Neuroscience

eLife assessment

This important manuscript follows up on previous findings from the same lab supporting the idea that deficits in learning due to enhanced synaptic plasticity are due to saturation effects. Compelling evidence is presented that behavioral learning deficits associated with enhanced synaptic plasticity in a transgenic mouse model can be rescued by manipulations designed to reverse the saturation of synaptic plasticity. In particular, the finding that a previously FDA-approved therapeutic can rescue learning could provide new insights for biologists, psychologists, and others studying learning and neurodevelopment.

eLife assessment

This study conducted fMRI experiments in an inbred rat model of absence seizures. The results provide new information suggesting reduced brain responsiveness during this type of seizure. The reviewers had divergent opinions but on average thought the study was valuable and the conclusions were solid.

eLife assessment

This important study shows that a high autism quotient in neurotypical adults is associated with suboptimal motor planning and visual updating after eye movements, suggesting a disrupted efference copy mechanism. The implication is that abnormal visuomotor updating may contribute to sensory overload - a key symptom in autism spectrum disorder. The evidence presented is convincing, with few limitations, and should be of broad interest to neuroscientists at large.

eLife assessment

This study addresses an important, understudied question using approaches that link molecular, circuit, and behavioral changes. The findings that Netrin-1 and UNC5c can guide dopaminergic innervation from the nucleus accumbens to the cortex during adolescence are solid. The data showing that the onset of Unc5 expression is sexually dimorphic in mice, and that in Siberian hamsters environmental effects on development are also sexually dimorphic are also solid. Reviewers identified significant gaps in evidence for specificity of Netrin-1 expression, which, if filled, would strengthen the evidence for some of the claims. Future work would also benefit from Unc5C knockdown to corroborate the results and investigation of the cause-effect relationship. This paper will be of interest to those interested in neural development, sex differences, and/or dopamine function.

eLife assessment

In this valuable study, the authors use a computational model to investigate how recurrent connections influence the firing patterns of grid cells, which are thought to play a role in encoding an animal's position in space. The work suggests that a one-dimensional network architecture may be sufficient to generate the hexagonal firing patterns of grid cells, a possible alternative to attractor models based on recurrent connectivity between grid cells. However, the support for this proposal was incomplete, as some conclusions for how well the model dynamics are necessary to generate features of grid cell organization were not well supported.

eLife assessment

This study presents a useful exploration of the complex relationship between structure and function in the developing human brain using a large-scale imaging dataset from the Human Connectome Project in Development and gene expression profiles from the Allen Brain Atlas. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although the inclusion of more systematic analyses of structural and functional connectivity with respect to myelin measures and oligodendrocyte-related genes, and also more details regarding the imaging analyses, cognitive scores, and design and validation strategies, would have strengthened the paper. The work will be of interest to developmental biologists and neuroscientists seeking to elucidate structure-function relationships in the human brain.

eLife assessment

This important study expands our understanding of the role of two axon guidance factors in a specific axon guidance decision. The strength of the study is the compelling axonal labeling and quantification, which allows the authors to establish precise consequences of the loss of each guidance factor or receptor.

eLife assessment

This landmark paper introduces the generation and analysis of a connectome resource of the entire ventral nerve cord of a fruit fly which is one of the top model organisms to investigate how a nervous system forms and functions. The work introduces new and improved approaches - from tissue preparation to automated reconstruction - to generate a detailed connectome from a complex adult ventral nerve cord. This extensive new dataset provides cell type and lineage annotations, putative neurotransmitter expression information, and the potential to link to genetic driver lines, with compelling evidence to support the claims made.

eLife assessment

This fundamental work advances our understanding of the central coding and control mechanisms regulating sympathetic nervous system efferent signals to bone. The evidence supporting the conclusion is mostly convincing, although the inclusion of higher resolution images for certain data and further discussions would strengthen the study. This paper holds potential interest for skeletal biologists and neuroscientists who study the brain-bone sympathetic neural circuits.

eLife assessment

This paper is valuable in that it provides a critical missing link between measures of structural connectivity and rhythmic tapping abilities, pointing to some interesting possibilities for how tapping synchronization is carried out. The methodology and findings are solid, and of interest to those studying the neural mechanisms of timing.