Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This valuable study investigated the appearance of ultrasonic vocalizations around 44 kHz that occurs in response to prolonged fear conditioning in male rats. Evidence in support of the conclusions is solid and may be of interest to some researchers also investigating distress-related ultrasonic vocalizations.

eLife Assessment

This is a valuable manuscript analyzing single-cell RNA-sequencing data from the mouse vomeronasal organ. Convincing evidence in this manuscript allows the authors to identify and verify the differential expression of genes that distinguish apical and basal vomeronasal neurons. The authors also show that Gnao1 neurons exhibit enriched expression of ER-related genes, which they verify with in situ hybridizations and immunostaining and also explore via electron microscopy.

eLife Assessment

This important work compares the strain properties of a-synuclein fibrils isolated from LBD and MSA patient samples with the resulting amplified fibrils following SAA. Using orthogonal biochemical and structural approaches to strengthen their analyses, the authors provide solid evidence that the SAA-amplified fibrils do not recapitulate the disease-relevant strains present in the patient samples. CryoEM would further strengthen this data but it is outside the scope of the work. This work should be considered in the widespread applications of SAA in synucleopathies and its potential limitations.

eLife Assessment

This work describes a highly complex automated algorithm for analyzing vascular imaging data from two-photon microscopy. This tool has the potential to be extremely valuable to the field and to fill gaps in knowledge of hemodynamic activity across a regional network. The biological application provided, however, has several problems that make many of the scientific claims in the paper incomplete.

eLife Assessment

This is a fundamental research study which identifies some of the molecular mechanisms underlying the energy costly process of memory consolidation. The strength of evidence is exceptional. The paper should be of broad interest because it establishes a clear mechanistic link between long-term memory processes and the energy-producing machinery in neurons.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript provides important new insight into the mechanisms underlying seasonal physiology, using medaka fish as a functional genetic model that naturally exhibits photoperiodic responses. The authors provide a range of data that implicate agrp1 in feeding regulation in response to photoperiod and reproductive status. This paper provides solid evidence connecting the effects of long and short photoperiods on the food intake of female medaka fish and egg production. It will be of relevance for biologists interested in understanding the molecular and cellular underpinnings of environmental effects on animal biology.

eLife Assessment

This study presents a valuable conceptual approach that cell lineage can be determined using methylation data. However, the evidence supporting the claims of the author is currently inadequate. If the author could carry out some additional experiments as well as explore alternative explanations for the current data, this approach could be of broad interest to neuroscientists and developmental biologists.

eLife Assessment

This paper undertakes a valuable theoretical treatment of the potential role of foraging-related concepts in several forms of intertemporal choice. While the computational evidence and methodologies employed are novel, some issues with clarity and generality result in incomplete support for the paper's claims.

eLife Assessment

This is a useful contribution to our understanding of taste perception. The idea that specific receptors function in the pharynx to mediate responses to carboxylic acids is interesting, although the expression analysis is incomplete. Reviewers also have a number of other suggestions for improvement, including the request that authors provide more details about the methodology used. In general, the claims are supported by solid evidence and add to a growing body of literature on this topic.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript reports on the effects of a single dose of methamphetamine vs placebo on a probabilistic reversal learning task with different levels of noise, in a large group of young healthy volunteers. The paper is well written and the methods are rigorous. The findings are valuable and have theoretical or practical implications for a subfield. The strength of the evidence is solid, with the methods, data, and analyses broadly supporting the claims with only minor weaknesses.