eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Age and learning shapes sound representations in auditory cortex during adolescence

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Benedikt Praegel
   2. Feng Chen
   3. Adria Dym
   4. Amichai Lavi-Rudel
   5. Shaul Druckmann
   6. Adi Mizrahi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study suggests that adolescent mice exhibit less accuracy than adult mice in a sound discrimination task when the sound frequencies are very similar. The evidence supporting this observation is solid and suggests that it arises from cognitive control differences between adolescent and adult mice. The adolescent period is largely understudied, despite its contribution to shaping the adult brain, which makes this study interesting for a broad range of neuroscientists.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Anterior cingulate cortex in complex associative learning: monitoring action state and action content

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Wenqiang Huang
   2. Arron F Hall
   3. Natalia Kawalec
   4. Ashley N Opalka
   5. Jun Liu
   6. Dong V Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Huang and colleagues examined neural responses in mouse anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during a discrimination-avoidance task. The authors present valuable findings that ACC neurons encode primarily "action content" over extended periods. The methodological approach is sound and the evidence in support of action state encoding is solid, though it is not conclusive to what extent ACC primarily encodes post-action events.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Misclassification in memory modification in AppNL-G-F knock-in mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Mei-Lun Huang
   2. Yusuke Suzuki
   3. Hiroki Sasaguri
   4. Takashi Saito
   5. Takaomi C Saido
   6. Itaru Imayoshi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study employs a formalized computational model of learning to assess memory deficits in Alzheimer's Disease with the goal of developing an early diagnosis tool. Using an established mouse model of the disease, the authors studied multiple behavioral tasks and ages with the goal of showing similarities in behavioral deficits across tasks. Using the model, the authors indicate specific deficits in memory (overgeneralization and over differentiation) in mice with the transgene for the disease. The evidence presented is solid, yet certain concerns remain regarding the interpretation of the results of the modeling.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. In vivo autofluorescence lifetime imaging of spatial metabolic heterogeneities and learning-induced changes in the Drosophila mushroom body

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Philémon Roussel
   2. Mingyi Zhou
   3. Chiara Stringari
   4. Thomas Preat
   5. Pierre-Yves Plaçais
   6. Auguste Genovesio

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study uses NAD(P)H fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to map metabolic states in the Drosophila brain. The authors reveal subtype-specific metabolic profiles in Kenyon cells and report learning-related changes, supported by solid evidence and careful methodology. However, the FLIM shifts observed after memory formation in α/β neurons are small and only weakly significant, so the ability of FLIM to detect subtle physiological changes still requires further validation. Nevertheless, this work provides a strong starting point and demonstrates the promising potential of FLIM for probing neural metabolism in vivo.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Complex opioid-driven modulation of glutamatergic and cholinergic neurotransmission in a GABAergic brain nucleus associated with emotion, reward, and addiction

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Ramesh Chittajallu
   2. Anna Vlachos
   3. Adam P Caccavano
   4. Xiaoqing Yuan
   5. Steven Hunt
   6. Daniel Abebe
   7. Edra London
   8. Kenneth A Pelkey
   9. Chris J McBain

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents important information about the role of mu opioid receptors in neurotransmission between the medial habenula and the interpeduncular nucleus. The authors provide convincing evidence that mu opioid receptor activation has differential effects on transmission from substance P neurons and cholinergic neurons, and that blockade of potassium channels can unmask a nicotinic cholinergic synaptic response. This work will be of high interest to those studying this brain region, and potentially to the larger neuroscience community studying motivated behavior.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Phase-specific premotor inhibition modulates leech rhythmic motor output

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Martina Radice
   2. Agustin Sanchez Merlinsky
   3. Federico Yulita
   4. Lidia Szczupak

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The medicinal leech preparation is an amenable system in which to understand the neural basis of locomotion. Here a previously identified non-spiking neuron was studied in leech and found to alter the mean firing frequency of a crawl-related motoneuron, which fires during the contraction phase of crawling. The findings are valuable and the experiments were diligently done and considered solid. The results lay a foundation for additional studies in this system.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. β-glucan reprograms macrophages to attenuate efferocytosis of cancer cells

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Alexandros Chatzis
   2. Jakub Lukaszonek
   3. Dimitris Lagos
   4. Dave Boucher
   5. Ioannis Kourtzelis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study describes the effect of beta-glucan innate training of macrophages and its effect on uptake of tumour cells and on the production of inflammatory cytokines. The data are convincing and show decreased phagocytic activity of apoptotic tumour cells accompanied by lower levels of secreted IL-1β, and in vivo findings are also provided in the revision. This finding has potential impact on designing potential macrophage-targeted cancer immuno-therapeutic approaches.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Mapping Visual Contrast Sensitivity and Vision Loss Across the Visual Field with Model-Based fMRI

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Hugo T Chow-Wing-Bom
   2. Matteo Lisi
   3. Noah C Benson
   4. Freya Lygo-Frett
   5. Patrick Yu-Wai-Man
   6. Frederic Dick
   7. Roni O Maimon-Mor
   8. Tessa M Dekker

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Using fMRI-based pRF mapping, this important study presents a novel method for estimating visual field (VF) loss and potential restoration by analyzing contrast-sensitivity patterns in early visual cortex. The evidence supporting the main claims is convincing. This work will be of broad interest to researchers in vision and clinical vision, neuroscience, and brain imaging.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Uncovering the electrical synapse proteome in retinal neurons via in vivo proximity labeling

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Stephan Tetenborg
   2. Eyad Shihabeddin
   3. Elizebeth Olive Akansha Manoj Kumar
   4. Crystal L Sigulinsky
   5. Karin Dedek
   6. Ya-Ping Lin
   7. Fabio A Echeverry
   8. Hannah Hoff
   9. Alberto E Pereda
   10. Bryan W Jones
   11. Christophe P Ribelayga
   12. Klaus Ebnet
   13. Ken Matsuura
   14. John O'Brien

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study aims to identify the proteins that make up the electrical synapse, which are much less understood than those of the chemical synapse. These findings represent an important step toward understanding the molecular function of chemical synapses and will have broad utility for the wider neuroscience field. The experimental evidence is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Olfactory combinatorial coding supports risk-reward decision making in C. elegans

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Md Zubayer Hossain Saad
    2. William G Ryan
    3. Chelyan A Edwards
    4. Benjamin N Szymanski
    5. Lana Awa
    6. Jenna Kaake
    7. Alexander Martin
    8. Aryan R Marri
    9. Lilian G Jerow
    10. Robert McCullumsmith
    11. Bruce A Bamber

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important study shows that an odorant that is typically thought of as a repellant actually activates both attractant and repellant olfactory neurons in C. elegans. Convincing evidence is provided that nematode worms can integrate signals in different sensory pathways to drive different behavioral responses to the same cue. These findings will be of interest to scientists interested in combinatorial coding in sensory systems.

    Reviewed by eLife