Neuroscience

Dynamics of striatal action selection and reinforcement learning

1. Jack W Lindsey
2. Jeffrey Markowitz
3. Winthrop F Gillis
4. Sandeep R Datta
5. Ashok Litwin-Kumar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors present a biologically plausible framework for action selection and learning in the striatum that is a fundamental advance in our understanding of possible neural implementations of reinforcement learning in the basal ganglia. They provide compelling evidence that their model can reconcile realistic neural plasticity rules with the distinct functional roles of the direct and indirect spiny projection neurons of the striatum, recapitulating experimental findings regarding the activity profiles of these distinct neural populations and explaining a key aspect of striatal function.

Reviewed by eLife

Gender–specific Single Transcript Level Atlas of Vasopressin and its Receptor (AVPR1a) in the Mouse Brain

1. Anisa Gumerova
2. Georgii Pevnev
3. Funda Korkmaz
4. Uliana Cheliadinova
5. Guzel Burganova
6. Darya Vasilyeva
7. Liam Cullen
8. Orly Barak
9. Farhath Sultana
10. Weibin Zhou
11. Steven Sims
12. Victoria Laurencin
13. Tal Frolinger
14. Se-Min Kim
15. Ki A Goosens
16. Tony Yuen
17. Mone Zaidi
18. Vitaly Ryu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work presents an atlas of vasopressin (AVP) and its receptor AVPR1a in mouse brains using RNAscope to map single transcript expressions of Avp and Avpr1a across various brain regions in males and females. The findings are valuable in that they identify brain regions expressing Avpr1a mRNA transcript. The impact of findings is decreased by incomplete analysis of the data due to limited description of Avpr1a mRNA distribution within brain regions and limited statistical inference.

Reviewed by eLife

Top-down feedback matters: Functional impact of brainlike connectivity motifs on audiovisual integration

1. Mashbayar Tugsbayar
2. Mingze Li
3. Eilif B Muller
4. Blake Richards

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study investigates the computational role of top-down feedback -- a property that is found in biological circuits -- in Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models of the neocortex. Using hierarchical recurrent ANNs in an audiovisual integration task, the authors show a visual bias consistent with that observed in human perception, which mildly improves learning speed. While the study offers a tool that is of value for studying top-down feedback in cortical models, with the potential to inspire other fields (e.g. machine learning), the presented evidence for a general framework of deep learning architectures that predict behavior is incomplete, and the methods section lacks sufficient detail in terms of hyperparameter choice and network structures.

Reviewed by eLife

The coarse mental map of the breast is anchored on the nipple

1. Katie H Long
2. Emily E Fitzgerald
3. Ev I Berger-Wolf
4. Amani Fawaz
5. Stacy Tessler Lindau
6. Sliman J Bensmaia
7. Charles M Greenspon

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study thoroughly assesses tactile acuity on women's breasts, for which no dependable data currently exists. The study provides two important contributions, by convincingly showing that tactile acuity on the breast is poor in comparison to other body parts, and that acuity is worst in larger breasts, indicating that the number of tactile sensors is fixed. However, further arguments concerning the role of the nipple in spatial localisation are not well supported by the current evidence. This study will be of interest to the broader community of touch, as well as those interested in breast reconstruction and sexual function.

Reviewed by eLife

Decoding semantics from natural speech using human intracranial EEG

1. Camille R. C. Pescatore
2. Haoyu Zhang
3. Alex E. Hadjinicolaou
4. Angelique C. Paulk
5. John D. Rolston
6. R. Mark Richardson
7. Ziv M. Williams
8. Jing Cai
9. Sydney S. Cash

Reviewed by PREreview

Cholesterol taste avoidance in Drosophila melanogaster

1. Roshani Nhuchhen Pradhan
2. Craig Montell
3. Youngseok Lee

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study provides convincing evidence that Drosophila can taste cholesterol through a subset of bitter-sensing gustatory receptor neurons, and that flies avoid high-cholesterol food. However, the same receptors have been previously found to be involved in the detection of multiple seemingly unrelated chemicals, and the reported expression patterns of these receptors contradict past reports. These caveats are not mentioned in the paper, raising critical concerns about the study's conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Sex Differences in BNST Signaling and BNST CRF in Fear Processing: Implications for Unpredictable Threat in Sustained Fear

1. Olivia J Hon
2. Sofia Neira
3. Meghan E Flanigan
4. Alison V Roland
5. Christina M Caira
6. Tori Sides
7. Shannon D’Ambrosio
8. Sophia Lee
9. Yolanda Simpson
10. Michelle Buccini
11. Samantha Machinski
12. Waylin Yu
13. Kristen M Boyt
14. Thomas L Kash

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study advances understanding of how corticotrophin releasing factor in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis regulates sustained and phasic fear and how this differs between sexes. The evidence is convincing and based on state-of-the-art techniques. The work will be of interest to neuroscientists studying the biological basis of fear processing.

Reviewed by eLife

Shaping the physical world to our ends through the left PF technical-cognition area

1. François Osiurak
2. Giovanni Federico
3. Arnaud Fournel
4. Vivien Gaujoux
5. Franck Lamberton
6. Danièle Ibarrola
7. Yves Rossetti
8. Mathieu Lesourd

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study used functional MRI experiments to identify the involvement of a left parietal area (PF) in reasoning about the physical properties of actions, objects, and events. Solid evidence was shown regarding the commonalities and differences across different types of reasoning tasks, yet the methodological and theoretical interpretations require further scrutiny. The study would be of interest to researchers studying the cognitive and neural mechanisms of reasoning and problem solving.

Reviewed by eLife

Food intake enhances hippocampal sharp wave-ripples

1. Ekin Kaya
2. Evan Wegienka
3. Alexandra Akhtarzandi-Das
4. Hanh Do
5. Ada Eban-Rothschild
6. Gideon Rothschild

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study assessed the effects of food intake on sharp wave-ripples in the hippocampus of mice during subsequent sleep. Convincing evidence supports the conclusion that sharp wave-ripples are enhanced by food consumption. This work will likely interest researchers studying multiple functions including memory, metabolism, and brain-body physiology.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamic gamma modulation of hippocampal place cells predominates development of theta sequences

1. Ning Wang
2. Yimeng Wang
3. Mingkun Guo
4. Ling Wang
5. Xueling Wang
6. Nan Zhu
7. Jiajia Yang
8. Lei Wang
9. Chenguang Zheng
10. Dong Ming

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Using electrophysiological recordings in freely moving rats, this valuable study investigates the role of gamma oscillations in the development of spatial representations in the hippocampus. Specifically, solid evidence supports the claim that distinct gamma oscillatory inputs contribute to the emergence of 'theta sequences', which encode the animal's ongoing trajectory. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists working in the fields of spatial navigation and neuronal dynamics.

Reviewed by eLife