Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This work introduces a new Python package, Avian Vocalization Analysis (AVN) that provides several key analysis pipelines for birdsong research. This tool is likely to prove useful to researchers in neuroscience and beyond, as demonstrated by convincing experiments using a wide range of publicly available birdsong data.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study tests whether prediction error or prediction uncertainty controls how the brain segments continuous experience into events. The paper uses validated models that predict human behavior to analyze multivariate neural pattern changes during naturalistic movie watching. The authors provide solid evidence that there are overlapping but partially distinct brain dynamics for each signal.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study examines the cleavage of motor neuron nucleoporins by proteases 2A and 3C of enterovirus D68, a pathogen associated with acute flaccid myelitis. The evidence supporting the effects of EV-D68 proteases on nuclear import and export is solid and confirms previous results on the specific targeting of nucleoporins by proteases from other enteroviruses. However, the claim that cleavage of nucleoporins by EV-D68 2A is neurotoxic, though intriguing, is incomplete, as the evidence is largely indirect.

eLife Assessment

This work presents a useful investigation of functional and structural brain changes following navigation and verbal memory training. The analyses of whole-brain volumetric changes are convincing and support the study's main conclusion regarding the lack of a volumetric whole-brain plasticity effects. Some analyses are compelling in demonstrating the presence of longitudinal behavioural effects, the presence of functional activation changes, and the lack of hippocampal volume changes.

eLife Assessment

This study uses all-optical electrophysiology methods to provide a valuable insight into the organization of cortical networks and their ability to balance the activity of groups of neurons with similar functional tuning. The all-optical approach used in this study is impressive and the claim that the effects of optical stimulation correspond to a specific homeostatic mechanism is solid. The work will be of interest to neurobiologists and to developers of optical approaches for interrogating brain function.

eLife Assessment

In this manuscript the authors examine correlations between intrinsic electrophysiological properties of HVC neurons projecting to Area X and the temporal structure of the birds' song. The study provides important insights into how the structure of vocalization can relate to intrinsic physiological properties of the neurons that are essential for learning the behavior. The evidence supporting the idea that song temporal structure is related to intrinsic physiology is solid and this research will be of general interest to researchers in the field and neurophysiologists.

eLife Assessment

This is an important study demonstrating that cholecystokinin is a key modulator of auditory thalamocortical plasticity during development and in young adult but not aged mice, though cortical application of this neuropeptide in older animals appears to go some way to restoring this age-dependent loss in plasticity. A strength of this work is the use of multiple experimental approaches, which together provide convincing support for the proposed involvement of cholecystokinin. This work is likely to be influential in opening up a new avenue of investigation into the roles of neuropeptides in sensory plasticity.

eLife Assessment

This study uses a valuable combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography (EEG) to study brain activity related to prediction errors in relation to both sensorimotor and more complex cognitive functions. It provides incomplete evidence to suggest that prediction error minimisation drives brain activity across both types of processing and that elevated inter-regional functional coupling along a superior-inferior axis is associated with high prediction error, whereas coupling along a posterior-anterior axis is associated with low prediction error. The manuscript will be of interest to neuroscientists working on predictive coding and decision-making, but would benefit from more precise localisation of EEG sources and more rigorous statistical controls.

eLife Assessment

This study presents valuable findings on the physiological and computational underpinnings of the accumulation of intermittent glimpses of sensory evidence. While the authors present solid evidence to support their claims, a more exhaustive characterisation of how the different signals interact could further strengthen their case. The work will be of interest to cognitive and systems neuroscientists working on decision-making

eLife Assessment

This valuable study presents a framework for a shareable data analysis pipeline aimed at improving reproducibility in neuroscience. The evidence for robustness and inter-laboratory operability is convincing. However, aspects such as accessibility for new users, flexibility for custom analyses, and plans for long-term maintenance remain incomplete. Overall, this work will be of interest to neuroscientists engaged in the analysis of large-scale neuronal recordings.