Neuroscience

Activity-dependent synapse clustering underlies eye-specific competition in the developing retinogeniculate system

1. Chenghang Zhang
2. Tarlan Vatan
3. Colenso M Speer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is a useful analysis of STORM data that characterizes the clustering of active zones in retinogeniculate terminals across ages and in the absence of retinal waves. The design makes it possible to relate fixed time point structural data to a known outcome of activity-dependent remodeling. However, the evidence is incomplete, weakening the claims the authors make regarding how activity influences the clustering of these synapses.

Reviewed by eLife

High-Resolution Laminar Identification in Macaque Primary Visual Cortex Using Neuropixels Probes

1. Li A Zhang
2. Peichao Li
3. Edward M Callaway

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides insights and strategies for assessing laminar structure in vivo in the visual cortex of the macaque monkey with high-density linear electrode arrays. The paper provides convincing evidence demonstrating that signals in higher frequency bands, related to the discharge of action potentials, are of substantially better use for achieving well-resolved cortical layer identification than are signals in lower frequency bands typically associated with local field potentials and standard-practice Current Source Density (CSD) analyses. These findings are of interest to a wide range of neuroscientists making comparisons between cortical layers or recording with array electrodes.

Reviewed by eLife

Commissureless acts as a substrate adapter in a conserved Nedd4 E3 ubiquitin ligase pathway to promote axon growth across the midline

1. Kelly G Sullivan
2. Greg J Bashaw

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work is of fundamental significance to the field of nervous system development as it advances our mechanistic understanding of axon guidance. The rigorous biochemical and genetic approaches are compelling, experiments are well-controlled, and the major claims are supported by convincing data. The study should be of general interest to the developmental neurobiology community.

Reviewed by eLife

In vitro survival and neurogenic potential of central canal-derived neural stem cells depend on spinal cord injury type

1. Lars Erik Schiro
2. Ulrich Stefan Bauer
3. Christiana Bjorkli
4. Axel Sandvig
5. Ioanna Sandvig

Reviewed by PREreview

Social Experience Shapes Fighting Strategies for Reproductive Success

1. Can Gao
2. Mingze Ma
3. Jie Chen
4. Xiaoxiao Ji
5. Qionglin Peng
6. Yufeng Pan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The paper presents a new behavioral assay for Drosophila aggression and demonstrates that social experience influences fighting strategies, with group-housed males favoring high-intensity but low-frequency tussling over aggressive lunging observed in isolated males. This paper is valuable for researchers studying Drosophila social behaviors, while the characterization of behavioral and neuroanatomical data is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Experience shapes the transformation of olfactory representations along the cortico-hippocampal pathway

1. Eleonore Schiltz
2. Martijn Broux
3. Cagatay Aydin
4. Pedro Goncalves
5. Sebastian Haesler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This potentially important study describes the progressive transformation of olfactory information across five different brain regions in the olfactory pathway. While the dataset could be of broad interest to olfactory researchers, the analysis is incomplete and would benefit from a reconsideration of the data sampling window, a more uniform analysis framework, and greater clarity of presentation.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamic reinforcement learning reveals time-dependent shifts in strategy during reward learning

1. Sarah Jo C Venditto
2. Kevin J Miller
3. Carlos D Brody
4. Nathaniel D Daw

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work by Veneditto and colleagues developed a new modeling approach, called a mixture-of-agent hidden Markov model (MoA-HMM), in which choice behaviors are modeled as transitions between discrete states defined by different weighting of several reinforcement learning and decision strategies. The authors apply this approach to their previous data collected from rats performing the two-step task, and show that this method predicts fluctuations in neural and other behavioral data and provides better fits to the data than previous methods. The revision has greatly improved the manuscript, the evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, and the method is of general interest to the field.

Reviewed by eLife

A memory model of rodent spatial navigation in which place cells are memories arranged in a grid and grid cells are non-spatial

1. David E Huber

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important paper provides solid evidence for an alternative conceptualization of the functional role of the place and grid cell network in the medial temporal lobe for memory as opposed to spatial processing or navigation. The theory is extensive, tightly integrating data on various spatial cell types. It accounts for many experimental results and generates strong predictions for future studies that will be of interest to researchers in this field. The impact of the work would be strengthened if future experiments reveal that grid cells do indeed encode specific nonspatial features.

Reviewed by eLife

The interplay between homeostatic synaptic scaling and homeostatic structural plasticity maintains the robust firing rate of neural networks

1. Han Lu
2. Sandra Diaz
3. Maximilian Lenz
4. Andreas Vlachos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study combines experiments and modelling to advance our understanding of the nonlinear nature of homeostatic structural plasticity and its interaction with synaptic scaling. The methodology and findings are solid, although additional work is needed to better link models with experiments and support some of the conclusions drawn. This study will be of interest to theoretical and experimental neuroscientists working in homeostatic plasticity.

Reviewed by eLife

Nitric oxide modulates contrast suppression in a subset of mouse retinal ganglion cells

1. Dominic Gonschorek
2. Matías A Goldin
3. Jonathan Oesterle
4. Tom Schwerd-Kleine
5. Ryan Arlinghaus
6. Zhijian Zhao
7. Timm Schubert
8. Olivier Marre
9. Thomas Euler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study is the first comprehensive analysis of the modulatory effects of nitric oxide (NO) on the response properties of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in the mouse retina using two-photon calcium imaging and multi-electrode arrays (MEA). The results provide compelling evidence that a subset of suppressed-by-contrast RGCs are affected. These unexpected findings are likely of broad interest to visual neuroscientists.

Reviewed by eLife