Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This important study investigates how the size of an LLM may influence its ability to model the human neural response to language recorded by ECoG. Overall, solid evidence is provided that larger language models can better predict the human ECoG response. This study will be of interest to both neuroscientists and psychologists who work on language comprehension and computer scientists working on LLMs.

eLife Assessment

This work of fundamental significance introduces a novel statistical model of spiking activity that incorporates continuous-time gain modulation. The authors provide exceptional evidence that the model outperforms earlier approaches and alternative candidates in capturing spiking responses across multiple visual areas in the macaque. Beyond its methodological contribution, the study offers new insights into how stimulus-driven variability and internally generated gain fluctuations evolve over time and between brain areas. The framework is likely to find broad application beyond the datasets examined here.

eLife Assessment

This important work examines the effects of gaze on valuation signals in the human brain as participants choose between bundles of sequentially presented items food items. The paper provides convincing analyses of how gaze affects participants choice behaviour and how this varies across time. The work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on attention and decision-making.

eLife Assessment

This work establishes a valuable theoretical finding about how the spike timing dependence of inhibitory plasticity shapes recurrent network connectivity. The combination of theoretical analysis and simulations provides convincing evidence that effective inhibitory connectivity forms a so-called Mexican-hat profile when multiple inhibitory neuron types follow distinct learning rules. These mechanisms are thought to be implicated in the contextual modulation of neuronal responses to stimuli.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study describes a simple and robust approach for estimating information-limiting noise by splitting neural populations and comparing estimator values. The authors report more accurate and robust results compared to previous methods. The evidence for the robustness of the method is currently incomplete; some concerns regarding bias need to be resolved, and additional tests need to be provided on how the number of trials and neurons affect performance.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important insights into how researchers can use perceptual metamers to formally explore the limits of visual representations at different processing stages. The framework is compelling and the data support the claims.

eLife Assessment

This multimodal neuroimaging study leverages fMRI, PET, and deep learning to predict memory performance. The authors introduce the brain-cognition gap to link these different imaging modalities to cognition and evaluate their results in two independent cohorts. The results are solid and provide an important contribution to the literature and will be of interest to neuroscientists working at the interface of cognition, neuroimaging.

eLife Assessment

This valuable manuscript by Alonso-Caraballo et al is a novel piece of work that examines the impact of oxycodone self-administration on neural plasticity within paraventricular thalamic (PVT) to nucleus accumbens shell (Shell) pathway - two regions shown to play a key role in cue-induced drug seeking on their own - and whether this plasticity varies based on abstinence period and biological sex. Data show that a clinically relevant long-access model of self-administration promotes dependence in both male and female rats and provide compelling data that when compared to current literature indicate that craving-induced relapse for opioids may develop faster and may be more pronounced in females compared to males. In addition to these behavioral findings, the authors provide the first evidence that glutamate signaling within the PVT-to-Shell pathway is selectively strengthened at the output medium spiny neurons by opioids following protracted, but not acute abstinence. These data highlight a potential role for these adaptations in relapse behavior and identify a potential therapeutic target during abstinence to reduce relapse risk in abstaining individuals.