Neuroscience

Unifying network model links recency and central tendency biases in working memory

1. Vezha Boboeva
2. Alberto Pezzotta
3. Claudia Clopath
4. Athena Akrami

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study combines disparate results from both psychophysics and neural silencing experiments to suggest a new interpretation of how animals and humans represent and interpret recent events in our memory. A key aspect of the model put forward here is the presence of discrete jumps in neural activity within the posterior parietal region of the cortex. The model is distinct from other models, and the authors provide convincing evidence to support it both from existing results as well as from novel experiments.

Reviewed by eLife

Passive exposure to task-relevant stimuli enhances categorization learning

1. Christian Schmid
2. Muhammad Haziq
3. Melissa M Baese-Berk
4. James M Murray
5. Santiago Jaramillo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study reports valuable behavioral and computational observations regarding how passive exposure to auditory stimuli can facilitate auditory categorization. The combination of behavioral results in mice with a study of artificial neural network models provides solid evidence for the authors' conclusions. This paper will likely be of broad interest to the general neuroscience community.

Reviewed by eLife

The involvement of the human prefrontal cortex in the emergence of visual awareness

1. Zepeng Fang
2. Yuanyuan Dang
3. Zhipei Ling
4. Yongzheng Han
5. Hulin Zhao
6. Xin Xu
7. Mingsha Zhang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper reports valuable results regarding the potential role and time course of the prefrontal cortex in conscious perception. Although the sample size is small, the results are convincing, and strengths include the use of several complementary analysis methods. The behavioral test includes subject report such that the study does not allow for distinguishing between (phenomenal) awareness and conscious access; nevertheless, results do advance our understanding of the contribution of prefrontal cortex to conscious perception.

Reviewed by eLife

EphrinB2 knockdown in cervical spinal cord preserves diaphragm innervation in a mutant SOD1 mouse model of ALS

1. Mark W Urban
2. Brittany A Charsar
3. Nicolette M Heinsinger
4. Shashirekha S Markandaiah
5. Lindsay Sprimont
6. Wei Zhou
7. Eric V Brown
8. Nathan T Henderson
9. Samantha J Thomas
10. Biswarup Ghosh
11. Rachel E Cain
12. Davide Trotti
13. Piera Pasinelli
14. Megan C Wright
15. Matthew B Dalva
16. Angelo C Lepore

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a valuable study of Eph-Ephrin signaling mechanisms generating pathological changes in amyotropic lateral sclerosis. There are exciting findings bearing on the role of glial cells in this pathology. The study emerges with solid evidence for a novel astrocyte-mediated mechanism for disease propagation. It may help identify potential therapeutic targets.

Reviewed by eLife

Downregulation of Dickkopf-3, a Wnt antagonist elevated in Alzheimer’s disease, restores synapse integrity and memory in a disease mouse model

1. Nuria Martin Flores
2. Marina Podpolny
3. Faye McLeod
4. Isaac Workman
5. Karen Crawford
6. Dobril Ivanov
7. Ganna Leonenko
8. Valentina Escott-Price
9. Patricia C Salinas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important manuscript investigates the roles of DKK3 in AD synapse integrity. Although previous work has identified the involvement of Wnt and DKK1 in synaptic physiology, this study provides compelling evidence that suppression of DKK3 rescues the changes in excitatory synapse numbers, as well as memory deficits in an established AD model mice. The authors provide both gain and loss of function data that support the main conclusion and advance our understanding of the mechanisms by which Wnt pathway mediates early synaptic dysfunction in AD models.

Reviewed by eLife

Comparative neuroimaging of sex differences in human and mouse brain anatomy

1. Elisa Guma
2. Antoine Beauchamp
3. Siyuan Liu
4. Elizabeth Levitis
5. Jacob Ellegood
6. Linh Pham
7. Rogier B Mars
8. Armin Raznahan
9. Jason P Lerch

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this important study, Guma and colleagues describe the use of structural neuroimaging to assess the cross-species convergence of sex differences in global and regional brain volumes in humans and mice. The goal of the work is to inform to what extent mouse studies of these aforementioned sex differences have relevance to humans. The authors suggest which aspects of brain anatomy (as measured by volume) are conserved or not, across species, which has theoretical and practical implications beyond a single sub-field. The evidence to support the findings is solid, it uses methods and data analysis that are appropriate and validated.

Reviewed by eLife

Enhanced KNa1.1 Channel Underlies Cortical Hyperexcitability and Seizure Susceptibility after Traumatic Brain Injury

1. Ru Liu
2. Lei Sun
3. Le Du
4. Xi Guo
5. Meng Jia
6. Qun Wang
7. Jianping Wu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This potentially valuable study provides some evidence that upregulation of sodium-activated potassium channels contributes to neuronal hyperexcitability and seizures following traumatic brain injury. However, the evidence supporting a direct link is incomplete. This work will be of interest to epilepsy and ion channel researchers.

Reviewed by eLife

Acetylcholine modulates the precision of prediction error in the auditory cortex

1. David Pérez-González
2. Ana Belén Lao-Rodríguez
3. Cristian Aedo-Sánchez
4. Manuel S Malmierca

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The findings of this study are valuable as they provide new insights into the role of acetylcholine in modulating sensory processing in the auditory cortex. This paper reports a systematic measurement of cell activity in the auditory cortex before and after the microiontophoretic application of Ach during an oddball and cascade sequence of auditory stimuli. The evidence presented is convincing, as the study used a rigorous experimental design and statistical analysis. The manuscript will interest researchers in auditory neuroscience and neuromodulation, as well as clinicians and individuals with auditory processing disorders.

Reviewed by eLife

osl-dynamics, a toolbox for modeling fast dynamic brain activity

1. Chetan Gohil
2. Rukuang Huang
3. Evan Roberts
4. Mats WJ van Es
5. Andrew J Quinn
6. Diego Vidaurre
7. Mark W Woolrich

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors present a comprehensive set of tools to compactly characterize the time-frequency interactions across a network. The utility of the toolbox is compelling and demonstrated through a series of exemplar brain imaging datasets. This fundamental work adds to the repertoire of techniques that can be used to study high-dimensional data.

Reviewed by eLife

Cross‐pathway integration of cAMP signals through cGMP and calcium‐regulated phosphodiesterases in mouse striatal cholinergic interneurons

1. Ségolène Bompierre
2. Yelyzaveta Byelyayeva
3. Elia Mota
4. Marion Lefevre
5. Anna Pumo
6. Jan Kehler
7. Liliana R. V. Castro
8. Pierre Vincent

Reviewed by Review Commons