Neuroscience

The unique synaptic circuitry of specialized olfactory glomeruli in Drosophila melanogaster

1. Lydia Gruber
2. Rafael Cantera
3. Markus William Pleijzier
4. Michael Steinert
5. Thomas Pertsch
6. Bill S Hansson
7. Jürgen Rybak

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study seeks to determine how synaptic relationships between principal cell types in the olfactory system vary with glomerulus selectivity and is therefore valuable to the field. The methodology is solid, and with the caveat that here was a technical need to group all local interneurons, centrifugal neurons and multiglomerular projection neurons into one category ("multiglomerular neurons"), this work reveals some very interesting potential differences in circuit architecture associated with glomerular tuning breadth.

Reviewed by eLife, preLights

Intrinsic Resistance of the Hippocampal CA2 Subfield to Neuroinflammation After Status Epilepticus

1. Bruno Ponciano Da silva
2. Edna Cristina Santos Franco
3. Silene Maria Araújo de Lima

Reviewed by PREreview

Passive muscle forces in Drosophila are large but insufficient to support a fly’s weight

1. Ninghan Wang
2. Helene Babski
3. Jonathan Elliot Perdomo
4. Sarah Beth McMahan
5. Arun Ramakrishnan
6. Tirthabir Biswas
7. Vikas Bhandawat

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study introduces a novel experimental and modeling framework to quantify passive joint torques in Drosophila, revealing that passive forces are insufficient to support body weight, contrary to prior assumptions based on larger insects. The approach is technically impressive, combining genetic silencing, kinematic tracking, and biomechanical modeling. However, the strength of evidence is incomplete, limited by concerns about the specificity of the genetic tools, simplifications in the mechanical model, and limited functional interpretation.

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 a fundamental 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. The analyses of single-cell profiling experiments in the manuscript provide compelling insight into the cellular architecture of the dorsal vagal complex, with potential implications for obesity therapeutics.

Reviewed by eLife

Sparse innervation and local heterogeneity in the vibrissal corticostriatal projection

1. Kenza Amroune
2. Lorenzo Fontolan
3. Agnès Baude
4. David Robbe
5. Ingrid Bureau

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This revised manuscript provides fundamental findings on how the mouse barrel cortex connects to the dorsolateral striatum, uncovering that inputs from discrete whisker cortical columns are convergent and SPN-specific, but topographically organized at the population level. The evidence supporting this claim is compelling, demonstrating that SPNs uniquely integrate sparse input from variable stretches across the barrel cortex. The study would be of interest to basal ganglia and sensory-motor integration researchers.

Reviewed by eLife

Asymmetric cortical projections to striatal direct and indirect pathways distinctly control actions

1. Jason R Klug
2. Xunyi Yan
3. Hilary A Hoffman
4. Max D Engelhardt
5. Fumitaka Osakada
6. Edward M Callaway
7. Xin Jin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study demonstrates that D1- and D2-striatal neurons receive distinct cortical inputs, offering key insights into corticostriatal function. For instance, in the context of striatal-dependent learning, this distinction is highly informative for interpreting synaptic physiology data, particularly when inputs to one neuron subtype may change independently of the other. The strength of the evidence is solid, with anatomical and electrophysiological findings aligning well with results from optogenetic and behavioral studies.

Reviewed by eLife

Unsupervised pipeline for the identification of cortical excitatory and inhibitory neurons in high-density multielectrode arrays with ground-truth validation

1. Eloise Giraud
2. Michael Lynn
3. Philippe Vincent-Lamarre
4. Jean-Claude Beique
5. Jean-Philippe Thivierge

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this manuscript, the authors describe a software package for automatic differentiation of action potentials generated by excitatory and inhibitory neurons, acquired using high-density microelectrode arrays. The work is valuable as it offers a tool with the potential to automatically identify these neuron types in vitro. It is solid, as it provides a tool to identify putative excitatory and inhibitory neurons on high-density electrode arrays, which can be used in conjunction with other existing spike sorting pipelines.

Reviewed by eLife

Unveiling Distinct Neuroimmune Responses in Mouse Models of Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: Hemisection versus Hemicontusion

1. Wei Chen
2. Lucille Adam
3. Michel-Flutot Pauline
4. Arnaud Mansart
5. Stéphane Vinit
6. Isabelle Vivodtzev

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The representation of facial emotion expands from sensory to prefrontal cortex with development

1. Xiaoxu Fan
2. Abhishek Tripathi
3. Kelly R Bijanki

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study examines a valuable question regarding the developmental trajectory of neural mechanisms supporting facial expression processing. Leveraging a rare intracranial EEG (iEEG) dataset including both children and adults, the authors reported that facial expression recognition mainly engaged the posterior superior temporal cortex (pSTC) among children, while both pSTC and the prefrontal cortex were engaged among adults. However, the sample size is relatively small, with analyses appearing incomplete to fully support the primary claims.

Reviewed by eLife

Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure

1. Li Zheng
2. Zachary Boogaart
3. Andrew McAvan
4. Joshua Garren
5. Stephanie Doner
6. Bradley J Wilkes
7. Will Groves
8. Ece Yuksel
9. Lucia Cherep
10. Arne D Ekstrom
11. Steven M Weisberg

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work presents a useful investigation of functional and structural brain changes following navigation and verbal memory training. The analyses of whole-brain structural changes are incomplete and would benefit from a more comprehensive approach to support the study's main conclusion regarding the lack of a structural whole-brain plasticity effect. However, some analyses are exhaustive and compelling in demonstrating the presence of longitudinal behavioural effects, the presence of functional activation changes, and the lack of hippocampal volume changes.

Reviewed by eLife