Neuroscience

Assemblies, synapse clustering, and network topology interact with plasticity to explain structure-function relationships of the cortical connectome

1. András Ecker
2. Daniela Egas Santander
3. Marwan Abdellah
4. Jorge Blanco Alonso
5. Sirio Bolaños-Puchet
6. Giuseppe Chindemi
7. Dhuruva Priyan Gowri Mariyappan
8. James B Isbister
9. James King
10. Pramod Kumbhar
11. Ioannis Magkanaris
12. Eilif B Muller
13. Michael W Reimann

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study presents a biologically realistic, large-scale cortical model of the rat's non-barrel somatosensory cortex, investigating synaptic plasticity of excitatory connections under varying patterns of external activations and characterizing relations between network architecture and plasticity outcomes. The model offers an impressive level of biological detail, addressing many aspects of the cellular and network anatomy and properties, and investigating their relationships to the biologically plausible plasticity. The numerical simulations appear to be well executed and documented, providing an excellent resource to the community. The evidence supporting the main conclusions is solid with results being more observational in nature, and minor weaknesses relating to the lack of explanatory power of causal relationships and mechanisms.

Reviewed by eLife

Distinct neural bases of subcomponents of the attentional blink

1. Swagata Halder
2. Deepak Velgapuni Raya
3. Devarajan Sridharan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides an important contribution to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the limited capacity to process rapid sequences of visual stimuli. It reports convincing evidence that the attentional blink affects neurally separable processes of visual detection and discrimination. The study will be of interest to neuroscientists and psychologists investigating perception and attention.

Reviewed by eLife

Probing the role of synaptic adhesion molecule RTN4RL2 in setting up cochlear connectivity

1. Nare Karagulyan
2. Maja Überegger
3. Yumeng Qi
4. Norbert Babai
5. Florian Hofer
6. Lejo Johnson Chacko
7. Fangfang Wang
8. Maria Luque
9. Rudolf Glueckert
10. Anneliese Schrott-Fischer
11. Yunfeng Hua
12. Tobias Moser
13. Christine Bandtlow

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this work, the authors characterize the synaptic adhesion molecule RTN4RL2, demonstrating its critical involvement in the development and function of auditory synapses between inner hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons. This study is important because it offers potential insights into therapeutic strategies for hearing loss associated with synaptic dysfunction. The findings are solid, because they are supported by the use of multiple advanced techniques, including FISH and SBEM imaging.

Reviewed by eLife

Shared functional organization between pulvinar-cortical and cortico-cortical connectivity and its structural and molecular imaging correlates

1. Gianpaolo Antonio Basile
2. Augusto Ielo
3. Lilla Bonanno
4. Antonio Cerasa
5. Giuseppe Santoro
6. Demetrio Milardi
7. Giuseppe Pio Anastasi
8. Ambra Torre
9. Sergio Baldari
10. Riccardo Laudicella
11. Michele Gaeta
12. Marina Quartu
13. Maria Pina Serra
14. Marcello Trucas
15. Angelo Quartarone
16. Manojkumar Saranathan
17. Alberto Cacciola

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a useful characterisation of the topographical organisation of the human pulvinar, an associative thalamic subregion crucial for visual perception and attention. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid given the multimodal validation and replication across datasets, although even higher-resolution imaging data would have strengthened the study. In their revised manuscript, the authors elaborated further on the motivation for their study and conducted several robustness checks. Nevertheless, there remains an opportunity for a more fully integrated interpretation of the findings. The work would be of interest to neuroscientists, neurologists, and neuropsychiatrists working on pulvinar functioning in health and disease.

Reviewed by eLife

Locus coeruleus modulation of single-cell representation and population dynamics in the mouse prefrontal cortex during attentional switching

1. Marco Nigro
2. Lucas Silva Tortorelli
3. Machhindra Garad
4. Natalie E Zlebnik
5. Hongdian Yang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a valuable finding on how the locus coeruleus modulates the involvement of medial prefrontal cortex in set shifting using calcium imaging. The evidence supporting the claims was viewed as incomplete, although a more rigorous statistical comparison of intradimensional vs. extradimensional stages of the task, either in behavior or in the calcium imaging data, would help to address this concern. The work is of broad interest to those studying flexible cognition.

Reviewed by eLife

Evolution of lateralized gustation in nematodes

1. Marisa Mackie
2. Vivian Vy Le
3. Heather R Carstensen
4. Nicole R Kushnir
5. Dylan L Castro
6. Ivan M Dimov
7. Kathleen T Quach
8. Steven J Cook
9. Oliver Hobert
10. Sreekanth H Chalasani
11. Ray L Hong

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Mackie and colleagues present a valuable comparison of lateralized gustation in two well-studied nematodes. Their results present convincing evidence that ASEL/R lateralization exists and is achieved by different means in P. pacificus compared to C. elegans. This work will be of interest to neurobiologists interested in how small nervous systems make sense of the environment, and how evolution can take multiple paths to asymmetry within a neuron class.

Reviewed by eLife

Topographically organized dorsal raphe activity modulates forebrain sensory-motor computations and adaptive behaviors

1. Aytac Kadir Mutlu
2. Bram Serneels
3. Christoph Wiest
4. Anh-Tuan Trinh
5. Ricarda Bardenhewer
6. Fabrizio Palumbo
7. Oda Bjørnevik Frisvold
8. Inger Kristine Fjeldskaar Aukrust
9. Anna Maria Ostenrath
10. Emre Yaksi

Reviewed by preLights

Cortical astrocyte activation triggers meningeal nociception and migraine-like pain

1. Dara Bree
2. Jun Zhao
3. Jennifer Stratton
4. Dan Levy

Reviewed by preLights

A ventral hippocampal-lateral septum pathway regulates social novelty preference

1. Maha Rashid
2. Sarah Thomas
3. Jennifer Isaac
4. Sonia Corbett Karkare
5. Hannah Klein
6. Malavika Murugan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important manuscript uses circuit mapping, chemogenetics, and optogenetics to demonstrate a novel hippocampal lateral septal circuit that regulates social novelty behaviours and shows that downstream of the hippocampal septal circuit, septal projections to the ventral tegmental area are necessary for general novelty discrimination. The strength of the evidence supporting the claims is convincing but would be strengthened by the inclusion of additional functional assays. The work will be of interest to systems and behavioural neuroscientists who are interested in the brain mechanisms of social behaviours.

Reviewed by eLife

The myeloid cell-driven transdifferentiation of endothelial cells into pericytes promotes the restoration of BBB function and brain self-repair after stroke

1. Tingbo Li
2. Ling Yang
3. Jiaqi Tu
4. Yufan Hao
5. Zhu Zhu
6. Yingjie Xiong
7. Qingzhu Gao
8. Lili Zhou
9. Guanglei Xie
10. Dongdong Zhang
11. Xuzhao Li
12. Yuxiao Jin
13. Yiyi Zhang
14. Bingrui Zhao
15. Nan Li
16. Xi Wang
17. Jie-Min Jia

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study aims to understand the role of endothelial cell differentiation into pericytes in the restoration of blood-brain barrier function after ischemic stroke. Identification of pericytes derived from endothelial cells and the involvement of myeloid cell-derived TGFβ1 signaling are compelling new findings, but future studies will be needed to validate the origin and nature of these pericytes. The work will be of interest to blood-brain barrier and basic and translational stroke researchers.

Reviewed by eLife