eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Symmetric brain-liver circuits mediate lateralized regulation of hepatic glucose output

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Zhonglong Wang
   2. Xiangfei Gong
   3. Li Jiang
   4. Ke Wang
   5. Xinyuan Sun
   6. Yingxi Li
   7. Mengtong Ran
   8. Yanshen Chen
   9. Hongdong Wang
   10. Xuehui Chu
   11. Shun Wang
   12. Junjie Wang
   13. Xiao Zheng
   14. Haiping Hao
   15. Hao Xie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript proposes a lateralized, lobe-specific brain-liver sympathetic neurocircuit regulating hepatic glucose metabolism and presents anatomical evidence for sympathetic crossover at the porta hepatis using viral tracing and neuromodulation approaches. While the topic is of important significance and the methodologies are, in principle, state-of-the-art, significant concerns regarding experimental design, incomplete methodological reporting, sparse and ambiguous labeling, and overi-nterpretation of the data substantially weaken support for the study's central conclusions, thereby limiting the study's completeness. The work will be of interest to biologists, clinicians, and physiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Conformational Variability of HIV-1 Env Trimer and Viral Vulnerability

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Yiwei Cao
   2. Wonpil Im

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this useful study, the authors conducted an impressive amount of atomistic simulations with a realistic asymmetric lipid bilayer to probe how the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) transmembrane domain, cytoplasmic tail, and membrane environment influence ectodomain orientation and antibody epitope exposure. The simulations convincingly show that ectodomain motion is dominated by tilting relative to the membrane and explicitly demonstrate the role of membrane asymmetry in modulating the protein conformation and orientation. However, due to the qualitative nature of the conducted analyses, the evidence for the coupling between membrane-proximal regions and the antigenic surface is considered incomplete. With stronger integration of prior experimental and computational literature, this work has the potential to serve as a valuable reference for how Env behaves in a realistic, glycosylated, membrane-embedded context.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Impaired Adaptive Learning in Chronic Pain Contributes to Apathy

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Xinyuan Yan
   2. Crina M. Peterson
   3. Lisa M. Schmidt
   4. Seth Koenig
   5. Donald R. Nixdorf
   6. Alexander Herman
   7. David P. Darrow

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a useful application of computational modelling to examine how people with chronic pain learn under uncertainty, contributing to efforts to link pain with motivational processes. However, the evidence supporting the main claims is incomplete, as the modelling differences are not reflected in observable behaviour or pain measures, and the interpretation extends beyond what the data can substantiate. The conclusions would benefit from a more convincing explanation of what the behavioural difference is that drives the computational findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Pathogen-Phage Geomapping to Overcome Resistance

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Camilla Do
   2. Keiko C. Salazar
   3. Justin R. Clark
   4. Austen L. Terwilliger
   5. Paul Ruchhoeft
   6. Paul Nicholls
   7. Anthony W. Maresso

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study establishes a workflow based on environmental sampling for the discovery of bacteriophages capable of infecting antibiotic-resistant pathogens. The experimental design, analysis, and results demonstrating the effectiveness of the workflow are convincing, although a broader sampling scheme and more careful framing of the data within the current limitations of viral taxonomy could strengthen the work. This study will interest researchers working on bacterial infections, environmental microbiology, and phage-based alternatives for addressing antimicrobial resistance.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Dissociable neural substrates of integration and segregation in exogenous attention

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yu-Jie Chen
   2. Ai-Su Li
   3. Yang Yu
   4. Su Hu
   5. Xun He
   6. Yang Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides the first direct neuroimaging evidence for the integration-segregation theory of exogenous attention underlying inhibition of return, using an optimized IOR-Stroop fMRI paradigm to dissociate integration and segregation processes and to demonstrate that attentional orienting modulates semantic- and response-level conflict processing. Although the empirical evidence is compelling, clearer justification of the experimental logic, more cautious framing of behavioral and regional interpretations, and greater transparency in reporting and presentation are needed to strengthen the conclusions. The work will be of broad interest to researchers investigating visual attention, perception, cognitive control, and conflict processing.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Comparative developmental transcriptomics of Drosophila mushroom body neurons highlights the mevalonate pathway as a regulator of axon growth

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Lora Fahdan
   2. Hagar Meltzer
   3. Noa Wigoda
   4. Ron Rotkopf
   5. Oren Schuldiner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work contributes a transcriptional dataset that identifies potential genes involved in axon initial growth and axon regrowth, followed by a characterization of axon phenotypes after knockdown of a subset of these genes. Focused experiments on a single gene, Pmvk, highlight the potential role of the mevalonate pathway in axon regrowth. The methods are convincing, though partially incomplete. The data establish a basis for further studies on axonal development and will be of interest to both developmental neurobiologists and those seeking to develop molecular tools to target, monitor, and manipulate axon morphology and function.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Prior cocaine use disrupts identification of hidden states by single units and neural ensembles in orbitofrontal cortex

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Wenhui Zong
   2. Lauren E. Mueller
   3. Zhewei Zhang
   4. Jingfeng Zhou
   5. Geoffrey Schoenbaum

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work shows that a history of cocaine self-administration disrupts the orbitofrontal cortex's ability to encode similarities between distinct sensory stimuli that possess identical task information - hidden states. The evidence supporting these conclusions is compelling, with methods and analyses spanning self-administration, a novel 'figure 8' sequential odor task, recordings from 3,881 single units, and sophisticated firing analyses revealing complex orbitofrontal representations of task structure. These results will be of broad interest to psychologists, neuroscientists, and clinicians.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Neural Traces of Forgotten Memories Persist in Humans and are Behaviorally Relevant

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Tom Willems
   2. Konstantinos Zervas
   3. Luzius Brogli
   4. Finn Rabe
   5. Andrea Federspiel
   6. Katharina Henke

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a potentially important paper attempting to identify neutral correlates of memory engram expression in humans, and how they change during forgetting. The questions posed are clear and novel. The methods employed, namely behavioral analysis, high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging, and representational similarity analysis, are advanced, integrative, and appropriate. The experiments are well designed and combine analysis of recollection and familiarity of object/face associations. However, substantial questions remain as to the validity of the incomplete statistical analyses applied to the imaging data, as well as the parsing of and interpretation of the behavioral data.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Synaptic Theory of Chunking in Working Memory

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Weishun Zhong
   2. Mikhail Katkov
   3. Misha Tsodyks

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study links psychological theories of chunking with a physiological implementation based on short-term synaptic plasticity and synaptic augmentation. The theoretical derivation for increased memory capacity via hierarchical chunking is solid. However, the model robustness and biological grounding of the mechanism - including many aspects that were hard-wired, chunking cues, and parameter ranges - as well as its evaluation in the task settings that motivated the study, are incomplete. Additional simulations to test robustness in more cognitively and biologically realistic settings, a systematic parameter analysis, and stronger links to prior work would substantially strengthen the manuscript and increase its impact across disciplines.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Interplay Between Pulmonary Membrane Properties and Lung Disease: A Study of Seven Bottlenose Dolphins

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. Marilyn Porras-Gómez
    2. Bengu Sueda Sengul
    3. Nurila Kambar
    4. Sari Gluck
    5. Kristen Flatt
    6. Celeste Parry
    7. Carolina Ruiz Le-Bert
    8. Diego Hernández-Saavedra
    9. Cecília Leal

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The study presents data on the possible connection of respiratory pathologies like pneumonia in a cohort of dolphins with altered composition and concomitant perturbed biophysical properties of pulmonary surfactant complexes. Overall, it is a valuable contribution that could be of interest to scientists in the field. However, the study as it is appears somewhat incomplete and additional clarification and discussions are required in order to explain a few methodological questions that may limit the impact of the work considerably.

    Reviewed by eLife