Neuroscience

Functional Role for Cas Cytoplasmic Adaptor Proteins During Cortical Axon Pathfinding

1. Jason A. Estep
2. Alyssa M. Treptow
3. Payton A. Rao
4. Patrick Williamson
5. Wenny Wong
6. Martin M. Riccomagno

Reviewed by Review Commons

Identification of neuron-glia signaling feedback in human schizophrenia using patient-derived, mix-and-match forebrain assembloids

1. Eunjee Kim
2. Yunhee Kim
3. Soojung Hong
4. Inha Kim
5. Juhee Lee
6. Kwanghwan Lee
7. Myungmo An
8. Sung-Yon Kim
9. Sanguk Kim
10. Kunyoo Shin

Reviewed by preLights, Arcadia Science

Balancing safety and efficiency in human decision-making

1. Pranav Mahajan
2. Shuangyi Tong
3. Sang Wan Lee
4. Ben Seymour

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work describes results from a set of simulation and empirical studies of a set-up assessing exploratory behavior in a potentially rewarding environment that contains danger. The core idea is that an instrumental agent can be helped to be both effective and safe, thus avoiding excessive danger, during exploratory behavior, if the influence of an independent Pavlovian fear is flexibly gated based on uncertainty. This work is grounded in previous foundational work on Pavlovian control of instrumental choice, and significantly extends prior work showing that the impact of Pavlovian reward biases can be flexibly gated. The conclusion that safe but effective exploration can be achieved based on a flexibly weighted combination of a Pavlovian and an instrumental agent is convincing.

Reviewed by eLife

Low-Frequency Tibial Neuromodulation Increases Voiding Activity - a Human Pilot Study and Computational Model

1. Aidan McConnell-Trevillion
2. Milad Jabbari
3. Wei Ju
4. Elliot Lister
5. Abbas Erfanian
6. Srinjoy Mitra
7. Kianoush Nazarpour

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study investigates frequency-dependent effects of transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (TTNS) on bladder function in healthy humans and, through a computational model, shows that low-frequency stimulation accelerates, and high-frequency delays, the urge to void. The integration of experimental and modeling approaches provides a solid foundation for clinical trials targeting urinary retention. However, concerns were raised about over-interpretation of modest effects and the limited physiological validity of the computational model, especially its mismatch with typical bladder behaviour and lack of quantitative validation.

Reviewed by eLife

Micro-scale control of oligodendrocyte morphology and myelination by the intellectual disability-linked protein acyltransferase ZDHHC9

1. Hey-Kyeong Jeong
2. Estibaliz Gonzalez-Fernandez
3. Ilan Crawley
4. Julia M Coakley
5. Jinha Hwang
6. Dale DO Martin
7. Shernaz X Bamji
8. Jong-Il Kim
9. Shin H Kang
10. Gareth M Thomas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides an in-depth exploration of the impact of X-linked ZDHHC9 gene mutations on cognitive deficits and epilepsy, with a particular focus on the expression and function of ZDHHC9 in myelin-forming oligodendrocytes (OLs). These valuable findings offer insights into ZDHHC9-related X-linked intellectual disability (XLID) and shed light on the regulatory mechanisms of palmitoylation in myelination. The experimental design and analysis of results are solid, providing a reference for further research in this field.

Reviewed by eLife

Mother-child dyadic interactions shape the developing social brain and Theory of Mind in young children

1. Lei Li
2. Jinming Xiao
3. Weixing Zhao
4. Qingyu Zheng
5. Xinyue Huang
6. Xiaolong Shan
7. Yating Ming
8. Peng Wang
9. Zhen Wu
10. Huafu Chen
11. Vinod Menon
12. Xujun Duan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study reports solid evidence for the significant role of mother-child neural synchronization and relationship quality in the development of Theory of Mind (ToM) and social cognition. The findings effectively bridge brain development with children's behavior and parenting practices, and will be of interest to researchers studying brain development and social cognition, as well as the general public.

Reviewed by eLife

Deletion of Neuroligins from Astrocytes Does Not Detectably Alter Synapse Numbers or Astrocyte Cytoarchitecture by Maturity

1. Samantha R Golf
2. Justin H Trotter
3. Jinzhao Wang
4. George Nakahara
5. Xiao Han
6. Marius Wernig
7. Thomas C Südhof

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study examines whether synaptic cell adhesion molecules neuroligin 1-3 resident on astrocytes, rather than neurons, exert effects on synaptic structure and function. With compelling evidence, including rigorous validation of neuroligin deletion efficiency in astrocytes and independent confirmation using human neuron-mouse glia co-cultures, the authors report that deletion of neuroligins 1-3 specifically in astrocytes does not alter synapse formation or astrocyte morphology in the hippocampus or visual cortex. This study provides definitive evidence highlighting the specific role of neuronal neuroligins rather than their astrocytic counterparts in synaptogenesis.

Reviewed by eLife

Age-dependent predictors of effective reinforcement motor learning across childhood

1. Nayo M Hill
2. Haley M Tripp
3. Daniel M Wolpert
4. Laura A Malone
5. Amy J Bastian

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study tests the development of motor reinforcement learning from toddlerhood to adulthood, using a large online sample. They show that learning improves with age in a task that, like real-life movement, involves a continuous range of response options and probabilistic rewards, and link this shift to reduced movement variability and more efficient feedback-based learning through behavioural modeling. Simplifying the task with discrete actions and deterministic outcomes boosted younger children's performance, suggesting early learning is limited by spatial and probabilistic processing. The evidence is convincing, although future work may investigate more naturalistic movement.

Reviewed by eLife

Elucidating the selection mechanisms in context-dependent computation through low-rank neural network modeling

1. Yiteng Zhang
2. Jianfeng Feng
3. Bin Min

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides an important set of analyses and theoretical derivations to understand the mechanisms used by recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to perform context-dependent accumulation of evidence. The results regarding the dimensionality and neural dynamical signatures of RNNs are convincing and provide new avenues to study the mechanisms underlying context-dependent computations. This manuscript will be of interest to a broad audience in systems and computational neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

Human Brain-Wide Activation of Sleep Rhythms

1. Haiteng Wang
2. Qihong Zou
3. Jinbo Zhang
4. Jia-Hong Gao
5. Yunzhe Liu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study reports valuable findings from a very rich EEG-fMRI dataset, including 107 participants, which was collected during nocturnal naps. Using overall solid methods, the authors link activity in memory-related brain regions (e.g., hippocampus, thalamus, and medial prefrontal cortex), and their functional connectivity to the occurrence of canonical sleep rhythms (spindles and slow oscillations) in non-rapid eye movement sleep. This work will be of broad interest to sleep and memory researchers and beyond.

Reviewed by eLife