Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This study presents a valuable finding relating to how the state of arousal is represented within the superior colliculus (SC), a principal visuo-oculomotor structure. The main conclusion that the SC's neural representation of arousal is segregated from motor related output appears to have solid support by the data. The work will be of interest to sensory, motor and cognitive neuroscientists.

eLife Assessment

This study explores how exogenous attention operates at the finest spatial scale of vision, within the foveola - a topic that has not been previously explored but is of interest to visual neuroscientists. The question is important for understanding how attention shapes perception, and how it differs between the periphery and the central regions of highest visual acuity. The evidence indicating that attention near the fovea preferentially enhances low spatial frequencies is compelling, as shown by carefully designed experiments with state-of-the-art eye tracking to monitor attended locations just a few tens of minutes of arc away from the fixation target.

eLife Assessment

This is an important and rigorous study that addresses the question of what determines the spatial organization of endocytic zones at synapses. The authors use convincing approaches, in both Drosophila and rodent model systems, to define the role of activity and active zone structure on the organization of the peri-active zone. While the findings are primarily negative, they are carefully executed and contribute to the field by refining existing models of presynaptic organization.

eLife Assessment

This work provides an important modeling-based framework for understanding the processes of temporal integration in the claustrum. These mechanisms could support a broader range of integrative brain function. The manuscript presents solid evidence for how claustrum may integrate temporal disparate signals via a novel computational phenomenon with neural dynamics evolving along neural trajectories as opposed to settling into fixed-point attractor states.

eLife Assessment

This important advancement in the field of neurotransmission delivers a novel toolkit for in vivo visualization of vesicular transporters for ACh, GABA, glutamate and monoamines in C. elegans. With the application of newly developed neuron-specific knockout methods for these vesicular transporters, the results convincingly demonstrate that over 10% of the neurons studied show transporter co-expression that may be correlated with co-transmission. These findings and toolkit will be of interest towards the study of neural circuit function.

eLife Assessment

This important work advances our understanding of the single neuron coding types in the mouse gustatory cortex and the functional roles of these neurons for perceptual decision-making. The conclusions are based on compelling evidence from rigorous behavioral experiments, high-density electrophysiology, sophisticated data analysis, and neural network modeling with in silico perturbations of functionally-identified units. This work will be of broad interest to systems neuroscientists.

eLife Assessment

This study presents valuable findings on the physiological and computational underpinnings of the accumulation of intermittent glimpses of sensory evidence. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although a more exhaustive characterisation of how the different signals interact would have strengthened the study. The work will be of interest to cognitive and systems neuroscientists working on decision-making.

eLife Assessment

This study provides valuable insights with convincing evidence detailing altered tactile perception in a mouse model of ASD (Fmr1 mice), paralleling sensory abnormalities in Fragile X and autism. Its main strength lies in the use of a novel and quantitative tactile categorization task and the careful dissection of behavioral performance across training and difficulty levels, suggesting that deficits may stem from an interaction between sensory and cognitive processes. The behavioral experiments are well executed and set the stage for subsequent mechanistic, causal, and computational approaches. The work is relevant to those interested in autism, cognition, and/or sensory processing.

eLife Assessment

Du et al. present a valuable study examining neural activation in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) subpopulations projecting to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) during behavioral tasks assessing anxiety, social preference, and social dominance. The strength of the evidence linking in vivo neural physiology to behavioral outcomes was considered solid; however, the slice electrophysiology data and their interpretation were less well received. Overall, the reviewers felt that the revised work provides insight into how distinct mPFC→BLA and mPFC→NAc pathways influence anxiety, exploration, and social behaviors.

eLife Assessment

This study provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of the neural basis of perceptual decision-making by jointly modeling behavioral outcomes and EEG signals in a contrast comparison task. The methods and analyses are solid, systematically comparing standard models assuming continuous evidence accumulation with models that track evidence without temporal integration (extrema detection). The authors show that behavior and neural signals are equally consistent with both alternatives, highlighting limitations in current modeling approaches and questioning the generality of evidence accumulation mechanisms.