Listening with eyes! Interview with John Magnotti on deciphering McGurk effect!!

We all have tried to lip-read when we can't hear properly. We try to use visual cues to listen when the audio cue is missing or of bad quality. But did you know that our brain tries to use visual cues even when we can hear nicely. And if the two cues are not in sync, we can get confused. In-fact, we might 'hear' a different sound than what is falling on our ears! Our eyes change our audio perceptions! 

Have a look here:


John and colleagues wanted to understand why the effect occurs. And to do so, they generated a computational model which used an audio and visual cue to predict its perception. They found that an important step in correct perception is deciding if the cue arrives from one or two sources. Knowing the number of origins improves understanding. To know more, please listen to John.


To know more, please refer to:
A Causal Inference Model Explains Perception of the McGurk Effect and Other Incongruent Audiovisual Speech
Magnotti and Beauchamp.  PLoS Comput Biol 2017

Illuminating movements! Interview on motion control by optogenetics by Patrícia Correia.

Our brain controls our every behavior. This includes our simple everyday movements and our deepest thoughts and feelings. But are the mundane and complex processes connected in some way. Or are they processed in entirely different ways. Could there be a unified framework underneath the spectrum of behaviors.

Patricia and colleagues started by investigating the role of serotonin on mouse brain. Serotonin, a neuro-hormone, has been associated with mood and motivation within our brains. They wanted to understand the effect of providing increased amount of serotonin to mouse brain. They did this by using a technique called optogenetics, which is capable of using light to control cellular behavior. In their case, they used optogentics to increase serotonin levels in the brain. Upon doing this, they found a fascinating effect on the animal's locomotive behavior. This suggested that serotonin can controls our movements, possibly by affecting our motivations to carry them out! To know more, please listen to the interview with Patricia.


To know more, please refer to:

Transient inhibition and long-term facilitation of locomotion by phasic optogenetic activation of serotonin neurons.
Correia et al., eLife 2017;6:e20975

In addition, please have a look at wonderful fusion between art and science by Patricia, Roots of Curiosity, and her podcast, Creative Disturbance.

Beating Monday Morning Blues with Weekend Camping! Interview with Ellen Stothard on regulation of body clock by natural light.

Surely you have bing-watched your favorite series on Netflix, tucked inside a blanket with a hot cup of chocolate during a lazy weekend. We keep our eyes glued to the computer screen deep into the night, and shift bed time. But then comes Monday, and the body wants to remain inside the same warm blanket. Our body clock shifts and it wants to sleep late, and wake up later. Is there any way to reset the body to normal time? Get it refreshed for the week?

Ellen, Andrew and colleagues from University of Colorado find that exposing the body to natural light is an easy fix for the disrupted body rhythm. They find that spending a weekend under artificial light shifts the body clock to a later period, but that such delay can be prevented by weekend camping under natural sunlight. So to all people who feel the blues on Monday, pitch a tent. To know in detail on this phenomena, please listen to Ellen.


For further information, please refer to:
Circadian Entrainment to the Natural Light-Dark Cycle across Seasons and the Weekend
Stothard, McHill et al., Current Biology, 2017

Mind reading! Interview on Brain-computer interface for the completely locked-in by Ujwal Chaudhary.

Stephen Hawkins uses a special computer technology which translates the movements of his cheek muscles to communicate with the outside world. His inability to move any other muscle is due to loss of muscular function from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) disease. Unfortunately, some patients with ALS do not even retain a single musclular function, while retaining all mental functions; a state called locked-in syndrome. It would be great to help such people with a technology that could directly read the thoughts of the unfortunate patient.

With this inspiration, Ujwal and colleagues developed a brain-computer interface capable of reading simple 'yes' or 'no' thoughts of completely locked-in individuals. The interface is completely non-invasive and can be trained to read thoughts to any question. With this they can increase the interactions with the patients, stimulating and enriching their time, and increasing contact with the outside world.

This generates a nucleus that can be expanded to read full sentences, a technology out of sci-fi, but surely of great use to the unfortunately paralyzed. Please listen to Ujwal on this amazing technology.


To know further on the research, please read:
Brain–Computer Interface–Based Communication in the Completely Locked-In State.
Chaudhary et al., PLoS Biology, 2017

Sex is in the details! Interview with Esther Saiz on gender influencing neuronal circuitry.

'Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.' But what differs between Mars and Venus. According to the author of the book, John Gray, the difference lies in the psyche. These differences could stem from different wiring inside the brain of individual sexes. With 100 billion neurons in the brain of typical human, and maybe as many as 1,000 trillion total connections, its a daunting task to answer this question.

Enter Esther and colleagues with their powerful model system C. elegans, which is a small transparent worm whose each and every cell in the body is accurately mapped along with most of cell's interacting partners. When they looked carefully at one neuron that differed between the sexes in C. elegans, they found a machinery that influenced the sex-specific maturation and behavior of that cell. Strikingly, this influence was not due to sexual hormones, but was wired inside the identity of the cell. So, just changing this one cell changed certain behaviors of the animal from one sex to another! To know more, please listen to Esther.


For further information, please refer to:
Sexually Dimorphic Differentiation of a C. elegans Hub Neuron Is Cell Autonomously Controlled by a Conserved Transcription Factor.
Saiz et al., Current Biology, 2017.
BioRxiv Link.

It's an emergency! Interview with Gesa Zander on cellular response to heat stress!

Imagine a sudden crisis within a country. One day, suddenly, there is a need to face an impending disaster. What happens? The people go into panic-mode and stop doing their regular jobs, and instead focus on averting the crisis. Normal production ceases, and things needed to face the disaster are produced. The pace of production is ramped, and irrespective of the quality, a huge quantity of emergency supplies is generated.

Like humans, cells in our body also face crisis. They need to adapt to extreme environments quickly in order to survive and thrive. Gesa, Alexandra, Lysann and colleagues wanted to know what happens to the cellular production process during the stress period. How does the cell switch to producing cell-responsive genes. And not only producing, but producing at a fast-pace. Are the quality controls applicable during normal times also applicable during the frantic response to stress. They find that the cell switches to stress-control mode, and for a certain time, eases on the quality controls of production. Please listen to Gesa on the interesting adaptability of the cells.


For more information, please refer to:
mRNA quality control is bypassed for immediate export of stress-responsive transcripts
Zander et al., Nature, 2016

A Time to Spring! Interview with Julia Qüesta on cold sensation in plants!!

Winter ends and the layer of snow clears off the ground. The soil is fresh for new cycle of vegetation. It instantly converts to a beautiful expanse of flowers and fresh plants. How does such a drastic change occur? How did the plants 'know' the change in seasons. They don't have an almanac or the weather channel to tell them of the ending cold, or do they??

Julia and colleagues undertook to understand the sensing of winter-to-spring transformation in plants. It is possibly the most important decision for the survival of the plant. Arising anew from winter needs to be perfectly timed. A little early, and the frosty cold will chill the new life. A little late and the other plants would have taken away precious space and resources, making it difficult to fight for survival. And importantly, its a one time event: an on-off switch. The plant needs to integrate a million parameters into a single result. An elaborate chain of events culminating into a life or death choice.

How does the switch operate? Julia and colleagues map the system to basepair resolution by finding the machinery and its corresponding binding sites on the plant genome for controlling the process. This amazing feat (for plant and the team) is a perfect example of how simplicity underlies complex decision making. To understand more, please listen to Julia.



To know more, please refer to:
Arabidopsis transcriptional repressor VAL1 triggers Polycomb silencing at FLC during vernalization.
Qüesta et al., Science 2016.