Biology subjects

Seol, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Seol, J..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Figure--ground relationship of voices in musical structure modulates reciprocal frontotemporal connectivity

When listening to polyphonic music, we often perceive a melody as the figure against the ground of accompanying sounds. However, with repeated exposure, this figure-ground relationship may naturally shift, allowing the melody to recede into the ground. In a previous study, we found the consistent pattern of frontotemporal connectivity for the "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (TTLS) melody in the headings of two variations (II and IV) in Mozarts 12 Variations, K. 265, indicating that the TTLS melody, but not the different lower voices, was the figure. However, the frontotemporal connectivity pattern may change in the same phrases repeating in the two variations. In the current study, we examined how frontotemporal connectivity changes in the repeated phrases. In the results, the frontotemporal connectivity pattern between the two variations changed in the final phrase after repeated passages. This suggests that the shift in the figure-ground relationship persists, with the TTLS melody becoming less prominent while the lower voices become relatively more prominent. Additionally, frontotemporal connectivity was strongly correlated with temporofrontal connectivity in the opposite direction. Finally, our data indicate that TTLS melody-based and sensory-based processes in response to a switched figure-ground relationship, are incorporated into the bidirectional connections between frontotemporal and temporofrontal connectivity. Our study highlights the brains ability to reconfigure figure- ground relationships in the processing of musical voices.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

DNA Hanger: Surface Free Single-Molecule Blotting Platform

Immunoblotting typically requires protein immobilization onto a membrane surface for quantification. Particularly, in real-time single-molecule blotting, stringent surface passivation is essential to prevent false-positive signals from nonspecific binding. In this study, we introduce a novel surface-free single-molecule blotting platform, termed the DNA Hanger. This platform employs a 3D structure of a quartz slide. Modified{lambda} -phage DNA molecules are randomly biotinylated along their bases and suspended between 4 m-high thin barriers, positioned away from the quartz slide surface. A light sheet, produced within the 3D structure, illuminates fluorophore-conjugated proteins bound to the biotinylated DNA, enabling single-molecule detection. The DNA Hanger assay significantly reduces nonspecific binding and enhances sensitivity to sub-picomolar concentrations, suggesting that this platform provides a novel, surface-condition-independent, and real-time approach in a wide range of single-molecule blotting.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2020

Increased fronto-temporal connectivity by modified melody in real music

In real music, the original melody may appear intact, with little elaboration only, or significantly modified. Since a melody is most easily perceived in music, hearing significantly modified melody may change a brain connectivity. Mozart KV 265 is comprised of a theme with an original melody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and its significant variations. We studied whether effective connectivity changes with significantly modified melody, between bilateral inferior frontal gyri (IFGs) and Heschls gyri (HGs) using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Among the 12 connectivities, the connectivity from the left IFG to the right HG was consistently increased with significantly modified melody compared to the original melody in 2 separate sets of the same rhythmic pattern with different melody (p = 0.005 and 0.034, Bonferroni corrected). Our findings show that the modification of an original melody in a real music changes the brain connectivity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Dynamic time-locking mechanism in the cortical representation of spoken words

Human speech has a unique capacity to carry and communicate rich meanings. However, it is not known how the highly dynamic and variable perceptual signal is mapped to existing linguistic and semantic representations. In this novel approach, we utilized the natural acoustic variability of sounds and mapped them to magnetoencephalography (MEG) data using physiologically-inspired machine-learning models. We aimed at determining how well the models, differing in their representation of temporal information, serve to decode and reconstruct spoken words from MEG recordings in 16 healthy volunteers. We discovered that time-locking of the cortical activation to the unfolding speech input is crucial for the encoding of the acoustic-phonetic features. In contrast, time-locking was not highlighted in cortical processing of non-speech environmental sounds that conveyed the same meanings as the spoken words, including human-made sounds with temporal modulation content similar to speech. The amplitude envelope of the spoken words was particularly well reconstructed based on cortical evoked responses. Our results indicate that speech is encoded cortically with especially high temporal fidelity. This mechanism may contribute to the frequently reported entrainment of the cortical oscillations to the amplitude envelope of speech. Furthermore, the phoneme content was reflected in cortical evoked responses simultaneously with the spectrotemporal features, pointing to an instantaneous transformation of the unfolding acoustic features into linguistic representations during speech processing.\n\nSummary: Computational modeling of cortical responses to spoken words highlights the relevance of temporal tracking of spectrotemporal features, which is likely pivotal for transforming the acoustic-phonetic features into linguistic representations.

neuroscience↗