Neuroscience

Neural dynamics of visual working memory representation during sensory distraction

1. Jonas Karolis Degutis
2. Simon Weber
3. Joram Soch
4. John-Dylan Haynes

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study reports a reanalysis of one experiment of a previously-published report to characterize the dynamics of neural population codes during visual working memory in the presence of distracting information. This paper presents solid evidence that working memory representations are dynamic and distinct from sensory representations of intervening distractions. This research will be of interest to cognitive neuroscientists working on the neural bases of visual perception and memory.

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Striatal cholinergic interneuron pause response requires Kv1 channels, is absent in dyskinetic mice, and is restored by dopamine D5 receptor inverse agonism

1. Cecilia Tubert
2. Rodrigo Manuel Paz
3. Agostina Mónica Stahl
4. Kianny Miroslava Sanchez Armijos
5. Lorena Rela
6. Mario Gustavo Murer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors investigated the mechanisms underlying the pause in striatal cholinergic interneurons (SCINs) induced by thalamic input, identifying that Kv1 channels play a key role in this burst-dependent pause. The experimental evidence is convincing.
  The study provides important mechanistic insights into how burst activity in SCINs leads to a subsequent pause, highlighting the involvement of D1/D5 receptors.

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Group identification drives brain integration for collective performance

1. Enhui Xie
2. Shuyi Zha
3. Yiyang Xu
4. Xianchun Li

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This timely and important study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning to examine the neural correlates of how group identification influences collective behavior. The work provides solid evidence to indicate that the synchronization of brain activity between different people underlies collective performance and that changes in brain activity patterns within individuals may, in turn, underlie this between-person synchrony, although the order in which different task stages were completed could not be counter-balanced. This study will be of interest to researchers investigating the neuroscience of social behaviour.

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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.

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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.

Reviewed by eLife

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.

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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.

Reviewed by eLife