Neuroscience

Reevaluating the Neural Noise Hypothesis in Dyslexia: Insights from EEG and 7T MRS Biomarkers

1. Agnieszka Glica
2. Katarzyna Wasilewska
3. Julia Jurkowska
4. Jarosław Żygierewicz
5. Bartosz Kossowski
6. Katarzyna Jednoróg

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors combined neurophysiological (electroencephalography [EEG]) and neurochemical (magnetic resonance spectroscopy [MRS]) measures to empirically evaluate the neural noise hypothesis of developmental dyslexia. Their results are solid, supported by consistent findings from the two complementary methodologies and Bayesian statistics. Additional analyses, particularly on the neurochemical measures, are necessary to further substantiate the results. This study is useful for understanding the neural mechanisms of dyslexia and neural development in general.

Reviewed by eLife

Mixed representations of choice and outcome by GABA/glutamate cotransmitting neurons in the entopeduncular nucleus

1. Julianna Locantore
2. Yijun Liu
3. Jesse White
4. Janet Berrios Wallace
5. Celia C Beron
6. Bernardo L Sabatini
7. Michael L Wallace

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Somatostatin-expressing neurons of the entopeduncular nucleus (EPNSst+) co-release GABA and glutamate in their projection to the lateral habenula, a structure that is key for reward-based learning. Combining fiber photometry and computational modeling, the authors provide compelling evidence that EPNSst+ neural activity represents movement, choice direction, and reward outcomes in a probabilistic switching task but, surprisingly, neither chronic genetic silencing of these neurons nor selective elimination glutamate release affected behavioral performance in well-trained animals. This valuable study shows that despite its representation of key task variables, EPNSst+ neurons are dispensable for ongoing performance in a task requiring outcome monitoring to optimize reward. This study will be of interest to those interested in reward learning and/or reward-related behavior and systems or behavioral neuroscience more broadly.

Reviewed by eLife

Three-photon in vivo imaging of neurons and glia in the medial prefrontal cortex with sub-cellular resolution

1. Falko Fuhrmann
2. Felix C. Nebeling
3. Fabrizio Musacchio
4. Manuel Mittag
5. Stefanie Poll
6. Monika Müller
7. Eleonora Ambrad Giovannetti
8. Michael Maibach
9. Barbara Schaffran
10. Emily Burnside
11. Ivy Chi Wai Chan
12. Alex Simon Lagurin
13. Nicole Reichenbach
14. Sanjeev Kaushalya
15. Hans Fried
16. Stefan Linden
17. Gabor C. Petzold
18. Gaia Tavosanis
19. Frank Bradke
20. Martin Fuhrmann

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

GABAergic inhibition in human hMT+ predicts visuo-spatial intelligence mediated through the frontal cortex

1. Yuan Gao
2. Yong-Chun Cai
3. Dong-Yu Liu
4. Juan Yu
5. Jue Wang
6. Ming Li
7. Bin Xu
8. Tengfei Wang
9. Gang Chen
10. Georg Northoff
11. Ruiliang Bai
12. Xue Mei Song

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study adopts a comprehensive approach: functional connectivity, biochemistry, and psychophysics to reveal a holistic understanding of the relationship between GABA-ergic inhibition in the human MT+ region and visuo-spatial intelligence. The evidence supporting the conclusion is convincing. The result advances our understanding of how the human MT+ is assemble into complex cognition as an intellectual hub, and will be of interest to researchers in psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

Stimulus representation in human frontal cortex supports flexible control in working memory

1. Zhujun Shao
2. Mengya Zhang
3. Qing Yu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work presents valuable findings that the human frontal cortex is involved in a flexible, dual role in both maintaining information in short-term memory, and controlling this memory content to guide adaptive behavior and decisions. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with a well-designed task, best-practice decoding methods, and careful control analyses. The work will be of broad interest to cognitive neuroscience researchers working on working memory and cognitive control.

Reviewed by eLife

Encoding of cerebellar dentate neuronal activity during visual attention in rhesus macaques

1. Nico A Flierman
2. Sue Ann Koay
3. Willem S van Hoogstraten
4. Tom JH Ruigrok
5. Pieter R Roelfsema
6. Aleksandra Badura
7. Chris I De Zeeuw

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study examined neuronal activity in the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum when monkeys performed a difficult perceptual decision-making task. The authors provide convincing evidence that the cerebellum represents sensory, motor, and behavioral outcome signals that are sent to the attentional system, but further analysis focusing on the disparity of performance between animals would improve the quality of the paper. This paper is of great general interest in that it shows the involvement of the cerebellum in cognitive processes at the neuronal level.

Reviewed by eLife

Dopamine increases protein synthesis in hippocampal neurons enabling dopamine-dependent LTP

1. Tania Fuchsberger
2. Imogen Stockwell
3. Matty Woods
4. Zuzanna Brzosko
5. Ingo H Greger
6. Ole Paulsen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript addresses a mechanism by which dopamine (DA) regulates synaptic plasticity. The authors build upon their previous finding that DA applied after a timing pattern that ordinarily induces long-term depression (LTD) now induces long-term potentiation (LTP). The new findings that this "DA-dependent LTP" involves de novo protein synthesis, a cyclicAMP signalling pathway, and calcium-permeable AMPA receptors (CP-AMPARs) are of valuable significance. The conclusions are convincing and largely supported by the evidence provided.

Reviewed by eLife

Multi-talker speech comprehension at different temporal scales in listeners with normal and impaired hearing

1. Jixing Li
2. Qixuan Wang
3. Qian Zhou
4. Lu Yang
5. Yutong Shen
6. Shujian Huang
7. Shaonan Wang
8. Liina Pylkkänen
9. Zhiwu Huang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study investigates how hearing impairment affects neural encoding of speech, in particular the encoding of hierarchical linguistic information. The current analysis provides incomplete evidence that hearing impairment affects speech processing at multiple levels, since the novel analysis based on HM-LSTM needs further justification. The advantage of this method should also be further explained. The study can also benefit from building a stronger link between neural and behavioral data.

Reviewed by eLife

A distributed brain response predicting the facial expression of acute nociceptive pain

1. Marie-Eve Picard
2. Miriam Kunz
3. Jen-I Chen
4. Michel-Pierre Coll
5. Étienne Vachon-Presseau
6. Tor D Wager
7. Pierre Rainville

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Picard et al. propose a Facial Expression Pain Signature (FEPS) derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to predict facial expressions associated with painful heat stimulation. This important work advances our understanding of the brain mechanisms associated with facial expressions of pain. It provides solid evidence that facial expressions of pain contain information that is complementary to other pain-related brain processes. The work will be of broad interest to researchers from varied fields ranging from neurosciences to psychology and affective sciences.

Reviewed by eLife

Sensitivity to vocal emotions emerges in newborns at 37 weeks gestational age

1. Xinlin Hou
2. Peng Zhang
3. Licheng Mo
4. Cheng Peng
5. Dandan Zhang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is an important study on changes in newborns' neural abilities to distinguish auditory signals at 37 weeks of gestation. The evidence of change in neural discrimination as a function of gestational age is convincing, but, as the authors acknowledge, further control of the acoustic signals and infants' language environment is necessary for the results to be used in clinical applications. The work contributes to the field of neurodevelopment.

Reviewed by eLife