Neuroscience

WAChRs are excitatory opsins sensitive to indoor lighting

1. Amanda J. Tose
2. Alberto A. Nava
3. Sara N. McGrath
4. Alan R. Mardinly
5. Alexander Naka

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Single-cell transcriptome sequencing for opening the blood-brain barrier through specific mode electroacupuncture stimulation

1. Congcong Ma
2. Zhaoxing Jia
3. Tianxiang Jiang
4. Qian Cai
5. Jinding Yang
6. Lin Gan
7. Kecheng Qian
8. Zixin Pan
9. Qinyu Ye
10. Mengyuan Dai
11. Xianming Lin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a valuable finding that the blood-brain barrier (BBB) may be modulated through specific modes of electroacupuncture stimulation. The data were collected and analyzed using a solid and validated methodology, and can be used as a starting point for functional studies of the BBB for drug delivery across healthy and diseased states. The work will be of broad interest to scientists working in the field of drug delivery and drug development.

Reviewed by eLife

Synaptic mechanisms modulate the spatiotemporal dynamics of striatal direct pathway neurons and motor output

1. John J Marshall
2. Jian Xu
3. Nai-Hsing Yeh
4. Seongsik Yun
5. Toshihiro Nomura
6. John N Armstrong
7. Jones G Parker
8. Anis Contractor

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Marshall et al describe the effects of altering metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 activity on activity of D1 receptor expressing spiny projection neurons in dorsolateral striatum focusing on two states - locomotion and rest. The authors examine effects of dSPN-specific constitutive mGlu5 deletion in several motor tests to arrive at this finding. Effects of inhibiting the degradation of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl glycerol are also examined. Overall, this is a valuable study that provides solid new information of relevance to movement disorders and possibly psychosis.

Reviewed by eLife

The resource elasticity of control

1. Levi Solomyak
2. Aviv Emanuel
3. Eran Eldar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study makes the valuable claim that people track, specifically, the elasticity of control (that is, the degree to which outcome depends on how many resources - such as money - are invested), and that control elasticity is impaired in certain types of psychopathologies. A novel task is introduced that provides solid evidence that this learning process occurs and that human behavior is sensitive to changes in the elasticity of control. Evidence that elasticity inference is distinct from more general learning mechanisms and is related to psychopathology remains incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Social experience shapes fighting strategies in Drosophila

1. Can Gao
2. Mingze Ma
3. Jie Chen
4. Xiaoxiao Ji
5. Qionglin Peng
6. Yufeng Pan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The important paper presents a new behavioral assay for Drosophila aggression and demonstrates that social experience influences fighting strategies, with group-housed males favoring high-intensity but low-frequency tussling over aggressive lunging observed in isolated males. The experiments are solid and the conclusions are of interest to researchers studying the impact of social isolation on aggression.

Reviewed by eLife

Visual experience shapes functional connectivity between occipital and non-visual networks

1. Mengyu Tian
2. Xiang Xiao
3. Huiqing Hu
4. Rhodri Cusack
5. Marina Bedny

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides evidence supporting the idea that postnatal experience plays an instructive role in shaping the patterns of functional connectivity between extrastriate visual cortex and frontal regions during development, by comparing neonates, blind and sighted adults. The evidence supporting the authors' claim is solid. Nevertheless, substantial weaknesses remain in mechanistic interpretation and alignment with relevant developmental frameworks. This study will be of significant interest to neuroscientists and neuroimaging researchers focused on vision, plasticity and development.

Reviewed by eLife

Altered cognitive processes shape tactile perception in autism

1. Ourania Semelidou
2. Mathilde Tortochot-Megne Fotso
3. Adinda Winderickx
4. Andreas Frick

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides valuable insights with solid evidence into altered tactile perception in a mouse model of ASD (Fmr1 mice), paralleling sensory abnormalities in Fragile X and autism. Its main strength lies in the use of a novel tactile categorization task and the careful dissection of behavioral performance across training and difficulty levels, suggesting that deficits may stem from an interaction between sensory and cognitive processes. However, while the experiments are well executed, the reported effects are subtle and sometimes non-significant. The interpretation of results may be over-extended given the nature of the data (solely behavioral) and the absence of mechanistic, causal, or computational approaches limits the strength of the broader conclusions. The work will be relevant to those interested in autism, cognition, and/or sensory processing.

Reviewed by eLife

Fitting bifurcation structure, not voltage traces: A biophysically inspired derivation of reduced neuron models exemplified by potassium dynamics

1. Louisiane Lemaire
2. Mahraz Behbood
3. Jan-Hendrik Schleimer
4. Susanne Schreiber

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work demonstrates an objective way to select parameter values for a quadratic integrate-and-fire model so that its bifurcation diagram matches a specific target diagram, generated from the Wang-Buzsaki model. The method is useful for the field and is presented with convincing evidence. The method is currently limited in its ability to be applied to data, but improves our mathematical tools to treat a rarely studied type of bifurcation.

Reviewed by eLife

Intrinsic and circuit mechanisms of predictive coding in a grid cell network model

1. Inayath Shaikh
2. Collins Assisi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study presents a mechanistic model of predictive coding by medial entorhinal cortex grid cells, implemented with biologically detailed conductance-based neurons. The evidence supporting the emergence of this coding scheme from specific membrane currents and the anatomical connectivity among inhibitory neurons is solid. However, the justification for the choice of connectivity patterns and other network parameters remains somewhat incomplete. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on spatial navigation, circuit dynamics, and neuronal coding.

Reviewed by eLife

An updated catalogue of split-GAL4 driver lines for descending neurons in Drosophila melanogaster

1. Jessica L Zung
2. Shigehiro Namiki
3. Geoffrey W Meissner
4. Han SJ Cheong
5. Marta Costa
6. Katharina Eichler
7. Tomke Stürner
8. Gregory SXE Jefferis
9. Claire Managan
10. FlyLight Project Team
11. Wyatt Korff
12. Gwyneth M Card

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Complementing previous work (Namiki et al, 2018), this study provides an important resource for the Drosophila community as it reports 500 lines targeting descending neurons (DN), in addition to compiling 306 existing DN lines from the literature. The compelling work characterizes 146 DNs and makes a critical link with the DNs identified in Electron microscopy (EM). The lines in this paper will be of interest to Drosophila neuroscientists who will be able to use the reported genetic drivers for further functional characterization of DNs and circuit mapping in conjunction with existing EM datasets.

Reviewed by eLife