Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This useful study characterizes the evolution of medial prefrontal cortex activity during the learning of an odor-based choice task. The evidence provided is solid, providing quantification of functional classes of cells over the course of learning using the longitudinal calcium recordings in prefrontal cortex, and quantification of prefrontal sequences. However, the experimental design appears to provide limited evidence to support strong conclusions regarding the functional relevance of neural sequences. The study will be of interest to neuroscientists investigating learning and decision-making processes.

eLife Assessment

Varani et al present important findings regarding the role of distinct cerebellothalamic connections in motor learning and performance. The evidence supporting the main claims is convincing, with multiple replications, validation of their techniques, and appropriate controls. The work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists interested in central mechanisms of motor learning and control, as well as thalamic physiology.

eLife Assessment

This important work by Qin et al. delineates layered neuropeptidergic mechanisms that regulate sugar intake in a hunger state-dependent manner. Using a combination of genetic, physiological, and behavioral experiments, the authors convincingly show that Hugin- and Allatostatin A-releasing neurons are selectively active in sated flies and suppress sugar feeding by reducing the sensitivity of Gr5a-expressing gustatory neurons. They further demonstrate that Neuromedin U neurons share key physiological properties with fly Hugin neurons, highlighting conserved peptide functions across animal phyla.

eLife Assessment

This study introduces a novel method for estimating spatial spectra from irregularly sampled intracranial EEG data, revealing cortical activity across all spatial frequencies, which supports the global and integrated nature of cortical dynamics. It showcases important technical innovations and rigorous analyses, including tests to rule out potential confounds. However, further direct evaluation of the model, for example by using simulated cortical activity with a known spatial spectrum (e.g., an iEEG volume-conductor model that describes the mapping from cortical current source density to iEEG signals, and that incorporates the reference electrodes and the particular montage used), would even further strengthen the solid evidence.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a valuable application of a video-text alignment deep neural network model to improve neural encoding of naturalistic stimuli in fMRI. The authors provide convincing evidence that models based on multimodal and dynamic embedding features of audiovisual movies predicted brain responses better than models based on unimodal or static features. The work will be of interest to researchers in cognitive neuroscience and AI-based brain modeling.

eLife Assessment

Huang and colleagues examined neural responses in mouse anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during a discrimination-avoidance task. The authors present useful findings that ACC neurons encode primarily post-action variables or "action content" over extended periods. Though the methodological approach was sound, the evidence in support of action state encoding, ruling out alternative explanations related to movement, is incomplete.

eLife Assessment

This important study addresses the unresolved and long-debated question of whether atypical protein kinase C is required for the maintenance of synaptic potentiation and long-term memory. The results confirm previous findings that persistent activity of PKMζ is required for lasting potentiation of hippocampal synapses and spatial memory. The study also adds new genetic evidence to support the earlier suggestion that enhanced expression of PKC iota/lambda compensates for the genetic reduction of PKM zeta to support synaptic potentiation and memory; however, the results as currently presented were viewed as incomplete.

eLife Assessment

This important study introduces an experimental approach for studying Drosophila oviposition rhythms and identifies the subset of circadian clock neurons that mediate the circadian control of oviposition. The authors try to resolve a known noisy rhythm and provide convincing evidence by using statistical averaging techniques which help reduce this noise but at the cost of variation across individual rhythms. To this end, including the time series of representative individuals for all genotypes tested would have helped in interpreting some of the results. This paper will be of interest to anyone interested in insect ovarian physiology, circadian biology, and reproductive fitness.

eLife Assessment

Foucault and colleagues examine how human adaptive learning depends on the structure of the learning task. The authors provide useful findings clarifying the differences in how people learn in environments that are continuously versus discontinuously changing. While they provide solid evidence for most conclusions, support for some of the claims is incomplete in the current form.

eLife Assessment

The new development of Neuroplex, a pipeline that links projection-defined neuronal identity to in vivo calcium activity within the same animal, is a valuable contribution to the field of neuroscience and beyond. The strength of evidence is judged to be solid, as the methods, data, and analyses broadly support the stated claims.