Evaluated articles

eLife Assessment

This valuable study provides a novel method to detect sleep cycles based on variations in the slope of the power spectrum from electroencephalography signals. The method, dispensing with time-consuming and potentially subjective manual identification of sleep cycles, is supported by solid evidence and analyses. This study will be of interest to researchers and clinicians working on sleep and brain dynamics.

eLife Assessment

This valuable study reports that epididymal proteins are required for embryogenesis after fertilization. The data presented are generally supportive of the conclusion and considered solid. This work will be of interest to reproductive biologists and andrologists.

eLife Assessment

This important study reports the developmental dynamics and molecular markers of the rete ovarii during ovarian development. The data supporting the main conclusions are convincing. This study will be of interest to developmental and reproductive biologists.

eLife assessment

This fundamental study reports the deep evolutionary conservation of a core genetic program regulating spermatogenesis in flies, mice, and humans. Convincing data were presented and supported the main conclusion. This work will be of interest to evolutionary and reproductive biologists.

eLife assessment

This important study shows how a combination of the latest generation of Oxford Nanopore Technology long reads with state-of-the art variant callers enables bacterial variant discovery at an accuracy that matches or exceeds the current "gold standard" with short reads. The work thus heralds a new era, in which Illumina short-read sequencing no longer rules supreme. While the inclusion of a larger number of reference genomes would have enabled an even more fine-grained analysis, the evidence as it is supports the claims of the authors convincingly. The work will be of interest to anyone performing sequencing for outbreak investigations, bacterial epidemiology, or similar studies.

eLife Assessment

Genetic variants have been strongly implicated in idiopathic scoliosis (IS), however, the list of variants that are causative of IS is not complete and the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie IS are poorly understood. These authors combined human genetic analysis with zebrafish experiments to produce valuable evidence that alleles that impair function of EPHA4 cause IS, thereby extending our understanding of the basis of IS. The human genetic data are quite convincing but the zebrafish work lacks some validations and details.

eLife assessment

This fundamental study provides a modeling regime that provides new insight into the energy-preservation parameters among schooling fish. The strength of the evidence supporting observations such as distilled dynamics between leading and lagging schooling fish which are derived from emergent properties is compelling. Overall, the study provides exciting insights into energetic coupling with respect to group swimming dynamics.

eLife assessment

This useful study describes the second earliest known winged ovule without a capule in the Famennian of Late Devonian. Using solid mathematical analysis, the authors demonstrate that three-winged seeds are more adapted to wind dispersal than one-, two- and four-winged seeds. The manuscript will help the scientific community to understand the origin and early evolutionary history of wind dispersal strategy of early land plants.

eLife Assessment

This work is important because it elucidates how immune cells migrate across the blood brain barrier. In the revised version of this study, the authors present a convincing framework to visualize, recognize and track the movement of different immune cells across primary human and mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells without the need for fluorescence-based imaging using microfluidic devices. This work will be of broad interest to the cancer biology, immunology and medical therapeutics fields.

eLife Assessment

This important study advances our understanding of the temporal dynamics and cortical mechanisms of eye movements and the cognitive process of attention. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing and based on measuring the time course of the eye movement-attention interaction in a novel, carefully-controlled experimental task. This study will be of broad interest to psychologists and neuroscientists interested in the dynamics of cognitive processes.

eLife assessment

This useful experiment seeks to better understand how memory interacts with incoming visual information to effectively guide human behavior. Using several methods, the authors identify two distinct pathways relating visual processing to the default mode network: one that emphasizes semantic cognition, and the other, spatial cognition. The evidence presented is solid and will be of interest to cognitive and systems neuroscientists.

eLife assessment

This important study adopts a comprehensive approach: functional connectivity, biochemistry, and psychophysics to reveal a holistic understanding of the relationship between GABA-ergic inhibition in the human MT+ region and visuo-spatial intelligence. The evidence supporting the conclusion is convincing. The result advances our understanding of how the human MT+ is assemble into complex cognition as an intellectual hub, and will be of interest to researchers in psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.

eLife Assessment

This study poses an important step forward in understanding the brain-network embedding of beta oscillations. The study advances our circuit-level understanding of the pathophysiology associated with dopaminergic alterations in psychiatric or neurological disorders. The study provides compelling evidence that beta oscillations across the neocortex and basal ganglia map onto shared functional and structural networks that show significant positive correlations with dopamine receptors.

eLife Assessment

Despite the well-established facilitatory effects of multisensory integration on behavioural measures, standard neuroimaging approaches have yet to reliably and precisely identify the corresponding neural correlates. In this valuable paper, Buhmann et al. leverage EEG decoding methods, moving beyond traditional univariate analyses, to capture these correlates. They present solid evidence that this approach can effectively estimate multisensory integration in humans across a broad range of contexts.

eLife assessment

This fundamental study enhances our understanding of how somatic variants in microglia might influence the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with the authors employing a multi-faceted approach to identify an enrichment of potentially pathogenic somatic mutations in Alzheimer's disease microglia. This research will be of significant interest to those investigating somatic mutations, Alzheimer's disease, microglial biology and cell signalling pathways.

eLife assessment

This study offers a valuable description of the layer-and sublayer specific outputs of the somatosensory cortex based on compelling evidence obtained with modern tools for the analysis of brain connectivity, together with functional validation of the connectivity using optogenetic approaches in vivo. Beyond bridging together, in one dataset, the results of disparate studies, this effort brings new insights on layer specific outputs, and on differences between primary and secondary somatosensory areas. This study will be of interest to neuroanatomists and neurophysiologists.

eLife assessment

Abbasi and colleagues use Granger causality to explore the cortico-subcortical dynamics during speaking and listening. They find valuable evidence for bi-directional connectivity in distinct frequency bands as a function of behaviour, but currently offer incomplete support for the validity of their analyses and the predictive coding interpretation of their results.

eLife assessment

This a useful study that reports a genetic regulatory network that accounts for altered lipid metabolism in response to two different bacterial diets of C. elegans. The proposed mechanism, linking vitamin B12, S-adenosyl methionine (SAM), phosphatidylcholine (PC), and neutral lipid levels, is solid but has been previously demonstrated by other studies using similar assays. The evidence to support a new layer of regulation, via the production of phospho-choline by ASM-3/acid sphingomyelinase, requires further substantiation.

eLife Assessment

This study provides important findings on the nature of eye movement choices by human subjects. The study uses a novel approach and provides relatively clear and convincing results of the relationship between pupil size and saccade production. The results should be of interest to a broad audience interested in sensorimotor integration and sensory-guided decision-making.

eLife Assessment

This study, from the group that pioneered migrasome, describes a novel vaccine platform of engineered migrasomes that behave like natural migrasomes. Importantly, this platform has the potential to overcome obstacles associated with cold chain issues for vaccines such as mRNA. In the revised version, the authors have addressed previous concerns and the results from additional experiments provide compelling evidence that features methods, data, and analyses more rigorous than the current state-of-the-art. Although the findings are important with practical implications for the vaccine technology, results from additional experiments would make this an outstanding study.