Neuroscience

Exploring neurodevelopment via spatiotemporal collation of anatomical networks with NeuroSC

1. Noelle L Koonce
2. Sarah E Emerson
3. Dhananjay Bhaskar
4. Manik Kuchroo
5. Mark W Moyle
6. Pura Arroyo-Morales
7. Nabor Vázquez-Martínez
8. Jamie I Emerson
9. Smita Krishnaswamy
10. William A Mohler
11. Daniel A Colón-Ramos

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  NeuroSC is an accessible and interactive tool for streamlined observation of neuronal morphology, membrane contact, and synaptic connectivity across developmental stages in the nematode C. elegans. This important tool relies on solid electron microscopy datasets. This resource will be of high interest to C. elegans researchers interested in nervous system wiring and circuit function.

Reviewed by eLife

Coordinated dynamics of excitatory and inhibitory synapse assembly

1. Krassimira Garbett
2. James Allen
3. Richard C Sando

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this valuable study, the authors developed long-term imaging tools to simultaneously monitor the temporal and spatial dynamics of excitatory and inhibitory synapses and reported that excitatory and inhibitory synapses need to develop synergistically during synaptogenesis to maintain balance. While the analysis and quantification of the imaging data are incomplete, there is convincing evidence that the developed tools are feasible. If these tools can function stably in vivo, their applications will be much broader.

Reviewed by eLife

Hierarchical encoding of natural sound mixtures in ferret auditory cortex

1. Agnès Landemard
2. Célian Bimbard
3. Yves Boubenec

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This paper presents valuable findings on the processing of sound mixtures in the auditory cortex of ferrets, a species widely used for studies of auditory processing. Using the convenient and relatively high-resolution method of functional ultrasound imaging, the authors provide convincing evidence that background noise invariance emerges across the auditory cortical processing hierarchy. They also draw informative comparisons with previously published fMRI data obtained in humans. This work will be of interest to researchers studying the auditory cortex and the neural mechanisms underlying auditory scene analysis and hearing in noise.

Reviewed by eLife

Cone bipolar cell synapses generate transient versus sustained signals in parallel ON pathways of the mouse retina

1. Sidney P Kuo
2. Wan-Qing Yu
3. Prerna Srivastava
4. Haruhisa Okawa
5. Luca Della Santina
6. David M Berson
7. Gautam B Awatramani
8. Rachel OL Wong
9. Fred Rieke

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study shows that retinal bipolar cell subtype-specific differences in the size of synaptic ribbon-associated vesicle pools contribute to the transient versus sustained kinetics of the responses of retinal ganglion cells. The data are extensive and compelling. This work will be of broad interest to researchers working on synaptic transmission, retinal signal processing, and sensory neurobiology.

Reviewed by eLife

Generation of biophysical neuron model parameters from recorded electrophysiological responses

1. Jimin Kim
2. Minxian Peng
3. Shuqi Chen
4. Qiang Liu
5. Eli Shlizerman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study is a valuable contribution to the field of neuronal modeling by way of providing a method for rapidly obtaining neuronal physiology parameters from electrophysiological recordings. The method is solid as the generated models reproduce both ground-truth simulated data and empirical data, and there is now a quantitative comparison with other approaches.

Reviewed by eLife

Individual differences in fear memory expression engage distinct functional brain networks

1. Barbara D Fontana
2. Jacob Hudock
3. Neha Rajput
4. Dea Kanini
5. Dinh Luong
6. Justin W Kenney

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work sets out to identify the neural substrates of associative fear responses in adult zebrafish. Through a compelling and innovative paradigm and analysis, the authors suggest brain regions associated with individual differences in fear memory. While several findings are well supported, aspects of the interpretation and presentation are partially incomplete, and the manuscript would benefit from adjusting key claims or including additional experiments. Nonetheless, this study showcases the strength of zebrafish for systems-level neuroscience and will be of broad interest to the neuroscience community.

Reviewed by eLife

Integrative models of visually guided steering in Drosophila

1. Angel Canelo
2. Hyosun Kim
3. Yeon Kim
4. Jeongmin Park
5. Anmo J Kim

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study investigates the implementation of an efference copy mechanism in the visual flight control system of Drosophila, a topic of broad interest to sensorimotor neuroscientists. Although the behavioral data and computational analyses are each individually solid, there is limited quantitative evaluation of how the model predictions compare to the experimental data.

Reviewed by eLife

Wide-ranging behavioral dysfunction in two mouse models of pathological human variants in the GRIK2 kainate receptor gene

1. Brynna T. Webb
2. Hieu Trinh
3. Emily A. Breach
4. Kendall M. Foote
5. Erica Binelli
6. Geoffrey T. Swanson

Reviewed by preLights

Segment-specific axon guidance by Wnt/Fz signaling diversifies motor commands in Drosophila larvae

1. Suguru Takagi
2. Shiina Takano
3. Tomohiro Kubo
4. Yusaku Hashimoto
5. Shu Morise
6. Xiangsunze Zeng
7. Akinao Nose

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The study by Takagi and colleagues is an important contribution to the question of how homologous neuronal circuits might be wired differently to elicit specific behaviours. The authors combine genetic, neuroanatomical, and behavioral data to provide convincing evidence that Dfz2/DWnt4 signaling controls the innervation pattern of wave command neurons in the fly larva, and thereby behavioral locomotion program selection.

Reviewed by eLife

Human single-neuron activity is modulated by intracranial theta burst stimulation of the basolateral amygdala

1. Justin M Campbell
2. Rhiannon L Cowan
3. Krista L Wahlstrom
4. Martina K Hollearn
5. Dylan Jensen
6. Tyler Davis
7. Shervin Rahimpour
8. Ben Shofty
9. Amir Arain
10. John D Rolston
11. Stephan Hamann
12. Shuo Wang
13. Lawrence N Eisenman
14. James Swift
15. Tao Xie
16. Peter Brunner
17. Joseph Manns
18. Cory Inman
19. Elliot H Smith
20. Jon Timothy Willie

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides a description of how single-neuron firing rates in the human medial temporal lobe and frontal cortex are modulated by theta-burst stimulation of the basolateral amydala. The results are supported by convincing evidence obtained from a rigorous task design and analysis of an incredibly rare dataset. The results may help guide future studies incorporating amygdala stimulation to improve patient health.

Reviewed by eLife