Neuroscience

Sensory-memory interactions via modular structure explain errors in visual working memory

1. Jun Yang
2. Hanqi Zhang
3. Sukbin Lim

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important computational study provides new insights into how neural dynamics may lead to time-evolving behavioral errors as observed in certain working-memory tasks. By combining ideas from efficient coding and attractor neural networks, the authors construct a two-module network model to capture the sensory-memory interactions and the distributed nature of working memory representations. They provide convincing evidence supporting that their two-module network, although none of the alternative circuit structures they considered can account for error patterns reported in orientation-estimation tasks with delays.

Reviewed by eLife

A neurotransmitter atlas of C. elegans males and hermaphrodites

1. Chen Wang
2. Berta Vidal
3. Surojit Sural
4. Curtis Loer
5. G Robert Aguilar
6. Daniel M Merritt
7. Itai Antoine Toker
8. Merly C Vogt
9. Cyril C Cros
10. Oliver Hobert

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental study reports the most comprehensive neurotransmitter atlas of any organism to date, using fluorescent knock-in reporter lines. The work is comprehensive, rigorous, and compelling. The tool will be used by broad audience of scientists interested in neuronal cell type differentiation and function, and could be a seminal reference in the field.

Reviewed by eLife

Transcriptional responses in a mouse model of silicone wire embolization induced acute retinal artery ischemia and reperfusion

1. Yuedan Wang
2. Ying Li
3. Jiaqing Feng
4. Chuansen Wang
5. Yuwei Wan
6. Bingyang Lv
7. Yinming Li
8. Hao Xie
9. Ting Chen
10. Faxi Wang
11. Ziyue Li
12. Anhuai Yang
13. Xuan Xiao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The manuscript establishes a sophisticated mouse model for acute retinal artery occlusion (RAO) by combining unilateral pterygopalatine ophthalmic artery occlusion (UPOAO) with a silicone wire embolus and carotid artery ligation, generating ischemia-reperfusion injury upon removal of the embolus. This clinically relevant model is useful for studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of RAO. The data overall are solid, presenting a novel tool for screening pathogenic genes and promoting further therapeutic research in RAO.

Reviewed by eLife

Visual information is broadcast among cortical areas in discrete channels

1. Yiyi Yu
2. Jeffery N Stirman
3. Christopher R Dorsett
4. Spencer LaVere Smith

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study uses state-of-the-art, multi-region two-photon calcium imaging to characterize the statistics of functional connectivity between visual cortical neurons. Although alternative interpretations may partially account for the data, the study provides solid evidence that functionally distinct classes of neurons convey visual information via parallel channels within and across both primary and higher-order cortical areas.

Reviewed by eLife

PVN-mPFC OT projections modulate pup-directed pup care or attacking in virgin mandarin voles

1. Lu Li
2. Yin Li
3. Caihong Huang
4. Wenjuan Hou
5. Zijian Lv
6. Lizi Zhang
7. Yishan Qu
8. Yahan Sun
9. Kaizhe Huang
10. Xiao Han
11. Zhixiong He
12. Fadao Tai

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work provides insights into the neural mechanisms regulating specific parental behaviors. By identifying a key role for oxytocin synthesizing cells in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and their projections to the medial prefrontal cortex in promoting pup care and inhibiting infanticide, this study advances our understanding of the neurobiological basis of these contrasting behaviors in male and female mandarin voles. The evidence supporting the authors' conclusions is solid, and this work should be of interest to researchers studying neuropeptide control of social behaviors in the brain.

Reviewed by eLife

Operation regimes of spinal circuits controlling locomotion and the role of supraspinal drives and sensory feedback

1. Ilya A Rybak
2. Natalia A Shevtsova
3. Sergey N Markin
4. Boris I Prilutsky
5. Alain Frigon

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental state-of-the-art modeling study explores neural mechanisms underlying walking control in cats, demonstrating the probability of three different states of operation of the spinal circuitry generating locomotion at different speeds. The authors' biophysical modeling sufficiently reproduces and provides explanations for experimental data on how the locomotor cycle and phase durations depend on treadmill walking speed and points to new principles of circuit functional architecture and operating regimes underlying how spinal circuits interact with supraspinal signals and limb sensory feedback signals to produce different locomotor behaviors at different speeds, which are major unresolved problems in the field. The modeling evidence is compelling, especially in advancing our understanding of locomotion control mechanisms and will interest neuroscientists studying the neural control of movement.

Reviewed by eLife

Modelling inflammation-induced peripheral sensitization in a dish—more complex than expected?

1. Yuening Li
2. Amy Lock
3. Laura Fedele
4. Irene Zebochin
5. Alba Sabate
6. Matthew Siddle
7. Silvia Cainarca
8. Pascal Röderer
9. Katharina Montag
10. Paola Tarroni
11. Oliver Brüstle
12. Tanya Shaw
13. Leonie Taams
14. Franziska Denk

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Drosulfakinin signaling encodes early-life memory for adaptive social plasticity

1. Jiwon Jeong
2. Kujin Kwon
3. Terezia Klaudia Geisseova
4. Jongbin Lee
5. Taejoon Kwon
6. Chunghun Lim

Reviewed by Review Commons

The subthalamic nucleus contributes causally to perceptual decision-making in monkeys

1. Kathryn Branam
2. Joshua I Gold
3. Long Ding

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The fundamental study by Ding and colleagues identifies subpopulations of neurons recorded in the monkey subthalamic nucleus (STN) with distinct activity profiles and causal contributions during perceptual decision-making. The combination of neuronal recording, microstimulation, and computational methods provides convincing evidence for a heterogenous neural population that could support multifaceted roles in decision formation. This study should be of wide interest to computational and experimental neuroscientists interested in cognitive function.

Reviewed by eLife

Rabphilin-3A negatively regulates neuropeptide release, through its SNAP25 interaction

1. Adlin Abramian
2. Rein I Hoogstraaten
3. Fiona H Murphy
4. Kathryn F McDaniel
5. Ruud F Toonen
6. Matthijs Verhage

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study advances our understanding of the mechanisms of neuronal large dense-core vesicle (LDCV) secretion, which mediates neuropeptide and neurotrophin release. It describes a negative regulatory process involving the interaction of the Rab3-effector Rabphilin-3A with the SNARE fusion protein SNAP25, which limits LDCV secretion and neurite growth. The evidence in support of the authors' claims is generally convincing, but some conclusions, e.g regarding the role of Rabphilin-3A-controlled neurotrophin signaling in neurite growth, are incompletely supported. This study will be of interest to the fields of cell biology, cellular neuroscience, and neuroendocrinology.

Reviewed by eLife