Neuroscience

Induction of Human Pruriceptors from Pluripotent Stem Cells via Transcription Factors

1. Hisato Iriki
2. Ruiqi Hu
3. Xu Li
4. Erdene Baljinnyam
5. Carina Habich
6. Ichiro Imanishi
7. Loan Miller
8. Kavya Chegireddy
9. Laraib Iqbal Malik
10. Daniel Yassky
11. Aaron Ver Heul
12. Kathleen M. Smith
13. Eric R. Goedken
14. Peter Reinhardt
15. Brian S. Kim
16. Samuele G. Marro

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Cross-species comparative connectomics reveals the evolution of an olfactory circuit

1. Ruairí J.V. Roberts
2. Christoph Giez
3. Serene Dhawan
4. Song Pang
5. Nadine Randel
6. Zhiyuan Lu
7. Hui Gong
8. Léonard Dekens
9. James Di Frisco
10. C. Shan Xu
11. Harald F. Hess
12. Marta Zlatic
13. Albert Cardona
14. Lucia L. Prieto-Godino

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

When do measured representational distances reflect the neural representational geometry?

1. Veronica Bossio Botero
2. Nikolaus Kriegeskorte

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript makes important contributions to the methodology commonly used to assess representational structures in human and animal brain activity recorded using various techniques (especially fMRI). The evidence in the form of mathematical analysis and simulations is solid. The impact of this contribution could be improved by extending the simulations to assess the effects of violations of explicit and implicit assumptions.

Reviewed by eLife

Perinatal environmental enrichment affects murine neonates’ brain structure before their active engagement with environment

1. Malte S Kaller
2. Clémence Ligneul
3. Rylan Allemang-Grand
4. Tie Yuan Zhang
5. Jacob Ellegood
6. Michael Meaney
7. Jason P Lerch

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is an important study that combines replications of findings and novel detailed MRI investigations to assess the impact of environmental enrichment and maternal behavior on mice brain structure at different stages of development. The results and evidence supporting the conclusions are convincing, but in detail, the interpretation is challenging, in particular due to inter-individual and inter-litter variability. The extent to which maternal care mediates the impact of enrichment on brain development during the perinatal period also remains unclear because behavior was observed only during short periods, and the performed analyses are still incomplete. This study will nevertheless be of significant interest to neuroscientists and researchers interested in neurodevelopment in relation to environmental factors because of its in-depth use of MRI to study brain plasticity in mice.

Reviewed by eLife