Neuroscience

Probing the segregation of evoked and spontaneous neurotransmission via photobleaching and recovery of a fluorescent glutamate sensor

1. Camille S Wang
2. Natali L Chanaday
3. Lisa M Monteggia
4. Ege T Kavalali

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper studies spontaneous and evoked excitatory synaptic transmission in cultured hippocampal neurons using a genetically encoded fluorescent glutamate sensor. The central finding of this study is that after photobleaching, the spontaneous release of glutamate recovers rapidly, while the evoked release of glutamate recovers much more slowly. This study is potentially of very high interest to neurobiologists as there has been a long-running interest in understanding spontaneous versus evoked neurotransmitter release. Clarification of a few key technical issues central to the study is required to fully interpret the study.

  (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

Environmental enrichment enhances patterning and remodeling of synaptic nanoarchitecture as revealed by STED nanoscopy

1. Waja Wegner
2. Heinz Steffens
3. Carola Gregor
4. Fred Wolf
5. Katrin I Willig

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Synapses convey information in the brain, including signals from the environment. The changes in the incoming signals can alter the efficacy of synaptic transmission, which in turn can be represented by the changes in synaptic structure that is particularly evident in the postsynaptic compartment called spines. This study uses a custom-built superresolution microscope to follow individual spine shape and the dynamics of the resident scaffolding protein PSD95 simultaneously, to study the effects of rearing mice in an enriched environment relative to a simple standard cage. The imaging data are of superb quality. The authors find that regardless of the rearing condition, dynamic changes in the sizes of spine head and PSD95 are detected that do not necessarily correlate with each other. Furthermore, mice reared in an enriched environment show less variable spine head size. While these findings may be of potential interest to neuroscientists studying synaptic network architecture, a clarification of the biological question being addressed, and validation of the method used to monitor PSD95, would considerably strengthen the study and enhance its overall impact.

  (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

A general decoding strategy explains the relationship between behavior and correlated variability

1. Amy M Ni
2. Chengcheng Huang
3. Brent Doiron
4. Marlene R Cohen

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript will be of interest to the community interested in how the coordinated activity of neurons influence both coding and behaviour. It successfully combines a sophisticated model of the visual system with data analysis to support a well-formulated hypothesis of the importance of general decoding. This is a potentially important contribution, that addresses a widely observed, but puzzling, relation between perceptual performance and noise correlations.

  (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

WITHDRAWN: SARS-CoV-2 invades cognitive centers of the brain and induces Alzheimer’s-like neuropathology

1. Wei-Bin Shen
2. Montasir Elahi
3. James Logue
4. Penghua Yang
5. Lauren Baracco
6. E. Albert Reece
7. Bingbing Wang
8. Ling Li
9. Thomas G Blanchard
10. Zhe Han
11. Robert A Rissman
12. Matthew B Frieman
13. Peixin Yang

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, ScreenIT

Neural synchronization is strongest to the spectral flux of slow music and depends on familiarity and beat salience

1. Kristin Weineck
2. Olivia Xin Wen
3. Molly J Henry

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study investigated the neural tracking of music using novel methodology. The core finding was stronger neuronal entrainment to "spectral flux" than to other, more commonly tested features such as amplitude envelope. As such the study is methodologically sophisticated and provides novel insight on the neuronal mechanisms of music perception.

  (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 #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

COVID ‐19 Infection Enhances Susceptibility to Oxidative Stress–Induced Parkinsonism

1. Richard J. Smeyne
2. Jeffrey B. Eells
3. Debotri Chatterjee
4. Matthew Byrne
5. Shaw M. Akula
6. Srinivas Sriramula
7. Dorcas P. O'Rourke
8. Peter Schmidt

Reviewed by ScreenIT

TREM2 regulates purinergic receptor-mediated calcium signaling and motility in human iPSC-derived microglia

1. Amit Jairaman
2. Amanda McQuade
3. Alberto Granzotto
4. You Jung Kang
5. Jean Paul Chadarevian
6. Sunil Gandhi
7. Ian Parker
8. Ian Smith
9. Hansang Cho
10. Stefano L Sensi
11. Shivashankar Othy
12. Mathew Blurton-Jones
13. Michael D Cahalan

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Microglia are a key cell type in the brain that clear debris following tissue injury, infections, or in neurodegenerative diseases. This role is influenced strongly by directed migration of microglia towards the regions of brain injury or infection. TREM2 is a myeloid protein expressed in microglia that has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease, but the mechanisms of how TREM2 loss-of-function mutations affect microglial function is unclear. Here, Jairaman and colleagues address this question using CRISPR-based knockout of TREM2 in human iPSC-derived microglia. The study finds that TREM2 KO microglia have greatly exaggerated ADP/ATP evoked Ca signals, which is found to arise from increases in P2Y12 and P2Y13 receptor expression and enhanced receptor-evoked Ca signaling. TREM2 KO microglia show alterations in cell migration, which include, on the one hand, increased cell motility, but also reduced turning, and importantly, markedly reduced directed migration. The experiments and analysis are carefully performed using appropriate controls and the results are novel and add to our understanding of how loss-of-function TREM2 mutations impact microglial migration and the ensuing microglia-mediated clearance of plaques and damage seen in AD. Several weaknesses cloud the interpretation, but if appropriately addressed, this could be an important paper for 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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Self-organization of in vitro neuronal assemblies drives to complex network topology

1. Priscila C Antonello
2. Thomas F Varley
3. John Beggs
4. Marimélia Porcionatto
5. Olaf Sporns
6. Jean Faber

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript is of interest to readers working on neuronal network dynamics and development. It uses an in vitro model to characterize the emergence of complex topology in neuronal circuits. The presented mathematical tools for data analysis are sophisticated and supported by numerical simulations. However, further investigation is required to delineate the specific mechanisms of network formation.

  (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

Assessing functional connectivity differences and work-related fatigue in surviving COVID-negative patients

1. Rakibul Hafiz
2. Tapan Kumar Gandhi
3. Sapna Mishra
4. Alok Prasad
5. Vidur Mahajan
6. Benjamin H. Natelson
7. Xin Di
8. Bharat B. Biswal

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Endurance exercise ameliorates phenotypes in Drosophila models of spinocerebellar ataxias

1. Alyson Sujkowski
2. Kristin Richardson
3. Matthew V Prifti
4. Robert J Wessells
5. Sokol V Todi

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This is important work trying to decipher some of the potential benefits and pathways from exercise. SCA2 was most impacted by exercise, and this correlated with Sestrin increases that proportionally led to decreases in the disease causing SCA2 protein (but not SCA3 so much). Sestrin alone was able to affect the disease severity in SCA2 flies, via the interaction with mTOR and the autophagy pathway.

  (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 #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife