Neuroscience

Currentscape analysis of dendritic inputs during place field dynamics

1. Bence Fogel
2. Balázs B Ujfalussy

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study offers a valuable advance for neuroscience by extending a visualization tool that enables intuitive assessment of how dendritic and synaptic currents shape the output of neurons. The evidence supporting the tool's capabilities is convincing and solid, with well-documented code, algorithmic innovation, and application to hippocampal pyramidal neurons - although experimental confirmation of the predictions is not provided. The work will be of interest to computational and systems neuroscientists seeking accessible methods to examine dendritic computations.

Reviewed by eLife

Multi-timescale neural adaptation underlying long-term musculoskeletal reorganization

1. Roland Philipp
2. Yuki Hara
3. Naohito Ohta
4. Naoki Uchida
5. Tomomichi Oya
6. Tetsuro Funato
7. Kazuhiko Seki

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study investigates how the nervous system adapts to changes in body mechanics using a tendon transfer surgery that imposes a mismatch between muscle contraction and mechanical action. Using electromyography (EMG) to track muscle activity in two macaque monkeys, the authors conclude that there is a two-phase recovery process that reflects different underlying strategies. However, neither monkey's data includes a full set of EMG and kinematic measurements, and the two datasets are not sufficiently aligned with each other from a behavioural point of view; as a result, the evidence supporting the conclusions is solid but could be improved.

Reviewed by eLife

Synaptic density and relative connectivity conservation maintain circuit stability across development

1. Ingo Fritz
2. Feiyu Wang
3. Ricardo Chirif
4. Nikos Malakasis
5. Julijana Gjorgjieva
6. André Ferreira Castro

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors have performed a potentially valuable new kind of analysis in connectomics, mapping to an interesting developmental problem of synaptic input to sensory neurons. While the analysis itself is solid, the authors have drawn broader conclusions than are directly supported by the presented data. With more measured claims and greater clarity and explanations for the analysis, the study could potentially become stronger.

Reviewed by eLife

Comparing electromyography, accelerometry, and visual inspection to assess the resting motor threshold for transcranial magnetic stimulation

1. Gautier Hamoline
2. Antoine E Lunardi
3. Marcos Moreno-Verdú
4. Baptiste M Waltzing
5. Elise E Van Caenegem
6. Siobhan MacAteer
7. Robert M Hardwick

Reviewed by Peer Community in Neuroscience

On CA1 ripple oscillations in rats and the reassessment of asynchronicity evidence

1. Robson Scheffer-Teixeira
2. Adriano BL Tort

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides new insights into the synchronization of ripple oscillations in the hippocampus, both within and across hemispheres. Using carefully designed statistical methods, it presents compelling evidence that synchrony is significantly higher within a hemisphere than across. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists studying the hippocampus and memory.

Reviewed by eLife

Human EEG and artificial neural networks reveal disentangled representations and processing timelines of object real-world size and depth in natural images

1. Zitong Lu
2. Julie Golomb

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study combines EEG, neural networks and multivariate pattern analysis to show that real-world size, retinal size and real-world depth are represented at different latencies. The evidence presented is convincing and the work will be of broader interest to the experimental and computational vision community.

Reviewed by eLife

DendroTweaks, an interactive approach for unraveling dendritic dynamics

1. Roman Makarov
2. Spyridon Chavlis
3. Panayiota Poirazi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Computational simulation of neuron function depends on a collection of morphological properties and ion channel biophysics. This manuscript introduces DendroTweaks, a valuable web application and Python library that eases interactive exploration, development, and validation of single-neuron models in an easily installable and well-documented package. The authors provide a convincing demonstration that their software aids with building intuition and rapid prototyping of biophysical models of neurons, which improves the accessibility of dendritic simulation.

Reviewed by eLife

Distinct representational properties of cues and contexts shape fear and reversal learning

1. Antoine Bouyeure
2. Daniel Pacheco-Estefan
3. George Jacob
4. Malte Kobelt
5. Marie-Christin Fellner
6. Jonas Rose
7. Nikolai Axmacher

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study with convincing evidence that multi-voxel fMRI activity patterns for threat-conditioned stimuli are altered by learning CS-US contingencies. The analyses are dense, but rigorous. The protocol is quite nuanced and complex, but the authors have done a fair job of explaining and presenting the results. The work is relevant for our understanding of how effective learning changes neural stimulus representation in the human brain.

Reviewed by eLife

The influence of nucleus accumbens shell D1 and D2 neurons on outcome-specific Pavlovian instrumental transfer

1. Octavia Soegyono
2. Elise Pepin
3. Beatrice K Leung
4. Billy Chieng
5. Bernard W Balleine
6. Vincent Laurent

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides novel and convincing evidence that both dopamine D1 and D2 expressing neurons in the nucleus accumbens shell are crucial for the expression of cue-guided action selection, a core component of decision-making. The research is systematic and rigorous in using optogenetic inhibition of either D1- or D2-expressing medium spiny neurons in the NAc shell to reveal attenuation of sensory-specific Pavlovian-Instrumental transfer, while largely sparing value-based decision on an instrumental task. The important findings in this report build on prior research and resolve some conflicts in the literature regarding decision-making.

Reviewed by eLife

Cerebellar Purkinje cell stripe patterns reveal a differential vulnerability and resistance to cell loss during normal aging in mice

1. Sarah G Donofrio
2. Cheryl Brandenburg
3. Amanda M Brown
4. Tao Lin
5. Hsiang-Chih Lu
6. Roy V Sillitoe

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study presents findings on the patterned loss of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum during aging. The compelling data nicely support the conclusions of this study. This work advances understanding of mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration with aging and provides the basis for development of treatments for age-related neurological disorders.

Reviewed by eLife