Neuroscience

Levetiracetam prevents Aβ42 production through SV2a-dependent modulation of App processing in Alzheimer’s disease models

1. Nalini R. Rao
2. Olivia DeGulis
3. Toshihiro Nomura
4. SeungEun Lee
5. Timothy J. Hark
6. Justin C. Dynes
7. Emily X. Dexter
8. Maciej Dulewicz
9. Junyue Ge
10. Arun Upadhyay
11. Eugenio F. Fornasiero
12. Robert Vassar
13. Jörg Hanrieder
14. Anis Contractor
15. Jeffrey N. Savas

Reviewed by preLights

Gliogenesis from the subventricular zone modulates the extracellular matrix at the glial scar after brain ischemia

1. Maria Ardaya
2. Marie-Catherine Tiveron
3. Harold Cremer
4. Esther Rubio-López
5. Abraham Martín
6. Benjamin Dehay
7. Fernando Pérez-Cerdá
8. Carlos Matute
9. Federico N Soria
10. Fabio Cavaliere

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The authors show that a middle carotid artery occlusion (MCAO) hypoxia lesion leads to hyaluronan-mediated chemoattraction to the lesion penumbra of Thbs-4-expressing astrocytes of the sub-ventricular zone (SVZ). These findings are valuable because they shed light on the function of astrocytes from the adult SVZ in pathological states like brain ischemic injury. The results are convincing, as they rely on a comprehensive analysis of experimental data.

Reviewed by eLife

An Intranet of Things approach for adaptable control of behavioral and navigation-based experiments

1. John C Bowler
2. George Zakka
3. Hyun Choong Yong
4. Wenke Li
5. Bovey Rao
6. Zhenrui Liao
7. James B Priestley
8. Attila Losonczy

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Bowler et al. present a software/hardware system for behavioral control of navigation-based virtual reality experiments, particularly suited for pairing with 2-photon imaging but applicable to a variety of techniques. This system represents a valuable contribution to the field of behavioral and systems neuroscience, as it provides a standardized, easy to implement, and flexible system that could be adopted across multiple laboratories. The authors provide compelling evidence of the functionality of their system by reporting benchmark tests and demonstrating hippocampal activity patterns consistent with standards in the field. This work will be of interest to systems neuroscientists looking to integrate flexible head-fixed behavioral control with neural data acquisition.

Reviewed by eLife

Glia control experience-dependent plasticity in an olfactory critical period

1. Hans C Leier
2. Alexander J Foden
3. Darren A Jindal
4. Abigail J Wilkov
5. Paola Van der Linden Costello
6. Pamela J Vanderzalm
7. Jaeda Coutinho-Budd
8. Masashi Tabuchi
9. Heather T Broihier

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Periods in which experience regulates early plasticity in sensory circuits are well established, but the mechanisms that control these critical periods are poorly understood. In this important study, the authors examine early-life critical periods that regulate the Drosophila antennal lobe and show that constant odor exposure markedly reduces the volume, synapse number, and function of a specific glomerulus. The authors offer compelling evidence that these changes are mediated by the invasion of ensheathing glia into the glomerulus where they phagocytose connections via a mechanism involving the engulfment receptor Draper.

Reviewed by eLife

Auditory cortex anatomy reflects multilingual phonological experience

1. Olga Kepinska
2. Josue Dalboni da Rocha
3. Carola Tuerk
4. Alexis Hervais-Adelman
5. Florence Bouhali
6. David W Green
7. Cathy J Price
8. Narly Golestani

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This report details convincing evidence that experience with multilingualism in general, and with larger phonological inventories specifically, is related to differences in the structure of the transverse temporal gyri. The project is notable for using a relatively large sample, and confirming the primary finding in a second sample. The important findings strongly point to experience-dependent plasticity related to language experience as a driver of neuroanatomy of the auditory cortex.

Reviewed by eLife

Precision-based causal inference modulates audiovisual temporal recalibration

1. Luhe Li
2. Fangfang Hong
3. Stephanie Badde
4. Michael S Landy

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this valuable study, Li et al., set out to understand the mechanisms of audiovisual temporal recalibration - the brain's ability to adjust to the latency differences that emerge due to different (distance-dependent) transduction latencies of auditory and visual signals - through psychophysical measurements and modeling. The analysis and specification of a formal model for this process provide convincing evidence to supports a role for causal inference in recalibration.

Reviewed by eLife

An adaptable, reusable, and light implant for chronic Neuropixels probes

1. Célian Bimbard
2. Flóra Takács
3. Joana A Catarino
4. Julie MJ Fabre
5. Sukriti Gupta
6. Stephen C Lenzi
7. Maxwell D Melin
8. Nathanael O'Neill
9. Ivana Orsolic
10. Magdalena Robacha
11. James S Street
12. José M Gomes Teixeira
13. Simon Townsend
14. Enny H van Beest
15. Arthur M Zhang
16. Anne K Churchland
17. Chunyu A Duan
18. Kenneth D Harris
19. Dimitri Michael Kullmann
20. Gabriele Lignani
21. Zachary F Mainen
22. Troy W Margrie
23. Nathalie L Rochefort
24. Andrew Wikenheiser
25. Matteo Carandini
26. Philip Coen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study presents the design of a new device for using high-density electrophysiological probes ('Neuropixels') in freely moving rodents. The evidence demonstrating the system's versatility and ability to record high-quality extracellular data in both mice and rats is compelling. This study will be of significant interest to neuroscientists performing chronic electrophysiological recordings.

Reviewed by eLife

Early-life stress induces persistent astrocyte dysfunction associated with fear generalisation

1. Mathias Guayasamin
2. Lewis R Depaauw-Holt
3. Ifeoluwa I Adedipe
4. Ossama Ghenissa
5. Juliette Vaugeois
6. Manon Duquenne
7. Benjamin Rogers
8. Jade Latraverse-Arquilla
9. Sarah Peyrard
10. Anthony Bosson
11. Ciaran Murphy-Royal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important paper explores the impact of early life stress (ELS) on adult brain and behavior. The significance of the convincing findings are that they implicate regulation of non-neuronal cells in the development of brain and behavioral dysfunction associated with ELS. With an elegant combination of behavioral models, morphological and functional assessments using immunostaining, electrophysiology, and viral-mediated loss-of-function approaches, the authors report that astrocyte dysfunction plays a role in ELS responses. The work is of interest to a broad behavioral and cellular neuroscience audience.

Reviewed by eLife

Predicting individual traits from models of brain dynamics accurately and reliably using the Fisher kernel

1. Christine Ahrends
2. Mark W Woolrich
3. Diego Vidaurre

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study combines the use of Fisher Kernels with Hidden Markov models aiming to improve brain-behaviour prediction. The evidence supporting the authors' conclusions is compelling, comparing brain-behaviour prediction accuracies across a range of different traits, including out of sample assessment. This work is timely and will be of interest to neuroscientists working on functional connectivity for brain-behaviour association.

Reviewed by eLife

Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection

1. Ilya A Rybak
2. Natalia A Shevtsova
3. Johannie Audet
4. Sirine Yassine
5. Sergey N Markin
6. Boris I Prilutsky
7. Alain Frigon

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important modeling study alters a previous model of the intact cat spinal locomotor network to simulate a lateral hemi-section of the spinal cord. The modeling and experimental work described provide convincing evidence that this model is capable of qualitatively predicting alterations to the swing and stance phase durations during locomotion at different speeds on intact or split-belt treadmills. This paper will interest neuroscientists studying vertebrate motor systems, including researchers working on motor dysfunction after spinal cord injury.

Reviewed by eLife