eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. RatInABox, a toolkit for modelling locomotion and neuronal activity in continuous environments

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Tom M George
   2. Mehul Rastogi
   3. William de Cothi
   4. Claudia Clopath
   5. Kimberly Stachenfeld
   6. Caswell Barry

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     George et al. present a convincing new Python toolbox ("RatInABox") that allows researchers to generate synthetic behavior and neural data specifically focusing on hippocampal functional cell types (place cells, grid cells, boundary vector cells, head direction cells).

     This is valuable for theory-driven research where synthetic benchmarks should be used. Beyond just navigation, it can be highly useful for novel tool development that requires jointly modeling behavior and neural data. The authors provide convincing evidence of its utility with well documented and easy to use code and the corresponding manuscript.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Enhanced KNa1.1 Channel Underlies Cortical Hyperexcitability and Seizure Susceptibility after Traumatic Brain Injury

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Ru Liu
   2. Lei Sun
   3. Le Du
   4. Xi Guo
   5. Meng Jia
   6. Qun Wang
   7. Jianping Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This potentially valuable study provides some evidence that upregulation of sodium-activated potassium channels contributes to neuronal hyperexcitability and seizures following traumatic brain injury. However, the evidence supporting a direct link is incomplete. This work will be of interest to epilepsy and ion channel researchers.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Avoidance of hydrogen sulfide is modulated by external and internal states in Caenorhabditis elegans

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Longjun Pu
   2. Lina Zhao
   3. Jing Wang
   4. Clementine Deleuze
   5. Lars Nilsson
   6. Johan Henriksson
   7. Patrick Laurent
   8. Changchun Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     These valuable studies explore the consequences of exposure to the toxin hydrogen sulfide (H2S) on the behavior and physiology of C. elegans. The work finds that behavioral changes evoked by H2S exposure are modulated by several regulatory pathways known to influence chemosensory-evoked locomotor behavior, but there is incomplete data to support the authors' claim of comprehensive mechanistic insight into the consequences of H2S exposure. Nevertheless, the findings may be informative for those studying organismal stress responses and the effects of mitochondrial ROS on behavior and physiology.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Comparative neuroimaging of sex differences in human and mouse brain anatomy

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Elisa Guma
   2. Antoine Beauchamp
   3. Siyuan Liu
   4. Elizabeth Levitis
   5. Jacob Ellegood
   6. Linh Pham
   7. Rogier B Mars
   8. Armin Raznahan
   9. Jason P Lerch

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this important study, Guma and colleagues describe the use of structural neuroimaging to assess the cross-species convergence of sex differences in global and regional brain volumes in humans and mice. The goal of the work is to inform to what extent mouse studies of these aforementioned sex differences have relevance to humans. The authors suggest which aspects of brain anatomy (as measured by volume) are conserved or not, across species, which has theoretical and practical implications beyond a single sub-field. The evidence to support the findings is solid, it uses methods and data analysis that are appropriate and validated.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Rule-based modulation of a sensorimotor transformation across cortical areas

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Yi-Ting Chang
   2. Eric A Finkel
   3. Duo Xu
   4. Daniel H O'Connor

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work advances our understanding of how brains flexibly gate actions in different contexts, a topic of great interest to the broader field of systems neuroscience. Recording neural activity from several sensory and motor cortical areas along a sensorimotor pathway, the authors found that preparatory activity in motor cortical areas of the mouse depends on the context in which an action will be carried out, consistent with previous theoretical and experimental work. Furthermore, the authors provide causal evidence that these changes support flexible gating of actions. The carefully carried out experiments were analyzed using state-of-the-art methodology and provide convincing conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Clustered synapses develop in distinct dendritic domains in visual cortex before eye opening

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Alexandra H Leighton
   2. Juliette E Cheyne
   3. Christian Lohmann

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work provides insight into the activity and spatial organization of synapses during early postnatal development in the mouse visual cortex, using state-of-the-art tools to show that synapses are distributed in co-active clusters well before eye opening. The evidence supporting the claims is convincing, and this revised version provides additional methodological details about the experimental paradigm and image analysis.. This work is of particular interest to the field of developmental neuroscience and can also be used by computational neuroscientists studying dendritic integration.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Cortical neuroprosthesis-mediated functional ipsilateral control of locomotion in rats with spinal cord hemisection

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Elena Massai
   2. Marco Bonizzato
   3. Isley De Jesus
   4. Roxanne Drainville
   5. Marina Martinez

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The contributions of ipsilateral cortical pathways to motor control are yet not fully understood. Here, the authors present important insights into their role in locomotion following unilateral spinal cord injury. Their data provide convincing evidence in rats that stimulation of ipsilateral motor cortex improves the injured side's ability to support weight and leads to improved locomotion, a result that may inspire new treatments for spinal or cerebral injuries.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. BMP signalling facilitates transit amplification in the developing chick and human cerebellum

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Victoria Rook
   2. Parthiv Haldipur
   3. Kathleen J Millen
   4. Thomas Butts
   5. Richard J Wingate

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study investigates BMP signaling mechanisms in the developing chick cerebellum to better understand germinal layer formation, cellular amplification and neuronal differentiation. The data from human tissue is compelling and lends support to the possible links of these processes to medulloblastoma, although this study does raise exciting questions regarding the generalized role of BMP signaling during normal development and malignant growth. Overall, this is an important study with beautifully presented findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Illuminating T cell-dendritic cell interactions in vivo by FlAsHing antigens

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Munir Akkaya
   2. Jafar Al Souz
   3. Daniel Williams
   4. Rahul Kamdar
   5. Olena Kamenyeva
   6. Juraj Kabat
   7. Ethan M. Shevach
   8. Billur Akkaya

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study that develops a method to fluorescently label peptide MHC complexes on live dendritic cells to enable detection of antigen specific T cells in polyclonal populations. Solid evidence that this can be used to effectively identify antigen specific T cells in vitro and in vivo is provided for one model antigen systems (Ova-OTII). The approach has exciting potential as prior single step methods with directly conjugated single peptides have generally failed due to high background. Thus, this approach potentially moves the state of the art forward, but further work is needed to realise and determine the limits and ultimate utility of the approach.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. A single pair of pharyngeal neurons functions as a commander to reject high salt in Drosophila melanogaster

    This article has 8 authors:

    1. Jiun Sang
    2. Subash Dhakal
    3. Bhanu Shrestha
    4. Dharmendra Kumar Nath
    5. Yunjung Kim
    6. Anindya Ganguly
    7. Craig Montell
    8. Youngseok Lee

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This valuable study on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of ingestion avoidance of high salt in insects is focused in scope, but the authors present convincing evidence that a specific subset of gustatory receptors in a pair of pharyngeal taste neurons are necessary and sufficient for avoiding ingestion of high salt during feeding. This work will be of interest to Drosophila neuroscientists interested in taste coding and feeding behavior.

    Reviewed by eLife