Neuroscience

Synaptic targets of photoreceptors specialized to detect color and skylight polarization in Drosophila

1. Emil Kind
2. Kit D Longden
3. Aljoscha Nern
4. Arthur Zhao
5. Gizem Sancer
6. Miriam A Flynn
7. Connor W Laughland
8. Bruck Gezahegn
9. Henrique DF Ludwig
10. Alex G Thomson
11. Tessa Obrusnik
12. Paula G Alarcón
13. Heather Dionne
14. Davi D Bock
15. Gerald M Rubin
16. Michael B Reiser
17. Mathias F Wernet

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest to the large class of neuroscientists who perform network analyses and are interested in the processing of visual information. It sets a new standard in connectomic analysis because is combines EM data of a whole fly brain with fluorescent labeling of specific neurons. The key claims of the manuscript are well supported by the data, and the approaches used are thoughtful and rigorous.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

Plasticity of olfactory bulb inputs mediated by dendritic NMDA-spikes in rodent piriform cortex

1. Amit Kumar
2. Edi Barkai
3. Jackie Schiller

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript investigates the plastic properties of synapses impinging on pyramidal neurons in the piriform cortex from the lateral olfactory tract (LOT) and intracortical inputs. Their findings uncover some of the location and pathway-dependent plasticity rules and challenge the notion that LOT inputs (carrying direct odor information from the bulb) become "hardwired" after the critical period. The results provide novel information about how activity and experience alter synaptic communication in the olfactory circuit in a synapse-type specific manner.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

Visualizing synaptic plasticity in vivo by large-scale imaging of endogenous AMPA receptors

1. Austin R Graves
2. Richard H Roth
3. Han L Tan
4. Qianwen Zhu
5. Alexei M Bygrave
6. Elena Lopez-Ortega
7. Ingie Hong
8. Alina C Spiegel
9. Richard C Johnson
10. Joshua T Vogelstein
11. Daniel J Tward
12. Michael I Miller
13. Richard L Huganir

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript describes a novel tool for tracking synaptic plasticity at the single synapse resolution with a SEP-tagged GluA1 receptor expressed in a transgenic mouse. The authors rather convincingly demonstrate that this tool does not disturb synaptic physiology or mouse behavior. They also show that this tool can be used to measure the distribution of synaptic weights and its variation during a plasticity protocol in barrel cortex. This tool is useful for more quantitative measurements of synaptic strength in vivo, although some revisions would help making a convincing case of the usefulness of this tool with respect to previous methods. Genetic specificity of the expression of the construct is also a concern.

  (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

Neuropsychological evidence of multi-domain network hubs in the human thalamus

1. Kai Hwang
2. James M Shine
3. Joel Bruss
4. Daniel Tranel
5. Aaron Boes

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Hwang et al. address the important question about whether specific thalamic sub-regions serve as essential "hubs" for interconnecting diverse cognitive processes. Using a group of patients with isolated thalamic lesions (n=20), and a group of size-matched lesions outside the thalamus (n=42), they report that lesions to the anterior-medio-dorsal thalamus are most likely to cause widespread cognitive deficit. Evidence from existing task-based and resting-state fMRI data sets, as well as data sets on gene expression further provide evidence the importance of these regions as a network hub for domain general cognitive functions.

  (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

SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral fusogens cause neuronal and glial fusion that compromises neuronal activity

1. Ramón Martínez-Mármol
2. Rosina Giordano-Santini
3. Eva Kaulich
4. Ann-Na Cho
5. Magdalena Przybyla
6. Md Asrafuzzaman Riyadh
7. Emilija Robinson
8. Keng Yih Chew
9. Rumelo Amor
10. Frédéric A. Meunier
11. Giuseppe Balistreri
12. Kirsty R. Short
13. Yazi D. Ke
14. Lars M. Ittner
15. Massimo A. Hilliard

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Profiling sensory neuron microenvironment after peripheral and central axon injury reveals key pathways for neural repair

1. Oshri Avraham
2. Rui Feng
3. Eric Edward Ewan
4. Justin Rustenhoven
5. Guoyan Zhao
6. Valeria Cavalli

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Using single cell RNA seq, the authors characterize the sensory neuron microenvironment in dorsal root ganglia after sciatic nerve crush, dorsal root crush and dorsal column transection spinal cord injury 3 days after injury. The data revealed differentially expressed genes and pathways with sciatic nerve and dorsal root crushes co-clustering, whereas spinal cord injury largely co-clusters with uninjured. The results reveal influences of the tissue microenvironment and neuron extrinsic factors on axonal regeneration and also provide new insights into the role of PPARa signaling in regeneration after dorsal root crush. This is an impressive data collection effort across multiple cell types that will be of importance for generating new hypotheses in the field. The impact could be further broadened by increased attention to functional validation of the findings.

  (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

Simultaneous brain, brainstem, and spinal cord pharmacological-fMRI reveals involvement of an endogenous opioid network in attentional analgesia

1. Valeria Oliva
2. Ron Hartley-Davies
3. Rosalyn Moran
4. Anthony E Pickering
5. Jonathan CW Brooks

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of great interest to researchers interested in cognitive modulations of sensory processing as well as in the brain mechanisms of pain. It shows that attentional modulations of pain are associated with changes in neural communication between cortical areas, brainstem and spinal cord which are sensitive to opioidergic but not to noradrenergic modulations. These findings are conclusively supported by state-of-the-art simultaneous pharmacological fMRI of the brain and the spinal cord.

  (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

The nematode worm C. elegans chooses between bacterial foods as if maximizing economic utility

1. Abraham Katzen
2. Hui-Kuan Chung
3. William T Harbaugh
4. Christina Della Iacono
5. Nicholas Jackson
6. Elizabeth E Glater
7. Charles J Taylor
8. Stephanie K Yu
9. Steven W Flavell
10. Paul W Glimcher
11. James Andreoni
12. Shawn R Lockery

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper establishes a behavioural paradigm to study concepts developed in the field of economic decision making using the tractable model organisms C. elegans. It is therefore interesting to scientists studying the neuronal mechanisms of decision making and animal cognition.

  (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

Humans actively sample evidence to support prior beliefs

1. Paula Kaanders
2. Pradyumna Sepulveda
3. Tomas Folke
4. Pietro Ortoleva
5. Benedetto De Martino

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Kaanders et al. investigate how the sampling of visual information by human subjects is biased toward their previous choice. The novel experiments and rigorous analyses largely support the presence of a 'confirmation bias' when information sampling is under the subjects' control. After ruling out some remaining alternative explanations of the observed behavior the paper will be of broad interest in cognitive neuroscience.

  (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

Memory recall involves a transient break in excitatory-inhibitory balance

1. Renée S Koolschijn
2. Anna Shpektor
3. William T Clarke
4. I Betina Ip
5. David Dupret
6. Uzay E Emir
7. Helen C Barron

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Koolschijn and colleagues present a novel and timely investigation of the balance between excitation and inhibition to explore the role of glutamate and GABA during memory retrieval. The innovative use of rapidly interleaved fMRI and fMRS provides a compelling link between successful retrieval effects in hippocampus and inhibitory/excitatory dynamics in visual cortex. The study itself is well-motivated and well executed, complementing prior cross-species work, and provides an intriguing set of results to support the major claims. This paper will be noteworthy to those interested in hippocampus-mediated cortical dynamics during memory retrieval. The rigorous methodology also demonstrates the utility of fMRS in investigating complex cognitive processes.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife