Neuroscience

Changes in lipid metabolism track with the progression of neurofibrillary pathology in tauopathies

1. Dominika Olešová
2. Dana Dobešová
3. Petra Majerová
4. Radana Brumarová
5. Aleš Kvasnička
6. Štěpán Kouřil
7. Eva Stevens
8. Jozef Hanes
9. Ľubica Fialová
10. Alena Michalicová
11. Juraj Piešťanský
12. Jakub Šinský
13. Petr Kaňovský
14. David Friedecký
15. Andrej Kováč

Reviewed by PREreview

Microglia facilitate and stabilize the response to general anesthesia via modulating the neuronal network in a brain region-specific manner

1. Yang He
2. Taohui Liu
3. Quansheng He
4. Wei Ke
5. Xiaoyu Li
6. Jinjin Du
7. Suixin Deng
8. Zhenfeng Shu
9. Jialin Wu
10. Baozhi Yang
11. Yuqing Wang
12. Ying Mao
13. Yanxia Rao
14. Yousheng Shu
15. Bo Peng

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents a valuable finding on the mechanisms underlying general anesthesia, with a focus on microglial regulation. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although some of the novelty of these findings may be reduced based on the recent publication of a similar study. The work will be of interest to medical biologists working on mechanisms of anesthesia, microglia, and neuron-microglia interaction.

Reviewed by eLife

Supercomputer framework for reverse engineering firing patterns of neuron populations to identify their synaptic inputs

1. Matthieu K Chardon
2. Y Curtis Wang
3. Marta Garcia
4. Emre Besler
5. J Andrew Beauchamp
6. Michael D'Mello
7. Randall K Powers
8. Charles J Heckman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The study by Chardon et al. is fundamental to advancing our understanding of presynaptic control of motor neuron output. Large-scale computer simulations were performed using well-established single motor neuron models to provide compelling evidence regarding the time-varying patterns of inputs that control motor neuron ensembles. The work will interest the community of motor control, motor unit physiology, neural engineering, and computational neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

A maximum of two readily releasable vesicles per docking site at a cerebellar single active zone synapse

1. Melissa Silva
2. Van Tran
3. Alain Marty

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The study used slice physiology and modeling to investigate neurotransmitter release at the cerebellar parallel fiber-to-molecular layer interneuron synapse, revealing that each docking site can accommodate up to two synaptic vesicles simultaneously. The evidence presented is convincing. These important findings validate a two-step docking model and shed light on the mechanisms underlying short-term synaptic plasticity and strategies for achieving synaptic reliability, which plays a critical role in information processing in the brain.

Reviewed by eLife

Balance of activity during a critical period tunes a developing network

1. Iain Hunter
2. Bramwell Coulson
3. Tom Pettini
4. Jacob J Davies
5. Jill Parkin
6. Matthias Landgraf
7. Richard A Baines

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study combines electrophysiology and neuroanatomy with pharmacological and optogenetic manipulation in the Drosophila genetic model system to pinpoint the neural substrate that is influenced by altered activity during a critical period (CP) of larval locomotor circuit development. Increasing activity during the CP causes permanent network changes, manifesting in increased recovery times from seizures and altered intersegmental coordination during locomotion, thus indicating that a setpoint of network excitability is determined during the CP. Next, compelling experiments demonstrate that this goes along with increased excitation/inhibition ratios to single identified motoneurons and most importantly, for excitability setpoint determination during the CP excitatory and inhibitory inputs are integrated such that the effect of CP hyperexcitation is rescued by the stimulation of endogenous inhibitory inputs to the motoneurons. This provides novel insight into how developing neural network excitability is tuned and how it can be entrained during the CP.

Reviewed by eLife

Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication

1. Catherine Perrodin
2. Colombine Verzat
3. Daniel Bendor

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable work advances our understanding of the acoustic features driving the attraction of female mice to male vocalizations. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, with well-designed place preference assays and manipulations of male song structure. The work will be of broad interest to neurobiologists and ethologists working on mouse social interactions, auditory processing and communication.

Reviewed by eLife

SRF-deficient astrocytes provide neuroprotection in mouse models of excitotoxicity and neurodegeneration

1. Surya Chandra Rao Thumu
2. Monika Jain
3. Sumitha Soman
4. Soumen Das
5. Vijaya Verma
6. Arnab Nandi
7. David H Gutmann
8. Balaji Jayaprakash
9. Deepak Nair
10. James P Clement
11. Swananda Marathe
12. Narendrakumar Ramanan

Reviewed by Review Commons

Bidirectional chemogenetic modulation of claustral activity causes altered cortical dynamics

1. Ryan Zahacy
2. Yonglie Ma
3. Ian R. Winship
4. Jesse Jackson
5. Allen W. Chan

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Behavioral entrainment to rhythmic auditory stimulation can be modulated by tACS depending on the electrical stimulation field properties

1. Yuranny Cabral-Calderin
2. Daniela van Hinsberg
3. Axel Thielscher
4. Molly J Henry

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This detailed and well powered manuscript explores auditory perception of modulated noise in the presence of transcranial alternating-current stimulation (tACS) and shows valuable results suggesting that there are subject-specific effects when the phase of 2-Hz tACS varies relative to the phase of the noise modulation. The strength of the evidence is mixed. There is convincing evidence that tACS alters perception significantly in individuals; however, the effects are inconsistent across subjects and even across sessions, frustrating attempts to draw conclusions about the underlying mechanisms of the idiosyncratic effects. Despite these limitations, the paper will be of great interest to researchers interested in determining when and how tACS influences neural processes, especially those interested in neural entrainment and its relationship to perception.

Reviewed by eLife

Decoding frontotemporal and cell-type-specific vulnerabilities to neuropsychiatric disorders and psychoactive drugs

1. Jiatong Ji
2. Honglu Chao
3. Huimei Chen
4. Jun Liao
5. Wenqian Shi
6. Yangfan Ye
7. Tian Wang
8. Yongping You
9. Ning Liu
10. Jing Ji
11. Enrico Petretto

Reviewed by Review Commons