Neuroscience

No effect of additional education on long-term brain structure, a preregistered natural experiment in thousands of individuals

1. Nicholas Judd
2. Rogier Kievit

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  A regression discontinuity analysis finds essentially no effect of 1 additional year of secondary education on brain structure in adulthood. This is a valuable finding that adds to the literature on the impact of education on brain health. While the finding is convincing on its own, as the analysis was pre-registered and very carefully conducted, the impact is limited as the manipulated variable only relates to a single additional year of education (remaining in education to 15 vs 16 years of age).

Reviewed by eLife

A direct neural signature of serial dependence in working memory

1. Cora Fischer
2. Jochen Kaiser
3. Christoph Bledowski

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study reveals a neural signature of a common behavioural phenomenon: serial dependence, whereby estimates of a visual feature (here motion direction) are attracted towards the recent history of encoded and reported stimuli. The study provides solid evidence that this phenomenon arises primarily during working memory maintenance. The pervasiveness of serial dependencies across modalities and species makes these findings important for researchers interested in perceptual decision-making across subfields.

Reviewed by eLife

Interdigitating Modules for Visual Processing During Locomotion and Rest in Mouse V1

1. Andrew M Meier
2. Rinaldo D D’Souza
3. Weiqing Ji
4. Edward B Han
5. Andreas Burkhalter

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study shows that locomotion-related modulations in the mouse visual cortex are not uniform but primarily affect neurons in muscarinic receptor-negative patches, which receive projections from specific cortical areas. While the evidence is mostly solid, some uncertainties remain regarding the link between anatomical data and functional measurements. The study should be of interest to neuroscientists interested in state modulation of cortical function.

Reviewed by eLife

Antagonist actions of CMK-1/CaMKI and TAX-6/calcineurin along the C. elegans thermal avoidance circuit orchestrate adaptation of nociceptive response to repeated stimuli

1. Martina Rudgalvyte
2. Zehan Hu
3. Dieter Kressler
4. Jörn Dengjel
5. Dominique A Glauser

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study uses C. elegans to investigate how the Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent kinase CMK-1 regulates adaptation to thermo-nociceptive stimuli. The authors use compelling approaches to identify Calcineurin as a phosphorylation target of CMK-1 and to investigate the relationship between CMK-1 and Calcineurin using gain and loss of function genetic and pharmacological methods. The findings of this study are valuable as they show that CMK-1 and Calcineurin act in separate neurons in an antagonistic and complex manner to regulate thermo-nociceptive adaptation, and these results may be relevant for understanding some chronic human pain conditions.

Reviewed by eLife

WWOX deficiency impairs neurogenesis and neuronal function in human organoids

1. Daniel J. Steinberg
2. Asia Zonca
3. Dania Abdellatif
4. Idan Rosh
5. Irina Kustanovich
6. Osama Hidmi
7. Kian Maroun
8. Shani Stern
9. Jose Davila-Velderrain
10. Rami I. Aqeilan

Reviewed by Review Commons

Neuropeptidergic circuit modulation of developmental sleep in Drosophila

1. Chikayo Hemmi
2. Kenichi Ishii
3. Mana Motoyoshi
4. Masato Tsuji
5. Kazuo Emoto

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study investigates an emerging research field: the interaction between sleep and development. The authors use Drosophila larvae sleep as a study model and provide valuable insight into how neuropeptide circuitry controls larvae sleep. By using a broad range of behaviour and imaging methods and analysis, the authors conclude a sleep regulatory neural pathway of Hugin-PK2-Dilps in the Drosophila neurosecretory centre IPC. However, the evidence that supports this pathway is incomplete - in particular, the methodology in sleep measurement and the specificity at each step of the Hugin-PK2-Dilps pathway require further clarifying experiments or explanation.

Reviewed by eLife

Neural signatures of model-based and model-free reinforcement learning across prefrontal cortex and striatum

1. Bruno Miranda
2. James L Butler
3. W M Nishantha Malalasekera
4. Timothy EJ Behrens
5. Peter Dayan
6. Steven W Kennerley

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study presents single-unit activity collected during model-based (MB) and model-free (MF) reinforcement learning in non-human primates. The dataset was carefully collected, and the statistical analyses, including the modeling, are rigorous. The evidence convincingly supports different roles for particular cortical and subcortical areas in representing key variables during reinforcement learning.

Reviewed by eLife

Criterion placement threatens the construct validity of neural measures of consciousness

1. Johannes Jacobus Fahrenfort
2. Philippa A Johnson
3. Niels A Kloosterman
4. Timo Stein
5. Simon van Gaal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study provides a critical challenge to a great many studies of the neural correlates of consciousness that were based on post hoc sorting of reported awareness experience. The evidence supporting this criticism is compelling, based on simulations and decoding analysis of EEG data. The results will be of interest not only to psychologists and neuroscientists but also to philosophers who work on addressing mind-body relationships.

Reviewed by eLife

Microglia aging in the hippocampus advances through intermediate states that drive activation and cognitive decline

1. Jeremy M Shea
2. Saul A Villeda

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work advances our understanding of the aging trajectory and heterogeneity of hippocampal microglia. The authors provide an in-depth characterization of microglia in young and old mice as well as at intermediate time points, which reveals the existence of intermediate states characterized by a distinct transcriptional signature. The experimental approach is solid, especially with the validation of scRNA-seq findings with other methods. The study should be of interest to neuroimmunologists and biologists interested in aging

Reviewed by eLife

Automatic learning mechanisms for flexible human locomotion

1. Cristina Rossi
2. Kristan A Leech
3. Ryan T Roemmich
4. Amy J Bastian

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study introduces a novel split-belt treadmill learning task to reveal distinct and parallel learning sub-components of gait adaptation: slow and gradual error-based perceptual realignment, and a more deliberate and flexible "stimulus-response" style learning process. The behavioural results convincingly support the presence of a non-error-based learning process during continuous movements, and the computational modelling provides comprehensive further evidence for establishing this learning process. These results will be of interest for the broader motor learning community.

Reviewed by eLife