eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Modeling the hallucinatory effects of classical psychedelics in terms of replay-dependent plasticity mechanisms

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Colin Bredenberg
   2. Fabrice Normandin
   3. Blake Richards
   4. Guillaume Lajoie

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This paper provides a useful new theory of the hallucinatory effects of 5-HT2A psychedelics. The authors present convincing evidence that a computational model trained with the Wake-Sleep algorithm can reproduce some features of hallucinations by varying the strength of top-down connections in the model, though it is not clear that this model applies to 5-HT2A hallucinogens in particular. The work will be of interest to researchers studying hallucinations or offline activity and plasticity more broadly.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Trial-level Representational Similarity Analysis

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Shenyang Huang
   2. Cortney M Howard
   3. Paul C Bogdan
   4. Ricardo Morales-Torres
   5. Matthew Slayton
   6. Roberto Cabeza
   7. Simon W Davis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study proposes a potentially useful improvement on a popular fMRI method for quantifying representational similarity in brain measurements by focusing on representational strength at the single trial level and adding linear mixed effects modeling for group-level inference. The manuscript provides solid evidence of increased sensitivity with no loss of precision compared to more classic versions of the method. However, several assumptions are insufficiently motivated, and it is unclear to what extent the approach would generalize to other paradigms.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Toward neuroanatomical and cognitive foundations of macaque social tolerance grades

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Sarah Silvere
   2. Julien Lamy
   3. Chrystelle Po
   4. Mathieu Legrand
   5. Jerome Sallet
   6. Sebastien Ballesta

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work compares the size of two brain areas, the amygdala and the hippocampus, across 12 species belonging to the Macaca genus. The authors find, using a convincing methodological approach, that amygdala - but not hippocampal - volume varies with social tolerance grade, with high tolerance species showing larger amygdala than low tolerance species of macaques. Interestingly, their findings also suggest an inverted developmental effect, with intolerant species showing an increase in amygdala volume across the lifespan, compared to tolerant species exhibiting the opposite trend. Overall, this paper offers new insights into the neural basis of social and emotional processing.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Coordinated spinal locomotor network dynamics emerge from cell-type-specific connectivity patterns

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. F David Wandler
   2. Benjamin K Lemberger
   3. David L McLean
   4. James M Murray

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this valuable study, Wandler et al. provide convincing theoretical evidence for alternate mechanisms of rhythm generation by CPGs. Their model shows that cell-type-specific connectivity and an inhibitory drive could underlie rhythm generation. Excitatory input could act to enhance the frequency range of these rhythms. This modeling study could motivate further experimental investigation of these mechanisms to understand CPG rhythmogenesis.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. A whole-animal phenotypic drug screen identifies suppressors of atherogenic lipoproteins

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Daniel J Kelpsch
   2. Liyun Zhang
   3. James H Thierer
   4. Kobe Koren
   5. Urmi Kumar
   6. Yuki Lin
   7. Monica R Hensley
   8. Mira Sohn
   9. Jun O Liu
   10. Thomas Lectka
   11. Jeff S Mumm
   12. Steven A Farber

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important study, the authors have performed a zebrafish drug screen to identify suppressors of atherogenic lipoproteins. They utilize a well-established LipoGlo assay to find molecules that modulate these lipoproteins, identifying 49 potential hits. They perform some validation experiments, including studies linking enoxolone to its likely inhibitory effect on a specific transcription factor, HNF4alpha. Overall, the results are convincing and robust, and will open up new areas of exploration for those investigators interested in in vivo lipid biology.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Distal Gene Expression Governed by Lamins and Nesprins via Chromatin Conformation Change

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Haihui Zhang
   2. Zhengyang Lei
   3. Fatemeh Momen-Heravi
   4. Peiwu Qin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides valuable information on the impact of Lamin A/C knockdown on gene expression using RNA-Seq analysis, as well as on telomere dynamics through live cell imaging. However, the conclusions remain inadequately supported by the current data, and several of the major technical concerns raised in the first round have not yet been fully resolved.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. The Structural Dynamics of IRE1 and its Interaction with Unfolded Peptides

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Elena Spinetti
   2. G Elif Karagöz
   3. Roberto Covino

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     In this important study, the authors conducted atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to probe the interactions between IRE and unfolded peptides. The results help reconcile contradicting experimental findings in the literature and offer mechanistic insights into the activation of the unfolded protein response. The atomistic molecular dynamics simulations performed are solid, leading to convincing conclusions that are partly supported by experimental validations. The use of unbiased molecular dynamics simulations, while appropriate for the current system due to its complexity, limits the time scale of events that can be observed and therefore the proposed mechanism of recognition merits further confirmation by future studies.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. The influence of heavy metal stress on the evolutionary transition of teosinte to maize

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jonathan Acosta-Bayona
   2. Miguel Vallebueno-Estrada
   3. Jean-Philippe Vielle-Calzada

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study investigates whether heavy metal stress can induce maize-like phenotypic and molecular responses in teosinte and whether these responses overlap with genomic regions implicated in domestication. By combining copper and cadmium treatments with quantitative phenotyping, gene-expression analyses, and expanded assessments of nucleotide diversity across a key chromosome 5 interval, the authors provide an integrated view of how abiotic stress responses intersect with domestication-related traits. The significance of the findings is valuable, as the work offers meaningful insights for the subfield of maize evolution and stress biology by extending heavy-metal response analyses to teosinte and linking them to domestication-associated loci, although the evolutionary implications remain indirect. The strength of evidence is solid, with appropriately designed and quantitatively supported experiments that broadly support the claims, but do not yet establish a causal or historical role for heavy metal stress in domestication.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Assessing plant phenological changes based on drivers of spring phenology

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yong Jiang
   2. Stephen J Mayor
   3. Xiuli Chu
   4. Xiaoqi Ye
   5. Rongzhou Man
   6. Jing Tao
   7. Qing-Lai Dang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study introduces a valuable new metric-phenological lag-to help partition the drivers of observed versus expected shifts in spring phenology under climate warming. The conceptual framework is clearly presented and supported by an extensive dataset, and the revisions have improved the manuscript, though some concerns-particularly regarding uncertainty quantification, spatial analysis, and modeling assumptions-remain only partially addressed. The strength of evidence is generally solid, but further analysis would help to validate the study's conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Calibration and validation strategy for electromechanical cardiac digital twins

    This article has 7 authors:

    1. Zhinuo Jenny Wang
    2. Maxx Holmes
    3. Ruben Doste
    4. Julia Camps
    5. Francesca Margara
    6. Mariano Vazquez
    7. Blanca Rodriguez

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This is a potentially important study that explores the relevant range of parameter values for calibration and validation of cardiac electromechanics in ventricular models. Although much of the work presented is solid, the evidence provided to support the authors' key scientific claims is incomplete, especially as it relates to the emphasis on standardized validation and verification approaches. Notably, the level of model personalization presented in this work falls short of the threshold for what could reasonably be called a "digital twin", even by the relatively relaxed standards that have emerged in computational physiology and related fields in recent years.

    Reviewed by eLife