Revisiting Cardiac Biology in the Era of Single Cell and Spatial Omics.

Throughout our lifetime, each beat of the heart requires the coordinated action of multiple cardiac cell types. Understanding cardiac cell biology, its intricate microenvironments, and the mechanisms that govern their function in health and disease are crucial to designing novel therapeutical and behavioral interventions. Recent advances in single-cell and spatial omics technologies have significantly propelled this understanding, offering novel insights into the cellular diversity and function and the complex interactions of cardiac tissue. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the cellular landscape of the heart, bridging the gap between suspension-based and emerging in situ approaches, focusing on the experimental and computational challenges, comparative analyses of mouse and human cardiac systems, and the rising contextualization of cardiac cells within their niches. As we explore the heart at this unprecedented resolution, integrating insights from both mouse and human studies will pave the way for novel diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions, ultimately improving outcomes for patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Affective response to a set of new musical stimuli.

Recently, a novel set of musical stimuli was developed in an attempt to bring more rigor to a paradigm which often falls under scientific scrutiny. Although these musical clips were validated in terms of recognition for emotion, valence, and arousal, the clips were not specifically tested for their ability to elicit certain affective responses. The present study examined self-reported "elation" among 82 participants after listening to one of two types of the musical clips; 47 listened to happy music and 35 listened to sad music. Individuals who listened to happy music reported significantly higher "elation" than individuals who listened to the sad music. These results support the idea that music can elicit certain affective state responses.