Neuroscience

Distinct involvements of the subthalamic nucleus subpopulations in reward-biased decision-making in monkeys

1. Kathryn Branam
2. Joshua I Gold
3. Long Ding

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents valuable analyses of single neuron activity in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of monkeys performing a decision-making task that manipulates both perceptual evidence and reward. In particular, the study shows convincing evidence of multiple decision variables being represented in the STN. However, the evidence for sub-populations in STN with distinct involvements in decision-making is incomplete at this stage and requires either further efforts to provide stronger support or refinement of that conclusion.

Reviewed by eLife

Progressive overfilling of readily releasable pool underlies short-term facilitation at recurrent excitatory synapses in layer 2/3 of the rat prefrontal cortex

1. Jiwoo Shin
2. Seung Yeon Lee
3. Yujin Kim
4. Suk-Ho Lee

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable work explores how synaptic activity encodes information during memory tasks. All reviewers agree that the work is of very high quality and that the methodological approach is praiseworthy. The experimental data support the possibility that phospholipase diacylglycerol signaling and synaptotagmin 7 (Syt7) dynamically regulate the vesicle pool required for presynaptic release. Overall, this is a convincing study.

Reviewed by eLife

Backward conditioning reveals flexibility in infralimbic cortex inhibitory memories

1. Nura W Lingawi
2. Billy Chieng
3. R Fred Westbrook
4. Nathan Holmes
5. Mark E Bouton
6. Vincent Laurent

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This set of experiments provides important knowledge for how the infralimbic cortex is recruited to inhibit behavior after extinction training. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing with multiple sophisticated behavioral designs providing converging lines of evidence, though reviewers note possible alternative interpretations and limitations of small group sizes in some cases. This work will be of interest to those interested in cortical function, learning and memory, aversive behavior, and/or related psychiatric factors.

Reviewed by eLife

Linking spinal circuit reorganization to recovery after thoracic spinal cord injury

1. Natalia A Shevtsova
2. Andrew B Lockhart
3. Ilya A Rybak
4. David SK Magnuson
5. Simon M Danner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study describes a computational model of the rat spinal locomotor circuits and how they could be plastically reconfigured after lateral hemisection or contusion injuries to replicate gaits observed experimentally in vivo. Overall, the simulation results convincingly mirror the gait parameters observed experimentally. The model suggests the emergence of detour circuits after lateral hemisection, whereas after a midline contusion, the model suggests plasticity of left-right and sensory inputs below the injury.

Reviewed by eLife

Power Pixels: a turnkey pipeline for processing of Neuropixel recordings

1. Guido T. Meijer
2. Francesco P. Battaglia

Reviewed by Peer Community in Neuroscience

Alcohol Attenuates CRF-Induced Excitatory Effects from the Extended Amygdala to Dorsostriatal Cholinergic Interneurons

1. Amanda Essoh
2. Xueyi Xie
3. Himanshu Gangal
4. Zhenbo Huang
5. Ruifeng Chen
6. Ziyi Li
7. Xuehua Wang
8. Valerie Vierkant
9. Miguel Garza
10. Lierni Ugartemendia
11. Maria E Secci
12. Nicholas W Gilpin
13. Nicholas J Justice
14. Robert O Messing
15. Jun Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work shows that corticotrophin-releasing factor is delivered monosynaptically to dorsal striatal cholinergic interneurons from the central amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. CRF increases cholinergic interneuron firing and release of acetylcholine, and this action is attenuated by pre-exposure to ethanol, suggesting a potential role in stress- and alcohol use disorders. This revision addressed prior concerns, presented convincing evidence supporting the conclusions, and set the stage for additional studies.

Reviewed by eLife

The influence of sample size and covariate distributions on neuroanatomical normative modeling

1. Camille Elleaume
2. Bruno Hebling Vieira
3. Dorothea L Floris
4. Nicolas Langer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important manuscript evaluates how sample size and demographic balance of reference cohorts affect the reliability of normative models. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing. This work will be of interest to clinicians and scientists working with normative models.

Reviewed by eLife

Spatially periodic computation in the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit during navigation

1. Bo Zhang
2. Xin Guan
3. Dean Mobbs
4. Jia Liu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study offers important insights into how entorhinal and hippocampal activity support human thinking in feature spaces. It replicates hexagonal symmetry in entorhinal cortex, reports a novel three-fold symmetry in both behavior and hippocampal signals, and links these findings with a computational model. The task and analyses are sophisticated, and the results appear convincing and of broad interest to neuroscientists.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamics of mesoscale brain network during visual discrimination learning revealed by chronic, large-scale single-unit recording

1. Tian-Yi Wang
2. Chengcong Feng
3. Chengyao Wang
4. Chi Ren
5. Zhengtuo Zhao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents experiments suggesting intriguing mesoscale reorganization of functional connectivity across distributed cortical and subcortical circuits during learning. The approach is technically impressive and the results are potentially of valuable significance. The authors have also made clear effort to address concerns in revision. However, the strength of evidence remains incomplete. Acquisition of data from additional animals in the primary experiment could bolster these findings.

Reviewed by eLife

Synaptic Encoding of Time in Working Memory

1. Gianluigi Mongillo
2. Misha Tsodyks

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This paper develops a fundamental theory that explains how the brain can hold in working memory not only the identity but also the order of presented stimuli. Previous theories did not explain the ability of people to immediately recall the correct order of the stimulus presentation. The authors present compelling evidence that this can be achieved through synaptic augmentation, an experimentally observed phenomenon with a time scale of tens of seconds.

Reviewed by eLife