Neuroscience

Hierarchical encoding of natural sound mixtures in ferret auditory cortex

1. Agnès Landemard
2. Célian Bimbard
3. Yves Boubenec

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This paper presents valuable findings on the processing of sound mixtures in the auditory cortex of ferrets, a species widely used for studies of auditory processing. Using the convenient and relatively high-resolution method of functional ultrasound imaging, the authors provide convincing evidence that background noise invariance emerges across the auditory cortical processing hierarchy. They also draw informative comparisons with previously published fMRI data obtained in humans. This work will be of interest to researchers studying the auditory cortex and the neural mechanisms underlying auditory scene analysis and hearing in noise.

Reviewed by eLife

Cone bipolar cell synapses generate transient versus sustained signals in parallel ON pathways of the mouse retina

1. Sidney P Kuo
2. Wan-Qing Yu
3. Prerna Srivastava
4. Haruhisa Okawa
5. Luca Della Santina
6. David M Berson
7. Gautam B Awatramani
8. Rachel OL Wong
9. Fred Rieke

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study shows that retinal bipolar cell subtype-specific differences in the size of synaptic ribbon-associated vesicle pools contribute to the transient versus sustained kinetics of the responses of retinal ganglion cells. The data are extensive and compelling. This work will be of broad interest to researchers working on synaptic transmission, retinal signal processing, and sensory neurobiology.

Reviewed by eLife

Generation of biophysical neuron model parameters from recorded electrophysiological responses

1. Jimin Kim
2. Minxian Peng
3. Shuqi Chen
4. Qiang Liu
5. Eli Shlizerman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study is a valuable contribution to the field of neuronal modeling by way of providing a method for rapidly obtaining neuronal physiology parameters from electrophysiological recordings. The method is solid as the generated models reproduce both ground-truth simulated data and empirical data, and there is now a quantitative comparison with other approaches.

Reviewed by eLife

Individual differences in fear memory expression engage distinct functional brain networks

1. Barbara D Fontana
2. Jacob Hudock
3. Neha Rajput
4. Dea Kanini
5. Dinh Luong
6. Justin W Kenney

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work sets out to identify the neural substrates of associative fear responses in adult zebrafish. Through a compelling and innovative paradigm and analysis, the authors suggest brain regions associated with individual differences in fear memory. While several findings are well supported, aspects of the interpretation and presentation are partially incomplete, and the manuscript would benefit from adjusting key claims or including additional experiments. Nonetheless, this study showcases the strength of zebrafish for systems-level neuroscience and will be of broad interest to the neuroscience community.

Reviewed by eLife

A Context-Free Model of Savings in Motor Learning

1. Mahdiyar Shahbazi
2. Olivier Codol
3. Jonathan A Michaels
4. Paul L Gribble

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents valuable computational findings on the neural basis of learning new motor memories and the savings using recurrent neural networks. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, but it would benefit from more controls and from considering the role of explicit strategies and other brain regions. This work will be of interest to computational and experimental neuroscientists working in motor learning.

Reviewed by eLife

Integrative models of visually guided steering in Drosophila

1. Angel Canelo
2. Hyosun Kim
3. Yeon Kim
4. Jeongmin Park
5. Anmo J Kim

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study investigates the implementation of an efference copy mechanism in the visual flight control system of Drosophila, a topic of broad interest to sensorimotor neuroscientists. Although the behavioral data and computational analyses are each individually solid, there is limited quantitative evaluation of how the model predictions compare to the experimental data.

Reviewed by eLife

Cortical motor activity modulates respiration and reduces apnoea in neonates

1. Coen S Zandvoort
2. Fatima Usman
3. Shellie Robinson
4. Odunayo Fatunla
5. Eleri Adams
6. Kyle TS Pattinson
7. Simon F Farmer
8. Caroline Hartley

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Zandvoort and colleagues describe respiration-brain coupling in the context of apnoea in human newborns. The authors have addressed an important question and supported their claims with solid data. The rigor of the findings could perhaps be further strengthened with some relatively minor changes to the analysis methodology.

Reviewed by eLife

A behavioral architecture for realistic simulations of Drosophila larva locomotion and foraging

1. Panagiotis Sakagiannis
2. Anna-Maria Jürgensen
3. Martin Paul Nawrot

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study presents a hierarchical computational model that integrates locomotion, navigation, and learning in Drosophila larvae. The evidence supporting the model is solid, as it qualitatively replicates empirical behavioral data, but the experimental data is incomplete. While some simplifications in neuromechanical representation and sensory-motor integration are limiting factors, the study could be of use to researchers interested in computational modeling of biological movement and adaptive behavior.

Reviewed by eLife

Wide-ranging behavioral dysfunction in two mouse models of pathological human variants in the GRIK2 kainate receptor gene

1. Brynna T. Webb
2. Hieu Trinh
3. Emily A. Breach
4. Kendall M. Foote
5. Erica Binelli
6. Geoffrey T. Swanson

Reviewed by preLights

Segment-specific axon guidance by Wnt/Fz signaling diversifies motor commands in Drosophila larvae

1. Suguru Takagi
2. Shiina Takano
3. Tomohiro Kubo
4. Yusaku Hashimoto
5. Shu Morise
6. Xiangsunze Zeng
7. Akinao Nose

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study by Takagi and colleagues is an important contribution to the question of how homologous neuronal circuits might be wired differently to elicit specific behaviours. The authors combine genetic, neuroanatomical, and behavioral data to provide convincing evidence that Dfz2/DWnt4 signaling controls the innervation pattern of wave command neurons in the fly larva, and thereby behavioral locomotion program selection.

Reviewed by eLife