Neuroscience

Mapping odorant sensitivities reveals a sparse but structured representation of olfactory chemical space by sensory input to the mouse olfactory bulb

1. Shawn D Burton
2. Audrey Brown
3. Thomas P Eiting
4. Isaac A Youngstrom
5. Thomas C Rust
6. Michael Schmuker
7. Matt Wachowiak

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This is an important paper querying odor responses in the olfactory bulb at low concentrations. Classical studies have revealed a 'combinatorial code' for odorant recognition, with individual odorants represented by combinations of broadly tuned and low-affinity olfactory receptors. Here, the authors perform a large-scale analysis of odor responses across glomeruli and surprisingly observe that odorant receptors instead generally display remarkably narrow tuning profiles.

  (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 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Higher-order unimodal olfactory sensory preconditioning in Drosophila

1. Juan Martinez-Cervantes
2. Prachi Shah
3. Anna Phan
4. Isaac Cervantes-Sandoval

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper shows that Drosophila can perform olfactory unimodal sensory preconditioning, an example of higher-order conditioning that may guide behaviour through inferred value. This is of conceptual significance for the brain, behavioural, and to some extent, the social sciences, because it shows that a conditioned response to a stimulus can occur even when the stimulus itself was never paired with punishment, for example.

  (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

Sonic hedgehog-dependent recruitment of GABAergic interneurons into the developing visual thalamus

1. Rachana Deven Somaiya
2. Katelyn Stebbins
3. Ellen C Gingrich
4. Hehuang Xie
5. John N Campbell
6. A Denise R Garcia
7. Michael A Fox

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper proposes a novel mechanism used by the visual system to recruit interneurons into the visual thalamus. The primary claims that retinal ganglion cell axons secrete Shh in the visual thalamus that induces FGF15 expression by astrocytes, that then attract interneurons are sound. Because Shh signaling, interneuron migration, and astrocyte functions are studied by a large number of neuroscientists this study will have a high impact on the field.

  (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 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Disrupted-in-schizophrenia-1 is required for normal pyramidal cell–interneuron communication and assembly dynamics in the prefrontal cortex

1. Jonas-Frederic Sauer
2. Marlene Bartos

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript investigates the consequences of Disrupted-in-schizophrenia-1 (Disc1) gene knock out in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of mice. This work marks a potentially significant contribution to elucidate cortical circuits alterations in this genetic model of schizophrenia. The main message is that communication between cortical pyramidal neurons and fast spiking interneurons is altered with consequence on cortical network activities. The data generally support the conclusions made but analyses of electrophysiological data should improve.

  (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

A model of egocentric to allocentric understanding in mammalian brains

1. Benigno Uria
2. Borja Ibarz
3. Andrea Banino
4. Vinicius Zambaldi
5. Dharshan Kumaran
6. Demis Hassabis
7. Caswell Barry
8. Charles Blundell

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper presents an artificial neuronal network which, from action and visual inputs, develops representations of space comparable to those found in the navigational system of the brain. They show that the representations developed by this network can be used in novel environments and in a reinforcement learning task. This demonstration of representations in absolute coordinates from agent-centered information is a significant contribution to neuroscientists as well as machine learning.

  (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

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