Neuroscience

eLife assessment

This study documents important findings on three variants in SNAP25 that are associated with developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. The thorough characterization of synaptic release and in vitro vesicle fusion phenotypes provides interesting information about the nature of the SNAP25 variants. The evidence supporting the claims is compelling, and this work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on SNAP25, SNAP25-associated encephalopathy, and synaptic vesicle exocytosis.

eLife assessment

The authors use human intracranial recordings to investigate the relationship between the power of brain oscillations and the latency and strength of cortico-cortical couplings. In the current version, the authors provide a valuable finding that the delay between nearby electrodes in ECoG data is correlated with the amplitude of power, differently so for high and low frequencies. The findings of this study will interest investigators in the wider field of systems neurophysiology; however, editors and reviewers perceived headroom for improving clarity in the presentation of analyses and results, and the strength of evidence for some of the claims as currently presented was viewed as incomplete.

eLife assessment

This useful study compares gene expression patterns among different autonomic ganglia and will be of interest to developmental neuroscientists and neurophysiologists. The study expands the database of genes expressed by subpopulations of autonomic neurons in ganglia, a key step in decoding their developmental origins and physiological functions. The evidence supporting the alternative view that the pelvic ganglionic neurons are actually modified sympathetic neurons is incomplete and may cause confusion, given the enrichment of cholinergic neurons, as well as the large number of molecular and functional differences known to be present between cranial and sacral neurons.

eLife assessment

Zhang et al. deliver an important transcriptomic atlas of the human spinal cord, combining single-cell and spatial transcriptomics to unveil molecular insights. While convincingly overcoming Visium limitations using snRNA-seq, the manuscript is criticized for its largely observational approach and lack of quantitative analysis, especially in supporting claims about sex differences in motor neurons and DRG-spinal cord neuronal interactions.

eLife assessment

This work presents important findings for the field of Alzheimer's disease, especially for the electrophysiology subfield, by investigating the temporal evolution of different disease stages typically reported using M/EEG markers of resting-state brain activity. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing and the methodology as well as the descriptions of the processes are of high quality, although a separation of individuals who are biomarker positive versus negative would have strengthened the results and conclusions of the study.

eLife assessment

This study provides continuous maps of human brain gene expression and explores their relationship with a large variety of microscopic and macroscopic aspects of brain organisation. The authors provide convincing evidence for a relationship between gene expression maps with various aspects of the anatomy of adult brains, during development, and in the case of mental disorders. The data and methods introduced can be an important tool for neuroimaging research.

eLife assessment

The authors report that an interaction between the sodium-activated potassium channel Slack and Nav1.6 sensitizes Slack to inhibition by quinidine. This is an important finding because it contributes to our understanding of how the antiseizure drug quinidine affects epilepsy syndromes arising from mutations in the Slack-encoding gene KCNT1. The results are largely compelling and the work will likely spark interest in further examining the proposed channel-channel interaction in neuronal cell membranes.

eLife assessment

This study presents an important tool for tracking the connectivity of neurons in mouse and potentially other mammals using a combined approach of barcoded rabies virus libraries and spatial transcriptomics. The data supporting the technique are convincing, the validation against known anatomical knowledge is rigorous, and the authors advance the techniques by combing them in vivo. Overall, this is a very good paper describing a technique for tracking neural circuits.

eLife assessment

This study presents important findings about synaptic connectivity among subsets of unipolar brush cells (UBCs), a specialized interneuron primarily located in the vestibular lobules of the cerebellar cortex. The evidence supporting the claims are interesting and solid. The work will be of interest to cerebellar neuroscientists as well as those focussed on synaptic properties and mechanisms. Although several compelling pieces of data were presented, some in vivo work remains to be conducted in order to test if the hypothesis and predictions translate into the behaving animal and how it would impact the processing of feedback or feedforward activity that would be required to promote behavior.

eLife assessment

This paper describes valuable results from studies investigating circuits in the brain that underlie behavioral responses in fearful situations. The authors identified a role for a class of neurons that are sufficient to cause these stereotyped behaviors including freezing behaviors. These solid studies increase our understanding of brain pathways regulating these types of behaviors.