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How humans and animals segregate sensory information into discrete, behaviorally meaningful categories is one of the hallmark questions in neuroscience. Much of the research around this topic in the auditory system has centered around human speech perception, in which categorical processes result in an enhanced sensitivity for acoustically meaningful differences and a reduced sensitivity for nonmeaningful distinctions. Much less is known about whether nonhuman primates process their species-specific vocalizations in a similar manner. We address this question in the common marmoset, a small arboreal New World primate with a rich vocal repertoire produced across a range of behavioral contexts. We first show that marmosets perceptually categorize their vocalizations in ways that correspond to previously defined call types for this species. Next, we show that marmosets are differentially sensitive to changes in particular acoustic features of their most common call types and that these sensitivity differences are matched to the population statistics of their vocalizations in ways that likely maximize category formation. Finally, we show that marmosets are less sensitive to changes in these acoustic features when within the natural range of variability of their calls, which possibly reflects perceptual specializations which maintain existing call categories. These findings suggest specializations for categorical vocal perception in a New World primate species and pave the way for future studies examining their underlying neural mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hold-up problem is very common in transactions with specific investment in incomplete contractual relationships, which is affected by human trusting, cooperative, altruistic behavior. Recent neuroscience studies have shown that TPJ plays an important role in social cognition and prosocial decision-making. However, most of the studies have focused on RTPJ in the right hemisphere, while few studies have focused on LTPJ in the left hemisphere. The purpose of this study is to modulate the excitability of LTPJ through transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and to explore the effects of LTPJ on the investment and offer behavior of participants in the repeated hold-up game. Our results showed that cathodal stimulation significantly improved the investment rate of participants in the repeated hold-up game compared with sham stimulation. One possible explanation is that the change of LTPJ activity caused by cathodal stimulation may reduce the participants' inference ability of the others' intention, thus reducing the participants' betrayal aversion behavior, so that the participants will not reduce their investment behavior in the repeated game. • The LTPJ is the brain region related to social reasoning. • Cathodal tDCS over LTPJ increased the degree of trust. • The LTPJ is involved in ability to trust and infer others' intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In contests, overbidding is widespread. • Group identity can alleviate overbidding. • Frontal lobes activated pre-group identity task, increased right temporal lobe activation post-task. • Functional connectivity in social brain regions changes before and after the group identity task. Contests may be highly effective in eliciting high levels of effort, but they also carry the risk of inefficient resource allocation due to excessive effort (overbidding), squandering valuable social resources. While a growing body of research has focused on how group identity exacerbates out-group conflict, its influence on in-group conflict remains relatively unexplored. This study endeavors to explore the impact of group identity on conflicts within and between groups in competitive environments, thereby addressing gaps in the current research landscape and dissecting the involved neurobiological mechanisms. By employing source localization and functional connectivity techniques, our research aims to identify the brain regions involved in competitive decision-making and group identity processes, as well as the functional connectivities between social brain areas. The results of our investigation revealed that participants exhibited activation in the bilateral frontal and prefrontal lobes during the bidding behavior before the group identity task. Subsequently, after the task, additional activation was observed in the right temporal lobe. Results from functional connectivity studies indicated that group identity tasks modify decision-making processes by promoting group norms, empathy, and blurred self-other boundaries for in-group decisions, while out-group decisions after the group identity task see heightened cognitive control, an increased dependence on rational judgment, introspection of self-environment relationships, and a greater focus on anticipating others' behaviors. This study reveals the widespread occurrence of overbidding behavior and demonstrates the role of group identity in mitigating this phenomenon, concurrently providing a comprehensive analysis of the underlying neural mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Auditory dorsal and ventral pathways in the human brain play important roles in supporting speech and language processing. However, the evolutionary root of the dual auditory pathways in the primate brain is unclear. By parcellating the auditory cortex of marmosets (a New World monkey species), macaques (an Old World monkey species), and humans using the same individual-based analysis method and tracking the pathways from the auditory cortex based on multi-shell diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI), homologous auditory dorsal and ventral fiber tracks were identified in these primate species. The ventral pathway was found to be well conserved in all three primate species analyzed but extend to more anterior temporal regions in humans. In contrast, the dorsal pathway showed a divergence between monkey and human brains. First, frontal regions in the human brain have stronger connections to the higher-level auditory regions than to the lower-level auditory regions along the dorsal pathway, while frontal regions in the monkey brain show opposite connection patterns along the dorsal pathway. Second, the left lateralization of the dorsal pathway is only found in humans. Moreover, the connectivity strength of the dorsal pathway in marmosets is more similar to that of humans than macaques. These results demonstrate the continuity and divergence of the dual auditory pathways in the primate brains along the evolutionary path, suggesting that the putative neural networks supporting human speech and language processing might have emerged early in primate evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The TPJ is the brain region related to social reasoning. • Anodal tDCS over RTPJ and LTPJ decreased the degree of overbidding. • The TPJ is involved in ability to infer others' intention. Contests, as economic, political, and social interactions, can stimulate high levels of effort, but they can also lead to inefficient expenditure of effort (overbidding), resulting in the wastage of social resources. Prior studies have indicated that the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is associated with overbidding and speculating on the intentions of others during contests. This study aimed to investigate the neural mechanisms of the TPJ in overbidding and to examine changes in bidding behavior after modulating TPJ activity using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The experiment randomly allocated participants into three groups, each receiving either anodal stimulation of the LTPJ/RTPJ or sham stimulation. Following the stimulation, the participants engaged in the Tullock rent-seeking game. Our results revealed that participants who received anodal stimulation of the LTPJ and RTPJ significantly reduced their bids compared to the sham group, possibly due to enhanced accuracy in guessing others' strategies or enhanced altruistic preferences. Moreover, our findings suggest that while both the LTPJ and RTPJ are associated with overbidding behavior, anodal tDCS targeting the RTPJ is more effective than stimulation of the LTPJ in decreasing overbidding. The aforementioned revelations offer proof of the neural mechanisms of the TPJ in overbidding and provide fresh substantiation for the neural mechanisms of social behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic response characteristics of the tunnel and the stability of the surrounding rock are crucial to its safety of the tunnel. Combining the numerical simulation software and field measurement results, the change of peak particle vibration (PPV) and stress were analyzed, based on the longitudinal wave data from the acoustic tests, the blasting damage effects under the action of different blasting counts, including different locations in the deep part of the surrounding rock, were investigated. The results show that: (1) in the vertical direction of the tunnel, the PPV of the tunnel floor and tunnel sidewall is larger, the PPV of the tunnel top is the second, and the tunnel arch shoulder and arch foot is the smallest; (2) under the action of blasting, the stress concentration at the tunnel bottom and arch foot is easier, and the stress monitoring should be strengthened; (3) The depth of damage at different distances was 1.5 m and 3.0 m, respectively, and the depth of damage to the surrounding rock increased from 2.5 m to 4.0 m when the number of blasts was 10 and the number of blasts was 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stressful life events are significant risk factors for depression, and increases in depressive symptoms have been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to explore the neural makers for individuals’ depression during COVID-19, using connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM). Then we tested whether these neural markers could be used to identify groups at high/low risk for depression with a longitudinal dataset. The results suggested that the high-risk group demonstrated a higher level and increment of depression during the pandemic, as compared to the low-risk group. Furthermore, a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was used to discriminate major depression disorder patients and healthy controls, using neural features defined by CPM. The results confirmed the CPM’s ability for capturing the depression-related patterns with individuals’ resting-state functional connectivity signature. The exploration for the anatomy of these functional connectivity features emphasized the role of an emotion-regulation circuit and an interoception circuit in the neuropathology of depression. In summary, the present study augments current understanding of potential pathological mechanisms underlying depression during an acute and unpredictable life-threatening event and suggests that resting-state functional connectivity may provide potential effective neural markers for identifying susceptible populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winter turnip rape (Brassica rapa L.) is widely cultivated in winter in Northwest China, however, its cold-tolerant mechanism remains insufficiently understood. In this study, winter turnip rape cultivar Longyou 7, a cold-tolerant variety, was used as material, whose accumulation of H22O2 and ..., antioxidant enzyme activity as well as differences in protein expression based on two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) technique under -4°C stress were analyzed. Results showed that, production of H22O2 and ... were increased in Longyou 7 leaves, simultaneously, SOD and POD activities were also obviously rosed up, but the activities of CAT and APX were gradually reduced with the temperature. Thirty-six differential protein spots were successfully identified between control and treatments group by using mass spectrometry analysis. Among them, 4 differential protein spots were induced under cold stress, and 2 were inhibited at -4°C. Functional analysis found that these identified proteins mainly participated in photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, defense, protein synthesis, enzyme activity, redox and membrane metabolism, respectively. Additionally, 13 proteins' function were still unknown. In conclusion, strong antioxidant capacity and cell defense ability might play important roles in Longyou 7 response to cold stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a protective layer of a wound, the medical dressing plays an important role in the healing of the wound. The hydrogel dressing is appeared as a new type of medical dressings and has become a research hotspot. Silk fibroin is a natural polymer protein with excellent biocompatibility, mechanical properties, and various plasticity. In this paper, a drug-loaded silk fibroin hydrogel by the polyethylene glycol was coated on cotton fabrics. The obtained biomedical functional textile dressing had antibacterial properties and biocompatibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans have an extraordinary ability to recognize and differentiate voices. It is yet unclear whether voices are uniquely processed in the human brain. To explore the underlying neural mechanisms of voice processing, we recorded electrocorticographic signals from intracranial electrodes in epilepsy patients while they listened to six different categories of voice and nonvoice sounds. Subregions in the temporal lobe exhibited preferences for distinct voice stimuli, which were defined as "voice patches." Latency analyses suggested a dual hierarchical organization of the voice patches. We also found that voice patches were functionally connected under both task-engaged and resting states. Furthermore, the left motor areas were coactivated and correlated with the temporal voice patches during the sound-listening task. Taken together, this work reveals hierarchical cortical networks in the human brain for processing human voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Koumine (KME) is an active alkaloid extracted from Gelsemium elegans, and its diverse bioactivities have been studied for decades. However, KME exhibits poor solubility and low oral bioavailability, which hampers its potential therapeutic exploitation. This work aimed to develop optimized inclusion complexes to improve the bioavailability of KME. The KME/hydroxypropyl-b-cyclodextrin (KME/HPb-CD) inclusion complexes were prepared by the solvent evaporation method and later optimized using the Box-Behnken design. The optimal KME/HP-b-CD was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The physicochemical characterization results revealed that the crystalline state of KME was transformed into an amorphous form, forming KME/HP-b-CD inclusion complexes. Compared with KME, the solubility and in vitro release rate of KME/HP-b-CD was significantly enhanced by 52.34- and 1.3-fold, respectively. Further research was performed to investigate the intestinal absorption characteristics and in vivo bioavailability in rats. The optimal KME/HP-b-CD showed enhanced absorptive permeability and relative bioavailability increased more than two-fold compared to that of raw KME. These results indicate that the optimal KME/HP-b-CD can be used as an effective drug carrier to improve the solubility, intestinal absorption, and bioavailability of KME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]