Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This important work employed a recent functional muscle network analysis to evaluate rehabilitation outcomes in post-stroke patients. While the research direction is relevant and suggests the need for further investigation, the strength of evidence supporting the claims is incomplete. Muscle interactions can serve as biomarkers, but improvements in function are not directly demonstrated, and the method's robustness is not benchmarked against existing approaches.

eLife Assessment

This important work introduces a splitGFP-based labeling tool with an analysis pipeline for the synaptic scaffold protein bruchpilot, with tests in the adult Drosophila mushroom bodies, a learning center in the Drosophila brain. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing.

eLife Assessment

This useful study uses creative scalp EEG decoding methods to attempt to demonstrate that two forms of learned associations in a Stroop task are dissociable, despite sharing similar temporal dynamics. However, the evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete due to concerns with the experimental design and methodology. This paper would be of interest to researchers studying cognitive control and adaptive behavior, if the concerns raised in the reviews can be addressed satisfactorily.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study investigates the computational role of top-down feedback - a property found in biological circuits - in artificial neural network (ANN) models of the neocortex. Using hierarchical recurrent ANNs in an audiovisual integration task, the authors show that an anatomically inspired feedback motif induces a stable visual bias consistent with human perception and yields modest but meaningful benefits for learning dynamics and robustness. The strength of evidence is solid: the modeling, analyses, and controls mostly support the central claim that top-down feedback motifs impose persistent inductive biases that shape functional specialization and behavior. But the evidence for a broad, general framework that predicts behavior remains only partially supported, and the Methods would benefit from a compact, reproducible summary of hyperparameters and architectural details.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript investigates the extremely interesting and important claim that the human hippocampus represents interactions with multiple social interaction partners on two relatively abstract social dimensions - and that this ability correlates with the social network size of the participant. This research potentially demonstrates the intricate role of the hippocampus in navigating our social world. While most of the results are solid, the paper requires some further clarification.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a potentially valuable exploration of the role of thalamic nuclei in language processing. The results will be of interest to researchers interested in the neurobiology of language. However, the evidence is incomplete to support robust conclusions at this point.

eLife Assessment

This study provides a useful contribution to understanding how wearable augmentation devices interact with human proprioception, using a longitudinal design over a single session. Results demonstrate that the perceptual representation of the biological finger and augmentation device changes across different phases of device exposure and use. The evidence supporting a representational change over time is solid, although it is still not clear whether these changes reflect three distinct phases of sensorimotor plasticity, as argued, versus 'washout' or adaptation effects. This work will be of interest to researchers studying body representation, sensorimotor learning, and human-technology interaction.

eLife Assessment

This fundamental manuscript describes how the posterolateral cortical amygdala (plCoA) generates appetitive or aversive behaviors in response to odors. By combining optogenetic stimulation, single-cell RNA sequencing, and spatial analysis, the authors identify a topographically organized circuit within plCoA that governs these behaviors. The manuscript shows convincingly that multiple features (spatial, genetic, and projection) contribute to overall population encoding of valence. Overall, the authors conduct many challenging experiments, each of which contains the relevant controls, and the results are interpreted within the framework of their experiments.

eLife Assessment

Stearns and Poletti present a technically impressive study that aims to uncover a deeper understanding of microsaccade function: their role in perceptual modulation and the associated temporal dynamics. The question is useful, and advances prior work by adding temporal granularity. However, the strength of the evidence is currently incomplete. Additional analysis is needed to control for the effects of endogenous attention and to demonstrate changes in perceptual performance.

eLife Assessment

This important study identifies a novel role for Hes5+ astrocytes in modulating the activity of descending pain-inhibitory noradrenergic neurons from the locus coeruleus during stress-induced pain facilitation. The role of glia in modulating neurological circuits including pain is poorly understood, and in that light, the role of Hes5+ astrocytes in this circuit is a key finding with broader potential impacts. This work is supported by convincing evidence, albeit somewhat limited by the indirect nature of the evidence linking adenosine to nearby neuronal modulation, and possible questions on the population specificity of the transgenic approach.