eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex are involved in spatial tuning and signaling upcoming choice independently from hippocampal sharp-wave ripples

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Hanna den Bakker
   2. Fabian Kloosterman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study reports analyses of Neuropixel recordings in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of rats in a spatial navigation trial, focusing on classifying prefrontal neurons based on SWR modulation and anatomical location. Reviewers were unconvinced by the presented evidence for the claim that distinct populations of mPFC neurons participate in non-local ensemble representations during SWR and non-SWR periods, and were unconvinced by the presented evidence for a previously unrecognized anatomical distinction between these populations. Further analyses might strengthen the incomplete evidence for some conclusions, and some of the strong claims of the paper should likely be moderated.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Novel and optimized mouse behavior enabled by fully autonomous HABITS: Home-cage assisted behavioral innovation and testing system

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Bowen Yu
   2. Penghai Li
   3. Haoze Xu
   4. Yueming Wang
   5. Kedi Xu
   6. Yaoyao Hao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript describes a novel approach for assessing cognitive function in freely moving mice in their home-cage, without human involvement. The authors provide convincing evidence in support of the tasks they developed to capture a variety of complex behaviors and demonstrate the utility of a machine learning approach to expedite the acquisition of task demands. This work is important given its potential utility for other investigators interested in studying mouse cognition.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Sexual failure decreases sweet taste perception in male Drosophila via dopaminergic signaling

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Gaohang Wang
   2. Wei Qi
   3. Rui Huang
   4. Liming Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable findings on the effects of mating experience on sweet taste perception. The data as presented provide convincing evidence that the dopaminergic signaling-mediated reward system underlies this mating state-dependent behavioral modulation. The work will interest neuroscientists and particularly biologists working on neuromodulation and the effects of internal states on sensory perception.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Afadin-deficient mouse retinas exhibit severe neuronal lamination defects but preserve visual functions

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Akiko Ueno
   2. Konan Sakuta
   3. Hiroki Ono
   4. Aki Hashio
   5. Haruki Tokumoto
   6. Mikiya Watanabe
   7. Taketo Nishimoto
   8. Toru Konishi
   9. Yuki Emori
   10. Shunsuke Mizuno
   11. Mao Hiratsuka
   12. Jun Miyoshi
   13. Yoshimi Takai
   14. Masao Tachibana
   15. Chieko Koike

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study demonstrates that conditional knockout of afadin disrupts retinal laminar organization and reduces the number of photoreceptors, while preserving certain aspects of retinal ganglion cell structure and light responsiveness. The work is valuable and well-supported by revised figures and comprehensive data on retinal cell types, lamination patterns, and visual functio. The findings are solid and intriguing, and the study provides insights into the relationship between retinal lamination and neural circuit function.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. A contextual fear conditioning paradigm in head-fixed mice exploring virtual reality

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Seetha Krishnan
   2. Can Dong
   3. Heather Ratigan
   4. Denisse Morales-Rodriguez
   5. Chery Cherian
   6. Mark Sheffield

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study presents a virtual reality-based contextual fear conditioning paradigm for head-fixed mice. Solid evidence supports the claim that the reported methods provide a reliable paradigm for studying contextual fear conditioning in head-fixed mice. The approach provides a way to perform multiphoton imaging of neural circuits, and other techniques that are typically performed in head-fixed animals, during behaviors that have traditionally been studied in freely moving animals.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Brain-Cognitive Gaps in relation to Dopamine and Health-related Factors: Insights from AI-Driven Functional Connectome Predictions

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Morteza Esmaeili
   2. Erin Bjørkeli
   3. Robin Pedersen
   4. Farshad Falahati
   5. Jarkko Johansson
   6. Kristin Nordin
   7. Nina Karalija
   8. Lars Bäckman
   9. Lars Nyberg
   10. Alireza Salami

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This multimodal neuroimaging study leverages fMRI, PET, and deep learning to predict memory performance. The authors introduce the brain-cognition gap to link these different imaging modalities to cognition and evaluate their results in two independent cohorts. The results are solid and provide an important contribution to the literature and will be of interest to neuroscientists working at the interface of cognition, neuroimaging.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Rapid riparian ecosystem recovery in low-latitudinal North China following the end-Permian mass extinction

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Wenwei Guo
   2. Li Tian
   3. Daoliang Chu
   4. Wenchao Shu
   5. Michael J Benton
   6. Jun Liu
   7. Jinnan Tong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a well-written important paper on the recovery of fauna and flora following the end-Permian extinction event in several continental sites in northern China. The convincing conclusion, a rapid recovery in tropical riparian ecosystems following a short phase of hostile environments and depauperate biota, is supported by an impressive amount of data from sedimentology, body fossils of animals and plants, and especially trace fossils.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. High-Resolution Genome-Wide Maps Reveal Widespread Presence of Torsional Insulation

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Porter M Hall
   2. Lauren A Mayse
   3. Lu Bai
   4. Marcus B Smolka
   5. B Franklin Pugh
   6. Michelle D Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The Twin Domain model proposed by Lui and Wang proposing that twin supercoiling domains of DNA emerge during transcription were first described decades ago, but direct experimental evidence has been challenging to obtain. Here, the authors make a fundamental contribution by directly measuring DNA torsion in cells using a photoactivatable intrastrand cross-linker compared to controls. They gather compelling data using this clever method, which provides direct evidence in support of the twin-supercoiled domain model, for torsional effects at transcription start and end sites, and thereby uncover novel features of higher order structure of chromatin in yeast. These data are exciting, and the tools will be of interest to anyone studying chromosome structure and gene regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Oxytocin receptor controls promiscuity and development in prairie voles

   This article has 23 authors:

   1. Ruchira Sharma
   2. Kristen M Berendzen
   3. Amanda Everitt
   4. Belinda Wang
   5. Gina Williams
   6. Shuyu Wang
   7. Kara Quine
   8. Rose D Larios
   9. Kimberly LP Long
   10. Nerissa Hoglen
   11. Bibi Alika Sulaman
   12. Marie C Heath
   13. Michael Sherman
   14. Robert Klinkel
   15. Angela Cai
   16. Denis Galo
   17. Lizandro Chan Caamal
   18. Nastacia L Goodwin
   19. Annaliese Beery
   20. Karen L Bales
   21. Katherine S Pollard
   22. Arthur Jeremy Willsey
   23. Devanand S Manoli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents an important finding regarding how partner preference formation and pair bonding behavior are related to the oxytocin receptor gene expression in the NAc and paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in prairie voles. The evidence supporting this claim is solid but could benefit from increased sample size and more thorough behavioral phenotyping. This study will be of interest to social scientists and neuroscientists who work on pair bonding and oxytocin.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Global risk mapping of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 and H5Nx in the light of epidemic episodes occurring from 2020 onwards

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Marie-Cécile Dupas
    2. Maria F Vincenti-Gonzalez
    3. Madhur Dhingra
    4. Claire Guinat
    5. Timothée Vergne
    6. William Wint
    7. Guy Hendrickx
    8. Cedric Marsboom
    9. Marius Gilbert
    10. Simon Dellicour

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This global study compares environmental niche model outputs of avian influenza pathogen niche constructed for two distinct periods, and uses differences between those outputs to suggest that the changed case numbers and distribution relate to intensification of chicken and duck farming, and extensive cultivation. While a useful update to existing niche models of highly pathogenic avian influenza, the justification for the use of environmental niche models to explore land cover change as a driver of changed case epidemiology is incomplete.

    Reviewed by eLife