Neuroscience

A geometric shape regularity effect in the human brain

1. Mathias Sablé-Meyer
2. Lucas Benjamin
3. Cassandra Potier Watkins
4. Chenxi He
5. Maxence Pajot
6. Théo Morfoisse
7. Fosca Al Roumi
8. Stanislas Dehaene

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important series of studies provides converging results from complementary neuroimaging and behavioral experiments to identify human brain regions involved in representing regular geometric shapes and their core features. Geometric shape concepts are present across diverse human cultures and possibly involved in human capabilities such as numerical cognition and mathematical reasoning. Identifying the brain networks involved in geometric shape representation is of broad interest to researchers studying human visual perception, reasoning, and cognition. The evidence supporting the presence of representation of geometric shape regularity in dorsal parietal and prefrontal cortex is solid, but does not directly demonstrate that these circuits overlap with those involved in mathematical reasoning. Furthermore, the links to defining features of geometric objects and with mathematical and symbolic reasoning would benefit from stronger evidence from more fine-tuned experimental tasks varying the stimuli and experience.

Reviewed by eLife

Increased layer 5 Martinotti cell excitation reduces pyramidal cell population plasticity and improves learned motor execution

1. Thawann Malfatti
2. Anna Velica
3. Jéssica Winne
4. Barbara Ciralli
5. Katharina Henriksson
6. George Nascimento
7. Richardson Leao
8. Klas Kullander

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study addresses a critical and timely question regarding the role of a subpopulation of cortical interneurons (Chrna2-expressing Martinotti cells) in motor learning and cortical dynamics. However, while some of the behavior and imaging data are impressive, the small sample sizes and incomplete behavioral and activity analyses make interpretation difficult; therefore, they are insufficient to support the central conclusions. The study may be of interest to neuroscientists studying cortical neural circuits, motor learning, and motor control.

Reviewed by eLife

Sensitivity of the human temporal voice areas to nonhuman primate vocalizations

1. Leonardo Ceravolo
2. Coralie Debracque
3. Thibaud Gruber
4. Didier Grandjean

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study shows that regions of the human auditory cortex that respond strongly to voices are also sensitive to vocalizations from closely related primate species. The study is methodologically solid, though additional analyses - particularly those isolating the acoustic features that differentiate chimpanzee from bonobo calls - would further strengthen the conclusions. With additional analyses and discussions, the work has the potential to offer key insights into the evolutionary continuity of voice processing and would be of interest to researchers studying auditory processing and evolutionary neuroscience in general.

Reviewed by eLife

Comprehensive characterization of human color discrimination thresholds

1. Fangfang Hong
2. Ruby Bouhassira
3. Jason Chow
4. Craig Sanders
5. Michael Shvartsman
6. Phillip Guan
7. Alex H Williams
8. David H Brainard

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study describes a novel Bayesian psychophysical approach that efficiently measures how well humans can discriminate between colors across the entire isoluminant plane. The evidence was considered compelling, as it included successful model validation against hold-out data and published datasets. This approach could prove to be of use to color vision scientists, as well as to those who use computational psychophysics and attempt to model perceptual stimulus fields with smooth variations over coordinate spaces.

Reviewed by eLife

Visuomotor mismatch EEG responses in occipital cortex of freely moving human subjects

1. Magdalena Solyga
2. Marek Zelechowski
3. Georg B Keller

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study demonstrates that self-motion strongly affects neural responses to visual stimuli, comparing humans moving through a virtual environment to passive viewing. However, evidence that the modulation is due to prediction is incomplete as it stands, since participants may come to expect visual freezes over the course of the experiment. This study bridges human and rodent studies on the role of prediction in sensory processing, and is therefore expected to be of interest to a large community of neuroscientists.

Reviewed by eLife

Alpha rhythm subharmonics underlie responsiveness to theta burst stimulation via calcium metaplasticity

1. Kevin Kadak
2. Davide Momi
3. Zheng Wang
4. Sorenza P Bastiaens
5. Mohammad P Oveisi
6. Taha Morshedzadeh
7. Minarose Ismail
8. Jan Fousek
9. John D Griffiths

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study provides a well-constructed computational investigation of how intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) influences synaptic plasticity within the corticothalamic circuit, improving our mechanistic understanding of how stimulation parameters interact with intrinsic brain oscillations. The authors build a corticothalamic population model that generates individual alpha rhythms with a calcium-dependent metaplasticity rule, and provide solid evidence that aligning stimulation frequencies to brain-intrinsic oscillatory subharmonics enhances plasticity effects. This insight could open a route toward personalized, more effective stimulation protocols.

Reviewed by eLife

Morphogenesis and morphometry of brain folding patterns across species

1. Sifan Yin
2. Chunzi Liu
3. Gary PT Choi
4. Yeonsu Jung
5. Katja Heuer
6. Roberto Toro
7. L Mahadevan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study presents a cross-species and cross-disciplinary analysis of cortical folding. The authors use a combination of physical gel models, computational simulations, and morphometric analysis, extending prior work in human brain development to macaques and ferrets. The findings support the hypothesis that mechanical forces driven by differential growth can account for major aspects of gyrification. The evidence presented is overall strong and convincingly supports the central claims; the findings will be of broad interest in developmental neuroscience.

Reviewed by eLife

Canonical neurodevelopmental trajectories of structural and functional manifolds

1. Alicja Monaghan
2. Richard. AI Bethlehem
3. Danyal Akarca
4. Daniel Margulies
5. the CALM Team
6. Duncan E Astle

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides insights into the neurodevelopmental trajectories of structural and functional connectivity gradients in the human brain and their potential associations with behaviour and psychopathology. The evidence supporting the findings is solid. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists interested in understanding functional connectivity across development.

Reviewed by eLife

Developmental prosopagnosics have normal spatial integration in posterior ventral face-selective regions

1. Daniel A Stehr
2. Yiyuan Zhang
3. Anusha Patgiri
4. Alexis Kidder
5. Kendrick Kay
6. Bradley Duchaine

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This functional MRI study critically tests the hypothesis that poor face recognition in developmental prosopagnosia in humans is driven by reduced spatial integration and smaller receptive fields in face-selective brain regions. The evidence provided is compelling as it is well-powered, uses state-of-the-art functional brain imaging, eye tracking, and computational analyses. The observed lack of difference in population receptive field sizes between face-selective brain regions of individuals with and without prosopagnosia, though a null result, has important implications for the field, and specifically, for theories of face recognition.

Reviewed by eLife

Maturation of the glymphatic system confers innate resistance of the brain to Zika virus infection

1. Jhulimar Guilherme Doerl
2. Emanuelly Karine Campos Chaves
3. Vivian Antonielly Becker dos Santos
4. Bruna Lorena de Melo Marcelino
5. Diego Marques Coelho
6. Leo Morita Miyakoshi
7. Josélio Maria Galvão de Araújo
8. Selma Maria Bezerra Jerônimo
9. Eduardo Bouth Sequerra

Reviewed by preLights