Neuroscience

Development of Auditory and Spontaneous Movement Responses to Music over the First Year of Life

1. Trinh Nguyen
2. Félix Bigand
3. Susanne Reisner
4. Atesh Koul
5. Roberta Bianco
6. Gabriela Markova
7. Stefanie Hoehl
8. Giacomo Novembre

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study offers important insights into the development of infants' responses to music based on the exploration of EEG neural auditory responses and video-based movement analysis. The convincing results revealed that evoked responses emerge between 3 and 12 months of age, but data analysis requires further refinement to fully complement the findings related to movement in response to music. This study will be of significant interest to developmental psychologists and neuroscientists, as well as researchers interested in music processing and in the translation of perception into action.

Reviewed by eLife

A cortical–hippocampal communication undergoes rebalancing after new learning

1. Arron F Hall
2. Dong V Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study investigates the neural basis of bidirectional communication between the cortex and hippocampus during learning. The evidence supporting the identification of specific circuits and functional cell types involved is convincing. However, certain aspects of the behavioral analysis and statistical interpretation remain incomplete. Overall, the work will be of interest to neuroscientists studying learning and memory.

Reviewed by eLife

Oxytocin restores context-specific hyperaltruistic preference

1. Hong Zhang
2. Yinmei Ni
3. Jian Li

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This revised paper provides valuable findings that altruistic tendency during moral decision-making is gain/loss context-dependent and oxytocin can restore the absence of altruistic choices in the loss domain. The methods and analyses are solid, yet the study could still benefit from better overall framing and more clarity and precision in the definition of key constructs, as pointed out by reviewers. If these concerns are addressed, this study would be of interest to social scientists and neuroscientists who work on moral decision-making and oxytocin.

Reviewed by eLife

A Drosophila screen of schizophrenia-related genes highlights the requirement of neural and glial matrix metalloproteinases for neuronal remodeling

1. Shir Keret
2. Hagar Meltzer
3. Neta Marmor-Kollet
4. Oren Schuldiner

Reviewed by Review Commons

Mesolimbic dopamine ramps reflect environmental timescales

1. Joseph R Floeder
2. Huijeong Jeong
3. Ali Mohebi
4. Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Floeder and colleagues provide an important investigation that describes the experimental conditions that systematically produce "ramps" in dopamine signaling in the striatum. This somewhat nebulous feature of dopamine has been a significant part of recent theoretical and computational debates attempting to formally describe the different timescales on which dopamine functions. The current results are convincing and add context to that ongoing work.

Reviewed by eLife

Nonlinear feedback modulation contributes to the optimization of flexible decision-making

1. Xuanyu Wu
2. Yang Zhou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study by Wu and Zhou combines neurophysiological recordings and computational modelling to address an interesting question regarding the sequence of events from sensing to action. Neurophysiological evidence remains incomplete: explicit mapping of saccade-related activity in the same neurons and a better understanding of the influence of the spatial configuration of stimulus and targets would be required to pinpoint whether such activity might contribute, even partially, to the observed results and interpretations. These results are of interest for neuroscientists investigating decision-making.

Reviewed by eLife

Population-level morphological analysis of paired CO2- and odor-sensing olfactory neurons in D. melanogaster via volume electron microscopy

1. Jonathan Choy
2. Shadi Charara
3. Kalyani Cauwenberghs
4. Quintyn McKaughan
5. Keun-Young Kim
6. Mark H Ellisman
7. Chih-Ying Su

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study reveals surprising morphological diversity of Drosophila sensory neurons. Using serial block-face electron microscopy, the authors created detailed 3D reconstructions of large neuronal populations, convincingly finding significant structural variation both within and across distinct classes. These results form the basis for testable hypotheses on how neuronal arborization is optimized for particular sensory functions. This research will be highly relevant to biologists in the fields of physiology, insect chemosensation, and neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

Syngap1 regulates the synaptic drive and membrane excitability of Parvalbumin-positive interneurons in mouse auditory cortex

1. Ruggiero Francavilla
2. Bidisha Chattopadhyaya
3. Jorelle Linda Damo Kamda
4. Vidya Jadhav
5. Said Kourrich
6. Jacques L Michaud
7. Graziella Di Cristo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides valuable evidence indicating that SynGap1 regulates the synaptic drive and membrane excitability of parvalbumin- and somatostatin-positive interneurons in the auditory cortex. Since haplo-insufficiency of SynGap1 has been linked to intellectual disabilities without a well-defined underlying cause, the central question of this study is timely. The experimental data is solid, as in their revisions the authors successfully addressed questions related to changes in thalamocortical presynaptic excitability, the contradiction between spontaneous and mini EPSCs data, and the anatomical analysis of excitatory synapses.

Reviewed by eLife

Unreliable homeostatic action potential broadening in cultured dissociated neurons

1. Andreas Ritzau-Jost
2. Salil Rajayer
3. Jana Nerlich
4. Filip Maciag
5. Alexandra John
6. Michael Russier
7. Victoria Gonzalez Sabater
8. Luke J Steiger
9. Jacques-Olivier Coq
10. Jens Eilers
11. Maren Engelhardt
12. Juan Burrone
13. Dominique Debanne
14. Martin Heine
15. Stephen M Smith
16. Stefan Hallermann

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides compelling evidence that action potential (AP) broadening is not a universal feature of homeostatic plasticity in response to chronic activity deprivation. By leveraging state-of-the-art methods across multiple brain regions and laboratories, the authors demonstrate that AP half-width remains largely stable, challenging previous assumptions in the field. These important findings help resolve longstanding inconsistencies in the literature and significantly advance our understanding of neuronal network homeostasis.

Reviewed by eLife