eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Separable neural signatures of confidence during perceptual decisions

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Tarryn Balsdon
   2. Pascal Mamassian
   3. Valentin Wyart

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of interest to neuroscientists and psychologists working on perceptual decision-making and metacognition. Using a novel task varying the timing of covert decisions, together with sophisticated computational modelling, allowed identifying neural correlates of latent states related to confidence. The conclusions are in line with other papers identifying a dissociation between brain activity supporting performance and confidence, but provide a novel lens through which to understand these differences by focusing on confidence noise. An open issue is how to interpret conclusions about neural correlates of deviations from an ideal-observer model.

     (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. Topography and motion of acid-sensing ion channel intracellular domains

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Tyler Couch
   2. Kyle D Berger
   3. Dana L Kneisley
   4. Tyler W McCullock
   5. Paul Kammermeier
   6. David M Maclean

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This is a rigorous and clearly written paper that provides quantitative data for the scope of intracellular signalling by ASIC channels. These channels are involved in pain signalling and other processes, and apparently can couple to intracellular pathways independent of ion flow. Here the authors measure the movements of the unstructured intracellular parts of ASIC using fluorescence spectroscopy coupled to functional measurements.

     (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, #2, and #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. New fossils of Australopithecus sediba reveal a nearly complete lower back

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Scott A Williams
   2. Thomas Cody Prang
   3. Marc R Meyer
   4. Thierra K Nalley
   5. Renier Van Der Merwe
   6. Christopher Yelverton
   7. Daniel García-Martínez
   8. Gabrielle A Russo
   9. Kelly R Ostrofsky
   10. Jeffrey Spear
   11. Jennifer Eyre
   12. Mark Grabowski
   13. Shahed Nalla
   14. Markus Bastir
   15. Peter Schmid
   16. Steven E Churchill
   17. Lee R Berger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is a very valuable contribution to paleoanthropology especially to those who study the evolution of human posture and locomotion. Overall, the quality of some of the fossils is unusually high for this chronology, and the data are properly presented and analysed. However, the authors should be more cautious in their interpretation of the data which does not fully support their 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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. TRPC3 and NALCN channels drive pacemaking in substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Ki Bum Um
   2. Suyun Hahn
   3. So Woon Kim
   4. Yoon Je Lee
   5. Lutz Birnbaumer
   6. Hyun Jin Kim
   7. Myoung Kyu Park

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work clearly demonstrates an important role for two specific sodium-permeable ion channels for maintaining the pacemaker-like firing of midbrain dopamine neurons. These neurons have a key role in motivation, reinforcement and locomotion, and have been implicated in Parkinson's disease and multiple neuropsychiatric disorders. The authors also find that the regular firing of these cells is robustly maintained even when one of the two channels is knocked out, through upregulation of the level of the other channel.

     (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 #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Cyclin F drives proliferation through SCF-dependent degradation of the retinoblastoma-like tumor suppressor p130/RBL2

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Taylor P Enrico
   2. Wayne Stallaert
   3. Elizaveta T Wick
   4. Peter Ngoi
   5. Xianxi Wang
   6. Seth M Rubin
   7. Nicholas G Brown
   8. Jeremy E Purvis
   9. Michael J Emanuele

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The identification of p130 as a substrate of cyclin F adds a new level of understanding about the role of this ubiquitin ligase in cell cycle control. While much of the data are string and of interest, several concerns need to be addressed with the inclusion of new experimental data. This work will be of interest to researchers in the fields of cell cycle and cancer.

     (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 #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Left hemisphere dominance for bilateral kinematic encoding in the human brain

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Christina M Merrick
   2. Tanner C Dixon
   3. Assaf Breska
   4. Jack Lin
   5. Edward F Chang
   6. David King-Stephens
   7. Kenneth D Laxer
   8. Peter B Weber
   9. Jose Carmena
   10. Robert Thomas Knight
   11. Richard B Ivry

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper provides further evidence for hemispheric asymmetry in the cortical control of manual actions based on intracranial (ECoG) recordings in human participants. Specifically, based a linear encoding model, the authors argue that movement encoding is more bilateral in the left hemisphere than the right hemisphere. The paper is well-written and the analyses are largely appropriate for addressing the primary hypothesis, though it would be helpful to detail the variability of electrode placement across individuals (which arises for the clinical intervention being undertaken) and incorporate this variability into the statistical analysis. Given the novelty of this type of human data and the well established question being addressed, this paper will be of interest to both basic and clinical researchers in motor neuroscience.

     (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. Proximal and distal spinal neurons innervating multiple synergist and antagonist motor pools

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Remi Ronzano
   2. Camille Lancelin
   3. Gardave Singh Bhumbra
   4. Robert M Brownstone
   5. Marco Beato

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript uses viral tracing to identify interneurons, throughout the spinal cord, which synapse onto motoneurons innervating pairs of flexor and extensor hindlimb muscles. Importantly, the data identifies single premotor interneurons which travel to, and presumably regulate the activity of, multiple motor pools. It is possible that these premotor neurons are involved in regulating muscle stiffness across a joint.

     (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. Neural control of growth and size in the axolotl limb regenerate

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Kaylee M Wells
   2. Kristina Kelley
   3. Mary Baumel
   4. Warren A Vieira
   5. Catherine D McCusker

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     It has long been known that nerves regulate the early formation of the blastema during limb regeneration through the promotion of cell proliferation. The manuscript by Wells-Enright et al. provides an interesting new role for nerves during salamander limb regeneration by showing that nerves also determine how much tissue to regenerate. They demonstrate that increased nerve abundance makes bigger limbs while a decrease in nerve abundance generates smaller limbs. Size regulation of organs is a broadly interesting and clinically important problem, which is why this manuscript should be of interest to a large general audience.

     (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Single-cell RNA sequencing of the Strongylocentrotus purpuratus larva reveals the blueprint of major cell types and nervous system of a non-chordate deuterostome

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Periklis Paganos
   2. Danila Voronov
   3. Jacob M Musser
   4. Detlev Arendt
   5. Maria Ina Arnone

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper will be of great interest to scientists within the fields of developmental biology and evolution, as well as to researchers that generally use the sea urchin as a model system or those employing single-cell mRNA-sequencing technology. The work provides a comprehensive analysis of the cell state specification of a whole deuterostome organism and proof of principle of the use of single-cell sequencing to identity deep homologies of cell type.

     (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, #2, and #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Effect of malaria parasite shape on its alignment at erythrocyte membrane

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Anil K Dasanna
    2. Sebastian Hillringhaus
    3. Gerhard Gompper
    4. Dmitry A Fedosov

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This manuscript studies the alignment of malaria parasites (merozoites) at the surface of red blood cells (RBCs), a key element of their reproduction cycle during the blood stage of the disease. Building on a computational model the authors developed previously, which incorporates the stochastic nature of RBC deformations and adhesive bonds between the merozoite and RBC, it is demonstrated that parasite shape plays a key role in its alignment dynamics. In particular, the authors shed new light on the egg-like shape typically observed in Plasmodium merozoites, which has important implications for how effectively the parasite can survive and multiply.

      (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