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Introduction: Speech communication is multi-sensory in nature. Seeing a speaker's head and face movements may significantly influence the listeners' speech processing, especially when the auditory information is not clear enough. However, research on the visual-auditory integration speech processing has left prosodic perception less well investigated than segmental perception. Furthermore, while native Japanese speakers tend to use less visual cues in segmental perception than in other western languages, to what extent the visual cues are used in Japanese focus perception by the native and non-native listeners remains unknown. To fill in these gaps, we test focus perception in Japanese among native Japanese speakers and Cantonese speakers who learn Japanese, using auditory-only and auditory-visual sentences as stimuli., Methodology: Thirty native Tokyo Japanese speakers and thirty Cantonese-speaking Japanese learners who had passed the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test with level N2 or N3 were asked to judge the naturalness of 28 question-answer pairs made up of broad focus eliciting questions and three-word answers carrying broad focus, or contrastive or non-contrastive narrow focus on the middle object words. Question-answer pairs were presented in two sensory modalities, auditory-only and visual-auditory modalities in two separate experimental sessions., Results: Both the Japanese and Cantonese groups showed weak integration of visual cues in the judgement of naturalness. Visual-auditory modality only significantly influenced Japanese participants' perception when the questions and answers were mismatched, but when the answers carried non-contrastive narrow focus, the visual cues impeded rather than facilitated their judgement. Also, the influences of specific visual cues like the displacement of eyebrows or head movements of both Japanese and Cantonese participants' responses were only significant when the questions and answers were mismatched. While Japanese participants consistently relied on the left eyebrow for focus perception, the Cantonese participants referred to head movements more often., Discussion: The lack of visual-auditory integration in Japanese speaking population found in segmental perception also exist in prosodic perception of focus. Not much foreign language effects has been found among the Cantonese-speaking learners either, suggesting a limited use of facial expressions in focus marking by native and non-native Japanese speakers. Overall, the present findings indicate that the integration of visual cues in perception of focus may be specific to languages rather than universal, adding to our understanding of multisensory speech perception., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zhang, Chen, Chen, Meng and Lee.)

Introduction: People represent the world in terms of two constructs: how something appears on the surface (appearance) and what it is underneath that surface (reality). Both constructs are central to various bodies of literature. What has not been done, however, is a systematic look at this collection of literature for overarching themes. Motivated by this research gap, the present scientometric review aimed to identify the common themes that penetrate through a century of scholarly work on appearance and reality. In doing so, this review also sketched a scientometric outline of the international network, pinpointing where the work was carried out., Methods: With CiteSpace software, we computed an optimized document co-citation analysis with a sample of 4,771 documents (1929-2022), resulting in a network of 1,785 nodes., Results and Discussion: We identified impactful publications, summarized major intellectual movements, and identified five thematic clusters ("Perception of Counseling Services", "Appearance and Reality in Sociocultural Evolution," "Cultural Heritage and Identity," "Media and Culture," and "Cultural Identity"), all with theoretical and pragmatic implications which we discuss. A deeper look at these clusters reveals new empirical questions and promising directions for future research., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Carollo, Stanzione, Fong, Gabrieli, Lee and Esposito.)

Human faces capture attention, provide information about group belonging, and elicit automatic prepared responses. Early experiences with other-race faces play a critical role in acquiring face expertise, but the exact mechanism through which early experience exerts its influence is still to be elucidated. Genetic factors and a multi-ethnic context are likely involved, but their specific influences have not been explored. This study investigated how oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) genotypes and childcare experience interacted to regulate face categorization in adults. Information about single nucleotide polymorphisms of OXTR (rs53576) and experiences with own- and other-race child caregivers was collected from 89 Singaporean adults, who completed a visual categorization task with own- versus other-race faces. Participants were grouped into A/A homozygotes and G carriers and assigned a score to account for their type of child caregiver experience. A multivariate linear regression model was used to estimate the effect of genetic group, child caregiver experience, and their interaction on categorization reaction time. A significant interaction of genetic group and child caregiver experience ( t  = 2.48, p  = 0.015), as well as main effects of both genetic group ( t  = -2.17, p  = 0.033) and child caregiver experience ( t  = -4.29, p  < 0.001) emerged. Post-hoc analysis revealed that the correlation between categorization reaction time and child caregiver experience was significantly different between the two genetic groups. A significant gene x environment interaction on face categorization appears to represent an indirect pathway through which genes and experiences interact to shape mature social sensitivity to faces in human adults., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor declared a past co-authorship with one of the authors GE., (Copyright © 2022 Neoh, Setoh, Bizzego, Tandiono, Foo, Lee, Bornstein and Esposito.)

In this pilot study we investigated the vocal strategies of Cantonese women when addressing an attractive vs. unattractive male. We recruited 19 young female native speakers of Hong Kong Cantonese who completed an attractiveness rating task, followed by a speech production task where they were presented a subset of the same faces. By comparing the rating results and corresponding acoustic data of the facial stimuli, we found that when young Cantonese women spoke to an attractive male, they were less breathy, lower in fundamental frequency, and with denser formants, all of which are considered to project a larger body. Participants who were more satisfied with their own height used these vocal strategies more actively. These results are discussed in terms of the body size projection principle., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Lee and Ng.)

In most countries around the world, the population is rapidly aging. A by-product of these demographic shifts is that older adults will likely occupy more positions of power and influence in our societies than ever before. Further, cultural differences might shape how these transitions unfold around the globe. Across two studies, we investigated whether business and political leaders differed in age across various cultures. Study 1 ( N = 1,034) showed that business leaders were significantly older in Eastern (e.g., China, India, and Japan) cultures than Western (e.g., United States, Sweden, and United Kingdom) cultures, even while controlling for population structure (e.g., percentage of elderly in the society), gross domestic product (GDP), and wealth distribution across the population (GINI). Study 2 ( N = 1,268) conceptually replicated these findings by showing that political leaders were once again older in Eastern vs. Western cultures. Furthermore, cultural tightness mediated the relationship between culture and older leadership. These findings highlight how cultural differences impact not only our preferences, but also important outcomes in consequential domains such as business and politics. Potential explanations for why cultural tightness may be related to differences in leader age across cultures are discussed. To build on these findings, future research should assess the potential causal mechanisms underlying the cultural effect on leader age, and explore the various practical implications of this effect., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Vaughan-Johnston, Imtiaz, Lee and Ji.)

The present research studied Chinese and Euro-Canadian students during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on their affect, optimism, well-being, and meaning in life. The results revealed both differences and similarities across cultures. As predicted, Chinese participants reported more positive affect and less negative affect, higher optimism, higher state psychological well-being, and higher meaning presence, compared to Euro-Canadian participants. The findings were replicated after a week's delay. Analyses on longitudinal data showed that state optimism, state well-being, and meaning presence influenced one another over time. These variables also mediated the cultural differences in one another. These results are consistent with cultural work on naïve dialecticism and non-linear lay theory of change. Results also demonstrate underlying relationships among the constructs that are common to both cultural groups. Broadly, the present research highlights the impact of culture on people's response to challenging life situations and the mechanisms underlying these cultural differences., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Yap, Lee, Ji, Li and Dong.)

The past decade has seen a rapid acceleration in the discovery of new genetic causes of ALS, with more than 20 putative ALS-causing genes now cited. These genes encode proteins that cover a diverse range of molecular functions, including free radical scavenging (e.g., SOD1), regulation of RNA homeostasis (e.g., TDP-43 and FUS), and protein degradation through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (e.g., ubiquilin-2 and cyclin F) and autophagy (TBK1 and sequestosome-1/p62). It is likely that the various initial triggers of disease (either genetic, environmental and/or gene-environment interaction) must converge upon a common set of molecular pathways that underlie ALS pathogenesis. Given the complexity, it is not surprising that a catalog of molecular pathways and proteostasis dysfunctions have been linked to ALS. One of the challenges in ALS research is determining, at the early stage of discovery, whether a new gene mutation is indeed disease-specific, and if it is linked to signaling pathways that trigger neuronal cell death. We have established a proof-of-concept proteogenomic workflow to assess new gene mutations, using CCNF (cyclin F) as an example, in cell culture models to screen whether potential gene candidates fit the criteria of activating apoptosis. This can provide an informative and time-efficient output that can be extended further for validation in a variety of in vitro and in vivo models and/or for mechanistic studies. As a proof-of-concept, we expressed cyclin F mutations (K97R, S195R, S509P, R574Q, S621G) in HEK293 cells for label-free quantitative proteomics that bioinformatically predicted activation of the neuronal cell death pathways, which was validated by immunoblot analysis. Proteomic analysis of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patient fibroblasts bearing the S621G mutation showed the same activation of these pathways providing compelling evidence for these candidate gene mutations to be strong candidates for further validation and mechanistic studies (such as E3 enzymatic activity assays, protein-protein and protein-substrate studies, and neuronal apoptosis and aberrant branching measurements in zebrafish). Our proteogenomics approach has great utility and provides a relatively high-throughput screening platform to explore candidate gene mutations for their propensity to cause neuronal cell death, which will guide a researcher for further experimental studies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Cheng, De Luca, Hogan, Rayner, Davidson, Watchon, Stevens, Muñoz, Ooi, Yerbury, Don, Fifita, Villalva, Suddull, Chapman, Hedl, Walker, Yang, Morsch, Shi, Blair, Laird, Chung and Lee.)

The influence on the global evaluation of a person based on the perception of a single trait is a phenomenon widely investigated in social psychology. Widely regarded as Halo effect , this phenomenon has been studied for more than 100 years now, and findings such as the relationship between aesthetic perception and other personality traits-such as competence and trustworthiness-have since been uncovered. Trustworthiness plays an especially crucial role in individuals' social interactions. Despite the large body of literature published on the Halo effect, and especially on the relationship between aesthetic appearance and perceived trustworthiness, little is known about the overall generalizability of the effect, as almost all of the studies have been conducted on adult participants from Western countries. Moreover, little is known about the stability of the effect over time, in the event of major destabilization, such as the outbreak of a pandemic. In this work, the cross-cultural generalizability of the Halo effect is investigated before and during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of the generalizability and stability over time of the Halo effect is presented. Participants ( N = 380, N = 145 Asians, N = 235 Caucasians) have been asked to rate the aesthetic appearance and perceived trustworthiness of a set of human faces of different ages, gender, and ethnicity. Result of our analysis demonstrated that the Halo effect (Aesthetic × trustworthiness) is influenced by the age of presented faces, but not by their gender or ethnicity. Moreover, our results show that the strength of the effect can be affected by external events and that the volatility is higher for adults' than children's faces., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Gabrieli, Lee, Setoh and Esposito.)

Neurodegenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are increasing in prevalence but lack targeted therapeutics. Although the pathological mechanisms behind these diseases remain unclear, both ALS and FTD are characterized pathologically by aberrant protein aggregation and inclusion formation within neurons, which correlates with neurodegeneration. Notably, aggregation of several key proteins, including TAR DNA binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43), superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), and tau, have been implicated in these diseases. Proteomics methods are being increasingly applied to better understand disease-related mechanisms and to identify biomarkers of disease, using model systems as well as human samples. Proteomics-based approaches offer unbiased, high-throughput, and quantitative results with numerous applications for investigating proteins of interest. Here, we review recent advances in the understanding of ALS and FTD pathophysiology obtained using proteomics approaches, and we assess technical and experimental limitations. We compare findings from various mass spectrometry (MS) approaches including quantitative proteomics methods such as stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) and tandem mass tagging (TMT) to approaches such as label-free quantitation (LFQ) and sequential windowed acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion mass spectra (SWATH-MS) in studies of ALS and FTD. Similarly, we describe disease-related protein-protein interaction (PPI) studies using approaches including immunoprecipitation mass spectrometry (IP-MS) and proximity-dependent biotin identification (BioID) and discuss future application of new techniques including proximity-dependent ascorbic acid peroxidase labeling (APEX), and biotinylation by antibody recognition (BAR). Furthermore, we explore the use of MS to detect post-translational modifications (PTMs), such as ubiquitination and phosphorylation, of disease-relevant proteins in ALS and FTD. We also discuss upstream technologies that enable enrichment of proteins of interest, highlighting the contributions of new techniques to isolate disease-relevant protein inclusions including flow cytometric analysis of inclusions and trafficking (FloIT). These recently developed approaches, as well as related advances yet to be applied to studies of these neurodegenerative diseases, offer numerous opportunities for discovery of potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers for ALS and FTD.

Microglia are specialized phagocytes in the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS). As the resident immune cells of the CNS they play an important role in the removal of dying neurons during both development and in several neuronal pathologies. Microglia have been shown to prevent the diffusion of damaging degradation products of dying neurons by engulfment and ingestion. Here we describe a live imaging approach that uses UV laser ablation to selectively stress and kill spinal neurons and visualize the clearance of neuronal remnants by microglia in the zebrafish spinal cord. In vivo imaging confirmed the motile nature of microglia within the uninjured spinal cord. However, selective neuronal ablation triggered rapid activation of microglia, leading to phagocytic uptake of neuronal debris by microglia within 20-30 min. This process of microglial engulfment is highly dynamic, involving the extension of processes toward the lesion site and consequently the ingestion of the dying neuron. 3D rendering analysis of time-lapse recordings revealed the formation of phagosome-like structures in the activated microglia located at the site of neuronal ablation. This real-time representation of microglial phagocytosis in the living zebrafish spinal cord provides novel opportunities to study the mechanisms of microglia-mediated neuronal clearance.