Neuroscience

NRP1 and furin as putative mediators of SARS-CoV-2 entry into human brain cells

1. Ashutosh Kumar
2. Ravi K. Narayan
3. Sujeet Kumar
4. Vikas Pareek
5. Chiman Kumari
6. Rakesh K. Jha
7. Pranav Prasoon

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Diversification of multipotential postmitotic mouse retinal ganglion cell precursors into discrete types

1. Karthik Shekhar
2. Irene E Whitney
3. Salwan Butrus
4. Yi-Rong Peng
5. Joshua R Sanes

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study using single cell RNA Seq to profile developing retinal ganglion cells from embryonic and postnatal mouse retina explores the diversification of this class of neurons into specific subtypes. The computational approaches developed identify groups of RGC precursors with largely non-overlapping fates, distinguished by selectively expressed transcription factors that could act as fate determinants. The aim is to show that over time, clusters of cells become "decoupled" as they split into subclusters, and this process is associated with changes in the expression of specific transcription factors. This leads to the proposal that subtype diversification arises as a gradual, asynchronous fate restriction of postmitotic multipotential precursors. These findings enable the prediction of lineage relationships among RGC subtypes and the developmental time when these specification events occur, and should be of great interest to the developmental neurobiology community.

  (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

First-order visual interneurons distribute distinct contrast and luminance information across ON and OFF pathways to achieve stable behavior

1. Madhura D Ketkar
2. Burak Gür
3. Sebastian Molina-Obando
4. Maria Ioannidou
5. Carlotta Martelli
6. Marion Silies

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest to neuroscientists studying visual processing and is also more broadly relevant to understanding how sensory systems process information. The paper reveals several new insights into how first-order interneurons in the fly visual system encode visual features that help guide behavior.

  (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

Exploring the expression patterns of palmitoylating and de-palmitoylating enzymes in the mouse brain using the curated RNA-seq database BrainPalmSeq

1. Angela R Wild
2. Peter W Hogg
3. Stephane Flibotte
4. Glory G Nasseri
5. Rocio B Hollman
6. Danya Abazari
7. Kurt Haas
8. Shernaz X Bamji

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of broad interest to neuroscientists, providing a rich resource for future research. Using available RNAseq data the authors build an easy-to-work-with web platform which will enable researchers to survey the expression patterns of palmitoylating and de-palmitoylating enzymes and their potential co-expressed substrates within the mouse nervous system. Using this map, the authors test hypotheses about the relationship between these enzymes and neurological diseases and generate hypotheses about enzyme/substrate relationships based on expression 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

A discrete parasubthalamic nucleus subpopulation plays a critical role in appetite suppression

1. Jessica H Kim
2. Grace H Kromm
3. Olivia K Barnhill
4. Jacob Sperber
5. Lauren B Heuer
6. Sierra Loomis
7. Matthew C Newman
8. Kenneth Han
9. Faris F Gulamali
10. Theresa B Legan
11. Katharine E Jensen
12. Samuel C Funderburk
13. Michael J Krashes
14. Matthew E Carter

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest to neuroscientists studying ingestive behavior and control of body weight. It reveals two distinct subsets of neurons within a little-studied brain area that are both activated by feeding, but only of them contributes to hormone-mediated suppression of feeding. The combination of molecular profiling and functional modulation of the neurons compellingly support the claims of the paper.

  (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

A tonic nicotinic brake controls spike timing in striatal spiny projection neurons

1. Lior Matityahu
2. Jeffrey M Malgady
3. Meital Schirelman
4. Yvonne Johansson
5. Jennifer A Wilking
6. Gilad Silberberg
7. Joshua A Goldberg
8. Joshua L Plotkin

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Matityahu et al investigate the influence of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor signaling on striatal microcircuit function through a combination of slice electrophysiology, optogenetics, and pharmacology. They find that nicotinic signaling delays spiking of striatal projection neurons in response to excitatory input, likely through the tonic release of acetylcholine by cholinergic interneurons onto local GABAergic interneurons and their influence on striatal projection neurons. Understanding how acetylcholine shapes striatal circuits is important, as this neurotransmitter is implicated in multiple movement disorders as well as other basal ganglia-related diseases.

  (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

Rapid odor processing by layer 2 subcircuits in lateral entorhinal cortex

1. Sebastian H Bitzenhofer
2. Elena A Westeinde
3. Han-Xiong Bear Zhang
4. Jeffry S Isaacson

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Bitzenhofer and colleagues provide unprecedented details of odor response properties of layer 2 cells in LEC. The authors show that firing rates of LEC ensembles conveyed information about odor identify whereas timing of spikes odor intensity and that, on average, fan cells responded earlier than pyramidal neurons, and pyramidal neurons, but not fan cells, changed their peak timing in response to changes in concentrations, providing a basis for temporal coding of odor concentrations. The results provide important information about odor coding in LEC, an understudied area of the brain.

  (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

Role of anterior insula cortex in context-induced relapse of nicotine-seeking

1. Hussein Ghareh
2. Isis Alonso-Lozares
3. Dustin Schetters
4. Rae J Herman
5. Tim S Heistek
6. Yvar Van Mourik
7. Philip Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel
8. Gerald Zernig
9. Huibert D Mansvelder
10. Taco J De Vries
11. Nathan J Marchant

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript is of broad interest to readers in the fields of drug addiction and relapse, reinforcement learning and punishment, and those interested in cortical function, particularly the insular cortex. The authors extend a context and punishment-based relapse model to the widely-used drug nicotine and use a number of complementary approaches to support the conclusion that the insular cortex plays a role in nicotine relapse. The experiments were carefully designed and implemented.

  (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

Functional brain reconfiguration during sustained pain

1. Jae-Joong Lee
2. Sungwoo Lee
3. Dong Hee Lee
4. Choong-Wan Woo

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of great interest to researchers interested in the brain mechanisms of pain. It shows how the connectivity of brain networks associated with sustained pain change over time. These findings are conclusively supported by state-of-the-art fMRI analyses of a tonic pain paradigm in two cohorts of healthy human participants. These insights are important for the understanding of the brain mechanisms of sustained pain which is the hallmark of chronic pain as a major health care problem.

  (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 name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Neuronal origins of reduced accuracy and biases in economic choices under sequential offers

1. Weikang Shi
2. Sebastien Ballesta
3. Camillo Padoa-Schioppa

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Padoa-Schioppa and colleagues describe possible neuronal correlates of behavioral biases observed in monkeys making value-based choices when options are presented simultaneously versus sequentially. Building on the lab's previous work detailing functional roles of different neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex, the authors relate different choice biases to different groups of OFC neurons. They propose that these relationships indicate that different biases are likely to arise from specific stages of decision computation. The study results are convincing and represent a significant advance in understanding circuit-level computations underlying decision-making.

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

Reviewed by eLife