Neuroscience

An evolutionarily conserved scheme for reformatting odor concentration in early olfactory circuits

1. Yang Shen
2. Arkarup Banerjee
3. Dinu F Albeanu
4. Saket Navlakha

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is a valuable computational study of odor responses in the early olfactory system of insects and vertebrates. The study addresses the question of how information about odor concentration is encoded by second-order neurons in the invertebrate and vertebrate olfactory system; it offers insights into the transformation of neural signals from receptors to second-order neurons. While reanalysis of published data presents solid evidence supporting compression of concentration information, incomplete analysis is provided to resolve how this observation could be reconciled with the need to preserve information about changes in stimulus intensity. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists studying sensory processing broadly and olfaction specifically.

Reviewed by eLife

A three-dimensional immunofluorescence atlas of the brain of the hackled-orb weaver spider, Uloborus diversus

1. Gregory Artiushin
2. Abel Corver
3. Andrew Gordus

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study provides a 3D standardised anatomical atlas of the brain of an orb-weaving spider. The authors describe the brain's shape and its inner compartments - the neuropils - and add information on the distribution of a number of neuroactive substances such as transmitters and neuropeptides. Through the use of histological and microscopy methods, the authors provide a more complete view of an arachnid brain than previous studies and also present convincing evidence about the organisation and homology of brain regions. The work will serve as a reference for future studies on spider brains and will enable comparisons of brain regions with insects so that the evolution of these structures can be inferred across arthropods.

Reviewed by eLife

Enhanced Tactile Coding in Rat Neocortex Under Darkness

1. Kotaro Yamashiro
2. Shiyori Tanaka
3. Nobuyoshi Matsumoto
4. Yuji Ikegaya

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents useful findings on how the transient absence of visual input (i.e., darkness) affects tactile neural encoding in the somatosensory cortex. The evidence supporting the authors' claims is incomplete, as key conclusions rely on subtle differences in surface roughness discriminability between sensory conditions, whose physiological underpinnings remain unclear. Potential methodological confounds are also not fully addressed. With additional analyses and methodological clarifications, this work could substantially inform neuroscientists studying cross-modal interactions.

Reviewed by eLife

Directed differentiation of functional corticospinal-like neurons from endogenous SOX6+/NG2+ cortical progenitors

1. Abdulkadir Ozkan
2. Hari K Padmanabhan
3. Seth L Shipman
4. Eiman Azim
5. Priyanka Kumar
6. Cameron Sadegh
7. A Nazli Basak
8. Jeffrey D Macklis

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents fundamental new findings introducing a new approach for the reprogramming of brain glial cells to corticospinal neurons. The data is highly compelling, with multiple lines of evidence demonstrating the success of this new assay. These exciting findings set the stage for future studies of the potential of these reprogrammed cells to form functional connections in vivo and their utility in clinical conditions where corticospinal neurons are compromised.

Reviewed by eLife

Orexin population activity precisely reflects net body movement across behavioral and metabolic states

1. Alexander L Tesmer
2. Paulius Viskaitis
3. Dane Donegan
4. Eva F Bracey
5. Nikola Grujic
6. Tommaso Patriarchi
7. Daria Peleg-Raibstein
8. Denis Burdakov

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study shows that the activity of hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin neurons (HONs) correlates with body movement over multiple behaviors. Compelling evidence, supported by sophisticated, cutting-edge tools and data analyses, highlights a link that appears to be unique to HONs. This work should be of interest to scientists studying peptidergic neurons, movement, energy regulation, and brain-body coordination.

Reviewed by eLife

Adaptation invariant concentration discrimination in an insect olfactory system

1. Doris Ling
2. Lijun Zhang
3. Debajit Saha
4. Alex Bo-Yuan Chen
5. Baranidharan Raman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study addresses an important question in sensory neuroscience: how the olfactory system distinguishes decreases in stimulus intensity from decreases in neural responses due to adaptation. Based on a combination of electrophysiological and behavioral analyses, solid evidence establishes that neural coding changes differently between intensity reductions and adaptation, with intensity changes altering which neurons are activated while adaptation preserves the active ensemble but reduces response magnitude. Intriguingly, behavioral responses tend to increase as the neural responses decrease, suggesting that core features of the odor response persist through adaptation. While the experimental results are convincing overall, the conclusions will be strengthened by future work recording behavior and neural dynamics in the same animals.

Reviewed by eLife

Astrocytic connexin43 phosphorylation contributes to seizure susceptibility after mild traumatic brain injury

1. Carmen Muñoz-Ballester
2. Owen Leitzel
3. Samantha Golf
4. Chelsea M Phillips
5. Michael J Zeitz
6. Rahul Pandit
7. Elizabeth Wash
8. Jenna V. Donohue
9. James W. Smyth
10. Samy Lamouille
11. Stefanie Robel

Reviewed by Review Commons

Phase-specific premotor inhibition modulates leech rhythmic motor output

1. Martina Radice
2. Agustín Sanchez Merlinsky
3. Federico Yulita
4. Lidia Szczupak

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The medicinal leech preparation is an amenable system in which to understand the neural basis of locomotion. Here a previously identified non-spiking neuron was studied in leech and found to alter the mean firing frequency of a crawl-related motoneuron, which fires during the contraction phase of crawling. The findings are valuable and the experiments were diligently done and generally solid; The results lay a foundation for additional studies in this system.

Reviewed by eLife

Social Experience Shapes Fighting Strategies for Reproductive Success

1. Can Gao
2. Mingze Ma
3. Jie Chen
4. Xiaoxiao Ji
5. Qionglin Peng
6. Yufeng Pan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The paper presents a new behavioral assay for Drosophila aggression and demonstrates that social experience influences fighting strategies, with group-housed males favoring high-intensity but low-frequency tussling over aggressive lunging observed in isolated males. This paper is important for researchers studying the impact of social isolation on aggression, while the description of tussling behavior and the interpretation of the link between tussling and mating success are incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Endothelin B receptor inhibition rescues aging-dependent neuronal regenerative decline

1. Rui Feng
2. Sarah F Rosen
3. Irshad Ansari
4. Sebastian John
5. Michael B Thomsen
6. Oshri Avraham
7. Cedric G Geoffroy
8. Valeria Cavalli

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study examines the role of endothelin signaling in nerve regeneration, providing convincing evidence that it functions as a default brake on axon regrowth. Inhibiting endothelin signaling with Bosentan promotes regeneration and counteracts the decline in regenerative potential caused by aging. Since Bosentan is an FDA-approved drug, these findings could have therapeutic value in clinical settings where peripheral nerve regeneration is not adequate or seriously impaired, as is often the case in older individuals.

Reviewed by eLife