A Replicable and Generalizable Neuroimaging-Based Indicator of Pain Sensitivity Across Individuals.

Revealing the neural underpinnings of pain sensitivity is crucial for understanding how the brain encodes individual differences in pain and advancing personalized pain treatments. Here, six large and diverse functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) datasets (total N = 1046) are leveraged to uncover the neural mechanisms of pain sensitivity. Replicable and generalizable correlations are found between nociceptive-evoked fMRI responses and pain sensitivity for laser heat, contact heat, and mechanical pains.

Design, development, and validation of a non-backdrivable active ankle-foot orthosis for the TWIN lower-limb exoskeleton.

This study's primary objective was to develop an Active Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AAFO) specifically designed for integration into lower-limb exoskeletons. An analysis of human ankle motion is conducted to inform the development process, guiding the creation of an AAFO that aligns with specifics extrapolated by real data. The AAFO incorporates an electric motor with a non-backdrivable transmission system, engineered to reduce distal mass, minimize power consumption, and enable high-precision position control.

Phasor-FLIM and SHG imaging for quantitative analysis of lung cancer autofluorescence.

Histopathology using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining remains the gold standard for tumor diagnosis. However, extracting quantitative data from stained slides is challenging, limiting the ability to obtain objective biomarkers for disease progression. Tissue autofluorescence provides an alternative by exploiting endogenous fluorophores, such as collagen, elastin, and NAD(P)H, which provide optical signatures of tissue pathology.

Acquisition and Utilization of Recursive Rules in Motor Sequence Generation.

Recursive hierarchical embedding allows humans to generate multiple hierarchical levels using simple rules. We can acquire recursion from exposure to linguistic and visual examples, but only develop the ability to understand "multiple-level" structures like "[[second] red] ball]" after mastering "same-level" conjunctions like "[second] and [red] ball." Whether we can also learn recursion in motor production remains unexplored.

Compound Heterozygous Structural Variants in Cases with Unsolved PRKN-Associated Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Biallelic mutations in the PRKN gene are a common cause of early-onset Parkinson's disease (EOPD). In addition to single nucleotide variants, structural variants contribute substantially to the mutational profile of PRKN. A significant portion of patients with EOPD remains genetically unsolved.

Universal symmetry-protected persistent spin textures in noncentrosymmetric crystals.

The significance of Mendeleev's periodic table extends beyond the classification of elements; it lies in its remarkable predictive power for discovering new elements and properties, revealing the underlying symmetrical patterns of nature that were only fully understood with the advent of quantum mechanics. Fundamental material properties, such as electron transport and magnetism, are also governed by crystal symmetry. In particular, spin transport depends on the spin polarization of electronic states, and recently discovered materials where the electron spin polarization is independent of momentum-a property known as persistent spin texture (PST)-promise extended spin lifetime and efficient spin accumulation.

The study of multisensory interception for interaction with objects and others in visually impaired children.

Interception refers to goal-directed motor actions aimed at interacting with moving objects and is essential for both motor co-ordination and social engagement. In childhood, interceptive skills support environmental exploration, peer interaction, and participation in play and sports. For children with visual impairments, the lack of visual cues compromises the development of these skills, potentially limiting motor competence and opportunities for social interaction.

Impact of Congenital Visual Impairment on Early-Life Exploration: Behavioral Analysis of Temporal and Motor Parameters During a Reach-to-Grasp Playful Task.

Reach-to-grasp behavior is a key developmental milestone in infants, involving coordinated actions such as arm transport, hand pre-shaping, and hand opening and closing. Vision guides the development of these skills, and delays in visual input can impact infants with early visual impairments. However, the effects of a congenital visual impairment on reach-to-grasp behavior in early life remain largely unexplored.

Modeling of Isometric Muscle Properties via Controllable Nonlinear Spring and Hybrid Model of Proprioceptive Receptors.

This work investigates the macroscopic behavior of skeletal muscles from a system-theoretic perspective. Based on data available in the literature, we propose an initial evaluation model for isometric force generation, i.e.

Guidance for the design and analysis of cell-type-specific DNA methylation epidemiology studies.

Recent studies on the role of epigenetics in disease have focused on DNA methylation (DNAm) profiled in bulk tissues limiting the detection of the cell type affected by disease-related changes. Advances in isolating homogeneous populations of cells now make it possible to identify DNAm differences associated with disease in specific cell types. Critically, these datasets will require a bespoke analytical framework that can characterize whether the difference affects multiple or is specific to a particular cell type.

The role of visual experience in haptic spatial perception: evidence from early blind, late blind, and sighted individuals.

There is contradictory evidence on the effect that visual experience has on haptic abilities. Indeed, some studies have documented that a lack of vision (blindness) results in decreased haptic perception, whereas other studies report an enhanced haptic ability in blind individuals. To examine the role of vision in haptic spatial processing, we recruited early blind, late blind, and sighted participants.

Recognition of Action Vitality Forms is Linked to Social Communication Traits in Autism.

Vitality Forms (VFs) capture the essence of human movement, revealing how we engage in actions. Perceiving and expressing VFs are crucial for social communication, allowing us to understand the behavior of others. Despite their pervasiveness in our life, research on VFs in autism is limited.

Safety and efficacy of rotigotine in patients with frontotemporal dementia: a phase 2, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial.

Background: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a common form of dementia with no approved pharmacological treatment. Clinical and experimental evidence suggest that dopaminergic transmission is impaired in FTD. Here we aimed at investigating the clinical impact of treatment with dopaminergic agonists in FTD.

The extralemniscal system modulates early somatosensory cortical processing.

Sudden and surprising sensory changes signal environmental events that may require immediate behavioural reactions. In mammals, these changes engage non-specific 'extralemniscal' thalamocortical pathways and evoke large and widespread cortical vertex potentials. Extralemniscal activity modulates cortical motor in a variety of tasks and facilitates purposeful and immediate behavioural responses.

Investigating short windows of interbrain synchrony: A step toward fNIRS-based hyperfeedback.

Social interaction is of fundamental importance to humans. Prior research has highlighted the link between interbrain synchrony and positive outcomes in human social interaction. Neurofeedback is an established method to train one's brain activity and might offer a possibility to increase interbrain synchrony, too.

Widespread, perception-related information in the human brain scales with levels of consciousness.

How does the human brain generate coherent, subjective perceptions-transforming yellow and oblong visual sensory information into the perception of an edible banana? This is a hard problem. According to the standard viewpoint, processing in groups of dedicated regions-identified as active "blobs" when using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-gives rise to perception. Here, we reveal a new organizational concept by discovering that stimulus-specific information distributed throughout the whole brain.

IsoBayes: a Bayesian approach for single-isoform proteomics inference.

Motivation: Studying protein isoforms is an essential step in biomedical research; at present, the main approach for analyzing proteins is via bottom-up mass spectrometry proteomics, which return peptide identifications, that are indirectly used to infer the presence of protein isoforms. However, the detection and quantification processes are noisy; in particular, peptides may be erroneously detected, and most peptides, known as shared peptides, are associated to multiple protein isoforms. As a consequence, studying individual protein isoforms is challenging, and inferred protein results are often abstracted to the gene-level or to groups of protein isoforms.

Sex Differences in Spatial Cognition Extend Beyond Vision: Insights From the Audio-Corsi Test.

Over the past several decades, substantial evidence has accumulated demonstrating sex differences in spatial abilities. Males outperform females in most visual tasks that require processing visuospatial information. Notably, in real-world contexts, this capacity also involves other sensory modalities, such as the auditory system.

Exome analysis links kidney malformations to developmental disorders and reveals causal genes.

Congenital anomalies of the kidneys and urinary tract (CAKUT) are developmental disorders that commonly cause pediatric chronic kidney disease and mortality. We examine here rare coding variants in 248 CAKUT trios and 1742 singleton CAKUT cases and compare them to 22,258 controls. Diagnostic and candidate diagnostic variants are detected in 14.

Computational Modelling of Cancer Nanomedicine: Integrating Hyperthermia Treatment Into a Multiphase Porous-Media Tumour Model.

Heat-based cancer treatment, so-called hyperthermia, can be used to destroy tumour cells directly or to make them more susceptible to chemotherapy or radiation therapy. To apply heat locally, iron oxide nanoparticles are injected into the bloodstream and accumulate at the tumour site, where they generate heat when exposed to an alternating magnetic field. However, the temperature must be precisely controlled to achieve therapeutic benefits while avoiding damage to healthy tissue.

Geometrical constraints dictate assembly and phenotype of human iPSC-derived motoneuronal spheroids.

Background: Neuronal spheroids represent an easy and versatile solution to model neuronal tissue in vitro. Conventional approaches to generate spheroids lack accurate size control, scalability, and customizability. This is even more exacerbated in case of pluripotent stem cell (PSC) derived spheroids, which remain challenging to standardize.

METTL9 sustains vertebrate neural development primarily via non-catalytic functions.

METTL9 is an enzyme catalysing N1-methylation of histidine residues (1MH) within eukaryotic proteins. Given its high expression in vertebrate nervous system and its potential association with neurodevelopmental delay, we dissected Mettl9 role during neural development. We generated three distinct mouse embryonic stem cell lines: a complete Mettl9 knock-out (KO), an inducible METTL9 Degron and a line endogenously expressing a catalytically inactive protein, and assessed their ability to undergo neural differentiation.

Robust and flexible organic electrochemical transistors enabled by electropolymerized PEDOT.

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) have been extensively studied, yet devices fabricated via electropolymerization remain underexplored in terms of the underlying ionic dynamics and the potential for flexible integration. In this work, we demonstrate robust OECTs based on electropolymerized PEDOT, exhibiting negligible drain current degradation after 1000 cycles of operation in aqueous NaCl. Compared to inkjet-printed devices, they offer markedly superior cycling stability, which is further enhanced by the incorporation of the small anionic dopant ClO .

Genetic Landscape of Non-Remitting Neutropenia in Children and Chronic Idiopathic Neutropenia in Adults.

Non-remitting neutropenia in children and chronic idiopathic neutropenia (CIN) in adults have been described previously as peculiar subgroups of neutropenic patients carrying similar clinical and immunological features. The present collection comprising 25 subjects (16 adults and 9 children) mostly affected with mild (84%) and moderate (16%) neutropenia aimed to identify the underlying (possibly common) genetic background. The phenotype of these patients resemble the one described previously: no severe infections, presence of rheumathological signs, leukopenia in almost all patients and lymphocytopenia in one-third of the cohort.