Neuroscience

The distinct role of human PIT in attention control

1. Siyuan Huang
2. Lan Wang
3. Sheng He

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study reports that the human posterior inferotemporal cortex (hPIT) functions as an attentional priority map, integrating both top-down and bottom-up attentional signals rather than serving solely as an object-processing region. The experiments and analyses are well conducted and provide compelling evidence that hPIT bridges dorsal and ventral attention networks and is robustly modulated by attention across diverse visual tasks. The study will be relevant for researchers investigating visual attention, high-level visual cortex, and the neural mechanisms that integrate endogenous and exogenous attentional control.

Reviewed by eLife

Four new Duchenne muscular dystrophy mouse models with clinically relevant exon deletions in the human DMD gene

1. Maaike van Putten
2. Margot Linssen
3. Christa Tanganyika-de Winter
4. Conny M. Brouwers
5. Jill W.C. Claassens
6. Nisha Verwey
7. Max Walsh
8. Tiberiu Loredan Stan
9. Annemieke Aartsma-Rus
10. Peter Hohenstein

Reviewed by Review Commons

Sexual dimorphism in sensorimotor transformation of optic flow

1. Sarah Nicholas
2. Katja Sporar Klinge
3. Luke Turnbull
4. Annabel Moran
5. Aika Young
6. Yuri Ogawa
7. Karin Nordström

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Hoverflies are known for their sexually dimorphic visual systems and exquisite flight behaviors. This valuable study reports how two types of visual descending neurons differ between males and females in their motion- and speed-dependent responses, yet surprisingly, the behavior they control lacks any sexual dimorphism. The results convincingly support these findings, which will be of interest for studies of visuomotor transformations and network-level brain organization.

Reviewed by eLife

Divergent spatial codes in retrosplenial cortex and hippocampus support multi-scale representation of complex environments

1. Célia Laurent
2. Nada El Mahmoudi
3. David M Smith
4. Francesca Sargolini
5. Pierre-Yves Jacob

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study reports results showing how different neurons in the dysgranular retrosplenial cortex code spatial orientation. Specifically, the paper reports that some neurons maintain tuning for a single head direction across multi-compartmental environments, while other neurons are tuned to different head directions that reflect the geometry within each compartment. The study was viewed as likely to expand the field's understanding of directional tuning of neurons, but incomplete evidence was provided to support the conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

RHODOPSIN 7: An ancient non-retinal photoreceptor for contrast vision, darkness detection, and circadian regulation

1. Valentina Kirsch
2. Nils Reinhard
3. Heiko Hartlieb
4. Annika Mohr
5. Dirk Rieger
6. Peter Soba
7. Charlotte Helfrich-Förster
8. Pingkalai R Senthilan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study investigates, from multiple angles, the still-debated function of insect rhodopsin-7 (Rh7). The authors present compelling results for its ancient phylogenetic origin across pan-arthropods, a non-visual role based on expression analyses in the fly brain, an unusual G-protein signalling pathway, and - using behavioural genetics - that Rh7 affects how Drosophila melanogaster interprets and responds to light-dark transitions. Through this, the work provides fundamental new insights into the evolution and function of non-visual opsins.

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 hypothesis that postnatal visual experience shapes the patterns of functional connectivity between extrastriate visual cortex and frontal regions, by comparing neonates, blind and sighted adults using resting-state fMRI. The evidence supporting the main claim is convincing, and the authors' interpretations are appropriately calibrated in the discussion. Nevertheless, the study design and methodology are inherently limited to resolve the underlying mechanisms driving connectivity changes during neurodevelopment (experience-related plasticity vs post-natal experience-independent maturation). This study will be of broad interest to neuroscientists and neuroimaging researchers studying vision, plasticity and brain development.

Reviewed by eLife

Peripheral anatomy and central connectivity of proprioceptive sensory neurons in the Drosophila wing

1. Ellen Lesser
2. Anthony Moussa
3. John C Tuthill

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work describes wing mechanosensory neurons in detail, extending our understanding of sensorimotor processing in the fruit fly. The evidence presented convincingly supports the authors' identification of these neurons and leverages state-of-the-art methods to generate a near-complete map of wing mechanosensory circuitry. Overall, this study provides new hypotheses and invaluable tools for investigating proprioceptive motor control of the wing in Drosophila.

Reviewed by eLife

Deep learning-driven characterization of single cell tuning in primate visual area V4 supports topological organization

1. Konstantin F Willeke
2. Kelli Restivo
3. Katrin Franke
4. Arne F Nix
5. Santiago A Cadena
6. Tori Shinn
7. Cate Nealley
8. Gabrielle Rodriguez
9. Saumil Patel
10. Alexander S Ecker
11. Fabian H Sinz
12. Andreas S Tolias

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study addresses a key, long-standing question about how visual feature selectivity is organized in mid-level visual cortex, using an ambitious combination of large-scale neural recordings and image synthesis. It provides important insights into the complexity of single-neuron selectivity and suggests a structured organization across cortical depth. While the evidence is generally solid and technically impressive, several key claims would be strengthened by additional controls, particularly regarding the sources of similarity across neurons and the dependence of the results on modeling choices.

Reviewed by eLife

A lobule-specific neuronal representation of song temporal structure in the songbird cerebellum

1. Roman Ursu
2. Eduarda Centeno
3. Arthur Leblois

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  There is a perennial question in the field of birdsong: the contribution of the cerebellum to singing and processing song-related information. This study provides a valuable first step into this discussion, using electrophysiology of cerebellar neurons during a battery of assays, including singing and song playback. While the electrophysiological dataset here is novel and could shed light on key aspects of the neural control of vocal behavior, the evidence provided for the conclusions reached by the authors is currently incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Individual differences drive social hierarchies in mouse societies

1. Jonathan R Reinwald
2. Sarah Ghanayem
3. David Wolf
4. Max F Scheller
5. Julia Lebedeva
6. Philipp Lebhardt
7. Oliver Gölz
8. Corentin Nelias
9. Wolfgang Kelsch

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study introduces NoSeMaze, a semi-naturalistic platform for continuous, high-dimensional tracking of social and cognitive behaviors in group-housed mice, and uses it to show that individual social rank is stable across changing social contexts. By integrating automated dominance measures, proactive social behaviors, and reinforcement-learning-based profiles, the authors demonstrate a novel framework for examining how stable individual differences shape social structure. The strength of evidence is solid, advancing our understanding that social hierarchy can be viewed as a trait-like dimension of individuality. Yet, the interpretation of dominance in this paradigm and its broader ecological meaning remains somewhat ambiguous. This work will be of broad relevance for behavioral neuroscience and social behavior research.

Reviewed by eLife