Neuroscience

Synaptic density and relative connectivity conservation maintain circuit stability across development

1. Ingo Fritz
2. Feiyu Wang
3. Ricardo Chirif
4. Nikos Malakasis
5. Julijana Gjorgjieva
6. André Ferreira Castro

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors have performed a potentially valuable new kind of analysis in connectomics, mapping to an interesting developmental problem of synaptic input to sensory neurons. While the analysis itself is solid, the authors have drawn broader conclusions than are directly supported by the presented data. With more measured claims and greater clarity and explanations for the analysis, the study could potentially become stronger.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamics of mesoscale brain network during decision-making learning revealed by chronic, large-scale single-unit recording

1. Tian-Yi Wang
2. Chengcong Feng
3. Chengyao Wang
4. Chi Ren
5. Zhengtuo Zhao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents experiments suggesting intriguing mesoscale reorganization of functional connectivity across distributed cortical and subcortical circuits during learning. The approach is technically impressive and the results are potentially of valuable significance. However, in its current form, the strength of evidence is incomplete. More in-depth analyses and the acquisition of data from additional animals in the primary experiment could bolster these findings.

Reviewed by eLife

Alcohol Attenuates CRF-Induced Excitatory Effects from the Extended Amygdala to Dorsostriatal Cholinergic Interneurons

1. Amanda Essoh
2. Himanshu Gangal
3. Zhenbo Huang
4. Ruifeng Chen
5. Xueyi Xie
6. Xuehua Wang
7. Valerie Vierkant
8. Miguel Garza
9. Lierni Ugartemendia
10. Maria E Secci
11. Nicholas W Gilpin
12. Nicholas J Justice
13. Robert O Messing
14. Jun Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study identifies a novel CRF-positive projection from the central amygdala and BNST to dorsal striatal cholinergic interneurons, revealing a previously unrecognized pathway by which stress signals modulate striatal function. The authors present strong and convincing evidence for the anatomical and functional connectivity of this circuit and demonstrate that alcohol disrupts CRF-mediated cholinergic activity, supporting its relevance to alcohol use disorder.

Reviewed by eLife

Comparing electromyography, accelerometry, and visual inspection to assess the resting motor threshold for transcranial magnetic stimulation

1. Gautier Hamoline
2. Antoine E Lunardi
3. Marcos Moreno-Verdú
4. Baptiste M Waltzing
5. Elise E Van Caenegem
6. Siobhan MacAteer
7. Robert M Hardwick

Reviewed by Peer Community in Neuroscience

On CA1 ripple oscillations: reevaluating asynchronicity evidence

1. Robson Scheffer-Teixeira
2. Adriano Tort

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides new insights into the synchronization of ripple oscillations in the hippocampus, both within and across hemispheres. Using carefully designed statistical methods, it presents compelling evidence that synchrony is significantly higher within a hemisphere than across. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists studying the hippocampus and memory.

Reviewed by eLife

Human EEG and artificial neural networks reveal disentangled representations and processing timelines of object real-world size and depth in natural images

1. Zitong Lu
2. Julie D Golomb

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study combines EEG, neural networks and multivariate pattern analysis to show that real-world size, retinal size and real-world depth are represented at different latencies. The evidence presented is convincing and the work will be of broader interest to the experimental and computational vision community.

Reviewed by eLife

DendroTweaks: An interactive approach for unraveling dendritic dynamics

1. Roman Makarov
2. Spyridon Chavlis
3. Panayiota Poirazi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Computational simulation of neuron function depends on a collection of morphological properties and ion channel biophysics. This manuscript introduces DendroTweaks, a valuable web application and Python library that eases interactive exploration, development, and validation of single-neuron models in an easily installable and well-documented package. The authors provide a convincing demonstration that their software aids with building intuition and rapid prototyping of biophysical models of neurons, which improves the accessibility of dendritic simulation.

Reviewed by eLife

Distinct representational properties of cues and contexts shape fear and reversal learning

1. Antoine Bouyeure
2. Daniel Pacheco-Estefan
3. George Jacob
4. Malte Kobelt
5. Marie-Christin Fellner
6. Jonas Rose
7. Nikolai Axmacher

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study with convincing evidence that multi-voxel fMRI activity patterns for threat-conditioned stimuli are altered by learning CS-US contingencies. The analyses are dense, but rigorous. The protocol is quite nuanced and complex, but the authors have done a fair job of explaining and presenting the results. The work is relevant for our understanding of how effective learning changes neural stimulus representation in the human brain.

Reviewed by eLife

The influence of nucleus accumbens shell D1 and D2 neurons on outcome-specific Pavlovian instrumental transfer

1. Octavia Soegyono
2. Elise Pepin
3. Beatrice K Leung
4. Billy Chieng
5. Bernard W Balleine
6. Vincent Laurent

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides novel and convincing evidence that both dopamine D1 and D2 expressing neurons in the nucleus accumbens shell are crucial for the expression of cue-guided action selection, a core component of decision-making. The research is systematic and rigorous in using optogenetic inhibition of either D1- or D2-expressing medium spiny neurons in the NAc shell to reveal attenuation of sensory-specific Pavlovian-Instrumental transfer, while largely sparing value-based decision on an instrumental task. The important findings in this report build on prior research and resolve some conflicts in the literature regarding decision-making.

Reviewed by eLife

Cerebellar Purkinje cell stripe patterns reveal a differential vulnerability and resistance to cell loss during normal aging in mice

1. Sarah G Donofrio
2. Cheryl Brandenburg
3. Amanda M Brown
4. Tao Lin
5. Hsiang-Chih Lu
6. Roy V Sillitoe

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study presents findings on the patterned loss of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum during aging. The compelling data nicely support the conclusions of this study. This work advances understanding of mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration with aging and provides the basis for development of treatments for age-related neurological disorders.

Reviewed by eLife