Neuroscience

Developmental stage-specific spontaneous activity contributes to callosal axon projections

1. Yuta Tezuka
2. Kenta M Hagihara
3. Kenichi Ohki
4. Tomoo Hirano
5. Yoshiaki Tagawa

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The manuscript adds to an emerging story about the role of activity in the formation of callosal connections across the brain. Previous research of the authors' and other labs had shown that overexpressing the potassium channel Kir2.1, which reduces activity levels in the developing cortical network, blocks the formation of callosal connections almost entirely. Here, the authors show that they can use a TET system to switch off the activity of an Kir2.1 to probe when activity might be necessary or sufficient for the formation of callosal connections. The authors find that artificial restoration of activity with DREADS is sufficient to rescue the formation of callosal connections, and that there is a critical period (somewhere between P5-P15) where activity must occur in order for the connections to form within the cortex. Finally, the authors show that when the potassium channel is removed during the critical period, the cortex exhibits activity, but few highly synchronous events. These results indicate that it is activity in general and not specifically highly synchronous activity that is necessary for the final innervation of the callosal cortex.

  (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.)

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Tightly coupled inhibitory and excitatory functional networks in the developing primary visual cortex

1. Haleigh N Mulholland
2. Bettina Hein
3. Matthias Kaschube
4. Gordon B Smith

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Mulholland et al show that there is a very close relationship between the development of excitatory and inhibitory networks in the developing cortex. This paper makes an important contribution to our understanding of the structure of inhibition during an early stage in cortical development. It is therefore of great interest to scientists interested in development, and in computation in cortical circuits. The work has been carefully performed and analysed.

  (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.)

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Proof of concept for multiple nerve transfers to a single target muscle

1. Matthias Luft
2. Johanna Klepetko
3. Silvia Muceli
4. Jaime Ibáñez
5. Vlad Tereshenko
6. Christopher Festin
7. Gregor Laengle
8. Olga Politikou
9. Udo Maierhofer
10. Dario Farina
11. Oskar C Aszmann
12. Konstantin Davide Bergmeister

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The study uses a novel rodent surgical model for establishing that dual nerve transfer in the upper extremity improves neuromuscular regeneration in comparison to single nerve transfer. The authors provide a detailed description of how the model is developed and they characterize neuromuscular regeneration through nerve crush, neurotomy, behavioral analysis, and retrograde labeling. The nerve transfer method is clearly delineated for researchers to use in future scientific and clinical applications. The evidence clearly support the main study conclusions. Thus, this manuscript is of great interest to readers in the field of peripheral nerve repair and neural interfaces.

  (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.)

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Causal roles of prefrontal cortex during spontaneous perceptual switching are determined by brain state dynamics

1. Takamitsu Watanabe

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  By combining real-time closed-loop EEG-TMS and computational modelling, this study ambitiously examined the causal role of prefrontal cortex in resolving perceptual ambiguity. It impressively demonstrates brain-state-dependent effects on bistable 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 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

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Fast and accurate annotation of acoustic signals with deep neural networks

1. Elsa Steinfath
2. Adrian Palacios-Muñoz
3. Julian R Rottschäfer
4. Deniz Yuezak
5. Jan Clemens

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper presents and evaluates a machine learning method for segmenting and annotating animal acoustic communication signals. The paper presents results from applying the method to signals from Drosophila, mice, and songbirds, but the method should be useful for a broad range of researchers who record animal vocalizations. The method appears to be easily generalizable and has high throughput and modest training times.

  (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

Laminar microcircuitry of visual cortex producing attention-associated electric fields

1. Jacob A Westerberg
2. Michelle S Schall
3. Alexander Maier
4. Geoffrey F Woodman
5. Jeffrey D Schall

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study recorded brain activity in monkeys to identify the neural mechanisms underlying an attention-related scalp ERP component that is similar to the human N2pc component. Intriguing evidence was provided that the surface potential was at least partly a result of current flows in the feedback-receiving supragranular and infragranular layers of area V4, not the granular layer that receives feedforward inputs. However, it is not entirely clear if these very interesting intracortical effects are the source of the scalp ERP effects.

  (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.)

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Behavioral control by depolarized and hyperpolarized states of an integrating neuron

1. Aylesse Sordillo
2. Cornelia I Bargmann

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The interneuron RIM affects many behaviours in C. elegans. Attempts to understand or manipulate its function have sometimes led to conflicting and difficult to interpret results. Sordillo and Bargmann investigate the role of the RIM in locomotion by manipulating it's signaling properties in multiple ways. The strength of this approach is that targeting multiple biological signaling mechanisms, they are able to conduct a nuanced analysis of RIM's signaling functions that goes beyond simplistic ON/OFF distinctions. They reach two primary conclusions: 1. RIM depolarization extends reversals via synaptic (glutamatergic) and secretory (tyraminergic) signaling; 2. RIM hyperpolarization promotes forward locomotion via electrical signaling through gap junctions. As a result, RIM was shown to act for stabilizing both forward and backward movement, which is important for understanding of C. elegans in general. Also, the implication that interneurons can be multifunctional in this way is intriguing and potentially impactful.

  (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.)

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Identification of a stereotypic molecular arrangement of endogenous glycine receptors at spinal cord synapses

1. Stephanie A Maynard
2. Philippe Rostaing
3. Natascha Schaefer
4. Olivier Gemin
5. Adrien Candat
6. Andréa Dumoulin
7. Carmen Villmann
8. Antoine Triller
9. Christian G Specht

Reviewed by Review Commons

Suppression weakens unwanted memories via a sustained reduction of neural reactivation

1. Ann-Kristin Meyer
2. Roland G Benoit

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The goal of this study was to test whether multiple attempts at suppressing the retrieval of an (emotional) memory is associated with degradation of the representation of information in the brain about such memories. A combination of sophisticated computational modelling in fMRI reveals that neural representations of previously suppressed memories are sustainably weakened during memory retrieval attempts. This manuscript is of interest for neuroscientists in the field of motivated forgetting and memory control.

  (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.)

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Presynaptic stochasticity improves energy efficiency and helps alleviate the stability-plasticity dilemma

1. Simon Schug
2. Frederik Benzing
3. Angelika Steger

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In large nervous systems such as mammalian cortex excitatory synapses are stochastic and the probability of release of neurotransmitter can be modulated by plasticity and neural activity. This paper presents a simple biologically plausible mechanism that regulates the probability of release during learning. Using network simulations the authors show that this can result in more energy efficient processing of learned stimuli by enhancing the reliability of important connections, with lower expected rates of transmission at less important synapses.

  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