Neuroscience

Rhythmic circuit function is more robust to changes in synaptic than intrinsic conductances

1. Zachary Fournier
2. Leandro M Alonso
3. Eve Marder

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides compelling insights into the differential impact of intrinsic and synaptic conductances on circuit robustness using computational models of the pyloric network from the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion. The results demonstrate that model networks are more sensitive to perturbations in intrinsic conductances than in synaptic conductances, highlighting the critical role of intrinsic plasticity in stabilizing neuronal networks. These findings underscore the importance of intrinsic plasticity, a crucial yet often overlooked factor in neuronal dynamics. The generality of these conclusions should be tested across diverse networks and functions.

Reviewed by eLife

Cognitive control of behavior and hippocampal information processing without medial prefrontal cortex

1. Eun Hye Park
2. Kally C O'Reilly Sparks
3. Griffin Grubbs
4. David Taborga
5. Kyndall Nicholas
6. Armaan S Ahmed
7. Natalie Ruiz-Péreza
8. Natalie Kim
9. Simon Segura-Carrillo
10. André A Fenton

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study includes convincing evidence to show that behavioral measures and hippocampal representations when animals use task-relevant information and ignore irrelevant information do not depend on the medial prefrontal cortex. The results are expected to be of interest to those studying neural mechanisms of cognitive control and functions of associational brain regions.

Reviewed by eLife

Adolescent alcohol exposure promotes mechanical allodynia and alters synaptic function at inputs from the basolateral amygdala to the prelimbic cortex

1. J Daniel Obray
2. Erik T Wilkes
3. Mike Scofield
4. L Judson Chandler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents important information as to how adolescent alcohol exposure (AIE) alters pain behavior and relevant neurocircuits, with convincing data. The manuscript focuses on how AIE alters the basolateral amygdala, to the PFC (PV-interneurons), to the periaquaductal gray circuit, resulting in feed-forward inhibition. The manuscript is a detailed study of the role of alcohol exposure in regulating the circuit and reflexive pain, however, the role of the PV interneurons in mechanistically modulating this feed-forward circuit could be more strongly supported.

Reviewed by eLife

The NIH BRAIN Initiative’s Impacts in Systems and Computational Neuroscience and Team-Scale Research, 2014-2023

1. Farah Bader
2. Clayton Bingham
3. Karen K David
4. Hermon Gebrehiwet
5. Crystal Lantz
6. Grace CY Peng
7. Mauricio Rangel-Gomez
8. James Gnadt

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The manuscript presents some useful accounts of experiences funding team projects within the BRAIN Initiative. These would be more appropriate to add to the companion manuscript since the present manuscript contains some overlapping analyses and does not stand well on its own. Therefore the evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Relative Timescale of Channel Voltage-Dependence and Channel Density Regulation Impacts Assembly and Recovery of Activity

1. Yugarshi Mondal
2. Ronald L. Calabrese
3. Eve Marder

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important computational study investigates homeostatic plasticity mechanisms that neurons may employ to achieve and maintain stable target activity patterns. The work extends previous analyses of calcium-dependent homeostatic mechanisms based on ion channel density by considering activity-dependent shifts in channel activation and inactivation properties that operate on faster and potentially variable timescales. The model simulations demonstrate the potential functional importance of these mechanisms, but the evidence is incomplete and would be strengthened by more in-depth analyses and explicit exposition.

Reviewed by eLife

Longitudinal assessment of DREADD expression and efficacy in the monkey brain

1. Yuji Nagai
2. Yukiko Hori
3. Ken-ichi Inoue
4. Toshiyuki Hirabayashi
5. Koki Mimura
6. Kei Oyama
7. Naohisa Miyakawa
8. Yuki Hori
9. Haruhiko Iwaoki
10. Katsushi Kumata
11. Ming-Rong Zhang
12. Masahiko Takada
13. Makoto Higuchi
14. Takafumi Minamimoto

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides a novel and critically important insight into the long-term use of DREADDs to modulate neuronal activity in nonhuman primates. The methods are compelling, demonstrating the peak dynamics and the subsequent stability of chemogenetic effects for 1.5 years, informing experimental designs and interpretation of highly impactful chemogenetic studies in macaques. The protocols, data, and outcomes can serve as guidelines for future experiments. Therefore, the findings will be of significant interest to the field of chemogenetics and may also be of broader interest to researchers and clinicians who seek to utilize viral vectors and/or related genetic technologies.

Reviewed by eLife

Precision cutaneous stimulation in freely moving mice

1. Isobel Parkes
2. Ara Schorscher-Petcu
3. Qinyi Gan
4. Liam E Browne

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study combines real-time keypoint tracking with transdermal activation of sensory neurons to investigate sensory neuron recruitment in freely moving mice, and builds on the authors' prior work in stationary mice. The evidence supporting the utility of the system is solid, although a more thorough classification of the behavioral responses to nociceptor stimulation would strengthen the work. Importantly, future analyses could include other cutaneous sensory neuron subtypes, and could also be adapted for studying more complex behaviors. The work will be of interest to sensory biologists and pain researchers.

Reviewed by eLife

Evolution of taste processing shifts dietary preference

1. Enrico Bertolini
2. Daniel Münch
3. Justine Pascual
4. Noemi Sgammeglia
5. Carlos Ribeiro
6. Thomas O. Auer

Reviewed by preLights

Synchronous Ensembles of Hippocampal CA1 Pyramidal Neurons During Novel Exploration

1. En-Li Chen
2. Tsai-Wen Chen
3. Eric R. Schreiter
4. Bei-Jung Lin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this useful study, the authors perform voltage imaging of CA1 pyramidal cells in head-fixed mice running on a track while local field potentials (LFPs) are recorded. The authors conclude that synchronous ensembles of neurons are differentially associated with different types of LFP patterns, namely theta and ripples. However, evidence for the claims in the paper remains incomplete, due to caveats of the experimental approach and claims that are based on a relatively sparse data set collected with a cutting-edge but still largely untested method.

Reviewed by eLife

Quantification of the effect of hemodynamic occlusion in two-photon imaging of mouse cortex

1. Baba Yogesh
2. Matthias Heindorf
3. Rebecca Jordan
4. Georg B Keller

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study conducted experiments to quantify how neural activity independent changes in fluorescence might affect two-photon recordings when using diverse sensors. The researchers found a widespread presence of neural-activity-independent artifacts in two-photon imaging and provide convincing evidence that these artifacts are most likely caused by hemodynamic occlusion. Their findings underscore the importance of accounting for these artifacts when interpreting functional two-photon recordings.

Reviewed by eLife