Neuroscience

Zebrafish live imaging reveals a surprisingly small percentage of spinal cord motor neurons die during early development

1. Hao Jia
2. Hongmei Yang
3. Kathy Qian Luo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors have developed a biosensor for programmed cell death. They use this biosensor to provide cell death measurements in a specific early development time. The findings useful in a specific context; however, the application of this biosensor is incomplete as it does not take into account existing literature and is missing controls.

Reviewed by eLife

Dorsal hippocampus mediates light-tone sensory preconditioning task in mice

1. Julia S Pinho
2. Carla Ramon-Duaso
3. Irene Manzanares-Sierra
4. Arnau Busquets-García

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Pinho et al use in vivo calcium imaging and chemogenetic approaches to examine the involvement of hippocampal sub-regions across the different stages of a sensory preconditioning task in mice. They find convincing evidence for sensory preconditioning in male mice. They also find that, in these mice, CaMKII-positive neurons in the dorsal hippocampus: (1) encode the audio-visual association that forms in stage 1 of the task, and (2) retrieve/express sensory preconditioned fear to the auditory stimulus at test. These findings are supported by evidence that ranges from incomplete to convincing. The study will be valuable to researchers in the field of learning and memory.

Reviewed by eLife

Motor unit mechanisms of speed control in mouse locomotion

1. Kyle Thomas
2. Rhuna Gibbs
3. Hugo Marques
4. Megan R Carey
5. Samuel J Sober

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study characterises the activity of motor units from two of the three anatomical subdivisions ("heads") of the triceps muscle while mice walked on a treadmill at various speeds. Although this is the most thorough characterisation of motor unit activity in walking mice to date, the evidence supporting some of the claims, especially pertaining to probabilistic recruitment of motor units, is incomplete. Further investigating whether the differences in motor unit recruitment across muscle heads go beyond their different mechanical functions would also strengthen the paper.

Reviewed by eLife

Descending locus coeruleus noradrenergic signaling to spinal astrocyte subset is required for stress-induced pain facilitation

1. Riku Kawanabe-Kobayashi
2. Sawako Uchiyama
3. Kohei Yoshihara
4. Daiki Kojima
5. Thomas McHugh
6. Izuho Hatada
7. Ko Matsui
8. Kenji F Tanaka
9. Makoto Tsuda

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study identifies a novel role for Hes5+ astrocytes in modulating the activity of descending pain-inhibitory noradrenergic neurons from the locus coeruleus during stress-induced pain facilitation. The role of glia in modulating neurological circuits including pain is poorly understood, and in that light, the role of Hes5+ astrocytes in this circuit is a key finding with broader potential impacts. However, the impact of this work is limited by incomplete evidence, notably the fact that acute restraint stress is generally anti-nociceptive rather than pro-nociceptive, and a lack of specificity in defining this novel circuit.

Reviewed by eLife

Brief disruption of activity in a subset of dopaminergic neurons during consolidation impairs long-term memory by fragmenting sleep

1. Lin Yan
2. Litao Wu
3. Timothy D Wiggin
4. Xiaojuan Su
5. Wei Yan
6. Hailiang Li
7. Lei Li
8. Zhonghua Lu
9. Yuantao Li
10. Zhiqiang Meng
11. Fang Guo
12. Fan Li
13. Leslie C Griffith
14. Chang Liu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study approaches an important topic providing insight into the neuronal circuitry that interconnects memory consolidation and sleep. The data were collected and analysed using a solid methodology, contributing new findings for neurobiologists working on how memories are stored and the roles of sleep. However, the data is incomplete to support the proposed role of the PAM-DPM circuits as the link between sleep state and long-term memory consolidation.

Reviewed by eLife

Diverging roles of TRPV1 and TRPM2 in warm-temperature detection

1. Muad Y Abd El Hay
2. Gretel B Kamm
3. Alejandro Tlaie Boria
4. Jan Siemens

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this manuscript, Abd El Hay and colleagues use an innovative behavioral assay and analysis method, together with standard calcium imaging experiments on cultured dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, to evaluate the consequences of global knockout of TRPV1 and TRPM2, and overexpression of TRPV1, on warmth detection. Compelling evidence is provided for a role of TRPM2 channels in warmth avoidance behavior, but it remains unclear whether this involves channel activity in the periphery or in the brain. In contrast, TRPV1 is clearly implicated at the cellular level in warmth detection. These findings are important because there is substantial ongoing discussion regarding the contribution of TRP channels to different aspects of thermo-sensation.

Reviewed by eLife

Zinc finger homeobox-3 (ZFHX3) orchestrates genome-wide daily gene expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus

1. Akanksha Bafna
2. Gareth Banks
3. Vadim Vasilyev
4. Robert Dallmann
5. Michael H Hastings
6. Patrick M Nolan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study that generates an inventory of accessible genomic regions bound by a transcription factor ZFHX3 within the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus and details the impact of its depletion on daily rhythms in behavior and gene expression patterns. Analysis using circadian phase-estimation algorithms makes the argument that gene regulatory networks are at play and changes in gene expression of a few clock genes cannot account for the observed animal behaviour. While the transcriptome analysis is compelling, the data on the activity of the TF in rhythmic gene expression is solid, and interpretations that allow for direct and/or indirect roles have been incorporated.

Reviewed by eLife

Olfactory bulb tracks breathing rhythms and place in freely behaving mice

1. Scott C Sterrett
2. Teresa M Findley
3. Sidney E Rafilson
4. Morgan A Brown
5. Aldis P Weible
6. Rebecca Marsden
7. Takisha Tarvin
8. Michael Wehr
9. James M Murray
10. Adrienne L Fairhall
11. Matthew C Smear

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study linking olfactory bulb activity not only to sniffing parameters but also to movement and place. The evidence for odor sampling is mostly solid, but the analysis supporting the potentially exciting result on the encoding of place is currently incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Selective autophagy fine-tunes Stat92E activity by degrading Su(var)2-10/PIAS during glial injury signaling in Drosophila

1. Virág Vincze
2. Zsombor Esküdt
3. Erzsébet Fehér-Juhász
4. Aishwarya Sanjay Chhatre
5. András Jipa
6. Martin Csordós
7. Anna Rita Galambos
8. Dalma Feil-Börcsök
9. Gábor Juhász
10. Áron Szabó

Reviewed by Review Commons

Structure transfer and consolidation in visual implicit learning

1. Dominik Garber
2. József Fiser

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study investigates the conditions under which abstract knowledge transfers to new learning. It presents convincing evidence across a number of behavioral experiments that when explicit awareness of learned statistical structure is present, knowledge can transfer immediately, but that otherwise similar transfer requires sleep-dependent consolidation. The valuable results provide new constraints on theories of transfer learning and consolidation.

Reviewed by eLife