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Linguistic information compensates for age-related decline in attentional filtering
No full textAs we age, understanding speech in social situations imposes an increasingly difficult challenge to the auditory system. However, the attentional mechanisms underlying age-related speech comprehension difficulties in multitalker situations remain unclear. We collected EEG signals while 63 normal hearing participants from 19 to 71 years performed a speech comprehension task involving a multitalker paradigm at individually adjusted target-to-distractor ratios. Combining trial-resolved multivariate temporal response function modeling with detailed behavioral comprehension responses, we provide a window into lower-level impairments and higher-level compensatory mechanisms across the adult life span. Neuro-behavioral correlations on a trial-by-trial level provide direct evidence for increased distractor representation underlying reduced behavioral performance in late adulthood. This points towards increased distractability as a potential mechanism underlying age-related speech comprehension deficits. Additionally, at the behavioral and neural levels, we show that older adults relied more on higher-level linguistic information. Finally, we show that an increased reliance on linguistic information may serve as a compensatory mechanism that supports comprehension performance across the adult life span. Summarizing, combining behavioral and neural data, we directly show that an increased reliance on linguistic processing can offset age-related impairments in attentional filtering
Music and Cognitive Development
No full textFor some time, research has focused on the question of how music lessons affect the development of cognitive abilities. Music lessons seem to be related to many different cognitive abilities. For some of these cognitive abilities, longitudinal studies even indicate a positive influence of music lessons: executive functions, IQ, memory, and linguistic abilities such as phonological awareness could be improved by music lessons. Overall, the cognitive development of children seems to benefit from music lessons. In this way, music lessons can be a fulfilling leisure activity and furthermore have positive “side effects.
Dieses Internat in der Schweiz ist eine der teuersten Privatschulen der Welt: So ist das Leben dort
No full textLeysin American School ist eine der teuersten Privatschulen der Welt. Vor allem wohlhabende Menschen aus Schwellenländern schicken ihre Kinder in das Schweizer Internat. Die Soziologin Karen Lillie bekam dort Zugang
What the landscape can tell: An integrative stratigraphic prospection approach to localize a Black Death mass grave in Erfurt/Central Germany
No full textThe Black Death pandemic (1346-53 AD) caused a 30-50% population decline across Europe. For the city of Erfurt in Thuringia, substantial human losses and corresponding mass graves are well-documented in historical archives. The aim of our study is to localize these mass graves in the nearby deserted village of Neuses in order to validate the written sources and to obtain skeletal remains for future anthropological and archeogenetic analyses. Here we present our integrative approach of historical research and minimally-invasive stratigraphic and geophysical prospection. Within the area of interest, narrowed down by historical accounts and GIS implementations, we applied percussion coring and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). Coupled geophysical and coring sections help elucidate the late Quaternary sedimentary processes as an essential natural background for more detailed geoarcheological prospections. They allow to designate two distinct soil zones with consistent stratigraphical and pedogenic sequences: (1) a Chernozem zone and (2) a Black Floodplain Soil (humic fluvisol) zone. The distribution and extent of these zones co-determined the internal structure of the former village Neuses and the positioning of the presumed associated Black Death mass graves. Our approach enables a preliminary reconstruction of the medieval subsurface architecture, despite large-scale 20th century ground modification. We identified a belowground pit structure, visible in both, the borehole sequences and ERT sections. Recovered bones have been AMS radiocarbon-dated to the 14th century AD. Since confirmed and precisely-dated locations of Black Death mass graves are rare in Europe and are commonly found by chance during construction works, our systematic discovery of a possible plague pit may help to advance the research on the origin, spread and evolution of the Yersinia pestis pathogen throughout this pandemic as well as on societal coping mechanisms during epidemic outbreaks. Furthermore, our combination of methods holds the potential to successfully resolve the mapping of similarly demanding sites for archeological and forensic investigations. Copyright: © 2026 Hein et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Juggling words: Utilizing the attentional trade-off to capture speech planning during comprehension
No full textStratifying high-risk prediabetes clusters using blood-based epigenetic markers
No full textPreviously, we identified six prediabetes clusters, three at moderate and three at high-risk for type 2 diabetes and/or complications. While this novel classification could enable earlier and improved disease prevention, it relies on intensive clinical phenotyping. Here, we developed a machine learning workflow to identify blood-based epigenetic markers to distinguish between prediabetes clusters
Loss of the flagellar regulator FlhC changes the transcriptional response of plant-associated Acidovorax delafieldii strains to metabolites from Rhizophagus irregularis-colonized Lotus japonicus roots
No full textAcidovorax is a cosmopolitan bacterial genus comprising both beneficial and pathogenic plant-associated species. In plant-associated bacteria, flagella can facilitate colonization but also trigger plant immune responses driving mutation or loss of flagella in some strains. FlhC is an important transcriptional regulator of flagella assembly genes. Here, we investigated whether it modulates root colonization and the transcriptional response of plant-commensal Acidovorax strains to different plant cues. As model cues, we used root extracts from Lotus japonicus that forms symbioses with arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF), which strongly change root metabolism and add their own metabolites. To offer different stimuli to Acidovorax bacteria, we used extracts from L. japonicus roots colonized or not with the AMF Rhizophagus irregularis. We investigated two Acidovorax delafieldii strains with almost identical genomes but differences in the presence or absence of flhC. Overall, loss of flhC resulted in distinct expression profiles and a more modular transcriptional network. Pathway analysis linked flhC to genes associated with stress tolerance, nutrient mobilization, biofilm formation, secretion, surface attachment, and quorum sensing. Root extracts from mycorrhizal roots induced increased expression of genes associated with substrate preference and downregulation of genes involved in biofilm formation and secretion. flhC-deficient strains also responded with increased expression of genes related to surface attachment and vitamin biosynthesis. The absence of flhC correlated with increased root colonization and influenced the response of Acidovorax to R. irregularis in planta. Our findings highlight that a flagellar regulator in root-associated bacteria influences root colonization and transcriptional responses to host cues
Journal of Integrative Plant Biology
No full textABSTRACT Plant metabolism is increasingly being demonstrated to be partially controlled by dynamically assembled metabolons?multienzyme complexes that enable substrate channeling, insulate reactive intermediates, and permit rapid, low-energy flux control. Rigorous criteria are defined to distinguish true metabolons from generic assemblies, and evidence is synthesized across cyanogenic glucoside, phenylpropanoid/flavonoid, alkaloid, terpenoid, polyamine, sporopollenin, and auxin pathways. A practical workflow is presented in which AP-MS (Affinity purification mass spectrometry)/Co-IP (Co-immunoprecipitation), proximity labeling, BiFC (Bimolecular fluorescence complementation)/FRET (Förster resonance energy transfer)/Split-luciferase, and isotope-dilution metabolomics are integrated to resolve composition, dynamics, and direct channeling in vivo. In enzyme-based substrate channeling engineering, design rules are distilled for membrane anchoring, modular scaffolds, compartment targeting, and inducible/optogenetic control, and limitations such as metabolic burden, stoichiometry, and leakiness are noted. An AI-assisted loop is outlined in which structure-aware generative models produce binders/interfaces that are coupled to spatial optimization of enzyme order, orientation, and distance. Together, these advances reposition metabolons as a deployable technology for programmable flux in plants, enabling safer handling of labile intermediates and higher titers of valuable natural products
