Chaudhury, R. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Decoding Spatial Attention in the Cocktail Party Problem Using Wearable Whole-head High-Density fNIRS

Spatial attention is critical for solving the cocktail party problem, a longstanding problem in neuroscience and artificial speech recognition. The ability to decode where humans are attending in a cocktail party like scene would empower applications in brain computer interfaces and assistive devices such as hearing aids. Here we demonstrate that, in an overt attention task, the attended spatial location can be decoded robustly from single trial hemodynamic responses, using a wearable whole head high density fNIRS system. We also identify critical brain regions that make the highest contribution to decoding accuracy. Specifically, we find that decoding based on a small fraction of channels within the left and right inferior parietal lobule (IPL), achieve maximal decoding accuracy comparable to all channels. These results open the way for the design of novel BCIs and assistive devices integrated with fNIRS, that can be steered by spatial attention.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Autophagic degradation of EIN3 ensures developmental plasticity and recovery from environmental stress in Arabidopsis

Ethylene signaling, mediated by the key transcription factor EIN3, regulates diverse developmental processes and stress adaptations, including hypocotyl growth, aging, and submergence tolerance. Autophagy, a cellular recycling process, also facilitates adaptation by reprogramming cellular components. While EIN3 degradation via the proteasome is well established, its connection to autophagy remains unclear. Here, we show that EIN3 turnover is directly regulated by ATG8-mediated autophagy. Consistently, autophagy-deficient plants exhibit impaired EIN3-dependent hypocotyl growth during light-to-dark transitions. Additionally, EIN3 accumulation contributes to the premature senescence observed in atg mutants. Beyond development, our combination of cell imaging, phenotypic analyses, and proteomics reveals that autophagy is essential for EIN3-driven transcriptional reprogramming during submergence. Together, our findings uncover a direct role for autophagy in regulating EIN3 stability, providing mechanistic insight into how this process fine-tunes ethylene responses in growth and stress adaptation.

plant biology↗