Neuroscience

Decoding semantics from natural speech using human intracranial EEG

1. Camille R. C. Pescatore
2. Haoyu Zhang
3. Alex E. Hadjinicolaou
4. Angelique C. Paulk
5. John D. Rolston
6. R. Mark Richardson
7. Ziv M. Williams
8. Jing Cai
9. Sydney S. Cash

Reviewed by PREreview

Cholesterol taste avoidance in Drosophila melanogaster

1. Roshani Nhuchhen Pradhan
2. Craig Montell
3. Youngseok Lee

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study provides convincing evidence that Drosophila can taste cholesterol through a subset of bitter-sensing gustatory receptor neurons, and that flies avoid high-cholesterol food. However, the same receptors have been previously found to be involved in the detection of multiple seemingly unrelated chemicals, and the reported expression patterns of these receptors contradict past reports. These caveats are not mentioned in the paper, raising critical concerns about the study's conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Sex differences in BNST signaling and BNST CRF in fear processing

1. Olivia J Hon
2. Sofia Neira
3. Meghan E Flanigan
4. Alison V Roland
5. Christina M Caira
6. Tori Sides
7. Shannon L D'Ambrosio
8. Sophia I Lee
9. Yolanda Simpson
10. Michelle C Buccini
11. Samantha Machinski
12. Waylin Yu
13. Kristen M Boyt
14. Thomas L Kash

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study advances understanding of how corticotrophin releasing factor in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis regulates sustained and phasic fear and how this differs between sexes. The evidence is convincing and based on state-of-the-art techniques. The work will be of interest to neuroscientists studying the biological basis of fear processing.

Reviewed by eLife

Shaping the physical world to our ends through the left PF technical-cognition area

1. François Osiurak
2. Giovanni Federico
3. Arnaud Fournel
4. Vivien Gaujoux
5. Franck Lamberton
6. Danièle Ibarrola
7. Yves Rossetti
8. Mathieu Lesourd

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study used functional MRI experiments to identify the involvement of a left parietal area (PF) in reasoning about the physical properties of actions, objects, and events. Solid evidence was shown regarding the commonalities and differences across different types of reasoning tasks, yet the methodological and theoretical interpretations require further scrutiny. The study would be of interest to researchers studying the cognitive and neural mechanisms of reasoning and problem solving.

Reviewed by eLife

Food intake enhances hippocampal sharp wave-ripples

1. Ekin Kaya
2. Evan Wegienka
3. Alexandra Akhtarzandi-Das
4. Hanh Do
5. Ada Eban-Rothschild
6. Gideon Rothschild

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study assessed the effects of food intake on sharp wave-ripples in the hippocampus of mice during subsequent sleep. Convincing evidence supports the conclusion that sharp wave-ripples are enhanced by food consumption. This work will likely interest researchers studying multiple functions including memory, metabolism, and brain-body physiology.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamic gamma modulation of hippocampal place cells predominates development of theta sequences

1. Ning Wang
2. Yimeng Wang
3. Mingkun Guo
4. Ling Wang
5. Xueling Wang
6. Nan Zhu
7. Jiajia Yang
8. Lei Wang
9. Chenguang Zheng
10. Dong Ming

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Using electrophysiological recordings in freely moving rats, this valuable study investigates the role of gamma oscillations in the development of spatial representations in the hippocampus. Specifically, solid evidence supports the claim that distinct gamma oscillatory inputs contribute to the emergence of 'theta sequences', which encode the animal's ongoing trajectory. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists working in the fields of spatial navigation and neuronal dynamics.

Reviewed by eLife

In vivo autofluorescence lifetime imaging of the Drosophila brain captures metabolic shifts associated with memory formation

1. Philémon Roussel
2. Mingyi Zhou
3. Chiara Stringari
4. Thomas Preat
5. Pierre-Yves Plaçais
6. Auguste Genovesio

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study describes a novel method for imaging NAD(P)H fluorescence lifetime and thus metabolic states in the Drosophila brain. These solid findings support recent work demonstrating the importance of energy homeostasis to sustain memory formation and maintenance. Further efforts to demonstrate the adequacy of the statistical methods and the significance of the observed differences in FLIM signals in the α/β KCs would greatly enhance the manuscript. The approach will be helpful for researchers working with systems where genetic manipulation is challenging.

Reviewed by eLife

Auditory cortex learns to discriminate audiovisual cues through selective multisensory enhancement

1. Song Chang
2. Beilin Zheng
3. Les Keniston
4. Jinghong Xu
5. Liping Yu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study that aims to investigate the behavioral relevance of multisensory responses recorded in the auditory cortex. The experiments are elegant and well-designed and are supported by appropriate analyses of the data. Although solid evidence is presented that is consistent with learning-dependent encoding of visual information in auditory cortex, further work is needed to establish the origin and nature of these non-auditory signals and to definitively rule out any effects of movement-related activity.

Reviewed by eLife

Rhythmic circuit function is more robust to changes in synaptic than intrinsic conductances

1. Zachary Fournier
2. Leandro M Alonso
3. Eve Marder

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides compelling insights into the differential impact of intrinsic and synaptic conductances on circuit robustness using computational models of the pyloric network from the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion. The results demonstrate that model networks are more sensitive to perturbations in intrinsic conductances than in synaptic conductances, highlighting the critical role of intrinsic plasticity in stabilizing neuronal networks. These findings underscore the importance of intrinsic plasticity, a crucial yet often overlooked factor in neuronal dynamics. The generality of these conclusions should be tested across diverse networks and functions.

Reviewed by eLife

Cognitive control of behavior and hippocampal information processing without medial prefrontal cortex

1. Eun Hye Park
2. Kally C O'Reilly Sparks
3. Griffin Grubbs
4. David Taborga
5. Kyndall Nicholas
6. Armaan S Ahmed
7. Natalie Ruiz-Péreza
8. Natalie Kim
9. Simon Segura-Carrillo
10. André A Fenton

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study includes convincing evidence to show that behavioral measures and hippocampal representations when animals use task-relevant information and ignore irrelevant information do not depend on the medial prefrontal cortex. The results are expected to be of interest to those studying neural mechanisms of cognitive control and functions of associational brain regions.

Reviewed by eLife