Neuroscience

The geometry of robustness in spiking neural networks

1. Nuno Calaim
2. Florian A Dehmelt
3. Pedro J Gonçalves
4. Christian K Machens

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The article introduces a geometrical interpretation for the dynamics and function of certain spiking networks, based on earlier work of Machens and Deneve. Given that spiking networks are notoriously hard to understand, the approach could prove useful for many computational neuroscientists. Here, that visualization tool serves to assess how fragile the network is to perturbation of its parameters, such as neuronal death, or spurious noise in excitation and inhibition.

  (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

Flexible utilization of spatial- and motor-based codes for the storage of visuo-spatial information

1. Margaret M Henderson
2. Rosanne L Rademaker
3. John T Serences

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This rigorous, carefully designed and executed functional magnetic-resonance imaging study provides compelling evidence against a rigid, fixed model for how working-memory representations are maintained in the human brain. By analyzing patterns and strength of brain activity, the authors show that networks for maintaining contents in mind vary depending on the task demands and foreknowledge of anticipated responses. This manuscript will be of interest to scientists studying working memory, both in humans and in non-human primates.

  (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

Decomposing the role of alpha oscillations during brain maturation

1. Marius Tröndle
2. Tzvetan Popov
3. Sabine Dziemian
4. Nicolas Langer

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript will be of interest to cognitive and developmental neuroscientists who are interested in brain oscillations and their changes with development. This study decomposes the EEG alpha power, demonstrating the confound of aperiodic activity in true oscillatory power and elucidating opposing relation of periodic and aperiodic components with age. The main approach of this paper is well motivated, and the main conclusions are supported by the analysis, which is applied to multiple large datasets, though there are some minor issues with some of the follow up analyses. Overall, this manuscript makes a timely and important case for the consideration of aperiodic signals in future research.

  (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 names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Persistent post-COVID-19 smell loss is associated with inflammatory infiltration and altered olfactory epithelial gene expression

1. John B. Finlay
2. David H. Brann
3. Ralph Abi-Hachem
4. David W. Jang
5. Allison D. Oliva
6. Tiffany Ko
7. Rupali Gupta
8. Sebastian A. Wellford
9. E. Ashley Moseman
10. Sophie S. Jang
11. Carol H. Yan
12. Hiroaki Matusnami
13. Tatsuya Tsukahara
14. Sandeep Robert Datta
15. Bradley J. Goldstein

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Flexible and efficient simulation-based inference for models of decision-making

1. Jan Boelts
2. Jan-Matthis Lueckmann
3. Richard Gao
4. Jakob H Macke

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper provides a new approach, Mixed Neural Likelihood Estimator (MNLE) to build likelihood emulators for simulation-based models where the likelihood is unavailable. The authors show that the MNLE approach is equally accurate but orders of magnitude more efficient than a recent proposal, likelihood approximation networks (LAN), on two variants of the drift-diffusion model (a widely used model in cognitive neuroscience). The comparison between LAN and MNLE approaches could be improved to strengthen the merits of the proposed approach over existing alternatives.

  (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

BDNF/TrkB signaling endosomes in axons coordinate CREB/mTOR activation and protein synthesis in the cell body to induce dendritic growth in cortical neurons

1. Guillermo Moya-Alvarado
2. Reynaldo Tiburcio-Felix
3. María Raquel Ibáñez
4. Alejandro A Aguirre-Soto
5. Miguel V Guerra
6. Chengbiao Wu
7. William C Mobley
8. Eran Perlson
9. Francisca C Bronfman

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Overall, these authors show that BDNF at the axon terminal can be retrogradely transported to promote new protein synthesis in the neuronal cell body and regulate dendritic morphology, which requires activated TrkB, Akt and mTOR in the soma and nuclear phospho-CREB. Although target-derived neurotrophin effects are well-established in the peripheral nervous system, this mechanism of signaling is less well-understood in the CNS. The manuscript presents a comprehensive analysis of the retrograde transport of BDNF/TrkB from the axon terminal to regulate dendritic morphology.

  (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

Repressor element 1-silencing transcription factor deficiency yields profound hearing loss through Kv7.4 channel upsurge in auditory neurons and hair cells

1. Haiwei Zhang
2. Hongchen Li
3. Mingshun Lu
4. Shengnan Wang
5. Xueya Ma
6. Fei Wang
7. Jiaxi Liu
8. Xinyu Li
9. Haichao Yang
10. Fan Zhang
11. Haitao Shen
12. Noel J Buckley
13. Nikita Gamper
14. Ebenezer N Yamoah
15. Ping Lv

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Genetic forms of deafness are a major health challenge. This study deciphers the cochlear roles of Repressor element 1-silencing transcription factor (REST), a gene involved in the DFNA27 dominant form of deafness, using the mouse as a model system. This study provides evidence for a pathophysiological mechanism of deafness and shows how genes involved in different forms of deafness may interact together. The manuscript will be interesting to readers who work in the field of hearing research, REST regulation, or Kv7.4 regulation.

  (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 names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Spontaneous neuronal oscillations in the human insula are hierarchically organized traveling waves

1. Anup Das
2. John Myers
3. Raissa Mathura
4. Ben Shofty
5. Brian A Metzger
6. Kelly Bijanki
7. Chengyuan Wu
8. Joshua Jacobs
9. Sameer A Sheth

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript is of interest to neuroscientists willing to deepen their knowledge related to the role of the insula and to any scientist interested in oscillatory activities. The substantial dataset and the novel methodological approach provide interesting insights on the functional organization of this brain region.

  (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

Exogenous capture accounts for fundamental differences between pro- and antisaccade performance

1. Allison T Goldstein
2. Terrence R Stanford
3. Emilio Salinas

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  When the subjects are instructed to produce saccades away from suddenly appearing visual targets under time pressure, early saccades tend to be directed incorrectly to the peripheral target, suggesting that exogenous and endogenous signals that are related to the target position and instruction, respectively, compete to control the motor responses. In this study, the authors provide further evidence for the independence of these two processes by showing that they can account for temporal evolution of correct saccades regardless of the instruction, stimulus luminance or motor bias.

  (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

Hyperreactivity to uncertainty is a key feature of subjective cognitive impairment

1. Bahaaeddin Attaallah
2. Pierre Petitet
3. Elista Slavkova
4. Vicky Turner
5. Youssuf Saleh
6. Sanjay G Manohar
7. Masud Husain

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper tests the hypothesis that subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) is linked to hyperreactivity to uncertainty. Using an information-gathering task, the authors demonstrate that individuals with subjective cognitive impairment sample more than controls under uncertainty. Despite the clear strengths of the experimental design and the novel insights into SCI, some of the findings rely on problematic between-subject correlation analyses that should be corrected. Furthermore, alternative accounts of the main findings are consistent with 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 #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife