Neuroscience

The emergence of visual category representations in infants’ brains

1. Xiaoqian Yan
2. Sarah Shi Tung
3. Bella Fascendini
4. Yulan Diana Chen
5. Anthony M Norcia
6. Kalanit Grill-Spector

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study investigates the development of high-level visual responses in infants, finding that neural responses specific to faces are present by 4-6 months but not earlier. The study is methodologically convincing, using state-of-the-art experimental design and analysis approaches. The findings would be of broad interest to the cognitive neuroscience and developmental psychology research communities.

Reviewed by eLife

Human birth tissue products as a non-opioid medicine to inhibit post-surgical pain

1. Chi Zhang
2. Qian Huang
3. Neil C Ford
4. Nathachit Limjunyawong
5. Qing Lin
6. Fei Yang
7. Xiang Cui
8. Ankit Uniyal
9. Jing Liu
10. Megha Mahabole
11. Hua He
12. Xuewei Wang
13. Irina Duff
14. Yiru Wang
15. Jieru Wan
16. Guangwu Zhu
17. Srinivasa N Raja
18. Hongpeng Jia
19. Dazhi Yang
20. Xinzhong Dong
21. Xu Cao
22. Scheffer C Tseng
23. Shaoqiu He
24. Yun Guan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors provide convincing data that identify a novel, non-opioid biologic from human birth tissue products with anti-nociceptive properties in a preclinical mouse model of surgical pain. This important study highlights the potential use of naturally derived biologics from human birth tissues as safe and sustainable pain treatment options that do not possess the adverse side effects associated with opioids and synthetic pharmaceuticals. Whether these results will translate to the clinic remains to be seen, nevertheless, these preclinical findings are promising.

Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

A depth map of visual space in the primary visual cortex

1. Yiran He
2. Antonio Colas Nieto
3. Antonin Blot
4. Petr Znamenskiy

Reviewed by preLights

Complementary cognitive roles for D2-MSNs and D1-MSNs during interval timing

1. Robert A Bruce
2. Matthew Weber
3. Alexandra Bova
4. Rachael Volkman
5. Casey Jacobs
6. Kartik Sivakumar
7. Hannah Stutt
8. Youngcho Kim
9. Rodica Curtu
10. Kumar Narayanan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study examines the activity and function of dorsomedial striatal neurons in the estimation of time. The authors examine striatal activity as a function of time as well as the impact of optogenetic striatal manipulation on the animal's ability to estimate a time interval, providing solid evidence for their claims. The study could be further strengthened with a more rigorous characterization of activity and a stronger connection between their proposed model and the experimental data. The work will be of interest to neuroscientists examining how striatum contributes to behavior.

Reviewed by eLife

Interneuron FGF13 regulates seizure susceptibility via a sodium channel-independent mechanism

1. Susan Lin
2. Aravind R Gade
3. Hong-Gang Wang
4. James E Niemeyer
5. Allison Galante
6. Isabella DiStefano
7. Patrick Towers
8. Jorge Nunez
9. Maiko Matsui
10. Theodore H Schwartz
11. Anjali Rajadhyaksha
12. Geoffrey S Pitt

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study advances our understanding of how FGF13 variants confer seizure susceptibility. By acting in a set of inhibitory interneurons, FGF13 regulates synaptic transmission and excitability. The data presented here are convincing and combine cell type-specific knockouts and electrophysiology, complemented by histology/RNA studies. Collectively, this research will be of interest to a wide audience, particularly those involved in the study of epilepsy, inhibitory neurons, and ion channels.

Reviewed by eLife

Stable sequential dynamics in prefrontal cortex represents subjective estimation of time

1. Yiting Li
2. Wenqu Yin
3. Xin Wang
4. Jiawen Li
5. Shanglin Zhou
6. Chaolin Ma
7. Peng Yuan
8. Baoming Li

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study reports how neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex maps time intervals during which animals wait to reach a reward, with this mapping remaining consistent across days. While most claims are supported by solid evidence, the study could have benefitted from an improved experimental design to more clearly disambiguate correlations between neuronal patterns and not only time but also stereotypical behaviors and restraint from impulsive decisions. This study will be of particular interest to neuroscientists focused on decision-making and motor control.

Reviewed by eLife

A spatial threshold for astrocyte calcium surge

1. Justin Lines
2. Andres Baraibar
3. Carmen Nanclares
4. Eduardo D Martin
5. Juan Aguilar
6. Paulo Kofuji
7. Marta Navarrete
8. Alfonso Araque

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment:

  This study presents valuable findings that add to our understanding of cortical astrocytes, which respond to synaptic activity with calcium release in subcellular domains that can proceed to larger calcium waves. The proposed concept of a spatial "threshold" is based on solid evidence from in vivo and ex vivo imaging data and the use of mutant mice. Details of the specific threshold must be taken with caution and are necessarily incomplete, but may be supported by additional experiments with higher resolution in space and time in the future.

Reviewed by eLife

Value construction through sequential sampling explains serial dependencies in decision making

1. Ariel Zylberberg
2. Akram Bakkour
3. Daphna Shohamy
4. Michael N Shadlen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses key assumptions underlying current models of the formation of value-based decisions. The authors provide convincing evidence that the subjective values human participants assign to items change across sequences of multiple decisions. They establish methods to detect these changes in frequently used behavioral task designs.

Reviewed by eLife

The transformation of sensory to perceptual braille letter representations in the visually deprived brain

1. Marleen Haupt
2. Monika Graumann
3. Santani Teng
4. Carina Kaltenbach
5. Radoslaw Cichy

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study investigates the brain representations of Braille letters in blind participants and provides evidence using EEG and fMRI that the decoding of letter identity across the reading hand takes place in the visual cortex. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing and the work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on brain plasticity.

Reviewed by eLife

The identification of extensive samples of motor units in human muscles reveals diverse effects of neuromodulatory inputs on the rate coding

1. Simon Avrillon
2. François Hug
3. Roger M Enoka
4. Arnault HD Caillet
5. Dario Farina

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Leveraging state-of-the-art experimental and analytical approaches, this important study characterizes the recruitment and activation of large populations of human motor units during slow isometric contractions in two lower limb muscles. Evidence for the main claims is solid and advances our understanding of how humans generate and control voluntary force.

Reviewed by eLife