Neuroscience

PTBP1 depletion in mature astrocytes reveals distinct splicing alterations without neuronal features

1. Min Zhang
2. Naoto Kubota
3. David Nikom
4. Ayden Arient
5. Sika Zheng

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study reports important negative results, showing that genetically removing the RNA-binding protein PTBP1 in astrocytes is insufficient to convert them into neurons, thereby challenging previous claims in the field. It also offers a compelling analysis of PTBP1's role in regulating astrocyte-specific splicing. The evidence is strong, as the experiments are technically sound, carefully controlled, and supported by both imaging and transcriptomic analyses.

Reviewed by eLife

Biophysical network modeling of temporal and stereotyped sequence propagation of neural activity in the premotor nucleus HVC

1. Zeina Bou Diab
2. Marc Chammas
3. Arij Daou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This computational study examines how neurons in the songbird premotor nucleus HVC might generate the precise, sparse burst sequences that drive adult song. The findings would be useful for understanding how intrinsic conductances and HVC microcircuitry may produce neural sequences, but the work is incomplete because of arbitrary network assumptions, insufficient consideration of biological details such as how silent gaps in song sequences are represented, and failure to incorporate interactions with auditory and brainstem inputs. As a result, the study offers limited advance and only a modest conceptual advance over prior models.

Reviewed by eLife

Eye-specific differences in active zone addition during synaptic competition in the developing visual system

1. Chenghang Zhang
2. Tarlan Vatan
3. Colenso M Speer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is a valuable analysis of STORM data that characterizes the clustering of active zones in retinogeniculate terminals across ages and in the absence of retinal waves. The design makes it possible to relate fixed time point structural data to a known outcome of activity-dependent remodeling. The latest revision has tempered the causal claims made in previous versions. The result provides solid structural support for the hypotheses regarding how activity influences the clustering of these synapses.

Reviewed by eLife

Molecular Architecture and Function Mechanism of Tri-heteromeric GluN1-N2-N3A NMDA Receptors

1. Zengwei Kou
2. Fenyong Yao
3. Tongtong Zhang
4. Nan Song
5. Chun Xie
6. Boshuang Wang
7. Yidi Sun

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work advances our understanding of NMDAR diversity in the brain by providing evidence into the subunit arrangement, architecture, and activation mechanism of GluN1-N2-N3A tri-NMDAR. However, the evidence supporting the conclusions provides incomplete proof for the presence and functional properties of this NMDA receptor subtype. The work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists and biophysicists.

Reviewed by eLife

Normal aging increases white matter microglial reaction and perivascular macrophages in the microcebe primate

1. Léo Dupuis
2. Lolie Garcia
3. Fanny Petit
4. Suzanne Lam
5. Helène Hirbec
6. Jean-Luc Picq
7. Delphine Boche
8. Marc Dhenain

Reviewed by preLights

Molecular and Neural Circuit Mechanisms Underlying Sexual Experience-dependent Long-Term Memory in Drosophila.

1. Dongyu Sun
2. Xiaoli Zhang
3. Hongyu Miao
4. Tianmu Zhang
5. Woo Jae Kim

Reviewed by Review Commons

Longitudinal tracking of neuronal activity from the same cells in the developing brain using Track2p

1. Jure Majnik
2. Manon Mantez
3. Sofia Zangila
4. Stéphane Bugeon
5. Léo Guignard
6. Jean-Claude Platel
7. Rosa Cossart

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study presents a new method for longitudinally tracking cells in two-photon imaging data that addresses the specific challenges of imaging neurons in the developing cortex. It provides compelling evidence demonstrating reliable longitudinal identification of neurons across the second postnatal week in mice. The study should be of interest to development neuroscientists engaged in population-level recordings using two-photon imaging.

Reviewed by eLife

A stretching mechanism evokes mechano-electrical transduction in auditory chordotonal neurons

1. Atitheb Chaiyasitdhi
2. Manuela Nowotny
3. Marcel Van der Heijden
4. Benjamin Warren

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study uses a sophisticated array of techniques to investigate the mechanisms through which the chordotonal receptors in the locust ear (Müller's organ) sense auditory signals. Ultrastructural reconstruction of the sensory organ provides convincing evidence of the organization of the scolopidial structure that wraps the sensory neuron cilium. However, the recordings of sound-evoked motion and electrophysiological activity from the chordotonal sensory neurons provide incomplete evidence for the proposed axial stretch model of mechanotransduction.

Reviewed by eLife

The Crunchometer: A Low-Cost, Open-Source Acoustic Analysis of Feeding Microstructure

1. Elvi Gil-Lievana
2. Benjamin Arroyo
3. Jesús Pérez-Ortega
4. Axl Lopez
5. Luis Alfredo Rodriguez Blanco
6. Xarenny Diaz
7. Gustavo Hernandez
8. Alam Coss
9. Emily Alway
10. Naama Reicher
11. Enrique Hernández Lemus
12. Maya Kaelberer
13. Diego V Bohórquez
14. Ranier Gutierrez

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable manuscript presents an open-source and low-cost acoustic system for quantifying biting and chewing in mice. The approach is carefully validated against human observers, demonstrating strong methodological reliability and enabling high-resolution analysis of feeding microstructure. The tool has broad relevance for studies of appetite circuits and pharmacological interventions. A significant contribution is the identification of previously unrecognized "meal-related" neurons in the lateral hypothalamus, providing novel biological insight into food consumption. While the support for the methodological advances is compelling and robust, some circuit-level conclusions are preliminary or incomplete, relying on small pilot samples and manual classification, and should be interpreted with caution. This paper will be of interest to those interested in ingestive behavior and/or hypothalamus.

Reviewed by eLife

Time-adaptive modulation of evidence evaluation in rat posterior parietal cortex

1. Preetham Ganupuru
2. Adam B Goldring
3. Tanner Stevenson
4. Kendall Stewart
5. Rishidev Chaudhuri
6. Timothy D Hanks

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study examined the roles of the posterior parietal cortex in rats performing an auditory change-detection decision task. It provided solid evidence for two subpopulations with opposing modulation patterns during decision formation and for a correspondence between neural and behavioral measures of the short timescale used for evidence evaluation.

Reviewed by eLife