sensory processing

Horizontal basal cells (HBCs) mediate olfactory epithelium (OE) regeneration following severe tissue injury. The dynamism of the post-injury environment is well illustrated by in silico modeling of RNA sequencing data that demonstrate an evolving HBC transcriptome. Unfortunately, spatiotemporally dynamic processes occurring within HBCs in situ remain poorly understood. Here, we show that HBCs at 24 h post-OE injury spatially redistribute a constellation of proteins, which, in turn, helped to nominate Rac1 as a regulator of HBC differentiation during OE regeneration...

Practical yet reliable diagnostic tools for small-fiber neuropathy are needed. We aimed to establish a histopathologic protocol for estimating intraepidermal nerve fiber density (eIENFD) on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue (FFPE), evaluate its reliability through intraobserver and interobserver analyses, and provide normative reference values for clinical use. Sixty-eight healthy participants underwent nerve conduction studies and quantitative sensory testing. Skin biopsies from the distal and proximal leg were taken and processed using routine immunohistochemistry (anti-PGP9...

The escalating costs of healthcare services and a growing awareness of personal health responsibilities have led individuals to explore natural methods alongside conventional medicines for health improvement and disease prevention. The aging global population is experiencing increased health needs, notably related to conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. Lifestyle-related diseases, poor dietary habits, and sedentary lifestyles underscore the importance of foods containing nutrients that can aid in preventing and managing these diseases...

The perception and neural processing of sensory information are strongly influenced by prior expectations. The integration of prior and sensory information can manifest through distinct underlying mechanisms: focusing on unexpected input, denoted as prediction error (PE) processing, or amplifying anticipated information via sharpened representation. In this study, we employed computational modeling using deep neural networks combined with representational similarity analyses of fMRI data to investigate these two processes during face perception...

Converging evidence implicates disrupted brain connectivity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, the mechanisms linking altered connectivity early in development to the emergence of ASD symptomatology remain poorly understood. Here we examined whether atypicalities in the Salience Network - an early-emerging neural network involved in orienting attention to the most salient aspects of one's internal and external environment - may predict the development of ASD symptoms such as reduced social attention and atypical sensory processing...

Visual stimuli are known to vary in their perceived duration. Some visual stimuli are also known to linger for longer in memory. Yet, whether these two features of visual processing are linked is unknown. Despite early assumptions that time is an extracted or higher-order feature of perception, more recent work over the past two decades has demonstrated that timing may be instantiated within sensory modality circuits. A primary location for many of these studies is the visual system, where duration-sensitive responses have been demonstrated...

Attending to salient sensory attributes of food, such as tastes that are new, displeasing, or unexpected, allows the procurement of nutrients without food poisoning. Exposure to new tastes is known to increase norepinephrine (NE) release in taste processing forebrain areas, yet the central source for this release is unknown. Locus ceruleus norepinephrine neurons (LC-NE) emerge as a candidate in signaling salient information about taste, as other salient sensory stimuli (e.g., visual, auditory, somatosensation) are known to activate LC neurons...

Although active touch in rodents arises from the forepaws as well as whiskers, most research on active touch only focuses on whiskers. This results in a paucity of tasks designed to assess the process of active touch with a forepaw. We develop a new experimental task, the Reach-to-Grasp and Tactile Discrimination task (RGTD task), to examine active touch with a forepaw in rodents, particularly changes in processes of active touch during motor skill learning. In the RGTD task, animals are required to (1) extend their forelimb to an object, (2) grasp the object, and (3) manipulate the grasped object with the forelimb...

Cilia and flagella are specialized eukaryotic organelles projecting from the surface of eukaryotic cells that play a central role in various physiological processes, including cell motility, sensory perception, and signal transduction. At the base of these structures lies the ciliary transition zone, a pivotal region that functions as a gatekeeper and communication hub for ciliary activities. Despite its crucial role, the intricacies of its architecture remain poorly understood, especially given the variations in its organization across different cell types and species...

Fermentation is thought to be born in the Fertile Crescent, and since then, almost every culture has integrated fermented foods into their dietary habits. Originally used to preserve foods, fermentation is now applied to improve their physicochemical, sensory, nutritional, and safety attributes. Fermented dairy, alcoholic beverages like wine and beer, fermented vegetables, fruits, and meats are all highly valuable due to their increased storage stability, reduced risk of food poisoning, and enhanced flavor...

A significant portion of the human diet is comprised of fruits, which are consumed globally either raw or after being processed. A huge amount of waste and by-products such as skins, seeds, cores, rags, rinds, pomace, etc. are being generated in our homes and agro-processing industries every day. According to previous statistics, nearly half of the fruits are lost or discarded during the entire processing chain. The concern arises when those wastes and by-products damage the environment and simultaneously cause economic losses...

The first-cured tobacco contains macromolecular substances with negative impacts on tobacco products quality, and must be aged and fermented to mitigate their effects on the tobacco products quality. However, the natural fermentation takes a longer cycle with large coverage area and low economic efficiency. Microbial fermentation is a method to improve tobacco quality. The change of chemical composition of tobacco during the fermentation is often correlated with shapes of tobacco. This study aimed to investigate the effects of tobacco microorganisms on the quality of different shapes of tobacco...

The frequency of wildfires has significantly increased in recent years, posing concerns for many grapegrowers and winemakers. Exposure of grapes to smoke can result in wines with notable smoky notes, which in severe cases are described as "smoke tainted". However, smoky aromas in wine are not a priori quality defects but may be considered desirable in some styles of wines, as also widely found and appreciated in many spirits. In this perspective, we summarize recent research on sources and assessment of smoky sensory attributes in wine and provide an outlook on opportunities for managing excessive smoky characters...

Functional gradient (FG) analysis represents an increasingly popular methodological perspective for investigating brain hierarchical organization but whether and how network hierarchy changes concomitant with functional connectivity alterations in multiple sclerosis (MS) has remained elusive. Here, we analyzed FG components to uncover possible alterations in cortical hierarchy using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data acquired in 122 MS patients and 97 healthy control (HC) subjects. Cortical hierarchy was assessed by deriving regional FG scores from rs-fMRI connectivity matrices using a functional parcellation of the cerebral cortex...

Bioelectric medicine (BEM) refers to the use of electrical signals to modulate the electrical activity of cells and tissues in the body for therapeutic purposes. In this review, we particularly focused on the microcurrent stimulation (MCS), because, this can take place at the cellular level with sub-sensory application unlike other stimuli. These extremely low-level currents mimic the body's natural electrical activity and are believed to promote various physiological processes. To date, MCS has limited use in the field of BEM with applications in several therapeutic purposes...

BACKGROUND: Patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience higher rates of perioperative anxiety and are likely to receive premedication. Little is known about nonpharmaceutical interventions which may decrease anxiety. This study aims to evaluate the use of an adaptive sensory environment (ASE) to reduce ASD patient anxiety during the perioperative process. METHODS: Our feasibility study (ClinicalTrials.govNCT04994613) enrolled 60 patients in two parallel groups randomized to a control (no ASE) or intervention group (ASE)...

Serotonin (5-HT) is known to modulate early development during critical periods when experience drives heightened levels of plasticity in neurons. Here, we take advantage of the genetically tractable olfactory system of Drosophila to investigate how 5-HT modulates critical period plasticity in the CO2 sensing circuit of fruit flies. Our study reveals that 5HT modulation of multiple neuronal targets is necessary for experience-dependent structural changes in an odor processing circuit. The olfactory CPP is known to involve local inhibitory networks and consistent with this we found that knocking down 5-HT7 receptors in a subset of GABAergic local interneurons was sufficient to block CPP, as was knocking down GABA receptors expressed by olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs)...

Our continuous experience is spontaneously segmented by the brain into discrete events. However, the beginning of a new event (an event boundary) is not always sharply identifiable: phenomenologically, event boundaries vary in salience. How are the response profiles of cortical areas at event boundaries modulated by boundary strength during complex, naturalistic movie-viewing? Do cortical responses scale in a graded manner with boundary strength, or do they merely detect boundaries in a binary fashion? We measured "cortical boundary shifts" as transient changes in multi-voxel patterns at event boundaries with different strengths (weak, moderate, and strong), determined by across-subject agreement...

Retinal waves represent an early form of patterned spontaneous neural activity in the visual system. These waves originate in the retina before eye-opening and propagate throughout the visual system, influencing the assembly and maturation of subcortical visual brain regions. However, because it is technically challenging to ablate retina-derived cortical waves without inducing compensatory activity, the role these waves play in the development of the visual cortex remains unclear. To address this question, we used targeted conditional genetics to disrupt cholinergic retinal waves and their propagation to select regions of primary visual cortex, which largely prevented compensatory patterned activity...

The study aimed to investigate the effect of thermal and non-thermal processing on the physicochemical, microbial, and sensory characteristics of king coconut water. King coconut water samples were subjected to ultrasonication (50 kHz, 30 min at 35 °C), microfiltration (0.5 µm), and thermal treatments (at 90 °C for 10 min) with sodium metabisulfite (0.1 g/L) except the fresh sample (control). Samples were tested for physiochemical, microbial, and sensory parameters...