Neuroscience

CO2-dependent opening of Connexin 43 hemichannels

1. Valentin-Mihai Dospinescu
2. Alexander Mascarenhas
3. Jack Butler
4. Sarbjit Nijjar
5. Kyara de Oliveira Taborda
6. Sean Connors
7. Lumei Huang
8. Nicholas Dale

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides important insights into the CO₂-dependent activation of Cx43 hemichannels through a well-defined carbamylation motif, supported by multiple independent assays and validation in hippocampal tissue. The evidence convincingly demonstrates that increased pCO₂ enhances Cx43 hemichannel activity, which has potential implications for cellular signaling in cardiomyocytes and astrocytes. While further investigation is needed to fully elucidate the structural mechanisms, the findings offer a foundation for future research in gap junction biology and CO₂ regulation of proteins.

Reviewed by eLife

Task and Behavior-Related Variables Are Encoded by the Postrhinal and Medial Entorhinal Cortex During Non-Spatial Associative Learning

1. Ingeborg Nymoen Nystuen
2. Frederik Sebastian Rogge
3. Anna Hjertvik Aasen
4. Sverre Grødem
5. Anders Malthe-Sørenssen
6. Mikkel Elle Lepperød
7. Torkel Hafting
8. Marianne Fyhn
9. Kristian Kinden Lensjø

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study investigates how neural representations in the postrhinal and medial entorhinal cortices evolve with the learning of a visual associative memory task in mice. The findings provide new insights into how non-spatial information is differentially encoded across interconnected brain areas, with strong evidence that stimulus encoding is robust in the postrhinal cortex and emerges more weakly in the medial entorhinal cortex with learning. The evidence is solid overall, particularly in the use of sophisticated population-level analyses and two-photon imaging across learning phases, although the interpretation of regression models and clustering would benefit from additional clarity and control. The work will be of broad interest to systems neuroscientists studying learning, memory, and cortical circuit function.

Reviewed by eLife

Subcortical correlates of consciousness with human single neuron recordings

1. Michael Pereira
2. Nathan Faivre
3. Fosco Bernasconi
4. Nicholas Brandmeir
5. Jacob E Suffridge
6. Kaylee Tran
7. Shuo Wang
8. Victor Finomore
9. Peter Konrad
10. Ali Rezai
11. Olaf Blanke

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study reports human single-neuron recordings in subcortical structures while participants performed a tactile detection task around the perceptual threshold. The study and the analyses are well conducted and provide convincing evidence that the thalamus and the subthalamic nucleus contain neurons whose activity correlates with the task, with stimulus presentation, and even with whether the stimulation is consciously detected or not. The study will be relevant for researchers interested in the role of subcortical structures in tactile perception and the neural correlates of consciousness.

Reviewed by eLife

Trends in self-citation rates in high-impact neurology, neuroscience, and psychiatry journals

1. Matthew Rosenblatt
2. Saloni Mehta
3. Hannah Peterson
4. Javid Dadashkarimi
5. Raimundo Rodriguez
6. Maya L Foster
7. Brendan D Adkinson
8. Qinghao Liang
9. Violet M Kimble
10. Jean Ye
11. Marie C McCusker
12. Michael C Farruggia
13. Max J Rolison
14. Margaret L Westwater
15. Rongtao Jiang
16. Stephanie Noble
17. Dustin Scheinost

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study examines how self-citations in selected neurology, neuroscience, and psychiatry journals differ according to seniority, geography, gender and subfield. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing, and the article is a valuable addition to the literature on self-citations.

Reviewed by eLife

Brain dynamics and spatiotemporal trajectories during threat processing

1. Joyneel Misra
2. Luiz Pessoa

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Using highly sophisticated switching linear dynamical systems (SLDS) analyses applied to functional MRI data, this study provides important insights into network dynamics underlying threat processing. After identifying distinct neural network states associated with varying levels of threat proximity, the paper provides compelling evidence of intrinsically and extrinsically driven contributions to these within-state dynamics and between-state transitions. Although the findings could be made more biologically meaningful, this work will be of interest to a wider functional neuroimaging and systems neuroscience community.

Reviewed by eLife

Chronic hyperactivation of midbrain dopamine neurons causes preferential dopamine neuron degeneration

1. Katerina Rademacher
2. Zak Doric
3. Dominik Haddad
4. Aphroditi Mamaligas
5. Szu-Chi Liao
6. Rose Creed
7. Kohei Kano
8. Zac Chatterton
9. Yuhong Fu
10. Joseph H Garcia
11. Victoria M Vance
12. Yoshitaka J Sei
13. Anatol Kreitzer
14. Glenda Halliday
15. Alexandra B Nelson
16. Elyssa Margolis
17. Ken Nakamura

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript shows that chronic chemogenetic excitation of dopaminergic neurons in the mouse midbrain results in differential degeneration of axons and somas across distinct regions (SNc vs VTA). These findings are important for two reasons. This approach can be used as a mouse model for Parkinson's Disease without the need for the infusion of toxins (e.g. 6-OHDA or MPTP) — this mouse model also has the advantage of showing axon-first degeneration over a time course (2–4 weeks) that is suitable for experimental investigation. Also, the findings that direct excitation of dopaminergic neurons causes differential degeneration sheds light on the mechanisms of dopaminergic neuron selective vulnerability. The evidence that activation of dopaminergic neurons causes degeneration, alters motor behavior, and alters mRNA expression is convincing. This is an exciting paper that will have an impact on the Parkinson's Disease field.

Reviewed by eLife

A high-throughput approach for the efficient prediction of perceived similarity of natural objects

1. Philipp Kaniuth
2. Florian P Mahner
3. Jonas Perkuhn
4. Martin N Hebart

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors show that an automated approach using artificial neural networks, which focuses on behaviourally relevant dimensions, can predict human similarity data up to a certain level of granularity. This study has the potential to be a valuable contribution to the broader field of cognitive computational neuroscience, as it provides a tool for the automated collection of similarity judgments under certain conditions. However, as of now, the significance of this method is somewhat limited because of its inability to generalise beyond between-category distinctions and the limited model evaluation. In terms of broader implications, the degree to which this work provides insights into DNN-brain alignment and a better understanding of the functional organisation of the visual system is supported by incomplete evidence.

Reviewed by eLife

Mouse sensorimotor cortex reflects complex kinematic details during reaching and grasping

1. Harrison A Grier
2. Sohrab Salimian
3. Matthew T Kaufman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The granularity with which neural activity in the sensorimotor cortex of mice corresponds to voluntary forelimb motion is a key open question. This paper provides convincing evidence for the encoding of low-level features like joint angles and represents an important step forward toward understanding the cortical origins of limb control signals.

Reviewed by eLife

Resilience of A Learned Motor Behavior After Chronic Disruption of Inhibitory Circuits

1. Zsofia Torok
2. Laura Luebbert
3. Jordan Feldman
4. Alison Duffy
5. Alexander A Nevue
6. Shelyn Wongso
7. Claudio V Mello
8. Adrienne Fairhall
9. Lior Pachter
10. Walter G Gonzalez
11. Carlos Lois

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study demonstrates that silencing of inhibitory interneurons in zebra finch HVC, a premotor nucleus critical for song production, disrupts song. However, song naturally recovers in a way that is surprisingly independent of LMAN, a distinct premotor nucleus required for normal song plasticity. The authors provide solid evidence that disruption is associated with microglial activation, activation of MHCI, synaptic changes, and altered neural dynamics in HVC. However, the manuscript would benefit from a clearer narrative structure, contextualization of the microglial results, and quantitative analyses to fully characterize song syntax and recovery after LMAN lesions.

Reviewed by eLife

Varicose-projection astrocytes: a reactive phenotype associated with neuropathology

1. Caterina Ciani
2. Giulio Pistorio
3. Simona Giancola
4. Marika Mearelli
5. Francesca Emma Mongelli
6. Delaram Forouzeh
7. Luca Mio
8. Paula Ramos-Gonzalez
9. Carlos Matute
10. Ugne Kuliesiute
11. Sari Elena Dötterer
12. Gediminas Luksys
13. Saulius Rocka
14. Urte Neniskyte
15. Marya Ayub
16. Jean-Marie Graïc
17. Francesco Petrelli
18. Alexei Verkhratsky
19. Nunzio Iraci
20. Fabio Cavaliere
21. Carmen Falcone

Reviewed by Arcadia Science