Neuroscience

Concurrent category-selective neural activity across the ventral occipito-temporal cortex supports a non-hierarchical view of human visual recognition

1. Corentin Jacques
2. Jacques Jonas
3. Sophie Colnat-Coulbois
4. Bruno Rossion

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses a classic debate in visual processing, using a strong method applied to an impressive dataset obtained from a rare clinical population to evaluate hierarchical models of visual object perception. The paper provides compelling evidence that the hierarchical model is only partly supported: as expected, neural responses in ventral visual cortex show increased representational selectivity for faces along the posterior-anterior axes, but the onsets of the signals do not show a temporal hierarchy, indicating more parallel processing.

Reviewed by eLife

Cell type transcriptomics reveal shared genetic mechanisms in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease

1. Anwesha Bhattacharya
2. Edward A. Fon
3. Alain Dagher
4. Yasser Iturria-Medina
5. Jo Anne Stratton
6. Chloe Savignac
7. Jack Stanley
8. Liam Hodgson
9. Badr Ait Hammou
10. David A Bennett
11. Danilo Bzdok

Reviewed by GigaScience

Decoding spine nanostructure in cultured neurons derived from mouse models of neuropsychiatric disorder reveals a schizophrenia-linked role for Ecrg4

1. Yutaro Kashiwagi
2. Qingrui Liu
3. Yasuhiro Go
4. Ryo Saito
5. Atsu Aiba
6. Takanobu Nakazawa
7. Shigeo Okabe

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  By investigating spine nanostructure and dynamics across multiple genetic mouse models for neurodevelopmental disorders, this important study has the potential to uncover convergent or divergent synaptic phenotypes that may be specifically associated with autism versus schizophrenia risk. The imaging and overall breadth of the methods are convincing. The purely in vitro nature of the study slightly limits the generalisability of the findings, though these limitations are acknowledged and discussed in the manuscript.

Reviewed by eLife

Astrocytic Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay regulates calcium signaling to support synapse function and restrain anxiety

1. Pablo J Lituma
2. Aykut Deveci
3. Estibaliz Barrio-Alonso
4. Kun Tan
5. Miles F Wilkinson
6. Pablo E Castillo
7. Dilek Colak

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides the first in vivo evidence that nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) in mature astrocytes regulates astrocyte function, synaptic plasticity, and anxiety-related behavior. Using a broad range of approaches, the authors show that conditional deletion of Upf2 alters astrocyte morphology and calcium signaling while impairing synaptic transmission and plasticity, providing solid support for the central conclusion that astrocytic NMD influences neural circuit function. Some key mechanistic claims remain incompletely supported, including whether phenotypes reflect astrocyte remodeling versus loss, the interpretation of synaptic engulfment data, the link between NMD targets and calcium signaling, and the extent to which calcium dysregulation explains the observed synaptic and behavioral effects.

Reviewed by eLife

PRRT2 as an auxiliary regulator of Nav channel slow inactivation

1. Bin Lu
2. Qi-Wu Xu
3. Jing Zhang
4. Xue-Mei Wu
5. Jun-Yan He
6. Jing-Qiu Peng
7. Guang Yang
8. Ke-Xian Li
9. Ling Zhuang
10. Yu-Xian Zhang
11. Zhi-Ying Wu
12. Zhi-Qi Xiong

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study identifies PRRT2 as an auxiliary regulator of Nav channel slow inactivation in vitro and in vivo, proposing that PRRT2 facilitates entry into, and delays recovery from, the slow-inactivated state. The revised manuscript has been substantially strengthened, providing compelling evidence that PRRT2 is relevant to normal brain physiology and disease pathophysiology, providing a mechanistic link between PRRT2 mutations and episodic neurological phenotypes. Overall, this study will be of interest to ion channel biophysicists and neurophysiologists, particularly those studying channelopathies.

Reviewed by eLife

Synthetic torpor in the rat protects the heart from ischaemia-reperfusion injury

1. Megan Elley
2. Ludovico Taddei
3. Muzammil Ali Khan
4. Una Rose Wilcox
5. Timna Hitrec
6. Anthony E Pickering
7. Michael Ambler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important submission from Ambler and colleagues brings new insights into how torpor conditions may confer resilience in cases of cardioprotection. It has novelty, which can be enhanced by additional in vivo support. The study is backed by solid evidence, and represents a unique interoceptive mechanism of interest.

Reviewed by eLife

Stable excitatory-inhibitory synapse balance despite dynamic turnover

1. Krassimira A Garbett
2. James P Allen
3. Jaybree M Lopez
4. Cassandra M Smith
5. Richard C Sando

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study establishes a robust live-imaging toolkit to characterize excitatory and inhibitory synaptic dynamics during neuronal development, advancing our mechanistic understanding of synaptic homeostasis and neural circuit maturation. The core findings clarify how stable E/I balance is maintained despite persistent synaptic turnover, with broad implications for developmental neurobiology and neurodevelopmental disorders. The methodology and quantitative data are convincing and well validated, and this work represents a significant advance that will be of significant interest to researchers in synaptic biology, cell imaging and neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

Sensitivity of the human temporal voice areas to nonhuman primate vocalizations

1. Leonardo Ceravolo
2. Coralie Debracque
3. Thibaud Gruber
4. Didier Grandjean

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study shows that regions of the human auditory cortex that respond strongly to human voices are also sensitive to vocalizations from closely related primate species. The evidence is convincing and methodologically strong. The work offers significant insight into the evolutionary continuity of voice processing and would be of interest to researchers studying auditory processing and evolutionary neuroscience in general.

Reviewed by eLife

Local Inhibitory Dynamics Underpin Temporal Integration and Functional Segregation between Barrels and Septa in the Mouse Barrel Cortex

1. Ali Özgür Argunşah
2. Tevye Jason Stachniak
3. Jenq-Wei Yang
4. Linbi Cai
5. Alexander van der Bourg
6. Rahel Kastli
7. Theofanis Karayannis

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Argunşah et al. investigate the mechanisms underlying the differential response dynamics of barrel vs septa domains in shaping the responses to single vs multiple whiskers. Based on the observation of a higher density of SST+ interneurons in the septa, the authors investigate the hypothesis that Elfn1-dependent short-term plasticity shapes these responses. This important study is, however, supported by incomplete evidence; factors restricting the strength of evidence are the limited spatial resolution of the multi-unit activity, as well as the lack of a mechanistic explanation. This provocative and intellectually stimulating hypothesis provides a contribution to work on how different cell types shape cortical representation.

Reviewed by eLife

Efficient Working Memory Maintenance via High-Dimensional Rotational Dynamics

1. Laura Ritter
2. Angus Chadwick

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study investigates noise-robust and energy-efficient circuit mechanisms for working memory by optimizing connectivity and reports that the resulting networks exhibit rotational dynamics and better match aspects of PFC population recording. However, the supporting evidence remains incomplete, given the restricted linear, task-specific training and analysis, and limited comparisons with other prominent models. The manuscript would be strengthened by extending the analysis to nonlinear dynamics, providing more rigorous comparisons with alternative models, and establishing a stronger link to prior theoretical and experimental work.

Reviewed by eLife