Neuroscience

Human brain ancestral barcodes

1. Darryl Shibata

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a valuable conceptual approach that cell lineage can be determined using methylation data. However, the evidence supporting the claims of the author remains incomplete after revision. If clarified further as described in the reviews, this approach could be of broad interest to neuroscientists and developmental biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Self-association enhances early attentional selection through automatic prioritization of socially salient signals

1. Meike Scheller
2. Jan Tünnermann
3. Katja Fredriksson
4. Huilin Fang
5. Jie Sui

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a valuable finding on the mechanism of self-prioritization by revealing the influence of self-associations on early attentional selection. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although inclusion of a discussion about the generalization and limitation would have strengthened the study. The work will be of interest to researchers in psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

Acetylcholine modulates prefrontal outcome coding during threat learning under uncertainty

1. Gaqi Tu
2. Peiying Wen
3. Adel Halawa
4. Kaori Takehara-Nishiuchi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study using a combination of optogenetics and calcium imaging to provide insight into the function of the cholinergic input to the prelimbic cortex in probabilistic spatial learning as it relates to threat. These data are timely in contributing to an ongoing discussion in the field about the role of phasic cholinergic signaling to the cortex, about which relatively little is known. The strength of the evidence is incomplete and could be improved by changes in task design and analyses, cross-validation of the conditions in calcium imaging, as well as the incorporation of control experiments to more definitively show it is indeed acetylcholine working in this circuit.

Reviewed by eLife

Diverse calcium dynamics underlie place field formation in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells

1. Mate Sumegi
2. Gaspar Olah
3. Istvan Paul Lukacs
4. Martin Blazsek
5. Judit K Makara
6. Zoltan Nusser

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides new insights into the plasticity mechanisms underlying the formation of spatial maps in the hippocampus. Supported by a large and comprehensive dataset, the evidence is solid. However, certain aspects of the statistical analysis and data presentation may seem incomplete and warrant improvement. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists focusing on spatial navigation, learning, and memory.

Reviewed by eLife

Neural adaptation to the eye’s optics through phase compensation

1. Antoine Barbot
2. John T Pirog
3. Cherlyn J Ng
4. Geunyoung Yoon

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This paper shows convincingly that the human visual system can recalibrate itself to compensate for phase alterations in an image induced by optical blur. This phenomenon is studied using state-of-the-art adaptive optics approaches that allow the manipulation of the eye's optics while making concurrent psychophysical measurements. The findings are broadly important because they highlight a neural mechanism by which flawed information is used to create seemingly accurate perceptions of the visual environment.

Reviewed by eLife

Compressed sensing based approach identifies modular neural circuitry driving learned pathogen avoidance

1. Timothy Hallacy
2. Abdullah Yonar
3. Niels Ringstad
4. Sharad Ramanathan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study describes a neural circuit contributing to two behavioral processes affecting pathogen avoidance in the nematode C. elegans. The method used to identify specific contributing neurons is innovative and the experimental evidence supporting the major claims is solid. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists studying behavior, in particular in C. elegans.

Reviewed by eLife

Supralinear dendritic integration in murine dendrite-targeting interneurons

1. Simonas Griesius
2. Amy Richardson
3. Dimitri Michael Kullmann

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this manuscript, Griesius et al analyze the dendritic integration properties of NDNF and OLM interneurons, and suggest that the supralinear NMDA receptor-dependent synaptic integration may be associated with dendritic calcium transients only in NDNF interneurons. These findings are important because they suggest there might be functional heterogeneities in the mechanisms underlying synaptic integration in different classes of interneurons of the mouse neocortex and hippocampus. The revised work remains incomplete due to remaining concerns about experimental methodology, cell health, and lack of dendritic Na-spikes which have been recorded in previous works.

Reviewed by eLife

Spike Rate Inference from Mouse Spinal Cord Calcium Imaging Data

1. Peter Rupprecht
2. Wei Fan
3. Steve J. Sullivan
4. Fritjof Helmchen
5. Andrei D. Sdrulla

Reviewed by PREreview

Activity-dependent lateral inhibition enables the synchronization of olfactory bulb projection neurons

1. Tal Dalal
2. Rafi Haddad

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study uses optogenetics in combination with single cell recordings to selectively activate sensory input channels within the olfactory bulb, providing direct evidence for activity-dependent and distance-independent enhancement of stimulus-evoked gamma oscillations via lateral interactions between input channels, most likely via granule cells. The article presents solid evidence to support the main conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

The effects of 17α-estradiol treatment on endocrine system revealed by single-nucleus transcriptomic sequencing of hypothalamus

1. Lei Li
2. Guanghao Wu
3. Xiaolei Xu
4. Junling Yang
5. Lirong Yi
6. Ziqing Yang
7. Zheng Mo
8. Li Xing
9. Ying Shan
10. Zhuo Yu
11. Yinchuan Li

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study demonstrates the potential role of 17α-estradiol in modulating neuronal gene expression in the aged hypothalamus of male rats, identifying key pathways and neuron subtypes affected by the drug. While the findings are useful and provide a foundation for future research, the strength of supporting evidence is incomplete due to the lack of female comparison, a young male control group, unclear link to 17α-estradiol lifespan extension in rats, and insufficient analysis of glial cells and cellular stress in CRH neurons.

Reviewed by eLife