Neuroscience

Smith–Magenis syndrome protein RAI1 regulates body weight homeostasis through hypothalamic BDNF-producing neurons and neurotrophin downstream signalling

1. Sehrish Javed
2. Ya-Ting Chang
3. Yoobin Cho
4. Yu-Ju Lee
5. Hao-Cheng Chang
6. Minza Haque
7. Yu Cheng Lin
8. Wei-Hsiang Huang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study informs whether diminishing BDNF expression or alterations in the activity of BDNF-containing neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus contributes to metabolic alterations in individuals with reduced RAI1 function, including those afflicted with Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS). The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling in that RAI1 deficits in BDNF-containing neurons partly contribute, with prominent effects on glycemic control and modest effects on feeding and body weight regulation. This study would be of interest to neuroscientists and medical biologists working on metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes, as the findings in this study further links SMS-associated obesity with reduced Bdnf gene expression in the PVH and shed light on the role of the Rai1 gene in the PVH Bdnf neurons and offer a basis for future therapeutic strategies for managing obesity in SMS.

Reviewed by eLife

Shh from mossy cells contributes to preventing NSC pool depletion after seizure-induced neurogenesis and in aging

1. Hirofumi Noguchi
2. Jessica Chelsea Arela
3. Thomas Ngo
4. Laura Cocas
5. Samuel Pleasure

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study uses specific and robust genetic approaches to assess mechanisms of kainic acid-induced neurogenesis. This is a fundamental study that bridges several complementary methods and is a convincing use of existing approaches to explore roles for sonic hedgehog in activity-dependent and aging-associated hippocampal neurogenesis.

Reviewed by eLife

Melanopsin activates divergent phototransduction pathways in intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell subtypes

1. Ely Contreras
2. Jacob D Bhoi
3. Takuma Sonoda
4. Lutz Birnbaumer
5. Tiffany M Schmidt

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Retinal ganglion cells which are intrinsically photosensitive play important and emerging physiological roles. The mechanisms of phototransduction are still not well known and there exists a controversy regarding the ion channels responsible for the photocurrent. The authors of this manuscript present data that can contribute to understanding the actual ionic mechanisms in two of these cell types. This manuscript will be of general interest to biologists and neuroscientists and should help resolve a major issue in retinal physiology.

Reviewed by eLife

Study of an FBXO7 patient mutation reveals Fbxo7 and PI31 co-regulate proteasomes and mitochondria

1. Sara Al Rawi
2. Lorna Simpson
3. Neil Q. McDonald
4. Veronika Chernuha
5. Orly Elpeleg
6. Massimo Zeviani
7. Roger A. Barker
8. Ronen Spiegel
9. Heike Laman

Reviewed by Review Commons

Network-level changes in the brain underlie fear memory strength

1. Josue Haubrich
2. Karim Nader

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study provides convincing data in support of the conclusion that weak but not strong fear memories are more easily modified using behavioural and pharmacological approaches potentially as a result of differential connectivity with the amygdala showing greater connectivity through the brain in weak compared to strong memories. The scope of the paper would be strengthened if both sexes were examined and more varied definitions of weak vs. strong memories were used. This paper is of interest to behavioural and neuroscience researchers studying learning, memory, and/or neural networks.

Reviewed by eLife

Pinpoint: trajectory planning for multi-probe electrophysiology and injections in an interactive web-based 3D environment

1. Daniel Birman
2. Kenneth J. Yang
3. Steven J. West
4. Bill Karsh
5. Yoni Browning
6. the International Brain Laboratory
7. Joshua H. Siegle
8. Nicholas A. Steinmetz

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Birman et al. present a valuable software interface, Pinpoint, for planning anatomically precise insertions of rigid instruments (e.g., electrodes, injection needles/pipettes, fibre optic implants) into the mouse brain. The authors provide compelling evidence of the potential of this software since, it: (1) incorporates the geometrical constraints of the rig and instruments; (2) interfaces with popular manipulator systems and data acquisition software; (3) runs on any browser; and (4) allows for easy collaboration among users. Despite these exciting features, quantification of the gains in experimental efficiency and accuracy derived from Pinpoint is needed.

Reviewed by eLife

Modulation of input sensitivity and output gain by retinal amacrine cells

1. Neda Nategh
2. Mihai Manu
3. Stephen A. Baccus

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper studies how amacrine cells influence retinal output signals. The approach taken is unusually direct and has the potential to make important contributions to our understanding of amacrine cells, and more generally interneurons, to circuit function. The contributions of the work described, however, are limited by several key concerns. Specifically, the results rely heavily on assumptions made about how signals traverse the retina; as a result, the evidence for adequate separation of signals contributed by the amacrine cells and those from other parallel retinal pathways is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Identification of a convergent spinal neuron population that encodes itch

1. Tayler D. Sheahan
2. Charles A. Warwick
3. Abby Y. Cui
4. David A.A. Baranger
5. Vijay J. Perry
6. Kelly M. Smith
7. Allison P. Manalo
8. Eileen K. Nguyen
9. H. Richard Koerber
10. Sarah E. Ross

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

A meta-analysis of the effect of protein synthesis inhibitors on rodent fear conditioning

1. Clarissa F. D. Carneiro
2. Felippe E. Amorim
3. Olavo B. Amaral

Reviewed by Peer Community in Neuroscience

Temporally specific gene expression and chromatin remodeling programs regulate a conserved Pdyn enhancer

1. Robert A Phillips
2. Ethan Wan
3. Jennifer J Tuscher
4. David Reid
5. Olivia R Drake
6. Lara Ianov
7. Jeremy J Day

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is an important study that uses chromatin accessibility as a measure to determine the impact of neuronal activity on the state of chromatin regulatory elements in striatal neurons. The authors provide convincing evidence of how Pdyn gene expression is highly dependent on a distal regulatory genomic region both at basal and upon neuronal activation in this particular system, a mechanism conserved as well in human neuronal cells. Although the basic idea of accessibility changes have been studied before, this paper ties previous findings all together in one place and uses the analysis to identify a functionally relevant and conserved enhancer for the prodynorphin gene with potential relevance for neuropsychiatric disorders beyond basic cellular neuroscience. The study will be of interest to neuroscientists studying the striatum, neuronal plasticity, or related neuropsychiatric disorders.

Reviewed by eLife