Neuroscience

A stochastic RNA editing process targets a select number of sites in individual Drosophila glutamatergic motoneurons

1. Andrés B Crane
2. Michiko O Inouye
3. Suresh K Jetti
4. J Troy Littleton

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study uses single-neuron Patch-seq RNA sequencing to investigate the process by which RNA editing can produce protein diversity and regulate function in various cellular contexts. The computational analyses of the data collected are convincing, and from an analytical standpoint, this paper is a notable advance in seeking to provide a biological context for massive amounts of data in the field. The study would be of interest to biologists looking at the effects of RNA editing in the diversification of cellular behaviour.

Reviewed by eLife

Asymmetric neural entrainment at resonance frequencies underlies unilateral spatial neglect

1. Yuka O Okazaki
2. Noriaki Hattori
3. Teiji Kawano
4. Megumi Hatakenaka
5. Ichiro Miyai
6. Keiichi Kitajo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study uses EEG and computational modeling to investigate hemispheric oscillatory asymmetries in unilateral spatial neglect. The work benefits from rare patient data and a careful multimethod approach. However, the evidence is incomplete because key assumptions about alpha‑band entrainment and methodological confounds such as lesion variability and eye‑movement artifacts remain insufficiently addressed.

Reviewed by eLife

A Toolkit for In Vivo Mapping and Modulating Neurotransmission at Single-Cell Resolution

1. Andrea Cuentas-Condori
2. Patricia Chanabá-López
3. Matthew Thomas
4. Likui Feng
5. Aaron Wolfe
6. Peter Agoba
7. Matthew L Schwartz
8. Maximillian Brown
9. Margaret Ebert
10. Erik Jorgensen
11. Cornelia I Bargmann
12. Daniel Colón-Ramos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents an important toolkit for visualising the endogenous expression of four classes of neurotransmitter vesicular transporters. Using their toolkit, the authors find that there is co-transmission of neurotransmitters in over 10% of neurons tested. Although the evidence presented in the manuscript is solid, one weakness of this study is the failure of the authors to compare and contrast their results with available single-cell sequencing datasets and with well-established synaptic reporter lines (i.e., co-localization experiments). This toolkit will be of great use to multiple labs, and the authors should indicate their plan to disseminate the reagents and the associated information that is part of this kit.

Reviewed by eLife

Where is the melody? Spontaneous attention orchestrates melody formation during polyphonic music listening

1. Martin M Winchester
2. Kevin Reynolds
3. Charbel Nebo
4. Ian Cecil Scott
5. Giovanni M Di Liberto

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable work potentially advances our understanding of melody extraction in polyphonic music listening by identifying spontaneous attentional focus in uninstructed listening contexts. However, the evidence supporting the main conclusions is incomplete. The work will be of interest to psychologists and neuroscientists working on music listening, attention, and perception in ecological settings.

Reviewed by eLife

Functional characterization of neuropeptides that act as ligands for both calcitonin-type and pigment-dispersing factor-type receptors in a deuterostome

1. Xiao Cong
2. Huachen Liu
3. Lihua Liu
4. Nayeli Escudero Castelán
5. Kite GE Jones
6. Michaela Egertová
7. Maurice R Elphick
8. Muyan Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study characterises receptors for calcitonin-related peptides from a deuterostomian animal, the echinoderm Apostichopus japonicus, by a combination of heterologous expression, pharmacological experiments, and the quantification of gene-expression levels. The authors provide convincing evidence for a functional calcitonin-related peptide system in the sea cucumber, but further work will be needed to confirm the proposed physiological functions of PDF receptor system in this species. This work should be of interest to scientists studying the signaling pathways, functions, and evolution of neuropeptides, and could be of relevance to improving the culture conditions of this economically key species.

Reviewed by eLife

High-throughput single-cell CRISPRi screens stratify neurodevelopmental functions of schizophrenia-associated genes

1. Umut Yildiz
2. Annique Claringbould
3. Mikael Marttinen
4. Víctor Campos-Fornés
5. Mantha Lamprousi
6. Manu Saraswat
7. Mathias Saver
8. Daria Bunina
9. Michael W. Dorrity
10. Judith Zaugg
11. Kyung-Min Noh

Reviewed by preLights

Molecular and functional dissection using CaMPARI-seq reveals the neuronal organization for dissociating optic flow-dependent behaviors

1. Koji Matsuda
2. Chung-Han Wang
3. Atsushi Toyoda
4. Tomoya Shiraki
5. Koichi Kawakami
6. Fumi Kubo

Reviewed by preLights

How serially homologous neuroblasts produce different temporal cohorts along the Drosophila larval body axis

1. Deeptha Vasudevan
2. Yi-wen Wang
3. Hannah Carr
4. Elise Paniel
5. Sean Corcoran
6. Chris C. Wreden
7. Elaine Kushkowski
8. Conor Lee-Smith
9. Ellie S. Heckscher

Reviewed by Review Commons

PTBP1 depletion in mature astrocytes reveals distinct splicing alterations without neuronal features

1. Min Zhang
2. Naoto Kubota
3. David Nikom
4. Ayden Arient
5. Sika Zheng

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study reports important negative results, showing that genetically removing the RNA-binding protein PTBP1 in astrocytes is insufficient to convert them into neurons, thereby challenging previous claims in the field. It also offers a compelling analysis of PTBP1's role in regulating astrocyte-specific splicing. The evidence is strong, as the experiments are technically sound, carefully controlled, and supported by both imaging and transcriptomic analyses.

Reviewed by eLife

Biophysical network modeling of temporal and stereotyped sequence propagation of neural activity in the premotor nucleus HVC

1. Zeina Bou Diab
2. Marc Chammas
3. Arij Daou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This computational study examines how neurons in the songbird premotor nucleus HVC might generate the precise, sparse burst sequences that drive adult song. The findings would be useful for understanding how intrinsic conductances and HVC microcircuitry may produce neural sequences, but the work is incomplete because of arbitrary network assumptions, insufficient consideration of biological details such as how silent gaps in song sequences are represented, and failure to incorporate interactions with auditory and brainstem inputs. As a result, the study offers limited advance and only a modest conceptual advance over prior models.

Reviewed by eLife