Updated September 18, 2019
Peer Review Week 2019
It’s Peer Review Week! Editor-in-Chief Christophe’s latest editorial reflects on this year’s theme of quality in peer review.
You can read the collection of Peer Review Week–themed editorials from previous years below:
- ⁘ Diversity: The Art of Reviewing Independently Together
- ⁘ Transparency Must Prevail
- ⁘ “Ich bin ein Reviewer” (“I am a Reviewer”)
Both journals are committed to quality in peer review through two slightly different systems. You can learn more about the shared goal of publishing strong science through their two paths in this 2016 joint editorial from the Editors-in-Chief.
Training in peer review is an important part of ensuring quality. If you would like to learn more about SfN’s Reviewer Mentor Program, read this article highlighting past participants in the Neuroscience Quarterly: SfN Journals: Training the Next Generation of Reviewers. Information about signing up for the program can be found online at https://www.jneurosci.org/content/sfn-reviewer-mentor-program.
Research Spotlight
In their paper, Yin et al. address whether human neurons can develop and integrate into host brain and establish communications with host neurons after they were transplanted into intact rat brain. Using a newly developed method, the authors differentiated hiPSC cells into human neurons and transplanted them into rat brain. Following transplantation, hiPSC-derived neurons developed into functional cortical neurons in rat forebrain. Moreover, these hiPSC-derived neurons established connectivity with host neurons and exhibited balanced excitatory and inhibitory neuronal networks.
Wolfe et al. investigated the dual role of a receptor tyrosine kinase in both sensory integration and associative learning in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. They found that this receptor functions in two independent genetic and cellular pathways to help mediate the initial behavioral decision made by a nematode when it encounters conflicting sensory cues, as well as the formation of a memory associating such cues. They demonstrated that this initial decision and the associative memory not only have independent pathways, but these two processes occur simultaneously in the nematode nervous system.
Epileptic activity in the brain consists of synchronized activity of neurons in a region of the brain that jointly generate spikes of electrical activity. It is an open question whether bursts of a few of such spikes (“low-load events”) signal an increasing probability of severe events with more spikes (“high-load events”), or if they instead reflect neuronal processes that prevents this. For ethical and technical reasons, this is difficult to test in patients and the few existing studies disagree. Heining et al. therefore analyzed these patterns in detail in a mouse model for a certain type of epilepsy (mesial temporal lobe epilepsy).
Such low-load events indeed had dual nature: If they were more frequent, the pauses between phases with severe events tended to be longer; however, their frequency also increased before severe activity. Additional research will be necessary to discriminate between these two situations and to identify the processes that create them. It is further unclear if these observations in mice can be compared to epileptic activity in humans.
Also of Interest
Knock-in Rat Lines with Cre Recombinase at the Dopamine D1 and Adenosine 2a Receptor Loci
This work presents the generation and validation of two novel knock-in rat lines. We demonstrate that the Cre transgene was correctly inserted at the intended genomic locations only, and that the rats show normal behavior in a range of simple tests. We validate that Cre is expressed with high specificity and consistency, and produces functional Cre-dependent protein expression in vivo. Among other applications, these lines will be valuable tools for selective investigations of the striatal direct and indirect pathways.
Temporally and spatially controlled genetic reversal of mouse models of autism are used to determine critical windows in development for successful treatment. This study provides a clear example that any attempt at genetic reversal must be accompanied by all appropriate controls, including expression of the CreTam transgene in wild-type animals, for accurate interpretation of the genetic rescue result. In addition, this study provides two additional independent replications of behavioral and synaptic electrophysiologal abnormalities in Shank3 exon 21 mutant mouse models in the CreTam-negative cohorts. Reproducibility is an important and often overlooked aspect of many mutant mouse behavioral and electrophysiological studies.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation procedure in which a weak electric direct current is delivered through the brain for tens of minutes. Despite reported positive effects, the mechanisms of tDCS stimulation are not yet understood well. Here, we examined microglial morphology in the mouse cortex after tDCS. We find that the morphology and morphological dynamics of microglia are altered by tDCS in a manner dependent on adrenergic receptors, supporting the notion that (nor)adrenergic signaling is involved in tDCS.
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