Neuroscience

Ultrastructural sublaminar-specific diversity of excitatory synaptic boutons in layer 1 of the adult human temporal lobe neocortex

1. Astrid Rollenhagen
2. Akram Sadeghi
3. Bernd Walkenfort
4. Claus C Hilgetag
5. Kurt Sätzler
6. Joachim HR Lübke

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides important information on the ultrastructural organization of layer 1 of the human neocortex. The quantitative assessment of various synaptic parameters, astrocytic coverage and mitochondrial morphology is based on convincing experimental approaches. These data provide new information on the detailed morphology of human neocortical tissue that will be of interest to neuroscientists working on different network functions.

Reviewed by eLife

Molecular characterization of gustatory second-order neurons reveals integrative mechanisms of gustatory and metabolic information

1. Rubén Mollá-Albaladejo
2. Manuel Jiménez-Caballero
3. Juan Antonio Sanchez-Alcaniz

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides valuable insights into the organization of second-order circuits of gustatory neurons, particularly in how these circuits integrate opposing taste inputs and are modulated by metabolic state to regulate feeding behavior. Through an elegant combination of complementary techniques, the authors identify the target neurons involved in gustatory integration. The evidence supporting their conclusions is convincing.

Reviewed by eLife

Mental Effort and Counterfactuals Modulate Language Understanding: ERP Evidence in Older Adults

1. José Luis Salas-Herrera
2. Mabel Urrutia Martínez
3. Nicolás Andrés Hinrichs

Reviewed by PREreview

The distinct role of human PIT in attention control

1. Siyuan Huang
2. Lan Wang
3. Sheng He

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study reports that the human posterior inferotemporal cortex (hPIT) functions as an attentional priority map, integrating both top-down and bottom-up attentional signals rather than serving solely as an object-processing region. The experiments and analyses are well conducted and provide convincing evidence that hPIT bridges dorsal and ventral attention networks and is robustly modulated by attention across diverse visual tasks. The study will be relevant for researchers investigating visual attention, high-level visual cortex, and the neural mechanisms that integrate endogenous and exogenous attentional control.

Reviewed by eLife

Behavioural and neurogenetic evidence for emotion primitives in the fruit fly Drosophila: insights from the Open Field Test

1. Yi Lueningschroer-Wang
2. Emilia Derksen
3. Maria Steigmeier
4. Christian Wegener

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study reports findings that support the use of the Open Field Test in Drosophila as a model to study "emotion-like states", which are behavioral responses to several stressful or aversive treatments, and resilience upon their subsequent removal. Behavioral data, by employing established stress-causing treatments and genetic manipulations, are solid. While the results and conceptual framework of this work will be of interest to behaviorists regardless of animal models, the novelty of this work over previous studies could have been clearer.

Reviewed by eLife

Functional Role for Cas Cytoplasmic Adaptor Proteins During Cortical Axon Pathfinding

1. Jason A. Estep
2. Alyssa M. Treptow
3. Payton A. Rao
4. Patrick Williamson
5. Wenny Wong
6. Martin M. Riccomagno

Reviewed by Review Commons

Identification of neuron-glia signaling feedback in human schizophrenia using patient-derived, mix-and-match forebrain assembloids

1. Eunjee Kim
2. Yunhee Kim
3. Soojung Hong
4. Inha Kim
5. Juhee Lee
6. Kwanghwan Lee
7. Myungmo An
8. Sung-Yon Kim
9. Sanguk Kim
10. Kunyoo Shin

Reviewed by preLights, Arcadia Science

Balancing safety and efficiency in human decision-making

1. Pranav Mahajan
2. Shuangyi Tong
3. Sang Wan Lee
4. Ben Seymour

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work describes results from a set of simulation and empirical studies of a set-up assessing exploratory behavior in a potentially rewarding environment that contains danger. The core idea is that an instrumental agent can be helped to be both effective and safe, thus avoiding excessive danger, during exploratory behavior, if the influence of an independent Pavlovian fear is flexibly gated based on uncertainty. This work is grounded in previous foundational work on Pavlovian control of instrumental choice, and significantly extends prior work showing that the impact of Pavlovian reward biases can be flexibly gated. The conclusion that safe but effective exploration can be achieved based on a flexibly weighted combination of a Pavlovian and an instrumental agent is convincing.

Reviewed by eLife

Low-Frequency Tibial Neuromodulation Increases Voiding Activity - a Human Pilot Study and Computational Model

1. Aidan McConnell-Trevillion
2. Milad Jabbari
3. Wei Ju
4. Elliot Lister
5. Abbas Erfanian
6. Srinjoy Mitra
7. Kianoush Nazarpour

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study investigates frequency-dependent effects of transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (TTNS) on bladder function in healthy humans and, through a computational model, shows that low-frequency stimulation accelerates, and high-frequency delays, the urge to void. The integration of experimental and modeling approaches provides a solid foundation for clinical trials targeting urinary retention. However, concerns were raised about over-interpretation of modest effects and the limited physiological validity of the computational model, especially its mismatch with typical bladder behaviour and lack of quantitative validation.

Reviewed by eLife

Micro-scale control of oligodendrocyte morphology and myelination by the intellectual disability-linked protein acyltransferase ZDHHC9

1. Hey-Kyeong Jeong
2. Estibaliz Gonzalez-Fernandez
3. Ilan Crawley
4. Julia M Coakley
5. Jinha Hwang
6. Dale DO Martin
7. Shernaz X Bamji
8. Jong-Il Kim
9. Shin H Kang
10. Gareth M Thomas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides an in-depth exploration of the impact of X-linked ZDHHC9 gene mutations on cognitive deficits and epilepsy, with a particular focus on the expression and function of ZDHHC9 in myelin-forming oligodendrocytes (OLs). These valuable findings offer insights into ZDHHC9-related X-linked intellectual disability (XLID) and shed light on the regulatory mechanisms of palmitoylation in myelination. The experimental design and analysis of results are solid, providing a reference for further research in this field.

Reviewed by eLife