Neuroscience

Neural signatures of model-based and model-free reinforcement learning across prefrontal cortex and striatum

1. Bruno Miranda
2. James L Butler
3. W M Nishantha Malalasekera
4. Timothy EJ Behrens
5. Peter Dayan
6. Steven W Kennerley

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study presents single-unit activity collected during model-based (MB) and model-free (MF) reinforcement learning in non-human primates. The dataset was carefully collected, and the statistical analyses, including the modeling, are rigorous. The evidence convincingly supports different roles for particular cortical and subcortical areas in representing key variables during reinforcement learning.

Reviewed by eLife

Criterion placement threatens the construct validity of neural measures of consciousness

1. Johannes Jacobus Fahrenfort
2. Philippa A Johnson
3. Niels A Kloosterman
4. Timo Stein
5. Simon van Gaal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study provides a critical challenge to a great many studies of the neural correlates of consciousness that were based on post hoc sorting of reported awareness experience. The evidence supporting this criticism is compelling, based on simulations and decoding analysis of EEG data. The results will be of interest not only to psychologists and neuroscientists but also to philosophers who work on addressing mind-body relationships.

Reviewed by eLife

Microglia aging in the hippocampus advances through intermediate states that drive activation and cognitive decline

1. Jeremy M Shea
2. Saul A Villeda

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work advances our understanding of the aging trajectory and heterogeneity of hippocampal microglia. The authors provide an in-depth characterization of microglia in young and old mice as well as at intermediate time points, which reveals the existence of intermediate states characterized by a distinct transcriptional signature. The experimental approach is solid, especially with the validation of scRNA-seq findings with other methods. The study should be of interest to neuroimmunologists and biologists interested in aging

Reviewed by eLife

Automatic learning mechanisms for flexible human locomotion

1. Cristina Rossi
2. Kristan A Leech
3. Ryan T Roemmich
4. Amy J Bastian

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study introduces a novel split-belt treadmill learning task to reveal distinct and parallel learning sub-components of gait adaptation: slow and gradual error-based perceptual realignment, and a more deliberate and flexible "stimulus-response" style learning process. The behavioural results convincingly support the presence of a non-error-based learning process during continuous movements, and the computational modelling provides comprehensive further evidence for establishing this learning process. These results will be of interest for the broader motor learning community.

Reviewed by eLife

Unexpected mechanisms of sex-specific memory vulnerabilities to acute traumatic stress

1. Rachael E. Hokenson
2. Kiara L. Rodríguez-Acevedo
3. Yuncai Chen
4. Annabel K. Short
5. Sara A. Samrari
6. Brinda Devireddy
7. Brittany J. Jensen
8. Julia J. Winter
9. Christine M. Gall
10. Kiran K. Soma
11. Elizabeth A. Heller
12. Tallie Z. Baram

Reviewed by preLights

Age-related changes in ‘cortical’ 1/f dynamics are linked to cardiac activity

1. Fabian Schmidt
2. Sarah K Danböck
3. Eugen Trinka
4. Dominic P Klein
5. Gianpaolo Demarchi
6. Nathan Weisz

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Examination of (a)periodic brain activity has gained particular interest in the last few years in the neuroscience fields relating to cognition, disorders, and brain states. Using large EEG/MEG datasets from younger and older adults, the current study provides compelling evidence that age-related differences in aperiodic EEG/MEG signals can be driven by cardiac rather than brain activity. Their findings have important implications for all future research that aims to assess aperiodic neural activity, suggesting control for the influence of cardiac signals is essential.

Reviewed by eLife

Neural geometry from mixed sensorimotor selectivity for predictive sensorimotor control

1. Yiheng Zhang
2. Yun Chen
3. Tianwei Wang
4. He Cui

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study examines the neural activity in the motor cortex as a monkey reaches to intercept moving targets, focusing on how tuned single neurons contribute to an interesting overall population geometry. The presented results and analyses are solid, though the investigation of this novel task could be strengthened by clarifying the assumptions behind the single neuron analyses, and further analyses of the neural population activity and its relation to different features of behaviour.

Reviewed by eLife

Precise spatial tuning of visually driven alpha oscillations in human visual cortex

1. Kenichi Yuasa
2. Iris IA Groen
3. Giovanni Piantoni
4. Stephanie Montenegro
5. Adeen Flinker
6. Sasha Devore
7. Orrin Devinsky
8. Werner Doyle
9. Patricia Dugan
10. Daniel Friedman
11. Nick F Ramsey
12. Natalia Petridou
13. Jonathan Winawer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This intracranial EEG study presents important and convincing neural evidence supporting the high spatial specificity (receptive field) of visually driven alpha-band oscillation in human brains and its potential role in exogenous cuing attention. The work challenges the predominant view about the role of alpha-band oscillation in visual attention and advocates that stimulus-driven alpha suppression is precisely tuned and might contribute to exogenous spatial attention.

Reviewed by eLife

Normative evidence weighing and accumulation in correlated environments

1. Nathan Tardiff
2. Jiwon Kang
3. Joshua I Gold

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work combines theory and experiment to demonstrate convincingly how humans make decisions about sequences of pairs of correlated observations. The proposed model for evidence integration in correlated environments will be of use for the study of decision-making.

Reviewed by eLife

Specificity Protein 1 is essential for the limb trajectory of ephrin-mediated spinal motor axons

1. Pinwen Liao
2. Ming-Yuan Chang
3. Wen-Bin Yang
4. Keefer Lin
5. Yi-Chao Li
6. Jian-Ying Chuang
7. Yi-Hsin Wu
8. Artur Kania
9. Wen-Chang Chang
10. Tsung-I Hsu
11. Tzu-Jen Kao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study makes an important contribution to the molecular mechanisms of neural circuit formation. The data convincingly show that the transcription factor Sp1 regulates ephrin-mediated axon guidance in the spinal cord. Although the authors show that Sp1 and its co-activators p300 and CBP are required to induce ephrin expression, additional discussion and/or experiments are needed to support the claims that Sp1 regulates cis-binding of Epha receptors, or that Sp1 controls ephrin expression in relevant motor neuron populations. The study will be of broad interest to developmental neurobiologists.

Reviewed by eLife