eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Sexual Failure Decreases Sweet Taste Perception in Male Drosophila via Dopaminergic Signaling

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Gaohang Wang
   2. Wei Qi
   3. Rui Huang
   4. Liming Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable findings on the effects of mating experience on sweet taste perception. The data as presented provide solid evidence that the dopaminergic signaling-mediated reward system underlies this mating state-dependent behavioral modulation. The work will interest neuroscientists, particularly those working on neuromodulation and the effects of internal states on behavior.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Afadin-deficient retinas exhibit severe neuronal lamination defects but preserve visual functions

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Akiko Ueno
   2. Konan Sakuta
   3. Hiroki Ono
   4. Haruki Tokumoto
   5. Mikiya Watanabe
   6. Taketo Nishimoto
   7. Toru Konishi
   8. Shunsuke Mizuno
   9. Jun Miyoshi
   10. Yoshimi Takai
   11. Masao Tachibana
   12. Chieko Koike

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study demonstrated that the conditional knockout of afadin disrupts retinal laminar organization and reduced number of photoreceptors while preserving some of the structure and light responsiveness of retinal ganglion cells. These findings are solid and useful for understanding afadin's role in retinal cell generation, lamination, and functional organization. However, the study provides limited new insights into the relationship between retinal lamination defects and overall retinal function.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. A contextual fear conditioning paradigm in head-fixed mice exploring virtual reality.

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Seetha Krishnan
   2. Can Dong
   3. Heather Ratigan
   4. Denisse Morales-Rodriguez
   5. Chery Cherian
   6. Mark Sheffield

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study presents a virtual reality-based contextual fear conditioning paradigm for head-fixed mice. The approach provides a way to perform multiphoton imaging of neural circuits during behaviors that have traditionally been studied in freely moving animals. However, evidence supporting key claims is currently incomplete, particularly regarding elicitation and detection of freezing behaviors, and the impact of the study would be increased by articulating what this initial exploration of parameters offers over existing approaches.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Brain-Cognitive Gaps in relation to Dopamine and Health-related Factors: Insights from AI-Driven Functional Connectome Predictions

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Morteza Esmaeili
   2. Erin Beate Bjørkeli
   3. Robin Pedersen
   4. Farshad Falahati
   5. Jarkko Johansson
   6. Kristin Nordin
   7. Nina Karalija
   8. Lars Bäckman
   9. Lars Nyberg
   10. Alireza Salami

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This multimodal neuroimaging study leverages fMRI, PET, and deep learning to predict memory performance. The authors introduce the brain-cognition gap to link these different imaging modalities to cognition and evaluate their results in two independent cohorts. The results are a valuable addition to the literature and will be of interest to neuroscientists working at the interface of cognition, neuroimaging, and computational modeling. However, the evidence supporting the conclusions remains incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Rapid riparian ecosystem recovery in low-latitudinal North China following the end-Permian mass extinction

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Wenwei Guo
   2. Li Tian
   3. Daoliang Chu
   4. Wenchao Shu
   5. Michael Benton
   6. Jun Liu
   7. Jinnan Tong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a well-written important paper on the recovery of fauna and flora following the end-Permian extinction event in several continental sites in northern China. The convincing conclusion, a rapid recovery in tropical riparian ecosystems following a short phase of hostile environments and depauperate biota, is supported by an impressive amount of data from sedimentology, body fossils of animals and plants, and especially trace fossils.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. High-Resolution Genome-Wide Maps Reveal Widespread Presence of Torsional Insulation

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Porter M Hall
   2. Lauren A Mayse
   3. Lu Bai
   4. Marcus B Smolka
   5. B Franklin Pugh
   6. Michelle D Wang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The Twin Domain model proposed by Lui and Wang proposing that twin supercoiling domains of DNA emerge during transcription were first described decades ago, but direct experimental evidence has been challenging to obtain. Here, the authors make a fundamental contribution by directly measuring DNA torsion in cells using a photoactivatable intrastrand cross-linker compared to controls. They gather compelling data using this clever method, which provides direct evidence in support of the twin-supercoiled domain model, for torsional effects at transcription start and end sites, and thereby uncover novel features of higher order structure of chromatin in yeast. These data are exciting, and the tools will be of interest to anyone studying chromosome structure and gene regulation.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Oxytocin receptor controls promiscuity and development in prairie voles

   This article has 23 authors:

   1. Ruchira Sharma
   2. Kristen M Berendzen
   3. Amanda Everitt
   4. Belinda Wang
   5. Gina Williams
   6. Shuyu Wang
   7. Kara Quine
   8. Rose D Larios
   9. Kimberly LP Long
   10. Nerissa Hoglen
   11. Bibi Alika Sulaman
   12. Marie C Heath
   13. Michael Sherman
   14. Robert Klinkel
   15. Angela Cai
   16. Denis Galo
   17. Lizandro Chan Caamal
   18. Nastacia L Goodwin
   19. Annaliese Beery
   20. Karen L Bales
   21. Katherine S Pollard
   22. Arthur Jeremy Willsey
   23. Devanand S Manoli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding regarding how partner preference formation and pair bonding behavior are related to the oxytocin receptor gene expression in the NAc and paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in prairie voles. The evidence supporting this claim is solid but could benefit from clarity in the framing, approach, and results. This study will be of interest to social scientists and neuroscientists who work on pair bonding and oxytocin.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Global risk mapping of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 and H5Nx in the light of epidemic episodes occurring from 2020 onward

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Marie-Cécile Dupas
   2. Maria F Vincenti-Gonzalez
   3. Madhur Dhingra
   4. Claire Guinat
   5. Timothée Vergne
   6. William Wint
   7. Guy Hendrickx
   8. Cedric Marsboom
   9. Marius Gilbert
   10. Simon Dellicour

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors have undertaken a useful study to update an existing niche model of highly pathogenic avian influenza. However, there are issues regarding the conceptualisation of the ecological niche of highly pathogenic avian influenza transmission that the modelling aims to capture, raising concerns about the strength of evidence used to support the findings. There are a number of modelling assumptions that are incompletely justified. Combined with shortcomings in the communication, this dilutes the strength of the key findings of this work.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Dual transcranial electromagnetic stimulation of the precuneus-hippocampus network boosts human long-term memory

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Ilaria Borghi
   2. Lucia Mencarelli
   3. Michele Maiella
   4. Elias P. Casula
   5. Matteo Ferraresi
   6. Francesca Candeo
   7. Elena Savastano
   8. Martina Assogna
   9. Sonia Bonnì
   10. Giacomo Koch

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work presents potentially important findings suggesting that a combination of transcranial stimulation approaches applied for a short period could improve memory performance after administration. However, the evidence supporting the conclusions is currently incomplete. The work, if replicated in larger samples and animal models or clinical populations, will have both theoretical and practical implications for non-invasive enhancement of cognitive function.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The title and authors for this article are not available from our external data provider yet:
    10.48550/arxiv.2309.15174v2