eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Neural Mechanisms of Willed Attention Control

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Changhao Xiong
   2. Qiang Yang
   3. Sungkean Kim
   4. Sreenivasan Meyyappan
   5. Jesse J. Bengson
   6. George R Mangun
   7. Mingzhou Ding

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study supplements previous publications of willed attention by addressing a frontoparietal network that supports internal goal generation. The evidence is solid in analyzing two datasets collected at different independent sites, using the same willed-attention paradigm and combining fMRI and EEG. This work will interest cognitive psychologists and neuroscience researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The effect of physical activity on brain structure and cognitive function in the population-based cohort of LIFE-Adult-Study

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Polona Kalc
   2. Rober Dahnke
   3. Christian Sander
   4. Frauke Beyer
   5. Andrea Zülke
   6. Steffi G. Riedel-Heller
   7. Veronica Witte
   8. Christian Gaser

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable examination of two measurements of physical activity (self-report and objective) in relation to widely studied structural MRI measures of the brain (hippocampal volume and BrainAGE) and cognitive function (Trail Making Test). Cross-sectional and longitudinal data were analyzed using established and validated methodology. The results convincingly suggest that brain health is more likely a cause of physical activity than an outcome of it, although limitations to the data could mask evidence of benefits to brain health. This work will be of interest to neurologists and epidemiologists studying the etiology of cognitive decline, to clinicians interested in advising patients on strategies for preserving brain health in aging, and to members of the lay public.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Designing optimal perturbation inputs for system identification in neuroscience

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Mikito Ogino
   2. Daiki Sekizawa
   3. Jun Kitazono
   4. Masafumi Oizumi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors establish solid theoretical principles for designing brain perturbations under the assumption that brain activity evolves under a linear model. By prioritizing low-variance components, resonant frequencies, and hub nodes, this framework provides an important foundation for optimizing information gain, neural state classification, and the control of neural dynamics. However, the lack of investigation of model mismatch makes the study incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Desert Hedgehog mediates stem Leydig cell differentiation through Ptch2/Gli1/Sf1 signaling axis

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Changle Zhao
   2. Yongxun Chen
   3. Lei Liu
   4. Xiang Liu
   5. Hesheng Xiao
   6. Feilong Wang
   7. Qin Huang
   8. Xiangyan Dai
   9. Wenjing Tao
   10. Deshou Wang
   11. Jing Wei

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable contributions to establish canonical Dhh signaling as a primary mediator in the differentiation of Leydig cells and their steroidogenic capacity. Together, the experimental design using their established stem Leydig cell line alongside relevant genetically mutated models, both derived using the relevant Nile tilapia animal system, provided largely convincing evidence to support their conclusions. The work could benefit from a more rigorous dissection of current literature on this pathway that might better inform their conclusions. The work will be of broad interest to developmental biologists interested in differentiation of steroidogenic or hormone producing cells.

     [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Pupil size reveals the perceptual quality and effortless nature of synesthesia

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Christoph Strauch
   2. Casper Leenaars
   3. Romke Rouw

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study used pupillometry to provide an objective assessment of a form of synesthesia in which people see additional color when reading numbers. It provides convincing evidence that subjective color ratings are matched by changes in pupil size that recapitulate brightness-mediated changes when exposed to the real color. The work provides a valuable contribution to the literature on both synesthetic perception and the use of pupillometry to probe perception and related psychological processes.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Evaluation of antibiotic and peptide vaccine strategies for mirror bacterial infections

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Alexander Kleinman
   2. Joe Torres
   3. Brian Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study experimentally probes potential antibiotic activity against hypothetical "mirror bacteria" with reversed chirality, showing that D-enantiomers of several approved antibiotics largely lack activity against natural bacteria (as a proxy for mirror organisms) and that conjugated D-peptides can elicit strong binding antibody responses in mice when adjuvanted. The evidence is solid for these core observations but incomplete on issues of chiral purity, functional antibody assays, replicates, and pharmacodynamic readouts; the work also overreaches in extrapolations without deeper mechanistic integration or native-format validation. Overall, the work offers a cautious, relevant contribution to mirror microbiology discussions and will interest infectious disease researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Anesthesia Lowers Spatial Frequency Preference in the Primary Visual Cortex

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jiahao Wu
   2. Taisuke Yoneda
   3. Kallum Robinson
   4. Naotsugu Tsuchiya
   5. Yumiko Yoshimura

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper describes useful findings on the effects of isoflurane anesthesia on the visual cortical circuitry of the mouse. It provides solid evidence that the visual spatial frequency sensitivity becomes coarser (lower resolution) during anesthesia, with distinct effects described in excitatory neurons, and parvalbumin (PV) and somatostatin (SOM) positive interneurons. This study should be of interest to neuroscientists studying the mouse visual cortex and the effects of anesthesia on cortical circuitry.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A Germinal Center Checkpoint of AIRE in B Cells Limits Antibody Diversification

   This article has 25 authors:

   1. Jordan Z. Zhou
   2. Bihui Huang
   3. Bo Pei
   4. Guang Wen Sun
   5. Michael D. Pawlitz
   6. Wei Zhang
   7. Xinyang Li
   8. Kati C. Hokynar
   9. Fayi Yao
   10. Madusha L. W. Perera
   11. Shanqiao Wei
   12. Simin Zheng
   13. Lisa A. Polin
   14. Janet M. Poulik
   15. Annamari Ranki
   16. Kai Krohn
   17. Charlotte Cunningham-Rundles
   18. Naibo Yang
   19. Ashok S. Bhagwat
   20. Kefei Yu
   21. Pärt Peterson
   22. Kai Kisand
   23. Bao Q. Vuong
   24. Andrea Cerutti
   25. Kang Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     AIRE has been well known to contribute to immune self-tolerance in the thymus by expressing auto-antigens; in this manuscript, the authors describe unexpected findings about the interaction of AIRE with AID in B cells, and its function in the immune system, thereby contributing to a fundamental understanding of the broader functions of AIRE. The strength of this manuscript is that, by employing biochemical and genetic experiments, the authors convincingly show interaction between AIRE and AID and subsequent AIRE's function in the GC responses. However, two weak points exist: first, the connection between AIRE, auto-anti IL17 Abs, and IL17-positive effector T cells, and second, like the thymus, expression of auto-antigens by AIRE in the GC B cells has not been tested.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Structural elucidation of the hexameric MmpS4-MmpL4 complex from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Jennifer C Earp
   2. Nicolas P Lichti
   3. Alisa A Garaeva
   4. Virginia Meikle
   5. Michael Niederweis
   6. Markus A Seeger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable insights through the elucidation of the first full-length structure of the heterohexameric (MmpS4)₃-(MmpL4)₃ transporter complex from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, advancing understanding of its transport mechanism, linked to virulence and drug resistance. The structural analysis is convincing, offering a clear framework for future mechanistic studies. Major strengths include a comprehensive structural characterization of the complex, though some conclusions require further validation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. White Matter Stratification in Depression Predicts Multidimensional Antidepressant Responses

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Jiaolong Qin
    2. Xinyi Wang
    3. Huangjing Ni
    4. Ye Wu
    5. Haiyan Liu
    6. Lingling Hua
    7. Rui Yan
    8. Hao Tang
    9. Peng Zhao
    10. Zhijian Yao
    11. Qing Lu

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This study presents valuable findings for identifying biotypes of depression patients using white matter measures, which are under-utilised and under-appreciated in current biological and computational psychiatry work. The evidence supporting the claims is solid, although enhanced interpretability of the identified biotypes across both white matter and symptom levels, and better justification of the choice of models would strengthen the paper. Overall, this study will be of interest to the broad community of neuroimagers, clinicians, and biological and computational psychiatry researchers.

    Reviewed by eLife