Biology subjects

Hsieh, P.-J.

Publications and source records attributed to Hsieh, P.-J..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Understanding cephalopod regeneration: impact of sexual maturation, injury severity and general anesthesia on octopus arm restoration

Octopuses exhibit remarkable regenerative capacity, as shown by their ability to fully restore a whole arm. During this process, a complex appendage containing muscle, connective tissue, vasculature, suckers, sensory structures, peripheral nerves and the axial nerve cord (ANC) is regrown. Although the morphology of octopus regeneration is increasingly well described, the physiological variables that determine regenerative speed, including the potential contribution of ion-channel-dependent processes, remain poorly understood. In this work we examined the influence of reproductive state, injury severity, biological sex and magnesium chloride (MgCl2) anesthesia, on the rate of longitudinal arm regrowth. Reproductive stage was the strongest determinant of regenerative performance: pre-reproductive stage (pre-RS) animals showed robust regrowth, whereas reproductive stage (RS) animals regenerated significantly slower. In pre-RS animals, regeneration speed scaled strongly with injury severity, whereas this relationship was absent in RS animals. Biological sex did not independently predict regeneration speed, and MgCl2 exposure showed no long-term inhibitory effect on regeneration. Our final model explained 81.4% of variance in regeneration speed, with reproductive state and injury severity having major effects. These findings demonstrate that sexual maturation and optic-gland-mediated senescence act as an irreversible physiological block against somatic regeneration, and provide empirical support for mechanosensory and bioelectric-dependent scaling models of cephalopod limb restoration.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Individual variability in neural representations of mind-wandering

Mind-wandering is a frequent, daily mental activity, experienced in unique ways in each person. Yet neuroimaging evidence relating mind-wandering to brain activity, for example in the default mode network (DMN), has relied on population-rather than individual-based inferences due to limited within-individual sampling. Here, three densely-sampled individuals each reported hundreds of mind-wandering episodes while undergoing multi-session functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found reliable associations between mind-wandering and DMN activation when estimating brain networks within individuals using precision functional mapping. However, the timing of spontaneous DMN activity relative to subjective reports, and the networks beyond DMN that were activated and deactivated during mind-wandering, were distinct across individuals. Connectome-based predictive modeling further revealed idiosyncratic, whole-brain functional connectivity patterns that consistently predicted mind-wandering within individuals but did not fully generalize across individuals. Predictive models of mind-wandering and attention that were derived from larger-scale neuroimaging datasets largely failed when applied to densely-sampled individuals, further highlighting the need for personalized models. Our work offers novel evidence for both conserved and variable neural representations of self-reported mind-wandering in different individuals. The previously-unrecognized inter-individual variations reported here underscore the broader scientific value and potential clinical utility of idiographic approaches to brain-experience associations.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Mind Wandering in Sensory Cortices

Mind wandering contains rich phenomenology as we experience moment by moment, however, such linkage between our subjective experiences and the underlying neural mechanism has been missing in the literature. Here we report that the sensory contents of mind wandering recruit corresponding sensory cortices, serving as the neural bases of the sensory contents in mind wandering.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Distinct genetic signatures of cortical and subcortical regions associated with human memory

Despite the discovery of gene variants linked to memory performance, understanding the genetic basis of human memory remains a challenge. Here, we devised a framework combining human transcriptome data and a functional neuroimaging map to uncover the genetic signatures of memory in functionally-defined cortical and subcortical memory regions. Results were validated with animal literature and our framework proved to be highly effective and specific to the targeted cognitive function versus a control function. Genes preferentially expressed in cortical memory regions are linked to associative learning and ribosome biogenesis. Genes expressed in subcortical memory regions are associated with synaptic signaling and epigenetic processes. Cortical and subcortical regions share a number of memory-related biological processes and genes, e.g. translational initiation and GRIN1. Thus, cortical and subcortical memory regions exhibit distinct genetic signatures that potentially reflect functional differences in health and disease, and propose gene candidates for the targeted treatment of memory disorders.

neuroscience↗