Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This study offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of the role of layer 6b cortical neurons in sleep-wake regulation, providing new insight into how this understudied neural population may regulate cortical arousal via orexin signaling. The evidence supporting these findings is solid, although somewhat constrained by limitations in the specificity of the genetic targeting strategy. Nonetheless, the work introduces new avenues for uncovering how the classical wake-promoting peptide, orexin, exerts its effects on the cortex.

eLife Assessment

In this important study, the authors engineered and characterised novel genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) and an analytical tool (CaFire) capable of reporting and quantifying various sub-synaptic events, including miniature synaptic events, with a speed and sensitivity approaching that of intracellular electrophysiological recordings. While the evidence supporting the improvements in the speed and accuracy of these tools is convincing, including additional information about key imaging parameters, the Bar8f experiments, and CaFire would strengthen the study. This work will be of interest to neurobiologists studying synaptic calcium dynamics in various model systems.

eLife Assessment

This valuable work shows that subcortically-generated behaviors, like grooming, can have widespread representations in cortical activity. While the evidence is solid, additional analyses are necessary to strengthen the claims associated with outsized cortical representations of grooming onsets, as well as to address atypical grooming events. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in how subcortically-generated behaviors are represented across the cortex.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study applies transcranial direct current stimulation (tCDS) to the prefrontal cortex of non-human primates during two states: (1) propofol-induced unconsciousness; and (2) wakeful performance of a fixation task. The analysis offers incomplete evidence to indicate that the effect of tDCS on brain dynamics, as recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging, is contingent on the state of consciousness during which the stimulation is applied. The findings will be of interest to researchers interested in brain stimulation and consciousness.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reveals the pro-locomotor effects of activating a deep brain region containing diverse range of neurons in both healthy and Parkinson's disease mouse models. While the findings are solid, mechanistic insights remain limited due to the small sample size. This research is relevant to motor control researchers and offers clinical perspectives.

eLife Assessment

Bonnifet et al. present data on the expression and interacting partners of the transposable element L1 in the mammalian brain. The work includes important findings addressing the potential role of L1 in aging and neurodegenerative disease. The reviewers conclude that several aspects of the study are well done and most evidence is solid, with a noted concern related to the RNA-seq analysis.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study combines anatomical tracing and slice physiology to examine how anterior thalamic and retrosplenial inputs converge in the presubiculum, a key region in the navigation circuit. The authors show that near-simultaneous co-activation of retrosplenial and thalamic inputs drives supra-linear presubiculum responses, revealing a potential cellular mechanism for anchoring the brain's head direction system to external visual landmarks. Their thorough experimental approach and analyses provide convincing evidence for the cellular basis of how the brain's internal compass may be anchored to the external world, laying the groundwork for future experimental testing in vivo.

eLife Assessment

This useful study advances our understanding of how organisms respond to chronic oxidative stress. Using the nematode C. elegans, the authors identified key neuronal signaling molecules and their receptors that are required for stress signaling and survival. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, with rigorous genetics, stress response analysis, and transcriptional profiling. This research will be of broad interest to neuroscientists and researchers working in the field of oxidative stress regulation.

eLife Assessment

This important work by Lesser et al provides a first and comprehensive description of Drosophila wing proprioceptors at an EM resolution. By linking peripheral neurons with information on their morphology and connectivity in the central nervous system, the authors provide new hypotheses and tools to study proprioceptive motor control of the wing in the fruit fly. The evidence and techniques supporting this work are solid, and this resource will contribute to connectome-based modeling of fly behavior.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a valuable application of a video-text alignment deep neural network model to improve neural encoding of naturalistic stimuli in fMRI. The authors found that models based on multimodal and dynamic embedding features of audiovisual movies predicted brain responses better than models based on unimodal or static features. The evidence supporting the claims is generally solid, with clear benchmarking against baseline models. The work will be of interest to researchers in cognitive neuroscience and AI-based brain modeling.