Neuroscience

Synaptic enrichment and dynamic regulation of the two opposing dopamine receptors within the same neurons

1. Shun Hiramatsu
2. Kokoro Saito
3. Shu Kondo
4. Hidetaka Katow
5. Nobuhiro Yamagata
6. Chun-Fang Wu
7. Hiromu Tanimoto

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study uses state-of-the-art methods to label endogenous dopamine receptors in a subset of Drosophila mushroom body neuronal types. The authors report that DopR1 and Dop2R receptors, which have opposing effects in intracellular cAMP, are present in axons termini of Kenyon cells, as well as those of two classes of dopaminergic neurons that innervate the mushroom body indicative of autocrine modulation by dopaminergic neurons. Additional experiments showing opposing effects of starvation on DopR1 and DopR2 levels in mushroom body neurons are consistent with a role for dopamine receptor levels increasing the efficiency of learned food-odour associations in starved flies. Supported by solid data, this is a valuable contribution to the field.

Reviewed by eLife

Decoding the Cognitive map: Learning place cells and remapping

1. Markus Borud Pettersen
2. Vemund Sigmundson Schøyen
3. Anders Malthe-Sørenssen
4. Mikkel Elle Lepperød

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This useful study shows the representations that emerge in a recurrent neural network trained on a navigation task by requiring path integration and decodability. The network modeling was solid, but interpretation of neural data and mechanisms was incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Effects of early life adversity and adolescent basolateral amygdala activity on corticolimbic connectivity and anxiety behaviors

1. Caitlyn R. Cody
2. Emilce Artur de la Villarmois
3. Anabel Miguelez Fernandez
4. Janelle Lardizabal
5. Chaney McKnight
6. Kuei Tseng
7. Heather C. Brenhouse

Reviewed by preLights

Dysfunctional S1P/S1PR1 signaling in the dentate gyrus drives vulnerability of chronic pain-related memory impairment

1. Mengqiao Cui
2. Xiaoyuan Pan
3. Zhijie Fan
4. Shulin Wu
5. Ran Ji
6. Xianlei Wang
7. Xiangxi Kong
8. Zhou Wu
9. Lingzhen Song
10. Weiyi Song
11. Jun-Xia Yang
12. Hongjie Zhang
13. Hongxing Zhang
14. Hai-Lei Ding
15. Jun-Li Cao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying chronic pain-related memory impairment by focusing on S1P/S1PR1 signaling in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus. Through behavioral tests (Y-maze and Morris water maze) and RNA-seq analysis, the researchers discovered that S1P/S1PR1 signaling is crucial for determining susceptibility to memory impairment, with decreased S1PR1 expression linked to structural plasticity changes and memory deficits. This work has valuable significance and a convincing level of evidence, thus offering new insights into the mechanisms underlying chronic pain-related memory impairment.

Reviewed by eLife

A multiplex of connectome trajectories enables several connectivity patterns in parallel

1. Parham Mostame
2. Jonathan Wirsich
3. Thomas H Alderson
4. Ben Ridley
5. Anne-Lise Giraud
6. David W Carmichael
7. Serge Vulliemoz
8. Maxime Guye
9. Louis Lemieux
10. Sepideh Sadaghiani

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work uses an innovative approach to understand similarities between haemodynamic and electrophysiological activity of the human brain. The study provides incomplete evidence to indicate that while similar functional brain networks are used in both modalities, there is a tendency for these multi-modal networks to spatially converge at synchronous rather than asynchronous time points. This work will be of interest to neurophysiological and brain imaging researchers.

Reviewed by eLife

Hierarchical cortical entrainment orchestrates the multisensory processing of biological motion

1. Li Shen
2. Shuo Li
3. Yuhao Tian
4. Ying Wang
5. Yi Jiang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Wang et al. presented visual (dot) motion and/or the sound of a walking person and found that EEG activity tracks the step rhythm, as well as the gait (2-step cycle) rhythm, with tentative demonstration that the gait rhythm is tracked superadditively (power for A+V condition is higher than the sum of the A-only and V-only condition). The findings will be of wide interest to those examining biological motion perception and oscillatory processes more broadly, with the potential to be important. However, at present, due to some analysis concerns - most notably, evidence of double-dipping for one of the core findings - the evidence is incomplete. Furthermore, some of the theoretical interpretations concerning entrainment must remain speculative when the authors cannot dissociate evoked responses from entrained oscillatory effects.

Reviewed by eLife

MotorNet, a Python toolbox for controlling differentiable biomechanical effectors with artificial neural networks

1. Olivier Codol
2. Jonathan A Michaels
3. Mehrdad Kashefi
4. J Andrew Pruszynski
5. Paul L Gribble

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work will be of interest to the motor control community as well as neuroAI researchers interested in how bodies constrain neural circuit function. The authors present "MotorNet", a useful software package to train artificial neural networks to control a biomechanical model of an effector. The manuscript provides solid evidence that MotorNet is easy to use and can reproduce past results in the field, both at the neural and behavioural levels. Validation is limited to planar arm-like plants or point-masses, so future work exploring three-dimensional movements and other types of plants would strengthen the impact of the tool.

Reviewed by eLife

Bidirectional fear modulation by discrete anterior insular circuits in male mice

1. Sanggeon Park
2. Yeowool Huh
3. Jeansok J Kim
4. Jeiwon Cho

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work provides a valuable characterization of neural activity in the anterior insular cortex during fear. Using behavior, single unit recording, and optogenetic control of neural activity, the paper provides convincing data on the role of anterior insular circuits in bidirectionally controlling fear. The study is a great starting point on the path to testing hypotheses about bidirectional control of behavior via neural activity in anatomically defined output populations.

Reviewed by eLife

Nonlinear sensitivity to acoustic context is a stable feature of neuronal responses to complex sounds in auditory cortex of awake mice

1. Marios Akritas
2. Alex G Armstrong
3. Jules M Lebert
4. Arne F Meyer
5. Maneesh Sahani
6. Jennifer F Linden

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides important findings regarding the stability over time of the response properties of neurons in the auditory cortex, including their nonlinear sensitivity to sound context. The data obtained from chronic recordings combined with nonlinear stimulus-response estimation provide convincing evidence that auditory cortical representations are stable over a period of days to weeks. While this study should be of widespread interest to sensory neuroscientists, the paper would be strengthened by a more thorough assessment and discussion of the effects of context and of the stability of the responses, as well as by the inclusion of more information about the location and types of neurons that were sampled.

Reviewed by eLife

Guardian of Excitability: Multifaceted Role of Galanin in Whole Brain Excitability

1. Nicolas N Rieser
2. Milena Ronchetti
3. Adriana L Hotz
4. Stephan CF Neuhauss

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study shows that a peptide called galanin can decrease or increase seizure activity in experimental models of seizures depending on the way seizures are induced (genetic vs. pharmacological). The authors use zebrafish and several methods to address the effects of galanin. The study will be useful to researchers who use zebrafish as experimental animals and who are interested in how the peptides in the brain (neuropeptides) regulate seizures. However, the strength of evidence was considered incomplete at the present time due to several limitations of the results.

Reviewed by eLife