eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Microglia aging in the hippocampus advances through intermediate states that drive activation and cognitive decline

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Jeremy M Shea
   2. Saul A Villeda

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work advances our understanding of the aging trajectory and heterogeneity of hippocampal microglia. The authors provide an in-depth characterization of microglia in young and old mice as well as at intermediate time points, which reveals the existence of intermediate states characterized by a distinct transcriptional signature. The experimental approach is solid, especially with the validation of scRNA-seq findings with other methods. The study should be of interest to neuroimmunologists and biologists interested in aging

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Sleep need driven oscillation of glutamate synaptic phenotype

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Kaspar E Vogt
   2. Ashwinikumar Kulkarni
   3. Richa Pandey
   4. Mantre Dehnad
   5. Genevieve Konopka
   6. Robert W Greene

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study showing that sleep deprivation increases functional synapses while depleting silent synapses supports previous findings that excitatory signaling increases during wakefulness. This manuscript focuses in particular on AMPA/NMDA ratios. An interesting, although speculative, aspect of the manuscript is the inclusion of a model for the accumulation of sleep needs that is based upon the MEF2C transcription factor but also links to the sleep-regulating SIK3-HDAC4/5 pathway. The authors have clarified some questions raised in the previous review, rendering this a solid piece of work that poses questions for future studies.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Investments in photoreceptors compete with investments in optics to determine eye design

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Francisco JH Heras
   2. Simon B Laughlin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the tradeoffs in eye design - specifically between improvements in optics and in photoreceptor performance. The authors successfully build a formal theory that enables comparisons across a wide range of species and eye types. One notable example is that how space should be allocated to optics and photoreceptors depends on eye type - with particularly notable differences between compound and simple eyes. The framework introduced to compare different design properties is convincing and provides a nice example of how to study tradeoffs in seemingly disparate design properties.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Nonlinear feedback modulation contributes to the optimization of flexible decision-making

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Xuanyu Wu
   2. Yang Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study by Wu and Zhou combines neurophysiological recordings and computational modelling to address an interesting question regarding the sequence of events from sensing to action. Neurophysiological evidence remains incomplete: explicit mapping of saccade-related activity in the same neurons and a better understanding of the influence of the spatial configuration of stimulus and targets would be required to pinpoint whether such activity might contribute, even partially, to the observed results and interpretations. These results are of interest for neuroscientists investigating decision-making.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Learning enhances behaviorally relevant representations in apical dendrites

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sam E Benezra
   2. Kripa B Patel
   3. Citlali Perez Campos
   4. Elizabeth MC Hillman
   5. Randy M Bruno

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study uses calcium imaging to show an increase in the selectivity of the sensory-evoked response in the apical dendritic tuft of layer 5 barrel cortex neurons as mice learn a whisker-dependent discrimination task. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, and this work will be of great interest to neuroscientists working on reward-based learning and sensory processing.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Opposing actions of co-released GABA and neurotensin on the activity of preoptic neurons and on body temperature

   This article has 1 author:

   1. Iustin V Tabarean

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study to reveal local circuit mechanisms in the POA that control body temperature and also highlight how neurotransmitter GABA and neuropeptide NTS from the same neurons differentially modulate temperature. This study was carefully executed, providing convincing evidence for the conclusions in this paper. The findings have emphasized the importance of considering multiple diverse functions of the same neuron populations and will be of interest to neuroscientists working on central regulations of energy metabolism and temperature homeostasis.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Cold induces brain region-selective cell activity-dependent lipid metabolism

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Hyeonyoung Min
   2. Yale Y Yang
   3. Yunlei Yang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This phenomenological study reported that cold exposure induced mRNA expression of genes related to lipid metabolism in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH). While the paper does not address cell-type specificity or the functional role of lipids in PVH, the findings might still serve as a useful basis for others to explore their relevance to brain responses to cold. In the revised manuscript, the authors made adequate editions, such as new immunostaining and immunoblotting of AGTL and HSL in the PVH, and pharmacological inhibition of lipid peroxidation and lipolysis. The authors also increased the sample size of some experiments and revised the text to limit their data interpretation. Thus, the reviewers considered that these studies are solid in conclusively describing how the PVH is reprogrammed at the level of gene expression by cold exposure.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Three-photon excited fluorescence microscopy enables imaging of blood flow, neural structure and inflammatory response deep into mouse spinal cord in vivo

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Yu-Ting Cheng
   2. Kawasi M. Lett
   3. Chris Xu
   4. Chris B. Schaffer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this work, the authors put forward a valuable methodological advancement for imaging deeper in the intact spinal cord of anaesthetized mice. The authors measured blood flow across different vessel types within the spinal cord and observed the cellular responses following venule occlusion. The demonstration is solid, although, a more quantitative comparison with state-of-the-art two-photon excited fluorescence microscopy and a discussion about applicability to functional imaging (e.g., calcium imaging) would have strengthened the study.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Patch-walking, a coordinated multi-pipette patch clamp for efficiently finding synaptic connections

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Mighten C Yip
   2. Mercedes M Gonzalez
   3. Colby F Lewallen
   4. Corey R Landry
   5. Ilya Kolb
   6. Bo Yang
   7. William M Stoy
   8. Ming-fai Fong
   9. Matthew JM Rowan
   10. Edward S Boyden
   11. Craig R Forest

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This technical study presents a novel sampling strategy for detecting synaptic coupling between neurons from dual pipette patch-clamp recordings in acute slices of mammalian brain tissue in vitro. The authors present solid evidence that this strategy, which incorporates automated patch clamp electrode positioning and cleaning for reuse with strategic neuron targeting, has the potential to substantially improve the efficiency of neuronal sampling with paired recordings. This technique and the extensions discussed will be useful for neuroscientists wanting to apply or already conducting automated multi-pipette patch clamp recording electrophysiology experiments in vitro for neuron connectivity analyses.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Development of a Marmoset Apparatus for Automated Pulling to study cooperative behaviors

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Olivia C Meisner
    2. Weikang Shi
    3. Nicholas A Fagan
    4. Joel Greenwood
    5. Monika P Jadi
    6. Anirvan S Nandy
    7. Steve WC Chang

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable study describes an apparatus, workflow, and proof-of-concept data for a system to study social cooperation in marmosets, an increasingly popular primate model for neuroscience. The apparatus and methodology have clear and convincing advantages over conventional methods based on manual approaches. However, claims of faster social learning or of finer-grained behavioural analysis in this setup will require further corroboration.

    Reviewed by eLife