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In the layered magnetic semiconductor CrSBr, emergent light–matter hybrids (polaritons) increase the spectral bandwidth of correlations between the magnetic, electronic and optical properties, enabling largely tunable optical responses to applied magnetic fields and magnons.

Etch-free metasurfaces supporting bound states in the continuum have been used for lasing, although only as passive devices. Here, authors demonstrate highly coherent lasing from an active etch-free metasurface, showing a divergence angle of 0.2⁰, a linewidth of 0.04 nm and coherence time of 20.4 ps.

A monolayer WS₂ membrane patterned as a photonic crystal sustains guided optical modes that propagate via total internal reflection.

Plasmonic effects in organic light-emitting devices, which are normally considered a source of energy loss, are harnessed to enhance the stability of these devices while maintaining operational efficiency.

Microcavity polaritons—the bosonic quasiparticles that result from strong light–matter coupling—are observed for the first time in a dielectric cavity containing a monolayer of molybdenum disulphide at room temperature.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

The salience network has been hypothesised to modulate default mode network activity during stimulus-driven cognition. Here, the authors show that in rats, stimulation of the anterior insular cortex, a key node of the salience network, suppresses the default mode network and decouples these networks, providing in vivo evidence of a causal role of the anterior insular cortex in brain network switching.

Achieving nonlinear optical response of free-space planar solid devices in the few-photon regime will provide several technological advances. Here, the authors demonstrate a self-hybridised perovskite metasurface with strong nonlinear absorption at record low incident powers, by means of cavity critical coupling engineering

The visual word form area (VWFA) is a brain region associated with written language, but it has also been linked to visuospatial attention. Here, the authors reveal distinct structural and functional circuits linking VWFA with language and attention networks, and demonstrate that these circuits separately predict language and attention abilities.

This meta-analysis of brain-imaging studies reveals similarities and differences in the brain networks that support number and arithmetic processing and reading. Differences are found in posterior brain regions and similarities in prefrontal regions that support cognitive control.

Lee et al. demonstrate that dopaminergic medication-induced changes in spatiotemporal brain state dynamics during a working memory task correlate with individual differences in performance gains in participants with Parkinson’s disease.

Polariton-mediated photochemical charge transfer can be identified and quantified in a properly designed photonic system using momentum-resolved ultrafast optical techniques.

This study reveals heightened temporal variability and reduced spatial stability of task-evoked neural representations in children with ADHD, contributing to inefficient cognitive control and greater behavioral instability.

Restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are a core clinical feature of autism, yet the brain basis of RRBs is unknown. Here, the authors demonstrate that aberrant cognitive control and motor circuit dynamics differentially predict three distinct symptom clusters that define RRBs.

Using pump-power-dependent exciton absorption spectroscopy, the authors reveal magnon-mediated exciton–exciton interactions and a consequent nonlinear optical response in CrSBr, an antiferromagnetic semiconductor.

A consistent set of brain areas is engaged across diverse cognitive tasks. Here, the authors reveal a unifying latent brain state that predicts performance across seven tasks, linking a core control network to cognitive flexibility and adaptive behaviors.

Late childhood is an important period for the development of inhibitory control underlying self-regulation and impulse control behavior. Here, the authors identify brain mechanisms and functional cortical-basal ganglia circuits that predict inhibitory control in children.

A van der Waals magnetic insulator, NiPS₃, hosts a type of polaritonic quasiparticle that emerges from the strong coupling between an optical microcavity mode and spin-correlated excitons.

How the brain represents numbers remains poorly understood. Here, the authors uncover the emergence of absolute and relative magnitude representations of quantity in a biologically-inspired neural network, mirroring observations in children during numerical skill acquisition.

Free-space meta-optics with ultrahigh quality(Q)-factor at visible wavelengths is demanded but very challenging to achieve due to the fabrication imperfections. Here, the authors design an etch-free metasurface with minimized fabrication defects and experimentally demonstrate a million-Q resonance at 779 nm wavelength.

van der Waals materials enable the realization of an electrically driven polariton LED operating at room temperature.

Hybrid light–matter states at the surface of a 2D material can interact strongly and propagate over macroscopic distances.

The demonstration of a microcavity polariton switch and logic gate that can be controlled by the polarization state of light suggests that a new class of integrated optical devices with highly efficient, ultrafast operation and small footprints may soon be within reach.

The coupling of monolayer tungsten diselenide and a photonic-crystal cavity leads to ultralow-threshold lasing.

Working memory is a foundational component of cognition, but its mechanisms are poorly understood. Using a large sample of participants, this study identifies asymmetric dynamic interactions in cognitive control circuits, and their load-dependent network properties including controllability.

Valley-polarized light–matter quasiparticles in two-dimensional semiconductor microcavities are demonstrated. Access to spin–valley physics may be useful for photonic quantum technologies.

So-called photonic-crystal-excitonic-lattice polaritons can be observed by coupling excitons and Bloch waves in a periodic arrangement of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. The effect can be tuned by using an electric field. These hybrid states may allow slow-light-enhanced nonlinear effects and enable observation of macroscopic coherence phenomena in solid-state systems.

Mathematical learning disabilities (MLD) affect up to 20% of children and are linked to poorer socioeconomic and health outcomes in adulthood. Here, Iuculano et al. show that tutoring induced functional changes in multiple brain systems underlie remediation of poor maths skills in children with MLD.

Excitons are bound electron-hole pairs that mediate light absorption and emission in organic devices. Here, the authors use spatial, spectral and time-resolved imaging to visualize exciton transport in tetracene crystals and thin films, showing the role of disorder on the diffusion of excitons.

Brain activity is driven, in part, by external stimuli and demands, but internal brain states also change over time. Here, the authors use a novel Bayesian algorithm to track dynamic transitions between hidden neural states in human brain activity and to relate brain dynamics with behavior.

Dipolar excitons enable large nonlinear interaction but are usually hampered by their weak oscillator strength. Here, the authors demonstrate the strong light-matter coupling of interlayer dipolar excitons having unusually large oscillator strength in bilayer MoS₂ resulting in highly nonlinear dipolar polaritons.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

By integrating longitudinal and cross-sectional data from children, adolescents and adults, this functional magnetic resonance imaging study finds that a developmental transition to more efficient, memory-based problem-solving skills is accompanied by significant changes in hippocampal activation, functional connectivity with prefrontal-parietal circuits and interproblem representational stability.

Here, the authors show the formation of exciton-polaritons with enhanced nonlinear response using excited excitonic Rydberg states in monolayer WSe₂ embedded in a microcavity.

In this work light and matter have been coupled in a strong interaction between exciton resonances and topological photonic bands. The authors herein demonstrate a Z2 spin-Hall topological polaritonic phase enabling new coupling schemes in valleytronics and spintronics.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterised by synaptic surplus and atypical functional connectivity. Here, the authors show that synaptic pathology in Tsc2 haploinsufficient mice is associated with autism-like behavior and cortico-striatal hyperconnectivity, and that analogous functional hyperconnectivity signatures can be linked to mTOR-pathway dysfunction in subgroups of children with idiopathic ASD.

Nonreciprocity is viewed as a useful feature for many future optical devices. Here, the authors observe all-optically-induced nonreciprocal dichroism in monolayer WS2, which is explained by valley-selective response.

In this Perspective, the authors illustrate the physics of hyperbolic polaritons in anisotropic 2D and 1D materials, proposing new potential material candidates, forward looking opportunities and technological applications.