Neuroscience

Sequentially activated discrete modules appear as traveling waves in neuronal measurements with limited spatiotemporal sampling

1. Yuval Orsher
2. Ariel Rom
3. Rotem Perel
4. Yoav Lahini
5. Pablo Blinder
6. Mark Shein-Idelson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this important work, authors show that brain activity thought to be a travelling wave may just be a series of sequentially activated sources at the neuron spiking level. They support this with convincing results from a turtle cortex preparation and relevant simulations. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in understanding how cortical computations are made.

Reviewed by eLife

The LH receptor regulates hippocampal spatial memory and restores dendritic spine density in ovariectomized APP/PS1 AD mice

1. Megan Mey
2. Sabina Bhatta
3. Sneha Suresh
4. Luis Montero Labrador
5. Helen Piontkivska
6. Gemma Casadesus

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Dysregulation of mTOR signaling mediates common neurite and migration defects in both idiopathic and 16p11.2 deletion autism neural precursor cells

1. Smrithi Prem
2. Bharati Dev
3. Cynthia Peng
4. Monal Mehta
5. Rohan Alibutud
6. Robert J Connacher
7. Madeline St Thomas
8. Xiaofeng Zhou
9. Paul Matteson
10. Jinchuan Xing
11. James H Millonig
12. Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment:

  This important study describes converging cellular phenotypes in human neural progenitor cells derived from individuals with differing genetic forms of autism spectrum disorders. These convincing data demonstrate that altered mTOR signaling occurs in all cases of autism examined in the study, providing a common starting point for understanding the etiology of neuronal deficits in autism. The work will be of broad interest to neurobiologists especially those studying molecular mechanisms of brain development and disease.

Reviewed by eLife

Multiple objects evoke fluctuating responses in several regions of the visual pathway

1. Meredith N Schmehl
2. Valeria C Caruso
3. Yunran Chen
4. Na Young Jun
5. Shawn M Willett
6. Jeff T Mohl
7. Douglas A Ruff
8. Marlene Cohen
9. Akinori F Ebihara
10. Winrich A Freiwald
11. Surya T Tokdar
12. Jennifer M Groh

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study adds to the growing body of evidence that neural responses fluctuate in time to alternatively represent one among multiple concurrent stimuli and that these fluctuations seize when objects fuse into one perceived object. The present study provides solid evidence from multiple brain areas and stimuli types to support this hypothesis. Overall, the study illustrates how the brain can use time dimension and synchrony to either parse or integrate stimuli into a coherent representation.

Reviewed by eLife

Sensitization of meningeal afferents to locomotion-related meningeal deformations in a migraine model

1. Andrew S Blaeser
2. Jun Zhao
3. Arthur U Sugden
4. Simone Carneiro-Nascimento
5. Mark L Andermann
6. Dan Levy

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental study explored the impact of migraine-related cortical spreading depression (CSD) on the firing of nerves innervating the coverings of the brain that are considered the putative source of migraine-related pain. Using convincing approaches they show that these responses are altered in response to mechanical deformation of the brain coverings. Given that migraine is characterized by worsening head pain in response to movement, the findings offer a potential mechanism that may explain this clinical phenomenon.

Reviewed by eLife

Hippocampome.org 2.0 is a knowledge base enabling data-driven spiking neural network simulations of rodent hippocampal circuits

1. Diek W Wheeler
2. Jeffrey D Kopsick
3. Nate Sutton
4. Carolina Tecuatl
5. Alexander O Komendantov
6. Kasturi Nadella
7. Giorgio A Ascoli

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors have greatly expanded their important hippocampome.org resource about rodent hippocampal cell types, their physiological properties, and their interactions. With version 2.0, they make a significant advance in providing a user-friendly means to make computer models of hippocampal circuits. The work is convincing, and there are only minor reservations that the figures may be too complex.

Reviewed by eLife

Insights in neuronal tuning: Navigating the statistical challenges of autocorrelation and missing variables

1. Fredrik Nevjen
2. Benjamin Adric Dunn

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents important new insights into how best to address common problems encountered in the statistical analysis of neural data, including those related to temporal autocorrelations and unknown variables. The authors show that certain approaches, including those using cross-validation and permutation tests, are better than others at controlling error rates, particularly false negatives. At present, the evidence presented is incomplete, including a lack of more rigorous theoretical justifications for the differences observed between the different approaches tested and a focus on p-values without considering effect sizes, but could be improved with substantial revisions that address these issues.

Reviewed by eLife

Circuit-based intervention corrects excessive dentate gyrus output in the fragile X mouse model

1. Pan-Yue Deng
2. Ajeet Kumar
3. Valeria Cavalli
4. Vitaly A Klyachko

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a fundamental work that significantly advances our understanding of the role of mossy cells in the dentate gyrus in Fragile X Syndrome. The carefully designed and executed extensive series of experiments provide compelling evidence that changes in their excitability occur due to up-regulation of Kv7 currents. The study unveils the underlying mechanisms of the disease, and therefore the work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on various aspects of Fragile X pathology. In addition, it also provides insights into how neuronal activity is balanced in networks through diverse cellular mechanisms.

Reviewed by eLife

A spatial-attentional mechanism underlies action-related distortions of time judgment

1. Liyu Cao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important paper examined how attention affects temporal binding. Through a combination of careful experimental designs and computational modelling, this study provides solid evidence highlighting the role of attention in shaping temporal binding. Overall, the present findings will be of interest to cognitive scientists studying phenomena related to time perception, temporal binding, and spatial attention.

Reviewed by eLife

Kit Ligand and Kit receptor tyrosine kinase sustain synaptic inhibition of Purkinje cells

1. Tariq Zaman
2. Daniel Vogt
3. Jeremy Prokop
4. Qusai Abdulkhaliq Alsabia
5. Gabriel Simms
6. April Stafford
7. Bryan W Luikart
8. Michael R Williams

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study from Zaman et al. demonstrates that the cKit-Kit ligand complex is necessary for the formation and/or maintenance of molecular layer interneuron synapses in cerebellar Purkinje cells. The evidence presented is convincing; in particular, the use of cell-type specific knockout of cKit in molecular layer interneurons and knockout of Kit ligand in Purkinje cells provides robust evidence. This work will be of particular relevance to those interested in inhibitory synapse formation or the role of inhibition in Purkinje cell behavior.

Reviewed by eLife