Neuroscience

Evaluation Summary:

This paper presents the results of a model for cortical plasticity and resulting increase in neuronal responses to unexpected stimuli. This is an elegant study that provides a number of interesting, experimentally testable, hypotheses and develops a prediction for a mechanism for novelty response generation. However, a number of concerns were raised about the model, including how it relates to certain experimental data, that should be addressed.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This study reports on the synaptic impact of basal forebrain stimulation on a population of olfactory bulb interneurons in acute mouse brain slices. The author reveals that optogenetic stimulation of GABAergic basal forebrain afferents by and large inhibits the discharge of periglomerular cells, whereas cholinergic afferents evoke a prolonged, M1 receptor-mediated depolarization and increase in firing in a subpopulation of periglomerular cells. The current study would further our understanding of the olfactory neural circuit and how different co-released neurotransmitters shape postsynaptic neuronal responses.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This rigorous computational study simulates the sampling of the visual image by cone photoreceptors in the human eye, and explains how the image content can be reconstructed from those cone signals. The authors show that a number of properties of the human retina and of human perception are predicted from these simulations. The manuscript could be further improved by analysis of how these conclusions compare to those reached by alternate theoretical approaches, and by a consideration of human eye movements.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This research will be of interest to neuroscientists who want to understand how visual systems are tuned to and encode natural scenes. It reports that rats share phenomenology with humans in sensitivity to spatial correlations in scenes. This work shows that an earlier paper's hypothesis about efficient coding may be broadly applicable, but it is perhaps most interesting in opening up the possibility of studying this sort of visual tuning in an animal where invasive techniques can be used to study this sensitivity and its development.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

The authors find that long-range interhemispheric synapses are selectively weakened following loss of function of the gene mediating fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of intellectual disability. Using clever genetic and physiological approaches in mice, the authors show that the effect is cell autonomous and occurs postnatally by impeding the normal developmental strengthening of these synapses. The results convincingly enhance our understanding of the complex pathophysiology of neurological dysfunction in this developmental disorder.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary

This study uses non-invasive imaging to look at the coupling within and between layers and regions of the human visual cortex during the modulation of attention. The results presented here are a re-analysis of a previously recorded dataset, but the novelty is the analytic technique used to relate laminar connectivity to rhythms. This in principle promises to advance the field of both oscillations and laminar fMRI and could deliver valuable insights. The work provides a non-invasive window on how feedback and feedforward circuitry in the human brain operates. We deem the work of potential interest to a broad audience as it aims to provide direct links between the animal invasive electrophysiology and human neuroimaging fields. However, in its current form, major reservations with respect to the hypothesis space being explored here as well as important analytic and technical caveats remain.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This paper examines the visual-ocular response in participants when exposed to the static magnetic field of a 3T MRI system. Historically, this problem has been approached from a safety perspective. In the present study, the authors ask about the behavioral consequences of this field given that it induces a response in the vestibular system, hypothesized to mimic that of a caloric vestibular stimulation event. As such, one should anticipate a biased vestibulo-ocular reflex in the static field as well as biases in spatial attention. These predictions were confirmed, with the attentional bias manifest in eye movements during a visual search task. This is an important finding because it reveals functional "artifacts" that may arise during fMRI studies, effects that may need to be considered by those conducting research in the MR environment (especially functional studies).

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

The question investigated - to understand the computational significance of different types of local interneurons in neural circuits - is an important and significant problem. Here authors elucidate the role of the two types of LNs, by combining whole-cell patch clamp recordings with calcium imaging via single cell dye injection. This method enables them to monitor calcium dynamics of the different axons and branches of single LNs in identified glomeruli of the antennal lobe, while the membrane potential can be recorded at the same time. They conclude that non-spiking LNs with graded responses show glomerular restricted responses to odorants and spiking LNs show similar responses across glomeruli.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

This paper will be of interest to neuroscientists in the fields of spinal motor control and spinal cord injury. The finding that silencing of spared lumbar to cervical long ascending propriospinal neurons after spinal cord injury enhances locomotor coordination is unexpected and well-supported by the data. This has potential implications for strategies aimed at promoting recovery of function after SCI.

(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.)

Evaluation Summary:

Calcium-calmodulin (CaM) signaling plays an essential role within and outside of the nervous system. Moreover, it is conserved from plants to humans. While a lot is known about the mechanisms of cellular calcium level fluctuations, how CaM levels are regulated is less clear. In this manuscript, Vuong-Brender and colleagues characterize a, likely, conserved role of the transcription factor CAMT-1 in the homeostatic regulation of CaM levels and show how it impacts animal behavior and nervous system function. The paper is a tour-de-force across multiple techniques and model systems. The data is of a very high quality and supports most of the authors' claims strongly and convincingly.

(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_.)_