Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

The paper reports the important discovery that the mouse dorsal inferior colliculus, an auditory midbrain area, encodes sound location. The evidence supporting the claims is solid, being supported by both optical and electrophysiological recordings. The observations described should be of interest to auditory researchers studying the neural mechanisms of sound localization and the role of noise correlations in population coding.

eLife Assessment

The study describes a link between beta-amyloid monomers, regulation of microglial activity and assembly of neocortex during development. It brings valuable findings that have theoretical and practical implications in the field of neuronal migration, neuronal ectopia and type II lissencephaly. Unfortunately, the evidence is incomplete and the manuscript would benefit from additional experiments to clarify the relationship between Ric8a and APP and bolster the findings.

eLife Assessment

This study provides evidence that cerebellar projections to the thalamus are required for learning and execution of motor skills in the accelerating rotarod task. This important study adds to a growing body of literature on the interactions between the cerebellum, motor cortex, and basal ganglia during motor learning. The data presentation is generally sound, especially the main observations, with some limitations in describing the statistical methods and a lack of support for two segregated cerebello-thalamic pathways, which is incomplete in supporting the overall claim.

eLife Assessment

This important study advances our understanding of the way neurons in the auditory cortex of mice respond to unpredictable sounds. Through the use of state-of-the-art recording methods, compelling evidence is provided that responses to local and global violations in sound sequences are prediction errors and not simply the consequence of stimulus-specific adaptation. Although the cell-type-specific results are intriguing, further work is needed to establish their reliability.

eLife Assessment

This important study partially fills the gap in the knowledge of olfaction at the level of the Anterior Olfactory Nucleus (AON) and Piriform Cortex with functional magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, and modeling. The methods used are convincing. Some of the findings confirm ongoing hypotheses, such as the behavioral importance of AON for odor source discrimination. Other results shed light on the dynamics of the connection between the olfactory system and the rest of the brain.

eLife Assessment

This study compiles a wide range of results on the connectivity, stimulus selectivity, and potential role of the claustrum in sensory behavior. While most of the connectivity results confirm earlier studies, this valuable work provides incomplete evidence that the claustrum responds to multimodal stimuli and that local connectivity is reduced across cells that have similar long-range connectivity. The conclusions drawn from the behavioral results are weakened by the animals' poor performance on the designed task. This study has the potential to be of interest to neuroscientists.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study investigates the relationship between neuronal dynamics in the thalamus and brain state modulation. The claims that a specific channel is a critical player in the regulation of brain-states and ethanol-resistance in mice are supported by convincing evidence. The work will be of interest to systems neuroscientists interested in brain dynamics and behavioural states.

eLife Assessment

This study describes a new analysis strategy to compare active neurons during behavioral tasks across the brain. This is significant because analysing how different brain areas are active during behavior requires better methods. The evidence provided in support of the method is solid. Although useful now, the work may increase its significance following appropriate revisions.

eLife Assessment

This study provides a valuable description of subtypes of V1 neurons, including birthdates and connections to motor neurons. V1 neurons are one of the main groups of inhibitory neurons in the spinal cord. The methods of data collection and analysis are convincing. This work will interest developmental biologists and neuroscientists working on spinal circuits.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reports the existence of specific spike-timing dependent synaptic plasticity processes at two excitatory synapses of the dentate gyrus granule cells. These synapses link the entorhinal cortex and the dentate gyrus but via different circuits. With state-of-the-art patch-clamp electrophysiological analysis, the authors provide convincing information on the molecular mechanisms underlying these 2 forms of synaptic plasticity showing a critical role for astrocytes in both alongside some features distinctive to each pathway. These results will be of interest to neuroscientists as they uncover detailed plasticity mechanisms involving the hippocampus.