Neuroscience

Adolescent alcohol exposure promotes mechanical allodynia and alters synaptic function at inputs from the basolateral amygdala to the prelimbic cortex

1. J Daniel Obray
2. Erik T Wilkes
3. Mike Scofield
4. L Judson Chandler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents important information as to how adolescent alcohol exposure (AIE) alters pain behavior and relevant neurocircuits, with convincing data. The manuscript focuses on how AIE alters the basolateral amygdala, to the PFC (PV-interneurons), to the periaquaductal gray circuit, resulting in feed-forward inhibition. The manuscript is a detailed study of the role of alcohol exposure in regulating the circuit and reflexive pain, however, the role of the PV interneurons in mechanistically modulating this feed-forward circuit could be more strongly supported.

Reviewed by eLife

The NIH BRAIN Initiative’s impacts in systems and computational neuroscience and team-scale research 2014–2023

1. Farah Bader
2. Clayton Bingham
3. Karen K David
4. Hermon Gebrehiwet
5. Crystal L Lantz
6. Grace CY Peng
7. Mauricio Rangel-Gomez
8. James Gnadt
9. On behalf of the NIH BRAIN Initiative Integrative and Quantitative Neuroscience Team

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The manuscript presents some useful accounts of experiences funding team projects within the BRAIN Initiative. These would be more appropriate to add to the companion manuscript since the present manuscript contains some overlapping analyses and does not stand well on its own. Therefore the evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Precision cutaneous stimulation in freely moving mice

1. Isobel Parkes
2. Ara Schorscher-Petcu
3. Qinyi Gan
4. Liam E Browne

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study combines real-time keypoint tracking with transdermal activation of sensory neurons to investigate sensory neuron recruitment in freely moving mice, and builds on the authors' prior work in stationary mice. The evidence supporting the utility of the system is solid, although a more thorough classification of the behavioral responses to nociceptor stimulation would strengthen the work. Importantly, future analyses could include other cutaneous sensory neuron subtypes, and could also be adapted for studying more complex behaviors. The work will be of interest to sensory biologists and pain researchers.

Reviewed by eLife

Evolution of taste processing shifts dietary preference

1. Enrico Bertolini
2. Daniel Münch
3. Justine Pascual
4. Noemi Sgammeglia
5. Carlos Ribeiro
6. Thomas O. Auer

Reviewed by preLights

Quantification of the effect of hemodynamic occlusion in two-photon imaging of mouse cortex

1. Baba Yogesh
2. Matthias Heindorf
3. Rebecca Jordan
4. Georg B Keller

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study conducted experiments to quantify how neural activity independent changes in fluorescence might affect two-photon recordings when using diverse sensors. The researchers found a widespread presence of neural-activity-independent artifacts in two-photon imaging and provide convincing evidence that these artifacts are most likely caused by hemodynamic occlusion. Their findings underscore the importance of accounting for these artifacts when interpreting functional two-photon recordings.

Reviewed by eLife

Olfactory ensheathing cells from adult female rats are hybrid glia that promote neural repair

1. Patricia E Phelps
2. Sung Min Ha
3. Rana R Khankan
4. Mahlet A Mekonnen
5. Giovanni Juarez
6. Kaitlin L Ingraham Dixie
7. Yen-Wei Chen
8. Xia Yang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study unveils important data describing cell states of olfactory ensheathing cells, and how these cell states may relate to repair after spinal cord injury. The framework used for characterizing these cells is solid. This work will be of interest to stem cell biologists and spinal cord injury researchers.

Reviewed by eLife

The magnitude and time course of pre-saccadic foveal prediction depend on the conspicuity of the saccade target

1. Lisa M Kroell
2. Martin Rolfs

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study reports important findings about pre-saccadic foveal prediction and the extent to which it is influenced by the visibility of the saccade target relative to its background. The research methodology and results make a convincing case that foveal congruency effects develop when salient local contrast variations at the saccade target location can be used to direct the eye movement. This work should be of broad interest to visual neuroscientists, as well as those interested in understanding perception in the context of eye movements and in modeling visually guided actions.

Reviewed by eLife

Drosophila epidermal cells are intrinsically mechanosensitive and modulate nociceptive behavioral outputs

1. Jiro Yoshino
2. Sonali S Mali
3. Claire R Williams
4. Takeshi Morita
5. Chloe E Emerson
6. Christopher J Arp
7. Sophie E Miller
8. Chang Yin
9. Lydia Thé
10. Chikayo Hemmi
11. Mana Motoyoshi
12. Kenichi Ishii
13. Kazuo Emoto
14. Diana M Bautista
15. Jay Z Parrish

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is important work and provides a significant advance in our understanding of mechanosensation in the epidermis. The evidence presented is convincing and, barring a few minor weaknesses, strongly implicates activation of epidermal cells and store-operated calcium entry in the activation of nociceptive neurons innervating that tissue. This work will be of broad interest to neurobiologists, epithelial cell biologists, and mechanobiologists.

Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

Anterior cingulate cortex in complex associative learning: monitoring action state and action content

1. Wenqiang Huang
2. Arron F Hall
3. Natalia Kawalec
4. Ashley N Opalka
5. Jun Liu
6. Dong V Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Huang and colleagues examined neural responses in mouse anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during a discrimination-avoidance task. The authors present useful findings that ACC neurons encode primarily post-action variables over extended periods rather than the outcomes or values of those actions. Though the methodological approach was sound, the evidence ruling out alternative explanations is incomplete and requires substantial control analyses.

Reviewed by eLife

Mapping Visual Contrast Sensitivity and Vision Loss Across the Visual Field with Model-Based fMRI

1. Hugo T Chow-Wing-Bom
2. Matteo Lisi
3. Noah C Benson
4. Freya Lygo-Frett
5. Patrick Yu-Wai-Man
6. Frederic Dick
7. Roni O Maimon-Mor
8. Tessa M Dekker

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Using fMRI-based pRF mapping, this important study presents a novel method to estimate visual field (VF) and VF loss/or potential restoration, through analysis of contrast sensitivity patterns in the early visual cortex. While the approach is very interesting and the evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, some methodological concerns need to be addressed. The work will be of interest to researchers in vision/clinical vision, neuroscience, and brain imaging.

Reviewed by eLife