Neuroscience

Distinct Roles of Somatostatin and Parvalbumin Interneurons in Regulating Predictive Actions and Emotional Responses During Trace Eyeblink Conditioning

1. Jiaman Dai
2. Qian-Quan Sun

Reviewed by PREreview

Transforming descending input into motor output: An analysis of the Drosophila Male Adult Nerve Cord connectome

1. Han SJ Cheong
2. Katharina Eichler
3. Tomke Stürner
4. Samuel K Asinof
5. Andrew S Champion
6. Elizabeth C Marin
7. Tess B Oram
8. Marissa Sumathipala
9. Lalanti Venkatasubramanian
10. Shigehiro Namiki
11. Igor Siwanowicz
12. Marta Costa
13. Stuart Berg
14. Janelia FlyEM Project Team
15. Gregory SXE Jefferis
16. Gwyneth M Card

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This paper describes the structure and connectivity of brain neurons that send descending connections to motor neurons and muscle in the fruit fly nerve cord, using a synapse-resolution connectome. This important work provides a wealth of hypotheses and predictions for future experimentation and modelling. Using state-of-the-art methods, the authors provide solid evidence for their conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Synaptic Encoding of Time in Working Memory

1. Gianluigi Mongillo
2. Misha Tsodyks

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable manuscript addresses the longstanding question of how the brain maintains serial order in working memory, proposing a biologically grounded model based on synaptic augmentation mechanisms that operates on longer time scales than facilitation. The authors show that augmentation provides a mechanism by which this order can be maintained in memory thanks to a temporal gradient of synaptic efficacies. Although the evidence remains incomplete at present, it can be made stronger by demonstrating robustness to network heterogeneity, spiking, and threshold values for encoding the working memory.

Reviewed by eLife

Single neurons detect spatiotemporal activity transitions through STP and EI imbalance

1. Aditya Asopa
2. Upinder Singh Bhalla

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study examines excitation/inhibition (E/I) balance in the CA3-CA1 circuit of the hippocampus. Experimental and computational modeling results are presented, but these results provide incomplete evidence to support the paper's main claims due to shortcomings in the experimental and modeling approaches, as well as concerns about the neurobiological relevance of the results.

Reviewed by eLife

Striatal Crosstalk Between Dopamine and Serotonin Systems

1. Yu Liu
2. Juan Enriquez Traba
3. Christian Lüscher

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study employs optogenetics, genetically-encoded dopamine and serotonin sensors, and patch-clamp electrophysiology to investigate modulations of neurotransmitter release between striatal dopamine and serotonin neurons - a topic of interest to neuroscientists studying the basal ganglia. The results suggest that the dopamine and serotonin systems operate largely in parallel, with the activation of serotonin neurons resulting in a small, transient dopamine release. The authors suggest that this interaction occurs via glutamate release in the ventral tegmental area, findings that are closely related to previous work. Some conclusions are incomplete requiring larger samples-sizes and controls.

Reviewed by eLife

Bayesian meta-analysis reveals the mechanistic role of slow oscillation-spindle coupling in sleep-dependent memory consolidation

1. Thea Ng
2. Eunsol Noh
3. Rebecca MC Spencer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study presents a meta-analysis confirming a statistically significant association between slow oscillation-spindle coupling and memory formation, although the reported effects are limited (~0.5% of variance). The evidence is overall convincing, but the statistical methods may be difficult to follow for readers unfamiliar with advanced techniques. This work will be of particular interest to neuroscientists studying the neural mechanisms of sleep and memory.

Reviewed by eLife

Cellular and circuit features distinguish mouse dentate gyrus semilunar granule cells and granule cells activated during contextual memory formation

1. Laura Dovek
2. Mahboubeh Ahmadi
3. Krista Marrero
4. Edward Zagha
5. Vijayalakshmi Santhakumar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study describes distinctive characteristics of dentate gyrus granule cells and semilunar cells that are recruited during contextual memory processing. The study provides solid evidence to suggest mechanisms that may be involved in the recruitment of neurons into memory engrams in the dentate gyrus.

Reviewed by eLife

Spatial frequency adaptation modulates population receptive field sizes

1. Ecem Altan
2. Catherine A Morgan
3. Steven C Dakin
4. D Samuel Schwarzkopf

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This well-designed study combining psychophysical and fMRI data presents a valuable finding regarding how adaptation alters spatial frequency processing in the cortex. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although inclusion of more participants and better quality of the fMRI data would have strengthened the study. The study will be of interest to cognitive and perceptual neuroscientists working on human and non-human primates.

Reviewed by eLife

How infant brains fold: Sulcal deepening is linked to development of sulcal span, thickness, curvature, and microstructure

1. Sarah S. Tung
2. Xiaoqian Yan
3. Bella Fascendini
4. Christina Tyagi
5. Charleny Martinez Reyes
6. Keithan Ducre
7. Karla Perez
8. Ahmad Allen
9. Juliet Horenziak
10. Hua Wu
11. Boris Keil
12. Vaidehi S. Natu
13. Kalanit Grill-Spector

Reviewed by preLights

Progressive neural engagement within the IFG-pMTG circuit as gesture and speech entropy and MI advances

1. Wanying Zhao
2. Zhouyi Li
3. Xiang Li
4. Yi Du

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study uses brain stimulation and electroencephalography to study speech-gesture integration. It investigates the role of frontotemporal regions in integrating linguistic and extra-linguistic information during communication, focusing on the inferior frontal gyrus and posterior middle temporal gyrus. Reliance on activation patterns of tightly-coupled brain regions over short timescales leads to incomplete support for the study's conclusions due to conceptual and methodological limitations.

Reviewed by eLife