eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. The Crunchometer: A Low-Cost, Open-Source Acoustic Analysis of Feeding Microstructure

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Elvi Gil-Lievana
   2. Benjamin Arroyo
   3. Jesús Pérez-Ortega
   4. Axl Lopez
   5. Luis Alfredo Rodriguez Blanco
   6. Xarenny Diaz
   7. Gustavo Hernandez
   8. Alam Coss
   9. Emily Alway
   10. Naama Reicher
   11. Enrique Hernández Lemus
   12. Maya Kaelberer
   13. Diego V Bohórquez
   14. Ranier Gutierrez

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable manuscript presents an open-source and low-cost acoustic system for quantifying biting and chewing in mice. The approach is carefully validated against human observers, demonstrating strong methodological reliability and enabling high-resolution analysis of feeding microstructure. The tool has broad relevance for studies of appetite circuits and pharmacological interventions. A significant contribution is the identification of previously unrecognized "meal-related" neurons in the lateral hypothalamus, providing novel biological insight into food consumption. While the support for the methodological advances is compelling and robust, some circuit-level conclusions are preliminary or incomplete, relying on small pilot samples and manual classification, and should be interpreted with caution. This paper will be of interest to those interested in ingestive behavior and/or hypothalamus.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Cataloguing the postnatal small intestinal transcriptome during the first postnatal month

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Luiz Fernando Silva Oliveira
   2. Radhika S Khetani
   3. Yu-Syuan Wu
   4. Venkata Siva Dasuri
   5. Amanda W Harrington
   6. Oluwabunmi Olaloye
   7. Jeffrey Goldsmith
   8. David T Breault
   9. Liza Konnikova
   10. Shannan J Ho Sui
   11. Amy E O’Connell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a useful inventory of genes that are up- and down-regulated in the mouse small intestine (duodenum and ileum) during the first postnatal month; the data were collected and analyzed using solid and validated methodology and can be used as a starting point for additional validation of specific markers and for follow-up functional studies. Some aspects of the study were incomplete, with claims being only partially supported by the data, and it is suggested that additional validation be performed. The authors attempted to correlate gene expression changes with periods of high and low NEC susceptibility, but these correlations are speculative and not supported by functional follow-up studies. Discussion of gene expression changes with NEC susceptibility would be more appropriate to include in the Discussion section and to be tempered in the results section.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Time-adaptive modulation of evidence evaluation in rat posterior parietal cortex

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Preetham Ganupuru
   2. Adam B Goldring
   3. Tanner Stevenson
   4. Kendall Stewart
   5. Rishidev Chaudhuri
   6. Timothy D Hanks

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study examined the roles of the posterior parietal cortex in rats performing an auditory change-detection decision task. It provided solid evidence for two subpopulations with opposing modulation patterns during decision formation and for a correspondence between neural and behavioral measures of the short timescale used for evidence evaluation.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Two neuropeptides that promote blood feeding in Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Prashali Bansal
   2. Roshni Pillai
   3. Pooja D Babu
   4. Sonia Q Sen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is a valuable study that integrates behavioral and molecular approaches to identify neuromodulators influencing blood-feeding behavior in the disease vector Anopheles stephensi. Through gene expression analyses across blood-seeking life stages and RNA interference experiments, the authors present solid evidence that co-knockdown of the neuromodulators short Neuropeptide F and RYamide affects blood-seeking states in A. stephensi. However, evidence demonstrating that these neuropeptides are sufficient to promote host-seeking is lacking.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Bilateral equalization of synaptic output in olfactory glomeruli of Xenopus tadpoles

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Marta Casas
   2. Beatrice Terni
   3. Artur Llobet

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript investigates inter-hemispheric interactions in the olfactory system of Xenopus tadpoles. Using a combination of electrophysiology, pharmacology, imaging, and uncaging, the transection of the contralateral nerve is shown to lead to larger odor responses in the unmanipulated hemisphere, and implicates dopamine signaling in this process. The study uses a rich and sophisticated array of tools to investigate olfactory coding and uncovers valuable mechanisms of signaling. However, the data is incomplete, with a few of the conclusions not being well-supported by the data; the interpretation should be adjusted with some caveats, or additional experiments should be done to support these conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Twice as nice: Boosts in adolescent reinforcement learning from Pavlovian bias and age-related prioritization of reward-motivated incidental memory

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Haley Hegefeld
   2. Juliet Y Davidow

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable developmental study provides intriguing but incomplete evidence suggesting that, relative to adults, the enhancement of instrumental learning by Pavlovian bias is most pronounced in adolescence, while reward-induced memory enhancements are strongest in childhood. Although the authors tackle a key aspect of learning and motivation with rigorous experimental methods and sophisticated modeling techniques, there are substantial concerns about the absence of relevant analyses, the lack of accord between model-based and exploratory analyses, and the lack of an explanation for how the results cohere with inconsistent findings in the literature.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The nucleus accumbens shell regulates hedonic feeding via a rostral hotspot

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Alina-Măriuca Marinescu
   2. Eshita Kamal
   3. Peter Leary
   4. Keila Navarro I Batista
   5. Manuel Klug
   6. Nataša Savić
   7. Christelle Le Foll
   8. Marie A Labouesse

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a valuable contribution to understanding the functional and molecular organization of the medial nucleus accumbens shell in feeding. Using in vivo imaging, optogenetics, and genetic engineering, the authors present solid evidence for a rostro-caudal gradient in D1-SPN activity that refines earlier pharmacological models. The identification of Stard5 and Peg10 as molecular markers and the creation of a Stard5-Flp line represent meaningful advances for future circuit-specific studies. While stronger integration of molecular and functional results and additional analyses of other Stard5-expressing cell types (e.g., D2-SPNs, interneurons) would enhance completeness, the overall methodological rigor and convergence of findings make this a well-executed and informative study. This will be of interest to those interested in brain circuits, reward, emotion, and feeding behavior.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Subtle methodological variations substantially impact correlation test results in ecological time series

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Caroline Cannistra
   2. Linh Hoang
   3. Alex E Yuan
   4. Wenying Shou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable in-depth comparison of statistical methods for the analysis of ecological time series data, and shows that different analyses can generate different conclusions, emphasizing the importance of carefully choosing methods and of reporting methodological details. The evidence supporting the claims, based on simulated data for a two-species ecosystem, is solid, although testing on more complex datasets could be of further benefit. This paper should be of broad interest to researchers in ecology.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Heterogeneous responses to embryonic critical period perturbations within the Drosophila larval locomotor circuit

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Niklas Krick
   2. Jacob Davies
   3. Bramwell Coulson
   4. Daniel Sobrido-Cameán
   5. Michael Miller
   6. Matthew CW Oswald
   7. Aref A Zarin
   8. Richard Baines
   9. Matthias Landgraf

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is an important study of critical period plasticity, focused on temperature manipulations, and how different parts of the Drosophila larval motor circuit adapt or maladapt. The work convincingly demonstrates that components of the motor network respond in distinct ways to the heat shock, and the combination of functional, structural, and electrophysiological approaches makes the study of significant interest. The work points to central interneurons as primary drivers of maladaptive changes, while motoneurons and neuromuscular junctions show compensatory or homeostatic adjustments. The study is methodologically rigorous, contributing significant insights into critical period biology using a tractable invertebrate model.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Anti-resonance in developmental signaling regulates cell fate decisions

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Samuel J Rosen
    2. Olivier Witteveen
    3. Naomi Baxter
    4. Ryan S Lach
    5. Erik Hopkins
    6. Marianne Bauer
    7. Maxwell Z Wilson

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This important work combines theoretical analysis with precise experimental perturbation to demonstrate a previously unappreciated quantitative characteristic of the Wnt signaling pathway, which is anti-resonance, or a suppression of pathway output at intermediate activation frequencies. This effect is demonstrated experimentally with compelling evidence from optogenetic stimulation in multiple cell types, alongside modeling results that corroborate the phenomenon. While the demonstration of this phenomenon has yet to be extended to fully physiological situations, its clear existence within optogenetically stimulated systems shows that it is likely a significant factor that contributes to the behavior of this central signaling pathway.

    Reviewed by eLife