Neuroscience

eLife assessment

This important study investigates how memory representations are transformed over time (24h period). The work advances our understanding of the neural processes supporting the behavioral integration of memories for distinct events that are never experienced together in time but are linked by shared predictive cues. Evidence supporting the claims is solid, and reporting of additional comparisons would have strengthened the study.

eLife assessment

Hou and colleagues describe the the use of a previously characterized FRET sensor for use in determining gamma secretase activity in the brain of living mice. In an approach that targeted the sensor to neurons, they observe patterns of fluorescent sensor readout suggesting clustered regions of secretase activity. These results once validated would be valuable in the field of Alzheimer's Disease research, yet further validation of the approach is required, as the current evidence provided is inadequate to support the conclusions.

eLife assessment

This important work unravels how female Drosophila can assess their social context via chemosensory cues and modulate the sperm storage process after copulation accordingly. A compelling set of rigorous experiments uncovers specific pheromones that influence the excitability of the female brain receptivity circuit and their propensity to discard inseminate from a mating. This insight into neuronal mechanisms of sexual behavior plasticity is of general interest to scientists working in the fields of animal behavior, neuroscience, evolution, and sexual selection, as well as insect chemosensation and reproduction.

eLife assessment

This important study by Lee and colleagues examined how neural representations are transformed between the olfactory tubercle (OT) and the ventral pallidum (VP) using single neuron calcium imaging in head-fixed mice trained in classical conditioning. They show that the dimensionality of neural responses is lower in the VP than in the OT and suggest that VP responses represent values in a more abstract form at the single neuron level while OT contains more odor information, potentially enhancing odor contrast. The results are overall convincing and this study provides insights into how odor information is transformed in the olfactory system.

eLife assessment

This study presents important observations about how the human brain uses long-term priors (acquired during our lifetime of listening) to make predictions about expected sounds - an open question in the field of predictive processing. The evidence presented is solid and based on state-of-the-art statistical analysis, but limited by a relatively low N and low magnitude for the interaction effect.

eLife assessment

This paper presents valuable findings that gustation and nutrition might independently influence the preferred environmental temperature in flies. The evidence supporting the main claims is solid and well presented. The finding that flies might thus exhibit a cephalic phase response similar to mammals will be of value for future investigations.

eLife assessment

In this manuscript, Jain and colleagues explore whether increasing adult-born neurons is protective against status epilepticus and the development of spontaneous recurrent seizures (chronic epilepsy) in a mouse pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy. This is an important work that provides solid data, contradicting previous studies on suppressing chronic seizures by reduction in adult-born neurons.

eLife assessment

This important study examined the mechanisms underlying reduced excitability of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons in mice that underwent a chronic mild unpredictable stress treatment. The authors identify NALCN and TRPC6 channels as key mechanisms that regulate spontaneous firing of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons and examined their roles in reduced firing in mice that underwent a chronic mild unpredictable stress treatment. The authors' conclusions on neurophysiological data are supported by multiple approaches and are convincing, although the relevance of the behavioral results to human depression remains unclear.

eLife assessment

This valuable manuscript describes evidence of sex differences in specific corticostriatal projections during alcohol consumption, and this is noteworthy given the increasing rates/levels of drinking in females and their liability for Alcohol Use disorder. The authors provide solid evidence of the lateralisation of the activity of the circuit, but other evidence is incomplete, particularly with regard to how the drinking measure relates to intoxication. There are some inconsistencies that make it difficult to reconcile the photometry and behavioral data. The findings would benefit from causal assessment in the future. The findings will be of interest to researchers investigating functional circuitry underlying alcohol-driven behaviors.

eLife assessment

This paper introduces an efficient approach to identify subunits in the receptive fields of retinal ganglion cells. The general approach has been used in this application previously and this limits the conceptual advance of the paper. The improved speed is valuable, as it allows a more thorough exploration of the control parameters in this analysis and facilitates application to larger populations of cells. Validation of the approach is convincing. The paper would benefit from a more thorough exploration of the method and its limitations, or an extension of the new results about subunit populations.