eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The inter-continental population dynamics of Neisseria gonorrhoeae

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Magnus N Osnes
   2. Ola B Brynildsrud
   3. Kristian Alfsnes
   4. Lucy van Dorp
   5. Samantha A McKeand
   6. Jonathan Ross
   7. Katy Town
   8. Jolinda de Korne-Elenbaas
   9. Alje van Dam
   10. Sylvia Bruisten
   11. Birgitte F de Blasio
   12. Dominique A Caugant
   13. Yonatan H. Grad
   14. Deborah A Williamson
   15. Francois Balloux
   16. Xavier Didelot
   17. Vegard Eldholm

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work provides a detailed analysis of the population dynamics of an important human bacterial pathogen, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, using a large global collection of genomes with geographic, temporal, and demographic metadata. A unique facet of this work is the focus on both importation and exportation of N. gonorrhoeae; whilst quantifying importation is important to national public health efforts, quantifying exportation is relevant on an international level. However, the evidence supporting the conclusions is incomplete, due to potential inaccuracies in the method used for phylogenetic analysis, which forms the basis of this work. With the phylogenetic analysis strengthened, this paper would be of interest to epidemiologists and public health officials working on N. gonorrhoeae epidemiology and interventions.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
   10.48550/arxiv.2209.08066v2

3. Single-cell ‘omic profiles of human aortic endothelial cells in vitro and human atherosclerotic lesions ex vivo reveal heterogeneity of endothelial subtype and response to activating perturbations

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Maria L Adelus
   2. Jiacheng Ding
   3. Binh T Tran
   4. Austin C Conklin
   5. Anna K Golebiewski
   6. Lindsey K Stolze
   7. Michael B Whalen
   8. Darren A Cusanovich
   9. Casey E Romanoski

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a fundamental resource of snRNA-seq and and chromatin accessibility data from human aortic endothelial cells (ECs), treated with relevant perturbations such as IL1b, TGFB2, or si-EGR. The authors show that ECs can be categorized by distinct subpopulations of differing plasticity. The support for the existence of these subpopulations is compelling, supported also by three publicly available scRNA-seq datasets, and differential enrichment of coronary artery disease associated SNPs in open chromatin in these subpopulations.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. The role of GABA in semantic memory and its neuroplasticity

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. JeYoung Jung
   2. Stephen Williams
   3. Matthew Lambon Ralph

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a valuable paper that might contribute new insight into the role of GABA in semantic memory, which is a significant question in higher cognition. However, the empirical support for the main claims is incomplete. These results, once further strengthened and more appropriately discussed, will be of interest to broad readers of the neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience community.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Infralimbic parvalbumin neural activity facilitates cued threat avoidance

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yi-Yun Ho
   2. Qiuwei Yang
   3. Priyanka Boddu
   4. David A Bulkin
   5. Melissa R Warden

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study extends our understanding of how the medial prefrontal cortex regulates flexible action during adversity. The data provide compelling evidence of a role for prefrontal PV neuron activity in active avoidance. This builds on the general idea that these neurons play a role in flexible behavior and demonstrates this in the context of freezing/avoidance conflict. The overall findings contribute to our understanding of mechanisms that support aversively motivated instrumental learning and may provide insight into both stress vulnerability and resilience processes. This work will be of interest to those interested in learning, aversive motivation, interneuron and/or prefrontal cortex function, or conditions relates to these processes and mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Emergence of catalytic function in prebiotic information-coding polymers

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Alexei V Tkachenko
   2. Sergei Maslov

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study uses a model to determine when catalytic self-replication of polymers can emerge from a random pool of replicating polymers. The model accounts for the folding and function of polymers in addition to abstract evolutionary dynamics, providing solid evidence for the claims of the authors. The work will be of relevance to those interested in the origin of life, artificial cells, and evolutionary dynamics.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Jointly looking to the past and the future in visual working memory

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Baiwei Liu
   2. Zampeta-Sofia Alexopoulou
   3. Freek van Ede

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study advances our understanding of how past and future information is jointly considered in visual working memory by studying gaze biases in a memory task that dissociates the locations during encoding and memory tests. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with state-of-the-art gaze analyses that build on a recent series of experiments introduced by the authors. This work will be of broad interest to vision scientists interested in the interplay of vision, eye movements, and memory.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Early parafoveal semantic integration in natural reading

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Yali Pan
   2. Steven Frisson
   3. Kara D Federmeier
   4. Ole Jensen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study contributes to the understanding of how parafoveal words are neurally processed during naturalistic sentence reading. Convincing evidence is provided that the MEG response to a word can be modulated by the semantic congruency of a parafoveal target word. The study addresses a classic question in reading using a new Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging (RIFT) technique, which can separately monitor the neural processing of multiple words during sentence reading.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Boosting of neural circuit chaos at the onset of collective oscillations

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Agostina Palmigiano
   2. Rainer Engelken
   3. Fred Wolf

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work provides a valuable characterization of the chaotic dynamics of high-dimensional spiking networks in the presence of internally generated oscillations due to synaptic delays or externally generated oscillations due to external input. The authors provide convincing analytical and numerical calculations to support their claims, however, the paper suffers from heavy mathematical jargon that reduces its impact. The paper could be revised to provide interpretations of the results so that it can be accessible to a broader neuroscience audience. In its current form, findings will be of interest mostly to researchers working at the interface between theoretical neuroscience, applied mathematics, and physics.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
    10.48550/arxiv.2309.03194v1