Neuroscience

Pervasive neurovascular dysfunction in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex of female depressed suicides with a history of childhood abuse

1. Marina Wakid
2. Daniel Almeida
3. Ryan Denniston
4. Anjali Chawla
5. Zahia Aouabed
6. Maria Antonietta Davoli
7. Kristin Ellerbeck
8. Reza Rahimian
9. Volodymyr Yerko
10. Elena Leonova-Erko
11. Gustavo Turecki
12. Naguib Mechawar

Reviewed by PREreview

Enhanced neural speech tracking through noise indicates stochastic resonance in humans

1. Björn Herrmann

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents an important contribution to the understanding of neural speech tracking, demonstrating how minimal background noise can enhance the neural tracking of the amplitude-onset envelope. The evidence, through a well-designed series of EEG experiments, is convincing. This work will be of interest to auditory scientists, particularly those investigating biological markers of speech processing.

Reviewed by eLife

Rab10 inactivation promotes AMPAR trafficking and spine enlargement during long-term potentiation

1. Jie Wang
2. Jun Nishiyama
3. Paula Parra-Bueno
4. Elwy Okaz
5. Goksu Oz
6. Xiaodan Liu
7. Tetsuya Watabe
8. Irena Suponitsky-Kroyter
9. Timothy E McGraw
10. Erzsebet M Szatmari
11. Ryohei Yasuda

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study that describes the development of optical biosensors for various Rab GTPases and explores the contributions of Rab10 and Rab4 to structural and functional plasticity at hippocampal synapses during glutamate uncaging. The evidence supporting the conclusions of the paper is solid, and several improvements were noted by the reviewers upon revision, although some persisting inconsistencies would benefit from further clarification.

Reviewed by eLife

Elevated pyramidal cell firing orchestrates arteriolar vasoconstriction through COX-2-derived prostaglandin E2 signaling

1. Benjamin Le Gac
2. Marine Tournissac
3. Esther Belzic
4. Sandrine Picaud
5. Isabelle Dusart
6. Hédi Soula
7. Dongdong Li
8. Serge Charpak
9. Bruno Cauli

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents important findings on the role of pyramidal cells driving vasoconstriction in brain arteries through a COX-2/PGE2 pathway, with additional contributions from NPY (interneurons) and 20-HETE (astrocytes). Optogenetic stimulation of cortical pyramidal neurons induces vasoconstriction, potentially leading to oxygen and nutrient undersupply in regions with sustained activation - a mechanism potentially relevant under pathological conditions. The authors provide convincing evidence from brain slice experiments and some in vivo data from anesthetized animals, carefully discussing the strengths and limitations of both approaches.

Reviewed by eLife

APP β-CTF triggers cell-autonomous synaptic toxicity independent of Aβ

1. Mengxun Luo
2. Jia Zhou
3. Cailu Sun
4. Wanjia Chen
5. Chaoying Fu
6. Chenfang Si
7. Yaoyang Zhang
8. Yang Geng
9. Yelin Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a useful demonstration that a specific protein fragment may induce the loss of synapses in Alzheimer's disease. The evidence supporting the data is solid but only partially supports the conclusion and would benefit from additional discussion indicated by the literature from reviewer #1. The application of the findings is limited because blocking the formation of the protein fragment has not benefited patients in several clinical trials.

Reviewed by eLife

Neural mechanisms of credit assignment for delayed outcomes during contingent learning

1. Phillip P Witkowski
2. Lindsay JH Rondot
3. Zeb Kurth-Nelson
4. Mona M Garvert
5. Raymond J Dolan
6. Timothy EJ Behrens
7. Erie Boorman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides important findings that during credit assignment, the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) and hippocampus (HC) encode causal choice representations, while the frontopolar cortex (FPl) mediates HC -lOFC interactions when the causality needs to be maintained over longer distractions. This research offers compelling evidence and employs sophisticated multivariate pattern analysis. However, while the task design captures the delayed component, it lacks the full complexity and ambiguity of the credit assignment process observed in real-world scenarios. Moreover, the data indicated that other frontal regions beyond just lOFC were involved in delayed credit assignment. This work will be of interest to cognitive and computational neuroscientists who work on value-based decision-making and fronto-hippocampal circuits.

Reviewed by eLife

Microglia from patients with multiple sclerosis display a cell-autonomous immune activation state

1. Tanja Hyvärinen
2. Johanna Lotila
3. Luca Giudice
4. Iisa Tujula
5. Marjo Nylund
6. Sohvi Ohtonen
7. Flavia Scoyni
8. Henna Jäntti
9. Sara Pihlava
10. Heli Skottman
11. Susanna Narkilahti
12. Laura Airas
13. Tarja Malm
14. Sanna Hagman

Reviewed by PREreview

Repeated activation of preoptic area recipient neurons in posterior paraventricular nucleus mediates chronic heat-induced negative emotional valence and hyperarousal states

1. Zhiping Cao
2. Wing-Ho Yung
3. Ya Ke

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study identifies one way in which episodic heat exposure can result in negative changes in motivated and affective behaviors. This work positively expands the field of thermoregulation. The data were collected using a myriad of next-generation approaches, including extensive behavior testing, thermal monitoring, electrophysiology, circuit mapping, and manipulations. There is convincing evidence that neurons of the paraventricular thalamus change plastically over three weeks of episodic heat stimulation this affects behavioral outputs such as social interactions and anxiety-related behavior. Conclusions regarding the specificity of the POA-pPVT pathway compared to other inputs to the PVT in the control of observed effects would benefit from further validation. The study will be of interest to behavioral neuroscientists, climate/environmental biologists, and pre-clinical neuropsychiatrists.

Reviewed by eLife

Molecular and spatial transcriptomic classification of midbrain dopamine neurons and their alterations in a LRRK2G2019S model of Parkinson’s disease

1. Zachary Gaertner
2. Cameron Oram
3. Amanda Schneeweis
4. Elan Schonfeld
5. Cyril Bolduc
6. Chuyu Chen
7. Daniel Dombeck
8. Loukia Parisiadou
9. Jean-Francois Poulin
10. Rajeshwar Awatramani

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study combines single nucleus transcriptional profiling with spatial transcriptomics to identify and map heterogeneity among dopamine neurons in the mouse ventral midbrain. The compelling results separate dopamine neurons into three broad families that have unique (yet overlapping) spatial distribution within the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra, and also identify population-specific changes in a LRRK2 mouse model of Parkinson's Disease. The creation of a public-facing app where the snRNA-seq data can be investigated by anyone is a major strength.

Reviewed by eLife

Layer 6 corticocortical neurons are a major route for intra- and interhemispheric feedback

1. Simon Weiler
2. Manuel Teichert
3. Troy W Margrie

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study compares the cortical projections to primary motor and sensory areas originating from the ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres. Results show that, while there is substantial symmetry between the two hemispheres regarding the areas sending projections to these primary cortical areas, contra-hemispheric projections had more inputs from layer 6 neurons than ipsi-projecting ones. The evidence is compelling and the conclusions are supported by rigorous analyses.

Reviewed by eLife