eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Slow kinesin-dependent microtubular transport facilitates ribbon synapse assembly in developing cochlear inner hair cells

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Roos Anouk Voorn
   2. Michael Sternbach
   3. Amandine Jarysta
   4. Vladan Rankovic
   5. Basile Tarchini
   6. Fred Wolf
   7. Christian Vogl

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides important information about the formation of ribbon synapses in mouse cochlear hair cells, which facilitate the temporally-precise transmission of acoustic information to the auditory nerve. Live-cell imaging provides compelling evidence that ribbon precursor volume is dynamically modified by fission and fusion events on microtubules, but some of the other evidence included, particularly in relation to the directed transport of these precursors to the hair cell active zone is incomplete. These findings will be of interest to neuroscientists studying synapse formation and function and should inspire further research into the molecular basis for synaptic ribbon maturation.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Dynamic gamma modulation of hippocampal place cells predominates development of theta sequences

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Ning Wang
   2. Yimeng Wang
   3. Mingkun Guo
   4. Ling Wang
   5. Xueling Wang
   6. Nan Zhu
   7. Jiajia Yang
   8. Lei Wang
   9. Chenguang Zheng
   10. Dong Ming

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Using electrophysiological recordings in freely moving rats, this valuable study investigates the role of gamma oscillations in the development of spatial representations in the hippocampus. Specifically, solid evidence supports the claim that distinct gamma oscillatory inputs contribute to the emergence of 'theta sequences', which encode the animal's ongoing trajectory. This study will be of interest to neuroscientists working in the fields of spatial navigation and neuronal dynamics.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Presynaptic Rac1 in the hippocampus selectively regulates working memory

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Jaebin Kim
   2. Edwin Bustamante
   3. Peter Sotonyi
   4. Nicholas Maxwell
   5. Pooja Parameswaran
   6. Julie K Kent
   7. William C Wetsel
   8. Erik J Soderblom
   9. Bence Rácz
   10. Scott H Soderling

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The paper characterized a specific defect in the spatial working memory of mice with a deficit in a protein called Rac1. Rac1 inhibition was limited to the presynaptic compartment of neurons, which is significant because past work has inhibited both pre- and postsynaptic compartments. The study also identified potential effectors of Rac1. The work is important for these reasons, and the strength of the evidence is exceptional.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The transformation of sensory to perceptual braille letter representations in the visually deprived brain

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Marleen Haupt
   2. Monika Graumann
   3. Santani Teng
   4. Carina Kaltenbach
   5. Radoslaw Cichy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study investigates the brain representations of Braille letters in blind participants and provides evidence using EEG and fMRI that the decoding of letter identity across the reading hand takes place in the visual cortex. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing and the work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on brain plasticity.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Homeostatic synaptic normalization optimizes learning in network models of neural population codes

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Jonathan Mayzel
   2. Elad Schneidman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work is an important contribution to the development of a biologically plausible theory of statistical modeling of spiking activity. The authors convincingly implemented the statistical inference of input likelihood in a simple neural circuit, demonstrating the relationship between synaptic homeostasis, neural representations, and computational accuracy. This work will be of interest to neuroscientists, both theoretical and experimental, who are exploring how statistical computation is implemented in neural networks.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Sub-cone visual resolution by active, adaptive sampling in the human foveola

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jenny L Witten
   2. Veronika Lukyanova
   3. Wolf M Harmening

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work uses in vivo foveal cone-resolved imaging and simultaneous microscopic photostimulation to investigate the relationship between ocular drift - eye movements long thought to be random - and visual acuity. The surprising result is that ocular drift is systematic - causing the object to move to the center of the cone mosaic over the course of each perceptual trial. The tools used to reach this conclusion are state-of-the-art and the evidence presented is convincing. This work advances our understanding of the visuomotor system and the interplay of anatomy, oculomotor behavior, and visual acuity.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A deep learning framework for automated and generalized synaptic event analysis

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Philipp S O'Neill
   2. Martín Baccino-Calace
   3. Peter Rupprecht
   4. Sungmoo Lee
   5. Yukun A Hao
   6. Michael Z Lin
   7. Rainer W Friedrich
   8. Martin Mueller
   9. Igor Delvendahl

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper presents miniML, an AI-based framework for the detection of synaptic events. Benchmark results presented in the paper are compelling, demonstrating the superiority of miniML over current state-of-the-art alternatives. The performance of miniML is demonstrated across various experimental paradigms, showing that miniML has the potential to become a valuable tool for the analysis of synaptic signals.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Single neurons and networks in the mouse claustrum integrate input from widespread cortical sources

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Andrew M Shelton
   2. David K Oliver
   3. Ivan P Lazarte
   4. Joachim S Grimstvedt
   5. Ishaan Kapoor
   6. Jake A Swann
   7. Caitlin A Ashcroft
   8. Simon N Williams
   9. Niall Conway
   10. Selma Tir
   11. Amy Robinson
   12. Stuart Peirson
   13. Thomas Akam
   14. Clifford G Kentros
   15. Menno P Witter
   16. Simon JB Butt
   17. Adam Max Packer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study compiles a wide range of results on the connectivity, stimulus selectivity, and potential role of the claustrum in sensory behavior. While most of the connectivity results confirm earlier studies, this valuable work provides incomplete evidence that the claustrum responds to multimodal stimuli and that local connectivity is reduced across cells that have similar long-range connectivity. The conclusions drawn from the behavioral results are weakened by the animals' poor performance on the designed task. This study has the potential to be of interest to neuroscientists.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Single-cell transcriptomics of vomeronasal neuroepithelium reveals a differential endoplasmic reticulum environment amongst neuronal subtypes

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. GVS Devakinandan
   2. Mark Terasaki
   3. Adish Dani

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a valuable manuscript analyzing single-cell RNA-sequencing data from the mouse vomeronasal organ. Convincing evidence in this manuscript allows the authors to identify and verify the differential expression of genes that distinguish apical and basal vomeronasal neurons. The authors also show that Gnao1 neurons exhibit enriched expression of ER-related genes, which they verify with in situ hybridizations and immunostaining and also explore via electron microscopy.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Perturbation-response analysis of in silico metabolic dynamics revealed hard-coded responsiveness in the cofactors and network sparsity

    This article has 2 authors:

    1. Yusuke Himeoka
    2. Chikara Furusawa

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable study uses dynamic metabolic models to compare perturbation responses in a bacterial system, analyzing whether they return to their steady state or amplify beyond the initial perturbation. The evidence supporting the emergent properties of perturbed metabolic systems to network topology and sensitivity to specific metabolites is solid.

    Reviewed by eLife