Understanding the balance between plastic and persistent traits in the dyslexic brain is critical for developing effective interventions. This longitudinal intervention study examines the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in dyslexic and typical readers, exploring how this key component of the brain's reading circuitry changes with learning. We found that dyslexic readers show significant differences in VWFA presence, size, and tuning properties compared to typical readers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActivity and autonomous motion are fundamental aspects of many living and engineering systems. Here, the scale of biological agents covers a wide range, from nanomotors, cytoskeleton, and cells, to insects, fish, birds, and people. Inspired by biological active systems, various types of autonomous synthetic nano- and micromachines have been designed, which provide the basis for multifunctional, highly responsive, intelligent active materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe capillary break-up of complex fluid filaments occurs in many scientific and industrial applications, particularly in bio-printing where both liquid and polymerized droplets exist in the fluid. The simultaneous presence of fluid and solid particles within a carrier fluid and their interactions lead to deviations in the filament break-up from the well-established capillary breakup dynamics of single-phase liquids. To examine the significance of the dispersed phase and the internal interactions between liquid droplets and solid particles, we prepare emulsions through photopolymerization and conduct experimental investigations into the pinch-off dynamics of fluid filaments, focusing on the impact of varying concentrations of liquid droplets (before polymerization) and polymerized droplets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrotubules are dynamic filaments that assemble spindles for eukaryotic cell division. As the concentration profiles of soluble tubulin and regulatory proteins are non-uniform during spindle assembly, we asked if diffusiophoresis - motion of particles under solute gradients - can act as a motorless transport mechanism for microtubules. We identify the migration of stable microtubules along cytoplasmic and higher concentration gradients of soluble tubulin, MgCl, Mg-ATP, Mg-GTP, and RanGTP at speeds O(100) nm/s, validating the diffusiophoresis hypothesis.
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