eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Scale-free behavioral dynamics directly linked with scale-free cortical dynamics

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Sabrina A Jones
   2. Jacob H Barfield
   3. V Kindler Norman
   4. Woodrow L Shew

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of interest to neuroscientists studying the organization of neural activity and of behavior. The authors link the apparently scale-free distributions of behavioral metrics with scale-free distributions of neural activity, and then explore computationally mechanistic models that could account for these observations. While the alternative view set up in the introduction - that scale-free neural activity is "'background activity', not linked to behavior" - is perhaps overly simplistic, the analysis is thorough, and the mechanistic insights garnered from the computational modeling are intriguing.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Subventricular zone cytogenesis provides trophic support for neural repair

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Michael R. Williamson
   2. Stephanie P. Le
   3. Ronald L. Franzen
   4. Nicole A. Donlan
   5. Jill L. Rosow
   6. Andrew K. Dunn
   7. Theresa A. Jones
   8. Michael R. Drew

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors use a mouse stroke model to address a potential cellular source of functional recovery. Using multiple lineage tracing paradigms, they show that undifferentiated progenitor cells that migrate from the subventricular zone produce trophic factors including VEGF that promote functional and cellular recovery. These findings will be of interest to the neuroscience community, and those who study neural repair.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Robust cone-mediated signaling persists late into rod photoreceptor degeneration

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Miranda L Scalabrino
   2. Mishek Thapa
   3. Lindsey A Chew
   4. Esther Zhang
   5. Jason Xu
   6. Alapakkam P Sampath
   7. Jeannie Chen
   8. Greg D Field

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this study, the authors assess the decline of retinal function in a mouse model of slow photoreceptor degeneration. The authors use a linear-nonlinear receptive field model to characterize functional changes across some RGC populations and information theory to assess the fidelity of RGC signaling. They show remarkable preservation of cone-driven ganglion cell light responses in advanced stages of a retinitis pigmentosa model when most rods have died, and cone morphologies are dramatically altered. The results are presented clearly in the text and figures and are scholarly discussed. However, there are several technical and conceptual concerns with the conclusions that can be drawn.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Crosshair, semi-automated targeting for electron microscopy with a motorised ultramicrotome

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Kimberly Meechan
   2. Wei Guan
   3. Alfons Riedinger
   4. Vera Stankova
   5. Azumi Yoshimura
   6. Rosa Pipitone
   7. Arthur Milberger
   8. Helmuth Schaar
   9. Inés Romero-Brey
   10. Rachel Templin
   11. Christopher J Peddie
   12. Nicole L Schieber
   13. Martin L Jones
   14. Lucy Collinson
   15. Yannick Schwab

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Meechan et al. present a systematic approach to semi-automate an ultramicrotome operation for targeting a specific plane aided by x-ray tomography measurements. It is a fundamental work of great interest to any users of using electron microscopy (EM), particularly when targeting the imaging of thin sections in a select region of interest by ultramicrotomy, or when targeting volume EM of select sample regions. The manuscript documents with exceptional detail a workflow including both microtome modifications and software adaptations for semi-automated targeting of structures with micrometer precision, resulting in a faster and more accurate orientation of the image acquisition planes for volume electron microscopy, a task that has traditionally been difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, this work will reduce sample preparation labor and, critically, facilitate the comparison of the ultrastructure of multiple samples. The method is based on X-ray imaging acquisition prior to any sectioning and proposes a solution for the two instruments commercially available in the field, and by transparently sharing all the data, hardware, and software, and by describing every detail of the workflow, this fundamental method can be readily adopted by any practitioner, enabling its wide application - it is a key step in the field regarding speed-up, accuracy, and reproducibility in electron microscopy.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Plasticity-induced actin polymerization in the dendritic shaft regulates intracellular AMPA receptor trafficking

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Victor C Wong
   2. Patrick R Houlihan
   3. Hui Liu
   4. Deepika Walpita
   5. Michael C DeSantis
   6. Zhe Liu
   7. Erin K O'Shea

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this manuscript, the authors developed a sensitive single particle tracking method for endogenous AMPA receptors. They found that AMPAR-containing vesicles showed reduced mobility near stimulation sites, likely due to increased F-actin bundling in dendritic shafts. The study found a novel mechanism of AMPAR trafficking using state-of-the-art labeling and analysis techniques, and thus will be of great interest for broad audience. However, their conclusion requires additional experimental support.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Oscillations support short latency co-firing of neurons during human episodic memory formation

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Frédéric Roux
   2. George Parish
   3. Ramesh Chelvarajah
   4. David T Rollings
   5. Vijay Sawlani
   6. Hajo Hamer
   7. Stephanie Gollwitzer
   8. Gernot Kreiselmeyer
   9. Marije J ter Wal
   10. Luca Kolibius
   11. Bernhard P Staresina
   12. Maria Wimber
   13. Matthew W Self
   14. Simon Hanslmayr

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Roux and colleagues measured spiking activity and local field potentials predominantly from the hippocampus and also a few surrounding structures in the medial temporal lobe from patients with pharmacologically intractable epilepsy while the patients performed a cued-recall task. They report differences in local spike-field coherence measurements between hits and misses in the gamma frequency band and differences in both local and distal spike-field coherence measurements between hits and misses in the theta frequency band. The authors further report differences in the timing of spikes between pairs of neurons, with hits correlated with putative downstream neurons firing about 30 ms after putative upstream neurons and misses correlated with delays of about 60 ms. Overall, these are interesting observations that provide intriguing data to further think about how neurons in the medial temporal lobe correlate with recognition memory.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A parasitic fungus employs mutated eIF4A to survive on rocaglate-synthesizing Aglaia plants

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Mingming Chen
   2. Naoyoshi Kumakura
   3. Hironori Saito
   4. Ryan Muller
   5. Madoka Nishimoto
   6. Mari Mito
   7. Pamela Gan
   8. Nicholas T Ingolia
   9. Ken Shirasu
   10. Takuhiro Ito
   11. Yuichi Shichino
   12. Shintaro Iwasaki

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     In this important paper, Chen and colleagues identify a species of fungus, Ophiocordyceps sp. BRM1, that is able to grow on Aglaia sp. plants despite their production of rocaglate inhibitors of the eIF4A translation initiation factor. Through a series of solid experiments, the authors identify an amino acid substitution encoded in the fungal eIF4A gene that preserves eIF4A activity in the presence of these compounds. The authors conclude the substitution evolved to bypass this defense mechanism, similar to the way in which the plant itself bypasses it. The work will be of interest to fungal biologists and colleagues studying plant-microbe interactions.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Multiple preferred escape trajectories are explained by a geometric model incorporating prey’s turn and predator attack endpoint

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yuuki Kawabata
   2. Hideyuki Akada
   3. Ken-ichiro Shimatani
   4. Gregory Naoki Nishihara
   5. Hibiki Kimura
   6. Nozomi Nishiumi
   7. Paolo Domenici

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This article may be of interest to researchers working on predator-prey interactions in the fields of biomechanics and neurosensory biology. It presents a mathematical model that outputs possible escape trajectories given parameters relevant to the predator-prey system of interest. The premise of the modeling is attractive, as it includes the time required for prey to turn, but the methods as presently reported raise questions about the validity of some of the conclusions.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Stereotyped behavioral maturation and rhythmic quiescence in C. elegans embryos

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Evan L Ardiel
   2. Andrew Lauziere
   3. Stephen Xu
   4. Brandon J Harvey
   5. Ryan Patrick Christensen
   6. Stephen Nurrish
   7. Joshua M Kaplan
   8. Hari Shroff

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Embryonic behavior is a widespread phenomenon that remains poorly understood in any system. Ardiel et al. describe new quantitative methods for imaging late embryo behavior in C. elegans, which will be of great interest as a technical innovation. They identify a novel rhythmic behavior (which they call slow wave twitch) in very late embryogenesis that includes repeated periods of quiescence, and show that this behavior depends on a known pro-sleep neuron and neuropeptide. Although the biological function of the rhythmic sleep behavior is unclear, it has the potential to serve as a model for understanding the mechanisms and purposes of sleep in other model organisms.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The length of the thalamo-cortical white matter fibers brings insight into sex differences in sleep spindle frequency

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Pierre-Olivier Gaudreault
    2. Jean-Marc Lina
    3. Maxime Descoteaux
    4. Nadia Gosselin
    5. Julien Doyon
    6. Samuel Deslauriers-Gauthier
    7. Julie Carrier

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This valuable paper addresses an important question about the neuroanatomical markers of individual and sex differences in sleep spindle frequency. The authors report associations between an anatomical marker - the length of the white matter fibre bundles underlying the thalamocortical loop and sleep spindle frequency, and highlight that the length of the white matter projections from the thalamus to the frontal cortex mediates sex differences in the sleep spindle frequency. This work advances the field of sleep and brain research by showing for the first time the association between the anatomy of a specific brain network and specific functional characteristics.

      (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife