@article{QiZhangKochovskietal.2018, author = {Qi, Wenjing and Zhang, Yufei and Kochovski, Zdravko and Wang, Jue and Lu, Yan and Chen, Guosong and Jiang, Ming}, title = {Self-assembly of Human Galectin-1 via dual supramolecular interactions and its inhibition of T-cell agglutination and apoptosis}, series = {Nano Research}, volume = {11}, journal = {Nano Research}, number = {10}, publisher = {Tsinghua Univ Press}, address = {Beijing}, issn = {1998-0124}, doi = {10.1007/s12274-018-2169-7}, pages = {5566 -- 5572}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Recently, we proposed a new strategy to construct artificial plant protein assemblies, which were induced by adding a small molecule, based on dual supramolecular interactions. In this paper, we further explored this method by employing Human Galectin-1 (Gal-1) as a building block to form self-assembled microribbons. Two non-covalent interactions, including lactose-lectin binding and dimerization of Rhodamine B (RhB), induced by the small molecule ligand addition, were involved in the crosslinking of the animal protein, resulting in the formation of assemblies. By using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and three-dimensional (3D) tomographic analysis, we arrived at a possible mechanistic model for the microribbon formation. Furthermore, the morphology of protein assemblies could be fine-timed by varying the incubation time, the protein/ligand ratio, and the chemical structures of ligands. Interestingly, the formation of protein microribbons successfully inhibited Gal-1 induced T-cell agglutination and apoptosis. This is because the multivalent and dynamic interactions in protein assemblies compete with the binding between Gal-1 and the glycans on cell surfaces, which suppresses the function of Gal-1 in promotion of tumor progression and metastasis.}, language = {en} } @article{PanYanLaubrock2020, author = {Pan, Jinger and Yan, Ming and Laubrock, Jochen}, title = {Semantic preview benefit and cost}, series = {Cognition : international journal of cognitive science}, volume = {205}, journal = {Cognition : international journal of cognitive science}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0010-0277}, doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104452}, pages = {10}, year = {2020}, abstract = {How is semantic information in the mental lexicon accessed and selected during reading? Readers process information of both the foveal and parafoveal words. Recent eye-tracking studies hint at bi-phasic lexical activation dynamics, demonstrating that semantically related parafoveal previews can either facilitate, or interfere with lexical processing of target words in comparison to unrelated previews, with the size and direction of the effect depending on exposure time to parafoveal previews. However, evidence to date is only correlational, because exposure time was determined by participants' pre-target fixation durations. Here we experimentally controlled parafoveal preview exposure duration using a combination of the gaze-contingent fast-priming and boundary paradigms. We manipulated preview duration and examined the time course of parafoveal semantic activation during the oral reading of Chinese sentences in three experiments. Semantic previews led to faster lexical access of target words than unrelated previews only when the previews were presented briefly (80 ms in Experiments 1 and 3). Longer exposure time (100 ms or 150 ms) eliminated semantic preview effects, and full preview without duration limit resulted in preview cost, i.e., a reversal of preview benefit. Our results indicate that high-level semantic information can be obtained from parafoveal words and the size and direction of the parafoveal semantic effect depends on the level of lexical activation.}, language = {en} } @article{LuoYanYanetal.2016, author = {Luo, Yingyi and Yan, Ming and Yan, Shaorong and Zhou, Xiaolin and Inhoff, Albrecht W.}, title = {Syllabic tone articulation influences the identification and use of words during Chinese sentence reading: Evidence from ERP and eye movement recordings}, series = {The science of the total environment : an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with man}, volume = {16}, journal = {The science of the total environment : an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with man}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {1530-7026}, doi = {10.3758/s13415-015-0368-1}, pages = {72 -- 92}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In two experiments, we examined the contribution of articulation-specific features to visual word recognition during the reading of Chinese. In spoken Standard Chinese, a syllable with a full tone can be tone-neutralized through sound weakening and pitch contour change, and there are two types of two-character compound words with respect to their articulation variation. One type requires articulation of a full tone for each constituent character, and the other requires a full- and a neutral-tone articulation for the first and second characters, respectively. Words of these two types with identical first characters were selected and embedded in sentences. Native speakers of Standard Chinese were recruited to read the sentences. In Experiment 1, the individual words of a sentence were presented serially at a fixed pace while event-related potentials were recorded. This resulted in less-negative N100 and anterior N250 amplitudes and in more-negative N400 amplitudes when targets contained a neutral tone. Complete sentences were visible in Experiment 2, and eye movements were recorded while participants read. Analyses of oculomotor activity revealed shorter viewing durations and fewer refixations on-and fewer regressive saccades to-target words when their second syllable was articulated with a neutral rather than a full tone. Together, the results indicate that readers represent articulation-specific word properties, that these representations are routinely activated early during the silent reading of Chinese sentences, and that the representations are also used during later stages of word processing.}, language = {en} } @article{YanLuoInhoff2014, author = {Yan, Ming and Luo, Yingyi and Inhoff, Albrecht W.}, title = {Syllable articulation influences foveal and parafoveal processing of words during the silent reading of Chinese sentences}, series = {Journal of memory and language}, volume = {75}, journal = {Journal of memory and language}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {San Diego}, issn = {0749-596X}, doi = {10.1016/j.jml.2014.05.007}, pages = {93 -- 103}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The current study examined effects of syllable articulation on eye movements during the silent reading of Chinese sentences, which contained two types of two-character target words whose second characters were subject to dialect-specific variation. In one condition the second syllable was articulated with a neutral tone for northern-dialect Chinese speakers and with a full tone for southern-dialect Chinese speakers (neutral-tone target words) and in the other condition the second syllable was articulated with a full tone irrespective of readers' dialect type (full-tone target words). Native speakers of northern and southern Chinese dialects were recruited in Experiment 1 to examine the effect of dialect-specific articulation on silent reading. Recordings of their eye movements revealed shorter viewing durations for neutral- than for full-tone target words only for speakers of northern but not for southern dialects, indicating that dialect-specific articulation of syllabic tone influenced visual word recognition. Experiment 2 replicated the syllabic tone effect for speakers of northern dialects, and the use of gaze-contingent display changes further revealed that these readers processed an upcoming parafoveal word less effectively when a neutral- than when a full-tone target was fixated. Shorter viewing duration for neutral-tone words thus cannot be attributed to their easier lexical processing; instead, tonal effects appear to reflect Chinese readers' simulated articulation of to-be-recognized words during silent reading. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{Yan2015, author = {Yan, Ming}, title = {Visually complex foveal words increase the amount of parafoveal information acquired}, series = {Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision.}, volume = {111}, journal = {Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision.}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0042-6989}, doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2015.03.025}, pages = {91 -- 96}, year = {2015}, abstract = {This study investigates the effect of foveal load (i.e., processing difficulty of currently fixated words) on parafoveal information processing. Contrary to the commonly accepted view that high foveal load leads to reduced parafoveal processing efficiency, results of the present study showed that increasing foveal visual (but not linguistic) processing load actually increased the amount of parafoveal information acquired, presumably due to the fact that longer fixation duration on the pretarget word provided more time for parafoveal processing of the target word. It is therefore proposed in the present study that foveal linguistic processing load is not the only factor that determines parafoveal processing; preview time (afforded by foveal word visual processing load) may jointly influence parafoveal processing. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{ZhouWangShuetal.2018, author = {Zhou, Wei and Wang, Aiping and Shu, Hua and Kliegl, Reinhold and Yan, Ming}, title = {Word segmentation by alternating colors facilitates eye guidance in Chinese reading}, series = {Memory \& cognition}, volume = {46}, journal = {Memory \& cognition}, number = {5}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0090-502X}, doi = {10.3758/s13421-018-0797-5}, pages = {729 -- 740}, year = {2018}, abstract = {During sentence reading, low spatial frequency information afforded by spaces between words is the primary factor for eye guidance in spaced writing systems, whereas saccade generation for unspaced writing systems is less clear and under debate. In the present study, we investigated whether word-boundary information, provided by alternating colors (consistent or inconsistent with word-boundary information) influences saccade-target selection in Chinese. In Experiment 1, as compared to a baseline (i.e., uniform color) condition, word segmentation with alternating color shifted fixation location towards the center of words. In contrast, incorrect word segmentation shifted fixation location towards the beginning of words. In Experiment 2, we used a gaze-contingent paradigm to restrict the color manipulation only to the upcoming parafoveal words and replicated the results, including fixation location effects, as observed in Experiment 1. These results indicate that Chinese readers are capable of making use of parafoveal word-boundary knowledge for saccade generation, even if such information is unfamiliar to them. The present study provides novel support for the hypothesis that word segmentation is involved in the decision about where to fixate next during Chinese reading.}, language = {en} }