eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Virtual Brain Inference (VBI), a flexible and integrative toolkit for efficient probabilistic inference on whole-brain models

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Abolfazl Ziaeemehr
   2. Marmaduke Woodman
   3. Lia Domide
   4. Spase Petkoski
   5. Viktor Jirsa
   6. Meysam Hashemi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper presents a valuable software package, named "Virtual Brain Inference" (VBI), that enables faster and more efficient inference of parameters in dynamical system models of whole-brain activity, grounded in artificial network networks for Bayesian statistical inference. The authors have provided convincing evidence, across several case studies, for the utility and validity of the methods using simulated data from several commonly used models, but more thorough benchmarking could be used to demonstrate the practical utility of the toolkit. This work will be of interest to computational neuroscientists interested in modelling large-scale brain dynamics.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Population-level morphological analysis of paired CO2- and odor-sensing olfactory neurons in D. melanogaster via volume electron microscopy

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Jonathan Choy
   2. Shadi Charara
   3. Kalyani Cauwenberghs
   4. Quintyn McKaughan
   5. Keun-Young Kim
   6. Mark H Ellisman
   7. Chih-Ying Su

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study reveals surprising morphological diversity of Drosophila sensory neurons. Using serial block-face electron microscopy, the authors created detailed 3D reconstructions of large neuronal populations, convincingly finding significant structural variation both within and across distinct classes. These results form the basis for testable hypotheses on how neuronal arborization is optimized for particular sensory functions. This research will be highly relevant to biologists in the fields of physiology, insect chemosensation, and neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Cerebellar Purkinje cell stripe patterns reveal a differential vulnerability and resistance to cell loss during normal aging in mice

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Sarah G Donofrio
   2. Cheryl Brandenburg
   3. Amanda M Brown
   4. Tao Lin
   5. Hsiang-Chih Lu
   6. Roy V Sillitoe

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents findings on the patterned loss of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum during aging. The compelling data nicely support the conclusions of this study. This work advances understanding of mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration with aging and provides the basis for development of treatments for age-related neurological disorders.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Locus coeruleus modulation of single-cell representation and population dynamics in the mouse prefrontal cortex during attentional switching

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Marco Nigro
   2. Lucas Silva Tortorelli
   3. Machhindra Garad
   4. Natalie E Zlebnik
   5. Hongdian Yang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on how the locus coeruleus modulates the involvement of medial prefrontal cortex in set shifting using calcium imaging. The evidence supporting the claims was viewed as incomplete in comparisons of extra- (EDS) and intradimensional shifts (IDS). The work is of broad interest to those studying flexible cognition.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Atherosclerosis, Intracranial Aneurysms, and Intermediate Biomarkers: Real-World Observational and Mendelian Randomization Research

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Wei Liu
   2. Zhaoxu Zheng
   3. Chenglong Liu
   4. Yuanren Zhai
   5. Shuang Wang
   6. Liangran Huang
   7. Rong Wang
   8. Yan Zhang
   9. Peicong Ge
   10. Dong Zhang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This is valuable work with theoretical implications for possible mediation by MMP12 in the link between atherosclerosis and intracranial aneurysms, using Mendelian Randomization for causal inference. Additional analysis would be required to verify the claims, which currently have incomplete support in terms of the strength of evidence. Given that most of the identified causal associations do not hold after correcting for multiple tests, the conclusions should be carefully reviewed in order to be fully supported by the results.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Cryo-EM structures of a pentameric ligand-gated ion channel in liposomes

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Vikram Dalal
   2. Brandon K Tan
   3. Hanrui Xu
   4. Wayland WL Cheng

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The reported cryo-EM imaging of a pentameric ligand-gated ion channel in liposomes as opposed to nanodiscs has both broad implications and contributes valuable methodological advances to the structural investigation of membrane receptors. The comparison of structures assigned to distinct functional states in liposomes versus nanodiscs is convincing and will aid membrane protein structural biologists in selection of functionally relevant membrane reconstitution environments.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Chemostat culturing reduces fecal eukaryotic virus load and delays diarrhea after virome transplantation

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Simone Margaard Offersen
   2. Signe Adamberg
   3. Malene Roed Spiegelhauer
   4. Xiaotian Mao
   5. Torben Sølbeck Rasmussen
   6. Frej Larsen
   7. Jingren Zhong
   8. Duc Ninh Nguyen
   9. Dennis Sandris Nielsen
   10. Lise Aunsholt
   11. Thomas Thymann
   12. Kaarel Adamberg
   13. Anders Brunse

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this valuable study, the authors report on an innovative chemostat propagation system to reduce eukaryotic viruses while retaining phages in mixtures used for FVTs (fecal virome transplant). The authors hypothesized that chemostat-propagated viromes could modulate the gut microbiota and reduce necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) lesions while avoiding potential side effects, such as earlier onset of diarrhea. The study is solid in that it integrates in vitro fermentation, high-resolution metagenomics, immunogenicity assays, and in vivo validation, demonstrating the potential of FVT using eukaryotic-free virome-based therapeutics. However, the study overall has some conceptual and technical limitations.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Hierarchical encoding of natural sound mixtures in ferret auditory cortex

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Agnès Landemard
   2. Célian Bimbard
   3. Yves Boubenec

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper presents valuable findings on the processing of sound mixtures in the auditory cortex of ferrets, a species widely used for studies of auditory processing. Using the convenient and relatively high-resolution method of functional ultrasound imaging, the authors provide convincing evidence that background noise invariance emerges across the auditory cortical processing hierarchy. They also draw informative comparisons with previously published fMRI data obtained in humans. This work will be of interest to researchers studying the auditory cortex and the neural mechanisms underlying auditory scene analysis and hearing in noise.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Single-Cell Atlas of AML Reveals Age-Related Gene Regulatory Networks in t(8;21) AML

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jessica Whittle
   2. Stefan Meyer
   3. Georges Lacaud
   4. Syed Murtuza Baker
   5. Mudassar Iqbal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides a single-cell transcriptomic atlas for AML (222 samples comprising 748,679 cells) integrating data from multiple studies. They use this dataset to investigate t(8;21) AML, and they reconstruct the Gene Regulatory Network and enhancer Gene Regulatory Network, which allowed identification of interesting targets. This aggregation is important and can help infer differences in genetic regulatory modules based on the age of disease onset. Their compelling effort may help explain age-related variations in prognosis and disease development in subtype-specific manner.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Gain neuromodulation mediates perceptual switches: evidence from pupillometry, fMRI, and RNN Modelling

    This article has 10 authors:

    1. Gabriel Wainstein
    2. Christopher Whyte
    3. Kaylena Ehgoetz Martens
    4. Eli Müller
    5. Brandon Munn
    6. Vicente Medel
    7. Britt Anderson
    8. Elisabeth Stöttinger
    9. James Danckert
    10. James Shine

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This valuable paper explores the idea that transient modulations of neural gain promote switches between distinct perceptual interpretations of ambiguous stimuli. The authors provide solid evidence for this idea by pupillometry (an indirect proxy of neuromodulatory activity), fMRI, neural network modeling, and dynamical systems analyses. The highly integrative nature of this approach is rare in the field.

    Reviewed by eLife