Neuroscience

Dynamics of sensorimotor plasticity during spatial finger augmentation

1. Dominika Radziun
2. Siebe Geurts
3. Valeria C Peviani
4. Luke E Miller

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides a useful contribution to understanding how wearable augmentation devices interact with human proprioception, using a longitudinal design over a single session. Results demonstrate that the perceptual representation of the biological finger and augmentation device changes across different phases of device exposure and use. The evidence supporting a representational change over time is solid, although it is still not clear whether these changes reflect three distinct phases of sensorimotor plasticity, as argued, versus 'washout' or adaptation effects. This work will be of interest to researchers studying body representation, sensorimotor learning, and human-technology interaction.

Reviewed by eLife

Temporal dynamics of peri-microsaccadic modulations within the foveola

1. Zoe Stearns
2. Martina Poletti

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Stearns and Poletti present a technically impressive study that aims to uncover a deeper understanding of microsaccade function: their role in perceptual modulation and the associated temporal dynamics. The question is useful, and advances prior work by adding temporal granularity. However, the strength of the evidence is currently incomplete. Additional analysis is needed to control for the effects of endogenous attention and to demonstrate changes in perceptual performance.

Reviewed by eLife

Four new Duchenne muscular dystrophy mouse models with clinically relevant exon deletions in the human DMD gene

1. Maaike van Putten
2. Margot Linssen
3. Christa Tanganyika-de Winter
4. Conny M. Brouwers
5. Jill W.C. Claassens
6. Nisha Verwey
7. Max Walsh
8. Tiberiu Loredan Stan
9. Annemieke Aartsma-Rus
10. Peter Hohenstein

Reviewed by Review Commons

Divergent spatial codes in retrosplenial cortex and hippocampus support multi-scale representation of complex environments

1. Célia Laurent
2. Nada El Mahmoudi
3. David M Smith
4. Francesca Sargolini
5. Pierre-Yves Jacob

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study reports results showing how different neurons in the dysgranular retrosplenial cortex code spatial orientation. Specifically, the paper reports that some neurons maintain tuning for a single head direction across multi-compartmental environments, while other neurons are tuned to different head directions that reflect the geometry within each compartment. The study was viewed as likely to expand the field's understanding of directional tuning of neurons, but incomplete evidence was provided to support the conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

RHODOPSIN 7: An ancient non-retinal photoreceptor for contrast vision, darkness detection, and circadian regulation

1. Valentina Kirsch
2. Nils Reinhard
3. Heiko Hartlieb
4. Annika Mohr
5. Dirk Rieger
6. Peter Soba
7. Charlotte Helfrich-Förster
8. Pingkalai R Senthilan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study investigates, from multiple angles, the still-debated function of insect rhodopsin-7 (Rh7). The authors present compelling results for its ancient phylogenetic origin across pan-arthropods, a non-visual role based on expression analyses in the fly brain, an unusual G-protein signalling pathway, and - using behavioural genetics - that Rh7 affects how Drosophila melanogaster interprets and responds to light-dark transitions. Through this, the work provides fundamental new insights into the evolution and function of non-visual opsins.

Reviewed by eLife