eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Flexible brain state engagement predicts cognitive control transdiagnostically

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Jean Ye
   2. Saloni Mehta
   3. Milana Khaitova
   4. Jagriti Arora
   5. Fuyuze Tokoglu
   6. C Alice Hahn
   7. Cheryl Lacadie
   8. Abigail S Greene
   9. Marisa N Spann
   10. Gerard Sanacora
   11. Scott W Woods
   12. Vinod H Srihari
   13. R Todd Constable
   14. Dustin Scheinost

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable paper reports on a measure of flexible brain state engagement, derived from fMRI, as a predictor of cognitive control. One strength of the study is the use of external datasets for validation and replication. The results are solid, although some may benefit from further explanation.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Rapid cortical reorganization tracks goal-directed sensorimotor learning in real time

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Anthony Renard
   2. Georgios Foustoukos
   3. Maya Iuga
   4. Pol Bech
   5. Axel Bisi
   6. Robin F Dard
   7. Sylvain Crochet
   8. Carl CH Petersen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study aimed to explore whether sensory representations in the cortex reorganize on the same timescale over which behavioral changes first emerge. Convincing evidence is presented to show that reward-dependent plasticity takes place in the mouse barrel cortex within a single recording session as mice learn a whisker detection task. However, the evidence supporting the authors' proposal that this rapid reorganization may involve spontaneous reactivation of neurons that gain stimulus responsiveness during training is incomplete. The work will be of interest to systems neuroscientists studying cortical circuits and learning.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Split-trial analysis reveals the information capacity of neural population codes

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Dylan Le
   2. Xue-Xin Wei

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study describes a simple and robust approach for estimating information-limiting noise by splitting neural populations and comparing estimator values. The authors report more accurate and robust results compared to previous methods. The evidence for the robustness of the method is currently incomplete; some concerns regarding bias need to be resolved, and additional tests need to be provided on how the number of trials and neurons affect performance.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Structured stabilization in recurrent neural circuits through inhibitory synaptic plasticity

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Dylan Festa
   2. Claudia Cusseddu
   3. Julijana Gjorgjieva

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work establishes a valuable theoretical finding about how the spike timing dependence of inhibitory plasticity shapes recurrent network connectivity. The combination of theoretical analysis and simulations provides convincing evidence that effective inhibitory connectivity forms a so-called Mexican-hat profile when multiple inhibitory neuron types follow distinct learning rules. These mechanisms are thought to be implicated in the contextual modulation of neuronal responses to stimuli.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Engulfment by brain macrophages in a short-lived vertebrate

   This article has 23 authors:

   1. Rahul Nagvekar
   2. Angela N Pogson
   3. Prateek R Kalakuntla
   4. Helena J Barr
   5. Azalia M Martínez Jaimes
   6. SV Perry
   7. Emma K Costa
   8. Jingxun Chen
   9. Felix Boos
   10. Paloma Navarro Negredo
   11. Luise A Seeker
   12. James B Jaggard
   13. Rogelio Barajas
   14. Philippe Mourrain
   15. Param Priya Singh
   16. Stephen R Quake
   17. Tony Wyss-Coray
   18. Kristy Red-Horse
   19. Beth Stevens
   20. Bo Wang
   21. Claire N Bedbrook
   22. Ravi D Nath
   23. Anne Brunet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study establishes a novel genetic model for chronic, in vivo visualization of protein engulfment in brain macrophages from the naturally short-lived African turquoise killifish. The solid data presented here show that brain phagocytes exhibit transcriptional features resembling mammalian border associated macrophages and monocyte derived macrophages rather than classical microglia and that their engulfment capacity declines with age, providing a resource for future studies on brain immune cells in teleosts. This research will interest a broad audience across developmental biology, genetics, neuroimmunology, aging research, and evolutionary biology.

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

   Reviewed by eLife

6. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.64898/2026.05.11.724235

7. We couldn't get details of this article at this time:
   10.1101/2025.10.03.680300

8. Demonstrating the ability of GABAergic cells in the zona incerta to modulate motivation

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Laura Korobkova
   2. Brian G Dias

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This set of studies provides important knowledge for the role of zona incerta neurons in motivation and food-seeking in mice. The evidence supporting the findings is convincing, with the use of multiple approaches and nice behavioral procedures to provide converging lines of evidence. Additional analyses and data from the current studies would further strengthen the evidence. This work will be of interest to those interested in motivation and its brain substrates.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Glycolipid MPIase is essential for the TAT (Twin-Arginine Translocation) pathway

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Hanako Nishikawa
   2. Nachi Yamamoto
   3. Hayate Kunezaki
   4. Yui Shirogane
   5. Kotoka Kanno
   6. Katsuhiro Sawasato
   7. Miwa Yamada
   8. Ken-ichi Nishiyama

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study demonstrates a critical role of the glycolipid membrane protein insertase (MPIase) in the twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway, a protein translocation system that is conserved across all domains of life. The successful reconstitution of the bacterial Tat system in both bacteria-derived and artificial liposomes provides solid experimental evidence that MPIase has a broader role in membrane protein translocation than previously recognized. By revealing the essential function of a nonproteinaceous membrane component in catalyzing a core cellular process, this work offers fundamental insights into the molecular mechanisms of protein translocation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Quantitative multi-scale morphodynamic analysis reveals ratchet-like collective DVE migration and epiblast retrograde cell flow during anterior patterning in the mouse embryo

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Matthew J Stower
    2. Felix Y Zhou
    3. Rahil Valani
    4. Jan Rozman
    5. Holly Hathrell
    6. Jonathan Godwin
    7. Xin Lu
    8. Jens Rittscher
    9. Julia M Yeomans
    10. Shankar Srinivas

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      The authors provide convincing evidence that, during early mouse embryogenesis, distal visceral endoderm cells migrate in a coordinated, intermittent start-and-stop manner along an axis that correlates with the asymmetric morphology of the ectoplacental cone. This fundamental finding is supported by high-quality live imaging and quantitative image analysis, while computational modelling suggests that the observed intermittent behavior may be explained by the movement of a cohesive cell group through a viscoelastic tissue, rather than by fluctuations in DVE migration velocity itself.

    Reviewed by eLife