Biology subjects

Kimoto, Y.

Publications and source records attributed to Kimoto, Y..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

GSDMD transcript levels are higher in endothelial than cardiomyocyte compartments across three human heart cohorts

Cardiac GSDMD research has largely centred on cardiomyocytes. We quantified donor-level endothelial-minus-cardiomyocyte differences in two single-nucleus cohorts and one GeoMx spatial cohort, retaining assay-specific scales. GSDMD was higher in endothelial compartments in 42/42, 38/38 and 27/32 donors and ranked, post hoc, at the 94.9th, 95.1st and 97.4th percentiles of the corresponding within-cohort signed-contrast distributions. Although positive direction and complete donor concordance were not unique transcriptome-wide, this hypothesis-led target retained high rank across markedly different reference backgrounds and assay modalities. A fixed eight-transcript panel included both endothelial- and cardiomyocyte-shifted members, arguing against a uniform panel-wide directional shift or simple detection failure. GeoMx provided the most discriminating transcriptome background but remained composition-sensitive. GSDMD transcripts are therefore recurrently higher in endothelial than cardiomyocyte compartments across human-heart cohorts, showing that a cardiomyocyte-only interpretation of human-heart GSDMD transcript signals is incomplete.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2026

Spatial transcriptomics identifies a translayer architecture of pyroptosis-related transcription in systemic sclerosis skin

Anatomical-layer enrichment does not establish cellular attribution, so correspondence with major-cell-class expression must be tested gene by gene. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) skin is informative because inflammasome- and pyroptosis-related molecules have been reported across epidermal, fibroblast-associated and vascular contexts. Spatial transcriptomics of SSc and control skin, with same-donor single-nucleus profiles from 10 SSc donors, revealed gene-specific correspondence. Across 13 discovery sections, NLRP1, PYCARD and CASP4 were epidermally biased, whereas GSDMD was dermally biased. An independent 10-section SSc cohort supported epidermal NLRP1 (q = 0.0078) and PYCARD (q = 0.043), with directional, non-significant support for CASP4 and GSDMD. Despite epidermal NLRP1 bias, endothelial class-pseudobulk exceeded keratinocyte class-pseudobulk in all 10 donors. Restricted three-class reconstruction reproduced the NLRP1 direction in 1 and 0 of 10 donors under the two fixed dermal weightings and in 0-8 of 10 across a post hoc sweep of the dermal endothelial share; PYCARD and GSDMD were concordant in most donors at every weighting, and CASP4 in no more than 4 of 10. Thus, tissue layer and major cell class are gene-specifically non-equivalent axes of spatial interpretation.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

Performance anxiety is associated with biases in learning from reward and punishment in skilled individuals

Performance anxiety (PA) is common in high-stakes settings, from public speaking to the performing arts, yet its mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using behavioural analysis, computational modelling, and electroencephalography, we tested whether PA biases learning from reward and punishment under varying task uncertainty. Across three experiments with 95 skilled pianists, participants learned hidden melody dynamics through graded reward or punishment feedback. Bayesian hierarchical regression showed that increasing PA levels were associated with faster reward learning under high uncertainty (large action space) but faster punishment learning under low uncertainty (reduced action space). These learning biases--reflecting the interaction between PA and reinforcement type--were associated with reinforcement-driven modulation of motor variability and frontal theta (4-7 Hz) activity encoding feedback changes and signalling motor adjustments. The findings reveal that predisposition to PA in skilled individuals modulates reward- and punishment-based learning in a context-dependent manner governed by task uncertainty.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

A specialized inhibitory function sharpens somatosensory hand representation and enhances the production and perception of fast multifinger movements in pianists

Accurate control of fast, coordinated movements across multiple body parts characterizes experts skills, such as playing musical instruments. While performing such skillful movements, the somatosensory system is challenged to successively and in parallel process a large amount of somatosensory information originating from different body parts within a short period. Over decades, it has been posited that the cortical representations of distinct body parts are more isolated from each other in trained than untrained individuals. Several recent studies, however, have re-examined and failed to replicate it. Here, we provide compelling evidence that expert pianists possess a unique inhibitory function that isolates the somatosensory processing of different body parts in the somatosensory cortex (S1). A behavioural experiment demonstrated a superior ability to perceive fast multifinger movements in pianists than musically untrained individuals, suggesting the specialized neural process of somatosensory information originating from multiple fingers within a short period in pianists. A series of neurophysiological experiments demonstrated that pianists have a unique inhibitory function in the S1, which was activated by weak electrical stimulation to the ulnar nerve. This stimulation also increased the representational distance between fingers, which was assessed based on cortical activation patterns elicited by the passive finger movements. This indicates the strengthened independence of the individual finger representation in the somatosensory processes specifically in pianists. This stimulation also augmented both the perception and execution of the fast and complex multifinger sequential movements. In nonmusicians, neither the inhibitory effects on the somatosensory process nor enhancement of the perception of multifinger movements was induced by this stimulation. Together, these findings provide the first evidence of the experience-dependent plasticity of inhibition of the somatosensory system, which highlights its pivotal role in the isolated somatosensory processing of multiple body parts in trained individuals and enables them to control fast and complex multifinger movements.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Neuromuscular and biomechanical functions subserving finger dexterity in musicians

Exceptional finger dexterity enables skillful motor actions such as those required for musical performance. However, it has been not known whether specialized neuromuscular or biomechanical features subserve the dexterity. We aimed to identify the features firstly differentiating the finger dexterity between trained and untrained individuals and secondly accounting for the individual differences in the dexterity across trained individuals. To this aim, two studies were conducted. The first study (Study 1) compared the finger motor dexterity and several neuromuscular and biomechanical characteristics of the fingers between pianists and musically untrained individuals (non-musicians). The results showed no differences in any biomechanical features between the groups with different musical expertise. However, the pianists exhibited faster individual finger movements and more independent control of movements between the fingers. These observations indicate expertise-dependence of the finger motor skills and neuromuscular control of the fingers. The second study (Study 2) assessed individual differences in the finger dexterity between trained pianists. A penalized regression determined an association of the maximum movement speed of the pianists individual fingers with both finger muscular strength and biomechanical characteristics of the hand, but not with independent movement control between the fingers. In addition, none of these features covaried with measures of early and deliberate piano practice. Taken together, these findings indicate that distinct biological factors of finger motor dexterity differentiate between the effects of piano training and individual differences across skilled pianists.

neuroscience↗