Neuroscience

Distinct gradients of cortical architecture capture visual representations and behavior across the lifespan

1. Xiayu Chen
2. Xingyu Liu
3. Patricia Maria Hoyos
4. Edan Daniel Hertz
5. Jewelia K Yao
6. Zonglei Zhen
7. Jesse Gomez

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides a valuable perspective on visual cortex architecture by identifying two cortical gradients that change across the lifespan and have distinct functional and structural features. The first gradient captures well-mapped variations in cortical thickness and myelination markers from early sensory to higher-order cortex, while the second gradient shows divergence in these measures with a more localized structure, notably predicting a previously unknown cluster of visual field maps in the anterior temporal lobe. The large-scale lifespan data are compelling, but the evidence overall is incomplete with key questions around methodical checks and implementation, the standard of evidence for the new visual maps, and how the gradient model relates to sharp tissue boundaries parcellating the cortex.

Reviewed by eLife

Deciphering the nanoscale architecture of presynaptic actin using a micropatterned presynapse-on-glass model

1. Sofia Tumminia
2. Louisa Mezache
3. Theresa Wiesner
4. Benoit Vianay
5. Manuel Théry
6. Marie-Jeanne Papandréou
7. Christophe Leterrier

Reviewed by preLights

Brain state and cortical layer-specific mechanisms underlying perception at threshold

1. Mitchell P Morton
2. Sachira Denagamage
3. Isabel J Blume
4. John H Reynolds
5. Monika P Jadi
6. Anirvan S Nandy

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study by Nandy and colleagues examined relationships between behavioral state, neural activity in cortical area V4, and trial-by-trial variability in the ability to detect weak visual stimuli. They present solid evidence indicating that certain changes in arousal and eye-position stability, along with patterns of synchrony in the activity of neurons in different layers of V4, can show modest correspondences to changes in the ability to correctly detect a stimulus. These findings are likely to be of interest to those who seek a deeper understanding of circuit mechanisms that underlie perception.

Reviewed by eLife

Scale matters: Large language models with billions (rather than millions) of parameters better match neural representations of natural language

1. Zhuoqiao Hong
2. Haocheng Wang
3. Zaid Zada
4. Harshvardhan Gazula
5. David Turner
6. Bobbi Aubrey
7. Leonard Niekerken
8. Werner Doyle
9. Sasha Devore
10. Patricia Dugan
11. Daniel Friedman
12. Orrin Devinsky
13. Adeen Flinker
14. Uri Hasson
15. Samuel A Nastase
16. Ariel Goldstein

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study investigates how the size of an LLM may influence its ability to model the human neural response to language recorded by ECoG. Overall, solid evidence is provided that larger language models can better predict the human ECoG response. Further discussion would be beneficial as to how the results can inform us about the brain or LLMs, especially about the new message that can be learned from this ECoG study beyond previous fMRI studies on the same topic. This study will be of interest to both neuroscientists and psychologists who work on language comprehension and computer scientists working on LLMs.

Reviewed by eLife

Shortcutting from self-motion signals reveals a cognitive map in mice

1. Jiayun Xu
2. Mauricio Girardi-Schappo
3. Jean-Claude Beique
4. André Longtin
5. Leonard Maler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental work provides creative and thoughtful analysis of rodent foraging behavior and its dependence on body reference frame-based vs world reference frame-based cues. Compelling evidence demonstrates that a robust map, capable of supporting taking novel shortcuts, can be learned primarily if not exclusively based on self-motion cues, which has rarely if ever been reported outside of the human literature. The work, which will be of interest to a broad audience of neuroscientists, provides a rich discussion about the role of the hippocampus in supporting the behavior that should guide future neurophysiological investigations.

Reviewed by eLife

Whole-brain in situ mapping of neuronal activation in Drosophila during social behaviors and optogenetic stimulation

1. Kiichi Watanabe
2. Hui Chiu
3. David J Anderson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This work reports an important new method for activity-dependent neuronal labeling in Drosophila using in situ hybridization, with the potential to establish a new standard in the field. The authors demonstrate the method's applicability by generating compelling evidence of the function of male-specific neurons in both aggression and courtship behaviors. These results and the new method will be of great interest to the neuroscience community.

Reviewed by eLife

Reduced discrimination between signals of danger and safety but not overgeneralization is linked to exposure to childhood adversity in healthy adults

1. Maren Klingelhöfer-Jens
2. Katharina Hutterer
3. Miriam A Schiele
4. Elisabeth J Leehr
5. Dirk Schümann
6. Karoline Rosenkranz
7. Joscha Böhnlein
8. Jonathan Repple
9. Jürgen Deckert
10. Katharina Domschke
11. Udo Dannlowski
12. Ulrike Lueken
13. Andreas Reif
14. Marcel Romanos
15. Peter Zwanzger
16. Paul Pauli
17. Matthias Gamer
18. Tina B Lonsdorf

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study addresses two questions: (i) how danger signaling is altered for people with childhood adversities, and (ii) how this differs across different operationalizations of adversity. The latter is of particularly broad interest to multiple fields, given that childhood adversity is operationalized very differently across the literature. The study provides compelling evidence using a large sample size and rigorous statistical methods. These data will be of interest to scientists and clinicians interested in early life adversity, statistical approaches for quantifying stress exposure, or aversive learning.

Reviewed by eLife

A septo-hypothalamic-medullary circuit directs stress-induced analgesia

1. Devanshi Piyush Shah
2. Pallavi Raj Sharma
3. Rachit Agarwal
4. Arnab Barik

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work explores the modulation of pain by intense stress. The authors employed a series of cutting-edge techniques and provided convincing evidence suggesting that the dorsal lateral septum-> lateral hypothalamus-> rostral ventromedial medulla circuit is responsible for mediating stress-induced analgesia. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in the neural circuits of behavior, and scientists interested in stress or pain.

Reviewed by eLife

The ciliary kinesin KIF7 controls the development of the cerebral cortex by acting differentially on SHH-signaling in dorsal and ventral forebrain

1. María Pedraza
2. Valentina Grampa
3. Sophie Scotto-Lomassese
4. Julien Puech
5. Aude Muzerelle
6. Azka Mohammad
7. Sophie Lebon
8. Nicolas Renier
9. Christine Métin
10. Justine Masson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides convincing evidence that the Kinesin protein family member KIF7 regulates the development of the cerebral cortex and its connectivity and the specificity of Sonic Hedgehog signaling by controlling the details of Gli repressor vs activator functions. This study provides important new insights into general aspects of cortical development.

Reviewed by eLife

The neural dynamics of positive and negative expectations of pain

1. Christoph Arne Wittkamp
2. Maren-Isabel Wolf
3. Michael Rose

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Wittkamp et al. investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of expectation of pain using an original fMRI-EEG approach. The methods are solid and the evidence for a substantially different neural representation between the anticipatory and the actual pain period is convincing. These important findings are discussed within a general framework that encompasses their research questions, hypotheses, and analysis of results. Although the choice of conditions and their influence on the results might accept different interpretations, the manuscript is strong and contributes beneficial insights to the field.

Reviewed by eLife