eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Barcode activity in a recurrent network model of the hippocampus enables efficient memory binding

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Ching Fang
   2. Jack W Lindsey
   3. Larry F Abbott
   4. Dmitriy Aronov
   5. Selmaan N Chettih

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental work substantially advances our understanding of episodic memory by proposing a biologically plausible mechanism through which hippocampal barcode activity enables efficient memory binding and flexible recall. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with rigorously validated computational models and alignment with experimental findings. The work will be of broad interest to neuroscientists and computational modelers studying memory and hippocampal function.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Control of innate olfactory valence by segregated cortical amygdala circuits

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. James R Howe
   2. Chung Lung Chan
   3. Donghyung Lee
   4. Marlon Blanquart
   5. James H Lee
   6. Laurine Decoster
   7. Haylie K Romero
   8. Abigail N Zadina
   9. Mackenzie E Lemieux
   10. Fergil Mills
   11. Paula A Desplats
   12. Kay M Tye
   13. Cory M Root

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental manuscript describes how the posterolateral cortical amygdala (plCoA) generates appetitive or aversive behaviors in response to odors. By combining optogenetic stimulation, single-cell RNA sequencing, and spatial analysis, the authors identify a topographically organized circuit within plCoA that governs these behaviors. The manuscript shows convincingly that multiple features (spatial, genetic, and projection) contribute to overall population encoding of valence. Overall, the authors conduct many challenging experiments, each of which contains the relevant controls, and the results are interpreted within the framework of their experiments.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Benchmarking and optimization of methods for the detection of identity-by-descent in high-recombining Plasmodium falciparum genomes

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Bing Guo
   2. Shannon Takala-Harrison
   3. Timothy D O'Connor

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents an evaluation of several tools used for detecting Identity-By-Descent (IBD) segments in highly recombining genomes, using simulated data to replicate the high recombination and low marker density of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for malaria. The evidence presented by the authors is convincing demonstrating that users should be cautious calling IBD when SNP density is low and recombination rate is high. This study will be of interest to scientists working in the field of genome evolution and infectious diseases

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Human genetic ancestry, Mycobacterium tuberculosis diversity, and tuberculosis disease severity in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Michaela Zwyer
   2. Zhi Ming Xu
   3. Amanda Ross
   4. Jerry Hella
   5. Mohamed Sasamalo
   6. Maxime Rotival
   7. Hellen Charles Hiza
   8. Liliana K Rutaihwa
   9. Sonia Borrell
   10. Klaus Reither
   11. Jacques Fellay
   12. Damien Portevin
   13. Lluis Quintana-Murci
   14. Sebastien Gagneux
   15. Daniela Brites

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable observational study was conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to investigate potential associations between genetic variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and human host vs. disease severity. The authors conclude that human genetic ancestry did not contribute to tuberculosis severity and the evidence supporting this is generally convincing. The findings have significance for the understanding of the influence of host/bacillary genetics on tuberculosis disease.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Multi-dimensional social relationships shape social attention in monkeys

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sainan Liu
   2. Jiepin Huang
   3. Suhao Chen
   4. Michael L Platt
   5. Yan Yang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study examined how multidimensional social relationships influence social attention in rhesus macaques, linking individual and group-level behaviors to attentional processes. The findings that oxytocin altered social attention and its relationship to both social tendencies and dyadic relationships are important, as recent technological advances allow for the exploration of neuronal activities and mechanisms in free-moving macaques. This work is convincing and will be of interest to those studying the interplay between social dynamics and information processing in primates.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Real-Time Closed-Loop Feedback System For Mouse Mesoscale Cortical Signal And Movement Control: CLoPy

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Pankaj K Gupta
   2. Timothy H Murphy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a platform to implement closed-loop experiments in mice based on auditory feedback. The authors provide convincing evidence that their platform enables a variety of closed-loop experiments using neural or movement signals, indicating that it will be a valuable resource to the neuroscience community. The paper could be strengthened by the addition of additional tutorials, such as on how to run an experiment.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Quantification of the effect of hemodynamic occlusion in two-photon imaging of mouse cortex

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Baba Yogesh
   2. Matthias Heindorf
   3. Rebecca Jordan
   4. Georg B Keller

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study conducted experiments to quantify how neural activity independent changes in fluorescence might affect two-photon recordings when using diverse sensors. The researchers found a widespread presence of neural-activity-independent artifacts in two-photon imaging and provide convincing evidence that these artifacts are most likely caused by hemodynamic occlusion. Their findings underscore the importance of accounting for these artifacts when interpreting functional two-photon recordings.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Synaptic input architecture of visual cortical neurons revealed by large-scale synapse imaging without backpropagating action potentials

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Satoru Kondo
   2. Kohei Kikuta
   3. Kenichi Ohki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study uses a novel method to record spine calcium responses without the confounds of backpropagating action potentials to study how the dendritic integration of large numbers of inputs generates the tuned output of cortical neurons. While the results are generally solid, the study would benefit from more details, characterizations, and quantifications, including better validation of the method to suppress backpropagating action potentials.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Preclinical systematic review of CCR5 antagonists as cerebroprotective and stroke recovery enhancing agents

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Ayni Sharif
   2. Matthew S Jeffers
   3. Dean A Fergusson
   4. Raj Bapuji
   5. Stuart G Nicholls
   6. John Humphrey
   7. Warren Johnston
   8. Ed Mitchell
   9. Mary-Ann Speirs
   10. Laura Stronghill
   11. Michele Vuckovic
   12. Susan Wulf
   13. Risa Shorr
   14. Dar Dowlatshahi
   15. Dale Corbett
   16. Manoj M Lalu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study is important, and the findings add substantially to the evidence base regarding CCR5 antagonist drugs for neuroprotection and stroke management. The authors adhered to the expected systematic review and meta-analysis standards, and the presented evidence is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. A differentiable Gillespie algorithm for simulating chemical kinetics, parameter estimation, and designing synthetic biological circuits

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Krishna Rijal
    2. Pankaj Mehta

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important study introduces a fully differentiable variant of the Gillespie algorithm as an approximate stochastic simulation scheme for complex chemical reaction networks, allowing kinetic parameters to be inferred from empirical measurements of network outputs using gradient descent. The concept and algorithm design are convincing and innovative. While the proofs of concept are promising, some questions are left open about implications for more complex systems that cannot be addressed by existing methods. This work has the potential to be of significant interest to a broad audience of quantitative and synthetic biologists.

    Reviewed by eLife