Neuroscience

Interplay between external inputs and recurrent dynamics during movement preparation and execution in a network model of motor cortex

1. Ludovica Bachschmid-Romano
2. Nicholas G Hatsopoulos
3. Nicolas Brunel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The study provides a recurrent network model of M1 for center-out reaches. The "neurons" in the model show uncorrelated tuning for movement direction during preparation and execution with dynamic transition between the two states. The continuous attractor model provides an interesting example of flexible switching between neural representations.

Reviewed by eLife

Phosphorylation of PSD-95 at serine 73 in dCA1 is required for extinction of contextual fear

1. Magdalena Ziółkowska
2. Malgorzata Borczyk
3. Anna Cały
4. Kamil F. Tomaszewski
5. Agata Nowacka
6. Maria Nalberczak-Skóra
7. Małgorzata Alicja Śliwińska
8. Kacper Łukasiewicz
9. Edyta Skonieczna
10. Tomasz Wójtowicz
11. Jakub Wlodarczyk
12. Tytus Bernaś
13. Ahmad Salamian
14. Kasia Radwanska

Reviewed by Review Commons

Reading instruction causes changes in category-selective visual cortex

1. Jason D. Yeatman
2. Daniel R. McCloy
3. Sendy Caffarra
4. Maggie D. Clarke
5. Suzanne Ender
6. Liesbeth Gijbels
7. Sung Jun Joo
8. Emily C. Kubota
9. Patricia K. Kuhl
10. Eric Larson
11. Gabrielle O’Brien
12. Erica R. Peterson
13. Megumi E. Takada
14. Samu Taulu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The study is important in that it investigates the effect of reading acquisition on neural responses experimentally, randomly assigning children to one of two training groups. The results provide solid evidence for learning-related changes in the (late) neural response to words, but it is not clear whether this reflects category-specific changes in visual cortex tuning. As such, the study may not yet provide a clear answer to the neuronal recycling debate within which it was framed. This paper is of potential interest to a broad audience of neuroscientists, as it addresses fundamental questions regarding the re-organization of functional cortical responses associated with learning to read.

Reviewed by eLife

Experience-dependent flexibility in a molecularly diverse central-to-peripheral auditory feedback system

1. Michelle M Frank
2. Austen A Sitko
3. Kirupa Suthakar
4. Lester Torres Cadenas
5. Mackenzie Hunt
6. Mary Caroline Yuk
7. Catherine JC Weisz
8. Lisa V Goodrich

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important paper provides detailed cellular and molecular characterization of the olivocochlear efferents that project to the inner ear. These specialized motoneurons are the only source of feedback from the brain to the ear and have been difficult to access. This study convincingly categorizes the efferents, using single nucleus RNA-sequencing and 3D reconstructions of individual fibers and their pre-synaptic contacts onto target neurons in the cochlea.

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Adult neural stem cells and neurogenesis are resilient to intermittent fasting

1. Rut Gabarró‐Solanas
2. Amarbayasgalan Davaatseren
3. Justus Kleifeld
4. Tatjana Kepčija
5. Thomas Köcher
6. Albert Giralt
7. Iván Crespo‐Enríquez
8. Noelia Urbán

Reviewed by Review Commons

Internal neural states influence the short-term effect of monocular deprivation in human adults

1. Yiya Chen
2. Yige Gao
3. Zhifen He
4. Zhouyuan Sun
5. Yu Mao
6. Robert F Hess
7. Peng Zhang
8. Jiawei Zhou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors report the results of three experiments assessing how one or both eyes open under a patch influence resting EEG activity, contrast sensitivity, and binocular balance in normally sighted subjects. Their results suggest that the state of eye opening temporarily, but significantly, influences shifts in ocular dominance with relevance for treatment of binocular visual disorders such as amblyopia that are treated with periodic monocular occlusion. The evidence supporting their conclusions is solid and the findings are important for the field.

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retro-Tango enables versatile retrograde circuit tracing in Drosophila

1. Altar Sorkaç
2. Rareș A Moșneanu
3. Anthony M Crown
4. Doruk Savaş
5. Angel M Okoro
6. Ezgi Memiş
7. Mustafa Talay
8. Gilad Barnea

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Sorkac et al. present a novel genetically encoded retrograde synaptic tracing method that has the potential for unbiased identification of presynaptically connected neurons. Retro-Tango is based on the previously developed anterograde method trans-Tango, promising high applicability and rendering the significance of this contribution important. The strength of the evidence is convincing.

Reviewed by eLife

NSC-derived exosomes enhance therapeutic effects of NSC transplantation on cerebral ischemia in mice

1. Ruolin Zhang
2. Weibing Mao
3. Lumeng Niu
4. Wendai Bao
5. Yiqi Wang
6. Ying Wang
7. Yasha Zhu
8. Zhihao Yang
9. Jincao Chen
10. Jiawen Dong
11. Meng Cai
12. Zilong Yuan
13. Haikun Song
14. Guangqiang Li
15. Min Zhang
16. Nanxiang Xiong
17. Jun Wei
18. Zhiqiang Dong

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The current study employed NSCs derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) together with NSC-derived exosomes extracted from NSCs to treat cerebral ischemia, and they made an important observation. Remarkably, NSC-derived exosomes could promote NSCs differentiation, reduce the oxidative stress and inflammation, and alleviate the formation of glial scars after ischemia and reperfusion, and as a result, could enhance the therapeutic effects of NSC transplantation, which is compelling. The solid experimental evidence strongly supports their major claims.

Reviewed by eLife

Exploring the role of the outer subventricular zone during cortical folding through a physics-based model

1. Mohammad Saeed Zarzor
2. Ingmar Blumcke
3. Silvia Budday

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Through theoretical analysis, the authors argue that the proliferation of neurons in the outer subventricular zone, which is specific to humans, decreases the distance between neighboring sulci in the cerebral cortex and increases cell density in the ventricular zone. Though the exact mechanisms remain to be further elucidated, the compelling data and approach represent a valuable foundation for the study of cortical folding from the underpinning cellular level as well as the coupling role of mechanics and cellular biology. This study will be of particular interest to the large community of scientists studying the mechanisms of brain development and disorder and even possibly beyond.

Reviewed by eLife

Toward a more informative representation of the fetal–neonatal brain connectome using variational autoencoder

1. Jung-Hoon Kim
2. Josepheen De Asis-Cruz
3. Dhineshvikram Krishnamurthy
4. Catherine Limperopoulos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents an application of a deep learning approach (adult-trained variational autoencoder) to describe the development of the functional brain connectome in human fetuses and neonates. The results suggest that this may lead to a better characterization of the complex patterns of brain maturation during this period. The evidence is convincing but the impact of other confounding factors in addition to maturation on the results could be explored and further analysis should be considered to highlight how this method can account for non-linear patterns of development, as well as the biological plausibility of the observed brain states. This work is of potential methodological interest to researchers exploring functional brain networks and brain development notably with deep learning.

Reviewed by eLife