eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Modality-Agnostic Decoding of Vision and Language from fMRI

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Mitja Nikolaus
   2. Milad Mozafari
   3. Isabelle Berry
   4. Nicholas Asher
   5. Leila Reddy
   6. Rufin VanRullen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The study introduces a valuable dataset for investigating the relationship between vision and language in the brain. The authors provide convincing evidence that decoders trained on brain responses to both images and captions outperform those trained on responses to a single modality. The dataset and decoder results will be of interest to communities studying brain and machine decoding.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A Forebrain Hub for Cautious Actions via the Midbrain

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Ji Zhou
   2. Muhammad S Sajid
   3. Sebastian Hormigo
   4. Manuel A Castro-Alamancos

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study uses fiber photometry, implantable lenses, and optogenetics to show that a subset of subthalamic nucleus neurons is active during movement, and that active but not passive avoidance depends in part on STN projections to substantia nigra. The strength of the evidence for these claims is solid, whereas evidence supporting the claims that STN is involved in cautious responding or the speed of avoidance is incomplete. This paper will be of interest to basic and applied behavioural neuroscientists working on avoidance if suitably streamlined to support the strongest claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Pathogenic O-GlcNAc dyshomeostasis associated with cortical malformations and hyperactivity

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Florence Authier
   2. Asad Jan
   3. Islam Faress
   4. Christian Stald Skoven
   5. Iria Esperon-Abril
   6. Shagana Tharmakulasingam Balasubramaniam
   7. Kévin-Sébastien Coquelin
   8. Jens R Nyengaard
   9. Carsten Scavenius
   10. Benedetta Attianese
   11. Oscar G Sevillano-Quispe
   12. Simon Fristed Eskildsen
   13. Jesper Skovhus Thomsen
   14. Brian Hansen
   15. Daan MF van Aalten

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study that takes a key step towards understanding developmental disorders linked to mutations in the O-GlcNAc transferase enzyme by generating a mouse model harboring the C921Y mutation. The study thoroughly examines behavioral and anatomical differences in these mice and finds behavioral hyperactivity and learning/memory deficits, as well as phenotypic differences in skull and brain formation. However, the experimental evidence is incomplete owing to discrepancy in OGT protein/RNA levels in the C921Y mutant mice in this paper and the previous paper ("Neurodevelopmental defects in a mouse model of O-GlcNAc transferase intellectual disability "). This line of research will benefit from investigation of the differences in associated glycoproteins and mechanistic insights. This study will be of interest to those studying neurodevelopment, learning and behavior, or associated brain mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Inferring variant-specific effective reproduction numbers from combined case and sequencing data

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Marlin D Figgins
   2. Trevor Bedford

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides new important insights concerning pathogen variant-specific reproduction parameters from molecular sequencing and case finding. The methods for inferring which variants will likely emerge in subsequent epidemic cycles are solid. This article is of broad interest to infectious disease epidemiology researchers and mathematical modellers of the COVID-19 pandemic.

   Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT

5. Mood computational mechanisms underlying increased risk behavior in adolescent suicidal patients

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Zhihao Wang
   2. Tian Nan
   3. Fengmei Lu
   4. Yue Yu
   5. Xiao Cai
   6. Zongling He
   7. Yuejia Luo
   8. Ting Wang
   9. Bastien Blain

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study combined careful computational modeling, a large patient sample, and replication in an independent general population sample to provide a computational account of a difference in risk-taking between people who have attempted suicide and those who have not. It is proposed that this difference reflects a general change in the approach to risky (high-reward) options and a lower emotional response to certain rewards. Evidence for the specificity of the effect to suicide, however, is incomplete, which would require additional analyses.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. An increase of NPY1 expression leads to inhibitory phosphorylation of PIN-FORMED (PIN) proteins and suppression of pinoid (pid) null mutants

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Michael Mudgett
   2. Zhouxin Shen
   3. Ruofan Kang
   4. Xinhua Dai
   5. Steve Briggs
   6. Yunde Zhao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study concerns a highly interesting and biologically relevant topic, the regulation of the PIN auxin transporter, which is of broad interest to the plant biology community. The authors propose NPY1 to act downstream of PID in auxin-mediated development by modulating PIN phosphorylation, which, if experimentally solidified, would expand our understanding of PIN regulation. While the genetic evidence is solid, the mechanistic role of NPY1 and the functional relevance of phosphorylated PIN residues are still uncertain. There are also concerns regarding experimental rigor and methodological transparency.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Listening to the room: disrupting activity of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impairs learning of room acoustics in human listeners

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Heivet Hernández-Pérez
   2. Jason Mikiel-Hunter
   3. James Traer
   4. Jessica JM Monaghan
   5. Paul F Sowman
   6. David McAlpine

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment:

     This study addresses valuable questions about the neural mechanisms underlying statistical learning of room acoustics, combining robust behavioral measures with non-invasive brain stimulation. The behavioral findings are strong and extend previous work in psychoacoustics, but the TMS results are modest, with methodological limitations and over-interpretation that weaken the mechanistic conclusions. The strength of evidence is therefore incomplete, and a more cautious interpretation of the stimulation findings, alongside strengthened analyses, would improve the manuscript.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Morphogenesis and morphometry of brain folding patterns across species

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Sifan Yin
   2. Chunzi Liu
   3. Gary PT Choi
   4. Yeonsu Jung
   5. Katja Heuer
   6. Roberto Toro
   7. L Mahadevan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents a cross-species and cross-disciplinary analysis of cortical folding. The authors use a combination of physical gel models, computational simulations, and morphometric analysis, extending prior work in human brain development to macaques and ferrets. The findings support the hypothesis that mechanical forces driven by differential growth can account for major aspects of gyrification. The evidence presented is overall strong and convincingly supports the central claims; the findings will be of broad interest in developmental neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Biophysical basis for brain folding and misfolding patterns in ferrets and humans

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Gary PT Choi
   2. Chunzi Liu
   3. Sifan Yin
   4. Gabrielle Séjourné
   5. Richard S Smith
   6. Christopher A Walsh
   7. L Mahadevan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study characterises the morphogenesis of cortical folding in the ferret and human cerebral cortex using complementary physical and computational modelling. Notably, these approaches are applied to charting, in the ferret model, known abnormalities of cortical folding in humans. The study finds convincing evidence that variation in cortical thickness and expansion account for deviations in morphology, and supports these findings using cutting-edge approaches from both physical gel models and numerical simulations. The study will be of broad interest to the field of developmental neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Bacteria detect neutrophils via a system that responds to hypochlorous acid and flow

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Ilona P Foik
    2. Runhang Shu
    3. Serena Abbondante
    4. Summer J Kasallis
    5. Lauren A Urban
    6. Andy P Huang
    7. Leora Duong
    8. Michaela E Marshall
    9. Eric Pearlman
    10. Timothy L Downing
    11. Albert Siryaporn

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This is an important study reporting a new phenotype for a gene cluster that has previously been associated with the responses of the Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa to flow fluid. Expression of the froABCD gene cluster is induced by HOCl in vitro and by activated immune cells, which produce these types of reactive chlorine species. Overall, the evidence presented by the authors is solid; however, the mechanism of fro-induction by HOCl remains unclear, and the evidence in support of the authors' claims is descriptive, which needs to be improved. This study is of interest to infection biologists interested in mechanisms of bacterial pathogenicity.

    Reviewed by eLife