Neuroscience

A Forebrain Hub for Cautious Actions via the Midbrain

1. Ji Zhou
2. Muhammad S Sajid
3. Sebastian Hormigo
4. Manuel A Castro-Alamancos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study uses fiber photometry, implantable lenses, and optogenetics to show that a subset of subthalamic nucleus neurons is active during movement, and that active but not passive avoidance depends in part on STN projections to substantia nigra. The strength of the evidence for these claims is solid, whereas evidence supporting the claims that STN is involved in cautious responding or the speed of avoidance is incomplete. This paper will be of interest to basic and applied behavioural neuroscientists working on avoidance if suitably streamlined to support the strongest claims.

Reviewed by eLife

Pathogenic O-GlcNAc dyshomeostasis associated with cortical malformations and hyperactivity

1. Florence Authier
2. Asad Jan
3. Islam Faress
4. Christian Stald Skoven
5. Iria Esperon-Abril
6. Shagana Tharmakulasingam Balasubramaniam
7. Kévin-Sébastien Coquelin
8. Jens R Nyengaard
9. Carsten Scavenius
10. Benedetta Attianese
11. Oscar G Sevillano-Quispe
12. Simon Fristed Eskildsen
13. Jesper Skovhus Thomsen
14. Brian Hansen
15. Daan MF van Aalten

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study that takes a key step towards understanding developmental disorders linked to mutations in the O-GlcNAc transferase enzyme by generating a mouse model harboring the C921Y mutation. The study thoroughly examines behavioral and anatomical differences in these mice and finds behavioral hyperactivity and learning/memory deficits, as well as phenotypic differences in skull and brain formation. However, the experimental evidence is incomplete owing to discrepancy in OGT protein/RNA levels in the C921Y mutant mice in this paper and the previous paper ("Neurodevelopmental defects in a mouse model of O-GlcNAc transferase intellectual disability "). This line of research will benefit from investigation of the differences in associated glycoproteins and mechanistic insights. This study will be of interest to those studying neurodevelopment, learning and behavior, or associated brain mechanisms.

Reviewed by eLife

Psychedelics Align Brain Activity with Context

1. Devon Stoliker
2. Leonardo Novelli
3. Moein Khajehnejad
4. Mana Biabani
5. Tamrin Barta
6. Matthew D. Greaves
7. Martin Williams
8. Sidhant Chopra
9. Olivier Bazin
10. Otto Simonsson
11. Richard Chambers
12. Frederick Barrett
13. Gustavo Deco
14. Katrin H. Preller
15. Robin Carhart-Harris
16. Anil Seth
17. Suresh Sundram
18. Gary F. Egan
19. Adeel Razi

Reviewed by preLights

Listening to the room: disrupting activity of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impairs learning of room acoustics in human listeners

1. Heivet Hernández-Pérez
2. Jason Mikiel-Hunter
3. James Traer
4. Jessica JM Monaghan
5. Paul F Sowman
6. David McAlpine

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment:

  This study addresses valuable questions about the neural mechanisms underlying statistical learning of room acoustics, combining robust behavioral measures with non-invasive brain stimulation. The behavioral findings are strong and extend previous work in psychoacoustics, but the TMS results are modest, with methodological limitations and over-interpretation that weaken the mechanistic conclusions. The strength of evidence is therefore incomplete, and a more cautious interpretation of the stimulation findings, alongside strengthened analyses, would improve the manuscript.

Reviewed by eLife

Astrocytic modulation of population encoding in mouse visual cortex via GABA transporter 3 revealed by multiplexed CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing

1. Jiho Park
2. Grayson O Sipe
3. Xin Tang
4. Prachi Ojha
5. Giselle Fernandes
6. Yi Ning Leow
7. Caroline Zhang
8. Yuma Osako
9. Arundhati Natesan
10. Gabrielle T Drummond
11. Rudolf Jaenisch
12. Mriganka Sur

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this manuscript, Park et al. developed a multiplexed CRISPR construct to genetically ablate the GABA transporter GAT3 in the mouse visual cortex, with effects on population-level neuronal activity. This work is important, as it sheds light on how GAT3 controls the processing of visual information. The findings are compelling, leveraging state-of-the-art gene CRISPR/Cas9, in vivo two-photon laser scanning microscopy, and advanced statistical modeling.

Reviewed by eLife

Patchy Striatonigral Neurons Modulate Locomotor Vigor in Response to Environmental Valence

1. Sarah Hawes
2. Bo Liang
3. Braden Oldham
4. Breanna T Sullivan
5. Lupeng Wang
6. Bin Song
7. Lisa Chang
8. Da-Ting Lin
9. Huaibin Cai

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The manuscript provides important findings on how striatal projection neurons regulate spontaneous locomotion speed in the context of implicit motivation and distinct contextual valence. The manuscript presented convincing supporting evidence for the findings. This work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists in the fields of basal ganglia, movement control, and cognition.

Reviewed by eLife

Morphogenesis and morphometry of brain folding patterns across species

1. Sifan Yin
2. Chunzi Liu
3. Gary PT Choi
4. Yeonsu Jung
5. Katja Heuer
6. Roberto Toro
7. L Mahadevan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study presents a cross-species and cross-disciplinary analysis of cortical folding. The authors use a combination of physical gel models, computational simulations, and morphometric analysis, extending prior work in human brain development to macaques and ferrets. The findings support the hypothesis that mechanical forces driven by differential growth can account for major aspects of gyrification. The evidence presented, though limited in certain species-specific and parametric details, is overall strong and convincingly supports the central claims; the findings will be of broad interest in developmental neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

Biophysical basis for brain folding and misfolding patterns in ferrets and humans

1. Gary PT Choi
2. Chunzi Liu
3. Sifan Yin
4. Gabrielle Séjourné
5. Richard S Smith
6. Christopher A Walsh
7. L Mahadevan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study characterises the morphogenesis of cortical folding in the ferret and human cerebral cortex using complementary physical and computational modelling. Notably, these approaches are applied to charting, in the ferret model, known abnormalities of cortical folding in humans. The study finds that variation in cortical thickness and expansion account for deviations in morphology, and supports these findings using cutting-edge approaches from both physical gel models and numerical simulations. The strength of evidence is convincing, and although it could benefit from more quantitative assessment, the study will be of broad interest to the field of developmental neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

Stimulus-Dependent Theta Rhythmic Activity in Primate V1 Predicts Visual Detection

1. Prasakti Tenri Fanyiwi
2. Beshoy Agayby
3. Ricardo Kienitz
4. Marcus Haag
5. Jaime Cadena-Valencia
6. Michael C Schmid

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study shows that stimuli of a certain size elicit theta oscillations in V1 neurons both in spikes and local field potentials, and monkeys performing a dot detection task on these stimuli show theta rhythmicity in their response times. This replicates previous findings showing rhythmic theta activity in V4 and behaviour when stimuli are presented in the receptive field along with a surrounding flanker stimulus. However, there is incomplete evidence that rhythmicity in neural activity is related to the rhythmicity in behavior, and the mechanisms underlying these oscillations remain unclear.

Reviewed by eLife

Adult Neurogenesis Reconciles Flexibility and Stability of Olfactory Perceptual Memory

1. Bennet Sakelaris
2. Hermann Riecke

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this important study, the authors use computational modeling to explore how fast learning can be reconciled with the accumulation of stable memories in the olfactory bulb, where adult neurogenesis is prominent. Their model demonstrates that changes in excitability, plasticity, and susceptibility to apoptosis during the maturation of adult-born granule cells can help resolve the flexibility-stability dilemma. These compelling results provide a coherent picture of a neurogenesis-dependent learning process that is consistent with diverse experimental observations and may serve as a foundation for further experimental and computational studies.

Reviewed by eLife