Neuroscience

Normal aging increases white matter microglial reaction and perivascular macrophages in the microcebe primate

1. Léo Dupuis
2. Lolie Garcia
3. Fanny Petit
4. Suzanne Lam
5. Helène Hirbec
6. Jean-Luc Picq
7. Delphine Boche
8. Marc Dhenain

Reviewed by preLights

Molecular and Neural Circuit Mechanisms Underlying Sexual Experience-dependent Long-Term Memory in Drosophila.

1. Dongyu Sun
2. Xiaoli Zhang
3. Hongyu Miao
4. Tianmu Zhang
5. Woo Jae Kim

Reviewed by Review Commons

Longitudinal tracking of neuronal activity from the same cells in the developing brain using Track2p

1. Jure Majnik
2. Manon Mantez
3. Sofia Zangila
4. Stéphane Bugeon
5. Leo Guignard
6. Jean-Claude Platel
7. Rosa Cossart

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study presents a new method for longitudinally tracking cells in two-photon imaging data that addresses the specific challenges of imaging neurons in the developing cortex. It provides compelling evidence demonstrating reliable longitudinal identification of neurons across the second postnatal week in mice. The study should be of interest to development neuroscientists engaged in population-level recordings using two-photon imaging.

Reviewed by eLife

A stretching mechanism evokes mechano-electrical transduction in auditory chordotonal neurons

1. Atitheb Chaiyasitdhi
2. Manuela Nowotny
3. Marcel Van der Heijden
4. Benjamin Warren

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study uses a sophisticated array of techniques to investigate the mechanisms through which the chordotonal receptors in the locust ear (Müller's organ) sense auditory signals. Ultrastructural reconstruction of the sensory organ provides convincing evidence of the organization of the scolopidial structure that wraps the sensory neuron cilium. However, the recordings of sound-evoked motion and electrophysiological activity from the chordotonal sensory neurons provide incomplete evidence for the proposed axial stretch model of mechanotransduction.

Reviewed by eLife

The Crunchometer: A Low-Cost, Open-Source Acoustic Analysis of Feeding Microstructure

1. Elvi Gil-Lievana
2. Benjamin Arroyo
3. Jesús Pérez-Ortega
4. Axl Lopez
5. Luis Alfredo Rodriguez Blanco
6. Xarenny Diaz
7. Gustavo Hernandez
8. Alam Coss
9. Emily Alway
10. Naama Reicher
11. Enrique Hernández Lemus
12. Maya Kaelberer
13. Diego V Bohórquez
14. Ranier Gutierrez

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable manuscript presents an open-source and low-cost acoustic system for quantifying biting and chewing in mice. The approach is carefully validated against human observers, demonstrating strong methodological reliability and enabling high-resolution analysis of feeding microstructure. The tool has broad relevance for studies of appetite circuits and pharmacological interventions. A significant contribution is the identification of previously unrecognized "meal-related" neurons in the lateral hypothalamus, providing novel biological insight into food consumption. While the support for the methodological advances is compelling and robust, some circuit-level conclusions are preliminary or incomplete, relying on small pilot samples and manual classification, and should be interpreted with caution. This paper will be of interest to those interested in ingestive behavior and/or hypothalamus.

Reviewed by eLife

Time-adaptive modulation of evidence evaluation in rat posterior parietal cortex

1. Preetham Ganupuru
2. Adam B Goldring
3. Tanner Stevenson
4. Kendall Stewart
5. Rishidev Chaudhuri
6. Timothy D Hanks

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study examined the roles of the posterior parietal cortex in rats performing an auditory change-detection decision task. It provided solid evidence for two subpopulations with opposing modulation patterns during decision formation and for a correspondence between neural and behavioral measures of the short timescale used for evidence evaluation.

Reviewed by eLife

Effects of transcranial photobiomodulation on peripheral biomarkers associated with oxidative stress and complex IV activity in the prefrontal cortex in rats subjected to chronic mild stress

1. Luciana Bortoluzzi
2. Rafael Colombo
3. Karoline Motta Pinto
4. Lucas Henriques Viscardi
5. Ricardo Missiaggia
6. Douglas Jean Turella
7. Lisandra Schwantess
8. Mirian Salvador
9. Catia Santos Branco
10. Marina Rigotti
11. Ellen Scotton
12. Tainá Schons
13. Silene Bazi Ribeiro
14. Marco Antonio Caldieraro
15. Adriane R Rosa

Reviewed by preLights

Twice as nice: Boosts in adolescent reinforcement learning from Pavlovian bias and age-related prioritization of reward-motivated incidental memory

1. Haley Hegefeld
2. Juliet Y Davidow

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable developmental study provides intriguing but incomplete evidence suggesting that, relative to adults, the enhancement of instrumental learning by Pavlovian bias is most pronounced in adolescence, while reward-induced memory enhancements are strongest in childhood. Although the authors tackle a key aspect of learning and motivation with rigorous experimental methods and sophisticated modeling techniques, there are substantial concerns about the absence of relevant analyses, the lack of accord between model-based and exploratory analyses, and the lack of an explanation for how the results cohere with inconsistent findings in the literature.

Reviewed by eLife

Bilateral equalization of synaptic output in olfactory glomeruli of Xenopus tadpoles

1. Marta Casas
2. Beatrice Terni
3. Artur Llobet

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript investigates inter-hemispheric interactions in the olfactory system of Xenopus tadpoles. Using a combination of electrophysiology, pharmacology, imaging, and uncaging, the transection of the contralateral nerve is shown to lead to larger odor responses in the unmanipulated hemisphere, and implicates dopamine signaling in this process. The study uses a rich and sophisticated array of tools to investigate olfactory coding and uncovers valuable mechanisms of signaling. However, the data is incomplete, with a few of the conclusions not being well-supported by the data; the interpretation should be adjusted with some caveats, or additional experiments should be done to support these conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

The nucleus accumbens shell regulates hedonic feeding via a rostral hotspot

1. Alina-Măriuca Marinescu
2. Eshita Kamal
3. Peter Leary
4. Keila Navarro I Batista
5. Manuel Klug
6. Nataša Savić
7. Christelle Le Foll
8. Marie A Labouesse

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides a valuable contribution to understanding the functional and molecular organization of the medial nucleus accumbens shell in feeding. Using in vivo imaging, optogenetics, and genetic engineering, the authors present solid evidence for a rostro-caudal gradient in D1-SPN activity that refines earlier pharmacological models. The identification of Stard5 and Peg10 as molecular markers and the creation of a Stard5-Flp line represent meaningful advances for future circuit-specific studies. While stronger integration of molecular and functional results and additional analyses of other Stard5-expressing cell types (e.g., D2-SPNs, interneurons) would enhance completeness, the overall methodological rigor and convergence of findings make this a well-executed and informative study. This will be of interest to those interested in brain circuits, reward, emotion, and feeding behavior.

Reviewed by eLife