eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Automatic and accurate reconstruction of long-range axonal projections of single-neuron in mouse brain

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Lin Cai
   2. Taiyu Fan
   3. Xuzhong Qu
   4. Ying Zhang
   5. Xianyu Gou
   6. Quanwei Ding
   7. Weihua Feng
   8. Tingting Cao
   9. Xiaohua Lv
   10. Xiuli Liu
   11. Qing Huang
   12. Tingwei Quan
   13. Shaoqun Zeng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important paper takes a novel approach to the problem of automatically reconstructing long-range axonal projections from stacks of images. The key innovation is to separate the identification of sections of an axon from the statistical rules used to constrain global structure. The authors provide compelling evidence that their method is a significant improvement over existing measures in circumstances where the labelling of axons and dendrites is relatively dense.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Oxytocin restores context-specific hyperaltruistic preference

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Hong Zhang
   2. Yinmei Ni
   3. Jian Li

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This revised paper provides valuable findings that altruistic tendency during moral decision-making is gain/loss context-dependent and oxytocin can restore the absence of altruistic choices in the loss domain. The methods and analyses are solid, yet the study could still benefit from better overall framing and more clarity and precision in the definition of key constructs, as pointed out by reviewers. If these concerns are addressed, this study would be of interest to social scientists and neuroscientists who work on moral decision-making and oxytocin.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Targeting IRE1α improves insulin sensitivity and thermogenesis and suppresses metabolically active adipose tissue macrophages in male obese mice

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Dan Wu
   2. Venkateswararao Eeda
   3. Zahra Maria
   4. Komal Rawal
   5. Audrey Wang
   6. Oana Herlea-Pana
   7. Ram Babu Undi
   8. Hui-Ying Lim
   9. Weidong Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study presents important findings on inositol-requiring enzyme (IRE1α) inhibition on diet-induced obesity (overnutrition) and insulin resistance where IRE1α inhibition enhances thermogenesis and reduces the metabolically active and M1-like macrophages in adipose tissue. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing. The work will be of interest to cell biologists and biochemists working in metabolism, insulin resistance and inflammation with a broad eLife readership.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Hierarchy between forelimb premotor and primary motor cortices and its manifestation in their firing patterns

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Akiko Saiki-Ishikawa
   2. Mark Agrios
   3. Sajishnu Savya
   4. Adam Forrest
   5. Hannah Sroussi
   6. Sarah Hsu
   7. Diya Basrai
   8. Feihong Xu
   9. Andrew Miri

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides important insights as to how interacting brain areas produce movement during the execution of a skilled multi-directional reaching task. Using a combination of single neuron and neural population analysis, optogenetic stimulation, and computational models, the authors provide convincing evidence of an asymmetrical influence between mouse premotor and motor cortex during the execution of a well-practiced behaviour. This asymmetry can only be captured by some but not all population analysis methods, which is a key lesson to the field in and of itself. Analyzing how activity that is shared and private to these areas relates to different aspects of movements, and why different methods provide different outcomes regarding the nature of inter-area interactions would further strengthen this work.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Context-dependent modulations of subthalamo-cortical synchronization during rapid reversals of movement direction in Parkinson’s disease

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Lucie Winkler
   2. Markus Butz
   3. Abhinav Sharma
   4. Jan Vesper
   5. Alfons Schnitzler
   6. Petra Fischer
   7. Jan Hirschmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study combined whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) and subthalamic (STN) local field potential (LFP) recordings in patients with Parkinson's disease undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. The paper provides convincing evidence that cortical and STN beta oscillations are sensitive to movement context.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Microglia are required for developmental specification of AgRP innervation in the hypothalamus of offspring exposed to maternal high-fat diet during lactation

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Haley N Mendoza-Romero
   2. Jessica E Biddinger
   3. Michelle N Bedenbaugh
   4. Richard Simerly

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors provide a valuable contribution by documenting the role of microglia in pruning the axon terminals of AgRP neurons. The analysis of microglial axonal pruning is solid; however, the analysis of the effects inhibiting microglia on subsequent food consumption is not fully complete.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Increased listening effort and cochlear neural degeneration underlie speech-in-noise deficits in normal-hearing middle-aged adults

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Maggie E Zink
   2. Leslie Zhen
   3. Jacie R McHaney
   4. Jennifer Klara
   5. Kimberly Yurasits
   6. Victoria E Cancel
   7. Olivia Flemm
   8. Claire Mitchell
   9. Jyotishka Datta
   10. Bharath Chandresekaran
   11. Aravindakshan Parthasarathy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study aims to clarify the effects of cochlear neural degeneration on auditory processing in listeners with normal audiograms (sometimes referred to as 'hidden hearing loss'). The authors provide important new data demonstrating associations between cochlear neural degeneration, non-invasive assays of auditory processing, and speech perception. Based on a cross-species comparison, the findings pose compelling evidence that cochlear synaptopathy is associated with a significant part of hearing difficulties in complex environments.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. From histology to macroscale function in the human amygdala

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Hans Auer
   2. Donna Gift Cabalo
   3. Raúl Rodríguez-Cruces
   4. Oualid Benkarim
   5. Casey Paquola
   6. Jordan DeKraker
   7. Yezhou Wang
   8. Sofie Louise Valk
   9. Boris C Bernhardt
   10. Jessica Royer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable contribution combines high-resolution histology with magnetic resonance imaging in a novel way to study the organisation of the human amygdala. The main findings convincingly show the axes of microstructural organisation within the amygdala and how they map onto the functional organisation. Overall, the approach taken in this paper showcases the utility of combining multiple modalities at different spatial scales to help understand brain organisation.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. A general framework for characterizing optimal communication in brain networks

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Kayson Fakhar
   2. Fatemeh Hadaeghi
   3. Caio Seguin
   4. Shrey Dixit
   5. Arnaud Messé
   6. Gorka Zamora-López
   7. Bratislav Misic
   8. Claus C Hilgetag

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors provide a compelling method for characterizing communication within brain networks. The study engages important, biologically pertinent, concerns related to the balance of dynamics and structure in assessing the focal points of brain communication. It will be of interest to researchers trying to dissect structure of complex interaction networks across scales, from cells to regions.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Parvalbumin interneuron ErbB4 controls ongoing network oscillations and olfactory behaviors in mice

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Bin Hu
    2. Chi Geng
    3. Feng Guo
    4. Ying Liu
    5. Ran Wang
    6. You-Ting Chen
    7. Xiao-Yu Hou

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study provides useful information on the potential role of ERbB4 expression in parvalbumin-positive cells on olfactory behaviour and circuit dynamics in the olfactory bulb. The question is timely and novel, and findings could shed light on the critical role that ErbB4 may play in modulating olfactory bulb cell function and olfactory perception. Although the authors use a comprehensive set of experiments for their analysis, the evidence is incomplete as many of the experiments are underpowered and the model for selective knockout of ErbB4 in olfactory parvalbumin cells is not validated.

    Reviewed by eLife