Neuroscience

eLife Assessment

This valuable study characterizes the emergence of the membrane-associated periodic cytoskeleton (MPS) in the axons of human motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. Super-resolution imaging of beta-II spectrin provides convincing evidence for the patterned assembly of spectrin-poor gaps and spectrin-rich MPS in the medial region of the axons and its enhancement by the kinase inhibitor staurosporine. The data advocates against gap formation by axonal degeneration or cytoskeleton disassembly in a continuous MPS. Instead, a continuous MPS may result from nascent MPS patches and their maturation, a model that would benefit from live imaging for validation.

eLife Assessment

The authors have presented a study which addresses a recognised gap in the literature, the emergence of the neural correlates of cognitive and affective empathy in children; they introduce a task for measuring both positive and negative empathy in a relatively large group of children aged 3-5. The task was combined with functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine brain regions involved in the task. The findings are interpreted as providing evidence for the earlier emergence of cognitive than affective empathy. The study represents a valuable contribution to understanding the development of cognitive function, but in its current form, the strength of support for the conclusion is incomplete due to limited support for the comparison to the adult literature and a need to more clearly justify the pre-selected brain regions, their links to empathy and the justification of the hypotheses.

eLife Assessment

This manuscript represents a valuable contribution to understanding motion processing in the visual cortex. Based on a heterogeneous collection of previous empirical findings, the authors show that the diversity of tuning curves in the middle temporal (MT) area, in response to moving center-surround images, can be explained by Bayesian inference combined with neural sampling. The model rests on strong and solid assumptions about the prior and likelihood; independent evidence that neither of these factors is misspecified would strengthen the work.

eLife Assessment

The authors combine a modeling approach, using a digital twin, with electrophysiological evidence in two species to assess the role of inhibition in shaping selectivity in the visual cortex. The results provide a fundamental advance beyond the classic view of sensory coding by proving compelling evidence that many neurons in visual areas exhibit dual-feature selectivity. Overall, the work compellingly showcases how in silico experiments can generate concrete hypotheses about neuronal coding that are difficult to discover experimentally.