Neuroscience

Influence of sensory modality and control dynamics on human path integration

1. Akis Stavropoulos
2. Kaushik J Lakshminarasimhan
3. Jean Laurens
4. Xaq Pitkow
5. Dora E Angelaki

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: In this manuscript, the authors investigated the importance of visual and vestibular sensory cues and the underlying motion dynamics to the accuracy of spatial navigation by human subjects. A virtual environment coupled with a 6-degrees of motion platform, as described in prior studies, allowed precise control over sensory cues and motion dynamics. To investigate whether control dynamics influence performance, the transfer function between joystick deflection and self-motion velocity was modified at each trial, resulting in subjects relying more on velocity or acceleration to find their way. To explain the main result that navigation error depends on control dynamics, the authors propose a probabilistic model in which an internal estimate of dynamics is biased by a strong prior. Overall, the three reviewers agree that additional data are not necessary. However, the analyses need to be clarified and the conclusion better justified.

  Reviewer #1, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 opted to reveal their name to the authors in the decision letter after review.

Reviewed by eLife

Long-term stability of cortical ensembles

1. Jesús Pérez-Ortega
2. Tzitzitlini Alejandre-García
3. Rafael Yuste

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: This work examines whether coincident firing of neurons in the visual cortex is preserved over a long timescale (one month) which is important because it provides insight into the stability and plasticity of neural circuits and visual representations. The authors find that subsets of identified neurons maintain coordinated firing despite some degree of flux in the firing activity across the population.

  All reviewers agreed that the question is important but found the analysis lacked depth and there were some technical issues in the experiments that should be addressed with a fuller discussion and potentially additional analysis to eliminate confounds/artefacts. In general, and in light of earlier work (some of which is not cited) the conclusions need to be more circumspect. Specifically:

  • There were concerns about movement/loss of cells/calcium indicator artefacts over this long imaging period that should be accounted for more rigorously.
  • The analysis applies a somewhat arbitrary criterion for stability (50% of cells remain responsive in an assembly). This threshold should be systematically explored and justified more carefully.
  • The wider literature on this topic should be more thoroughly cited, limitations of the study should be transparently laid out, claims about the overall stability found in this population response and its relevance to memories and behaviour should be moderated in line with the comments below.

  Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 opted to reveal their name to the authors in the decision letter after review.

Reviewed by eLife

A novel, ataxic mouse model of ataxia telangiectasia caused by a clinically relevant nonsense mutation

1. Harvey Perez
2. May F Abdallah
3. Jose I Chavira
4. Angelina S Norris
5. Martin T Egeland
6. Karen L Vo
7. Callan L Buechsenschuetz
8. Valentina Sanghez
9. Jeannie L Kim
10. Molly Pind
11. Kotoka Nakamura
12. Geoffrey G Hicks
13. Richard A Gatti
14. Joaquin Madrenas
15. Michelina Iacovino
16. Peter J McKinnon
17. Paul J Mathews

Reviewed by eLife

Increased influence of prior choices on perceptual decisions in autism

1. Helen Feigin
2. Shir Shalom-Sperber
3. Ditza A Zachor
4. Adam Zaidel

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: The study addresses a timely and important question of the role of prior choices on perceptual decisions in individuals diagnosed with autism; 17 high functioning (but not mild cases) children and teenagers (8-17 years) with ASD. The experiments are well motivated and thoughtfully designed. Using a model to dissociate the contribution of prior stimuli and choices, the authors found a strong effect of prior choices not stimuli, which is stronger in ASD than controls. Similar results from another data set are also reported.

  Overall, this is a strong study with a sophisticated protocol, elaborate data analysis, ASD participants who were tested on a large battery, in-depth analysis of the literature with interesting insights, interesting results and a well written manuscript.

  The first two experiments provided compelling evidence that prior choices affect perceptual decision making in ASD, but the outcome of the response invariant condition suggests that the authors' interpretation goes beyond the data. This has serious implications for the interpretations of the findings. Also, the bias interpretation should be informed by measures of performance.

Reviewed by eLife

Contributions of h- and Na+/K+ Pump Currents to the Generation of Episodic and Continuous Rhythmic Activities

1. Simon A. Sharples
2. Jessica Parker
3. Alex Vargas
4. Jonathan J. Milla-Cruz
5. Adam P. Lognon
6. Ning Cheng
7. Leanne Young
8. Anchita Shonak
9. Gennady S. Cymbalyuk
10. Patrick J. Whelan

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: Both reviewers found that the analysis of data was too shallow and that the HCO model was insufficiently justified in the context of spinal cord CPGs. The reviewers argue that a more robust analysis including a discussion of the dynamic properties of the model (in the context of dynamic switching) was needed to support conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Inhibitory interneurons show early dysfunction in a SOD1 mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

1. Clarissa F. Cavarsan
2. Preston R. Steele
3. Landon T. Genry
4. Emily J. Reedich
5. Lynn M. McCane
6. Kay J. LaPre
7. Alyssa C. Puritz
8. Marin Manuel
9. Natallia Katenka
10. Katharina A. Quinlan

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: In the present study, the authors searched for early signs (during the neonatal period) of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease focusing on a specific class of spinal interneurons; i.e.: glycinergic interneurons. In SOD1 mice, they aimed at testing whether these inhibitory neurons exhibit measurable changes at young age that could then contribute to the MN pathology known to develop later. The originality of this study is that, for the first time, it examines specifically inhibitory neurons. The authors investigated the morphological and electrophysiological properties of lumbar glycinergic interneurons in the spinal ventral horn in one model of SOD1 mice compared to WT P6-P10 mice. In addition, the authors more specifically considered Renshaw cells in this process and found that these cells were less excitable in SOD1 mice.. Based on these experimental data they created a statistical model to make predictions on RC cells (and non-Renshaw cells found to be more excitable in SOD1 mice) to further demonstrate that early changes in their excitability could account for the disease.

  Despite the fact that this paper addresses the potential role of an unprecedentedly investigated class of neurons (inhibitory ones) in ALS disease, reviewers pointed to several concerns. First, there is a major problem with the identification of the Renshaw cells. Indeed arguments using the localization within the ventral horn of the spinal cord, the calbindin expression, the size and the number are questionable as it is done here. In addition, because the characteristics of this type of cell has been later used for the predictive statistical model, it importantly attenuates the validity of the model and credibility of the conclusions reached. Finally, because of the problems addressed above and because this paper is mainly descriptive without bringing real new hypotheses this paper might not participate in moving the field of ALS significantly forward. Thus, the three reviewers and I agree that the paper would be better suited for a specialised audience assuming detailed comments about the methodology are addressed.

Reviewed by eLife

Retinal circuits driving a non-image forming visual behavior

1. Corinne Beier
2. Ulisse Bocchero
3. Zhijing Zhang
4. Nange Jin
5. Stephen C. Massey
6. Christophe P. Ribelayga
7. Kirill Martemyanov
8. Samer Hattar
9. Johan Pahlberg

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: The reviewers all appreciated the potential of the work and felt that the general approach followed was strong. The reviewers, however, raised several important concerns. Discussion among the reviewers emphasized the importance of these. Chief among these was a concern about the extent to which the paper breaks new ground in a way that will appeal to a broad audience. Specifically, several of the results reported are expected based on prior work on the retinal pathways involved, and the results that do not fit with existing knowledge were not pursued in sufficient detail. These, and several other concerns, are detailed in the individual reviews below.

Reviewed by eLife

Does Self-Reassurance Reduce Neural and Self-Report Reactivity to Negative Life Events?

1. Jeffrey J. Kim
2. James R. Doty
3. Ross Cunnington
4. James N. Kirby

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: Kim and colleagues present a secondary analysis of an already published imaging dataset in 40 participants going through a two-week compassion training paradigm. They show participants standardized statements that are emotional or neutral and further have participants either engage in "self-criticism" or "self-reassurance" while considering the statements. The authors report on differences in brain regions (what they refer to as "neural pain") depending on criticism or reassurance condition. Concerns with the conceptual framework, approach, and interpretation substantially dampened our enthusiasm.

Reviewed by eLife

Reinstatement of Cortical Outcome Representations during Higher-Order Learning

1. Lennart Luettgau
2. Emanuele Porcu
3. Claus Tempelmann
4. Gerhard Jocham

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: All reviewers agreed that the neural mechanisms by which value is conferred to stimuli that were never directly paired with reinforcement is an important topic. However, individual reviewers raised questions regarding the study design and data analysis. In particular, reviewers agreed it was not clear how you could distinguish BOLD responses to CS1 and CS2 given the temporal proximity of their presentation. They also wondered whether the current results would provide enough advance beyond previous work.

Reviewed by eLife

Frontal cortical regions associated with attention connect more strongly to central than peripheral V1

1. Sara A. Sims
2. Pinar Demirayak
3. Simone Cedotal
4. Kristina M. Visscher

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: The manuscript is a replication of findings from Griffis et al., 2017, and it seeks to validate those findings using a different modality (diffusion-weighted imaging; DWI). While the questions asked in this manuscript are of considerable interest to the field, the findings' focus and implications are relatively narrow. Further, the study does not reveal new conclusions about brain function or organization. Authors may be cautious about interpreting the findings as representing direct structural connections between the occipital and frontal cortex -- as the reported structural and functional connectivity values may not be strong enough to support such a strong interpretation. The reviewers also agree that the methods are not presented clearly, in a manner that is straightforward to follow and critique.

Reviewed by eLife