eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Characterising semantic prioritisation in visual working memory

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Casper Kerrén
   2. Carlos González-García
   3. Juan Linde-Domingo

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study addresses a timely question about semantic prioritisation in visual working memory, using behavioural manipulations and drift-diffusion modelling. However, the strength of evidence is incomplete for the broader claims about working-memory representations because the main interpretation relies on indirect inferences from non-decision time, which cannot uniquely identify memory access or retrieval.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Molecular basis of mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK2 activation by its upstream kinase MEK1

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Jill von Velsen
   2. Pauline Juyoux
   3. Nicola Piasentin
   4. Hayden Fisher
   5. Karine Lapouge
   6. Oscar Vadas
   7. Francesco Luigi Gervasio
   8. Matthew W. Bowler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The manuscript by von Velsen et al. offers valuable structural insights into the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway by providing cryo-EM structures of stabilized MEK1-ERK2 kinase-substrate complexes in inactive, active, and nucleotide-free states, complemented by HDX-MS, SAXS, ITC, crystallography, and molecular dynamics. The work provides solid evidence for the overall architecture of the complex and identifies interaction sites that help explain MAPK pathway specificity. However, some mechanistic conclusions are not yet fully supported, particularly the designation of one state as an active phosphoryl-transfer configuration, the claim that substrate binding releases the MEK1 catalytic machinery, the proposed link to processive phosphorylation, and the extrapolation to disease-associated mutations.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Accumulation of neural state transitions in dorsomedial striatum predicts patch foraging decisions

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Elissa Sutlief
   2. Shichen Zhang
   3. Kate Forsberg
   4. Marshall G Hussain Shuler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors use a novel patch-leaving task to reveal a reward-reset strategy when mice choose to leave a depleting resource, and find that accumulated step-like activity in the dorsomedial striatum is correlated with the timing of these decisions. These important behavioral and neural findings are supported by substantial and convincing data. Additional control analyses would strengthen the evidence that these signals are specifically related to timing and patch-leaving decisions, rather than alternative task-related processes.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.64898/2026.05.26.727818

5. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.64898/2026.05.20.726505

6. Virtual reality reveals fine-scale alterations in behaviour following loss of the ADHD-linked gene adgrl3.1 in zebrafish

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Phoebe Reynolds
   2. Emily Read
   3. Caitlin Daly-East
   4. Matthew O Parker
   5. Robert Hindges

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study presents valuable findings on early behavioral phenotypes that arise in an ADHD-associated adgrl3.1 mutant zebrafish, using a new behavioral approach with a closed-loop OMR assay. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid; however, the validation of the method and analysis is incomplete and would benefit from more rigorous approaches and validation practices. This work will be of broad interest to developmental biologists and behavioral neuroscientists.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.64898/2026.05.25.727443

8. Flexible brain state engagement predicts cognitive control transdiagnostically

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Jean Ye
   2. Saloni Mehta
   3. Milana Khaitova
   4. Jagriti Arora
   5. Fuyuze Tokoglu
   6. C Alice Hahn
   7. Cheryl Lacadie
   8. Abigail S Greene
   9. Marisa N Spann
   10. Gerard Sanacora
   11. Scott W Woods
   12. Vinod H Srihari
   13. R Todd Constable
   14. Dustin Scheinost

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable paper reports on a measure of flexible brain state engagement, derived from fMRI, as a predictor of cognitive control. One strength of the study is the use of external datasets for validation and replication. The results are solid, although some may benefit from further explanation.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Rapid cortical reorganization tracks goal-directed sensorimotor learning in real time

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Anthony Renard
   2. Georgios Foustoukos
   3. Maya Iuga
   4. Pol Bech
   5. Axel Bisi
   6. Robin F Dard
   7. Sylvain Crochet
   8. Carl CH Petersen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study aimed to explore whether sensory representations in the cortex reorganize on the same timescale over which behavioral changes first emerge. Convincing evidence is presented to show that reward-dependent plasticity takes place in the mouse barrel cortex within a single recording session as mice learn a whisker detection task. However, the evidence supporting the authors' proposal that this rapid reorganization may involve spontaneous reactivation of neurons that gain stimulus responsiveness during training is incomplete. The work will be of interest to systems neuroscientists studying cortical circuits and learning.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Split-trial analysis reveals the information capacity of neural population codes

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Dylan Le
    2. Xue-Xin Wei

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable study describes a simple and robust approach for estimating information-limiting noise by splitting neural populations and comparing estimator values. The authors report more accurate and robust results compared to previous methods. The evidence for the robustness of the method is currently incomplete; some concerns regarding bias need to be resolved, and additional tests need to be provided on how the number of trials and neurons affect performance.

    Reviewed by eLife