Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

In this manuscript the authors examine correlations between intrinsic electrophysiological properties of HVC neurons projecting to Area X and the temporal structure of the birds' song. The study provides important insights into how the structure of vocalization can relate to intrinsic physiological properties of the neurons that are essential for learning the behavior. The evidence supporting the idea that song temporal structure is related to intrinsic physiology is solid and this research will be of general interest to researchers in the field and neurophysiologists.

eLife Assessment

This is an important study demonstrating that cholecystokinin is a key modulator of auditory thalamocortical plasticity during development and in young adult but not aged mice, though cortical application of this neuropeptide in older animals appears to go some way to restoring this age-dependent loss in plasticity. A strength of this work is the use of multiple experimental approaches, which together provide convincing support for the proposed involvement of cholecystokinin. This work is likely to be influential in opening up a new avenue of investigation into the roles of neuropeptides in sensory plasticity.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study presents a framework for a shareable data analysis pipeline aimed at improving reproducibility in neuroscience. The evidence for robustness and inter-laboratory operability is convincing. However, aspects such as accessibility for new users, flexibility for custom analyses, and plans for long-term maintenance remain incomplete. Overall, this work will be of interest to neuroscientists engaged in the analysis of large-scale neuronal recordings.

eLife Assessment

This work, combining behavioural genetics and calcium imaging, provides evidence for a form of learning in Drosophila that derives solely from direct or (optogenetically induced) phantom experience of punishment or reward. Flies that experience foot-shock alone show a subsequent decrease in avoidance to all odorants, together with increased odor-evoked activation of reward-encoding dopaminergic neurons that innervate the mushroom body. Phantom reward, delivered via optogenetic activation of reward-encoding dopaminergic neurons, increases subsequent odour-avoidance. While the findings are valuable to the field, there are aspects of the work that are incomplete, and some of the conclusions and terminology are also not completely justified; three major issues include : (a) the use of the term "priming" to describe this form of learning seems inappropriate and inconsistent with the accepted definition of this term; (b) a key 1998 publication with an initial description of this behavioural phenomenon needs to be cited and presented as context; and (c) the work on reward induced increase in odor-aversion seems relatively preliminary.

eLife Assessment

This important study examined the complexity of emergent dynamics of large-scale neural network models after perturbation (perturbational complexity index, PCI) and used it as a measurement of consciousness to account for previous recordings of humans at various anesthetized levels. The evidence supporting the conclusion is convincing and constitutes a unified framework for different observations related to consciousness. There are many fields that would be interested in this study, including cognitive neuroscience, psychology, complex systems, neural networks, and neural dynamics.

eLife Assessment

This valuable work explores the timely idea that aperiodic activity in human electrophysiology recordings is dynamically modulated in response to task events in a manner that may be relevant for behavioral performance. Moreover, the authors present solid evidence that, in some circumstances, these aperiodic changes might be misinterpreted as oscillatory changes.

eLife Assessment

This important study shows how hunger alters avoidance of harmful heat in C. elegans by reconfiguring the activity of key sensory neurons. The evidence is convincing, with well-designed behavioural, genetic, and imaging experiments that support the main conclusions. The work will be of interest to neuroscientists studying how internal states shape sensory processing and behaviour across species.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a new toolbox for Representational Similarity Analysis, representing a valuable contribution to the neuroscience community. The authors offer a well-integrated platform that brings together a range of state-of-the-art methodological advances within a convincing framework, with strong potential to enable more rigorous and insightful analyses of neural data across multiple subfields.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reports evidence that items maintained in working memory can bias attention in an oscillatory manner, with the attentional capture effect fluctuating at theta frequency. The study provides incomplete evidence that this dynamic attentional bias is associated with oscillatory neural mechanisms, particularly in the alpha and theta bands, as measured by EEG. The study will be relevant for researchers studying attention, working memory, and neural oscillations, particularly those interested in how memory and perception interact over time.

eLife Assessment

This study provides novel and fundamental insights into the long-term use of DREADDs to modulate neuronal activity in nonhuman primates. The exceptional evidence demonstrates the peak dynamics and the subsequent stability of chemogenetic effects for 1.5 years, informing the experimental designs and the interpretation of highly impactful chemogenetic studies in macaques. The protocols, data, and outcomes can serve as guidelines for future experiments. Therefore, the findings will be of significant interest to the field of chemogenetics and may also be of broader interest to researchers and clinicians who seek to utilize viral vectors and/or related genetic technologies.