eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Human brain dynamics and spatiotemporal trajectories during threat processing

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Joyneel Misra
   2. Luiz Pessoa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Using highly sophisticated switching linear dynamical systems (SLDS) analyses applied to functional MRI data, this study provides important insights into network dynamics underlying threat processing. After identifying distinct neural network states associated with varying levels of threat proximity, the paper provides compelling evidence of intrinsically and extrinsically driven contributions to these within-state dynamics and between-state transitions. Although the findings could be made more biologically meaningful, this work will be of interest to a wider functional neuroimaging and systems neuroscience community.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Gene regulatory dynamics during craniofacial development in a carnivorous marsupial

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Laura E Cook
   2. Charles Y Feigin
   3. John D Hills
   4. Davide M Vespasiani
   5. Andrew J Pask
   6. Irene Gallego Romero

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study of regulatory elements and gene expression in the craniofacial region of the fat-tailed dunnart shows that, compared to placental mammals, marsupial craniofacial tissue develops in a precocious manner, with enhancer regulatory elements as primary driver of this difference. The compelling data, including a new dunnart genome assembly, provide an invaluable reference for future mammalian evolution studies, especially once additional developmental time point for the fat-tailed dunnart become available.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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 authors make this platform more accessible by complementing the paper with a detailed tutorial explaining how to implement the software and hardware.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. 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

10. 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