Evolution of Retinal Neuron Fractality When Interfacing with Carbon Nanotube Electrodes.

Exploring how neurons in the mammalian body interact with the artificial interface of implants can be used to learn about fundamental cell behavior and to refine medical applications. For fundamental and applied research, it is crucial to determine the conditions that encourage neurons to maintain their natural behavior during interactions with non-natural interfaces. Our previous investigations quantified the deterioration of neuronal connectivity when their dendrites deviate from their natural fractal geometry.

Fractal Fluency: Processing of Fractal Stimuli Across Sight, Sound, and Touch.

People are continually exposed to the rich complexity generated by the repetition of fractal patterns at different size scales. Fractals are prevalent in natural scenery and also in patterns generated by artists and mathematicians. In this chapter, we will investigate the powerful significance of fractals for the human senses.

Neuron arbor geometry is sensitive to the limited-range fractal properties of their dendrites.

Fractal geometry is a well-known model for capturing the multi-scaled complexity of many natural objects. By analyzing three-dimensional images of pyramidal neurons in the rat hippocampus CA1 region, we examine how the individual dendrites within the neuron arbor relate to the fractal properties of the arbor as a whole. We find that the dendrites reveal unexpectedly mild fractal characteristics quantified by a low fractal dimension.

Comparison of fractal and grid electrodes for studying the effects of spatial confinement on dissociated retinal neuronal and glial behavior.

Understanding the impact of the geometry and material composition of electrodes on the survival and behavior of retinal cells is of importance for both fundamental cell studies and neuromodulation applications. We investigate how dissociated retinal cells from C57BL/6J mice interact with electrodes made of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes grown on silicon dioxide substrates. We compare electrodes with different degrees of spatial confinement, specifically fractal and grid electrodes featuring connected and disconnected gaps between the electrodes, respectively.

Investigating Fractal Analysis as a Diagnostic Tool That Probes the Connectivity of Hippocampal Neurons.

Many of nature's fractal objects benefit from the favorable functionality that results from their pattern repetition at multiple scales. Our recent research focused on the importance of fractal scaling in establishing connectivity between neurons. Fractal dimension of the neuron arbors was shown to relate to the optimization of competing functional constraints-the ability of dendrites to connect to other neurons versus the costs associated with building the dendrites.

Controlled assembly of retinal cells on fractal and Euclidean electrodes.

Controlled assembly of retinal cells on artificial surfaces is important for fundamental cell research and medical applications. We investigate fractal electrodes with branches of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes and silicon dioxide gaps between the branches that form repeating patterns spanning from micro- to milli-meters, along with single-scaled Euclidean electrodes. Fluorescence and electron microscopy show neurons adhere in large numbers to branches while glial cells cover the gaps.

From Persian Calligraphy to Fractal Networks of Retinal Cells.

In this short cover, I tell the story of my personal journey of becoming a scientist-artist and how Persian calligraphy artistry inspired me to convert the experimental data in the form of images of retinal cells into visually aesthetic artwork.

Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design.

Highly prevalent in nature, fractal patterns possess self-similar components that repeat at varying size scales. The perceptual experience of human-made environments can be impacted with inclusion of these natural patterns. Previous work has demonstrated consistent trends in preference for and complexity estimates of fractal patterns.

The Roles of an Aluminum Underlayer in the Biocompatibility and Mechanical Integrity of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes for Interfacing with Retinal Neurons.

Retinal implant devices are becoming an increasingly realizable way to improve the vision of patients blinded by photoreceptor degeneration. As an electrode material that can improve restored visual acuity, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) excel due to their nanoscale topography, flexibility, surface chemistry, and double-layer capacitance. If vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) are biocompatible with retinal neurons and mechanically robust, they can further improve visual acuity-most notably in subretinal implants-because they can be patterned into high-aspect-ratio, micrometer-size electrodes.

Relaxing Floors: Fractal Fluency in the Built Environment.

This year's cover artists are members of a newly formed team of designers and scientists known as the Science and Design Laboratory, along with flooring manufacturing experts from the Mohawk Group. This unique collab-oration creates patterns for installation on the floors of versatile commercial, public and private spaces including airports, hospitals, offices and homes. Their goal is to create human-centered designs based on psychology experiments that investigate the positive impacts of viewing fractal patterns.