Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This work is an important contribution to the development of a biologically plausible theory of statistical modeling of spiking activity. The authors convincingly implemented the statistical inference of input likelihood in a simple neural circuit, demonstrating the relationship between synaptic homeostasis, neural representations, and computational accuracy. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists, both theoretical and experimental, who are exploring how statistical computation is implemented in neural networks.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental study advances substantially our understanding of sound encoding at synapses between single inner hair cells of the mouse cochlea and spiral ganglion neurons. Dual patch-clamp recordings-a technical tour-de force-and careful data analysis provide compelling evidence that the functional heterogeneity of these synapses contributes to the diversity of spontaneous and sound-evoked firing by the neurons. The work will be of broad interest to scientists in the field of auditory neuroscience.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study uses the analysis of connectomic and transcriptomic datasets to survey the anatomy and connectivity of neurosecretory cells in the Drosophila brain. While the connectivity analyses are convincing, the anatomical and functional data provided to verify cell type identity and paracrine signaling is incomplete. Once these aspects are improved, this study would be of interest to neuroscientists working on hormonal signaling in Drosophila and other animals.

eLife Assessment

This study provides valuable evidence indicating that SynGap1 regulates the synaptic drive and membrane excitability of parvalbumin- and somatostatin-positive interneurons in the auditory cortex. Since haplo-insufficiency of SynGap1 has been linked to intellectual disabilities without a well-defined underlying cause, the central question of this study is timely. While in their revision the authors successfully addressed questions related to changes in thalamocortical presynaptic excitability, the support for the authors' conclusions is incomplete as concerns around the interpretability of the spontaneous/mini EPSCs, interpretation of results related to excitability, restriction of anatomical analysis of excitatory synapses to the somatic region, and technical problems regarding phase plots remain unresolved.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study has the potential to shed mechanistic light on how attention mechanisms that influence competition between multiple visual stimuli are modulated by the relative neural similarity of these stimuli. The study provides convincing data that will also be used for future modeling efforts. The study will be of interest to researchers working on the neural basis of visual attention.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a valuable finding about the role of Perk (Protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase) and Atf4 (Activating Transcription Factor-4) in the integrated neurodegenerative and regenerative responses following the optic nerve injury. The authors present solid evidence, combining newly generated transcriptomic data with publicly available datasets to strengthen their findings. Despite some limitations in data quality and interpretation, the study is likely to be of interest to researchers studying optic neuropathies and axonal regeneration.

eLife Assessment

This is a valuable study of the physiological mechanisms promoting network activity during fever in the mouse neocortex. Most of the supporting evidence is solid, however, there is incomplete support for the conclusion that the E/I balance is unchanged with temperature.

eLife Assessment

This important study describes a computational tool termed FliSimBA (Fluorescence Lifetime Simulation for Biological Applications), which uses simulations to rigorously assess experimental limitations in fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), including diverse noise factors, hardware effects, and sensor expression levels. The evidence from simulation and experimental measurements supporting the usefulness of FlimSimBA is solid. The authors may improve the application of the tool to a wide range of biological samples by providing the simulation package, currently in MATLB, in other common languages such as Python, and having better descriptions of the fitting algorithm and model assumptions. The work will interest scientists who wish to perform quantitative FLIM imaging for cells and tissues.

eLife Assessment

This study presents convincing evidence of the role of an intestine-released neuropeptide, FLP-2, in the oxidative stress response of C. elegans, as well as for the neural circuit pathway that regulates its release in response to sensing reactive oxygen species (i.e., H2O2). These valuable results advance the understanding of gut-brain signaling and the neural circuit basis of behavioral responses to stress.

eLife Assessment

This study used a novel continuous dot motion decision-making task to measure participants' perception and uncertainty/confidence in a social context. The social element is that participants can see another player's responses as well as their own. The study is a useful contribution to social decision-making primarily by introducing a new task and offering solid evidence on how participants are impacted by others' decisions during continuous perceptual choices. The manuscript could be improved through streamlining, more consistent use of terms such as "dyadic" and clarification about the differences between primary uncertainty and metacognitive confidence.