Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This study presents a valuable finding on the representational structure of task encoding in the prefrontal cortex. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, representing an impressive data collection effort and best-practice fMRI analyses. However, at least including visual regions as a control and controlling for behavioral differences in the task in representation analyses would have strengthened the study. The work will be of interest to cognitive neuroscientists interested in the neural basis of cognitive control.

eLife Assessment

The study introduces new tools for measuring the intracellular calcium concentration close to transmitter release sites, which may be relevant for synaptic vesicle fusion and replenishment. This approach yields important new information about the spatial and temporal profile of calcium concentrations near the site of entry at the plasma membrane. This experimental work is complemented by a coherent, open-source, computational model that successfully describes changes in calcium domains. The conclusions are solid and well supported by the data.

eLife Assessment

NeuroSC is an accessible and interactive tool for streamlined observation of neuronal morphology, membrane contact, and synaptic connectivity across developmental stages in the nematode C. elegans. This important tool relies on solid electron microscopy datasets. This resource will be of high interest to C. elegans researchers interested in nervous system wiring and circuit function.

eLife Assessment

In this valuable study, the authors developed long-term imaging tools to simultaneously monitor the temporal and spatial dynamics of excitatory and inhibitory synapses and reported that excitatory and inhibitory synapses need to develop synergistically during synaptogenesis to maintain balance. While the analysis and quantification of the imaging data are incomplete, there is convincing evidence that the developed tools are feasible. If these tools can function stably in vivo, their applications will be much broader.

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. However, in its current form, the strength of evidence is incomplete. More in-depth analyses and the acquisition of data from additional animals in the primary experiment could bolster these findings.

eLife Assessment

This paper presents valuable findings on the processing of sound mixtures in the auditory cortex of ferrets, a species widely used for studies of auditory processing. Using the convenient and relatively high-resolution method of functional ultrasound imaging, the authors provide convincing evidence that background noise invariance emerges across the auditory cortical processing hierarchy. They also draw informative comparisons with previously published fMRI data obtained in humans. This work will be of interest to researchers studying the auditory cortex and the neural mechanisms underlying auditory scene analysis and hearing in noise.

eLife Assessment

This important study shows that retinal bipolar cell subtype-specific differences in the size of synaptic ribbon-associated vesicle pools contribute to the transient versus sustained kinetics of the responses of retinal ganglion cells. The data are extensive and compelling. This work will be of broad interest to researchers working on synaptic transmission, retinal signal processing, and sensory neurobiology.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study characterises receptors for calcitonin-related peptides from a deuterostomian animal, the echinoderm Apostichopus japonicus, by a combination of heterologous expression, pharmacological experiments, and the quantification of gene-expression levels. The authors provide solid evidence for a functional calcitonin-related peptide system in the sea cucumber, but further work will be needed to confirm the proposed phylogenetic relationships and physiological functions of PDF receptor system in this species. This work should be of interest to scientists studying the signaling pathways, functions, and evolution of neuropeptides, and could be of relevance to improving the culture conditions of this economically key species.

eLife Assessment

This study is a valuable contribution to the field of neuronal modeling by way of providing a method for rapidly obtaining neuronal physiology parameters from electrophysiological recordings. The method is solid as the generated models reproduce both ground-truth simulated data and empirical data, and there is now a quantitative comparison with other approaches.

eLife Assessment

This important work sets out to identify the neural substrates of associative fear responses in adult zebrafish. Through a compelling and innovative paradigm and analysis, the authors suggest brain regions associated with individual differences in fear memory. While several findings are well supported, aspects of the interpretation and presentation are partially incomplete, and the manuscript would benefit from adjusting key claims or including additional experiments. Nonetheless, this study showcases the strength of zebrafish for systems-level neuroscience and will be of broad interest to the neuroscience community.