Neuroscience

Estradiol elicits distinct firing patterns in arcuate nucleus kisspeptin neurons of females through altering ion channel conductances

1. Jian Qiu
2. Margaritis Voliotis
3. Martha A Bosch
4. Xiao Feng Li
5. Larry S Zweifel
6. Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova
7. Kevin T O'Byrne
8. Oline K Rønnekleiv
9. Martin J Kelly

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study combined multiple approaches to gain insight into why rising estradiol levels, by influencing hypothalamic neurons, ultimately lead to ovulation. The experimental data were solid, but evidence for the conclusion that the findings explain how estradiol acts in the intact female were incomplete because they lacked experimental conditions that better approximate physiological conditions. Nevertheless the work will be of interest to reproductive biologists working on ovarian biology and female fertility.

Reviewed by eLife

Multi-level processing of emotions in life motion signals revealed through pupil responses

1. Tian Yuan
2. Li Wang
3. Yi Jiang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides convincing evidence that emotional information in biological motion can induce different patterns of pupil responses, which could serve as a behavioral marker of an autistic trait. These results broaden our understanding of how emotional biological motion can automatically trigger physiological changes and reveal the potential of using emotional-modulated pupil response to facilitate the diagnosis of social cognitive disorders. The work will be of broad interest to cognitive neuroscience, psychology, affective neuroscience, and vision science.

Reviewed by eLife

Spatial transcriptomics of meningeal inflammation reveals inflammatory gene signatures in adjacent brain parenchyma

1. Sachin P Gadani
2. Saumitra Singh
3. Sophia Kim
4. Jingwen Hu
5. Matthew D Smith
6. Peter A Calabresi
7. Pavan Bhargava

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Brain inflammation is a hallmark of multiple sclerosis. Using novel spatial transcriptomics methods, the authors provide solid evidence for a gradient of immune genes and inflammatory markers from the meninges toward the adjacent brain parenchyma in a mouse model. This important study advances our understanding of the mechanisms of brain damage in this autoimmune disease.

Reviewed by eLife

Functional implications of the exon 9 splice insert in GluK1 kainate receptors

1. Surbhi Dhingra
2. Prachi M Chopade
3. Rajesh Vinnakota
4. Janesh Kumar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study shows that a splice variant of the kainate receptor Glu1-1a that inserts 15 amino acids in the extracellular N-terminal region substantially changes the channel's desensitization properties, the sensitivity to glutamate and kainate, and the effects of modulatory Neto proteins. In the revised paper the authors have clarified several points raised by reviewers but the structural portion of the study has not been improved and consequently, more data are needed to determine the molecular mechanism by which the insert changes the functional profile of the channel. Even so, these solid findings advance our understanding of splice variants among glutamate receptors and will be of interest to neuro- and cell-biologists and biophysicists in the field.

Reviewed by eLife

Hypothalamic representation of the imminence of predator threat detected by the vomeronasal organ in mice

1. Quynh Anh Thi Nguyen
2. Andrea Rocha
3. Ricky Chhor
4. Yuna Yamashita
5. Christian Stadler
6. Crystal Pontrello
7. Hongdian Yang
8. Sachiko Haga-Yamanaka

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study addresses one way in which animals identify predator-associated cues and respond in a manner that reflects the imminence of the potential threat. The report shows that, in mice, fresh saliva from a natural predator (cat) elicits a greater defensive response compared to old cat saliva and implicates the vomeronasal organ and ventromedial hypothalamus as part of a circuit that underlies this process. The evidence supporting the main conclusions is solid. This study will be of interest to those interested in aversive behavior, its processes, and mechanisms.

Reviewed by eLife

Glaucoma-associated Optineurin mutations increase transmitophagy in a vertebrate optic nerve

1. Yaeram Jeong
2. Chung-ha O. Davis
3. Aaron M. Muscarella
4. Viraj Deshpande
5. Keun-Young Kim
6. Mark H. Ellisman
7. Nicholas Marsh-Armstrong

Reviewed by Review Commons

Unraveling Axonal Transcriptional Landscapes: Insights from iPSC-Derived Cortical Neurons and Implications for Motor Neuron Degeneration

1. Jishu Xu
2. Michaela Hörner
3. Maike Nagel
4. Perwin Perhat
5. Milena Korneck
6. Marvin Noß
7. Stefan Hauser
8. Ludger Schöls
9. Jakob Admard
10. Nicolas Casadei
11. Rebecca Schüle

Reviewed by Review Commons

History-dependent spiking facilitates efficient encoding of polarization angles in neurons of the central complex

1. Lisa Rother
2. Anna Stöckl
3. Keram Pfeiffer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study combines electrophysiology experiments and modeling to investigate the encoding of dynamic patterns of polarized light by identified neurons of the bumblebee central complex. The scientific question and methodology are compelling. However, the evidence supporting the authors' conclusions is incomplete without more comprehensive statistical analyses.

Reviewed by eLife

Ih block reveals separation of timescales in pyloric rhythm response to temperature changes in Cancer borealis

1. Kyra Schapiro
2. JD Rittenberg
3. Max Kenngott
4. Eve Marder

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study investigates neurobiological mechanisms underlying the maintenance of stable, functionally appropriate rhythmic motor patterns during changing environmental conditions - temperature in this study in the crab Cancer borealis stomatogastric central neural pattern generating circuits producing the rhythmic pyloric motor pattern, which is naturally subjected to temperature perturbations over a substantial range. The authors present compelling evidence that the neuronal hyperpolarization-activated inward current (Ih), known to contribute to rhythm control, plays a vital role in the ability of these circuits to appropriately adjust the frequency of rhythmic neural activity in a smooth monotonic fashion while maintaining the relative timing of different phases of the activity pattern that determines proper functional motor coordination transiently and persistently to temperature perturbations. This study will be of interest to neurobiologists studying rhythmic motor circuits and systems and their physiological adaptations.

Reviewed by eLife

Cell class-specific long-range axonal projections of neurons in mouse whisker-related somatosensory cortices

1. Yanqi Liu
2. Pol Bech
3. Keita Tamura
4. Lucas T Délez
5. Sylvain Crochet
6. Carl CH Petersen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study offers a valuable description of the layer-and sublayer specific outputs of the somatosensory cortex based on compelling evidence obtained with modern tools for the analysis of brain connectivity, together with functional validation of the connectivity using optogenetic approaches in vivo. Beyond bridging together, in one dataset, the results of disparate studies, this effort brings new insights on layer specific outputs, and on differences between primary and secondary somatosensory areas. This study will be of interest to neuroanatomists and neurophysiologists.

Reviewed by eLife