Neuroscience

Autism gene variants disrupt enteric neuron migration and cause gastrointestinal dysmotility

1. Kate E. McCluskey
2. Katherine M. Stovell
3. Karen Law
4. Elina Kostyanovskaya
5. James Schmidt
6. Cameron R. T. Exner
7. Jeanselle Dea
8. Elise Brimble
9. Matthew W. State
10. A. Jeremy Willsey
11. Helen Rankin Willsey

Reviewed by preLights

Autism candidate gene rbm-26 ( RBM26/27 ) regulates MALS-1 to protect against mitochondrial dysfunction and axon degeneration during neurodevelopment

1. Tamjid A Chowdhury
2. David A Luy
3. Garrett Scapellato
4. Dorian Farache
5. Amy SY Lee
6. Christopher C Quinn

Reviewed by Review Commons

Early parafoveal semantic integration in natural reading

1. Yali Pan
2. Steven Frisson
3. Kara D Federmeier
4. Ole Jensen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study contributes to the understanding of how parafoveal words are neurally processed during naturalistic sentence reading. Convincing evidence is provided that the MEG response to a word can be modulated by the semantic congruency of a parafoveal target word. The study addresses a classic question in reading using a new Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging (RIFT) technique, which can separately monitor the neural processing of multiple words during sentence reading.

Reviewed by eLife

Modulation of neural variability: Age-related reduction, GABAergic basis, and behavioral implications

1. Poortata Lalwani
2. Thad A. Polk
3. Douglas D. Garrett

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study combines across multiple complementary neuroscientific methods to understand the neural response to visual stimulus complexity in the human brain across lifespan. Lalwani et al., provide solid evidence, drawing from appropriate and validated methodology. A weakness is that key information about methodological details and controls is still outstanding, as is a discussion on how generalizable the findings are. With these elements strengthened, the study would be of broad interest to neuroscientists and biologists interested in aging and sensory processing.

Reviewed by eLife

Quantitative modeling of the emergence of macroscopic grid-like representations

1. Ikhwan Bin Khalid
2. Eric T Reifenstein
3. Naomi Auer
4. Lukas Kunz
5. Richard Kempter

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This computational work represents a valuable and long overdue assessment of the potential mechanisms associating patterns of activity of entorhinal grid cells, recorded mostly in rodents, with the population property of hexasymmetry detected in non-invasive human studies. The methodic comparison of alternative hypotheses is compelling, and the conclusions are important for the future design of experiments assessing the neural correlates of human navigation across physical, virtual, or conceptual spaces.

Reviewed by eLife

A ‘double-edged’ role for type-5 metabotropic glutamate receptors in pain disclosed by light-sensitive drugs

1. Serena Notartomaso
2. Nico Antenucci
3. Mariacristina Mazzitelli
4. Xavier Rovira
5. Serena Boccella
6. Flavia Ricciardi
7. Francesca Liberatore
8. Xavier Gomez-Santacana
9. Tiziana Imbriglio
10. Milena Cannella
11. Charleine Zussy
12. Livio Luongo
13. Sabatino Maione
14. Cyril Goudet
15. Giuseppe Battaglia
16. Amadeu Llebaria
17. Ferdinando Nicoletti
18. Volker Neugebauer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this interesting study, the authors have used light-sensitive mGlu5 negative allosteric modulators to determine the role of these receptors in a chronic pain model. These findings could be useful to the pain field, but the evidence supporting these claims is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Volume Electron Microscopy Reveals Unique Laminar Synaptic Characteristics in the Human Entorhinal Cortex

1. Sergio Plaza-Alonso
2. Nicolás Cano-Astorga
3. Javier DeFelipe
4. Lidia Alonso-Nanclares

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents a useful examination of dense neuroanatomy in human postmortem medial entorhinal cortex, using a large number of small electron microscopy image volumes sampled from multiple cortical layers and individuals. The authors use solid experimental and annotation techniques, demonstrating the suitability of postmortem tissue reconstructions for analysis and presenting careful, detailed measurements of synapse properties and overall tissue composition. However, there is inadequate support connecting these findings to claims about general connectivity in medial entorhinal cortex, since factors affecting interpretability like noise, the spatial scales examined, and relationships between structural properties and connectivity are not characterized. With a more thorough contextualization, this work would be of interest for studies of cellular neuroanatomy or brain network organization.

Reviewed by eLife

Nitric oxide modulates contrast suppression in a subset of mouse retinal ganglion cells

1. Dominic Gonschorek
2. Matías A. Goldin
3. Jonathan Oesterle
4. Tom Schwerd-Kleine
5. Ryan Arlinghaus
6. Zhijian Zhao
7. Timm Schubert
8. Olivier Marre
9. Thomas Euler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The manuscript examined the potential modulatory effects of nitric oxide (NO) on the response properties of mouse retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) using two-photon calcium imaging and multi-electrode arrays (MEA). The data identifying a group of RGCs affected by NO are solid but fall short on the precise nature of the effects and their physiological implications. The findings that there can be cell-specific adaptation effects provide useful new information for the field, and more experiments and MEA analysis are encouraged.

Reviewed by eLife

Plasticity-induced actin polymerization in the dendritic shaft regulates intracellular AMPA receptor trafficking

1. Victor C Wong
2. Patrick R Houlihan
3. Hui Liu
4. Deepika Walpita
5. Michael C DeSantis
6. Zhe Liu
7. Erin K O'Shea

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In this manuscript, the authors developed a sensitive single particle tracking method for endogenous AMPA receptors. They found that AMPAR-containing vesicles showed reduced mobility near stimulation sites, likely due to increased F-actin bundling in dendritic shafts. The study found a novel mechanism of AMPAR trafficking using state-of-the-art labeling and analysis techniques, and thus will be of great interest for broad audience. However, their conclusion requires additional experimental support.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

GABAergic synaptic scaling is triggered by changes in spiking activity rather than AMPA receptor activation

1. Carlos Gonzalez-Islas
2. Zahraa Sabra
3. Ming-fai Fong
4. Pernille Yilmam
5. Nicholas Au Yong
6. Kathrin Engisch
7. Peter Wenner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is an important study that brings insight into mechanisms that underlie regulation of GABAergic transmission in response to changes in activity. The authors present solid data supporting the premise that action potential firing rather than excitatory synaptic strength is a key determinant of GABAergic synaptic inputs.

Reviewed by eLife