Neuroscience

Nav1.2 and BK channel interaction shapes the action potential in the axon initial segment

1. Luiza Filipis
2. Laila Ananda Blömer
3. Jérôme Montnach
4. Gildas Loussouarn
5. Michel De Waard
6. Marco Canepari

Reviewed by Review Commons

Whole-brain comparison of rodent and human brains using spatial transcriptomics

1. Antoine Beauchamp
2. Yohan Yee
3. Ben C Darwin
4. Armin Raznahan
5. Rogier B Mars
6. Jason P Lerch

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript is of interest to readers interested in how brain gene expression patterns differ between humans and other animals. The authors develop an innovative approach to map correspondences between the gene expression profiles of human and mouse brains, finding that the profiles of sensorimotor areas are more similar than those of transmodal association cortex. This thus contributes to our understanding of the genetic mechanisms that may drive differences in brain organization across species. The study is methodologically sound and the key claims are supported by the data.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

High-content synaptic phenotyping in human cellular models reveals a role for BET proteins in synapse assembly

1. Martin H Berryer
2. Gizem Rizki
3. Anna Nathanson
4. Jenny A Klein
5. Darina Trendafilova
6. Sara G Susco
7. Daisy Lam
8. Angelica Messana
9. Kristina M Holton
10. Kyle W Karhohs
11. Beth A Cimini
12. Kathleen Pfaff
13. Anne E Carpenter
14. Lee L Rubin
15. Lindy E Barrett

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Berryer et al. report on an automated and quantitative platform to study the number of synaptic inputs formed in networks of human excitatory neurons and astrocytes in vitro. The authors tested the utility of the platform by screening a large collection of small molecules and identified several modulators of synapse density, which were validated in follow-up experiments. The automated platform substantially extends what is currently available, particularly with respect to the automation of the initial analysis steps. The positive hits identified here, the inhibitors of bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) family of gene expression regulators, are important, and will likely contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of human synapse assembly.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

p75NTR prevents the onset of cerebellar granule cell migration via RhoA activation

1. Juan P Zanin
2. Wilma J Friedman

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest to neurobiologists and developmental biologists. Identifying novel mechanisms that prevent excessive neuronal migration is an important contribution to the field of neural development. The key conclusions of the paper are well supported by the data.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

The tail domain of neurofilament light chain accumulates in neuronal nuclei during oxidative injury

1. Aleksandra Arsić
2. Ivana Nikić-Spiegel

Reviewed by Review Commons

Diverse states and stimuli tune olfactory receptor expression levels to modulate food-seeking behavior

1. Ian G McLachlan
2. Talya S Kramer
3. Malvika Dua
4. Elizabeth M DiLoreto
5. Matthew A Gomes
6. Ugur Dag
7. Jagan Srinivasan
8. Steven W Flavell

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study asks how diverse signals are integrated at the cellular level to generate adaptive behaviors. The authors show that prolonged food deprivation (i.e. fasting) of C. elegans broadly alters gene expression in food sensing neurons, thereby altering foraging behavior and chemosensory neuron responses to food. The fasting-induced genes include many chemoreceptors, one of which mediates responses to specific volatile components of food. Finally, they show that food controls the expression of a fasting-induced chemoreceptor via multiple external (i.e. sensory) and internal (potentially metabolic) cues. The paper is of importance to scientists with an interest in adaptive behaviour as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying integration of stimuli.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Consistent coordination patterns provide near perfect behavior decoding in a comprehensive motor program for insect flight

1. Joy Putney
2. Marko Angjelichinoski
3. Robert Ravier
4. Silvia Ferrari
5. Vahid Tarokh
6. Simon Sponberg

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript bridges neurophysiology and biomechanics and is of broad interest in improving our understanding of insect flight control. Here, Putney et al. record the activity of the flight muscles of tethered hawkmoths and demonstrate that the direction of the visual stimulus to which the insect responds can be classified using precisely timed information on muscle activity from a subset of the flight muscles. This is an important step in identifying the mapping from visual input to motor output, albeit that the mapping identified here is qualitative (i.e. classification of visual stimulus direction) rather than quantitative (i.e. prediction of output torque or apparent angular velocity of self-motion).

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

3D optogenetic control of arteriole diameter in vivo

1. Philip J O'Herron
2. David A Hartmann
3. Kun Xie
4. Prakash Kara
5. Andy Y Shih

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript by O'Herron et al. describes an all-optical method combining optogenetic stimulation and 2-photon microscopy imaging to simultaneously manipulate and monitor brain microvasculature contractility in three dimensions. The method employs a spatial light modulator to create three-dimensional activation patterns in the brains of cranial window-model transgenic mice expressing the excitatory opsin, ReaChR, in mural cells (smooth muscle cells and pericytes). This provides a powerful new in vivo technique to control blood flow into the brain and to understand its actions on brain function.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

In situ X-ray-assisted electron microscopy staining for large biological samples

1. Sebastian Ströh
2. Eric W Hammerschmith
3. David W Tank
4. H Sebastian Seung
5. Adrian Andreas Wanner

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study explores the kinetics of heavy metal staining of tissue using time-lapse imaging with X-ray micro computed tomography (CT). It will be of interest to the wide community of scientists preparing biological samples for electron microscopy (EM), in particular large-volume EM. While at present the relation between CT imaging and EM contrast remains to be quantified, this study has the potential to become a reference for the field in establishing a quantitative tool for assessing and developing staining protocols.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Rate-distortion theory of neural coding and its implications for working memory

1. Anthony MV Jakob
2. Samuel J Gershman

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper is of potential interest to readers in the fields of working memory and neural coding. It presents a model of a neural circuit that learns to optimally represent its inputs subject to an information capacity limit and claims that this model can account for a range of empirical phenomena in the visual working memory literature. However, the fit to empirical data is qualitative and in some cases unconvincing, certain aspects of the neural model seem difficult to square with established neurophysiology, and there is insufficient conceptual or quantitative comparison with other models in the WM literature that seek to explain the same data.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife