Neuroscience

eLife assessment

Wang, Carlson, and colleagues investigate sensory adaptations in the fruit pest Drosophila suzukii, which prefers ripe over overripe fruit. This study focuses on changes in sensory pathways for sugars and food texture, which may contribute to ecological shifts. Several interesting physiological and molecular adaptations are observed in D. suzukii, but it remains unclear whether these observed changes account for behavioral changes.

eLife assessment

This important work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on synaptic transmission and modulation of ion channel activity. This work provides solid evidence of how modulation of Nav1.2 channels by SUMOYLation alters the function of layer 5 pyramidal neurons, using convincing methodology that includes the use of a mouse engineered to eliminate the SUMOYLation site on Nav1.2. Some aspects need to be revised to strengthen data analysis and interpretation.

eLife assessment

Authors investigated the role of dopamine (DA) release via GRABDA in the dorsal bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (dBNST) in sign and goal tracking behavior, in response to systemic fentanyl, and to fentanyl self-administration. The behavioral experiments were well-conducted and provide novel information about BNST DA in theories of learning and reinforcement. Identified limitations had to do with acknowledgment and discussion of divergent sources of DA innervation, the low sample size in fentanyl experiments with the exclusion of a large number of animals, and a need for additional analyses of the photometry data and/or control recordings to rule out spontaneous transients in this region.

eLife assessment

This manuscript examines the inhibition of transmitter release induced by the activation of opioid receptors, both MOR and DOR, using a novel imaging method. The authors specifically examine how the inhibition of transmitter release is changed following prolonged exposure to saturating concentrations of agonists. They showed convincingly that there is a depletion of plasma membrane-associated receptors and suggest that the decline in receptors at the plasma membrane underlies presynaptic tolerance. This work addresses a long-standing question about how tolerance develops at the presynaptic level and indicates that the location of receptors is critically important in the development of tolerance. This work is fundamental and a game changer in the understanding of tolerance at the cellular level.

eLife assessment

This paper will be of interest to neuroscientists who study visual processing or are interested in dendritic integration. The authors used calcium imaging, pharmacology, and electrophysiology to investigate how a large, loom-sensitive neuron in grasshoppers integrates visual input to respond to both light and dark looming objects. These experiments support the finding that the integration is done by two distinct arbors of the neuronal dendritic tree, one of which loses retinotopic information. The authors suggest potential advantages of this dendritic arrangement.

eLife assessment

This manuscript examines the functional relationship between neural activities in several cortical areas (such as the primary and secondary motor cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex) and the different sleep states or under anesthesia. The quality of the recordings in infant rats is excellent. Results are important in the field of research into the role of active sleep in the neuronal and circuit mechanisms of early cortical development. Some of the findings presented and hypothesis developed are novel, but the overall demonstration remains incomplete and further in-depth analysis and additional experiments are required to fully support the authors' claims.

eLife assessment

The ability of organisms to cope with environmental stressors can be modified by their physiological conditions as well as life experience. Here, taking advantage of the tractability of the nematode C. elegans, the authors find that exposure to elevated temperatures enhances defenses against peroxides, agents whose toxicity is enhanced by temperature. The finding that a key thermosensory neuron is required for this phenomenon is an important advance in understanding the underlying mechanism; further, the authors' proposal that this is an "enhancer sensing" phenomenon is interesting and thought-provoking. The multidisciplinary approach and mechanistic detail revealed by this work will make it of interest to readers in the fields of sensory biology, signal transduction, and physiology.

eLife assessment

This manuscript investigates how the fly visual system can encode specific features in the presence of self-generated motion. Using volumetric imaging, it explores the encoding of visual features in population activity in the Drosophila visual glomeruli - a set of visual "feature detectors". Through an elegant combination of neural imaging, visual stimulus manipulations, and behavioral analysis, it demonstrates that two different mechanisms, one based on motor signals and one based on visual input, serve to suppress local features during movements that would corrupt these features. The results of this study open up future directions to determine how motor and visual signals are integrated into visual processing at the level of neural circuits.

eLife assessment

This work offers fundamental insights into how asymmetric behavioral features in optokinetic eye movements can be predicted from visual responses of direction-selective neurons in the retina. The electrophysiological experiments and model-based analyses are carefully performed and offer convincing conclusions. The presentation could improve in clarity for a stronger focus on the most important results.

eLife assessment

This study provides empirical support for how brain function at the system level, particularly network segregation, influences cognitive abilities even in the oldest-old range of human aging. The findings are potentially interesting to understand successful aging.