Neuroscience

Differential roles of NaV1.2 and NaV1.6 in neocortical pyramidal cell excitability

1. Joshua D Garcia
2. Chenyu Wang
3. Ryan PD Alexander
4. Emmie Banks
5. Timothy Fenton
6. Jean-Marc DeKeyser
7. Tatiana V Abramova
8. Alfred L George
9. Roy Ben-Shalom
10. David H Hackos
11. Kevin J Bender

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents a clever and powerful approach to examining differential roles of Nav1.2 and Nav1.6 channels in excitability of neocortical pyramidal neurons, by engineering mice in which a sulfonamide inhibitor of both channels has reduced affinity for one or the other channels. Overall, the results in the manuscript are compelling and give important information about differential roles of Nav1.6 and Nav1.2 channels. Activity-dependent inactivation of NaV1.6 was also found to attenuate seizure-like activity in cells, demonstrating the promise of activity-dependent NaV1.6-specific pharmacotherapy for epilepsy.

Reviewed by eLife

A neuromorphic model of active vision shows how spatiotemporal encoding in lobula neurons can aid pattern recognition in bees

1. HaDi MaBouDi
2. Mark Roper
3. Marie-Geneviève Guiraud
4. Mikko Juusola
5. Lars Chittka
6. James AR Marshall

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Inspired by bee's visual behavior, the goal of the manuscript is to develop a model of visual scanning, visual processing and learning to recognize visual patterns. In this model, pre-training with natural images leads to the formation of spatiotemporal receptive fields that can support associative learning. Due to an incomplete test of the necessity and sufficiency of the features included in the model, it cannot be concluded that the model is either the "minimal circuit" or the most biologically plausible circuit of this system. With a more in-depth analysis, the work has the potential of being important and very valuable to both experimental and computational neurobiologists.

Reviewed by eLife

A causal role of the NMDA receptor in recurrent processing during perceptual integration

1. Samuel Noorman
2. Timo Stein
3. Jasper Zantvoord
4. Johannes Fahrenfort
5. Simon van Gaal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a new, fundamental finding to the field interested in recurrent processing and its neuromodulatory underpinnings, finding unexpectedly that memantine (blocking NMDA-receptors) enhances the decoding of features thought to rely on NMDA-receptors. This interesting, compelling result identifies new directions for researchers studying consciousness, sensory processing, attention, and neurotransmitters.

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Analyzing neural response to visual stimuli: Firing rates, frequency band dynamics, and synchrony in near and far flanker conditions

1. Manjeet Kunwar
2. Nabin Bhusal
3. Niraj Dhital

Reviewed by PREreview

Homeostatic synaptic plasticity of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents in mouse cortical cultures requires neuronal Rab3a

1. Andrew G Koesters
2. Mark M Rich
3. Kathrin Engisch

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study presents findings on the role of the small GTPase Rab3A in homeostatic plasticity. While the study provides solid evidence for a requirement of Rab3A in homeostatic up-scaling in cultured mouse neurons, it does not provide a model of how Rab3A is involved in homeostatic plasticity. The work will be of interest to researchers in the field of synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity.

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The information bottleneck as a principle underlying multi-area cortical representations during decision-making

1. Michael Kleinman
2. Tian Wang
3. Derek Xiao
4. Ebrahim Feghhi
5. Kenji Lee
6. Nicole Carr
7. Yuke Li
8. Nima Hadidi
9. Chandramouli Chandrasekaran
10. Jonathan C Kao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript reports a useful computational study of information encoding across the monkey prefrontal and pre-motor cortices during decision making. While many of the conclusions are supported with solid analyses, the evidence for the main interpretation of the results, the role of an information bottleneck across areas, is not complete. The results will be of interest to a systems and computational neuroscience audience.

Reviewed by eLife

Multifaceted role of galanin in brain excitability

1. Nicolas N Rieser
2. Milena Ronchetti
3. Adriana Lea Lea Hotz
4. Stephan CF Neuhauss

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study investigated the effects of the peptide galanin on brain Ca2+ activity in zebrafish, which provides a useful model organism for whole-brain imaging because of its transparency. They found that galanin has distinct effects on hyperactivity and expression of galanin changes after activity increases. The strength of evidence was incomplete particularly for some of the conclusions regarding the use of convulsants and relevance to epilepsy because of limitations to the methods and interpretations of results.

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Synaptic connectivity of sensorimotor circuits for vocal imitation in the songbird

1. Massimo Trusel
2. Ziran Zhao
3. Danyal H Alam
4. Ethan S Marks
5. Maaya Z Ikeda
6. Todd F Roberts

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The songbird vocal motor nucleus HVC contains cells that project to the basal ganglia, the auditory system, or to downstream vocal motor structures. In this fundamental study, the authors conduct optogenetic circuit mapping to clarify how four distinct inputs to HVC act on these distinct HVC cell types. They provide compelling evidence that all long range projections engage inhibitory circuits in HVC and can also exhibit cell-type specific preferences in monosynaptic input strength. Understanding HVC at this microcircuit level is critical for constraining models of song learning and production.

Reviewed by eLife

Microglia are required for developmental specification of AgRP innervation in the hypothalamus of offspring exposed to maternal high-fat diet during lactation

1. Haley N Mendoza-Romero
2. Jessica E Biddinger
3. Michelle N Bedenbaugh
4. Richard Simerly

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors provide a valuable contribution by documenting the role of microglia in pruning the axon terminals of AgRP neurons. The analysis of microglial axonal pruning is solid; however, the analysis of the effects inhibiting microglia on subsequent food consumption is not fully complete.

Reviewed by eLife

Neocortical layer-5 tLTD relies on non-ionotropic presynaptic NMDA receptor signaling

1. Aurore Thomazeau
2. Sabine Rannio
3. Jennifer A Brock
4. Hovy Ho-Wai Wong
5. Per Jesper Sjöström

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  By using sparse Cre-dependent deletion of GluN1 subunit, in vitro quadruple patch clamp recordings, and pharmacological interventions, the authors show that spike timing dependent plasticity at between L5 synapses in the mouse visual cortex is: (i) dependent on presynaptic NMDA receptors; (ii) mediated by non-ionotropic NMDA receptor signaling, and (iii) reliant on presynaptic JNK2/Syntaxin-1a interactions. These fundamental findings advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying spike time dependent plasticity. The data are compelling and are supported by the elegant application of sophisticated experimental approaches.

Reviewed by eLife