Neuroscience

Evaluation Summary:

This important and exciting paper demonstrates that the blind cavefish, known for its lack of eyes and increased number of lateral line hair cells, also exhibit physiological adaptations to increase lateral line sensitivity. The authors demonstrate that these adaptations have convergently evolved in multiple populations that have independently colonized cave environments. By leveraging the numerous strengths of the cavefish model, the authors are able to show precisely how neural circuits can be affected by adaptation to the environment.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

The premise behind this manuscripts is that concepts from thermodynamics and statistical mechanics can be used to understand brain states and the transitions between such states, just like it is done with transitions between solid and liquid states in well define thermodynamic systems. While this is an interesting attempt to use thermodynamic concepts and equations to analyze fMRI signals, the legwork needed to meaningfully translate those concepts to understand their actual physiological meaning and their relationship to brain function has not yet been achieved.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

The paper describes a re-analysis of a public fMRI data set which includes measures of resting state connectivity and separate task-based scans of memory encoding and memory retrieval tasks. The paper proposes an analysis method termed "information transfer" that reveals functional interactions between various brain networks during encoding and retrieval as well as differences in these interactions during encoding vs. retrieval. While the methods are potentially interesting, the payoff-or new insight afforded by these methods compared to existing methods-is not fully established.

(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.”)

Evaluation Summary:

The manuscript by Ferguson and Huguenard examined the mechanism underlying attentional deficits in the haploinsufficient Scn8a mouse model of absence epilepsy. Using a detection behavior paradigm where detection of the cue was dependent on the attention level, they show that Scn8a+/- mice perform worse than controls when cues are of intermediate duration. In the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), high gamma-band power, which is presumed to be mediated by activity in parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons, was reduced in Scn8a+/- mice, but optogenetic stimulation of these neurons at low gamma-frequency normalized performance on the cue-based attention task. The results of this study identify mPFC PV dysfunction, rather than seizure activity, as a potentially important cellular substrate, for attention during cue-presentation.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This manuscript explores the role of the central amygdala (CeA) on the mechanisms underlying chronic pain. An acid-induced muscle pain (AIMP) mouse model was used. The authors report a key pro-nociception role of CeA Somatostatin (SST) expressing neurons. The central sensitization of CeA-SST neurons was blocked by pregabalin. This work also further highlights the opposing view of the roles of CeA-SST neurons compared to CeA-PKCd neurons in modulating pain-related behaviors. This work will likely have a significant impact in the field and reconciles different previous results.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

The authors explored the relationship between amyloid-beta and tau deposition and neural oscillations in Alzheimer's disease (AD) by using a computational neural mass model that can generate neurophysiological power spectra comparable to EEG- or MEG-like, macroscopic brain activity assessments. This analysis demonstrates the different, frequency-specific effects of amyloid-beta and tau proteins on excitation and inhibition, providing an integrated, multimodal explanation of the AD pathogenesis.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This study measures the strength, timing, feature specificity and for the first time - spatial extent - of pre-saccadic processing of peripheral target information at the fovea, when fixation is not constrained. The authors conclude that saccade preparation causes feature-specific pre-saccadic visual enhancement restricted largely to the center of gaze. The manuscript is based on a rigorously curated dataset, it is well written and illustrated, and will be of potential interest to a broad readership of vision scientists, neuroscientists, and modelers. However, some key weaknesses in the interpretation of data were identified, which call into question the conclusion that the foveal enhancement observed can only be explained in terms of saccade preparation, thus weakening our ability to infer its mechanistic substrates.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

Lupkin and McGinty studied gaze patterns in monkeys during value-based decision-making to determine whether relationships between gaze and choices that have been described in humans are also present in monkeys. Although previous literature has interpreted the effects of gaze on choice behavior to mean that attention to an option influences the decision that is made, a full understanding of the mechanisms underlying these biases will ultimately require data from non-human primates, making this an important and timely study. The authors use a clever task design to show that, as in humans, value-based choices are related to the amount of time spent viewing each option. The study is well-designed and the topic is significant to the field, but reviewers raised concerns about potential confounds and limitations not addressed by the current analyses.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This is a remarkably ambitious study that has been skilfully executed on a strong number of control participants, amputees, and one-handers. The complementarity of state-of-the-art uni- and multi-variate analyses are in the service of the research question, and the paper is clearly written. The main contribution of this paper, relative to previous studies, resides in the mapping of multiple face-part all at once in the three groups. The study suggests that the deprived hand cortical territory is not invaded by the facial cortical neighbor, the forehead, but instead by the lips that are more distant but functionally related to the hand as it can be used to compensate hand loss for manipulating objects.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This manuscript reveals the contribution of intrinsic excitability to the formation of cortical neuronal ensembles. By combining optogenetic and electrophysiological approaches in vitro, the authors provide new insight regarding the role that plasticity of membrane excitability (intrinsic plasticity) plays in synaptic plasticity and the formation of memories.

(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.)