areal interactions in visual cortex in the presence or absence of visual stimulation

1. Dianna Hidalgo
2. Giorgia Dellaferrera
3. Giordano Ramos-Traslosheros
4. Will Xiao
5. Carlos R Ponce
6. Maria Papadopouli
7. Stelios Smirnakis
8. Gabriel Kreiman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study investigates trial-by-trial intra- and inter-cortical interactions in the visual cortex of the mouse and the monkey. The authors find that activity in one layer (in mice) or one area (in monkeys) can partially predict neural activity in another layer or area on the single-trial level in different experimental contexts. This valuable finding expands previously known contributions of stimulus-independent downstream activity to neural responses in the visual cortex by demonstrating how these change under varying visual stimuli as well as in the absence of visual stimulation. While the methodology is solid, the juxtaposition of mouse and monkey data from different modalities and at difference scales limits the interpretability of the observations and forces superficial comparisons. More in-depth focus on either data set in isolation may reveal more nuanced understanding of cortical interactions rather than trying to draw parallels between very different datasets.

Reviewed by eLife

MLIB: an easy-to-use Matlab toolbox for the analysis of extracellular spike data

1. Maik Christopher Stuttgen

Reviewed by Peer Community in Neuroscience

Dissociable neural substrates of integration and segregation in exogenous attention

1. Yu-Jie Chen
2. Ai-Su Li
3. Yang Yu
4. Su Hu
5. Xun He
6. Yang Zhang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study uses an optimized IOR-Stroop fMRI paradigm to dissociate integration and segregation processes and to show that attentional orienting modulates conflict processing at both the semantic and response levels. The evidence is compelling, supporting the integration-segregation theory of exogenous attention in inhibition of return while also deepening our understanding of how attentional orienting shapes downstream cognitive processing. The work will therefore be of broad interest to researchers in attention and cognitive control.

Reviewed by eLife

Cortical motor activity modulates respiration and reduces apnoea in neonates

1. Coen S Zandvoort
2. Fatima Usman
3. Shellie Robinson
4. Odunayo Fatunla
5. Eleri Adams
6. Kyle TS Pattinson
7. Simon F Farmer
8. Caroline Hartley

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Zandvoort and colleagues have used an innovative approach to study respiration-brain coupling in the context of apnoea in human newborns. This fundamental question is supported with convincing data and analyses. Having addressed all the reviewer comments, there was a general consensus that this work will be of great interest, not only to neonatal clinicians and physiologists, but also broadly to anyone interested in brain-body interactions.

Reviewed by eLife

Neural Representation of Associative Threat Learning in Pulvinar Divisions, Lateral Geniculate Nucleus, and Mediodorsal Thalamus in Humans

1. Muhammad Badarnee
2. Zhenfu Wen
3. B Isabel Moallem
4. Stephen Maren
5. Mohammed R Milad

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides valuable insights into the role of thalamic nuclei in associative threat and extinction learning, underpinned by a large dataset and rigorous, multipronged analyses. The evidence provided is solid, supporting the main conclusions. Minor analytical refinements notwithstanding, the manuscript will be of broad interest to researchers in learning and memory, fear, thalamic circuitry, and related mental health conditions.

Reviewed by eLife

The nucleus accumbens shell regulates hedonic feeding via a rostral hotspot

1. Alina-Măriuca Marinescu
2. Eshita Kamal
3. Peter Leary
4. Keila Navarro I Batista
5. Manuel Klug
6. Nataša Savić
7. Christelle Le Foll
8. Marie A Labouesse

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides a valuable contribution to understanding the functional and molecular organization of the medial nucleus accumbens shell in feeding behavior. Through a multimodal approach that integrates in vivo imaging, optogenetic manipulation, and genetic strategies, the authors present convincing evidence for rostro-caudal differences in D1-SPN activity, advancing and refining earlier pharmacological frameworks. The discovery of Stard5 and Peg10 as regionally informative markers, together with the introduction of a Stard5-Flp driver line, establishes a foundation for more targeted circuit dissection. While an expanded characterization of other Stard5-positive cell populations (e.g., D2-SPNs, interneurons) would strengthen the work, the experimental rigor and internal consistency of the findings are clear. Overall, this is a technically strong and conceptually meaningful study with broad relevance for those investigating neural mechanisms of reward, affect, and feeding.

Reviewed by eLife

Prolonged oscillating preoptic area kisspeptin neuron activity underlies the preovulatory luteinizing hormone surge in mice

1. Ziyue Zhou
2. Cheng-Yu Huang
3. Allan E Herbison

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental work advances our understanding of the role of kisspeptin neurons in regulating the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge in females. The study uses cutting-edge techniques to provide compelling and rigorous data supporting a critical role of RP3V kisspeptin neurons in the neuroendocrine LH surge process. This research will be of interest to reproductive biologists and neuroscientists studying the female ovarian cycle. Continuing to examine the complexities of the LH surge and the neuronal populations involved, as done in this study, is critical for developing therapeutic treatments for women's reproductive disorders.

Reviewed by eLife