Scientific Reports

In this study, we investigate the individuality and information content of infrared molecular profiles derived from blood samples in a large, longitudinal health-profiling cohort and compare them to a standard clinical laboratory panel. Using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, we obtained comprehensive molecular fingerprints from 4,704 self-reported healthy individuals over five visits spanning 1.5 years, alongside routine clinical laboratory measurements. We show that infrared profiles are highly individual-specific and remarkably stable over time, with intra-individual variability significantly lower than inter-individual differences--paralleling the characteristics observed in clinical laboratory data. To quantify and compare the information content of these molecular datasets, we employ individual identification as a proxy for Shannon entropy. In this framework, higher identification accuracy reflects a higher amount of information. Infrared profiles outperform the clinical laboratory panel in identifying individuals at scale, suggesting higher intrinsic information content. Furthermore, combining infrared and clinical laboratory data substantially improves identification performance (the identification of less than 3000 individuals by the clinical laboratory panel is boosted to more than 4000 by incorporating the infrared spectroscopic markers), highlighting the value of integrating complementary data modalities. These findings suggest a practical framework, rooted in information theory, for comparing molecular profiling approaches and emphasize the potential of infrared spectroscopy as a complementary tool in personalized medicine.

The human startle reflex has primarily been characterized by its repeatable, coordinated, and temporally patterned somatomotor responses. In this study, we assessed whether startle-evoked sympathetic nervous system (SNS) responses might also constitute a repeatable, coordinated, and temporally structured output. Using a noninvasive tactile startle stimulus, we simultaneously recorded startle-evoked electrodermal activity, photoplethysmography-derived blood volume indices, heart rate, blood pressure, stroke volume, and cardiac output in healthy participants. Our results demonstrate that startle elicits a reproducible and patterned constellation of SNS responses - a multimodal SNS startle signature - with conserved temporal relationships across effector systems. The SNS startle signature was composed of robust bilateral peripheral responses, including palmar sweating, cutaneous vasoconstriction, and biphasic cutaneous venous-capillary blood volume changes, in addition to more mild central hemodynamic changes. In contrast to previous startle reflex studies, there was no influence of biological sex or cardiac-cycle gating on responses. Lastly, the SNS startle signature exhibited features of a potentially attractive diagnostic, associated with robust responder discrimination and high response reliability across repeated trials. Overall, these findings fill a critical knowledge gap and also suggest the potential utility of this multimodal signature for assessing autonomic dysfunction.

One of our sensory systems key functions is to detect threats in the environment. Sensory information eliciting negative emotions, such as fear or disgust, triggers instinctive avoidance reactions. This core survival mechanism is believed to be expressed as subtle non-conscious postural reactions, even when participants are instructed to stand still. Such avoidance behavior has mainly been studied using indirect measures that make participants aware of their posture (e.g. force-plate based methods) or measures that depend on explicit cognitive tasks, like moving a joystick to indicate an urge to approach or avoid the stimulus; experimental tasks with limited ecological validity and generalizability. Therefore, despite the importance of this basic survival strategy, its underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. Here, we used a novel 3D-camera-based method allowing direct but implicit measures of postural reactions with high precision. Participants are aware that they are being filmed but, crucially, are not informed that distance measures are obtained. We assessed this ecologically valid measure of approach/avoidance responses in two different sensory modalities: olfaction and vision. Participants were standing upright while exposed to either olfactory or visual stimuli and verbally rating their perceived valence in each trial. In response to subjectively unpleasant odors and images, participants moved away from the stimulus source, as compared to pleasant stimuli. These results demonstrate a putative modality-independent early proxy for avoidance behavior in response to perceived negative valence. Considering its face validity and general applicability, this novel experimental method presents new possibilities for assessing non-conscious approach-avoidance responses in humans.

Zebrafish have been used a prominent model for high-throughput phenotypic screens of candidate risk gene mutations for several disorders. This also includes models for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Traditional behavioural tests, such as the forced light/dark assay, concentrate on basic locomotion measures. However, recently developed visually-driven locomotion assays, for example closed-loop systems using virtual reality, have allowed extraction of richer data on animal locomotion and decision-making under different sensory stimuli. Here, we have used such a system to assess the behaviour in adgrl3.1 mutant fish, an established model for ADHD. Our results show that mutants exhibit a higher baseline excitability and a lower threshold for initiating motor events, demonstrating that collecting behavioural responses in an interactive environment enables a more precise characterisation of ADHD-relevant phenotypes associated with adgrl3.1 disruption. More generally, we establish a scalable translational platform to screen gene-function relationships and possible therapeutic interventions, not only for ADHD but multiple neurodevelopmental disorders.

Pig vocalizations convey information about the emotional states of individuals, varying with arousal and valence. Studies show that different call types reflect distinct emotional contexts and social interactions for the receivers. However, little is known about the brain mechanisms behind the perception of conspecifics vocalizations. This study used BOLD fMRI to explore how pigs brains respond to emotionally varied vocalizations, with the aim to identify activity in regions linked to emotion, reward, and social processing. Eight healthy 2-month-old pigs underwent auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing and BOLD fMRI to assess brain responses to pig vocalizations with different hedonic valence. Sounds were delivered via MRI-compatible earphones, and imaging was performed on a 1.5T scanner. Data were analyzed using voxel-based and ROI-based statistics in SPM12 with small volume correction (SVC). Due to hearing anomalies or MRI artefacts, only 5 pigs were included in the final analysis. Functional MRI revealed that vocalizations activated regions of the auditory pathway and the left amygdala (pFWE at peak < 0.05 after SVC for all), with specific differences between positive and negative sounds. Clusters of activated voxels covering part of hippocampal areas, caudate nuclei and putamen were found with both positive and aversive vocal sounds. Limbic regions, including the amygdala and insula (p<0.05), as well as the right hippocampus after SVC (pFWE = 0.015) were uniquely engaged during the perception of negative conspecific vocalizations, indicating distinct processing based on emotional valence. This study shows for the first time that piglets brain can process and differentiate emotional vocalizations from other pigs, even under general anesthesia. Positive and negative vocal sound playbacks activated distinct brain regions related to hearing, emotion and reward. These findings highlight pigs cognitive and emotional processing of vocal cues. This study is part of a wider research program aimed at developing the fMRI protocol with acoustic stimulation in juvenile pigs.

This study examines the temporal dynamics of expressive piano performance by means of a quantitative analysis of motor timing in an elite pianist, with particular reference to stylistic contrasts between Baroque and Romantic repertoire. In line with kinematic models of expressive timing, which describe musical performance as reflecting principles of biological motion, we examined whether a common temporal structure underlies stylistically divergent executions. Despite marked differences in structural complexity and gesture density, both performances exhibited a shared low-frequency oscillatory pattern ([~]0.36 Hz) in beat-level timing variability. This infra-delta rhythmic modulation is consistent with the presence of an underlying motor timing scaffold and suggests a common temporal organization across expressive behaviors. These findings support the hypothesis that musical performance relies on a rhythmically structured control architecture, potentially shared with other complex motor activities such as speech and locomotion.

Cognitive maps encode spatial relationships between locations and support flexible navigation. However, how these mental representations form in the absence of visual experience remains unclear. Here, we introduce a multisensory virtual navigation paradigm that allows to track the temporal dynamics of non-visual cognitive map formation. Sixteen early blind (EB), 17 late blind (LB), and 29 sighted controls (SC) learned the layout of a tactile maze. Participants repeatedly performed virtual pointing (estimating directions between locations) and navigation (reaching locations) tasks, which measured cognitive maps across multiple stages of learning. This method also enabled algorithmic inference of cognitive maps, providing insights into how mental distortions are progressively corrected. Although there were no group differences in average navigation performance, EB showed slower knowledge accumulation compared to LB and SC. In addition, both EB and LB had difficulties translating cognitive maps into first-person perspectives, resulting in reduced pointing and cognitive map accuracy. Yet, cognitive map accuracy improved progressively in all groups and a subset of EB and LB achieved expert-level performance with high navigation and pointing precision. In sum, this study provides a scalable framework for tracking alterations in cognitive map formation in blindness and other neurological conditions. Importantly, it demonstrates that cognitive map formation in the absence of vision is experience-dependent and trainable. Spatial disadvantages often observed in EB and LB thus do not reflect cognitive deficits but result from adaptive behavioral strategies constraining the use of allocentric cognitive maps.

Open air burn pits were used extensively during military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, potentially exposing millions of US Veterans to toxic airborne hazards. Many of the airborne toxins released have been shown to induce lung inflammation and lung injury and are mutagenic. This is the first large-scale study of associations between self-reported burn pit exposures and the development of cancer. Using data from the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, we found that Veterans reporting burn pit exposures are associated with a higher odds of developing cancer. However, investigations into the development of specific type of cancer and into a burn pit exposure dose-response effect were inconclusive.

The rat vestibular system plays a critical role in anti-gravity responses such as the tail-lift reflex and the air-righting reflex. In a previous study in male rats, we obtained evidence that these two reflexes depend on the function of non-identical populations of vestibular sensory hair cells (HC). Here, we caused graded lesions in the vestibular system of female rats by exposing the animals to several different doses of an ototoxic chemical, 3,3-iminodipropionitrile (IDPN). After exposure, we assessed the anti-gravity responses of the rats and then assessed the loss of type I HC (HCI) and type II HC (HCII) in the central and peripheral regions of the crista, utricle and saccule. As expected, we recorded a dose-dependent loss of vestibular function and loss of HCs. The relationship between hair cell loss and functional loss was examined using non-linear models fitted by orthogonal distance regression. The results indicated that both the tail-lift reflex and the air-righting reflexes mostly depend on HCI function. However, a different dependency was found on the epithelium triggering the reflex: while the tail-lift response is sensitive to loss of crista and/or utricle HCIs, the air-righting response rather depends on utricular and/or saccular integrity.

Caveolinopathies caused by CAV3 mutations present with heterogeneous clinical phenotypes ranging from asymptomatic hyperCKemia to limb-girdle-type muscular dystrophy. Although prior imaging studies have described commonly affected muscles, structured modeling of muscle involvement patterns in caveolinopathy has not been established. We analyzed whole-body skeletal muscle computed tomography imaging in eight patients with pathogenic or likely pathogenic CAV3 variants, comprising 14 imaging study samples. Fat infiltration across 43 muscles was graded using modified Mercuri scores. Computational multivariate analysis,including principal component analysis, clustering, and pseudotime modeling,was applied to characterize severity staging and distribution patterns. A statistically supported, stage-dependent continuum of muscle involvement was identified. Most samples demonstrated a distributed limb-girdle-predominant pattern with coordinated progression across muscle clusters. In contrast, one patient (three samples in longitudinal series) exhibited a compartment-restricted thigh-dominant pattern characterized by early posterior and medial thigh involvement. Rectus femoris showed consistent stage-dependent progression, while greater medial gastrocnemius involvement was associated with advanced severity. None of the patients exhibited clinical evidence of rippling muscle disease. These findings suggest that integrating semi-quantitative imaging with computational modeling may provide an objective framework for characterizing muscle involvement patterns in CAV3-related myopathy.

Singing is an innate human behaviour present across cultures and the lifespan. Despite lacking direct biological advantages, its ubiquity suggests that it is intrinsically rewarding. This research aimed to investigate the underlying factors that explain variability in sensitivity to deriving reward and enjoyment from natural singing in the general population. In Study 1 (n = 606), an initial pool of items describing daily, non-professional singing behaviours were administered to an international adult sample. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a unidimensional structure of 20 items with acceptable model fit, organized into five facets representing distinct domains of singing-related rewards: 1) pleasure and emotional evocation, 2) social singing reward, 3) singing frequency, 4) mood regulation through singing, and 5) inattentional singing during routine tasks. In Study 2 (n = 430), confirmatory factor analysis in a new sample supported this structure. When both samples were combined (n = 1036), the unidimensional model defined by these five facets showed acceptable to excellent goodness-of-fit indices, supporting the conceptualization of singing reward as a multidimensional construct with differentiated facets. This led to the Barcelona-Aarhus Natural Singing Engagement Questionnaire (BANSEQ), which demonstrated excellent reliability ( = .94) and population-level stability. Study 3 (n = 1036) tested the convergent validity of BANSEQ with measures of music reward and engagement and identified sociodemographic and psychological correlates across the five facets of singing reward. Overall, these findings characterize the sources of individual differences in the hedonic experience of natural singing and propose BANSEQ as a robust psychometric tool for its assessment in the general population.

Tumor habitat imaging aims to capture intratumoral heterogeneity by grouping voxels with similar radiomic properties into spatially coherent subregions. However, radiomic features are known to be sensitive to small variations in image acquisition and processing, which can affect the stability of the resulting habitat maps. Feature repeatability is usually evaluated using test-retest scans, but such data are rarely available in clinical practice. To overcome this, we adopted an image perturbation framework, which simulates test-retest conditions by applying small, controlled changes to a single image. In head and neck cancer (HNC), where imaging is further complicated by complex anatomy, dental artifacts, and variability in tumor delineation, dedicated stability analyses are still missing. In this study, we evaluated how the repeatability of radiomic features affects habitat stability in 390 oropharyngeal cancer patients (discovery cohort). For each patient, 11 perturbed CT volumes were generated using small in-plane rotations, sub-voxel translations, and tumor-adaptive Gaussian noise. Ninety-three radiomic features were extracted from each image set, and their repeatability was assessed using the lower confidence limit of the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC-LCL), grouped into poor, moderate, good, and excellent categories. Tumor habitats were then generated using K-means clustering (H = 3) for each feature subset, and habitat stability was measured by the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) between habitat maps obtained from original and perturbed images. Overall, 48.4% of features were poorly repeatable and only 6.5% reached the excellent category, with first-order features being more stable than texture-based ones. Habitat stability followed a clear monotonic trend with feature repeatability: the median DSC was 0.93 for habitats generated from excellent features, 0.84 for good features, 0.75 for moderate features, and dropped to 0.41 for poorly repeatable features. Habitats generated using all features (without any repeatability-based filtering) yielded an intermediate median DSC of 0.52. All pairwise comparisons between feature subsets were statistically significant (p < 0.001). To evaluate the generalizability of these findings, the analysis was repeated in an independent external validation cohort of 372 oropharyngeal cancer patients treated at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. The stability classification showed substantial feature-level concordance between the discovery and validation cohorts (overall agreement 67.7%, quadratic-weighted Cohen's kappa = 0.78), with no feature shifting by more than two stability classes. The habitat-stability hierarchy was fully preserved in the validation cohort (median DSC of 0.87, 0.73, 0.69, and 0.39 for excellent, good, moderate, and poor features, respectively; all pairwise p < 0.001). These results show that selecting features with higher repeatability clearly improves the spatial consistency of habitat maps in HNC and support the use of perturbation-based stability analysis as a routine step in habitat imaging studies.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a highly prevalent, commonly diagnosed gastrointestinal disorder of gut-brain interaction (DGBI) that causes substantial physical, psychological, and financial burden. The role of abnormal motility and altered autonomic nervous system function, and their interplay, remains to be fully understood. Here we present a non-invasive method using body surface electrical recordings to concurrently quantify meal-response colonic motility and heart rate variability (HRV). We demonstrate the practical utility of this new technique in a pilot study comparing colonic motility and autonomic nervous system (ANS) function in IBS patients (n=14) and healthy controls (HC; n = 22). The study protocol included a 2-3 hr body-surface electrical recording with 60-90 minutes each of pre- and post- meal epochs. Colonic motility was markedly increased in the subset of IBS patients experiencing moderate-to-severe symptoms during the study, compared to IBS no or mild symptom groups and healthy controls. HRV metrics in IBS patients showed substantial baseline shifts with decreased vagal and increased sympathetic input, with blunted autonomic meal responses compared to HC. Newly introduced dynamic trajectory maps revealed pronounced colon motility-vagal dysregulation in high symptom IBS patients but not mild or no symptom groups. These results indicate altered autonomic-motility interaction as a potential mechanism of symptom genesis in IBS patients. This technology platform offers an easy-to-apply, non-invasive tool for larger scale investigations of gut and autonomic nervous system function in healthy and gastrointestinal disease cohorts.

Balancing exploration and exploitation is a fundamental challenge for adaptive behavior, yet it remains unclear whether visual sampling and spatial locomotion reflect a single cross-domain trait or operate independently. We addressed this question by recording head-mounted eye-tracking and full-body motion tracking while 26 participants freely navigated "Westbrook", a large-scale virtual city for a total of 150 min across five sessions. From the movement trajectories we derived three spatial descriptors: median walking speed, occupancy entropy, and the proportion of explorative route choices. From the gaze data, we computed 38 robust visual descriptors encompassing fixation dynamics, pupil size, saccadic amplitude, gaze-head alignment, and transition entropy. Principal-component analysis reduced the visual descriptors to three components that captured 58 % of variance, with the first component (PC1) reflecting "gaze dynamism" (frequent shifts, larger saccades, higher transition entropy). Canonical correlation analysis revealed a strong coupling between spatial and visual behaviours: the first pair of canonical variates correlated at r = 0.68 (cross-validated r = 0.45), driven primarily by the association of high walking speed and occupancy entropy with elevated gaze dynamism. In contrast, the proportion of explorative route choices contributed little to this coupling. These findings demonstrate that individual differences in low-level locomotor speed and spatial coverage co-vary with an exploratory visual style, supporting the existence of a domain-general "exploration" factor that shapes both how people move through, and attend to, complex environments.

Previous investigations have explored the effects of hypermagnetic fields, that is, fields in excess of the Earths background geomagnetic field strength of approximately 50 {micro}T, on Escherichia coli (E. coli). Conversely, this study investigates the effects of hypomagnetic field conditions, that is, fields below the geomagnetic background intensity, on the growth of E. coli K12 by using a hypomagnetic chamber to shield cultures, with a measured residual magnetic field inside the chamber of 19 nT. When grown in rich media from a semi-anaerobic, stationary-phase starting culture under geomagnetic and hypomagnetic conditions, the lag phases of E. coli were approximately 86 minutes and 132 minutes, respectively. Despite this increase in lag phase, exceeding two E. coli doubling times, the log-phase growth rate of E. coli was identical under both geomagnetic and hypomagnetic conditions. In addition to demonstrating a biologically relevant sensitivity to magnetic field parameters in the hypomagnetic direction, this represents a much greater absolute magnetosensitivity, with a deviation of only 50 {micro}T between the hypomagnetic and geomagnetic conditions, than has previously been demonstrated for E. coli.

OBJECTIVES: Compare results of the Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI) in children ages 2-18 years with cerebral palsy (CP) across all severity levels of the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) with children in the General Population, confirming discriminant validity as a performance assessment tool and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measure. METHODS: Cross-sectional study: single response PODCI proxy survey databases of 5238 children ages 2-18 years in GP and 2470 in the Population with CP were analyzed. Statistical methods included Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Linear Trend Test, and Standard Error Assessment. RESULTS: A statistically significant difference exists between PODCI subscales in General Population and Population with CP across age groups and GMFCS levels. Motor scales and Global Functioning increase with age in both populations and are inversely proportional to GMFCS level in the Population with CP. HRQOL measures decrease with age in both populations with Happiness decreasing more in the General Population than those with CP as age increases. CONCLUSIONS: PODCI demonstrates a statistically significant difference in motor performance and HRQOL in children ages 2-18, between the General Population and the population with CP. PODCI is a valid performance assessment tool for use in CP ages 2-18 across all GMFCS levels. KEYWORDS: Cerebral Palsy, General Population, PODCI, ICF, Performance

ObjectivesThis study aimed to compare exercise-induced changes in serum and salivary concentrations of cardiac troponin-I (cTnI) in athletes during and after a marathon. MethodsThirty-six male runners were recruited. Eighteen participants in group 1 completed a marathon (42.195 km), while eighteen participants in group 2 did not undergo this exercise. Blood and saliva samples were collected at twelve different time points and then analyzed for cTnI using an immunoassay. ResultsBiphasic cTnI release into the circulation was observed during and after the marathon. Moreover, a similar pattern of biphasic cTnI elevation was found in saliva. In group 1, salivary and serum concentrations of cTnI first peaked after 60 min of exercise (0.67{+/-}0.08 ng/mL and 0.76{+/-}0.07 ng/mL), decreased slightly towards the end of the marathon (0.40{+/-}0.06 ng/mL and 0.46{+/-}0.06 ng/mL), and then reached a second, higher peak 4 h post-exercise (0.72{+/-}0.09 ng/mL and 0.82{+/-}0.09 ng/mL), returning to baseline by 48 h after marathon completion (0.16{+/-}0.04 ng/mL and 0.18{+/-}0.04 ng/mL). In group 2, there were no time-dependent changes in cTnI concentrations in both saliva and serum. Deming regression and Passing-Bablok regression demonstrated that there was proportional agreement between salivary and serum levels of cTnI in both groups at all twelve time points. The Bland-Altman method revealed that there was a negative differential bias but no proportional bias in the data. ConclusionsDocumenting a similar, biphasic pattern of cTnI elevations in saliva and serum during and after the marathon provides a reliable non-invasive alternative without requiring a blood draw.

The clitoris is one of the least studied organs of the human body. The detailed anatomy of the clitoris is challenging to address through a gross dissection, as most of its parts are embedded internally, surrounded by pubic bone and several pelvic organs. While clinical imaging methods such as magnetic resonance imaging can capture the gross 3D morphology, they lack the spatial resolution required to resolve the detailed structures. In this study, we generated micron-scale computed tomography images of the female pelvises, leveraging a synchrotron radiation X-ray source. This unique data revealed the complex trajectory of the dorsal nerve of the clitoris, the main sensory nerve of the clitoris. Notably, the nerve trunks within the clitoral glans were revealed, with the maximum diameter ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 mm. They showed a tree-like branching pattern projecting towards the surface of the glans. We also revealed that some branches of the dorsal nerve of the clitoris ramify to innervate the clitoral hood and mons pubis. Finally, the posterior labial nerve, a branch of the perineal nerves, was shown to innervate the surroundings of the clitoris and the labial structures. These findings have an immediate impact on operations performed around the vulva area, such as gender-affirmation surgery and reconstruction surgery after genital mutilation.

A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that measures from mammograms are predictive of breast cancer risk. In this matched case-control study, mammograms acquired near the time of diagnosis were analyzed to investigate bilateral breast asymmetry as measure of short-term risk prediction. Specifically, contralateral breast images were compared with measures derived in the Fourier domain (FD); this technique summarizes power in concentric radial bands that cover the Fourier plane. Equivalently, this approach can be described as a multiscale characterization of the image. The summarized power difference between respective contralateral bands produces an asymmetry measure. Full field digital mammography (FFDM) and synthetic two-dimensional images from digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) were investigated for women that had both types of mammograms acquired at the same time. Odds ratios (ORs) and the area under the receiver operating curves (Azs) were generated from conditional logistic regression modeling with 95% confidence intervals. Raw unprocessed FFDM images produced significant findings: OR = 1.90 (1.58, 2.29) and Az = 1.72 (0.67, 0.76) per one standard deviation unit. Associations were significant but attenuated for both clinical FFDM and DBT images: OR = 1.31 (1.11, 1.54) and Az = 0.63 (0.58, 0.67); and OR = 1.48 (1.25, 1.76) and Az = 0.65 (0.60, 0.70), respectively. Results suggest that clinical FFDM and DBT images are inferior to raw FFDM images in capturing breast asymmetry with information loss for breast cancer risk prediction. Moreover, these DBT images have lower spatial resolution but produced stronger associations than the clinical FFDM images.

Contactless assessment of cardiopulmonary function remains an unmet need, with current approaches relying either on subjective clinical examination or on resource-intensive imaging. We evaluated a novel multipoint airborne ultrasound surface motion camera (SMC) designed to map thoracic vibration patterns without contact and to extract clinically relevant information through data-driven analysis. In a prospective observational study, clinically characterised participants underwent short-duration acquisitions during natural breathing and externally induced oscillations. The resulting signals were transformed into spatially and frequency-resolved maps and analysed using machine learning models to discriminate healthy individuals from patients with respiratory or cardiac disease. The approach proved feasible in a clinical setting and achieved excellent discrimination between healthy individuals and respiratory patients (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) 0.90 {+/-} 0.07), including in patients with subtle abnormalities not detected by pulmonary function testing. Discrimination between healthy individuals and cardiac patients ranged from acceptable to excellent (AUC 0.76-0.90 depending on subgroup), with the highest performance observed in aortic stenosis. Model interpretability analyses revealed spatial and spectral patterns consistent with the known physiological organisation of lung mechanics and cardiac auscultation areas, supporting a structure-function relationship between recorded signals and underlying processes. These findings indicate that thoracic vibration transmission encodes spatially and spectrally organised information that can be captured without contact and exploited through explainable data-driven modelling. While the results require confirmation in larger populations, this approach may represent an operator-independent, low-burden extension of bedside assessment, with potential applications in early detection, triage, and monitoring of cardiopulmonary disease.