eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Regulation of pDC fate determination by histone deacetylase 3

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yijun Zhang
   2. Tao Wu
   3. Zhimin He
   4. Wenlong Lai
   5. Xiangyi Shen
   6. Jiaoyan Lv
   7. Yuanhao Wang
   8. Li Wu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study examines the expression of HDAC3 within DC compartment. Taking advantage of tamoxifen inducible ERT2-cre mouse model they observe the dependency of pDCs but not cDCs on HDAC3. The requirement of this histone modifier appears to occur during development around the CLP stage. Tamoxifen treated mice lack almost all pDC besides lymphoid progenitors. RNA seq studies identify multiple DC specific target genes within the remaining pDC - using Cut and Tag technology they validate some of the identified targets of HDAC3. Taken together, this study shows the requirement of HDAC3 on pDC but not cDC, congruent with the recent findings of a lymphoid origin of pDC.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Modulation of input sensitivity and output gain by retinal amacrine cells

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Neda Nategh
   2. Mihai Manu
   3. Stephen A. Baccus

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper studies how amacrine cells influence retinal output signals. The approach taken is unusually direct and has the potential to make important contributions to our understanding of amacrine cells, and more generally interneurons, to circuit function. The contributions of the work described, however, are limited by several key concerns. Specifically, the results rely heavily on assumptions made about how signals traverse the retina; as a result, the evidence for adequate separation of signals contributed by the amacrine cells and those from other parallel retinal pathways is incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Toolkits for detailed and high-throughput interrogation of synapses in C. elegans

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Maryam Majeed
   2. Haejun Han
   3. Keren Zhang
   4. Wen Xi Cao
   5. Chien-Po Liao
   6. Oliver Hobert
   7. Hang Lu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Studies of synaptic development and plasticity in the nematode C. elegans have been limited by the difficulty of rapid, accurate assessments of synaptic structure. Here, with a series of convincing studies, the authors introduce and validate a valuable computational pipeline, "WormPsyQi," that allows rapid, reproducible quantitation of fluorescent synaptic puncta while minimizing human error and bias. The authors also describe a new set of strains carrying synaptic markers. Together, these tools should provide groups studying this model system with the ability to quantitatively characterize chemical and electrical synapses, even in densely packed regions in 3D space such as the nerve ring.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Omissions of threat trigger subjective relief and prediction error-like signaling in the human reward and salience systems

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Anne L Willems
   2. Lukas Van Oudenhove
   3. Bram Vervliet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on the relationship between prediction errors and brain activation in response to unexpected omissions of painful electric shocks. The strengths are the research question posed, as it has remained unresolved if prediction errors in the context of biologically aversive outcomes resemble reward-based prediction errors. The evidence is solid but there are weaknesses in the experimental design, where verbal instructions do not align with experienced outcome probabilities. It is further unclear how to interpret neural prediction error signaling in the assumed absence of learning. The work will be of interest to cognitive neuroscientists and psychologists studying appetitive and aversive learning.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. EEG-fMRI in awake rat and whole-brain simulations show decreased brain responsiveness to sensory stimulations during absence seizures

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Petteri Stenroos
   2. Isabelle Guillemain
   3. Federico Tesler
   4. Olivier Montigon
   5. Nora Collomb
   6. Vasile Stupar
   7. Alain Destexhe
   8. Veronique Coizet
   9. Olivier David
   10. Emmanuel L Barbier

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study conducted fMRI experiments in an inbred rat model of absence seizures. The results provide new information suggesting reduced brain responsiveness during this type of seizure. The reviewers had divergent opinions but on average thought the study was valuable and the conclusions were solid.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Pinpoint: trajectory planning for multi-probe electrophysiology and injections in an interactive web-based 3D environment

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Daniel Birman
   2. Kenneth J. Yang
   3. Steven J. West
   4. Bill Karsh
   5. Yoni Browning
   6. the International Brain Laboratory
   7. Joshua H. Siegle
   8. Nicholas A. Steinmetz

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Birman et al. present a valuable software interface, Pinpoint, for planning anatomically precise insertions of rigid instruments (e.g., electrodes, injection needles/pipettes, fibre optic implants) into the mouse brain. The authors provide compelling evidence of the potential of this software since, it: (1) incorporates the geometrical constraints of the rig and instruments; (2) interfaces with popular manipulator systems and data acquisition software; (3) runs on any browser; and (4) allows for easy collaboration among users. Despite these exciting features, quantification of the gains in experimental efficiency and accuracy derived from Pinpoint is needed.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The stability of the primed pool of synaptic vesicles and the clamping of spontaneous neurotransmitter release rely on the integrity of the C-terminal half of the SNARE domain of syntaxin-1A

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Andrea Salazar Lázaro
   2. Thorsten Trimbuch
   3. Gülçin Vardar
   4. Christian Rosenmund

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study presents a series of results to uncover the role of C-terminal half of the Syx1 SNARE domain. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing. The paper will be of broad interest to biophysicists and neurobiologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Auditory cortex anatomy reflects multilingual phonological experience

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Olga Kepinska
   2. Josue Dalboni da Rocha
   3. Carola Tuerk
   4. Alexis Hervais-Adelman
   5. Florence Bouhali
   6. David W Green
   7. Cathy J Price
   8. Narly Golestani

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This report details convincing evidence that experience with multilingualism in general, and with larger phonological inventories specifically, is related to differences in the structure of the transverse temporal gyri. The project is notable for using a relatively large sample, and confirming the primary finding in a second sample. The important findings strongly point to experience-dependent plasticity related to language experience as a driver of neuroanatomy of the auditory cortex.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Stimulation of VTA dopamine inputs to LH upregulates orexin neuronal activity in a DRD2-dependent manner

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Masaya Harada
   2. Laia Serratosa Capdevila
   3. Maria Wilhelm
   4. Denis Burdakov
   5. Tommaso Patriarchi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable findings that expand our view of dopamine release in different brain regions and show that dopamine release in the lateral hypothalamus is related to the activity of orexin neurons. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although inclusion of tests that directly assess causality of the noble pathways would have been even more conclusive. The work will be of interest of neuroscientists who study the neural basis of motivation.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. A new ‘CFS tracking’ paradigm reveals uniform suppression depth regardless of target complexity or salience

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. David Alais
    2. Jacob Coorey
    3. Randolph Blake
    4. Matthew J Davidson

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This valuable study introduces an innovative method for measuring interocular suppression depth, which implicates mechanisms underlying subconscious visual processing. The evidence is solid in suggesting that the new method yields provocative uniform suppression depth results across image categories that differ from conventional bCFS threshold. It will be of interest not only to cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists who study sensation and perception but also to philosophers who work on theories of consciousness.

    Reviewed by eLife