Neuroscience

Automatic learning mechanisms for flexible human locomotion

1. Cristina Rossi
2. Kristan A Leech
3. Ryan T Roemmich
4. Amy J Bastian

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study introduces a novel split-belt treadmill learning task to reveal distinct and parallel learning sub-components of gait adaptation: slow and gradual error-based perceptual realignment, and a more deliberate and flexible "stimulus-response" style learning process. The behavioural results convincingly support the presence of a non-error-based learning process during continuous movements, and the computational modelling provides comprehensive further evidence for establishing this learning process. These results will be of interest for the broader motor learning community.

Reviewed by eLife

A unified rodent atlas reveals the cellular complexity and evolutionary divergence of the dorsal vagal complex

1. Cecilia Hes
2. Abigail J Tomlinson
3. Lieke Michielsen
4. Hunter J Murdoch
5. Fatemeh Soltani
6. Maia Kokoeva
7. Paul V Sabatini

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript applies state-of-the-art techniques to define the cellular composition of the dorsal vagal complex in two rodent species (mice and rats). The result is an important resource that substantially advances our understanding of the dorsal vagal complex's role in the regulation of feeding and metabolism while also highlighting key differences between species. While most of the analyses in the manuscript provide convincing insight into the cellular architecture of the dorsal vagal complex, other aspects are incomplete and could be bolstered by additional evidence.

Reviewed by eLife

Unexpected mechanisms of sex-specific memory vulnerabilities to acute traumatic stress

1. Rachael E. Hokenson
2. Kiara L. Rodríguez-Acevedo
3. Yuncai Chen
4. Annabel K. Short
5. Sara A. Samrari
6. Brinda Devireddy
7. Brittany J. Jensen
8. Julia J. Winter
9. Christine M. Gall
10. Kiran K. Soma
11. Elizabeth A. Heller
12. Tallie Z. Baram

Reviewed by preLights

Age-related changes in “cortical” 1/f dynamics are linked to cardiac activity

1. Fabian Schmidt
2. Sarah K Danböck
3. Eugen Trinka
4. Dominic P Klein
5. Gianpaolo Demarchi
6. Nathan Weisz

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Examination of (a)periodic brain activity has gained particular interest in the last few years in the neuroscience fields relating to cognition, disorders, and brain states. Using large EEG/MEG datasets from younger and older adults, the current study provides compelling evidence that age-related differences in aperiodic EEG/MEG signals can be driven by cardiac rather than brain activity. Their findings have important implications for all future research that aims to assess aperiodic neural activity, suggesting control for the influence of cardiac signals is essential.

Reviewed by eLife

Neural Geometry from Mixed Sensorimotor Selectivity for Predictive Sensorimotor Control

1. Yiheng Zhang
2. Yun Chen
3. Tianwei Wang
4. He Cui

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study examines the neural activity in the motor cortex as a monkey reaches to intercept moving targets, focusing on how tuned single neurons contribute to an interesting overall population geometry. The presented results and analyses are solid, though the investigation of this novel task could be strengthened by clarifying the assumptions behind the single neuron analyses, and further analyses of the neural population activity and its relation to different features of behaviour.

Reviewed by eLife

Precise Spatial Tuning of Visually Driven Alpha Oscillations in Human Visual Cortex

1. Kenichi Yuasa
2. Iris IA Groen
3. Giovanni Piantoni
4. Stephanie Montenegro
5. Adeen Flinker
6. Sasha Devore
7. Orrin Devinsky
8. Werner Doyle
9. Patricia Dugan
10. Daniel Friedman
11. Nick Ramsey
12. Natalia Petridou
13. Jonathan Winawer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This intracranial EEG study presents important and convincing neural evidence supporting the high spatial specificity (receptive field) of visually driven alpha-band oscillation in human brains and its potential role in exogenous cuing attention. The work challenges the predominant view about the role of alpha-band oscillation in visual attention and advocates that stimulus-driven alpha suppression is precisely tuned and might contribute to exogenous spatial attention.

Reviewed by eLife

Deletion of Neuroligins from Astrocytes Does Not Detectably Alter Synapse Numbers or Astrocyte Cytoarchitecture by Maturity

1. Samantha R Golf
2. Justin H Trotter
3. Jinzhao Wang
4. George Nakahara
5. Xiao Han
6. Marius Wernig
7. Thomas C Südhof

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study examines whether synaptic cell adhesion molecules neuroligin 1-3 resident on astrocytes, rather than neurons, exert effect on synaptic structure and function. With compelling evidence, the authors report that deletion of neuroligins 1-3 specifically in astrocytes does not alter synapse formation or astrocyte morphology in the hippocampus or visual cortex. This study highlights the specific role of neuronal neuroligins rather than their astrocytic counterparts in synaptogenesis.

Reviewed by eLife

Normative evidence weighing and accumulation in correlated environments

1. Nathan Tardiff
2. Jiwon Kang
3. Joshua I Gold

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work combines theory and experiment to demonstrate convincingly how humans make decisions about sequences of pairs of correlated observations. The proposed model for evidence integration in correlated environments will be of use for the study of decision-making.

Reviewed by eLife

Specificity Protein 1 is essential for the limb trajectory of ephrin-mediated spinal motor axons

1. Pinwen Liao
2. Ming-Yuan Chang
3. Wen-Bin Yang
4. Keefer Lin
5. Yi-Chao Li
6. Jian-Ying Chuang
7. Yi-Hsin Wu
8. Artur Kania
9. Wen-Chang Chang
10. Tsung-I Hsu
11. Tzu-Jen Kao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study makes an important contribution to the molecular mechanisms of neural circuit formation. The data convincingly show that the transcription factor Sp1 regulates ephrin-mediated axon guidance in the spinal cord. Although the authors show that Sp1 and its co-activators p300 and CBP are required to induce ephrin expression, additional discussion and/or experiments are needed to support the claims that Sp1 regulates cis-binding of Epha receptors, or that Sp1 controls ephrin expression in relevant motor neuron populations. The study will be of broad interest to developmental neurobiologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Regional heterogeneities of oligodendrocytes determine biased distribution pattern of Ranvier nodes along single axons in sound localization circuit

1. Ryo Egawa
2. Kota Hiraga
3. Ryosuke Matsui
4. Dai Watanabe
5. Hiroshi Kuba

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study uses the delay line axon model in the chick brainstem auditory circuit to examine the interactions between oligodendrocytes and axons in the formation of internodal distances. This is a significant and actively studied topic, and the authors have used this preparation to support the hypothesis that regional heterogeneity in oligodendrocytes underlies the observed variation in internodal length. In a solid series of experiments, the authors have used enhanced tetanus neurotoxin light chains, a genetically encoded silencing tool, to inhibit vesicular release from axons and support the hypothesis that regional heterogeneity among oligodendrocytes may underlie the biased nodal spacing pattern in the sound localization circuit.

Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons