46 research outputs found
The gray matter volume of the amygdala is correlated with the perception of melodic intervals: a voxel-based morphometry study
Music is not simply a series of organized pitches, rhythms, and timbres, it is capable of evoking emotions. In the present study, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was employed to explore the neural basis that may link music to emotion. To do this, we identified the neuroanatomical correlates of the ability to extract pitch interval size in a music segment (i.e., interval perception) in a large population of healthy young adults (N = 264). Behaviorally, we found that interval perception was correlated with daily emotional experiences, indicating the intrinsic link between music and emotion. Neurally, and as expected, we found that interval perception was positively correlated with the gray matter volume (GMV) of the bilateral temporal cortex. More important, a larger GMV of the bilateral amygdala was associated with better interval perception, suggesting that the amygdala, which is the neural substrate of emotional processing, is also involved in music processing. In sum, our study provides one of first neuroanatomical evidence on the association between the amygdala and music, which contributes to our understanding of exactly how music evokes emotional responses
Membrane Fusion Mediated by Non-covalent Binding of Re-engineered Cholera Toxin Assemblies to Glycolipids
Membrane fusion is essential for the transport of macromolecules and viruses across membranes. While glycan-binding proteins (lectins) often initiate cellular adhesion, subsequent fusion events require additional protein machinery. No mechanism for membrane fusion arising from simply a protein binding to membrane glycolipids has been described thus far. Herein, we report that a biotinylated protein derived from cholera toxin becomes a fusogenic lectin upon cross-linking with streptavidin. This novel reengineered protein brings about hemifusion and fusion of vesicles as demonstrated by mixing of fluorescently labeled lipids between vesicles as well as content mixing of liposomes filled with fluorescently labeled dextran. Exclusion of the complex at vesicle–vesicle interfaces could also be observed, indicating the formation of hemifusion diaphragms. Discovery of this fusogenic lectin complex demonstrates that new emergent properties can arise from simple changes in protein architecture and provides insights into new mechanisms of lipid-driven fusion
Age dependence of pulmonary artery blood flow measured by 4D flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance: results of a population-based study
Aortic atheroma as a source of stroke – assessment of embolization risk using 3D CMR in stroke patients and controls
Acute Cerebral Venous Thrombosis. Three-Dimensional Visualization and Quantification of Hemodynamic Alterations Using 4-Dimensional Flow Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Background and Purpose-Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) affects venous hemodynamics and can provoke severe stroke and chronic intracranial hypertension. We sought to comprehensively analyze 3-dimensional blood flow and hemodynamic alterations during acute CVT including collateral recruitment and at follow-up. Methods-Twenty-two consecutive patients with acute CVT were prospectively included and underwent routine brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 4-dimensional flow MRI at 3 T for the in vivo assessment of cerebral blood flow. Neurological and MRI follow-up at 6 months was performed in 18 patients. Results-Three-dimensional blood flow visualization and quantification of large dural venous sinuses and deep cerebral veins was successfully performed in all patients. During acute CVT, we observed abnormal flow patterns including stagnant flow, flow acceleration in stenoses, and change of flow directions. In patients with complete recanalization, flow trajectories resembled those known from previously published 4-dimensional flow MRI data in healthy adults. There was a trend toward a relationship between occluded segments and cerebral lesions (not significant). Furthermore, patients with versus without cerebral lesions showed increased mean (0.080.09 versus 0.005 +/- 0.014 m/s) and peak velocities (0.18 +/- 0.21 versus 0.006 +/- 0.02 m/s) within partially thrombosed left and right transverse sinuses (P<0.05) at baseline. Conclusions-Four-dimensional flow MRI was successfully applied for the 3-dimensional visualization and quantification of venous hemodynamics in patients with CVT and provided new dynamic information regarding vessel recanalization. This technique seems promising to investigate the contribution of hemodynamic parameters and collaterals in a larger cohort to identify those at risk of stroke
Controlling the surface composition of poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) blends by heat treatment
The role of surface-induced ordering in the crystallisation of PET films
The molecular configuration and long-range order at the surface
of spin-cast poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) thin films
spin-cast onto an etched \chem{Si(001)} surface during
crystallisation from the amorphous state has been investigated
for a range of annealing temperatures. The structural ordering at
the surface of the film was compared directly with that in the
bulk of the film by employing grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction
with incident angles below, at and above the critical angle for
total reflection. Ordering was observed at the surface at
annealing temperatures of 80–95\un{{}^{\circ}C}, lower than that
in the bulk, involving local parallel alignment of chains in the
plane of the surface with the benzene rings oriented
preferentially with the ring plane parallel to the surface.
Comparison with atomic-force microscopy images enables the fold
configuration at the surface to be deduced