Brain activation by music in patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state following diffuse brain injury.

PubMed

Okumura, Yuka; Asano, Yoshitaka; Takenaka, Shunsuke; Fukuyama, Seisuke; Yonezawa, Shingo; Kasuya, Yukinori; Shinoda, Jun

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to objectively evaluate the brain activity potential of patients with impaired consciousness in a chronic stage of diffuse brain injury (DBI) using functional MRI (fMRI) following music stimulation (MS). Two patients in a minimally conscious state (MCS) and five patients in a vegetative state (VS) due to severe DBI were enrolled along with 21 healthy adults. This study examined the brain regions activated by music and assessed topographical differences of the MS-activated brain among healthy adults and these patients. MS was shown to activate the bilateral superior temporal gyri (STG) of both healthy adults and patients in an MCS. In four of five patients in a VS, however, no significant activation in STG could be induced by the same MS. The remaining patient in a VS displayed the same MS-induced brain activation in STG as healthy adults and patients in an MCS and this patient's status also improved to an MCS 4 months after the study. The presence of STG activation by MS may predict a possible improvement of patients in a VS to MCS and fMRI employing MS may be a useful modality to objectively evaluate consciousness in these patients.

[Effects of shortened mandibular dental arch on human brain activity during chewing: an fMRI study].

PubMed

Shoi, Kazuhito

2014-03-01

According to the shortened dental arch concept, missing molars should not always be restored with prosthetic treatment. A shortened dental arch with missing molars is associated with a decrease in masticatory function. However, it is not known whether a shortened dental arch influences brain activity during chewing. This study aimed to clarify the effect of posterior arch length of mandibular bilateral distal extension removable partial dentures (RPDs) on brain activity during chewing. Eleven subjects with bilaterally missing mandibular molars (mean age, 66.1 years) participated in the study. RPDs with full dental arch and shortened dental arch were fabricated and brain activity during gum chewing under each dental condition was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Brain activation during gum chewing with the full dental arch was observed in the middle frontal gyrus, primary sensorimotor cortex extending to the premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, putamen, insula and cerebellum. However, activation of the middle frontal gyrus was not observed during gum chewing with the shortened dental arch. The results of this study suggest that human brain activity during chewing in the middle frontal gyrus may be associated with chewing in the presence of the molar region.

Lateralization of brain activation in fluent and non-fluent preschool children: a magnetoencephalographic study of picture-naming.

PubMed

Sowman, Paul F; Crain, Stephen; Harrison, Elisabeth; Johnson, Blake W

2014-01-01

The neural causes of stuttering remain unknown. One explanation comes from neuroimaging studies that have reported abnormal lateralization of activation in the brains of people who stutter. However, these findings are generally based on data from adults with a long history of stuttering, raising the possibility that the observed lateralization anomalies are compensatory rather than causal. The current study investigated lateralization of brain activity in language-related regions of interest in young children soon after the onset of stuttering. We tested 24 preschool-aged children, half of whom had a positive diagnosis of stuttering. All children participated in a picture-naming experiment whilst their brain activity was recorded by magnetoencephalography. Source analysis performed during an epoch prior to speech onset was used to assess lateralized activation in three regions of interest. Activation was significantly lateralized to the left hemisphere in both groups and not different between groups. This study shows for the first time that significant speech preparatory brain activation can be identified in young children during picture-naming and supports the contention that, in stutterers, aberrant lateralization of brain function may be the result of neuroplastic adaptation that occurs as the condition becomes chronic.

Intrinsic Brain Activity in Altered States of Consciousness

PubMed Central

Boly, M.; Phillips, C.; Tshibanda, L.; Vanhaudenhuyse, A.; Schabus, M.; Dang-Vu, T.T.; Moonen, G.; Hustinx, R.; Maquet, P.; Laureys, S.

2010-01-01

Spontaneous brain activity has recently received increasing interest in the neuroimaging community. However, the value of resting-state studies to a better understanding of brain–behavior relationships has been challenged. That altered states of consciousness are a privileged way to study the relationships between spontaneous brain activity and behavior is proposed, and common resting-state brain activity features observed in various states of altered consciousness are reviewed. Early positron emission tomography studies showed that states of extremely low or high brain activity are often associated with unconsciousness. However, this relationship is not absolute, and the precise link between global brain metabolism and awareness remains yet difficult to assert. In contrast, voxel-based analyses identified a systematic impairment of associative frontoparieto–cingulate areas in altered states of consciousness, such as sleep, anesthesia, coma, vegetative state, epileptic loss of consciousness, and somnambulism. In parallel, recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have identified structured patterns of slow neuronal oscillations in the resting human brain. Similar coherent blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) systemwide patterns can also be found, in particular in the default-mode network, in several states of unconsciousness, such as coma, anesthesia, and slow-wave sleep. The latter results suggest that slow coherent spontaneous BOLD fluctuations cannot be exclusively a reflection of conscious mental activity, but may reflect default brain connectivity shaping brain areas of most likely interactions in a way that transcends levels of consciousness, and whose functional significance remains largely in the dark. PMID:18591474

Altered spontaneous brain activity pattern in patients with late monocular blindness in middle-age using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation: a resting-state functional MRI study

PubMed Central

Li, Qing; Huang, Xin; Ye, Lei; Wei, Rong; Zhang, Ying; Zhong, Yu-Lin; Jiang, Nan; Shao, Yi

2016-01-01

Objective Previous reports have demonstrated significant brain activity changes in bilateral blindness, whereas brain activity changes in late monocular blindness (MB) at rest are not well studied. Our study aimed to investigate spontaneous brain activity in patients with late middle-aged MB using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method and their relationship with clinical features. Methods A total of 32 patients with MB (25 males and 7 females) and 32 healthy control (HC) subjects (25 males and 7 females), similar in age, sex, and education, were recruited for the study. All subjects were performed with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. The ALFF method was applied to evaluate spontaneous brain activity. The relationships between the ALFF signal values in different brain regions and clinical features in MB patients were investigated using correlation analysis. Results Compared with HCs, the MB patients had marked lower ALFF values in the left cerebellum anterior lobe, right parahippocampal gyrus, right cuneus, left precentral gyrus, and left paracentral lobule, but higher ALFF values in the right middle frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left supramarginal gyrus. However, there was no linear correlation between the mean ALFF signal values in brain regions and clinical manifestations in MB patients. Conclusion There were abnormal spontaneous activities in many brain regions including vision and vision-related regions, which might indicate the neuropathologic mechanisms of vision loss in the MB patients. Meanwhile, these brain activity changes might be used as a useful clinical indicator for MB. PMID:27980398

Altered spontaneous brain activity pattern in patients with late monocular blindness in middle-age using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation: a resting-state functional MRI study.

PubMed

Li, Qing; Huang, Xin; Ye, Lei; Wei, Rong; Zhang, Ying; Zhong, Yu-Lin; Jiang, Nan; Shao, Yi

2016-01-01

Previous reports have demonstrated significant brain activity changes in bilateral blindness, whereas brain activity changes in late monocular blindness (MB) at rest are not well studied. Our study aimed to investigate spontaneous brain activity in patients with late middle-aged MB using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method and their relationship with clinical features. A total of 32 patients with MB (25 males and 7 females) and 32 healthy control (HC) subjects (25 males and 7 females), similar in age, sex, and education, were recruited for the study. All subjects were performed with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. The ALFF method was applied to evaluate spontaneous brain activity. The relationships between the ALFF signal values in different brain regions and clinical features in MB patients were investigated using correlation analysis. Compared with HCs, the MB patients had marked lower ALFF values in the left cerebellum anterior lobe, right parahippocampal gyrus, right cuneus, left precentral gyrus, and left paracentral lobule, but higher ALFF values in the right middle frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left supramarginal gyrus. However, there was no linear correlation between the mean ALFF signal values in brain regions and clinical manifestations in MB patients. There were abnormal spontaneous activities in many brain regions including vision and vision-related regions, which might indicate the neuropathologic mechanisms of vision loss in the MB patients. Meanwhile, these brain activity changes might be used as a useful clinical indicator for MB.

Brain Activation for Language Dual-Tasking: Listening to Two People Speak at the Same Time and a Change in Network Timing

PubMed Central

Buchweitz, Augusto; Keller, Timothy A.; Meyler, Ann; Just, Marcel Adam

2011-01-01

The study used fMRI to investigate brain activation in participants who were able to listen to and successfully comprehend two people speaking at the same time (dual-tasking). The study identified brain mechanisms associated with high-level, concurrent dual-tasking, as compared to comprehending a single message. Results showed an increase in the functional connectivity among areas of the language network in the dual task. The increase in synchronization of brain activation for dual-tasking was brought about primarily by a change in the timing of left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) activation relative to posterior temporal activation, bringing the LIFG activation into closer correspondence with temporal activation. The results show that the change in LIFG timing was greater in participants with lower working memory capacity, and that recruitment of additional activation in the dual-task occurred only in the areas adjacent to the language network that was activated in the single task. The shift in LIFG activation may be a brain marker of how the brain adapts to high-level dual-tasking. PMID:21618666

Compensatory brain activation in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder during a simplified Go/No-go task.

PubMed

Ma, Jun; Lei, Du; Jin, Xingming; Du, Xiaoxia; Jiang, Fan; Li, Fei; Zhang, Yiwen; Shen, Xiaoming

2012-05-01

Given that a number of recent studies have shown attenuated brain activation in prefrontal regions in children with ADHD, it has been recognized as a disorder in executive function. However, fewer studies have focused exclusively on the compensatory brain activation in ADHD. The present study objective was to investigate the compensatory brain activation patterns during response inhibition (RI) processing in ADHD children. In this study, 15 ADHD children and 15 sex-, age-, and IQ-matched control children were scanned with a 3-T MRI equipment while performing a simplified letter Go/No-go task. The results showed more brain activation in the ADHD group compared with the control group, whereas the accuracy and reaction time of behavioral performance were the same. Children with ADHD did not activate the normal RI brain circuits, which are thought to be predominantly located in the right middle/inferior frontal gyrus (BA46/44), right inferior parietal regions (BA40), and pre-SMA(BA6), but instead, activated brain regions, such as the left inferior frontal cortex, the right inferior temporal cortex, the right precentral gyrus, the left postcentral gyrus, the inferior occipital cortex, the middle occipital cortex, the right calcarine, the right hippocampus, the right midbrain, and the cerebellum. Our conclusion is that children with ADHD tend to compensatorily use more posterior and diffusive brain regions to sustain normal RI function. © Springer-Verlag 2011

Ultrasound Produces Extensive Brain Activation via a Cochlear Pathway.

PubMed

Guo, Hongsun; Hamilton, Mark; Offutt, Sarah J; Gloeckner, Cory D; Li, Tianqi; Kim, Yohan; Legon, Wynn; Alford, Jamu K; Lim, Hubert H

2018-06-06

Ultrasound (US) can noninvasively activate intact brain circuits, making it a promising neuromodulation technique. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism. Here, we apply transcranial US and perform brain mapping studies in guinea pigs using extracellular electrophysiology. We find that US elicits extensive activation across cortical and subcortical brain regions. However, transection of the auditory nerves or removal of cochlear fluids eliminates the US-induced activity, revealing an indirect auditory mechanism for US neural activation. Our findings indicate that US activates the ascending auditory system through a cochlear pathway, which can activate other non-auditory regions through cross-modal projections. This cochlear pathway mechanism challenges the idea that US can directly activate neurons in the intact brain, suggesting that future US stimulation studies will need to control for this effect to reach reliable conclusions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Removing the effect of response time on brain activity reveals developmental differences in conflict processing in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex.

PubMed

Carp, Joshua; Fitzgerald, Kate Dimond; Taylor, Stephan F; Weissman, Daniel H

2012-01-02

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, researchers often attempt to ensure that group differences in brain activity are not confounded with group differences in mean reaction time (RT). However, even when groups are matched for performance, they may differ in terms of the RT-BOLD relationship: the degree to which brain activity varies with RT on a trial-by-trial basis. Group activation differences might therefore be influenced by group differences in the relationship between brain activity and time on task. Here, we investigated whether correcting for this potential confound alters group differences in brain activity. Specifically, we reanalyzed data from a functional MRI study of response conflict in children and adults, in which conventional analyses indicated that conflict-related activity did not differ between groups. We found that the RT-BOLD relationship was weaker in children than in adults. Consequently, after removing the effect of RT on brain activity, children exhibited greater conflict-related activity than adults in both the posterior medial prefrontal cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These results identify the RT-BOLD relationship as an important potential confound in fMRI studies of group differences. They also suggest that the magnitude of the RT-BOLD relationship may be a useful biomarker of brain maturity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brain responses differ to faces of mothers and fathers.

PubMed

Arsalidou, Marie; Barbeau, Emmanuel J; Bayless, Sarah J; Taylor, Margot J

2010-10-01

We encounter many faces each day but relatively few are personally familiar. Once faces are familiar, they evoke semantic and social information known about the person. Neuroimaging studies demonstrate differential brain activity to familiar and non-familiar faces; however, brain responses related to personally familiar faces have been more rarely studied. We examined brain activity with fMRI in adults in response to faces of their mothers and fathers compared to faces of celebrities and strangers. Overall, faces of mothers elicited more activity in core and extended brain regions associated with face processing, compared to fathers, celebrity or stranger faces. Fathers' faces elicited activity in the caudate, a deep brain structure associated with feelings of love. These new findings of differential brain responses elicited by faces of mothers and fathers are consistent with psychological research on attachment, evident even during adulthood. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Molecular Imaging Provides Novel Insights on Estrogen Receptor Activity in Mouse Brain

PubMed Central

Stell, Alessia; Belcredito, Silvia; Ciana, Paolo; Maggi, Adriana

2009-01-01

Estrogen receptors have long been known to be expressed in several brain areas in addition to those directly involved in the control of reproductive functions. Investigations in humans and in animal models suggest a strong influence of estrogens on limbic and motor functions, yet the complexity and heterogeneity of neural tissue have limited our approaches to the full understanding of estrogen activity in the central nervous system. The aim of this study was to examine the transcriptional activity of estrogen receptors in the brain of male and female mice. Exploiting the ERE-Luc reporter mouse, we set up a novel, bioluminescence-based technique to study brain estrogen receptor transcriptional activity. Here we show, for the first time, that estrogen receptors are similarly active in male and female brains and that the estrous cycle affects estrogen receptor activity in regions of the central nervous system not known to be associated with reproductive functions. Because of its reproducibility and sensitivity, this novel bioluminescence application candidates as an innovative methodology for the study and development of drugs targeting brain estrogen receptors. PMID:19123998

Molecular imaging provides novel insights on estrogen receptor activity in mouse brain.

PubMed

Stell, Alessia; Belcredito, Silvia; Ciana, Paolo; Maggi, Adriana

2008-01-01

Estrogen receptors have long been known to be expressed in several brain areas in addition to those directly involved in the control of reproductive functions. Investigations in humans and in animal models suggest a strong influence of estrogens on limbic and motor functions, yet the complexity and heterogeneity of neural tissue have limited our approaches to the full understanding of estrogen activity in the central nervous system. The aim of this study was to examine the transcriptional activity of estrogen receptors in the brain of male and female mice. Exploiting the ERE-Luc reporter mouse, we set up a novel, bioluminescence-based technique to study brain estrogen receptor transcriptional activity. Here we show, for the first time, that estrogen receptors are similarly active in male and female brains and that the estrous cycle affects estrogen receptor activity in regions of the central nervous system not known to be associated with reproductive functions. Because of its reproducibility and sensitivity, this novel bioluminescence application stands as a candidate as an innovative methodology for the study and development of drugs targeting brain estrogen receptors.

Test-Retest Reliability of fMRI Brain Activity during Memory Encoding

PubMed Central

Brandt, David J.; Sommer, Jens; Krach, Sören; Bedenbender, Johannes; Kircher, Tilo; Paulus, Frieder M.; Jansen, Andreas

2013-01-01

The mechanisms underlying hemispheric specialization of memory are not completely understood. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to develop and test models of hemispheric specialization. In particular for memory tasks however, the interpretation of fMRI results is often hampered by the low reliability of the data. In the present study we therefore analyzed the test-retest reliability of fMRI brain activation related to an implicit memory encoding task, with a particular focus on brain activity of the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Fifteen healthy subjects were scanned with fMRI on two sessions (average retest interval 35 days) using a commonly applied novelty encoding paradigm contrasting known and unknown stimuli. To assess brain lateralization, we used three different stimuli classes that differed in their verbalizability (words, scenes, fractals). Test-retest reliability of fMRI brain activation was assessed by an intraclass-correlation coefficient (ICC), describing the stability of inter-individual differences in the brain activation magnitude over time. We found as expected a left-lateralized brain activation network for the words paradigm, a bilateral network for the scenes paradigm, and predominantly right-hemispheric brain activation for the fractals paradigm. Although these networks were consistently activated in both sessions on the group level, across-subject reliabilities were only poor to fair (ICCs ≤ 0.45). Overall, the highest ICC values were obtained for the scenes paradigm, but only in strongly activated brain regions. In particular the reliability of brain activity of the MTL was poor for all paradigms. In conclusion, for novelty encoding paradigms the interpretation of fMRI results on a single subject level is hampered by its low reliability. More studies are needed to optimize the retest reliability of fMRI activation for memory tasks. PMID:24367338

An Isozyme-specific Redox Switch in Human Brain Glycogen Phosphorylase Modulates Its Allosteric Activation by AMP.

PubMed

Mathieu, Cécile; Duval, Romain; Cocaign, Angélique; Petit, Emile; Bui, Linh-Chi; Haddad, Iman; Vinh, Joelle; Etchebest, Catherine; Dupret, Jean-Marie; Rodrigues-Lima, Fernando

2016-11-11

Brain glycogen and its metabolism are increasingly recognized as major players in brain functions. Moreover, alteration of glycogen metabolism in the brain contributes to neurodegenerative processes. In the brain, both muscle and brain glycogen phosphorylase isozymes regulate glycogen mobilization. However, given their distinct regulatory features, these two isozymes could confer distinct metabolic functions of glycogen in brain. Interestingly, recent proteomics studies have identified isozyme-specific reactive cysteine residues in brain glycogen phosphorylase (bGP). In this study, we show that the activity of human bGP is redox-regulated through the formation of a disulfide bond involving a highly reactive cysteine unique to the bGP isozyme. We found that this disulfide bond acts as a redox switch that precludes the allosteric activation of the enzyme by AMP without affecting its activation by phosphorylation. This unique regulatory feature of bGP sheds new light on the isoform-specific regulation of glycogen phosphorylase and glycogen metabolism. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Carnosine: effect on aging-induced increase in brain regional monoamine oxidase-A activity.

PubMed

Banerjee, Soumyabrata; Poddar, Mrinal K

2015-03-01

Aging is a natural biological process associated with several neurological disorders along with the biochemical changes in brain. Aim of the present investigation is to study the effect of carnosine (0.5-2.5μg/kg/day, i.t. for 21 consecutive days) on aging-induced changes in brain regional (cerebral cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus and pons-medulla) mitochondrial monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) activity with its kinetic parameters. The results of the present study are: (1) The brain regional mitochondrial MAO-A activity and their kinetic parameters (except in Km of pons-medulla) were significantly increased with the increase of age (4-24 months), (2) Aging-induced increase of brain regional MAO-A activity including its Vmax were attenuated with higher dosages of carnosine (1.0-2.5μg/kg/day) and restored toward the activity that observed in young, though its lower dosage (0.5μg/kg/day) were ineffective in these brain regional MAO-A activity, (3) Carnosine at higher dosage in young rats, unlike aged rats significantly inhibited all the brain regional MAO-A activity by reducing their only Vmax excepting cerebral cortex, where Km was also significantly enhanced. These results suggest that carnosine attenuated the aging-induced increase of brain regional MAO-A activity by attenuating its kinetic parameters and restored toward the results of MAO-A activity that observed in corresponding brain regions of young rats. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

Does changing from a first generation antipsychotic (perphenazin) to a second generation antipsychotic (risperidone) alter brain activation and motor activity? A case report

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background In patients with schizophrenia, altered brain activation and motor activity levels are central features, reflecting cognitive impairments and negative symptoms, respectively. Newer studies using nonlinear methods have addressed the severe disturbances in neurocognitive functioning that is regarded as one of the core features of schizophrenia. Our aim was to compare brain activation and motor activity in a patient during pharmacological treatment that was switched from a first- to a second-generation antipsychotic drug. We hypothesised that this change of medication would increase level of responding in both measures. Case presentation We present the case of a 53-year-old male with onset of severe mental illness in adolescence, ICD-10 diagnosed as schizophrenia of paranoid type, chronic form. We compared brain activation and motor activity in this patient during pharmacological treatment with a first-generation (perphenazin), and later switched to a second-generation (risperidone) antipsychotic drug. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activation and wrist worn actigraphy to measure motor activity. Conclusion Our study showed that brain activation decreased in areas critical for cognitive functioning in this patient, when changing from a first to a second generation antipsychotic drug. However the mean motor activity level was unchanged, although risperidone reduced variability, particularly short-term variability from minute to minute. Compared to the results from previous studies, the present findings indicate that changing to a second-generation antipsychotic alters variability measures towards that seen in a control group, but with reduced brain activation, which was an unexpected finding. PMID:23648137

Does changing from a first generation antipsychotic (perphenazin) to a second generation antipsychotic (risperidone) alter brain activation and motor activity? A case report.

PubMed

Berle, Jan Øystein; Løberg, Else-Marie; Fasmer, Ole Bernt

2013-05-06

In patients with schizophrenia, altered brain activation and motor activity levels are central features, reflecting cognitive impairments and negative symptoms, respectively. Newer studies using nonlinear methods have addressed the severe disturbances in neurocognitive functioning that is regarded as one of the core features of schizophrenia. Our aim was to compare brain activation and motor activity in a patient during pharmacological treatment that was switched from a first- to a second-generation antipsychotic drug. We hypothesised that this change of medication would increase level of responding in both measures. We present the case of a 53-year-old male with onset of severe mental illness in adolescence, ICD-10 diagnosed as schizophrenia of paranoid type, chronic form. We compared brain activation and motor activity in this patient during pharmacological treatment with a first-generation (perphenazin), and later switched to a second-generation (risperidone) antipsychotic drug. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activation and wrist worn actigraphy to measure motor activity. Our study showed that brain activation decreased in areas critical for cognitive functioning in this patient, when changing from a first to a second generation antipsychotic drug. However the mean motor activity level was unchanged, although risperidone reduced variability, particularly short-term variability from minute to minute. Compared to the results from previous studies, the present findings indicate that changing to a second-generation antipsychotic alters variability measures towards that seen in a control group, but with reduced brain activation, which was an unexpected finding.

Reduced Activation of Left Orbitofrontal Cortex Precedes Blocked Vocalization: A Magnetoencephalographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sowman, Paul F.; Crain, Stephen; Harrison, Elisabeth; Johnson, Blake W.

2012-01-01

While stuttering is known to be characterized by anomalous brain activations during speech, very little data is available describing brain activations during stuttering. To our knowledge there are no reports describing brain activations that precede blocking. In this case report we present magnetoencephalographic data from a person who stutters…

Dopaminergic contributions to working memory-related brain activation in postmenopausal women

PubMed Central

Dumas, Julie A.; Filippi, Christopher G.; Newhouse, Paul A.; Naylor, Magdalena R.

2016-01-01

Objective The current study examined the effects of pharmacologic dopaminergic manipulations on working memory-related brain activation in postmenopausal women to further understand the neurochemistry underlying cognition after menopause. Method Eighteen healthy postmenopausal women, mean age 55.21 years, completed three study days with dopaminergic drug challenges during which they performed an fMRI visual verbal N-back test of working memory. Acute stimulation with 1.25 mg oral D2 agonist bromocriptine, acute blockade with 1.5 mg oral haloperidol, and matching placebo were administered randomly and blindly on three study days. Results We found that dopaminergic stimulation increased activation primarily in the posterior regions of the working memory network compared to dopaminergic blockade using a whole brain cluster-level corrected analysis. The dopaminergic medications did not affect working memory performance. Conclusions Patterns of increased BOLD signal activation after dopaminergic stimulation were found in this study in posterior brain regions with no effect on working memory performance. Further studies should examine specific dopaminergic contributions to brain functioning in healthy postmenopausal women in order to determine the effects of the increased brain activation on cognition and behavior. PMID:27676634

Decoding power-spectral profiles from FMRI brain activities during naturalistic auditory experience.

PubMed

Hu, Xintao; Guo, Lei; Han, Junwei; Liu, Tianming

2017-02-01

Recent studies have demonstrated a close relationship between computational acoustic features and neural brain activities, and have largely advanced our understanding of auditory information processing in the human brain. Along this line, we proposed a multidisciplinary study to examine whether power spectral density (PSD) profiles can be decoded from brain activities during naturalistic auditory experience. The study was performed on a high resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) dataset acquired when participants freely listened to the audio-description of the movie "Forrest Gump". Representative PSD profiles existing in the audio-movie were identified by clustering the audio samples according to their PSD descriptors. Support vector machine (SVM) classifiers were trained to differentiate the representative PSD profiles using corresponding fMRI brain activities. Based on PSD profile decoding, we explored how the neural decodability correlated to power intensity and frequency deviants. Our experimental results demonstrated that PSD profiles can be reliably decoded from brain activities. We also suggested a sigmoidal relationship between the neural decodability and power intensity deviants of PSD profiles. Our study in addition substantiates the feasibility and advantage of naturalistic paradigm for studying neural encoding of complex auditory information.

Lack of sex effect on brain activity during a visuomotor response task: functional MR imaging study.

PubMed

Mikhelashvili-Browner, Nina; Yousem, David M; Wu, Colin; Kraut, Michael A; Vaughan, Christina L; Oguz, Kader Karli; Calhoun, Vince D

2003-03-01

As more individuals are enrolled in clinical functional MR imaging (fMRI) studies, an understanding of how sex may influence fMRI-measured brain activation is critical. We used fixed- and random-effects models to study the influence of sex on fMRI patterns of brain activation during a simple visuomotor reaction time task in the group of 26 age-matched men and women. We evaluated the right visual, left visual, left primary motor, left supplementary motor, and left anterior cingulate areas. Volumes of activations did not significantly differ between the groups in any defined regions. Analysis of variance failed to show any significant correlations between sex and volumes of brain activation in any location studied. Mean percentage signal-intensity changes for all locations were similar between men and women. A two-way t test of brain activation in men and women, performed as a part of random-effects modeling, showed no significant difference at any site. Our results suggest that sex seems to have little influence on fMRI brain activation when we compared performance on the simple reaction-time task. The need to control for sex effects is not critical in the analysis of this task with fMRI.

Brain activation for language dual-tasking: listening to two people speak at the same time and a change in network timing.

PubMed

Buchweitz, Augusto; Keller, Timothy A; Meyler, Ann; Just, Marcel Adam

2012-08-01

The study used fMRI to investigate brain activation in participants who were able to listen to and successfully comprehend two people speaking at the same time (dual-tasking). The study identified brain mechanisms associated with high-level, concurrent dual-tasking, as compared with comprehending a single message. Results showed an increase in the functional connectivity among areas of the language network in the dual task. The increase in synchronization of brain activation for dual-tasking was brought about primarily by a change in the timing of left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) activation relative to posterior temporal activation, bringing the LIFG activation into closer correspondence with temporal activation. The results show that the change in LIFG timing was greater in participants with lower working memory capacity, and that recruitment of additional activation in the dual-task occurred only in the areas adjacent to the language network that was activated in the single task. The shift in LIFG activation may be a brain marker of how the brain adapts to high-level dual-tasking. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Brain activity associated with translation from a visual to a symbolic representation in algebra and geometry.

PubMed

Leikin, Mark; Waisman, Ilana; Shaul, Shelley; Leikin, Roza

2014-03-01

This paper presents a small part of a larger interdisciplinary study that investigates brain activity (using event related potential methodology) of male adolescents when solving mathematical problems of different types. The study design links mathematics education research with neurocognitive studies. In this paper we performed a comparative analysis of brain activity associated with the translation from visual to symbolic representations of mathematical objects in algebra and geometry. Algebraic tasks require translation from graphical to symbolic representation of a function, whereas tasks in geometry require translation from a drawing of a geometric figure to a symbolic representation of its property. The findings demonstrate that electrical activity associated with the performance of geometrical tasks is stronger than that associated with solving algebraic tasks. Additionally, we found different scalp topography of the brain activity associated with algebraic and geometric tasks. Based on these results, we argue that problem solving in algebra and geometry is associated with different patterns of brain activity.

Brain Activation During Singing: "Clef de Sol Activation" Is the "Concert" of the Human Brain.

PubMed

Mavridis, Ioannis N; Pyrgelis, Efstratios-Stylianos

2016-03-01

Humans are the most complex singers in nature, and the human voice is thought by many to be the most beautiful musical instrument. Aside from spoken language, singing represents a second mode of acoustic communication in humans. The purpose of this review article is to explore the functional anatomy of the "singing" brain. Methodologically, the existing literature regarding activation of the human brain during singing was carefully reviewed, with emphasis on the anatomic localization of such activation. Relevant human studies are mainly neuroimaging studies, namely functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography studies. Singing necessitates activation of several cortical, subcortical, cerebellar, and brainstem areas, served and coordinated by multiple neural networks. Functionally vital cortical areas of the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes bilaterally participate in the brain's activation process during singing, confirming the latter's role in human communication. Perisylvian cortical activity of the right hemisphere seems to be the most crucial component of this activation. This also explains why aphasic patients due to left hemispheric lesions are able to sing but not speak the same words. The term clef de sol activation is proposed for this crucial perisylvian cortical activation due to the clef de sol shape of the topographical distribution of these cortical areas around the sylvian fissure. Further research is needed to explore the connectivity and sequence of how the human brain activates to sing.

Expression of the plasminogen activator system and the inhibitors PAI-1 and PAI-2 in posttraumatic lesions of the CNS and brain injuries following dramatic circulatory arrests: an immunohistochemical study.

PubMed

Dietzmann, K; von Bossanyi, P; Krause, D; Wittig, H; Mawrin, C; Kirches, E

2000-01-01

Plasminogen activators as inducible extracellular serine proteases are involved in a variety of processes, such as the degradation of brain structures. In regions of brain degradation, an increase in the expression of genes encoding cytokines and proteinases has recently been demonstrated. We tested the hypothesis, whether the plasminogen activator system as well as the plasminogen activator inhibitors are expressed and possibly involved in a proteolytic cascade that breaks down the extracellular matrix as a result of ischemic or posttraumatic brain destructions. To study this supposition, we investigated immunohistochemically the expression of tPA, uPA and its receptor, the plasminogen activator inhibitors PAI-1 and PAI-2, tetranectin as well as the laminin breakdown as an event of secondary brain injury. Brain tissue from 21 autopsy cases with severe brain injuries, material from 14 ischemic infarcts and 11 controls with acute hypoxia were used. All components of the plasminogen activator system studied were over-expressed immunohistochemically in reactive astrocytes, microglia and endothelial cells around the lesion zone. Tetranectin showed an analogous distribution to the plasminogen activator system. A reduced immunoreactivity of laminin within the identical region of destruction was detected concomitant with laminin remnants in perivascular macrophages, so that a remarkable role of the plasmin cascade in the degradation of extracellular matrix proteins in the brain is taken into consideration.

How Acute Total Sleep Loss Affects the Attending Brain: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies

PubMed Central

Ma, Ning; Dinges, David F.; Basner, Mathias; Rao, Hengyi

2015-01-01

Study Objectives: Attention is a cognitive domain that can be severely affected by sleep deprivation. Previous neuroimaging studies have used different attention paradigms and reported both increased and reduced brain activation after sleep deprivation. However, due to large variability in sleep deprivation protocols, task paradigms, experimental designs, characteristics of subject populations, and imaging techniques, there is no consensus regarding the effects of sleep loss on the attending brain. The aim of this meta-analysis was to identify brain activations that are commonly altered by acute total sleep deprivation across different attention tasks. Design: Coordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of performance on attention tasks during experimental sleep deprivation. Methods: The current version of the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach was used for meta-analysis. The authors searched published articles and identified 11 sleep deprivation neuroimaging studies using different attention tasks with a total of 185 participants, equaling 81 foci for ALE analysis. Results: The meta-analysis revealed significantly reduced brain activation in multiple regions following sleep deprivation compared to rested wakefulness, including bilateral intraparietal sulcus, bilateral insula, right prefrontal cortex, medial frontal cortex, and right parahippocampal gyrus. Increased activation was found only in bilateral thalamus after sleep deprivation compared to rested wakefulness. Conclusion: Acute total sleep deprivation decreases brain activation in the fronto-parietal attention network (prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus) and in the salience network (insula and medial frontal cortex). Increased thalamic activation after sleep deprivation may reflect a complex interaction between the de-arousing effects of sleep loss and the arousing effects of task performance on thalamic activity. Citation: Ma N, Dinges DF, Basner M, Rao H. How acute total sleep loss affects the attending brain: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. SLEEP 2015;38(2):233–240. PMID:25409102

Reduced activities of thiamine-dependent and cytochrome c oxidase enzymes in cerebral cortex of cattle affected by sulfur-induced polioencephalomalacia

PubMed Central

Amat, Samat; Hendrick, Steve; Moshynskyy, Igor; Simko, Elemir

2017-01-01

Sulfur-induced polioencephalomalacia (PEM) is an important disease affecting cattle in certain geographical regions. However, the pathogenesis of brain damage is not completely understood. We previously observed that excess dietary sulfur may influence thiamine status and altered thiamine metabolism may be involved in the pathogenesis of sulfur-induced PEM in cattle. In this study, we evaluated the activities of thiamine-dependent enzymes [α-ketogluterate dehydrogenase (α-KGDH) and pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH)] and cytochrome c oxidase (COX) in the cerebral cortex of sulfur-induced PEM-affected cattle (n = 9) and clinically normal cattle (n = 8, each group) exposed to low or high dietary sulfur [LS = 0.30% versus HS = 0.67% sulfur on a dry matter (DM) basis]. Enzyme activities in PEM brains were measured from the brain tissue regions and examined using ultraviolent (UV) light illumination to show fluorescence or non-fluorescence regions. No gross changes under regular or UV light, or histopathological changes indicative of PEM were detected in the brains of cattle exposed to LS or HS diets. The PDH, α-KGDH, and COX activities did not differ between LS and HS brains, but all enzymes showed significantly lower (P < 0.05) activities in UV-positive region of PEM brains compared with LS and HS brains. The UV-negative regions of PEM brain had similar PDH activities to LS and HS brains, but the activities of α-KGDH and COX were significantly lower than in LS and HS brains. The results of this study suggest that reduced enzyme activities of brain PHD, α-KGDH, and COX are associated with the pathogenesis of sulfur-induced PEM. PMID:29081580

Neuroimaging meta-analysis of cannabis use studies reveals convergent functional alterations in brain regions supporting cognitive control and reward processing.

PubMed

Yanes, Julio A; Riedel, Michael C; Ray, Kimberly L; Kirkland, Anna E; Bird, Ryan T; Boeving, Emily R; Reid, Meredith A; Gonzalez, Raul; Robinson, Jennifer L; Laird, Angela R; Sutherland, Matthew T

2018-03-01

Lagging behind rapid changes to state laws, societal views, and medical practice is the scientific investigation of cannabis's impact on the human brain. While several brain imaging studies have contributed important insight into neurobiological alterations linked with cannabis use, our understanding remains limited. Here, we sought to delineate those brain regions that consistently demonstrate functional alterations among cannabis users versus non-users across neuroimaging studies using the activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis framework. In ancillary analyses, we characterized task-related brain networks that co-activate with cannabis-affected regions using data archived in a large neuroimaging repository, and then determined which psychological processes may be disrupted via functional decoding techniques. When considering convergent alterations among users, decreased activation was observed in the anterior cingulate cortex, which co-activated with frontal, parietal, and limbic areas and was linked with cognitive control processes. Similarly, decreased activation was observed in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which co-activated with frontal and occipital areas and linked with attention-related processes. Conversely, increased activation among users was observed in the striatum, which co-activated with frontal, parietal, and other limbic areas and linked with reward processing. These meta-analytic outcomes indicate that cannabis use is linked with differential, region-specific effects across the brain.

Occludin is regulated by epidermal growth factor receptor activation in brain endothelial cells and brains of mice with acute liver failure.

PubMed

Chen, Feng; Hori, Tomohide; Ohashi, Norifumi; Baine, Ann-Marie; Eckman, Christopher B; Nguyen, Justin H

2011-04-01

Mechanisms of brain edema in acute liver failure (ALF) are not completely understood. We recently demonstrated that matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) induces significant alterations to occludin in brain endothelial cells in vitro and in brains of mice with experimental ALF (Hepatology 2009;50:1914). In this study we show that MMP-9-induced transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and p38 MAPK/NFκB (mitogen-activated protein kinase/nuclear factor-kappa B) signals participate in regulating brain endothelial occludin level. Mouse brain endothelial bEnd3 cells were exposed to MMP-9 or p38 MAPK up-regulation in the presence and absence of EGFR inhibitor, p38 MAPK inhibitor, NFκB inhibitor, and/or appropriate small interfering RNA. Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting were used for messenger RNA and protein expression analyses. Immunohistochemical staining and confocal microscopy were used to demonstrate cellular EGFR activation. Intraperitoneal azoxymethane was use to induce ALF in mice. Brains of comatose ALF mice were processed for histological and biochemical analyses. When bEnd3 cells were exposed to MMP-9, EGFR was significantly transactivated, followed by p38 MAPK activation, I-kappa B alpha (IκBα) degradation, NFκB activation, and suppression of occludin synthesis and expression. Similar EGFR activation and p38 MAPK/NFκB activation were found in the brains of ALF mice, and these changes were attenuated with GM6001 treatment. EGFR activation with p38 MAPK/NFκB signaling contributes to the regulation of tight junction integrity in ALF. EGFR activation may thus play an important role in vasogenic brain edema in ALF. 2011 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Correspondence of the brain's functional architecture during activation and rest

PubMed Central

Smith, Stephen M.; Fox, Peter T.; Miller, Karla L.; Glahn, David C.; Fox, P. Mickle; Mackay, Clare E.; Filippini, Nicola; Watkins, Kate E.; Toro, Roberto; Laird, Angela R.; Beckmann, Christian F.

2009-01-01

Neural connections, providing the substrate for functional networks, exist whether or not they are functionally active at any given moment. However, it is not known to what extent brain regions are continuously interacting when the brain is “at rest.” In this work, we identify the major explicit activation networks by carrying out an image-based activation network analysis of thousands of separate activation maps derived from the BrainMap database of functional imaging studies, involving nearly 30,000 human subjects. Independently, we extract the major covarying networks in the resting brain, as imaged with functional magnetic resonance imaging in 36 subjects at rest. The sets of major brain networks, and their decompositions into subnetworks, show close correspondence between the independent analyses of resting and activation brain dynamics. We conclude that the full repertoire of functional networks utilized by the brain in action is continuously and dynamically “active” even when at “rest.” PMID:19620724

Network-dependent modulation of brain activity during sleep.

PubMed

Watanabe, Takamitsu; Kan, Shigeyuki; Koike, Takahiko; Misaki, Masaya; Konishi, Seiki; Miyauchi, Satoru; Miyahsita, Yasushi; Masuda, Naoki

2014-09-01

Brain activity dynamically changes even during sleep. A line of neuroimaging studies has reported changes in functional connectivity and regional activity across different sleep stages such as slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. However, it remains unclear whether and how the large-scale network activity of human brains changes within a given sleep stage. Here, we investigated modulation of network activity within sleep stages by applying the pairwise maximum entropy model to brain activity obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging from sleeping healthy subjects. We found that the brain activity of individual brain regions and functional interactions between pairs of regions significantly increased in the default-mode network during SWS and decreased during REM sleep. In contrast, the network activity of the fronto-parietal and sensory-motor networks showed the opposite pattern. Furthermore, in the three networks, the amount of the activity changes throughout REM sleep was negatively correlated with that throughout SWS. The present findings suggest that the brain activity is dynamically modulated even in a sleep stage and that the pattern of modulation depends on the type of the large-scale brain networks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tracing Activity Across the Whole Brain Neural Network with Optogenetic Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

PubMed Central

Lee, Jin Hyung

2011-01-01

Despite the overwhelming need, there has been a relatively large gap in our ability to trace network level activity across the brain. The complex dense wiring of the brain makes it extremely challenging to understand cell-type specific activity and their communication beyond a few synapses. Recent development of the optogenetic functional magnetic resonance imaging (ofMRI) provides a new impetus for the study of brain circuits by enabling causal tracing of activities arising from defined cell types and firing patterns across the whole brain. Brain circuit elements can be selectively triggered based on their genetic identity, cell body location, and/or their axonal projection target with temporal precision while the resulting network response is monitored non-invasively with unprecedented spatial and temporal accuracy. With further studies including technological innovations to bring ofMRI to its full potential, ofMRI is expected to play an important role in our system-level understanding of the brain circuit mechanism. PMID:22046160

Mechanism of case processing in the brain: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Yokoyama, Satoru; Maki, Hideki; Hashimoto, Yosuke; Toma, Masahiko; Kawashima, Ryuta

2012-01-01

In sentence comprehension research, the case system, which is one of the subsystems of the language processing system, has been assumed to play a crucial role in signifying relationships in sentences between noun phrases (NPs) and other elements, such as verbs, prepositions, nouns, and tense. However, so far, less attention has been paid to the question of how cases are processed in our brain. To this end, the current study used fMRI and scanned the brain activity of 15 native English speakers during an English-case processing task. The results showed that, while the processing of all cases activates the left inferior frontal gyrus and posterior part of the middle temporal gyrus, genitive case processing activates these two regions more than nominative and accusative case processing. Since the effect of the difference in behavioral performance among these three cases is excluded from brain activation data, the observed different brain activations would be due to the different processing patterns among the cases, indicating that cases are processed differently in our brains. The different brain activations between genitive case processing and nominative/accusative case processing may be due to the difference in structural complexity between them.

Age related rise in lactate and its correlation with lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) status in post-mitochondrial fractions isolated from different regions of brain in mice.

PubMed

Datta, Siddhartha; Chakrabarti, Nilkanta

2018-04-18

Rise in brain lactate is the hallmark of ageing. Separate studies report that ageing is associated with elevation of lactate level and alterations of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)-A/B mRNA-expression-ratio in cerebral cortex and hippocampus. However, age related lactate rise in brain and its association with LDH status and their brain regional variations are still elusive. In the present study, level of lactate, LDH (A and B) activity and LDH-A expression were evaluated in post-mitochondrial fraction of tissues isolated from four different brain regions (cerebral cortex, hippocampus, substantia nigra and cerebellum) of young and aged mice. Lactate levels elevated in four brain regions with maximum rise in substantia nigra of aged mice. LDH-A protein expression and its activity decreased in cerebral cortex, hippocampus and substantia nigra without any changes of these parameters in cerebellum of aged mice. LDH-B activity decreased in hippocampus, substantia nigra and cerebellum whereas its activity remains unaltered in cerebral cortex of aged mice. Accordingly, the ratio of LDH-A/LDH-B-activity remains unaltered in hippocampus and substantia nigra, decreased in cerebral cortex and increased in cerebellum. Therefore, rise of lactate in three brain regions (cerebral cortex, hippocampus, substantia nigra) appeared to be not correlated with the alterations of its regulatory enzymes activities in these three brain regions, rather it supports the fact of involvement of other mechanisms, like lactate transport and/or aerobic/anaerobic metabolism as the possible cause(s) of lactate rise in these three brain regions. The increase in LDH-A/LDH-B-activity-ratio appeared to be positively correlated with elevated lactate level in cerebellum of aged mice. Overall, the present study indicates that the mechanism of rise in lactate in brain varies with brain regions where LDH status plays an important role during ageing. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using Proton Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy to Understand Brain "Activation"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baslow, Morris H.; Guilfoyle, David N.

2007-01-01

Upon stimulation, areas of the brain associated with specific cognitive processing tasks may undergo observable physiological changes, and measures of such changes have been used to create brain maps for visualization of stimulated areas in task-related brain "activation" studies. These perturbations usually continue throughout the period of the…

Resting-state brain activity in the motor cortex reflects task-induced activity: A multi-voxel pattern analysis.

PubMed

Kusano, Toshiki; Kurashige, Hiroki; Nambu, Isao; Moriguchi, Yoshiya; Hanakawa, Takashi; Wada, Yasuhiro; Osu, Rieko

2015-08-01

It has been suggested that resting-state brain activity reflects task-induced brain activity patterns. In this study, we examined whether neural representations of specific movements can be observed in the resting-state brain activity patterns of motor areas. First, we defined two regions of interest (ROIs) to examine brain activity associated with two different behavioral tasks. Using multi-voxel pattern analysis with regularized logistic regression, we designed a decoder to detect voxel-level neural representations corresponding to the tasks in each ROI. Next, we applied the decoder to resting-state brain activity. We found that the decoder discriminated resting-state neural activity with accuracy comparable to that associated with task-induced neural activity. The distribution of learned weighted parameters for each ROI was similar for resting-state and task-induced activities. Large weighted parameters were mainly located on conjunctive areas. Moreover, the accuracy of detection was higher than that for a decoder whose weights were randomly shuffled, indicating that the resting-state brain activity includes multi-voxel patterns similar to the neural representation for the tasks. Therefore, these results suggest that the neural representation of resting-state brain activity is more finely organized and more complex than conventionally considered.

Local Brain Activity Differences Between Herpes Zoster and Postherpetic Neuralgia Patients: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study.

PubMed

Cao, Song; Li, Ying; Deng, Wenwen; Qin, Bangyong; Zhang, Yi; Xie, Peng; Yuan, Jie; Yu, Buwei; Yu, Tian

2017-07-01

Herpes zoster (HZ) can develop into postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), both of which are painful diseases. PHN patients suffer chronic pain and emotional disorders. Previous studies showed that the PHN brain displayed abnormal activity and structural change, but the difference in brain activity between HZ and PHN is still not known. To identify regional brain activity changes in HZ and PHN brains with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) technique, and to observe the differences between HZ and PHN patients. Observational study. University hospital. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and fractional aptitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) methods were employed to analysis resting-state brain activity. Seventy-three age and gender matched patients (50 HZ, 23 PHN) and 55 healthy controls were enrolled. ReHo and fALFF changes were analyzed to detect the functional abnormality in HZ and PHN brains. Compared with healthy controls, HZ and PHN patients exhibited abnormal ReHo and fALFF values in classic pain-related brain regions (such as the frontal lobe, thalamus, insular, and cerebellum) as well as the brainstem, limbic lobe, and temporal lobe. When HZ developed to PHN, the activity in the vast area of the cerebellum significantly increased while that of some regions in the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and limbic lobe showed an apparent decrease. (a) Relatively short pain duration (mean 12.2 months) and small sample size (n = 23) for PHN group. (b) Comparisons at different time points (with paired t-tests) for each patient may minimize individual differences. HZ and PHN induced local brain activity changed in the pain matrix, brainstem, and limbic system. HZ chronification induced functional change in the cerebellum, occipital lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and limbic lobe. These brain activity changes may be correlated with HZ-PHN transition. Herpes zoster, postherpetic neuralgia, resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI), regional homogeneity (ReHo), fractional aptitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF).

Functional magnetic resonance imaging reflects changes in brain functioning with sedation.

PubMed

Starbuck, Victoria N; Kay, Gary G; Platenberg, R. Craig; Lin, Chin-Shoou; Zielinski, Brandon A

2000-12-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated localized brain activation during cognitive tasks. Brain activation increases with task complexity and decreases with familiarity. This study investigates how sleepiness alters the relationship between brain activation and task familiarity. We hypothesize that sleepiness prevents the reduction in activation associated with practice. Twenty-nine individuals rated their sleepiness using the Stanford Sleepiness Scale before fMRI. During imaging, subjects performed the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, a continuous mental arithmetic task. A positive correlation was observed between self-rated sleepiness and frontal brain activation. Fourteen subjects participated in phase 2. Sleepiness was induced by evening dosing with chlorpheniramine (CP) (8 mg or 12 mg) and terfenadine (60 mg) in the morning for 3 days before the second fMRI scan. The Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) was also performed. Results revealed a significant increase in fMRI activation in proportion to the dose of CP. In contrast, for all subjects receiving placebo there was a reduction in brain activation. MSLT revealed significant daytime sleepiness for subjects receiving CP. These findings suggest that sleepiness interferes with efficiency of brain functioning. The sleepy or sedated brain shows increased oxygen utilization during performance of a familiar cognitive task. Thus, the beneficial effect of prior task exposure is lost under conditions of sedation. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Pain perception and hypnosis: findings from recent functional neuroimaging studies.

PubMed

Del Casale, Antonio; Ferracuti, Stefano; Rapinesi, Chiara; Serata, Daniele; Caltagirone, Saverio Simone; Savoja, Valeria; Piacentino, Daria; Callovini, Gemma; Manfredi, Giovanni; Sani, Gabriele; Kotzalidis, Georgios D; Girardi, Paolo

2015-01-01

Hypnosis modulates pain perception and tolerance by affecting cortical and subcortical activity in brain regions involved in these processes. By reviewing functional neuroimaging studies focusing on pain perception under hypnosis, the authors aimed to identify brain activation-deactivation patterns occurring in hypnosis-modulated pain conditions. Different changes in brain functionality occurred throughout all components of the pain network and other brain areas. The anterior cingulate cortex appears to be central in modulating pain circuitry activity under hypnosis. Most studies also showed that the neural functions of the prefrontal, insular, and somatosensory cortices are consistently modified during hypnosis-modulated pain conditions. Functional neuroimaging studies support the clinical use of hypnosis in the management of pain conditions.

Does excessive play of violent first-person-shooter-video-games dampen brain activity in response to emotional stimuli?

PubMed

Montag, Christian; Weber, Bernd; Trautner, Peter; Newport, Beate; Markett, Sebastian; Walter, Nora T; Felten, Andrea; Reuter, Martin

2012-01-01

The present case-control study investigated the processing of emotional pictures in excessive first-person-shooter-video-players and control persons. All participants of the fMRI experiment were confronted with pictures from four categories including pleasant, unpleasant, neutral content and pictures from the first-person-shooter-video-game 'Counterstrike'. Compared to controls, gamers showed a significantly lower activation of the left lateral medial frontal lobe while processing negative emotions. Another interesting finding of the study represents the higher activation of frontal and temporal brain areas in gamers when processing screen-shots from the first-person-shooter-video-game 'Counterstrike'. Higher brain activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex could represent a protection mechanism against experiencing negative emotions by down-regulating limbic brain activity. Due to a frequent confrontation with violent scenes, the first-person-shooter-video-gamers might have habituated to the effects of unpleasant stimuli resulting in lower brain activation. Individual differences in brain activations of the contrast Counterstrike>neutral pictures potentially resemble the activation of action-scripts related to the video-game. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

What Do I Want and When Do I Want It: Brain Correlates of Decisions Made for Self and Other

PubMed Central

Albrecht, Konstanze; Volz, Kirsten G.; Sutter, Matthias; von Cramon, D. Yves

2013-01-01

A number of recent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies on intertemporal choice behavior have demonstrated that so-called emotion- and reward-related brain areas are preferentially activated by decisions involving immediately available (but smaller) rewards as compared to (larger) delayed rewards. This pattern of activation was not seen, however, when intertemporal choices were made for another (unknown) individual, which speaks to that activation having been triggered by self-relatedness. In the present fMRI study, we investigated the brain correlates of individuals who passively observed intertemporal choices being made either for themselves or for an unknown person. We found higher activation within the ventral striatum, medial prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex, pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex when an immediate reward was possible for the observer herself, which is in line with findings from studies in which individuals actively chose immediately available rewards. Additionally, activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus was higher for choices that included immediate options than for choices that offered only delayed options, irrespective of who was to be the beneficiary. These results indicate that (1) the activations found in active intertemporal decision making are also present when the same decisions are merely observed, thus supporting the assumption that a robust brain network is engaged in immediate gratification; and (2) with immediate rewards, certain brain areas are activated irrespective of whether the observer or another person is the beneficiary of a decision, suggesting that immediacy plays a more general role for neural activation. An explorative analysis of participants’ brain activation corresponding to chosen rewards, further indicates that activation in the aforementioned brain areas depends on the mere presence, availability, or actual reception of immediate rewards. PMID:23991196

Effect of pomegranate extracts on brain antioxidant markers and cholinesterase activity in high fat-high fructose diet induced obesity in rat model.

PubMed

Amri, Zahra; Ghorbel, Asma; Turki, Mouna; Akrout, Férièle Messadi; Ayadi, Fatma; Elfeki, Abdelfateh; Hammami, Mohamed

2017-06-27

To investigate beneficial effects of Pomegranate seeds oil (PSO), leaves (PL), juice (PJ) and (PP) on brain cholinesterase activity, brain oxidative stress and lipid profile in high-fat-high fructose diet (HFD) induced-obese rat. In vitro and in vivo cholinesterase activity, brain oxidative status, body and brain weight and plasma lipid profile were measured in control rats, HFD-fed rats and HFD-fed rats treated by PSO, PL, PJ and PP. In vitro study showed that PSO, PL, PP, PJ inhibited cholinesterase activity in dose dependant manner. PL extract displayed the highest inhibitory activity by IC50 of 151.85 mg/ml. For in vivo study, HFD regime induced a significant increase of cholinesterase activity in brain by 17.4% as compared to normal rats. However, the administration of PSO, PL, PJ and PP to HDF-rats decreased cholinesterase activity in brain respectively by 15.48%, 6.4%, 20% and 18.7% as compared to untreated HFD-rats. Moreover, HFD regime caused significant increase in brain stress, brain and body weight, and lipid profile disorders in blood. Furthermore, PSO, PL, PJ and PP modulated lipid profile in blood and prevented accumulation of lipid in brain and body evidenced by the decrease of their weights as compared to untreated HFD-rats. In addition administration of these extract protected brain from stress oxidant, evidenced by the decrease of malondialdehyde (MDA) and Protein carbonylation (PC) levels and the increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) levels. These findings highlight the neuroprotective effects of pomegranate extracts and one of mechanisms is the inhibition of cholinesterase and the stimulation of antioxidant capacity.

Brain Activity During the Encoding, Retention, and Retrieval of Stimulus Representations

PubMed Central

de Zubicaray, Greig I.; McMahon, Katie; Wilson, Stephen J.; Muthiah, Santhi

2001-01-01

Studies of delayed nonmatching-to-sample (DNMS) performance following lesions of the monkey cortex have revealed a critical circuit of brain regions involved in forming memories and retaining and retrieving stimulus representations. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured brain activity in 10 healthy human participants during performance of a trial-unique visual DNMS task using novel barcode stimuli. The event-related design enabled the identification of activity during the different phases of the task (encoding, retention, and retrieval). Several brain regions identified by monkey studies as being important for successful DNMS performance showed selective activity during the different phases, including the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (encoding), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (retention), and perirhinal cortex (retrieval). Regions showing sustained activity within trials included the ventromedial and dorsal prefrontal cortices and occipital cortex. The present study shows the utility of investigating performance on tasks derived from animal models to assist in the identification of brain regions involved in human recognition memory. PMID:11584070

Effect of motor imagery in children with unilateral cerebral palsy: fMRI study.

PubMed

Chinier, Eva; N'Guyen, Sylvie; Lignon, Grégoire; Ter Minassian, Aram; Richard, Isabelle; Dinomais, Mickaël

2014-01-01

Motor imagery is considered as a promising therapeutic tool for rehabilitation of motor planning problems in patients with cerebral palsy. However motor planning problems may lead to poor motor imagery ability. The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to examine and compare brain activation following motor imagery tasks in patients with hemiplegic cerebral palsy with left or right early brain lesions. We tested also the influence of the side of imagined hand movement. Twenty patients with clinical hemiplegic cerebral palsy (sixteen males, mean age 12 years and 10 months, aged 6 years 10 months to 20 years 10 months) participated in this study. Using block design, brain activations following motor imagery of a simple opening-closing hand movement performed by either the paretic or nonparetic hand was examined. During motor imagery tasks, patients with early right brain damages activated bilateral fronto-parietal network that comprise most of the nodes of the network well described in healthy subjects. Inversely, in patients with left early brain lesion brain activation following motor imagery tasks was reduced, compared to patients with right brain lesions. We found also a weak influence of the side of imagined hand movement. Decreased activations following motor imagery in patients with right unilateral cerebral palsy highlight the dominance of the left hemisphere during motor imagery tasks. This study gives neuronal substrate to propose motor imagery tasks in unilateral cerebral palsy rehabilitation at least for patients with right brain lesions.

Sex Differences in Brain Activity Related to General and Emotional Intelligence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jausovec, Norbert; Jausovec, Ksenija

2005-01-01

The study investigated gender differences in resting EEG (in three individually determined narrow [alpha] frequency bands) related to the level of general and emotional intelligence. Brain activity of males decreased with the level of general intelligence, whereas an opposite pattern of brain activity was observed in females. This difference was…

On children's dyslexia with NIRS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gan, Zhuo; Li, Chengjun; Gong, Hui; Luo, Qingming; Yao, Bin; Song, Ranran; Wu, Hanrong

2003-12-01

Developmental dyslexia is a kind of prevalent psychologic disease. Some functional imaging technologies, such as FMRI and PET, have been used to study the brain activities of dyslexics. NIRS is a kind of novel technology which is more and more widely being used for study of the cognitive psychology. However, there aren"t reports about the dyslexic research using NIRS to be found until now. This paper introduces a NIRS system of four measuring channels. Brain activities of dyslexic subjects and normal subjects during reading task were studied with the NIRS system. Two groups of subjects, the group of dyslexia and the group of normal, were appointed to perform two reading tasks. At the same time, their cortical activities were measured with the NIRS system. This experimental result indicates that the brain activities of the dyslexic group were significantly higher than the control group in BA 48 and that NIRS can be used for the study of human brain activity.

Simultaneous EEG and MEG source reconstruction in sparse electromagnetic source imaging.

PubMed

Ding, Lei; Yuan, Han

2013-04-01

Electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) have different sensitivities to differently configured brain activations, making them complimentary in providing independent information for better detection and inverse reconstruction of brain sources. In the present study, we developed an integrative approach, which integrates a novel sparse electromagnetic source imaging method, i.e., variation-based cortical current density (VB-SCCD), together with the combined use of EEG and MEG data in reconstructing complex brain activity. To perform simultaneous analysis of multimodal data, we proposed to normalize EEG and MEG signals according to their individual noise levels to create unit-free measures. Our Monte Carlo simulations demonstrated that this integrative approach is capable of reconstructing complex cortical brain activations (up to 10 simultaneously activated and randomly located sources). Results from experimental data showed that complex brain activations evoked in a face recognition task were successfully reconstructed using the integrative approach, which were consistent with other research findings and validated by independent data from functional magnetic resonance imaging using the same stimulus protocol. Reconstructed cortical brain activations from both simulations and experimental data provided precise source localizations as well as accurate spatial extents of localized sources. In comparison with studies using EEG or MEG alone, the performance of cortical source reconstructions using combined EEG and MEG was significantly improved. We demonstrated that this new sparse ESI methodology with integrated analysis of EEG and MEG data could accurately probe spatiotemporal processes of complex human brain activations. This is promising for noninvasively studying large-scale brain networks of high clinical and scientific significance. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Quantifying familial influences on brain activation during the monetary incentive delay task: an adolescent monozygotic twin study.

PubMed

Silverman, Merav H; Krueger, Robert F; Iacono, William G; Malone, Stephen M; Hunt, Ruskin H; Thomas, Kathleen M

2014-12-01

Although altered brain activation during reward tasks has been found in a number of heritable psychiatric disorders and health outcomes, the familial nature of reward-related brain activation remains unexplored. In this study, we investigated the degree to which the magnitude of mesocorticolimbic reward system signal intensities in anticipation of reward during the monetary incentive delay (MID) task was similar within 46 pairs of adolescent, monozygotic twins. Significant within-pair correlations in brain activation during anticipation of gain were found in one third of the 18 reward-related regions investigated. These regions were the right nucleus accumbens, left and right posterior caudate, right anterior caudate, left insula, and anterior cingulate cortex. This serves as evidence for a shared familial contribution to individual differences in reward related brain activity in certain key reward processing regions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prediction of human errors by maladaptive changes in event-related brain networks.

PubMed

Eichele, Tom; Debener, Stefan; Calhoun, Vince D; Specht, Karsten; Engel, Andreas K; Hugdahl, Kenneth; von Cramon, D Yves; Ullsperger, Markus

2008-04-22

Humans engaged in monotonous tasks are susceptible to occasional errors that may lead to serious consequences, but little is known about brain activity patterns preceding errors. Using functional MRI and applying independent component analysis followed by deconvolution of hemodynamic responses, we studied error preceding brain activity on a trial-by-trial basis. We found a set of brain regions in which the temporal evolution of activation predicted performance errors. These maladaptive brain activity changes started to evolve approximately 30 sec before the error. In particular, a coincident decrease of deactivation in default mode regions of the brain, together with a decline of activation in regions associated with maintaining task effort, raised the probability of future errors. Our findings provide insights into the brain network dynamics preceding human performance errors and suggest that monitoring of the identified precursor states may help in avoiding human errors in critical real-world situations.

Prediction of human errors by maladaptive changes in event-related brain networks

PubMed Central

Eichele, Tom; Debener, Stefan; Calhoun, Vince D.; Specht, Karsten; Engel, Andreas K.; Hugdahl, Kenneth; von Cramon, D. Yves; Ullsperger, Markus

2008-01-01

Humans engaged in monotonous tasks are susceptible to occasional errors that may lead to serious consequences, but little is known about brain activity patterns preceding errors. Using functional MRI and applying independent component analysis followed by deconvolution of hemodynamic responses, we studied error preceding brain activity on a trial-by-trial basis. We found a set of brain regions in which the temporal evolution of activation predicted performance errors. These maladaptive brain activity changes started to evolve ≈30 sec before the error. In particular, a coincident decrease of deactivation in default mode regions of the brain, together with a decline of activation in regions associated with maintaining task effort, raised the probability of future errors. Our findings provide insights into the brain network dynamics preceding human performance errors and suggest that monitoring of the identified precursor states may help in avoiding human errors in critical real-world situations. PMID:18427123

Multichannel brain recordings in behaving Drosophila reveal oscillatory activity and local coherence in response to sensory stimulation and circuit activation

PubMed Central

Paulk, Angelique C.; Zhou, Yanqiong; Stratton, Peter; Liu, Li

2013-01-01

Neural networks in vertebrates exhibit endogenous oscillations that have been associated with functions ranging from sensory processing to locomotion. It remains unclear whether oscillations may play a similar role in the insect brain. We describe a novel “whole brain” readout for Drosophila melanogaster using a simple multichannel recording preparation to study electrical activity across the brain of flies exposed to different sensory stimuli. We recorded local field potential (LFP) activity from >2,000 registered recording sites across the fly brain in >200 wild-type and transgenic animals to uncover specific LFP frequency bands that correlate with: 1) brain region; 2) sensory modality (olfactory, visual, or mechanosensory); and 3) activity in specific neural circuits. We found endogenous and stimulus-specific oscillations throughout the fly brain. Central (higher-order) brain regions exhibited sensory modality-specific increases in power within narrow frequency bands. Conversely, in sensory brain regions such as the optic or antennal lobes, LFP coherence, rather than power, best defined sensory responses across modalities. By transiently activating specific circuits via expression of TrpA1, we found that several circuits in the fly brain modulate LFP power and coherence across brain regions and frequency domains. However, activation of a neuromodulatory octopaminergic circuit specifically increased neuronal coherence in the optic lobes during visual stimulation while decreasing coherence in central brain regions. Our multichannel recording and brain registration approach provides an effective way to track activity simultaneously across the fly brain in vivo, allowing investigation of functional roles for oscillations in processing sensory stimuli and modulating behavior. PMID:23864378

Differential brain activations in adult attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder subtypes: a counting Stroop functional MRI study.

PubMed

Shang, Chi-Yung; Sheng, Chia; Yang, Li-Kuang; Chou, Tai-Li; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen

2018-06-01

Although previous functional neuroimaging studies have found abnormal brain activations in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), little was known about distinct brain dysfunctions across different ADHD subtypes. The objective of the present study was to investigate the abnormal brain activations associated with two ADHD subtypes, predominantly inattentive (ADHD-PI) and combined (ADHD-C) subtypes. Twenty-five adults with ADHD-PI, 25 with ADHD-C, and 30 healthy controls (HC) participated in this study. The brain function of the participants were assessed by using the counting Stroop task inside the scanner and the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CCPT) outside the scanner. The HC group showed greater activations in the caudate nucleus and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) than the ADHD-PI and ADHD-C groups. The ADHD-PI group showed greater activations in the superior parietal lobule (SPL) than the ADHD-C group. In all participants with ADHD, we found negative correlations of activation in the left caudate and the left IFG with the standard deviation of the reaction time of the CCPT, and negative correlations of activation in the left SPL with the reaction time changes across different inter-stimulus intervals. Our results demonstrated altered brain activity in the frontostriatal networks of adults with ADHD-PI and the fronto-striato-parietal networks of adults with ADHD-C. Abnormalities in the parietal areas may represent the main difference between the ADHD-PI and ADHD-C subtypes.

Age, Intelligence, and Event-Related Brain Potentials during Late Childhood: A Longitudinal Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stauder, Johannes E. A.; van der Molen, Maurits W.; Molenaar, Peter C. M.

2003-01-01

Studied the relationship between event-related brain activity, age, and intelligence using a visual oddball task presented to girls at 9, 10, and 11 years of age. Findings for 26 girls suggest a qualitative shift in the relation between event-related brain activity and intelligence between 9 and 10 years of age. (SLD)

Real-time fMRI: a tool for local brain regulation.

PubMed

Caria, Andrea; Sitaram, Ranganatha; Birbaumer, Niels

2012-10-01

Real-time fMRI permits simultaneous measurement and observation of brain activity during an ongoing task. One of the most challenging applications of real-time fMRI in neuroscientific and clinical research is the possibility of acquiring volitional control of localized brain activity using real-time fMRI-based neurofeedback protocols. Real-time fMRI allows the experimenter to noninvasively manipulate brain activity as an independent variable to observe the effects on behavior. Real-time fMRI neurofeedback studies demonstrated that learned control of the local brain activity leads to specific changes in behavior. Here, the authors describe the implementation and application of real-time fMRI with particular emphasis on the self-regulation of local brain activity and the investigation of brain-function relationships. Real-time fMRI represents a promising new approach to cognitive neuroscience that could complement traditional neuroimaging techniques by providing more causal insights into the functional role of circumscribed brain regions in behavior.

Connectome-harmonic decomposition of human brain activity reveals dynamical repertoire re-organization under LSD.

PubMed

Atasoy, Selen; Roseman, Leor; Kaelen, Mendel; Kringelbach, Morten L; Deco, Gustavo; Carhart-Harris, Robin L

2017-12-15

Recent studies have started to elucidate the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on the human brain but the underlying dynamics are not yet fully understood. Here we used 'connectome-harmonic decomposition', a novel method to investigate the dynamical changes in brain states. We found that LSD alters the energy and the power of individual harmonic brain states in a frequency-selective manner. Remarkably, this leads to an expansion of the repertoire of active brain states, suggestive of a general re-organization of brain dynamics given the non-random increase in co-activation across frequencies. Interestingly, the frequency distribution of the active repertoire of brain states under LSD closely follows power-laws indicating a re-organization of the dynamics at the edge of criticality. Beyond the present findings, these methods open up for a better understanding of the complex brain dynamics in health and disease.

Material and physical model for evaluation of deep brain activity contribution to EEG recordings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, Yan; Li, Xiaoping; Wu, Tiecheng; Li, Zhe; Xie, Wenwen

2015-12-01

Deep brain activity is conventionally recorded with surgical implantation of electrodes. During the neurosurgery, brain tissue damage and the consequent side effects to patients are inevitably incurred. In order to eliminate undesired risks, we propose that deep brain activity should be measured using the noninvasive scalp electroencephalography (EEG) technique. However, the deeper the neuronal activity is located, the noisier the corresponding scalp EEG signals are. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate whether deep brain activity could be observed from EEG recordings. In the experiment, a three-layer cylindrical head model was constructed to mimic a human head. A single dipole source (sine wave, 10 Hz, altering amplitudes) was embedded inside the model to simulate neuronal activity. When the dipole source was activated, surface potential was measured via electrodes attached on the top surface of the model and raw data were recorded for signal analysis. Results show that the dipole source activity positioned at 66 mm depth in the model, equivalent to the depth of deep brain structures, is clearly observed from surface potential recordings. Therefore, it is highly possible that deep brain activity could be observed from EEG recordings and deep brain activity could be measured using the noninvasive scalp EEG technique.

The in vitro isolated whole guinea pig brain as a model to study epileptiform activity patterns.

PubMed

de Curtis, Marco; Librizzi, Laura; Uva, Laura

2016-02-15

Research on ictogenesis is based on the study of activity between seizures and during seizures in animal models of epilepsy (chronic condition) or in in vitro slices obtained from naïve non-epileptic brains after treatment with pro-convulsive drugs, manipulations of the extracellular medium and specific stimulation protocols. The in vitro isolated guinea pig brain retains the functional connectivity between brain structures and maintains interactions between neuronal, glial and vascular compartments. It is a close-to-in vivo preparation that offers experimental advantages not achieved with the use of other experimental models. Neurophysiological and imaging techniques can be utilized in this preparation to study brain activity during and between seizures induced by pharmacological or functional manipulations. Cellular and network determinants of interictal and ictal discharges that reproduce abnormal patterns observed in human focal epilepsies and the associated changes in extracellular ion and blood-brain permeability can be identified and analyzed in the isolated guinea pig brain. Ictal and interictal patterns recorded in in vitro slices may show substantial differences from seizure activity recorded in vivo due to slicing procedure itself. The isolated guinea pig brain maintained in vitro by arterial perfusion combines the typical facilitated access of in vitro preparations, that are difficult to approach during in vivo experiments, with the preservation of larger neuronal networks. The in vitro whole isolated guinea pig brain preparation offers an unique experimental model to study systemic and neurovascular changes during ictogenesis. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Neuroimaging study of sex differences in the neuropathology of cocaine abuse.

PubMed

Li, Chiang-shan Ray; Kemp, Kathleen; Milivojevic, Verica; Sinha, Rajita

2005-09-01

Female and male substance abusers differ in their disease patterns and clinical outcomes. An important question in addiction neuroscience thus concerns the neural substrates underlying these sex differences. This article aims to examine what is known of the neural mechanisms involved in the sex differences between substance abusers. We reviewed neuroimaging studies that addressed sex differences in cerebral perfusion deficits after chronic cocaine use and in regional brain activation during pharmacologic challenge and cue-induced craving. We also present results from a preliminary study in which cocaine-dependent men and women participated in script-guided imagery of stress- and drug cue-related situations while blood oxygenation level-dependent signals of their brain were acquired in a 1.5T scanner. Spatial pre-processing and statistical analysis of brain images were performed. Regional brain activation was compared between stress and drug cue trials in men versus women. The results of our study showed greater activation in the left uncus and right claustrum (both, statistical threshold of P = 0.01, uncorrected; extent = 10 voxels) in men (n = 5) during drug cue trials compared with stress trials. No brain regions showed greater activation during stress trials compared with drug cue trials. In contrast, women (n = 6) showed greater activation in the right medial and superior frontal gyri during stress trials compared with drug cue trials at the same statistical threshold. No brain regions showed more activation during drug cue trials than during stress trials. The studies reviewed underscore the need to consider sex-related factors in examining the neuropathology of cocaine addiction. Our preliminary results also suggest important sex differences in the effect of stress- and drug cue-associated brain activation in individuals with cocaine use disorder.

Functional characteristics of the brain in college students with internet gaming disorder.

PubMed

Liu, Jun; Li, Weihui; Zhou, Shunke; Zhang, Li; Wang, Zhiyuan; Zhang, Yan; Jiang, Yebin; Li, Lingjiang

2016-03-01

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a subtype of internet addiction disorder (IAD), but its pathogenesis remains unclear. This study investigated brain function in IGD individuals using task-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It is a prospective study in 19 IGD individuals and 19 matched healthy controls. They all received internet videogame stimuli while a 3.0 T fMRI was used to assess echo planar imaging. Brain activity was analyzed using the Brain Voyager software package. Functional data were spatially smoothed using Gaussian kernel. The threshold level was positioned at 10 pixels, and the activation range threshold was set to 10 voxels. Activated brain regions were compared between the two groups, as well as the amount of activated voxels. The internet videogame stimuli activated brain regions in both groups. Compared with controls, the IGD group showed increased activation in the right superior parietal lobule, right insular lobe, right precuneus, right cingulated gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus, and left brainstem. There was a significant difference in the number of activated voxels between the two groups. An average of 1078 voxels was activated in the IGD group compared with only 232 in the control group. Internet videogame play activates the vision, space, attention, and execution centers located in the occipital, temporal, parietal, and frontal gyri. Abnormal brain function was noted in IGD subjects, with hypofunction of the frontal cortex. IGD subjects showed laterality activation of the right cerebral hemisphere.

Optical mapping of brain activation during the English to Chinese and Chinese to English sight translation

PubMed Central

He, Yan; Wang, Meng-Yun; Li, Defeng; Yuan, Zhen

2017-01-01

Translating from Chinese into another language or vice versa is becoming a widespread phenomenon. However, current neuroimaging studies are insufficient to reveal the neural mechanism underlying translation asymmetry during Chinese/English sight translation. In this study, functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to extract the brain activation patterns associated with Chinese/English sight translation. Eleven unbalanced Chinese (L1)/English (L2) bilinguals participated in this study based on an intra-group experimental design, in which two translation and two reading aloud tasks were administered: forward translation (from L1 to L2), backward translation (from L2 to L1), L1 reading, and L2 reading. As predicted, our findings revealed that forward translation elicited more pronounced brain activation in Broca’s area, suggesting that neural correlates of translation vary according to the direction of translation. Additionally, significant brain activation in the left PFC was involved in backward translation, indicating the importance of this brain region during the translation process. The identical activation patterns could not be discovered in forward translation, indicating the cognitive processing of reading logographic languages (i.e. Chinese) might recruit incongruent brain regions. PMID:29296476

Optical mapping of brain activation in gambling disorders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, Zhen; Lin, Xiaohong

2018-02-01

In this study, fNIRS was utilized to identify the brain activation difference between pathological gamblers (PGs) and heathy controls (HCs). We inspected the hemodynamic changes in the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS recordings during the completion of executive function and decision making tasks. Our finding revealed that the PG and HC groups exhibited significant differences in brain activation.

Average is optimal: an inverted-U relationship between trial-to-trial brain activity and behavioral performance.

PubMed

He, Biyu J; Zempel, John M

2013-01-01

It is well known that even under identical task conditions, there is a tremendous amount of trial-to-trial variability in both brain activity and behavioral output. Thus far the vast majority of event-related potential (ERP) studies investigating the relationship between trial-to-trial fluctuations in brain activity and behavioral performance have only tested a monotonic relationship between them. However, it was recently found that across-trial variability can correlate with behavioral performance independent of trial-averaged activity. This finding predicts a U- or inverted-U- shaped relationship between trial-to-trial brain activity and behavioral output, depending on whether larger brain variability is associated with better or worse behavior, respectively. Using a visual stimulus detection task, we provide evidence from human electrocorticography (ECoG) for an inverted-U brain-behavior relationship: When the raw fluctuation in broadband ECoG activity is closer to the across-trial mean, hit rate is higher and reaction times faster. Importantly, we show that this relationship is present not only in the post-stimulus task-evoked brain activity, but also in the pre-stimulus spontaneous brain activity, suggesting anticipatory brain dynamics. Our findings are consistent with the presence of stochastic noise in the brain. They further support attractor network theories, which postulate that the brain settles into a more confined state space under task performance, and proximity to the targeted trajectory is associated with better performance.

Spatial working memory in heavy cannabis users: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

PubMed

Kanayama, Gen; Rogowska, Jadwiga; Pope, Harrison G; Gruber, Staci A; Yurgelun-Todd, Deborah A

2004-11-01

Many neuropsychological studies have documented deficits in working memory among recent heavy cannabis users. However, little is known about the effects of cannabis on brain activity. We assessed brain function among recent heavy cannabis users while they performed a working memory task. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine brain activity in 12 long-term heavy cannabis users, 6-36 h after last use, and in 10 control subjects while they performed a spatial working memory task. Regional brain activation was analyzed and compared using statistical parametric mapping techniques. Compared with controls, cannabis users exhibited increased activation of brain regions typically used for spatial working memory tasks (such as prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate). Users also recruited additional regions not typically used for spatial working memory (such as regions in the basal ganglia). These findings remained essentially unchanged when re-analyzed using subjects' ages as a covariate. Brain activation showed little or no significant correlation with subjects' years of education, verbal IQ, lifetime episodes of cannabis use, or urinary cannabinoid levels at the time of scanning. Recent cannabis users displayed greater and more widespread brain activation than normal subjects when attempting to perform a spatial working memory task. This observation suggests that recent cannabis users may experience subtle neurophysiological deficits, and that they compensate for these deficits by "working harder"-calling upon additional brain regions to meet the demands of the task.

Differential brain responses to cries of infants with autistic disorder and typical development: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Venuti, Paola; Caria, Andrea; Esposito, Gianluca; De Pisapia, Nicola; Bornstein, Marc H; de Falco, Simona

2012-01-01

This study used fMRI to measure brain activity during adult processing of cries of infants with autistic disorder (AD) compared to cries of typically developing (TD) infants. Using whole brain analysis, we found that cries of infants with AD compared to those of TD infants elicited enhanced activity in brain regions associated with verbal and prosodic processing, perhaps because altered acoustic patterns of AD cries render them especially difficult to interpret, and increased activity in brain regions associated with emotional processing, indicating that AD cries also elicit more negative feelings and may be perceived as more aversive and/or arousing. Perceived distress engendered by AD cries related to increased activation in brain regions associated with emotional processing. This study supports the hypothesis that cry is an early and meaningful anomaly displayed by children with AD. It could be that cries associated with AD alter parent-child interactions much earlier than the time that reliable AD diagnosis normally occurs. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of emotional valence and three-dimensionality of visual stimuli on brain activation: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Dores, A R; Almeida, I; Barbosa, F; Castelo-Branco, M; Monteiro, L; Reis, M; de Sousa, L; Caldas, A Castro

2013-01-01

Examining changes in brain activation linked with emotion-inducing stimuli is essential to the study of emotions. Due to the ecological potential of techniques such as virtual reality (VR), inspection of whether brain activation in response to emotional stimuli can be modulated by the three-dimensional (3D) properties of the images is important. The current study sought to test whether the activation of brain areas involved in the emotional processing of scenarios of different valences can be modulated by 3D. Therefore, the focus was made on the interaction effect between emotion-inducing stimuli of different emotional valences (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral valences) and visualization types (2D, 3D). However, main effects were also analyzed. The effect of emotional valence and visualization types and their interaction were analyzed through a 3 × 2 repeated measures ANOVA. Post-hoc t-tests were performed under a ROI-analysis approach. The results show increased brain activation for the 3D affective-inducing stimuli in comparison with the same stimuli in 2D scenarios, mostly in cortical and subcortical regions that are related to emotional processing, in addition to visual processing regions. This study has the potential of clarify brain mechanisms involved in the processing of emotional stimuli (scenarios' valence) and their interaction with three-dimensionality.

Parametric fMRI analysis of visual encoding in the human medial temporal lobe.

PubMed

Rombouts, S A; Scheltens, P; Machielson, W C; Barkhof, F; Hoogenraad, F G; Veltman, D J; Valk, J; Witter, M P

1999-01-01

A number of functional brain imaging studies indicate that the medial temporal lobe system is crucially involved in encoding new information into memory. However, most studies were based on differences in brain activity between encoding of familiar vs. novel stimuli. To further study the underlying cognitive processes, we applied a parametric design of encoding. Seven healthy subjects were instructed to encode complex color pictures into memory. Stimuli were presented in a parametric fashion at different rates, thus representing different loads of encoding. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess changes in brain activation. To determine the number of pictures successfully stored into memory, recognition scores were determined afterwards. During encoding, brain activation occurred in the medial temporal lobe, comparable to the results obtained by others. Increasing the encoding load resulted in an increase in the number of successfully stored items. This was reflected in a significant increase in brain activation in the left lingual gyrus, in the left and right parahippocampal gyrus, and in the right inferior frontal gyrus. This study shows that fMRI can detect changes in brain activation during variation of one aspect of higher cognitive tasks. Further, it strongly supports the notion that the human medial temporal lobe is involved in encoding novel visual information into memory.

Senior Dance Experience, Cognitive Performance, and Brain Volume in Older Women.

PubMed

Niemann, Claudia; Godde, Ben; Voelcker-Rehage, Claudia

2016-01-01

Physical activity is positively related to cognitive functioning and brain volume in older adults. Interestingly, different types of physical activity vary in their effects on cognition and on the brain. For example, dancing has become an interesting topic in aging research, as it is a popular leisure activity among older adults, involving cardiovascular and motor fitness dimensions that can be positively related to cognition. However, studies on brain structure are missing. In this study, we tested the association of long-term senior dance experience with cognitive performance and gray matter brain volume in older women aged 65 to 82 years. We compared nonprofessional senior dancers ( n = 28) with nonsedentary control group participants without any dancing experience ( n = 29), who were similar in age, education, IQ score, lifestyle and health factors, and fitness level. Differences neither in the four tested cognitive domains (executive control, perceptual speed, episodic memory, and long-term memory) nor in brain volume (VBM whole-brain analysis, region-of-interest analysis of the hippocampus) were observed. Results indicate that moderate dancing activity (1-2 times per week, on average) has no additional effects on gray matter volume and cognitive functioning when a certain lifestyle or physical activity and fitness level are reached.

Simultaneous transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG): assessing the impact of tDCS on slow cortical magnetic fields.

PubMed

Garcia-Cossio, Eliana; Witkowski, Matthias; Robinson, Stephen E; Cohen, Leonardo G; Birbaumer, Niels; Soekadar, Surjo R

2016-10-15

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can influence cognitive, affective or motor brain functions. Whereas previous imaging studies demonstrated widespread tDCS effects on brain metabolism, direct impact of tDCS on electric or magnetic source activity in task-related brain areas could not be confirmed due to the difficulty to record such activity simultaneously during tDCS. The aim of this proof-of-principal study was to demonstrate the feasibility of whole-head source localization and reconstruction of neuromagnetic brain activity during tDCS and to confirm the direct effect of tDCS on ongoing neuromagnetic activity in task-related brain areas. Here we show for the first time that tDCS has an immediate impact on slow cortical magnetic fields (SCF, 0-4Hz) of task-related areas that are identical with brain regions previously described in metabolic neuroimaging studies. 14 healthy volunteers performed a choice reaction time (RT) task while whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) was recorded. Task-related source-activity of SCFs was calculated using synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) in absence of stimulation and while anodal, cathodal or sham tDCS was delivered over the right primary motor cortex (M1). Source reconstruction revealed task-related SCF modulations in brain regions that precisely matched prior metabolic neuroimaging studies. Anodal and cathodal tDCS had a polarity-dependent impact on RT and SCF in primary sensorimotor and medial centro-parietal cortices. Combining tDCS and whole-head MEG is a powerful approach to investigate the direct effects of transcranial electric currents on ongoing neuromagnetic source activity, brain function and behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Simultaneous transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG): assessing the impact of tDCS on slow cortical magnetic fields

PubMed Central

Garcia-Cossio, Eliana; Witkowski, Matthias; Robinson, Stephen E.; Cohen, Leonardo G.; Birbaumer, Niels; Soekadar, Surjo R.

2016-01-01

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can influence cognitive, affective or motor brain functions. Whereas previous imaging studies demonstrated widespread tDCS effects on brain metabolism, direct impact of tDCS on electric or magnetic source activity in task-related brain areas could not be confirmed due to the difficulty to record such activity simultaneously during tDCS. The aim of this proof-of-principal study was to demonstrate the feasibility of whole-head source localization and reconstruction of neuromagnetic brain activity during tDCS and to confirm the direct effect of tDCS on ongoing neuromagnetic activity in task-related brain areas. Here we show for the first time that tDCS has an immediate impact on slow cortical magnetic fields (SCF, 0–4 Hz) of task-related areas that are identical with brain regions previously described in metabolic neuroimaging studies. 14 healthy volunteers performed a choice reaction time (RT) task while whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) was recorded. Task-related source-activity of SCFs was calculated using synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) in absence of stimulation and while anodal, cathodal or sham tDCS was delivered over the right primary motor cortex (M1). Source reconstruction revealed task-related SCF modulations in brain regions that precisely matched prior metabolic neuroimaging studies. Anodal and cathodal tDCS had a polarity-dependent impact on RT and SCF in primary sensorimotor and medial centro-parietal cortices. Combining tDCS and whole-head MEG is a powerful approach to investigate the direct effects of transcranial electric currents on ongoing neuromagnetic source activity, brain function and behavior. PMID:26455796

Battery-Less Electroencephalogram System Architecture Optimization

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

disorders, especially in real-world situations, such as when a Soldier is in theater. There are several methods to study the electrical activity in the brain...to measure the electrical activity in the brain that can still be used to study brain activity. Currently, most EEGs are recorded in highly controlled...base to build a larger system as its power consumption would allow it to operate from a AA battery for more than 72 h. While this might be acceptable

Demonstration of brain noise on human EEG signals in perception of bistable images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grubov, Vadim V.; Runnova, Anastasiya E.; Kurovskaya, Maria K.; Pavlov, Alexey N.; Koronovskii, Alexey A.; Hramov, Alexander E.

2016-03-01

In this report we studied human brain activity in the case of bistable visual perception. We proposed a new approach for quantitative characterization of this activity based on analysis of EEG oscillatory patterns and evoked potentials. Accordingly to theoretical background, obtained experimental EEG data and results of its analysis we studied a characteristics of brain activity during decision-making. Also we have shown that decisionmaking process has the special patterns on the EEG data.

Putting age-related task activation into large-scale brain networks: A meta-analysis of 114 fMRI studies on healthy aging.

PubMed

Li, Hui-Jie; Hou, Xiao-Hui; Liu, Han-Hui; Yue, Chun-Lin; Lu, Guang-Ming; Zuo, Xi-Nian

2015-10-01

Normal aging is associated with cognitive decline and underlying brain dysfunction. Previous studies concentrated less on brain network changes at a systems level. Our goal was to examine these age-related changes of fMRI-derived activation with a common network parcellation of the human brain function, offering a systems-neuroscience perspective of healthy aging. We conducted a series of meta-analyses on a total of 114 studies that included 2035 older adults and 1845 young adults. Voxels showing significant age-related changes in activation were then overlaid onto seven commonly referenced neuronal networks. Older adults present moderate cognitive decline in behavioral performance during fMRI scanning, and hypo-activate the visual network and hyper-activate both the frontoparietal control and default mode networks. The degree of increased activation in frontoparietal network was associated with behavioral performance in older adults. Age-related changes in activation present different network patterns across cognitive domains. The systems neuroscience approach used here may be useful for elucidating the underlying network mechanisms of various brain plasticity processes during healthy aging. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Extendable supervised dictionary learning for exploring diverse and concurrent brain activities in task-based fMRI.

PubMed

Zhao, Shijie; Han, Junwei; Hu, Xintao; Jiang, Xi; Lv, Jinglei; Zhang, Tuo; Zhang, Shu; Guo, Lei; Liu, Tianming

2018-06-01

Recently, a growing body of studies have demonstrated the simultaneous existence of diverse brain activities, e.g., task-evoked dominant response activities, delayed response activities and intrinsic brain activities, under specific task conditions. However, current dominant task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (tfMRI) analysis approach, i.e., the general linear model (GLM), might have difficulty in discovering those diverse and concurrent brain responses sufficiently. This subtraction-based model-driven approach focuses on the brain activities evoked directly from the task paradigm, thus likely overlooks other possible concurrent brain activities evoked during the information processing. To deal with this problem, in this paper, we propose a novel hybrid framework, called extendable supervised dictionary learning (E-SDL), to explore diverse and concurrent brain activities under task conditions. A critical difference between E-SDL framework and previous methods is that we systematically extend the basic task paradigm regressor into meaningful regressor groups to account for possible regressor variation during the information processing procedure in the brain. Applications of the proposed framework on five independent and publicly available tfMRI datasets from human connectome project (HCP) simultaneously revealed more meaningful group-wise consistent task-evoked networks and common intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs). These results demonstrate the advantage of the proposed framework in identifying the diversity of concurrent brain activities in tfMRI datasets.

Food and drug cues activate similar brain regions: a meta-analysis of functional MRI studies.

PubMed

Tang, D W; Fellows, L K; Small, D M; Dagher, A

2012-06-06

In healthy individuals, food cues can trigger hunger and feeding behavior. Likewise, smoking cues can trigger craving and relapse in smokers. Brain imaging studies report that structures involved in appetitive behaviors and reward, notably the insula, striatum, amygdala and orbital frontal cortex, tend to be activated by both visual food and smoking cues. Here, by carrying out a meta-analysis of human neuro-imaging studies, we investigate the neural network activated by: 1) food versus neutral cues (14 studies, 142 foci) 2) smoking versus neutral cues (15 studies, 176 foci) 3) smoking versus neutral cues when correlated with craving scores (7 studies, 108 foci). PubMed was used to identify cue-reactivity imaging studies that compared brain response to visual food or smoking cues to neutral cues. Fourteen articles were identified for the food meta-analysis and fifteen articles were identified for the smoking meta-analysis. Six articles were identified for the smoking cue correlated with craving analysis. Meta-analyses were carried out using activation likelihood estimation. Food cues were associated with increased blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response in the left amygdala, bilateral insula, bilateral orbital frontal cortex, and striatum. Smoking cues were associated with increased BOLD signal in the same areas, with the exception of the insula. However, the smoking meta-analysis of brain maps correlating cue-reactivity with subjective craving did identify the insula, suggesting that insula activation is only found when craving levels are high. The brain areas identified here are involved in learning, memory and motivation, and their cue-induced activity is an index of the incentive salience of the cues. Using meta-analytic techniques to combine a series of studies, we found that food and smoking cues activate comparable brain networks. There is significant overlap in brain regions responding to conditioned cues associated with natural and drug rewards. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The sum of its parts--effects of gastric distention, nutrient content and sensory stimulation on brain activation.

PubMed

Spetter, Maartje S; de Graaf, Cees; Mars, Monica; Viergever, Max A; Smeets, Paul A M

2014-01-01

During food consumption the brain integrates multiple interrelated neural and hormonal signals involved in the regulation of food intake. Factors influencing the decision to stop eating include the foods' sensory properties, macronutrient content, and volume, which in turn affect gastric distention and appetite hormone responses. So far, the contributions of gastric distention and oral stimulation by food on brain activation have not been studied. The primary objective of this study was to assess the effect of gastric distention with an intra-gastric load and the additional effect of oral stimulation on brain activity after food administration. Our secondary objective was to study the correlations between hormone responses and appetite-related ratings and brain activation. Fourteen men completed three functional magnetic resonance imaging sessions during which they either received a naso-gastric infusion of water (stomach distention), naso-gastric infusion of chocolate milk (stomach distention + nutrients), or ingested chocolate-milk (stomach distention + nutrients + oral exposure). Appetite ratings and blood parameters were measured at several time points. During gastric infusion, brain activation was observed in the midbrain, amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus for both chocolate milk and water, i.e., irrespective of nutrient content. The thalamus, amygdala, putamen and precuneus were activated more after ingestion than after gastric infusion of chocolate milk, whereas infusion evoked greater activation in the hippocampus and anterior cingulate. Moreover, areas involved in gustation and reward were activated more after oral stimulation. Only insulin responses following naso-gastric infusion of chocolate milk correlated with brain activation, namely in the putamen and insula. In conclusion, we show that normal (oral) food ingestion evokes greater activation than gastric infusion in stomach distention and food intake-related brain areas. This provides neural evidence for the importance of sensory stimulation in the process of satiation. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01644539.

Diagnosing Developmental Dyscalculia on the Basis of Reliable Single Case FMRI Methods: Promises and Limitations

PubMed Central

Dinkel, Philipp Johannes; Willmes, Klaus; Krinzinger, Helga; Konrad, Kerstin; Koten Jr, Jan Willem

2013-01-01

FMRI-studies are mostly based on a group study approach, either analyzing one group or comparing multiple groups, or on approaches that correlate brain activation with clinically relevant criteria or behavioral measures. In this study we investigate the potential of fMRI-techniques focusing on individual differences in brain activation within a test-retest reliability context. We employ a single-case analysis approach, which contrasts dyscalculic children with a control group of typically developing children. In a second step, a support-vector machine analysis and cluster analysis techniques served to investigate similarities in multivariate brain activation patterns. Children were confronted with a non-symbolic number comparison and a non-symbolic exact calculation task during fMRI acquisition. Conventional second level group comparison analysis only showed small differences around the angular gyrus bilaterally and the left parieto-occipital sulcus. Analyses based on single-case statistical procedures revealed that developmental dyscalculia is characterized by individual differences predominantly in visual processing areas. Dyscalculic children seemed to compensate for relative under-activation in the primary visual cortex through an upregulation in higher visual areas. However, overlap in deviant activation was low for the dyscalculic children, indicating that developmental dyscalculia is a disorder characterized by heterogeneous brain activation differences. Using support vector machine analysis and cluster analysis, we tried to group dyscalculic and typically developing children according to brain activation. Fronto-parietal systems seem to qualify for a distinction between the two groups. However, this was only effective when reliable brain activations of both tasks were employed simultaneously. Results suggest that deficits in number representation in the visual-parietal cortex get compensated for through finger related aspects of number representation in fronto-parietal cortex. We conclude that dyscalculic children show large individual differences in brain activation patterns. Nonetheless, the majority of dyscalculic children can be differentiated from controls employing brain activation patterns when appropriate methods are used. PMID:24349547

Diagnosing developmental dyscalculia on the basis of reliable single case FMRI methods: promises and limitations.

PubMed

Dinkel, Philipp Johannes; Willmes, Klaus; Krinzinger, Helga; Konrad, Kerstin; Koten, Jan Willem

2013-01-01

FMRI-studies are mostly based on a group study approach, either analyzing one group or comparing multiple groups, or on approaches that correlate brain activation with clinically relevant criteria or behavioral measures. In this study we investigate the potential of fMRI-techniques focusing on individual differences in brain activation within a test-retest reliability context. We employ a single-case analysis approach, which contrasts dyscalculic children with a control group of typically developing children. In a second step, a support-vector machine analysis and cluster analysis techniques served to investigate similarities in multivariate brain activation patterns. Children were confronted with a non-symbolic number comparison and a non-symbolic exact calculation task during fMRI acquisition. Conventional second level group comparison analysis only showed small differences around the angular gyrus bilaterally and the left parieto-occipital sulcus. Analyses based on single-case statistical procedures revealed that developmental dyscalculia is characterized by individual differences predominantly in visual processing areas. Dyscalculic children seemed to compensate for relative under-activation in the primary visual cortex through an upregulation in higher visual areas. However, overlap in deviant activation was low for the dyscalculic children, indicating that developmental dyscalculia is a disorder characterized by heterogeneous brain activation differences. Using support vector machine analysis and cluster analysis, we tried to group dyscalculic and typically developing children according to brain activation. Fronto-parietal systems seem to qualify for a distinction between the two groups. However, this was only effective when reliable brain activations of both tasks were employed simultaneously. Results suggest that deficits in number representation in the visual-parietal cortex get compensated for through finger related aspects of number representation in fronto-parietal cortex. We conclude that dyscalculic children show large individual differences in brain activation patterns. Nonetheless, the majority of dyscalculic children can be differentiated from controls employing brain activation patterns when appropriate methods are used.

The Sum of Its Parts—Effects of Gastric Distention, Nutrient Content and Sensory Stimulation on Brain Activation

PubMed Central

Spetter, Maartje S.; de Graaf, Cees; Mars, Monica; Viergever, Max A.; Smeets, Paul A. M.

2014-01-01

During food consumption the brain integrates multiple interrelated neural and hormonal signals involved in the regulation of food intake. Factors influencing the decision to stop eating include the foods' sensory properties, macronutrient content, and volume, which in turn affect gastric distention and appetite hormone responses. So far, the contributions of gastric distention and oral stimulation by food on brain activation have not been studied. The primary objective of this study was to assess the effect of gastric distention with an intra-gastric load and the additional effect of oral stimulation on brain activity after food administration. Our secondary objective was to study the correlations between hormone responses and appetite-related ratings and brain activation. Fourteen men completed three functional magnetic resonance imaging sessions during which they either received a naso-gastric infusion of water (stomach distention), naso-gastric infusion of chocolate milk (stomach distention + nutrients), or ingested chocolate-milk (stomach distention + nutrients + oral exposure). Appetite ratings and blood parameters were measured at several time points. During gastric infusion, brain activation was observed in the midbrain, amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus for both chocolate milk and water, i.e., irrespective of nutrient content. The thalamus, amygdala, putamen and precuneus were activated more after ingestion than after gastric infusion of chocolate milk, whereas infusion evoked greater activation in the hippocampus and anterior cingulate. Moreover, areas involved in gustation and reward were activated more after oral stimulation. Only insulin responses following naso-gastric infusion of chocolate milk correlated with brain activation, namely in the putamen and insula. In conclusion, we show that normal (oral) food ingestion evokes greater activation than gastric infusion in stomach distention and food intake-related brain areas. This provides neural evidence for the importance of sensory stimulation in the process of satiation. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01644539. PMID:24614074

The Effect of 30% Oxygen on Visuospatial Performance and Brain Activation: An Fmri Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chung, S.C.; Tack, G.R.; Lee, B.; Eom, G.M.; Lee, S.Y.; Sohn, J.H.

2004-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that administration of the air with 30% oxygen compared with normal air (21% oxygen) enhances cognitive functioning through increased activation in the brain. A visuospatial task was presented while brain images were scanned by a 3 T fMRI system. The results showed that there was an improvement in…

Brain function predictors and outcome of weight loss and weight loss maintenance.

PubMed

Szabo-Reed, Amanda N; Breslin, Florence J; Lynch, Anthony M; Patrician, Trisha M; Martin, Laura E; Lepping, Rebecca J; Powell, Joshua N; Yeh, Hung-Wen Henry; Befort, Christie A; Sullivan, Debra; Gibson, Cheryl; Washburn, Richard; Donnelly, Joseph E; Savage, Cary R

2015-01-01

Obesity rates are associated with public health consequences and rising health care costs. Weight loss interventions, while effective, do not work for everyone, and weight regain is a significant problem. Eating behavior is influenced by a convergence of processes in the brain, including homeostatic factors and motivational processing that are important contributors to overeating. Initial neuroimaging studies have identified brain regions that respond differently to visual food cues in obese and healthy weight individuals that are positively correlated with reports of hunger in obese participants. While these findings provide mechanisms of overeating, many important questions remain. It is not known whether brain activation patterns change after weight loss, or if they change differentially based on amount of weight lost. Also, little is understood regarding biological processes that contribute to long-term weight maintenance. This study will use neuroimaging in participants while viewing food and non-food images. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging will take place before and after completion of a twelve-week weight loss intervention. Obese participants will be followed though a 6-month maintenance period. The study will address three aims: 1. Characterize brain activation underlying food motivation and impulsive behaviors in obese individuals. 2. Identify brain activation changes and predictors of weight loss. 3. Identify brain activation predictors of weight loss maintenance. Findings from this study will have implications for understanding mechanisms of obesity, weight loss, and weight maintenance. Results will be significant to public health and could lead to a better understanding of how differences in brain activation relate to obesity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brain function predictors and outcome of weight loss and weight loss maintenance

PubMed Central

Szabo-Reed, Amanda N.; Breslin, Florence J.; Lynch, Anthony M.; Patrician, Trisha M.; Martin, Laura E.; Lepping, Rebecca J.; Powell, Joshua N.; Yeh, Hung-Wen (Henry); Befort, Christie A.; Sullivan, Debra; Gibson, Cheryl; Washburn, Richard; Donnelly, Joseph E.; Savage, Cary R.

2015-01-01

Obesity rates are associated with public health consequences and rising health care costs. Weight loss interventions, while effective, do not work for everyone, and weight regain is a significant problem. Eating behavior is influenced by a convergence of processes in the brain, including homeostatic factors and motivational processing that are important contributors to overeating. Initial neuroimaging studies have identified brain regions that respond differently to visual food cues in obese and healthy weight individuals that are positively correlated with reports of hunger in obese participants. While these findings provide mechanisms of overeating, many important questions remain. It is not known whether brain activation patterns change after weight loss, or if they change differentially based on amount of weight lost. Also, little is understood regarding biological processes that contribute to long-term weight maintenance. This study will use neuroimaging in participants while viewing food and non-food images. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging will take place before and after completion of a twelve-week weight loss intervention. Obese participants will be followed though a 6-month maintenance period. The study will address three aims: 1. Characterize brain activation underlying food motivation and impulsive behaviors in obese individuals. 2. Identify brain activation changes and predictors of weight loss. 3. Identify brain activation predictors of weight loss maintenance. Findings from this study will have implications for understanding mechanisms of obesity, weight loss, and weight maintenance. Results will be significant to public health and could lead to a better understanding of how differences in brain activation relate to obesity. PMID:25533729

Enzyme markers of maternal malnutrition in fetal rat brain.

PubMed

Shambaugh, G E; Mankad, B; Derecho, M L; Koehler, R R

1987-01-01

The impact of maternal starvation in late gestation on development of some enzymatic mechanisms concerned with neurotransmission and polyamine synthesis was studied in fetal rat brain. Between 17 and 20 d, acetylcholinesterase and choline acetyltransferase activity increased in fetal brains of fed dams, whereas maternal starvation from day 17 to day 20 resulted in heightened acetylcholinesterase but not choline acetyltransferase activity. Ornithine decarboxylase activity on a per-gram wet-weight basis fell between 17 and 20 d in fetal brain from fed dams. Increasing the duration of maternal starvation resulted in a progressive increase in fetal brain ornithine decarboxylase. Arginine and putrescine levels in the brain were lower in fetuses of starved mothers while spermidine and spermine concentrations were unchanged. Since the Km of ornithine decarboxylase for ornithine was found to vary directly with levels of putrescine in fetal brain, lower concentrations of putrescine and greater ornithine decarboxylase activity in fetal brains from starved mothers suggested that levels of this enzyme may be controlled in part by putrescine. Changes in the maternal nutritional state had no effect on the activity of glutamate decarboxylase in fetal brain, and tissue levels of the product, gamma-aminobutyric acid, were unchanged. Thus changes in ornithine decarboxylase and acetylcholinesterase activity in fetal brain may uniquely reflect biochemical alterations consequent to maternal starvation.

Effects of brain-computer interface-based functional electrical stimulation on brain activation in stroke patients: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Chung, EunJung; Kim, Jung-Hee; Park, Dae-Sung; Lee, Byoung-Hee

2015-03-01

[Purpose] This study sought to determine the effects of brain-computer interface-based functional electrical stimulation (BCI-FES) on brain activation in patients with stroke. [Subjects] The subjects were randomized to in a BCI-FES group (n=5) and a functional electrical stimulation (FES) group (n=5). [Methods] Patients in the BCI-FES group received ankle dorsiflexion training with FES for 30 minutes per day, 5 times under the brain-computer interface-based program. The FES group received ankle dorsiflexion training with FES for the same amount of time. [Results] The BCI-FES group demonstrated significant differences in the frontopolar regions 1 and 2 attention indexes, and frontopolar 1 activation index. The FES group demonstrated no significant differences. There were significant differences in the frontopolar 1 region activation index between the two groups after the interventions. [Conclusion] The results of this study suggest that BCI-FES training may be more effective in stimulating brain activation than only FES training in patients recovering from stroke.

Brain activation for reading and listening comprehension: An fMRI study of modality effects and individual differences in language comprehension

PubMed Central

Buchweitz, Augusto; Mason, Robert A.; Tomitch, Lêda M. B.; Just, Marcel Adam

2010-01-01

The study compared the brain activation patterns associated with the comprehension of written and spoken Portuguese sentences. An fMRI study measured brain activity while participants read and listened to sentences about general world knowledge. Participants had to decide if the sentences were true or false. To mirror the transient nature of spoken sentences, visual input was presented in rapid serial visual presentation format. The results showed a common core of amodal left inferior frontal and middle temporal gyri activation, as well as modality specific brain activation associated with listening and reading comprehension. Reading comprehension was associated with more left-lateralized activation and with left inferior occipital cortex (including fusiform gyrus) activation. Listening comprehension was associated with extensive bilateral temporal cortex activation and more overall activation of the whole cortex. Results also showed individual differences in brain activation for reading comprehension. Readers with lower working memory capacity showed more activation of right-hemisphere areas (spillover of activation) and more activation in the prefrontal cortex, potentially associated with more demand placed on executive control processes. Readers with higher working memory capacity showed more activation in a frontal-posterior network of areas (left angular and precentral gyri, and right inferior frontal gyrus). The activation of this network may be associated with phonological rehearsal of linguistic information when reading text presented in rapid serial visual format. The study demonstrates the modality fingerprints for language comprehension and indicates how low- and high working memory capacity readers deal with reading text presented in serial format. PMID:21526132

Comparison of simultaneously recorded [H2(15)O]-PET and LORETA during cognitive and pharmacological activation.

PubMed

Gamma, Alex; Lehmann, Dietrich; Frei, Edi; Iwata, Kazuki; Pascual-Marqui, Roberto D; Vollenweider, Franz X

2004-06-01

The complementary strengths and weaknesses of established functional brain imaging methods (high spatial, low temporal resolution) and EEG-based techniques (low spatial, high temporal resolution) make their combined use a promising avenue for studying brain processes at a more fine-grained level. However, this strategy requires a better understanding of the relationship between hemodynamic/metabolic and neuroelectric measures of brain activity. We investigated possible correspondences between cerebral blood flow (CBF) as measured by [H2O]-PET and intracerebral electric activity computed by Low Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA) from scalp-recorded multichannel EEG in healthy human subjects during cognitive and pharmacological stimulation. The two imaging modalities were compared by descriptive, correlational, and variance analyses, the latter carried out using statistical parametric mapping (SPM99). Descriptive visual comparison showed a partial overlap between the sets of active brain regions detected by the two modalities. A number of exclusively positive correlations of neuroelectric activity with regional CBF were found across the whole EEG frequency range, including slow wave activity, the latter finding being in contrast to most previous studies conducted in patients. Analysis of variance revealed an extensive lack of statistically significant correspondences between brain activity changes as measured by PET vs. EEG-LORETA. In general, correspondences, to the extent they were found, were dependent on experimental condition, brain region, and EEG frequency. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Fueling and imaging brain activation

PubMed Central

Dienel, Gerald A

2012-01-01

Metabolic signals are used for imaging and spectroscopic studies of brain function and disease and to elucidate the cellular basis of neuroenergetics. The major fuel for activated neurons and the models for neuron–astrocyte interactions have been controversial because discordant results are obtained in different experimental systems, some of which do not correspond to adult brain. In rats, the infrastructure to support the high energetic demands of adult brain is acquired during postnatal development and matures after weaning. The brain's capacity to supply and metabolize glucose and oxygen exceeds demand over a wide range of rates, and the hyperaemic response to functional activation is rapid. Oxidative metabolism provides most ATP, but glycolysis is frequently preferentially up-regulated during activation. Underestimation of glucose utilization rates with labelled glucose arises from increased lactate production, lactate diffusion via transporters and astrocytic gap junctions, and lactate release to blood and perivascular drainage. Increased pentose shunt pathway flux also causes label loss from C1 of glucose. Glucose analogues are used to assay cellular activities, but interpretation of results is uncertain due to insufficient characterization of transport and phosphorylation kinetics. Brain activation in subjects with low blood-lactate levels causes a brain-to-blood lactate gradient, with rapid lactate release. In contrast, lactate flooding of brain during physical activity or infusion provides an opportunistic, supplemental fuel. Available evidence indicates that lactate shuttling coupled to its local oxidation during activation is a small fraction of glucose oxidation. Developmental, experimental, and physiological context is critical for interpretation of metabolic studies in terms of theoretical models. PMID:22612861

Glutamatergic stimulation of the left dentate gyrus abolishes depressive-like behaviors in a rat learned helplessness paradigm.

PubMed

Seo, Jeho; Cho, Hojin; Kim, Gun Tae; Kim, Chul Hoon; Kim, Dong Goo

2017-10-01

Episodic experiences of stress have been identified as the leading cause of major depressive disorder (MDD). The occurrence of MDD is profoundly influenced by the individual's coping strategy, rather than the severity of the stress itself. Resting brain activity has been shown to alter in several mental disorders. However, the functional relationship between resting brain activity and coping strategies has not yet been studied. In the present study, we observed different patterns of resting brain activity in rats that had determined either positive (resilient to stress) or negative (vulnerable to stress) coping strategies, and examined whether modulation of the preset resting brain activity could influence the behavioral phenotype associated with negative coping strategy (i.e., depressive-like behaviors). We used a learned helplessness paradigm-a well-established model of MDD-to detect coping strategies. Differences in resting state brain activity between animals with positive and negative coping strategies were assessed using 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Glutamatergic stimulation was used to modulate resting brain activity. After exposure to repeated uncontrollable stress, seven of 23 rats exhibited positive coping strategies, while eight of 23 rats exhibited negative coping strategies. Increased resting brain activity was observed only in the left ventral dentate gyrus of the positive coping rats using FDG-PET. Furthermore, glutamatergic stimulation of the left dentate gyrus abolished depressive-like behaviors in rats with negative coping strategies. Increased resting brain activity in the left ventral dentate gyrus helps animals to select positive coping strategies in response to future stress. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brain activation-based sexual orientation in female-to-male transsexuals.

PubMed

Kim, T-H; Kim, G-W; Kim, S-K; Jeong, G-W

2016-01-01

This study was performed to identify the sexual orientation in association with brain activation pattern in response to visual erotic stimuli in female-to-male (FtM) transsexuals by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Eleven FtM transsexuals who have had sex-reassignment surgery to alter their natal bodies with the gender-identity disorder were participated. Brain activation for sexual orientation was induced by visual stimuli with female and male erotic nude pictures compared with emotionally-neutral pictures. During viewing the erotic female pictures, the brain areas dominantly activated consist of the superior frontal gyrus, supplementary motor area, anterior/median cingulate gyri and hypothalamus, whereas during viewing male pictures, the brain areas with predominant activities were the middle frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, angular gyrus, precuneus, superior/middle occipital gyri, cerebellar cortex and vermis. These findings demonstrate that the brain activation patterns induced by viewing male or female erotic pictures show some correlation to the sexual orientation opposite to the genetic sex in FtM transsexuals. This study would be helpful to understand the neural mechanism associated with visual sexual arousal in patients with gender disorder.

Winning and losing: differences in reward and punishment sensitivity between smokers and nonsmokers.

PubMed

Martin, Laura E; Cox, Lisa S; Brooks, William M; Savage, Cary R

2014-01-01

Smokers show increased brain activation in reward processing regions in response to smoking-related cues, yet few studies have examined secondary rewards not associated with smoking (i.e., money). Inconsistencies exist in the studies that do examine secondary rewards with some studies showing increased brain activation in reward processing brain regions, while others show decreased activation or no difference in activation between smokers and nonsmokers. The goal of the current study is to see if smokers process the evaluation and delivery of equally salient real world rewards similarly or differently than nonsmokers. The current study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain responses in smokers and nonsmokers during the evaluation and delivery of monetary gains and losses. In comparison to nonsmokers, smokers showed increased activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex to the evaluation of anticipated monetary losses and the brain response. Moreover, smokers compared to nonsmokers showed decreased activation in the inferior frontal gyrus to the delivery of expected monetary gains. Brain activations to both the evaluation of anticipated monetary losses and the delivery of expected monetary gains correlated with increased self-reported smoking craving to relieve negative withdrawal symptoms and craving related to positive aspects of smoking, respectively. Together these results indicate that smokers are hyperresponsive to the evaluation of anticipated punishment and hyporesponsive to the delivery of expected rewards. Although further research is needed, this hypersensitivity to punishments coupled with increased craving may negatively impact quit attempts as smokers anticipate the negative withdrawal symptoms associated with quitting.

Global loss of acetylcholinesterase activity with mitochondrial complexes inhibition and inflammation in brain of hypercholesterolemic mice.

PubMed

Paul, Rajib; Borah, Anupom

2017-12-20

There exists an intricate relationship between hypercholesterolemia (elevated plasma cholesterol) and brain functions. The present study aims to understand the impact of hypercholesterolemia on pathological consequences in mouse brain. A chronic mouse model of hypercholesterolemia was induced by giving high-cholesterol diet for 12 weeks. The hypercholesterolemic mice developed cognitive impairment as evident from object recognition memory test. Cholesterol accumulation was observed in four discrete brain regions, such as cortex, striatum, hippocampus and substantia nigra along with significantly damaged blood-brain barrier by hypercholesterolemia. The crucial finding is the loss of acetylcholinesterase activity with mitochondrial dysfunction globally in the brain of hypercholesterolemic mice, which is related to the levels of cholesterol. Moreover, the levels of hydroxyl radical were elevated in the regions of brain where the activity of mitochondrial complexes was found to be reduced. Intriguingly, elevations of inflammatory stress markers in the cholesterol-rich brain regions were observed. As cognitive impairment, diminished brain acetylcholinesterase activity, mitochondrial dysfunctions, and inflammation are the prima facie pathologies of neurodegenerative diseases, the findings impose hypercholesterolemia as potential risk factor towards brain dysfunction.

[Clinical interest of fMRI and functional exploration methods of brain activity and interactivity: physical and neurophysiological considerations].

PubMed

de Marco, G; Menuel, C; Guillevin, R; Vallée, J-N; Lehmann, P; Fall, S; Quaglino, V; Bourdin, B; Devauchelle, B; Chiras, J

2008-07-01

After having provided a brief reminder of the principle of the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast effect, the physiological bases of brain activity and the concepts of functional integration and effective connectivity, we describe the most recent approaches, which permit to explore brain activity and putative networks of interconnected active areas in order to examine the normal brain physiology and its dysfunctions. We present various methods and studies of brain activity analysis clinically applicable, and we detail the concepts of functional and effective connectivity, which allow to study the cerebral plasticity which occurs at the child's during the maturation (e.g., dyslexia), at the adult during the ageing (e.g., Alzheimer disease), or still in schizophrenia or Parkinson disease. The study of specific circuits in networks has to allow defining in a more realistic way the dynamic of the central nervous system, which underlies various cerebral functions, both in physiological and pathological conditions. This connectivity approach should improve the diagnostic and facilitate the development of new therapeutic strategies.

Common brain regions underlying different arithmetic operations as revealed by conjunct fMRI-BOLD activation.

PubMed

Fehr, Thorsten; Code, Chris; Herrmann, Manfred

2007-10-03

The issue of how and where arithmetic operations are represented in the brain has been addressed in numerous studies. Lesion studies suggest that a network of different brain areas are involved in mental calculation. Neuroimaging studies have reported inferior parietal and lateral frontal activations during mental arithmetic using tasks of different complexities and using different operators (addition, subtraction, etc.). Indeed, it has been difficult to compare brain activation across studies because of the variety of different operators and different presentation modalities used. The present experiment examined fMRI-BOLD activity in participants during calculation tasks entailing different arithmetic operations -- addition, subtraction, multiplication and division -- of different complexities. Functional imaging data revealed a common activation pattern comprising right precuneus, left and right middle and superior frontal regions during all arithmetic operations. All other regional activations were operation specific and distributed in prominently frontal, parietal and central regions when contrasting complex and simple calculation tasks. The present results largely confirm former studies suggesting that activation patterns due to mental arithmetic appear to reflect a basic anatomical substrate of working memory, numerical knowledge and processing based on finger counting, and derived from a network originally related to finger movement. We emphasize that in mental arithmetic research different arithmetic operations should always be examined and discussed independently of each other in order to avoid invalid generalizations on arithmetics and involved brain areas.

How acute total sleep loss affects the attending brain: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.

PubMed

Ma, Ning; Dinges, David F; Basner, Mathias; Rao, Hengyi

2015-02-01

Attention is a cognitive domain that can be severely affected by sleep deprivation. Previous neuroimaging studies have used different attention paradigms and reported both increased and reduced brain activation after sleep deprivation. However, due to large variability in sleep deprivation protocols, task paradigms, experimental designs, characteristics of subject populations, and imaging techniques, there is no consensus regarding the effects of sleep loss on the attending brain. The aim of this meta-analysis was to identify brain activations that are commonly altered by acute total sleep deprivation across different attention tasks. Coordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of performance on attention tasks during experimental sleep deprivation. The current version of the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach was used for meta-analysis. The authors searched published articles and identified 11 sleep deprivation neuroimaging studies using different attention tasks with a total of 185 participants, equaling 81 foci for ALE analysis. The meta-analysis revealed significantly reduced brain activation in multiple regions following sleep deprivation compared to rested wakefulness, including bilateral intraparietal sulcus, bilateral insula, right prefrontal cortex, medial frontal cortex, and right parahippocampal gyrus. Increased activation was found only in bilateral thalamus after sleep deprivation compared to rested wakefulness. Acute total sleep deprivation decreases brain activation in the fronto-parietal attention network (prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus) and in the salience network (insula and medial frontal cortex). Increased thalamic activation after sleep deprivation may reflect a complex interaction between the de-arousing effects of sleep loss and the arousing effects of task performance on thalamic activity. © 2015 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Ethanol-Induced Neurodegeneration and Glial Activation in the Developing Brain.

PubMed

Saito, Mariko; Chakraborty, Goutam; Hui, Maria; Masiello, Kurt; Saito, Mitsuo

2016-08-16

Ethanol induces neurodegeneration in the developing brain, which may partially explain the long-lasting adverse effects of prenatal ethanol exposure in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). While animal models of FASD show that ethanol-induced neurodegeneration is associated with glial activation, the relationship between glial activation and neurodegeneration has not been clarified. This review focuses on the roles of activated microglia and astrocytes in neurodegeneration triggered by ethanol in rodents during the early postnatal period (equivalent to the third trimester of human pregnancy). Previous literature indicates that acute binge-like ethanol exposure in postnatal day 7 (P7) mice induces apoptotic neurodegeneration, transient activation of microglia resulting in phagocytosis of degenerating neurons, and a prolonged increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive astrocytes. In our present study, systemic administration of a moderate dose of lipopolysaccharides, which causes glial activation, attenuates ethanol-induced neurodegeneration. These studies suggest that activation of microglia and astrocytes by acute ethanol in the neonatal brain may provide neuroprotection. However, repeated or chronic ethanol can induce significant proinflammatory glial reaction and neurotoxicity. Further studies are necessary to elucidate whether acute or sustained glial activation caused by ethanol exposure in the developing brain can affect long-lasting cellular and behavioral abnormalities observed in the adult brain.

Abnormal neural activities of directional brain networks in patients with long-term bilateral hearing loss.

PubMed

Xu, Long-Chun; Zhang, Gang; Zou, Yue; Zhang, Min-Feng; Zhang, Dong-Sheng; Ma, Hua; Zhao, Wen-Bo; Zhang, Guang-Yu

2017-10-13

The objective of the study is to provide some implications for rehabilitation of hearing impairment by investigating changes of neural activities of directional brain networks in patients with long-term bilateral hearing loss. Firstly, we implemented neuropsychological tests of 21 subjects (11 patients with long-term bilateral hearing loss, and 10 subjects with normal hearing), and these tests revealed significant differences between the deaf group and the controls. Then we constructed the individual specific virtual brain based on functional magnetic resonance data of participants by utilizing effective connectivity and multivariate regression methods. We exerted the stimulating signal to the primary auditory cortices of the virtual brain and observed the brain region activations. We found that patients with long-term bilateral hearing loss presented weaker brain region activations in the auditory and language networks, but enhanced neural activities in the default mode network as compared with normally hearing subjects. Especially, the right cerebral hemisphere presented more changes than the left. Additionally, weaker neural activities in the primary auditor cortices were also strongly associated with poorer cognitive performance. Finally, causal analysis revealed several interactional circuits among activated brain regions, and these interregional causal interactions implied that abnormal neural activities of the directional brain networks in the deaf patients impacted cognitive function.

Quantification of Load Dependent Brain Activity in Parametric N-Back Working Memory Tasks using Pseudo-continuous Arterial Spin Labeling (pCASL) Perfusion Imaging.

PubMed

Zou, Qihong; Gu, Hong; Wang, Danny J J; Gao, Jia-Hong; Yang, Yihong

2011-04-01

Brain activation and deactivation induced by N-back working memory tasks and their load effects have been extensively investigated using positron emission tomography (PET) and blood-oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, the underlying mechanisms of BOLD fMRI are still not completely understood and PET imaging requires injection of radioactive tracers. In this study, a pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) perfusion imaging technique was used to quantify cerebral blood flow (CBF), a well understood physiological index reflective of cerebral metabolism, in N-back working memory tasks. Using pCASL, we systematically investigated brain activation and deactivation induced by the N-back working memory tasks and further studied the load effects on brain activity based on quantitative CBF. Our data show increased CBF in the fronto-parietal cortices, thalamus, caudate, and cerebellar regions, and decreased CBF in the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex, during the working memory tasks. Most of the activated/deactivated brain regions show an approximately linear relationship between CBF and task loads (0, 1, 2 and 3 back), although several regions show non-linear relationships (quadratic and cubic). The CBF-based spatial patterns of brain activation/deactivation and load effects from this study agree well with those obtained from BOLD fMRI and PET techniques. These results demonstrate the feasibility of ASL techniques to quantify human brain activity during high cognitive tasks, suggesting its potential application to assessing the mechanisms of cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders.

Music modulation of pain perception and pain-related activity in the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

PubMed

Dobek, Christine E; Beynon, Michaela E; Bosma, Rachael L; Stroman, Patrick W

2014-10-01

The oldest known method for relieving pain is music, and yet, to date, the underlying neural mechanisms have not been studied. Here, we investigate these neural mechanisms by applying a well-defined painful stimulus while participants listened to their favorite music or to no music. Neural responses in the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord were mapped with functional magnetic resonance imaging spanning the cortex, brain stem, and spinal cord. Subjective pain ratings were observed to be significantly lower when pain was administered with music than without music. The pain stimulus without music elicited neural activity in brain regions that are consistent with previous studies. Brain regions associated with pleasurable music listening included limbic, frontal, and auditory regions, when comparing music to non-music pain conditions. In addition, regions demonstrated activity indicative of descending pain modulation when contrasting the 2 conditions. These regions include the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, periaqueductal gray matter, rostral ventromedial medulla, and dorsal gray matter of the spinal cord. This is the first imaging study to characterize the neural response of pain and how pain is mitigated by music, and it provides new insights into the neural mechanism of music-induced analgesia within the central nervous system. This article presents the first investigation of neural processes underlying music analgesia in human participants. Music modulates pain responses in the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord, and neural activity changes are consistent with engagement of the descending analgesia system. Copyright © 2014 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brain Activation during Addition and Subtraction Tasks In-Noise and In-Quiet

PubMed Central

Abd Hamid, Aini Ismafairus; Yusoff, Ahmad Nazlim; Mukari, Siti Zamratol-Mai Sarah; Mohamad, Mazlyfarina

2011-01-01

Background: In spite of extensive research conducted to study how human brain works, little is known about a special function of the brain that stores and manipulates information—the working memory—and how noise influences this special ability. In this study, Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate brain responses to arithmetic problems solved in noisy and quiet backgrounds. Methods: Eighteen healthy young males performed simple arithmetic operations of addition and subtraction with in-quiet and in-noise backgrounds. The MATLAB-based Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM8) was implemented on the fMRI datasets to generate and analyse the activated brain regions. Results: Group results showed that addition and subtraction operations evoked extended activation in the left inferior parietal lobe, left precentral gyrus, left superior parietal lobe, left supramarginal gyrus, and left middle temporal gyrus. This supported the hypothesis that the human brain relatively activates its left hemisphere more compared with the right hemisphere when solving arithmetic problems. The insula, middle cingulate cortex, and middle frontal gyrus, however, showed more extended right hemispheric activation, potentially due to the involvement of attention, executive processes, and working memory. For addition operations, there was extensive left hemispheric activation in the superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and thalamus. In contrast, subtraction tasks evoked a greater activation of similar brain structures in the right hemisphere. For both addition and subtraction operations, the total number of activated voxels was higher for in-noise than in-quiet conditions. Conclusion: These findings suggest that when arithmetic operations were delivered auditorily, the auditory, attention, and working memory functions were required to accomplish the executive processing of the mathematical calculation. The respective brain activation patterns appear to be modulated by the noisy background condition. PMID:22135581

Two hands, one brain, and aging.

PubMed

Maes, Celine; Gooijers, Jolien; Orban de Xivry, Jean-Jacques; Swinnen, Stephan P; Boisgontier, Matthieu P

2017-04-01

Many activities of daily living require moving both hands in an organized manner in space and time. Therefore, understanding the impact of aging on bimanual coordination is essential for prolonging functional independence and well-being in older adults. Here we investigated the behavioral and neural determinants of bimanual coordination in aging. The studies surveyed in this review reveal that aging is associated with cortical hyper-activity (but also subcortical hypo-activity) during performance of bimanual tasks. In addition to changes in activation in local areas, the interaction between distributed brain areas also exhibits age-related effects, i.e., functional connectivity is increased in the resting brain as well as during task performance. The mechanisms and triggers underlying these functional activation and connectivity changes remain to be investigated. This requires further research investment into the detailed study of interactions between brain structure, function and connectivity. This will also provide the foundation for interventional research programs towards preservation of brain health and behavioral performance by maximizing neuroplasticity potential in older adults. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mapping the human brain during a specific Vojta's tactile input: the ipsilateral putamen's role.

PubMed

Sanz-Esteban, Ismael; Calvo-Lobo, Cesar; Ríos-Lago, Marcos; Álvarez-Linera, Juan; Muñoz-García, Daniel; Rodríguez-Sanz, David

2018-03-01

A century of research in human brain parcellation has demonstrated that different brain areas are associated with functional tasks. New neuroscientist perspectives to achieve the parcellation of the human brain have been developed to know the brain areas activation and its relationship with different stimuli. This descriptive study aimed to compare brain regions activation by specific tactile input (STI) stimuli according to the Vojta protocol (STI-group) to a non-STI stimulation (non-STI-group). An exploratory functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was performed. The 2 groups of participants were passively stimulated by an expert physical therapist using the same paradigm structure, although differing in the place of stimulation. The stimulation was presented to participants using a block design in all cases. A sample of 16 healthy participants, 5 men and 11 women, with mean age 31.31 ± 8.13 years was recruited. Indeed, 12 participants were allocated in the STI-group and 4 participants in the non-STI-group. fMRI was used to map the human brain in vivo while these tactile stimuli were being applied. Data were analyzed using a general linear model in SPM12 implemented in MATLAB. Differences between groups showed a greater activation in the right cortical areas (temporal and frontal lobes), subcortical regions (thalamus, brainstem, and basal nuclei), and in the cerebellum (anterior lobe). STI-group had specific difference brain activation areas, such as the ipsilateral putamen. Future studies should study clinical implications in neurorehabilitation patients.

Study of the functional hyperconnectivity between couples of pilots during flight simulation: an EEG hyperscanning study.

PubMed

Astolfi, L; Toppi, J; Borghini, G; Vecchiato, G; Isabella, R; De Vico Fallani, F; Cincotti, F; Salinari, S; Mattia, D; He, B; Caltagirone, C; Babiloni, F

2011-01-01

Brain Hyperscanning, i.e. the simultaneous recording of the cerebral activity of different human subjects involved in interaction tasks, is a very recent field of Neuroscience aiming at understanding the cerebral processes generating and generated by social interactions. This approach allows the observation and modeling of the neural signature specifically dependent on the interaction between subjects, and, even more interestingly, of the functional links existing between the activities in the brains of the subjects interacting together. In this EEG hyperscanning study we explored the functional hyperconnectivity between the activity in different scalp sites of couples of Civil Aviation Pilots during different phases of a flight reproduced in a flight simulator. Results shown a dense network of connections between the two brains in the takeoff and landing phases, when the cooperation between them is maximal, in contrast with phases during which the activity of the two pilots was independent, when no or quite few links were shown. These results confirms that the study of the brain connectivity between the activity simultaneously acquired in human brains during interaction tasks can provide important information about the neural basis of the "spirit of the group".

Functional imaging studies in cannabis users.

PubMed

Chang, Linda; Chronicle, Edward P

2007-10-01

Cannabis remains the most widely used illegal drug in the United States. This update examines the available literature on neuroimaging studies of the brains of cannabis users. The majority of studies examining the acute effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) administration used PET methods and concluded that administration of THC leads to increased activation in frontal and paralimbic regions and the cerebellum. These increases in activation are broadly consistent with the behavioral effects of the drug. Although there is only equivocal evidence that chronic cannabis use might result in structural brain changes, blood-oxygenation-level-dependent-fMRI studies in chronic users consistently show alterations, or neuroadaptation, in the activation of brain networks responsible for higher cognitive functions. It is not yet certain whether these changes are reversible with abstinence. Given the high prevalence of cannabis use among adolescents, studies are needed to evaluate whether cannabis use might affect the developing brain. Considerable further work, employing longitudinal designs, is also required to determine whether cannabis use causes permanent functional alterations in the brains of adults.

Reduced Cortical Activity Impairs Development and Plasticity after Neonatal Hypoxia Ischemia

PubMed Central

Ranasinghe, Sumudu; Or, Grace; Wang, Eric Y.; Ievins, Aiva; McLean, Merritt A.; Niell, Cristopher M.; Chau, Vann; Wong, Peter K. H.; Glass, Hannah C.; Sullivan, Joseph

2015-01-01

Survivors of preterm birth are at high risk of pervasive cognitive and learning impairments, suggesting disrupted early brain development. The limits of viability for preterm birth encompass the third trimester of pregnancy, a “precritical period” of activity-dependent development characterized by the onset of spontaneous and evoked patterned electrical activity that drives neuronal maturation and formation of cortical circuits. Reduced background activity on electroencephalogram (EEG) is a sensitive marker of brain injury in human preterm infants that predicts poor neurodevelopmental outcome. We studied a rodent model of very early hypoxic–ischemic brain injury to investigate effects of injury on both general background and specific patterns of cortical activity measured with EEG. EEG background activity is depressed transiently after moderate hypoxia–ischemia with associated loss of spindle bursts. Depressed activity, in turn, is associated with delayed expression of glutamate receptor subunits and transporters. Cortical pyramidal neurons show reduced dendrite development and spine formation. Complementing previous observations in this model of impaired visual cortical plasticity, we find reduced somatosensory whisker barrel plasticity. Finally, EEG recordings from human premature newborns with brain injury demonstrate similar depressed background activity and loss of bursts in the spindle frequency band. Together, these findings suggest that abnormal development after early brain injury may result in part from disruption of specific forms of brain activity necessary for activity-dependent circuit development. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Preterm birth and term birth asphyxia result in brain injury from inadequate oxygen delivery and constitute a major and growing worldwide health problem. Poor outcomes are noted in a majority of very premature (<25 weeks gestation) newborns, resulting in death or life-long morbidity with motor, sensory, learning, behavioral, and language disabilities that limit academic achievement and well-being. Limited progress has been made to develop therapies that improve neurologic outcomes. The overall objective of this study is to understand the effect of early brain injury on activity-dependent brain development and cortical plasticity to develop new treatments that will optimize repair and recovery after brain injury. PMID:26311776

Brain Activity in Self- and Value-Related Regions in Response to Online Antismoking Messages Predicts Behavior Change

PubMed Central

Cooper, Nicole; Tompson, Steve; O’Donnell, Matthew Brook; Falk, Emily B.

2017-01-01

In this study, we combined approaches from media psychology and neuroscience to ask whether brain activity in response to online antismoking messages can predict smoking behavior change. In particular, we examined activity in subregions of the medial prefrontal cortex linked to self- and value-related processing, to test whether these neurocognitive processes play a role in message-consistent behavior change. We observed significant relationships between activity in both brain regions of interest and behavior change (such that higher activity predicted a larger reduction in smoking). Furthermore, activity in these brain regions predicted variance independent of traditional, theory-driven self-report metrics such as intention, self-efficacy, and risk perceptions. We propose that valuation is an additional cognitive process that should be investigated further as we search for a mechanistic explanation of the relationship between brain activity and media effects relevant to health behavior change. PMID:29057013

Selection of independent components based on cortical mapping of electromagnetic activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chan, Hui-Ling; Chen, Yong-Sheng; Chen, Li-Fen

2012-10-01

Independent component analysis (ICA) has been widely used to attenuate interference caused by noise components from the electromagnetic recordings of brain activity. However, the scalp topographies and associated temporal waveforms provided by ICA may be insufficient to distinguish functional components from artifactual ones. In this work, we proposed two component selection methods, both of which first estimate the cortical distribution of the brain activity for each component, and then determine the functional components based on the parcellation of brain activity mapped onto the cortical surface. Among all independent components, the first method can identify the dominant components, which have strong activity in the selected dominant brain regions, whereas the second method can identify those inter-regional associating components, which have similar component spectra between a pair of regions. For a targeted region, its component spectrum enumerates the amplitudes of its parceled brain activity across all components. The selected functional components can be remixed to reconstruct the focused electromagnetic signals for further analysis, such as source estimation. Moreover, the inter-regional associating components can be used to estimate the functional brain network. The accuracy of the cortical activation estimation was evaluated on the data from simulation studies, whereas the usefulness and feasibility of the component selection methods were demonstrated on the magnetoencephalography data recorded from a gender discrimination study.

Decoding brain activity using a large-scale probabilistic functional-anatomical atlas of human cognition

PubMed Central

Jones, Michael N.

2017-01-01

A central goal of cognitive neuroscience is to decode human brain activity—that is, to infer mental processes from observed patterns of whole-brain activation. Previous decoding efforts have focused on classifying brain activity into a small set of discrete cognitive states. To attain maximal utility, a decoding framework must be open-ended, systematic, and context-sensitive—that is, capable of interpreting numerous brain states, presented in arbitrary combinations, in light of prior information. Here we take steps towards this objective by introducing a probabilistic decoding framework based on a novel topic model—Generalized Correspondence Latent Dirichlet Allocation—that learns latent topics from a database of over 11,000 published fMRI studies. The model produces highly interpretable, spatially-circumscribed topics that enable flexible decoding of whole-brain images. Importantly, the Bayesian nature of the model allows one to “seed” decoder priors with arbitrary images and text—enabling researchers, for the first time, to generate quantitative, context-sensitive interpretations of whole-brain patterns of brain activity. PMID:29059185

Simultaneous NIRS and kinematics study of planning and execution of motor skill task: towards cerebral palsy rehabilitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaudhary, Ujwal; Thompson, Bryant; Gonzalez, Jean; Jung, Young-Jin; Davis, Jennifer; Gonzalez, Patricia; Rice, Kyle; Bloyer, Martha; Elbaum, Leonard; Godavarty, Anuradha

2013-03-01

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a term that describes a group of motor impairment syndromes secondary to genetic and/or acquired disorders of the developing brain. In the current study, NIRS and motion capture were used simultaneously to correlate the brain's planning and execution activity during and with arm movement in healthy individual. The prefrontal region of the brain is non-invasively imaged using a custom built continuous-wave based near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system. The kinematics of the arm movement during the studies is recorded using an infrared based motion capture system, Qualisys. During the study, the subjects (over 18 years) performed 30 sec of arm movement followed by 30 sec rest for 5 times, both with their dominant and non-dominant arm. The optical signal acquired from NIRS system was processed to elucidate the activation and lateralization in the prefrontal region of participants. The preliminary results show difference, in terms of change in optical response, between task and rest in healthy adults. Currently simultaneous NIRS imaging and kinematics data are acquired in healthy individual and individual with CP in order to correlate brain activity to arm movement in real-time. The study has significant implication in elucidating the evolution in the functional activity of the brain as the physical movement of the arm evolves using NIRS. Hence the study has potential in augmenting the designing of training and hence rehabilitation regime for individuals with CP via kinematic monitoring and imaging brain activity.

Cholinesterase (ChE) response and related mortality among birds fed ChE inhibitors

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ludke, J.L.; Hill, E.F.; Dieter, M.P.

1975-01-01

Patterns of mortality and inhibition of brain and plasma ChE in birds treated with ChE inhibitors were studied in an attempt to determine the validity of using ChE activity as a monitoring and diagnostic technique. Analysis of brain ChE activity proved to be reliable for diagnosing and monitoring effects of selected ChE inhibitors in birds. Brain ChE inhibition exceeding 20% indicated exposure, and inhibition greater than 50% was sufficient for diagnosing cause of death. Individuals that died from dietary exposure to parathion or carbofuran had brain ChE activities below 55% of normal; although individuals could survive with brain ChE activity lower than 50%. Problems associated with collection, storage, and analysis of tissues for ChE activity are discussed.

Spontaneous low frequency BOLD signal variations from resting-state fMRI are decreased in Alzheimer disease

PubMed Central

Manning, Kathryn Y.; Rajakumar, Nagalingam; Gómez, Francisco A.; Soddu, Andrea; Borrie, Michael J.

2017-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated altered brain activity in Alzheimer's disease using task based functional MRI (fMRI), network based resting-state fMRI, and glucose metabolism from 18F fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (FDG-PET). Our goal was to define a novel indicator of neuronal activity based on a first-order textural feature of the resting state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) signal. Furthermore, we examined the association between this neuronal activity metric and glucose metabolism from 18F FDG-PET. We studied 15 normal elderly controls (NEC) and 15 probable Alzheimer disease (AD) subjects from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative. An independent component analysis was applied to the RS-fMRI, followed by template matching to identify neuronal components (NC). A regional brain activity measurement was constructed based on the variation of the RS-fMRI signal of these NC. The standardized glucose uptake values of several brain regions relative to the cerebellum (SUVR) were measured from partial volume corrected FDG-PET images. Comparing the AD and NEC groups, the mean brain activity metric was significantly lower in the accumbens, while the glucose SUVR was significantly lower in the amygdala and hippocampus. The RS-fMRI brain activity metric was positively correlated with cognitive measures and amyloid β1–42 cerebral spinal fluid levels; however, these did not remain significant following Bonferroni correction. There was a significant linear correlation between the brain activity metric and the glucose SUVR measurements. This proof of concept study demonstrates that this novel and easy to implement RS-fMRI brain activity metric can differentiate a group of healthy elderly controls from a group of people with AD. PMID:28582450

Spontaneous low frequency BOLD signal variations from resting-state fMRI are decreased in Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Kazemifar, Samaneh; Manning, Kathryn Y; Rajakumar, Nagalingam; Gómez, Francisco A; Soddu, Andrea; Borrie, Michael J; Menon, Ravi S; Bartha, Robert

2017-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated altered brain activity in Alzheimer's disease using task based functional MRI (fMRI), network based resting-state fMRI, and glucose metabolism from 18F fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (FDG-PET). Our goal was to define a novel indicator of neuronal activity based on a first-order textural feature of the resting state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) signal. Furthermore, we examined the association between this neuronal activity metric and glucose metabolism from 18F FDG-PET. We studied 15 normal elderly controls (NEC) and 15 probable Alzheimer disease (AD) subjects from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative. An independent component analysis was applied to the RS-fMRI, followed by template matching to identify neuronal components (NC). A regional brain activity measurement was constructed based on the variation of the RS-fMRI signal of these NC. The standardized glucose uptake values of several brain regions relative to the cerebellum (SUVR) were measured from partial volume corrected FDG-PET images. Comparing the AD and NEC groups, the mean brain activity metric was significantly lower in the accumbens, while the glucose SUVR was significantly lower in the amygdala and hippocampus. The RS-fMRI brain activity metric was positively correlated with cognitive measures and amyloid β1-42 cerebral spinal fluid levels; however, these did not remain significant following Bonferroni correction. There was a significant linear correlation between the brain activity metric and the glucose SUVR measurements. This proof of concept study demonstrates that this novel and easy to implement RS-fMRI brain activity metric can differentiate a group of healthy elderly controls from a group of people with AD.

Spatiotemporal Dissociation of Brain Activity Underlying Subjective Awareness, Objective Performance and Confidence

PubMed Central

Li, Qi; Hill, Zachary

2014-01-01

Despite intense recent research, the neural correlates of conscious visual perception remain elusive. The most established paradigm for studying brain mechanisms underlying conscious perception is to keep the physical sensory inputs constant and identify brain activities that correlate with the changing content of conscious awareness. However, such a contrast based on conscious content alone would not only reveal brain activities directly contributing to conscious perception, but also include brain activities that precede or follow it. To address this issue, we devised a paradigm whereby we collected, trial-by-trial, measures of objective performance, subjective awareness, and the confidence level of subjective awareness. Using magnetoencephalography recordings in healthy human volunteers, we dissociated brain activities underlying these different cognitive phenomena. Our results provide strong evidence that widely distributed slow cortical potentials (SCPs) correlate with subjective awareness, even after the effects of objective performance and confidence were both removed. The SCP correlate of conscious perception manifests strongly in its waveform, phase, and power. In contrast, objective performance and confidence were both contributed by relatively transient brain activity. These results shed new light on the brain mechanisms of conscious, unconscious, and metacognitive processing. PMID:24647958

Mapping the brain correlates of borderline personality disorder: A functional neuroimaging meta-analysis of resting state studies.

PubMed

Visintin, Eleonora; De Panfilis, Chiara; Amore, Mario; Balestrieri, Matteo; Wolf, Robert Christian; Sambataro, Fabio

2016-11-01

Altered intrinsic function of the brain has been implicated in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Nonetheless, imaging studies have yielded inconsistent alterations of brain function. To investigate the neural activity at rest in BPD, we conducted a set of meta-analyses of brain imaging studies performed at rest. A total of seven functional imaging studies (152 patients with BPD and 147 control subjects) were combined using whole-brain Signed Differential Mapping meta-analyses. Furthermore, two conjunction meta-analyses of neural activity at rest were also performed: with neural activity changes during emotional processing, and with structural differences, respectively. We found altered neural activity in the regions of the default mode network (DMN) in BPD. Within the regions of the midline core DMN, patients with BPD showed greater activity in the anterior as well as in the posterior midline hubs relative to controls. Conversely, in the regions of the dorsal DMN they showed reduced activity compared to controls in the right lateral temporal complex and bilaterally in the orbitofrontal cortex. Increased activity in the precuneus was observed both at rest and during emotional processing. Reduced neural activity at rest in lateral temporal complex was associated with smaller volume of this area. Heterogeneity across imaging studies. Altered activity in the regions of the midline core as well as of the dorsal subsystem of the DMN may reflect difficulties with interpersonal and affective regulation in BPD. These findings suggest that changes in spontaneous neural activity could underlie core symptoms in BPD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhanced Brain Responses to Pain-Related Words in Chronic Back Pain Patients and Their Modulation by Current Pain.

PubMed

Ritter, Alexander; Franz, Marcel; Puta, Christian; Dietrich, Caroline; Miltner, Wolfgang H R; Weiss, Thomas

2016-08-10

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in healthy controls (HC) and pain-free migraine patients found activations to pain-related words in brain regions known to be activated while subjects experience pain. The aim of the present study was to identify neural activations induced by pain-related words in a sample of chronic back pain (CBP) patients experiencing current chronic pain compared to HC. In particular, we were interested in how current pain influences brain activations induced by pain-related adjectives. Subjects viewed pain-related, negative, positive, and neutral words; subjects were asked to generate mental images related to these words during fMRI scanning. Brain activation was compared between CBP patients and HC in response to the different word categories and examined in relation to current pain in CBP patients. Pain-related words vs. neutral words activated a network of brain regions including cingulate cortex and insula in subjects and patients. There was stronger activation in medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior midcingulate cortex in CPB patients than in HC. The magnitude of activation for pain-related vs. negative words showed a negative linear relationship to CBP patients' current pain. Our findings confirm earlier observations showing that pain-related words activate brain networks similar to noxious stimulation. Importantly, CBP patients show even stronger activation of these structures while merely processing pain-related words. Current pain directly influences on this activation.

Brain activation during dual-task processing is associated with cardiorespiratory fitness and performance in older adults

PubMed Central

Wong, Chelsea N.; Chaddock-Heyman, Laura; Voss, Michelle W.; Burzynska, Agnieszka Z.; Basak, Chandramallika; Erickson, Kirk I.; Prakash, Ruchika S.; Szabo-Reed, Amanda N.; Phillips, Siobhan M.; Wojcicki, Thomas; Mailey, Emily L.; McAuley, Edward; Kramer, Arthur F.

2015-01-01

Higher cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with better cognitive performance and enhanced brain activation. Yet, the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness-related brain activation is associated with better cognitive performance is not well understood. In this cross-sectional study, we examined whether the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and executive function was mediated by greater prefrontal cortex activation in healthy older adults. Brain activation was measured during dual-task performance with functional magnetic resonance imaging in a sample of 128 healthy older adults (59–80 years). Higher cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with greater activation during dual-task processing in several brain areas including the anterior cingulate and supplementary motor cortex (ACC/SMA), thalamus and basal ganglia, right motor/somatosensory cortex and middle frontal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex, controlling for age, sex, education, and gray matter volume. Of these regions, greater ACC/SMA activation mediated the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and dual-task performance. We provide novel evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness may support cognitive performance by facilitating brain activation in a core region critical for executive function. PMID:26321949

Whole-Brain Mapping of Neuronal Activity in the Learned Helplessness Model of Depression.

PubMed

Kim, Yongsoo; Perova, Zinaida; Mirrione, Martine M; Pradhan, Kith; Henn, Fritz A; Shea, Stephen; Osten, Pavel; Li, Bo

2016-01-01

Some individuals are resilient, whereas others succumb to despair in repeated stressful situations. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such divergent behavioral responses remain unclear. Here, we employed an automated method for mapping neuronal activity in search of signatures of stress responses in the entire mouse brain. We used serial two-photon tomography to detect expression of c-FosGFP - a marker of neuronal activation - in c-fosGFP transgenic mice subjected to the learned helplessness (LH) procedure, a widely used model of stress-induced depression-like phenotype in laboratory animals. We found that mice showing "helpless" behavior had an overall brain-wide reduction in the level of neuronal activation compared with mice showing "resilient" behavior, with the exception of a few brain areas, including the locus coeruleus, that were more activated in the helpless mice. In addition, the helpless mice showed a strong trend of having higher similarity in whole-brain activity profile among individuals, suggesting that helplessness is represented by a more stereotypic brain-wide activation pattern. This latter effect was confirmed in rats subjected to the LH procedure, using 2-deoxy-2[18F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography to assess neural activity. Our findings reveal distinct brain activity markings that correlate with adaptive and maladaptive behavioral responses to stress, and provide a framework for further studies investigating the contribution of specific brain regions to maladaptive stress responses.

Menopause-related brain activation patterns during visual sexual arousal in menopausal women: An fMRI pilot study using time-course analysis.

PubMed

Kim, Gwang-Won; Jeong, Gwang-Woo

2017-02-20

The aging process and menopausal transition are important factors in sexual dysfunction of menopausal women. No neuroimaging study has assessed the age- and menopause-related changes on brain activation areas associated with sexual arousal in menopausal women. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the time course of regional brain activity associated with sexual arousal evoked by visual stimulation in premenopausal and menopausal women, and further to assess the effect of menopause on the brain areas associated with sexual arousal in menopausal women using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thirty volunteers consisting of 15 premenopausal and 15 menopausal women underwent the fMRI. For the activation condition, volunteers viewed sexually arousing visual stimulation. The brain areas with significantly higher activation in premenopausal women compared with menopausal women included the thalamus, amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) using analysis of covariance adjusting for age (p<0.005). Blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal changes in the amygdala while viewing erotic video were positively correlated with estrogen levels in the two groups. Our findings suggest that reduced brain activity of the thalamus, amygdala, and ACC in menopausal women may be associated with menopause-related decrease in sexual arousal. These findings might help elucidate the neural mechanisms associated with sexual dysfunction in menopausal women. Copyright © 2016 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evidence That Brain MAO A Activity Does Not Correspond to MAO A Genotype in Healthy Male Subjects

PubMed Central

Fowler, Joanna S.; Alia-Klein, Nelly; Kriplani, Aarti; Logan, Jean; Williams, Benjamin; Zhu, Wei; Craig, Ian W.; Telang, Frank; Goldstein, Rita; Volkow, Nora D.; Vaska, Paul; Wang, Gene-Jack

2009-01-01

Background A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the monoamine oxidase A (MAO A) gene has two common alleles that are referred to as the high and low MAO A genotypes. We report the first in vivo human study to determine whether there is an association between MAO A genotype and brain MAO A activity in healthy male subjects. Methods Brain MAO A activity was measured with positron emission tomography and [11C]clorgyline in 38 healthy adult male nonsmokers genotyped for MAO A polymorphism. Results There was no significant difference in brain MAO A activity between the high (n = 26) and low (n = 12) MAO A genotypes. Conclusions The lack of an association between the high and low MAO A genotype and brain MAO A activity suggests that this polymorphism by itself does not contribute to differences in brain MAO A activity in healthy adult male subjects. PMID:17141746

Speech perception in autism spectrum disorder: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.

PubMed

Tryfon, Ana; Foster, Nicholas E V; Sharda, Megha; Hyde, Krista L

2018-02-15

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often characterized by atypical language profiles and auditory and speech processing. These can contribute to aberrant language and social communication skills in ASD. The study of the neural basis of speech perception in ASD can serve as a potential neurobiological marker of ASD early on, but mixed results across studies renders it difficult to find a reliable neural characterization of speech processing in ASD. To this aim, the present study examined the functional neural basis of speech perception in ASD versus typical development (TD) using an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of 18 qualifying studies. The present study included separate analyses for TD and ASD, which allowed us to examine patterns of within-group brain activation as well as both common and distinct patterns of brain activation across the ASD and TD groups. Overall, ASD and TD showed mostly common brain activation of speech processing in bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG) and left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). However, the results revealed trends for some distinct activation in the TD group showing additional activation in higher-order brain areas including left superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left medial frontal gyrus (MFG), and right IFG. These results provide a more reliable neural characterization of speech processing in ASD relative to previous single neuroimaging studies and motivate future work to investigate how these brain signatures relate to behavioral measures of speech processing in ASD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dorsal and ventral stream contributions to form-from-motion perception in a patient with form-from motion deficit: a case report.

PubMed

Mercier, Manuel R; Schwartz, Sophie; Spinelli, Laurent; Michel, Christoph M; Blanke, Olaf

2017-03-01

The main model of visual processing in primates proposes an anatomo-functional distinction between the dorsal stream, specialized in spatio-temporal information, and the ventral stream, processing essentially form information. However, these two pathways also communicate to share much visual information. These dorso-ventral interactions have been studied using form-from-motion (FfM) stimuli, revealing that FfM perception first activates dorsal regions (e.g., MT+/V5), followed by successive activations of ventral regions (e.g., LOC). However, relatively little is known about the implications of focal brain damage of visual areas on these dorso-ventral interactions. In the present case report, we investigated the dynamics of dorsal and ventral activations related to FfM perception (using topographical ERP analysis and electrical source imaging) in a patient suffering from a deficit in FfM perception due to right extrastriate brain damage in the ventral stream. Despite the patient's FfM impairment, both successful (observed for the highest level of FfM signal) and absent/failed FfM perception evoked the same temporal sequence of three processing states observed previously in healthy subjects. During the first period, brain source localization revealed cortical activations along the dorsal stream, currently associated with preserved elementary motion processing. During the latter two periods, the patterns of activity differed from normal subjects: activations were observed in the ventral stream (as reported for normal subjects), but also in the dorsal pathway, with the strongest and most sustained activity localized in the parieto-occipital regions. On the other hand, absent/failed FfM perception was characterized by weaker brain activity, restricted to the more lateral regions. This study shows that in the present case report, successful FfM perception, while following the same temporal sequence of processing steps as in normal subjects, evoked different patterns of brain activity. By revealing a brain circuit involving the most rostral part of the dorsal pathway, this study provides further support for neuro-imaging studies and brain lesion investigations that have suggested the existence of different brain circuits associated with different profiles of interaction between the dorsal and the ventral streams.

Senior Dance Experience, Cognitive Performance, and Brain Volume in Older Women

PubMed Central

Niemann, Claudia; Godde, Ben

2016-01-01

Physical activity is positively related to cognitive functioning and brain volume in older adults. Interestingly, different types of physical activity vary in their effects on cognition and on the brain. For example, dancing has become an interesting topic in aging research, as it is a popular leisure activity among older adults, involving cardiovascular and motor fitness dimensions that can be positively related to cognition. However, studies on brain structure are missing. In this study, we tested the association of long-term senior dance experience with cognitive performance and gray matter brain volume in older women aged 65 to 82 years. We compared nonprofessional senior dancers (n = 28) with nonsedentary control group participants without any dancing experience (n = 29), who were similar in age, education, IQ score, lifestyle and health factors, and fitness level. Differences neither in the four tested cognitive domains (executive control, perceptual speed, episodic memory, and long-term memory) nor in brain volume (VBM whole-brain analysis, region-of-interest analysis of the hippocampus) were observed. Results indicate that moderate dancing activity (1-2 times per week, on average) has no additional effects on gray matter volume and cognitive functioning when a certain lifestyle or physical activity and fitness level are reached. PMID:27738528

A systematic review and meta-analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging studies investigating cognitive and social activity levels in older adults.

PubMed

Anatürk, M; Demnitz, N; Ebmeier, K P; Sexton, C E

2018-06-22

Population aging has prompted considerable interest in identifying modifiable factors that may help protect the brain and its functions. Collectively, epidemiological studies show that leisure activities with high mental and social demands are linked with better cognition in old age. The extent to which socio-intellectual activities relate to the brain's structure is, however, not yet fully understood. This systematic review and meta-analysis summarizes magnetic resonance imaging studies that have investigated whether cognitive and social activities correlate with measures of gray and white matter volume, white matter microstructure and white matter lesions. Across eighteen included studies (total n = 8429), activity levels were associated with whole-brain white matter volume, white matter lesions and regional gray matter volume, although effect sizes were small. No associations were found for global gray matter volume and the evidence concerning white matter microstructure was inconclusive. While the causality of the reviewed associations needs to be established, our findings implicate socio-intellectual activity levels as promising targets for interventions aimed at promoting healthy brain aging. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Autistic Traits and Brain Activation during Face-to-Face Conversations in Typically Developed Adults

PubMed Central

Suda, Masashi; Takei, Yuichi; Aoyama, Yoshiyuki; Narita, Kosuke; Sakurai, Noriko; Fukuda, Masato; Mikuni, Masahiko

2011-01-01

Background Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviours. The severity of these characteristics is posited to lie on a continuum that extends into the general population. Brain substrates underlying ASD have been investigated through functional neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, fMRI has methodological constraints for studying brain mechanisms during social interactions (for example, noise, lying on a gantry during the procedure, etc.). In this study, we investigated whether variations in autism spectrum traits are associated with changes in patterns of brain activation in typically developed adults. We used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), a recently developed functional neuroimaging technique that uses near-infrared light, to monitor brain activation in a natural setting that is suitable for studying brain functions during social interactions. Methodology We monitored regional cerebral blood volume changes using a 52-channel NIRS apparatus over the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and superior temporal sulcus (STS), 2 areas implicated in social cognition and the pathology of ASD, in 28 typically developed participants (14 male and 14 female) during face-to-face conversations. This task was designed to resemble a realistic social situation. We examined the correlations of these changes with autistic traits assessed using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Principal Findings Both the PFC and STS were significantly activated during face-to-face conversations. AQ scores were negatively correlated with regional cerebral blood volume increases in the left STS during face-to-face conversations, especially in males. Conclusions Our results demonstrate successful monitoring of brain function during realistic social interactions by NIRS as well as lesser brain activation in the left STS during face-to-face conversations in typically developed participants with higher levels of autistic traits. PMID:21637754

Autistic traits and brain activation during face-to-face conversations in typically developed adults.

PubMed

Suda, Masashi; Takei, Yuichi; Aoyama, Yoshiyuki; Narita, Kosuke; Sakurai, Noriko; Fukuda, Masato; Mikuni, Masahiko

2011-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviours. The severity of these characteristics is posited to lie on a continuum that extends into the general population. Brain substrates underlying ASD have been investigated through functional neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, fMRI has methodological constraints for studying brain mechanisms during social interactions (for example, noise, lying on a gantry during the procedure, etc.). In this study, we investigated whether variations in autism spectrum traits are associated with changes in patterns of brain activation in typically developed adults. We used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), a recently developed functional neuroimaging technique that uses near-infrared light, to monitor brain activation in a natural setting that is suitable for studying brain functions during social interactions. We monitored regional cerebral blood volume changes using a 52-channel NIRS apparatus over the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and superior temporal sulcus (STS), 2 areas implicated in social cognition and the pathology of ASD, in 28 typically developed participants (14 male and 14 female) during face-to-face conversations. This task was designed to resemble a realistic social situation. We examined the correlations of these changes with autistic traits assessed using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Both the PFC and STS were significantly activated during face-to-face conversations. AQ scores were negatively correlated with regional cerebral blood volume increases in the left STS during face-to-face conversations, especially in males. Our results demonstrate successful monitoring of brain function during realistic social interactions by NIRS as well as lesser brain activation in the left STS during face-to-face conversations in typically developed participants with higher levels of autistic traits.

Liver transplantation nearly normalizes brain spontaneous activity and cognitive function at 1 month: a resting-state functional MRI study.

PubMed

Cheng, Yue; Huang, Lixiang; Zhang, Xiaodong; Zhong, Jianhui; Ji, Qian; Xie, Shuangshuang; Chen, Lihua; Zuo, Panli; Zhang, Long Jiang; Shen, Wen

2015-08-01

To investigate the short-term brain activity changes in cirrhotic patients with Liver transplantation (LT) using resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) with regional homogeneity (ReHo) method. Twenty-six cirrhotic patients as transplant candidates and 26 healthy controls were included in this study. The assessment was repeated for a sub-group of 12 patients 1 month after LT. ReHo values were calculated to evaluate spontaneous brain activity and whole brain voxel-wise analysis was carried to detect differences between groups. Correlation analyses were performed to explore the relationship between the change of ReHo with the change of clinical indexes pre- and post-LT. Compared to pre-LT, ReHo values increased in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), right inferior parietal lobule (IPL), right supplementary motor area (SMA), right STG and left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) in patients post-LT. Compared to controls, ReHo values of post-LT patients decreased in the right precuneus, right SMA and increased in bilateral temporal pole, left caudate, left MFG, and right STG. The changes of ReHo in the right SMA, STG and IFG were correlated with change of digit symbol test (DST) scores (P < 0.05 uncorrected). This study found that, at 1 month after LT, spontaneous brain activity of most brain regions with decreased ReHo in pre-LT was substantially improved and nearly normalized, while spontaneous brain activity of some brain regions with increased ReHo in pre-LT continuously increased. ReHo may provide information on the neural mechanisms of LT' effects on brain function.

Ischemic Brain Injury Leads to Brain Edema via Hyperthermia-Induced TRPV4 Activation.

PubMed

Hoshi, Yutaka; Okabe, Kohki; Shibasaki, Koji; Funatsu, Takashi; Matsuki, Norio; Ikegaya, Yuji; Koyama, Ryuta

2018-06-20

Brain edema is characterized by an increase in net brain water content, which results in an increase in brain volume. Although brain edema is associated with a high fatality rate, the cellular and molecular processes of edema remain largely unclear. Here, we developed an in vitro model of ischemic stroke-induced edema in which male mouse brain slices were treated with oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) to mimic ischemia. We continuously measured the cross-sectional area of the brain slice for 150 min under macroscopic microscopy, finding that OGD induces swelling of brain slices. OGD-induced swelling was prevented by pharmacologically blocking or genetically knocking out the transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4), a member of the thermosensitive TRP channel family. Because TRPV4 is activated at around body temperature and its activation is enhanced by heating, we next elevated the temperature of the perfusate in the recording chamber, finding that hyperthermia induces swelling via TRPV4 activation. Furthermore, using the temperature-dependent fluorescence lifetime of a fluorescent-thermosensitive probe, we confirmed that OGD treatment increases the temperature of brain slices through the activation of glutamate receptors. Finally, we found that brain edema following traumatic brain injury was suppressed in TRPV4-deficient male mice in vivo Thus, our study proposes a novel mechanism: hyperthermia activates TRPV4 and induces brain edema after ischemia. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Brain edema is characterized by an increase in net brain water content, which results in an increase in brain volume. Although brain edema is associated with a high fatality rate, the cellular and molecular processes of edema remain unclear. Here, we developed an in vitro model of ischemic stroke-induced edema in which mouse brain slices were treated with oxygen-glucose deprivation. Using this system, we showed that the increase in brain temperature and the following activation of the thermosensitive cation channel TRPV4 (transient receptor potential vanilloid 4) are involved in the pathology of edema. Finally, we confirmed that TRPV4 is involved in brain edema in vivo using TRPV4-deficient mice, concluding that hyperthermia activates TRPV4 and induces brain edema after ischemia. Copyright © 2018 the authors 0270-6474/18/385700-10$15.00/0.

At least eighty percent of brain grey matter is modifiable by physical activity: A review study.

PubMed

Batouli, Seyed Amir Hossein; Saba, Valiallah

2017-08-14

The human brain is plastic, i.e. it can show structural changes in response to the altered environment. Physical activity (PA) is a lifestyle factor which has significant associations with the structural and functional aspects of the human brain, as well as with the mind and body health. Many studies have reported regional/global brain volume increments due to exercising; however, a map which shows the overall extent of the influences of PAs on brain structure is not available. In this study, we collected all the reports on brain structural alterations in association with PA in healthy humans, and next, a brain map of the extent of these effects is provided. The results of this study showed that a large network of brain areas, equal to 82% of the total grey matter volume, were associated with PA. This finding has important implications in utilizing PA as a mediator factor for educational purposes in children, rehabilitation applications in patients, improving the cognitive abilities of the human brain such as in learning or memory, and preventing age-related brain deteriorations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A coordinate-based ALE functional MRI meta-analysis of brain activation during verbal fluency tasks in healthy control subjects

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The processing of verbal fluency tasks relies on the coordinated activity of a number of brain areas, particularly in the frontal and temporal lobes of the left hemisphere. Recent studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural networks subserving verbal fluency functions have yielded divergent results especially with respect to a parcellation of the inferior frontal gyrus for phonemic and semantic verbal fluency. We conducted a coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on brain activation during the processing of phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks involving 28 individual studies with 490 healthy volunteers. Results For phonemic as well as for semantic verbal fluency, the most prominent clusters of brain activation were found in the left inferior/middle frontal gyrus (LIFG/MIFG) and the anterior cingulate gyrus. BA 44 was only involved in the processing of phonemic verbal fluency tasks, BA 45 and 47 in the processing of phonemic and semantic fluency tasks. Conclusions Our comparison of brain activation during the execution of either phonemic or semantic verbal fluency tasks revealed evidence for spatially different activation in BA 44, but not other regions of the LIFG/LMFG (BA 9, 45, 47) during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency processing. PMID:24456150

Visual brain activity patterns classification with simultaneous EEG-fMRI: A multimodal approach.

PubMed

Ahmad, Rana Fayyaz; Malik, Aamir Saeed; Kamel, Nidal; Reza, Faruque; Amin, Hafeez Ullah; Hussain, Muhammad

2017-01-01

Classification of the visual information from the brain activity data is a challenging task. Many studies reported in the literature are based on the brain activity patterns using either fMRI or EEG/MEG only. EEG and fMRI considered as two complementary neuroimaging modalities in terms of their temporal and spatial resolution to map the brain activity. For getting a high spatial and temporal resolution of the brain at the same time, simultaneous EEG-fMRI seems to be fruitful. In this article, we propose a new method based on simultaneous EEG-fMRI data and machine learning approach to classify the visual brain activity patterns. We acquired EEG-fMRI data simultaneously on the ten healthy human participants by showing them visual stimuli. Data fusion approach is used to merge EEG and fMRI data. Machine learning classifier is used for the classification purposes. Results showed that superior classification performance has been achieved with simultaneous EEG-fMRI data as compared to the EEG and fMRI data standalone. This shows that multimodal approach improved the classification accuracy results as compared with other approaches reported in the literature. The proposed simultaneous EEG-fMRI approach for classifying the brain activity patterns can be helpful to predict or fully decode the brain activity patterns.

Characterizing dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and its relationship with dynamic functional connectivity: An application to schizophrenia.

PubMed

Fu, Zening; Tu, Yiheng; Di, Xin; Du, Yuhui; Pearlson, G D; Turner, J A; Biswal, Bharat B; Zhang, Zhiguo; Calhoun, V D

2017-09-20

The human brain is a highly dynamic system with non-stationary neural activity and rapidly-changing neural interaction. Resting-state dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) has been widely studied during recent years, and the emerging aberrant dFC patterns have been identified as important features of many mental disorders such as schizophrenia (SZ). However, only focusing on the time-varying patterns in FC is not enough, since the local neural activity itself (in contrast to the inter-connectivity) is also found to be highly fluctuating from research using high-temporal-resolution imaging techniques. Exploring the time-varying patterns in brain activity and their relationships with time-varying brain connectivity is important for advancing our understanding of the co-evolutionary property of brain network and the underlying mechanism of brain dynamics. In this study, we introduced a framework for characterizing time-varying brain activity and exploring its associations with time-varying brain connectivity, and applied this framework to a resting-state fMRI dataset including 151 SZ patients and 163 age- and gender matched healthy controls (HCs). In this framework, 48 brain regions were first identified as intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) using group independent component analysis (GICA). A sliding window approach was then adopted for the estimation of dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) and dFC, which were used to measure time-varying brain activity and time-varying brain connectivity respectively. The dALFF was further clustered into six reoccurring states by the k-means clustering method and the group difference in occurrences of dALFF states was explored. Lastly, correlation coefficients between dALFF and dFC were calculated and the group difference in these dALFF-dFC correlations was explored. Our results suggested that 1) ALFF of brain regions was highly fluctuating during the resting-state and such dynamic patterns are altered in SZ, 2) dALFF and dFC were correlated in time and their correlations are altered in SZ. The overall results support and expand prior work on abnormalities of brain activity, static FC (sFC) and dFC in SZ, and provide new evidence on aberrant time-varying brain activity and its associations with brain connectivity in SZ, which might underscore the disrupted brain cognitive functions in this mental disorder. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The two-brain approach: how can mutually interacting brains teach us something about social interaction?

PubMed Central

Konvalinka, Ivana; Roepstorff, Andreas

2012-01-01

Measuring brain activity simultaneously from two people interacting is intuitively appealing if one is interested in putative neural markers of social interaction. However, given the complex nature of interactions, it has proven difficult to carry out two-person brain imaging experiments in a methodologically feasible and conceptually relevant way. Only a small number of recent studies have put this into practice, using fMRI, EEG, or NIRS. Here, we review two main two-brain methodological approaches, each with two conceptual strategies. The first group has employed two-brain fMRI recordings, studying (1) turn-based interactions on the order of seconds, or (2) pseudo-interactive scenarios, where only one person is scanned at a time, investigating the flow of information between brains. The second group of studies has recorded dual EEG/NIRS from two people interacting, in (1) face-to-face turn-based interactions, investigating functional connectivity between theory-of-mind regions of interacting partners, or in (2) continuous mutual interactions on millisecond timescales, to measure coupling between the activity in one person's brain and the activity in the other's brain. We discuss the questions these approaches have addressed, and consider scenarios when simultaneous two-brain recordings are needed. Furthermore, we suggest that (1) quantification of inter-personal neural effects via measures of emergence, and (2) multivariate decoding models that generalize source-specific features of interaction, may provide novel tools to study brains in interaction. This may allow for a better understanding of social cognition as both representation and participation. PMID:22837744

When thoughts become action: an fMRI paradigm to study volitional brain activity in non-communicative brain injured patients.

PubMed

Boly, M; Coleman, M R; Davis, M H; Hampshire, A; Bor, D; Moonen, G; Maquet, P A; Pickard, J D; Laureys, S; Owen, A M

2007-07-01

The assessment of voluntary behavior in non-communicative brain injured patients is often challenging due to the existence of profound motor impairment. In the absence of a full understanding of the neural correlates of consciousness, even a normal activation in response to passive sensory stimulation cannot be considered as proof of the presence of awareness in these patients. In contrast, predicted activation in response to the instruction to perform a mental imagery task would provide evidence of voluntary task-dependent brain activity, and hence of consciousness, in non-communicative patients. However, no data yet exist to indicate which imagery instructions would yield reliable single subject activation. The aim of the present study was to establish such a paradigm in healthy volunteers. Two exploratory experiments evaluated the reproducibility of individual brain activation elicited by four distinct mental imagery tasks. The two most robust mental imagery tasks were found to be spatial navigation and motor imagery. In a third experiment, where these two tasks were directly compared, differentiation of each task from one another and from rest periods was assessed blindly using a priori criteria and was correct for every volunteer. The spatial navigation and motor imagery tasks described here permit the identification of volitional brain activation at the single subject level, without a motor response. Volunteer as well as patient data [Owen, A.M., Coleman, M.R., Boly, M., Davis, M.H., Laureys, S., Pickard J.D., 2006. Detecting awareness in the vegetative state. Science 313, 1402] strongly suggest that this paradigm may provide a method for assessing the presence of volitional brain activity, and thus of consciousness, in non-communicative brain-injured patients.

Possible role of brain stem respiratory neurons in mediating vomiting during space motion sickness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, A. D.; Tan, L. K.

1987-01-01

The object of this study was to determine if brain stem expiratory neurons control abdominal muscle activity during vomiting. The activity of 27 ventral respiratory group expiratory neurons, which are known to be of primary importance for control of abdominal muscle activity during respiration, was recorded. It is concluded that abdominal muscle activity during vomiting must be controlled not only by some brain stem expiratory neurons but also by other input(s).

Home Reading Environment and Brain Activation in Preschool Children Listening to Stories.

PubMed

Hutton, John S; Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Mendelsohn, Alan L; DeWitt, Tom; Holland, Scott K

2015-09-01

Parent-child reading is widely advocated to promote cognitive development, including in recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to begin this practice at birth. Although parent-child reading has been shown in behavioral studies to improve oral language and print concepts, quantifiable effects on the brain have not been previously studied. Our study used blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the relationship between home reading environment and brain activity during a story listening task in a sample of preschool-age children. We hypothesized that while listening to stories, children with greater home reading exposure would exhibit higher activation of left-sided brain regions involved with semantic processing (extraction of meaning). Nineteen 3- to 5-year-old children were selected from a longitudinal study of normal brain development. All completed blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging using an age-appropriate story listening task, where narrative alternated with tones. We performed a series of whole-brain regression analyses applying composite, subscale, and individual reading-related items from the validated StimQ-P measure of home cognitive environment as explanatory variables for neural activation. Higher reading exposure (StimQ-P Reading subscale score) was positively correlated (P < .05, corrected) with neural activation in the left-sided parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex, a "hub" region supporting semantic language processing, controlling for household income. In preschool children listening to stories, greater home reading exposure is positively associated with activation of brain areas supporting mental imagery and narrative comprehension, controlling for household income. These neural biomarkers may help inform eco-bio-developmental models of emergent literacy. Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Relative cortico-subcortical shift in brain activity but preserved training-induced neural modulation in older adults during bimanual motor learning.

PubMed

Santos Monteiro, Thiago; Beets, Iseult A M; Boisgontier, Matthieu P; Gooijers, Jolien; Pauwels, Lisa; Chalavi, Sima; King, Brad; Albouy, Geneviève; Swinnen, Stephan P

2017-10-01

To study age-related differences in neural activation during motor learning, functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired from 25 young (mean 21.5-year old) and 18 older adults (mean 68.6-year old) while performing a bimanual coordination task before (pretest) and after (posttest) a 2-week training intervention on the task. We studied whether task-related brain activity and training-induced brain activation changes differed between age groups, particularly with respect to the hyperactivation typically observed in older adults. Findings revealed that older adults showed lower performance levels than younger adults but similar learning capability. At the cerebral level, the task-related hyperactivation in parietofrontal areas and underactivation in subcortical areas observed in older adults were not differentially modulated by the training intervention. However, brain activity related to task planning and execution decreased from pretest to posttest in temporo-parieto-frontal areas and subcortical areas in both age groups, suggesting similar processes of enhanced activation efficiency with advanced skill level. Furthermore, older adults who displayed higher activity in prefrontal regions at pretest demonstrated larger training-induced performance gains. In conclusion, in spite of prominent age-related brain activation differences during movement planning and execution, the mechanisms of learning-related reduction of brain activation appear to be similar in both groups. Importantly, cerebral activity during early learning can differentially predict the amplitude of the training-induced performance benefit between young and older adults. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How Does Brain Activation Differ in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy Compared to Typically Developing Children, during Active and Passive Movements, and Tactile Stimulation? An fMRI Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van de Winckel, Ann; Klingels, Katrijn; Bruyninckx, Frans; Wenderoth, Nici; Peeters, Ron; Sunaert, Stefan; Van Hecke, Wim; De Cock, Paul; Eyssen, Maria; De Weerdt, Willy; Feys, Hilde

2013-01-01

The aim of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to investigate brain activation associated with active and passive movements, and tactile stimulation in 17 children with right-sided unilateral cerebral palsy (CP), compared to 19 typically developing children (TD). The active movements consisted of repetitive opening and…

Mind the movement: Frontal asymmetry stands for behavioral motivation, bilateral frontal activation for behavior.

PubMed

Rodrigues, Johannes; Müller, Mathias; Mühlberger, Andreas; Hewig, Johannes

2018-01-01

Frontal asymmetry has been investigated over the past 30 years, and several theories have been developed about its meaning. The original theory of Davidson and its diversification by Harmon-Jones & Allen allocated approach motivation to relative left frontal brain activity and withdrawal motivation to relative right frontal brain activity. Hewig and colleagues extended this theory by adding bilateral frontal activation representing a biological correlate of the behavioral activation system if actual behavior is shown. Wacker and colleagues formulated a theory related to the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory by Gray & McNaughton. Here, relative left frontal brain activation represents the revised behavioral activation system and behavior, while relative right frontal brain activation represents the revised behavioral inhibition system, representing the experience of conflict. These theories were investigated with a newly developed paradigm where participants were able to move around freely in a virtual T maze via joystick while having their EEG recorded. Analyzing the influence of frontal brain activation during this virtual reality task on observable behavior for 30 participants, we found more relative left frontal brain activation during approach behavior and more relative right brain activation for withdrawal behavior of any kind. Additionally, there was more bilateral frontal brain activation when participants were engaged in behavior compared to doing nothing. Hence, this study provides evidence for the idea that frontal asymmetry stands for behavioral approach or avoidance motivation, and bilateral frontal activation stands for behavior. Additionally, observable behavior is not only determined by frontal asymmetry, but also by relevant traits. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Brain activity correlated with food preferences: a functional study comparing advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients with and without anorexia.

PubMed

Sánchez-Lara, Karla; Arrieta, Oscar; Pasaye, Eric; Laviano, Alessandro; Mercadillo, Roberto E; Sosa-Sánchez, Ricardo; Méndez-Sánchez, Nahum

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the brain activity manifested while non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with and without anorexia were exposed to visual food stimuli. We included 26 treatment-naïve patients who had been recently diagnosed with advanced NSCLC. Patients with brain metastasis were excluded. The patients were classified into anorectic and non-anorectic groups. Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging based on blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals were analyzed while the patients perceived pleasant and unpleasant food pictures. The brain records were analyzed with SPM 5 using a voxelwise multiple regression analysis. The non-anorexic patients demonstrated BOLD activation, comprising frontal brain regions in the premotor and the prefrontal cortices, only while watching unpleasant stimuli. The anorectic patients demonstrated no activation while watching the pleasant and unpleasant food pictures. Anorectic patients with lung cancer present a lack of activation in the brain regions associated with food stimuli processing. These results are consistent with experiences in the clinical environment: Patients describe themselves as not experiencing sensations of hunger or having an appetite. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Occludin is regulated by epidermal growth factor receptor activation in brain endothelial cells and brains of mice with acute liver failure

PubMed Central

Chen, Feng; Hori, Tomohide; Ohashi, Norifumi; Baine, Ann-Marie; Eckman, Christopher B.; Nguyen, Justin H.

2011-01-01

Mechanisms of brain edema in acute liver failure (ALF) are not completely understood. We recently demonstrated that matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) induces significant alterations to occludin in brain endothelial cells in vitro and in brains of mice with experimental ALF (Hepatology 50:1914, 2009). In this study, we show that MMP-9-induced transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and p38MAPK/NFκB signals participate in regulating brain endothelial occludin level. Mouse brain endothelial bEnd3 cells were exposed to MMP-9 or p38 MAPK upregulation in the presence and absence of EGFR inhibitor, p38 MAPK inhibitor, NFκB inhibitor, and/or appropriate small interfering RNA. RT-PCR and western blotting were used for mRNA and protein expression analyses. Immunohistochemical staining and confocal microscopy were used to demonstrate cellular EGFR activation. Intraperitoneal azoxymethane was use to induce ALF in mice. Brains of comatose ALF mice were processed for histological and biochemical analyses. When bEnd3 cells were exposed to MMP-9, EGFR was significantly transactivated, followed by p38 MAPK activation, IκBα degradation, NFκB activation, and suppression of occludin synthesis and expression. Similar EGFR activation and p38 MAPK/NFκB activation were found in the brains of ALF mice, and these changes were attenuated with GM6001 treatment. Conclusion EGFR activation with p38 MAPK/NFκB signaling contributes to the regulation of tight junction integrity in ALF. EGFR activation may thus play an important role in vasogenic brain edema in ALF. PMID:21480332

Imaging of Glial Cell Activation and White Matter Integrity in Brains of Active and Recently Retired National Football League Players.

PubMed

Coughlin, Jennifer M; Wang, Yuchuan; Minn, Il; Bienko, Nicholas; Ambinder, Emily B; Xu, Xin; Peters, Matthew E; Dougherty, John W; Vranesic, Melin; Koo, Soo Min; Ahn, Hye-Hyun; Lee, Merton; Cottrell, Chris; Sair, Haris I; Sawa, Akira; Munro, Cynthia A; Nowinski, Christopher J; Dannals, Robert F; Lyketsos, Constantine G; Kassiou, Michael; Smith, Gwenn; Caffo, Brian; Mori, Susumu; Guilarte, Tomas R; Pomper, Martin G

2017-01-01

Microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system, play an important role in the brain's response to injury and neurodegenerative processes. It has been proposed that prolonged microglial activation occurs after single and repeated traumatic brain injury, possibly through sports-related concussive and subconcussive injuries. Limited in vivo brain imaging studies months to years after individuals experience a single moderate to severe traumatic brain injury suggest widespread persistent microglial activation, but there has been little study of persistent glial cell activity in brains of athletes with sports-related traumatic brain injury. To measure translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO), a marker of activated glial cell response, in a cohort of National Football League (NFL) players and control participants, and to report measures of white matter integrity. This cross-sectional, case-control study included young active (n = 4) or former (n = 10) NFL players recruited from across the United States, and 16 age-, sex-, highest educational level-, and body mass index-matched control participants. This study was conducted at an academic research institution in Baltimore, Maryland, from January 29, 2015, to February 18, 2016. Positron emission tomography-based regional measures of TSPO using [11C]DPA-713, diffusion tensor imaging measures of regional white matter integrity, regional volumes on structural magnetic resonance imaging, and neuropsychological performance. The mean (SD) ages of the 14 NFL participants and 16 control participants were 31.3 (6.1) years and 27.6 (4.9) years, respectively. Players reported a mean (SD) of 7.0 (6.4) years (range, 1-21 years) since the last self-reported concussion. Using [11C]DPA-713 positron emission tomographic data from 12 active or former NFL players and 11 matched control participants, the NFL players showed higher total distribution volume in 8 of the 12 brain regions examined (P < .004). We also observed limited change in white matter fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity in 13 players compared with 15 control participants. In contrast, these young players did not differ from control participants in regional brain volumes or in neuropsychological performance. The results suggest that localized brain injury and repair, indicated by higher TSPO signal and white matter changes, may be associated with NFL play. Further study is needed to confirm these findings and to determine whether TSPO signal and white matter changes in young NFL athletes are related to later onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Preliminary pilot fMRI study of neuropostural optimization with a noninvasive asymmetric radioelectric brain stimulation protocol in functional dysmetria

PubMed Central

Mura, Marco; Castagna, Alessandro; Fontani, Vania; Rinaldi, Salvatore

2012-01-01

Purpose This study assessed changes in functional dysmetria (FD) and in brain activation observable by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a leg flexion-extension motor task following brain stimulation with a single radioelectric asymmetric conveyer (REAC) pulse, according to the precisely defined neuropostural optimization (NPO) protocol. Population and methods Ten healthy volunteers were assessed using fMRI conducted during a simple motor task before and immediately after delivery of a single REAC-NPO pulse. The motor task consisted of a flexion-extension movement of the legs with the knees bent. FD signs and brain activation patterns were compared before and after REAC-NPO. Results A single 250-millisecond REAC-NPO treatment alleviated FD, as evidenced by patellar asymmetry during a sit-up motion, and modulated activity patterns in the brain, particularly in the cerebellum, during the performance of the motor task. Conclusion Activity in brain areas involved in motor control and coordination, including the cerebellum, is altered by administration of a REAC-NPO treatment and this effect is accompanied by an alleviation of FD. PMID:22536071

CD38-dependent ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity in developing and adult mouse brain.

PubMed Central

Ceni, Claire; Pochon, Nathalie; Brun, Virginie; Muller-Steffner, Hélène; Andrieux, Annie; Grunwald, Didier; Schuber, Francis; De Waard, Michel; Lund, Frances; Villaz, Michel; Moutin, Marie-Jo

2003-01-01

CD38 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is expressed in many tissues throughout the body. In addition to its major NAD+-glycohydrolase activity, CD38 is also able to synthesize cyclic ADP-ribose, an endogenous calcium-regulating molecule, from NAD+. In the present study, we have compared ADP-ribosyl cyclase and NAD+-glycohydrolase activities in protein extracts of brains from developing and adult wild-type and Cd38 -/- mice. In extracts from wild-type brain, cyclase activity was detected spectrofluorimetrically, using nicotinamide-guanine dinucleotide as a substrate (GDP-ribosyl cyclase activity), as early as embryonic day 15. The level of cyclase activity was similar in the neonate brain (postnatal day 1) and then increased greatly in the adult brain. Using [14C]NAD+ as a substrate and HPLC analysis, we found that ADP-ribose is the major product formed in the brain at all developmental stages. Under the same experimental conditions, neither NAD+-glycohydrolase nor GDP-ribosyl cyclase activity could be detected in extracts of brains from developing or adult Cd38 -/- mice, demonstrating that CD38 is the predominant constitutive enzyme endowed with these activities in brain at all developmental stages. The activity measurements correlated with the level of CD38 transcripts present in the brains of developing and adult wild-type mice. Using confocal microscopy we showed, in primary cultures of hippocampal cells, that CD38 is expressed by both neurons and glial cells, and is enriched in neuronal perikarya. Intracellular NAD+-glycohydrolase activity was measured in hippocampal cell cultures, and CD38-dependent cyclase activity was higher in brain fractions enriched in intracellular membranes. Taken together, these results lead us to speculate that CD38 might have an intracellular location in neural cells in addition to its plasma membrane location, and may play an important role in intracellular cyclic ADP-ribose-mediated calcium signalling in brain tissue. PMID:12403647

Distinct structure and activity of monoamine oxidase in the brain of zebrafish (Danio rerio).

PubMed

Anichtchik, Oleg; Sallinen, Ville; Peitsaro, Nina; Panula, Pertti

2006-10-10

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is a mitochondrial flavoprotein involved in the metabolism of, e.g., aminergic neurotransmitters and the parkinsonism-inducing neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). We have reported earlier MPTP-related alterations of brain catecholaminergic system in zebrafish (Danio rerio) brain. Here we describe the structural and functional properties of zebrafish MAO and the distribution of MAO mRNA and activity in zebrafish brain. The gene is located in chromosome 9 and consists of 15 exons. The amino acid composition of the active center resembles both human MAO-A and MAO-B. The enzyme displayed the highest substrate specificity for tyramine, followed by serotonin, phenylethylamine, MPTP, and dopamine; isoform-specific antagonists blocked the activity of the enzyme with equal potency. Zebrafish MAO mRNA, which was present in several tissues, and enzyme displayed differential distribution in the brain; dopaminergic cell clusters had low to moderate levels of MAO activity, whereas the highest levels of MAO activity were detected in noradrenergic and serotonergic cell groups and the habenulointerpeduncular pathway, including its caudal projection to the medial ventral rhombencephalon. The results of this study confirm the presence of functionally active MAO in zebrafish brain and other tissues and characterize the neural systems that express MAO and areas of intense activity in the brain. They also suggest that MPTP toxicity not related to MAO may affect the zebrafish brain.

Human ecstasy (MDMA) polydrug users have altered brain activation during semantic processing.

PubMed

Watkins, Tristan J; Raj, Vidya; Lee, Junghee; Dietrich, Mary S; Cao, Aize; Blackford, Jennifer U; Salomon, Ronald M; Park, Sohee; Benningfield, Margaret M; Di Iorio, Christina R; Cowan, Ronald L

2013-05-01

Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA]) polydrug users have verbal memory performance that is statistically significantly lower than that of control subjects. Studies have correlated long-term MDMA use with altered brain activation in regions that play a role in verbal memory. The aim of our study was to examine the association of lifetime ecstasy use with semantic memory performance and brain activation in ecstasy polydrug users. A total of 23 abstinent ecstasy polydrug users (age = 24.57 years) and 11 controls (age = 22.36 years) performed a two-part functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) semantic encoding and recognition task. To isolate brain regions activated during each semantic task, we created statistical activation maps in which brain activation was greater for word stimuli than for non-word stimuli (corrected p < 0.05). During the encoding phase, ecstasy polydrug users had greater activation during semantic encoding bilaterally in language processing regions, including Brodmann areas 7, 39, and 40. Of this bilateral activation, signal intensity with a peak T in the right superior parietal lobe was correlated with lifetime ecstasy use (r s = 0.43, p = 0.042). Behavioral performance did not differ between groups. These findings demonstrate that ecstasy polydrug users have increased brain activation during semantic processing. This increase in brain activation in the absence of behavioral deficits suggests that ecstasy polydrug users have reduced cortical efficiency during semantic encoding, possibly secondary to MDMA-induced 5-HT neurotoxicity. Although pre-existing differences cannot be ruled out, this suggests the possibility of a compensatory mechanism allowing ecstasy polydrug users to perform equivalently to controls, providing additional support for an association of altered cerebral neurophysiology with MDMA exposure.

Human ecstasy (MDMA) polydrug users have altered brain activation during semantic processing

PubMed Central

Watkins, Tristan J.; Raj, Vidya; Lee, Junghee; Dietrich, Mary S.; Cao, Aize; Blackford, Jennifer U.; Salomon, Ronald M.; Park, Sohee; Benningfield, Margaret M.; Di Iorio, Christina R.; Cowan, Ronald L.

2012-01-01

Rationale Ecstasy (MDMA) polydrug users have verbal memory performance that is statistically significantly lower than comparison control subjects. Studies have correlated long-term MDMA use with altered brain activation in regions that play a role in verbal memory. Objectives The aim of our study was to examine the association of lifetime ecstasy use with semantic memory performance and brain activation in ecstasy polydrug users. Methods 23 abstinent ecstasy polydrug users (age=24.57) and 11 controls (age=22.36) performed a two-part fMRI semantic encoding and recognition task. To isolate brain regions activated during each semantic task, we created statistical activation maps in which brain activation was greater for word stimuli than for non-word stimuli (corrected p<0.05). Results During the encoding phase, ecstasy polydrug users had greater activation during semantic encoding bilaterally in language processing regions, including Brodmann Areas 7, 39, and 40. Of this bilateral activation, signal intensity with a peak T in the right superior parietal lobe was correlated with lifetime ecstasy use (rs=0.43, p=0.042). Behavioral performance did not differ between groups. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that ecstasy polydrug users have increased brain activation during semantic processing. This increase in brain activation in the absence of behavioral deficits suggests that ecstasy polydrug users have reduced cortical efficiency during semantic encoding, possibly secondary to MDMA-induced 5-HT neurotoxicity. Although pre-existing differences cannot be ruled out, this suggests the possibility of a compensatory mechanism allowing ecstasy polydrug users to perform equivalently to controls, providing additional support for an association of altered cerebral neurophysiology with MDMA exposure. PMID:23241648

Male and female voices activate distinct regions in the male brain.

PubMed

Sokhi, Dilraj S; Hunter, Michael D; Wilkinson, Iain D; Woodruff, Peter W R

2005-09-01

In schizophrenia, auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are likely to be perceived as gender-specific. Given that functional neuro-imaging correlates of AVHs involve multiple brain regions principally including auditory cortex, it is likely that those brain regions responsible for attribution of gender to speech are invoked during AVHs. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a paradigm utilising 'gender-apparent' (unaltered) and 'gender-ambiguous' (pitch-scaled) male and female voice stimuli to test the hypothesis that male and female voices activate distinct brain areas during gender attribution. The perception of female voices, when compared with male voices, affected greater activation of the right anterior superior temporal gyrus, near the superior temporal sulcus. Similarly, male voice perception activated the mesio-parietal precuneus area. These different gender associations could not be explained by either simple pitch perception or behavioural response because the activations that we observed were conjointly activated by both 'gender-apparent' and 'gender-ambiguous' voices. The results of this study demonstrate that, in the male brain, the perception of male and female voices activates distinct brain regions.

Identifying differences in brain activities and an accurate detection of autism spectrum disorder using resting state functional-magnetic resonance imaging : A spatial filtering approach.

PubMed

Subbaraju, Vigneshwaran; Suresh, Mahanand Belathur; Sundaram, Suresh; Narasimhan, Sundararajan

2017-01-01

This paper presents a new approach for detecting major differences in brain activities between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) patients and neurotypical subjects using the resting state fMRI. Further the method also extracts discriminative features for an accurate diagnosis of ASD. The proposed approach determines a spatial filter that projects the covariance matrices of the Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) time-series signals from both the ASD patients and neurotypical subjects in orthogonal directions such that they are highly separable. The inverse of this filter also provides a spatial pattern map within the brain that highlights those regions responsible for the distinguishable activities between the ASD patients and neurotypical subjects. For a better classification, highly discriminative log-variance features providing the maximum separation between the two classes are extracted from the projected BOLD time-series data. A detailed study has been carried out using the publicly available data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) consortium for the different gender and age-groups. The study results indicate that for all the above categories, the regional differences in resting state activities are more commonly found in the right hemisphere compared to the left hemisphere of the brain. Among males, a clear shift in activities to the prefrontal cortex is observed for ASD patients while other parts of the brain show diminished activities compared to neurotypical subjects. Among females, such a clear shift is not evident; however, several regions, especially in the posterior and medial portions of the brain show diminished activities due to ASD. Finally, the classification performance obtained using the log-variance features is found to be better when compared to earlier studies in the literature. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Brain activity during driving with distraction: an immersive fMRI study

PubMed Central

Schweizer, Tom A.; Kan, Karen; Hung, Yuwen; Tam, Fred; Naglie, Gary; Graham, Simon J.

2013-01-01

Introduction: Non-invasive measurements of brain activity have an important role to play in understanding driving ability. The current study aimed to identify the neural underpinnings of human driving behavior by visualizing the areas of the brain involved in driving under different levels of demand, such as driving while distracted or making left turns at busy intersections. Materials and Methods: To capture brain activity during driving, we placed a driving simulator with a fully functional steering wheel and pedals in a 3.0 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) system. To identify the brain areas involved while performing different real-world driving maneuvers, participants completed tasks ranging from simple (right turns) to more complex (left turns at busy intersections). To assess the effects of driving while distracted, participants were asked to perform an auditory task while driving analogous to speaking on a hands-free device and driving. Results: A widely distributed brain network was identified, especially when making left turns at busy intersections compared to more simple driving tasks. During distracted driving, brain activation shifted dramatically from the posterior, visual and spatial areas to the prefrontal cortex. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the distracted brain sacrificed areas in the posterior brain important for visual attention and alertness to recruit enough brain resources to perform a secondary, cognitive task. The present findings offer important new insights into the scientific understanding of the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of driving behavior and lay down an important foundation for future clinical research. PMID:23450757

Test-Retest Reliability of Brain Activation Using the Face-Name Paired-Associates fMRI Task in Patients with Schizophrenia and Healthy Controls

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Louis, Chelsey N.

Schizophrenia is a neurological disorder associated with cognitive impairments, and clinical symptoms of hallucinations and delusions. Recent imaging and behavioral studies have repeatedly shown aberrant brain activity in the hippocampal regions in relation to episodic memory impairments associated with schizophrenia. These findings have warranted further research to elucidate the neural processes associated with episodic memory. Therefore, the current study examined activity in a priori brain regions associated with episodic memory using the face-name paired-associates fMRI task to determine whether there was reliable activation patterns observed in healthy subjects and patients with self-reported schizophrenia. This was evaluated by using ROI analysis and whole brain analysis to examine activity between subjects during a session, and by using Pearson's R correlation coefficients to examine test-retest reliability over time. 30 schizophrenic (SZ) patients and 31 healthy control (HC) volunteers underwent a series of assessments including the fMRI behavioral task, face-name paired-associates task. The tests were conducted twice with a 14-day interval for the subjects. The results indicated no reliable brain activation in the hippocampus between scanning sessions for either the SZ or HC groups. However, distinct activation patterns were observed within sessions for both groups. These patterns were observed in the hippocampus, and regions of the frontal lobe and occipital lobe. Future studies should further explore these brain activity patterns across sessions in SZ patients compared to HC subjects to determine whether these patterns are due to pathological mechanisms associated with schizophrenia.

The change of the brain activation patterns as children learn algebra equation solving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Yulin; Carter, Cameron S.; Silk, Eli M.; Stenger, V. Andrew; Fissell, Kate; Goode, Adam; Anderson, John R.

2004-04-01

In a brain imaging study of children learning algebra, it is shown that the same regions are active in children solving equations as are active in experienced adults solving equations. As with adults, practice in symbol manipulation produces a reduced activation in prefrontal cortex area. However, unlike adults, practice seems also to produce a decrease in a parietal area that is holding an image of the equation. This finding suggests that adolescents' brain responses are more plastic and change more with practice. These results are integrated in a cognitive model that predicts both the behavioral and brain imaging results.

Novel neuroprotective and hepatoprotective effects of citric acid in acute malathion intoxication.

PubMed

Abdel-Salam, Omar M E; Youness, Eman R; Mohammed, Nadia A; Yassen, Noha N; Khadrawy, Yasser A; El-Toukhy, Safinaz Ebrahim; Sleem, Amany A

2016-12-01

To study the effect of citric acid given alone or combined with atropine on brain oxidative stress, neuronal injury, liver damage, and DNA damage of peripheral blood lymphocytes induced in the rat by acute malathion exposure. Rats were received intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of malathion 150 mg/kg along with citric acid (200 or 400 mg/kg, orally), atropine (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or citric acid 200 mg/kg + atropine 1 mg/kg and euthanized 4 h later. Malathion resulted in increased lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde) and nitric oxide concentrations accompanied with a decrease in brain reduced glutathione, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and glucose concentrations. Paraoxonase-1, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase activities decreased in brain as well. Liver aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase activities were raised. The comet assay showed increased DNA damage of peripheral blood lymphocytes. Histological damage and increased expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were observed in brain and liver. Citric acid resulted in decreased brain lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide. Meanwhile, glutathione, GPx activity, TAC capacity and brain glucose level increased. Brain AChE increased but PON1 and butyrylcholinesterase activities decreased by citric acid. Liver enzymes, the percentage of damaged blood lymphocytes, histopathological alterations and iNOS expression in brain and liver was decreased by citric acid. Meanwhile, rats treated with atropine showed decreased brain MDA, nitrite but increased GPx activity, TAC, AChE and glucose. The drug also decreased DNA damage of peripheral blood lymphocytes, histopathological alterations and iNOS expression in brain and liver. The study demonstrates a beneficial effect for citric acid upon brain oxidative stress, neuronal injury, liver and DNA damage due to acute malathion exposure. Copyright © 2016 Hainan Medical University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mapping the human brain during a specific Vojta's tactile input: the ipsilateral putamen's role

PubMed Central

Sanz-Esteban, Ismael; Calvo-Lobo, Cesar; Ríos-Lago, Marcos; Álvarez-Linera, Juan; Muñoz-García, Daniel; Rodríguez-Sanz, David

2018-01-01

Abstract A century of research in human brain parcellation has demonstrated that different brain areas are associated with functional tasks. New neuroscientist perspectives to achieve the parcellation of the human brain have been developed to know the brain areas activation and its relationship with different stimuli. This descriptive study aimed to compare brain regions activation by specific tactile input (STI) stimuli according to the Vojta protocol (STI-group) to a non-STI stimulation (non-STI-group). An exploratory functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was performed. The 2 groups of participants were passively stimulated by an expert physical therapist using the same paradigm structure, although differing in the place of stimulation. The stimulation was presented to participants using a block design in all cases. A sample of 16 healthy participants, 5 men and 11 women, with mean age 31.31 ± 8.13 years was recruited. Indeed, 12 participants were allocated in the STI-group and 4 participants in the non-STI-group. fMRI was used to map the human brain in vivo while these tactile stimuli were being applied. Data were analyzed using a general linear model in SPM12 implemented in MATLAB. Differences between groups showed a greater activation in the right cortical areas (temporal and frontal lobes), subcortical regions (thalamus, brainstem, and basal nuclei), and in the cerebellum (anterior lobe). STI-group had specific difference brain activation areas, such as the ipsilateral putamen. Future studies should study clinical implications in neurorehabilitation patients. PMID:29595683

Post-Activation Brain Warming: A 1-H MRS Thermometry Study

PubMed Central

Rango, Mario; Bonifati, Cristiana; Bresolin, Nereo

2015-01-01

Purpose Temperature plays a fundamental role for the proper functioning of the brain. However, there are only fragmentary data on brain temperature (Tbr) and its regulation under different physiological conditions. Methods We studied Tbr in the visual cortex of 20 normal subjects serially with a wide temporal window under different states including rest, activation and recovery by a visual stimulation-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Thermometry combined approach. We also studied Tbr in a control region, the centrum semiovale, under the same conditions. Results Visual cortex mean baseline Tbr was higher than mean body temperature (37.38 vs 36.60, P<0.001). During activation Tbr remained unchanged at first and then showed a small decrease (-0.20 C°) around the baseline value. After the end of activation Tbr increased consistently (+0.60 C°) and then returned to baseline values after some minutes. Centrum semiovale Tbr remained unchanged through rest, visual stimulation and recovery. Conclusion These findings have several implications, among them that neuronal firing itself is not a major source of heat release in the brain and that there is an aftermath of brain activation that lasts minutes before returning to baseline conditions. PMID:26011731

Variations in brain defects result from cellular mosaicism in the activation of heat shock signalling.

PubMed

Ishii, Seiji; Torii, Masaaki; Son, Alexander I; Rajendraprasad, Meenu; Morozov, Yury M; Kawasawa, Yuka Imamura; Salzberg, Anna C; Fujimoto, Mitsuaki; Brennand, Kristen; Nakai, Akira; Mezger, Valerie; Gage, Fred H; Rakic, Pasko; Hashimoto-Torii, Kazue

2017-05-02

Repetitive prenatal exposure to identical or similar doses of harmful agents results in highly variable and unpredictable negative effects on fetal brain development ranging in severity from high to little or none. However, the molecular and cellular basis of this variability is not well understood. This study reports that exposure of mouse and human embryonic brain tissues to equal doses of harmful chemicals, such as ethanol, activates the primary stress response transcription factor heat shock factor 1 (Hsf1) in a highly variable and stochastic manner. While Hsf1 is essential for protecting the embryonic brain from environmental stress, excessive activation impairs critical developmental events such as neuronal migration. Our results suggest that mosaic activation of Hsf1 within the embryonic brain in response to prenatal environmental stress exposure may contribute to the resulting generation of phenotypic variations observed in complex congenital brain disorders.

Optogenetic mapping of brain circuitry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Augustine, George J.; Berglund, Ken; Gill, Harin; Hoffmann, Carolin; Katarya, Malvika; Kim, Jinsook; Kudolo, John; Lee, Li M.; Lee, Molly; Lo, Daniel; Nakajima, Ryuichi; Park, Min Yoon; Tan, Gregory; Tang, Yanxia; Teo, Peggy; Tsuda, Sachiko; Wen, Lei; Yoon, Su-In

2012-10-01

Studies of the brain promise to be revolutionized by new experimental strategies that harness the combined power of optical techniques and genetics. We have mapped the circuitry of the mouse brain by using both optogenetic actuators that control neuronal activity and optogenetic sensors that detect neuronal activity. Using the light-activated cation channel, channelrhodopsin-2, to locally photostimulate neurons allows high-speed mapping of local and long-range circuitry. For example, with this approach we have mapped local circuits in the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and many other brain regions. Using the fluorescent sensor for chloride ions, Clomeleon, allows imaging of the spatial and temporal dimensions of inhibitory circuits in the brain. This approach allows imaging of both conventional "phasic" synaptic inhibition as well as unconventional "tonic" inhibition. The combined use of light to both control and monitor neural activity creates unprecedented opportunities to explore brain function, screen pharmaceutical agents, and potentially to use light to ameliorate psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Isolated spinal cord contusion in rats induces chronic brain neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and cognitive impairment. Involvement of cell cycle activation.

PubMed

Wu, Junfang; Stoica, Bogdan A; Luo, Tao; Sabirzhanov, Boris; Zhao, Zaorui; Guanciale, Kelsey; Nayar, Suresh K; Foss, Catherine A; Pomper, Martin G; Faden, Alan I

2014-01-01

Cognitive dysfunction has been reported in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), but it has been questioned whether such changes may reflect concurrent head injury, and the issue has not been addressed mechanistically or in a well-controlled experimental model. Our recent rodent studies examining SCI-induced hyperesthesia revealed neuroinflammatory changes not only in supratentorial pain-regulatory sites, but also in other brain regions, suggesting that additional brain functions may be impacted following SCI. Here we examined effects of isolated thoracic SCI in rats on cognition, brain inflammation, and neurodegeneration. We show for the first time that SCI causes widespread microglial activation in the brain, with increased expression of markers for activated microglia/macrophages, including translocator protein and chemokine ligand 21 (C-C motif). Stereological analysis demonstrated significant neuronal loss in the cortex, thalamus, and hippocampus. SCI caused chronic impairment in spatial, retention, contextual, and fear-related emotional memory-evidenced by poor performance in the Morris water maze, novel objective recognition, and passive avoidance tests. Based on our prior work implicating cell cycle activation (CCA) in chronic neuroinflammation after SCI or traumatic brain injury, we evaluated whether CCA contributed to the observed changes. Increased expression of cell cycle-related genes and proteins was found in hippocampus and cortex after SCI. Posttraumatic brain inflammation, neuronal loss, and cognitive changes were attenuated by systemic post-injury administration of a selective cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. These studies demonstrate that chronic brain neurodegeneration occurs after isolated SCI, likely related to sustained microglial activation mediated by cell cycle activation.

The Brain as a Distributed Intelligent Processing System: An EEG Study

PubMed Central

da Rocha, Armando Freitas; Rocha, Fábio Theoto; Massad, Eduardo

2011-01-01

Background Various neuroimaging studies, both structural and functional, have provided support for the proposal that a distributed brain network is likely to be the neural basis of intelligence. The theory of Distributed Intelligent Processing Systems (DIPS), first developed in the field of Artificial Intelligence, was proposed to adequately model distributed neural intelligent processing. In addition, the neural efficiency hypothesis suggests that individuals with higher intelligence display more focused cortical activation during cognitive performance, resulting in lower total brain activation when compared with individuals who have lower intelligence. This may be understood as a property of the DIPS. Methodology and Principal Findings In our study, a new EEG brain mapping technique, based on the neural efficiency hypothesis and the notion of the brain as a Distributed Intelligence Processing System, was used to investigate the correlations between IQ evaluated with WAIS (Whechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) and WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children), and the brain activity associated with visual and verbal processing, in order to test the validity of a distributed neural basis for intelligence. Conclusion The present results support these claims and the neural efficiency hypothesis. PMID:21423657

Spatio-Temporal Brain Mapping of Motion-Onset VEPs Combined with fMRI and Retinotopic Maps

PubMed Central

Pitzalis, Sabrina; Strappini, Francesca; De Gasperis, Marco; Bultrini, Alessandro; Di Russo, Francesco

2012-01-01

Neuroimaging studies have identified several motion-sensitive visual areas in the human brain, but the time course of their activation cannot be measured with these techniques. In the present study, we combined electrophysiological and neuroimaging methods (including retinotopic brain mapping) to determine the spatio-temporal profile of motion-onset visual evoked potentials for slow and fast motion stimuli and to localize its neural generators. We found that cortical activity initiates in the primary visual area (V1) for slow stimuli, peaking 100 ms after the onset of motion. Subsequently, activity in the mid-temporal motion-sensitive areas, MT+, peaked at 120 ms, followed by peaks in activity in the more dorsal area, V3A, at 160 ms and the lateral occipital complex at 180 ms. Approximately 250 ms after stimulus onset, activity fast motion stimuli was predominant in area V6 along the parieto-occipital sulcus. Finally, at 350 ms (100 ms after the motion offset) brain activity was visible again in area V1. For fast motion stimuli, the spatio-temporal brain pattern was similar, except that the first activity was detected at 70 ms in area MT+. Comparing functional magnetic resonance data for slow vs. fast motion, we found signs of slow-fast motion stimulus topography along the posterior brain in at least three cortical regions (MT+, V3A and LOR). PMID:22558222

Brain-to-Brain Synchrony Tracks Real-World Dynamic Group Interactions in the Classroom.

PubMed

Dikker, Suzanne; Wan, Lu; Davidesco, Ido; Kaggen, Lisa; Oostrik, Matthias; McClintock, James; Rowland, Jess; Michalareas, Georgios; Van Bavel, Jay J; Ding, Mingzhou; Poeppel, David

2017-05-08

The human brain has evolved for group living [1]. Yet we know so little about how it supports dynamic group interactions that the study of real-world social exchanges has been dubbed the "dark matter of social neuroscience" [2]. Recently, various studies have begun to approach this question by comparing brain responses of multiple individuals during a variety of (semi-naturalistic) tasks [3-15]. These experiments reveal how stimulus properties [13], individual differences [14], and contextual factors [15] may underpin similarities and differences in neural activity across people. However, most studies to date suffer from various limitations: they often lack direct face-to-face interaction between participants, are typically limited to dyads, do not investigate social dynamics across time, and, crucially, they rarely study social behavior under naturalistic circumstances. Here we extend such experimentation drastically, beyond dyads and beyond laboratory walls, to identify neural markers of group engagement during dynamic real-world group interactions. We used portable electroencephalogram (EEG) to simultaneously record brain activity from a class of 12 high school students over the course of a semester (11 classes) during regular classroom activities (Figures 1A-1C; Supplemental Experimental Procedures, section S1). A novel analysis technique to assess group-based neural coherence demonstrates that the extent to which brain activity is synchronized across students predicts both student class engagement and social dynamics. This suggests that brain-to-brain synchrony is a possible neural marker for dynamic social interactions, likely driven by shared attention mechanisms. This study validates a promising new method to investigate the neuroscience of group interactions in ecologically natural settings. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Reward-related brain response and craving correlates of marijuana cue exposure: a preliminary study in treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects.

PubMed

Goldman, Marina; Szucs-Reed, Regina P; Jagannathan, Kanchana; Ehrman, Ronald N; Wang, Ze; Li, Yin; Suh, Jesse J; Kampman, Kyle; O'Brien, Charles P; Childress, Anna Rose; Franklin, Teresa R

2013-01-01

: Determining the brain substrates underlying the motivation to abuse addictive drugs is critical for understanding and treating addictive disorders. Laboratory neuroimaging studies have demonstrated differential activation of limbic and motivational circuitry (eg, amygdala, hippocampus, ventral striatum, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex) triggered by cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol cues. The literature on neural responses to marijuana cues is sparse. Thus, the goals of this study were to characterize the brain's response to marijuana cues, a major motivator underlying drug use and relapse, and determine whether these responses are linked to self-reported craving in a clinically relevant population of treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects. : Marijuana craving was assessed in 12 marijuana-dependent subjects using the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire-Short Form. Subsequently, blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired during exposure to alternating 20-second blocks of marijuana-related versus matched nondrug visual cues. : Brain activation during marijuana cue exposure was significantly greater in the bilateral amygdala and the hippocampus. Significant positive correlations between craving scores and brain activation were found in the ventral striatum and the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (P < 0.0001). : This study presents direct evidence for a link between reward-relevant brain responses to marijuana cues and craving and extends the current literature on marijuana cue reactivity. Furthermore, the correlative relationship between craving and brain activity in reward-related regions was observed in a clinically relevant sample (treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects). Results are consistent with prior findings in cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol cue studies, indicating that the brain substrates of cue-triggered drug motivation are shared across abused substances.

Decoding brain responses to pixelized images in the primary visual cortex: implications for visual cortical prostheses

PubMed Central

Guo, Bing-bing; Zheng, Xiao-lin; Lu, Zhen-gang; Wang, Xing; Yin, Zheng-qin; Hou, Wen-sheng; Meng, Ming

2015-01-01

Visual cortical prostheses have the potential to restore partial vision. Still limited by the low-resolution visual percepts provided by visual cortical prostheses, implant wearers can currently only “see” pixelized images, and how to obtain the specific brain responses to different pixelized images in the primary visual cortex (the implant area) is still unknown. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment on normal human participants to investigate the brain activation patterns in response to 18 different pixelized images. There were 100 voxels in the brain activation pattern that were selected from the primary visual cortex, and voxel size was 4 mm × 4 mm × 4 mm. Multi-voxel pattern analysis was used to test if these 18 different brain activation patterns were specific. We chose a Linear Support Vector Machine (LSVM) as the classifier in this study. The results showed that the classification accuracies of different brain activation patterns were significantly above chance level, which suggests that the classifier can successfully distinguish the brain activation patterns. Our results suggest that the specific brain activation patterns to different pixelized images can be obtained in the primary visual cortex using a 4 mm × 4 mm × 4 mm voxel size and a 100-voxel pattern. PMID:26692860

Whole-Brain Mapping of Neuronal Activity in the Learned Helplessness Model of Depression

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kim, Yongsoo; Perova, Zinaida; Mirrione, Martine M.

Some individuals are resilient, whereas others succumb to despair in repeated stressful situations. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such divergent behavioral responses remain unclear. Here, we employed an automated method for mapping neuronal activity in search of signatures of stress responses in the entire mouse brain. We used serial two-photon tomography to detect expression of c-FosGFP – a marker of neuronal activation – in c-fosGFP transgenic mice subjected to the learned helplessness (LH) procedure, a widely used model of stress-induced depression-like phenotype in laboratory animals. We found that mice showing “helpless” behavior had an overall brain-wide reduction in the level ofmore » neuronal activation compared with mice showing “resilient” behavior, with the exception of a few brain areas, including the locus coeruleus, that were more activated in the helpless mice. In addition, the helpless mice showed a strong trend of having higher similarity in whole-brain activity profile among individuals, suggesting that helplessness is represented by a more stereotypic brain-wide activation pattern. This latter effect was confirmed in rats subjected to the LH procedure, using 2-deoxy-2[18F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography to assess neural activity. In conclusion, our findings reveal distinct brain activity markings that correlate with adaptive and maladaptive behavioral responses tostress, and provide a framework for further studies investigating the contribution of specific brain regions to maladaptive stress responses.« less

Whole-Brain Mapping of Neuronal Activity in the Learned Helplessness Model of Depression

DOE PAGES

Kim, Yongsoo; Perova, Zinaida; Mirrione, Martine M.; ...

2016-02-03

Some individuals are resilient, whereas others succumb to despair in repeated stressful situations. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such divergent behavioral responses remain unclear. Here, we employed an automated method for mapping neuronal activity in search of signatures of stress responses in the entire mouse brain. We used serial two-photon tomography to detect expression of c-FosGFP – a marker of neuronal activation – in c-fosGFP transgenic mice subjected to the learned helplessness (LH) procedure, a widely used model of stress-induced depression-like phenotype in laboratory animals. We found that mice showing “helpless” behavior had an overall brain-wide reduction in the level ofmore » neuronal activation compared with mice showing “resilient” behavior, with the exception of a few brain areas, including the locus coeruleus, that were more activated in the helpless mice. In addition, the helpless mice showed a strong trend of having higher similarity in whole-brain activity profile among individuals, suggesting that helplessness is represented by a more stereotypic brain-wide activation pattern. This latter effect was confirmed in rats subjected to the LH procedure, using 2-deoxy-2[18F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography to assess neural activity. In conclusion, our findings reveal distinct brain activity markings that correlate with adaptive and maladaptive behavioral responses tostress, and provide a framework for further studies investigating the contribution of specific brain regions to maladaptive stress responses.« less

Whole-Brain Mapping of Neuronal Activity in the Learned Helplessness Model of Depression

PubMed Central

Kim, Yongsoo; Perova, Zinaida; Mirrione, Martine M.; Pradhan, Kith; Henn, Fritz A.; Shea, Stephen; Osten, Pavel; Li, Bo

2016-01-01

Some individuals are resilient, whereas others succumb to despair in repeated stressful situations. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such divergent behavioral responses remain unclear. Here, we employed an automated method for mapping neuronal activity in search of signatures of stress responses in the entire mouse brain. We used serial two-photon tomography to detect expression of c-FosGFP – a marker of neuronal activation – in c-fosGFP transgenic mice subjected to the learned helplessness (LH) procedure, a widely used model of stress-induced depression-like phenotype in laboratory animals. We found that mice showing “helpless” behavior had an overall brain-wide reduction in the level of neuronal activation compared with mice showing “resilient” behavior, with the exception of a few brain areas, including the locus coeruleus, that were more activated in the helpless mice. In addition, the helpless mice showed a strong trend of having higher similarity in whole-brain activity profile among individuals, suggesting that helplessness is represented by a more stereotypic brain-wide activation pattern. This latter effect was confirmed in rats subjected to the LH procedure, using 2-deoxy-2[18F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography to assess neural activity. Our findings reveal distinct brain activity markings that correlate with adaptive and maladaptive behavioral responses to stress, and provide a framework for further studies investigating the contribution of specific brain regions to maladaptive stress responses. PMID:26869888

Neural basis of exertional fatigue in the heat: A review of magnetic resonance imaging methods.

PubMed

Tan, X R; Low, I C C; Stephenson, M C; Soong, T W; Lee, J K W

2018-03-01

The central nervous system, specifically the brain, is implicated in the development of exertional fatigue under a hot environment. Diverse neuroimaging techniques have been used to visualize the brain activity during or after exercise. Notably, the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become prevalent due to its excellent spatial resolution and versatility. This review evaluates the significance and limitations of various brain MRI techniques in exercise studies-brain volumetric analysis, functional MRI, functional connectivity MRI, and arterial spin labeling. The review aims to provide a summary on the neural basis of exertional fatigue and proposes future directions for brain MRI studies. A systematic literature search was performed where a total of thirty-seven brain MRI studies associated with exercise, fatigue, or related physiological factors were reviewed. The findings suggest that with moderate dehydration, there is a decrease in total brain volume accompanied with expansion of ventricular volume. With exercise fatigue, there is increased activation of sensorimotor and cognitive brain areas, increased thalamo-insular activation and decreased interhemispheric connectivity in motor cortex. Under passive hyperthermia, there are regional changes in cerebral perfusion, a reduction in local connectivity in functional brain networks and an impairment to executive function. Current literature suggests that the brain structure and function are influenced by exercise, fatigue, and related physiological perturbations. However, there is still a dearth of knowledge and it is hoped that through understanding of MRI advantages and limitations, future studies will shed light on the central origin of exertional fatigue in the heat. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Spontaneous Brain Activity Did Not Show the Effect of Violent Video Games on Aggression: A Resting-State fMRI Study.

PubMed

Pan, Wei; Gao, Xuemei; Shi, Shuo; Liu, Fuqu; Li, Chao

2017-01-01

A great many of empirical researches have proved that longtime exposure to violent video game can lead to a series of negative effects. Although research has focused on the neural basis of the correlation between violent video game and aggression, little is known whether the spontaneous brain activity is associated with violent video game exposure. To address this question, we measured the spontaneous brain activity using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF) to quantify spontaneous brain activity. The results showed there is no significant difference in ALFF, or fALFF, between violent video game group and the control part, indicating that long time exposure to violent video games won't significantly influence spontaneous brain activity, especially the core brain regions such as execution control, moral judgment and short-term memory. This implies the adverse impact of violent video games is exaggerated.

Spontaneous Brain Activity Did Not Show the Effect of Violent Video Games on Aggression: A Resting-State fMRI Study

PubMed Central

Pan, Wei; Gao, Xuemei; Shi, Shuo; Liu, Fuqu; Li, Chao

2018-01-01

A great many of empirical researches have proved that longtime exposure to violent video game can lead to a series of negative effects. Although research has focused on the neural basis of the correlation between violent video game and aggression, little is known whether the spontaneous brain activity is associated with violent video game exposure. To address this question, we measured the spontaneous brain activity using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF) to quantify spontaneous brain activity. The results showed there is no significant difference in ALFF, or fALFF, between violent video game group and the control part, indicating that long time exposure to violent video games won’t significantly influence spontaneous brain activity, especially the core brain regions such as execution control, moral judgment and short-term memory. This implies the adverse impact of violent video games is exaggerated. PMID:29375416

Hydrogen inhalation ameliorated mast cell-mediated brain injury after intracerebral hemorrhage in mice.

PubMed

Manaenko, Anatol; Lekic, Tim; Ma, Qingyi; Zhang, John H; Tang, Jiping

2013-05-01

Hydrogen inhalation was neuroprotective in several brain injury models. Its mechanisms are believed to be related to antioxidative stress. We investigated the potential neurovascular protective effect of hydrogen inhalation especially effect on mast cell activation in a mouse model of intracerebral hemorrhage. Controlled in vivo laboratory study. Animal research laboratory. One hundred seventy-one 8-week-old male CD-1 mice were used. Collagenase-induced intracerebral hemorrhage model in 8-week-old male CD-1 mice was used. Hydrogen was administrated via spontaneous inhalation. The blood-brain barrier permeability and neurologic deficits were investigated at 24 and 72 hours after intracerebral hemorrhage. Mast cell activation was evaluated by Western blot and immuno-staining. The effects of hydrogen inhalation on mast cell activation were confirmed in an autologous blood injection model intracerebral hemorrhage. At 24 and 72 hours post intracerebral hemorrhage, animals showed blood-brain barrier disruption, brain edema, and neurologic deficits, accompanied with phosphorylation of Lyn kinase and release of tryptase, indicating mast cell activation. Hydrogen treatment diminished phosphorylation of Lyn kinase and release of tryptase, decreased accumulation and degranulation of mast cells, attenuated blood-brain barrier disruption, and improved neurobehavioral function. Activation of mast cells following intracerebral hemorrhage contributed to increase of blood-brain barrier permeability and brain edema. Hydrogen inhalation preserved blood-brain barrier disruption by prevention of mast cell activation after intracerebral hemorrhage.

Asymmetrical brain activity induced by voluntary spatial attention depends on the visual hemifield: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

PubMed

Harasawa, Masamitsu; Shioiri, Satoshi

2011-04-01

The effect of the visual hemifield to which spatial attention was oriented on the activities of the posterior parietal and occipital visual cortices was examined using functional near-infrared spectroscopy in order to investigate the neural substrates of voluntary visuospatial attention. Our brain imaging data support the theory put forth in a previous psychophysical study, namely, the attentional resources for the left and right visual hemifields are distinct. Increasing the attentional load asymmetrically increased the brain activity. Increase in attentional load produced a greater increase in brain activity in the case of the left visual hemifield than in the case of the right visual hemifield. This asymmetry was observed in all the examined brain areas, including the right and left occipital and parietal cortices. These results suggest the existence of asymmetrical inhibitory interactions between the hemispheres and the presence of an extensive inhibitory network. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

ICA model order selection of task co-activation networks.

PubMed

Ray, Kimberly L; McKay, D Reese; Fox, Peter M; Riedel, Michael C; Uecker, Angela M; Beckmann, Christian F; Smith, Stephen M; Fox, Peter T; Laird, Angela R

2013-01-01

Independent component analysis (ICA) has become a widely used method for extracting functional networks in the brain during rest and task. Historically, preferred ICA dimensionality has widely varied within the neuroimaging community, but typically varies between 20 and 100 components. This can be problematic when comparing results across multiple studies because of the impact ICA dimensionality has on the topology of its resultant components. Recent studies have demonstrated that ICA can be applied to peak activation coordinates archived in a large neuroimaging database (i.e., BrainMap Database) to yield whole-brain task-based co-activation networks. A strength of applying ICA to BrainMap data is that the vast amount of metadata in BrainMap can be used to quantitatively assess tasks and cognitive processes contributing to each component. In this study, we investigated the effect of model order on the distribution of functional properties across networks as a method for identifying the most informative decompositions of BrainMap-based ICA components. Our findings suggest dimensionality of 20 for low model order ICA to examine large-scale brain networks, and dimensionality of 70 to provide insight into how large-scale networks fractionate into sub-networks. We also provide a functional and organizational assessment of visual, motor, emotion, and interoceptive task co-activation networks as they fractionate from low to high model-orders.

ICA model order selection of task co-activation networks

PubMed Central

Ray, Kimberly L.; McKay, D. Reese; Fox, Peter M.; Riedel, Michael C.; Uecker, Angela M.; Beckmann, Christian F.; Smith, Stephen M.; Fox, Peter T.; Laird, Angela R.

2013-01-01

Independent component analysis (ICA) has become a widely used method for extracting functional networks in the brain during rest and task. Historically, preferred ICA dimensionality has widely varied within the neuroimaging community, but typically varies between 20 and 100 components. This can be problematic when comparing results across multiple studies because of the impact ICA dimensionality has on the topology of its resultant components. Recent studies have demonstrated that ICA can be applied to peak activation coordinates archived in a large neuroimaging database (i.e., BrainMap Database) to yield whole-brain task-based co-activation networks. A strength of applying ICA to BrainMap data is that the vast amount of metadata in BrainMap can be used to quantitatively assess tasks and cognitive processes contributing to each component. In this study, we investigated the effect of model order on the distribution of functional properties across networks as a method for identifying the most informative decompositions of BrainMap-based ICA components. Our findings suggest dimensionality of 20 for low model order ICA to examine large-scale brain networks, and dimensionality of 70 to provide insight into how large-scale networks fractionate into sub-networks. We also provide a functional and organizational assessment of visual, motor, emotion, and interoceptive task co-activation networks as they fractionate from low to high model-orders. PMID:24339802

Affection of Fundamental Brain Activity By Using Sounds For Patients With Prosodic Disorders: A Pilot Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Imai, Emiko; Katagiri, Yoshitada; Seki, Keiko; Kawamata, Toshio

2011-06-01

We present a neural model of the production of modulated speech streams in the brain, referred to as prosody, which indicates the limbic structure essential for producing prosody both linguistically and emotionally. This model suggests that activating the fundamental brain including monoamine neurons at the basal ganglia will potentially contribute to helping patients with prosodic disorders coming from functional defects of the fundamental brain to overcome their speech problem. To establish effective clinical treatment for such prosodic disorders, we examine how sounds affect the fundamental activity by using electroencephalographic measurements. Throughout examinations with various melodious sounds, we found that some melodies with lilting rhythms successfully give rise to the fast alpha rhythms at the electroencephalogram which reflect the fundamental brain activity without any negative feelings.

Studies on the Role of N-Acetylaspartic Acid in Mammalian Brain

PubMed Central

Jacobson, K. Bruce

1959-01-01

N-Acetylaspartic acid (NAA) occurs at relatively high concentrations exclusively in the mammalian and avian brain and undergoes rapid rise in level soon after birth (Tallan, 1957). The amount of NAA in brains of mentally abnormal human beings and of young human beings was measured. The route by which NAA is synthesized was shown to involve a direct acetylation of aspartic acid. The degradative activity of the brain toward NAA is slight. Some experiments indicate that NAA in the brain is a physiologically and metabolically active compound. PMID:14406413

Estimating direction in brain-behavior interactions: Proactive and reactive brain states in driving.

PubMed

Garcia, Javier O; Brooks, Justin; Kerick, Scott; Johnson, Tony; Mullen, Tim R; Vettel, Jean M

2017-04-15

Conventional neuroimaging analyses have ascribed function to particular brain regions, exploiting the power of the subtraction technique in fMRI and event-related potential analyses in EEG. Moving beyond this convention, many researchers have begun exploring network-based neurodynamics and coordination between brain regions as a function of behavioral parameters or environmental statistics; however, most approaches average evoked activity across the experimental session to study task-dependent networks. Here, we examined on-going oscillatory activity as measured with EEG and use a methodology to estimate directionality in brain-behavior interactions. After source reconstruction, activity within specific frequency bands (delta: 2-3Hz; theta: 4-7Hz; alpha: 8-12Hz; beta: 13-25Hz) in a priori regions of interest was linked to continuous behavioral measurements, and we used a predictive filtering scheme to estimate the asymmetry between brain-to-behavior and behavior-to-brain prediction using a variant of Granger causality. We applied this approach to a simulated driving task and examined directed relationships between brain activity and continuous driving performance (steering behavior or vehicle heading error). Our results indicated that two neuro-behavioral states may be explored with this methodology: a Proactive brain state that actively plans the response to the sensory information and is characterized by delta-beta activity, and a Reactive brain state that processes incoming information and reacts to environmental statistics primarily within the alpha band. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Estimating repetitive spatiotemporal patterns from resting-state brain activity data.

PubMed

Takeda, Yusuke; Hiroe, Nobuo; Yamashita, Okito; Sato, Masa-Aki

2016-06-01

Repetitive spatiotemporal patterns in spontaneous brain activities have been widely examined in non-human studies. These studies have reported that such patterns reflect past experiences embedded in neural circuits. In human magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) studies, however, spatiotemporal patterns in resting-state brain activities have not been extensively examined. This is because estimating spatiotemporal patterns from resting-state MEG/EEG data is difficult due to their unknown onsets. Here, we propose a method to estimate repetitive spatiotemporal patterns from resting-state brain activity data, including MEG/EEG. Without the information of onsets, the proposed method can estimate several spatiotemporal patterns, even if they are overlapping. We verified the performance of the method by detailed simulation tests. Furthermore, we examined whether the proposed method could estimate the visual evoked magnetic fields (VEFs) without using stimulus onset information. The proposed method successfully detected the stimulus onsets and estimated the VEFs, implying the applicability of this method to real MEG data. The proposed method was applied to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and MEG data. The results revealed informative spatiotemporal patterns representing consecutive brain activities that dynamically change with time. Using this method, it is possible to reveal discrete events spontaneously occurring in our brains, such as memory retrieval. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effects of age, sex, and hormones on emotional conflict-related brain response during adolescence

PubMed Central

Cservenka, Anita; Stroup, Madison L.; Etkin, Amit; Nagel, Bonnie J.

2015-01-01

While cognitive and emotional systems both undergo development during adolescence, few studies have explored top-down inhibitory control brain activity in the context of affective processing, critical to informing adolescent psychopathology. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain response during an Emotional Conflict (EmC) Task across 10–15-year-old youth. During the EmC Task, participants indicated the emotion of facial expressions, while disregarding emotion-congruent and incongruent words printed across the faces. We examined the relationships of age, sex, and gonadal hormones with brain activity on Incongruent vs. Congruent trials. Age was negatively associated with middle frontal gyrus activity, controlling for performance and movement confounds. Sex differences were present in occipital and parietal cortices, and were driven by activation in females, and deactivation in males to Congruent trials. Testosterone was negatively related with frontal and striatal brain response in males, and cerebellar and precuneus response in females. Estradiol was negatively related with fronto-cerebellar, cingulate, and precuneus brain activity in males, and positively related with occipital response in females. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the effects of age, sex, and sex steroids during an emotion-cognition task in adolescents. Further research is needed to examine longitudinal development of emotion-cognition interactions and deviations in psychiatric disorders in adolescence. PMID:26175008

The effects of age, sex, and hormones on emotional conflict-related brain response during adolescence.

PubMed

Cservenka, Anita; Stroup, Madison L; Etkin, Amit; Nagel, Bonnie J

2015-10-01

While cognitive and emotional systems both undergo development during adolescence, few studies have explored top-down inhibitory control brain activity in the context of affective processing, critical to informing adolescent psychopathology. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain response during an Emotional Conflict (EmC) Task across 10-15-year-old youth. During the EmC Task, participants indicated the emotion of facial expressions, while disregarding emotion-congruent and incongruent words printed across the faces. We examined the relationships of age, sex, and gonadal hormones with brain activity on Incongruent vs. Congruent trials. Age was negatively associated with middle frontal gyrus activity, controlling for performance and movement confounds. Sex differences were present in occipital and parietal cortices, and were driven by activation in females, and deactivation in males to Congruent trials. Testosterone was negatively related with frontal and striatal brain response in males, and cerebellar and precuneus response in females. Estradiol was negatively related with fronto-cerebellar, cingulate, and precuneus brain activity in males, and positively related with occipital response in females. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the effects of age, sex, and sex steroids during an emotion-cognition task in adolescents. Further research is needed to examine longitudinal development of emotion-cognition interactions and deviations in psychiatric disorders in adolescence. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rapid whole brain imaging of neural activity in freely behaving larval zebrafish (Danio rerio)

PubMed Central

Shang, Chunfeng; Yang, Wenbin; Bai, Lu; Du, Jiulin

2017-01-01

The internal brain dynamics that link sensation and action are arguably better studied during natural animal behaviors. Here, we report on a novel volume imaging and 3D tracking technique that monitors whole brain neural activity in freely swimming larval zebrafish (Danio rerio). We demonstrated the capability of our system through functional imaging of neural activity during visually evoked and prey capture behaviors in larval zebrafish. PMID:28930070

[The Changes in the Hemodynamic Activity of the Brain during Moroe Imagery Training with the Use of Brain-Computer Interface].

PubMed

Frolov, A A; Husek, D; Silchenko, A V; Tintera, Y; Rydlo, J

2016-01-01

With the use of functional MRI (fMRI), we studied the changes in brain hemodynamic activity of healthy subjects during motor imagery training with the use brain-computer interface (BCI), which is based on the recognition of EEG patterns of imagined movements. ANOVA dispersion analysis showed there are 14 areas of the brain where statistically sgnificant changes were registered. Detailed analysis of the activity in these areas before and after training (Student's and Mann-Whitney tests) reduced the amount of areas with significantly changed activity to five; these are Brodmann areas 44 and 45, insula, middle frontal gyrus, and anterior cingulate gyrus. We suggest that these changes are caused by the formation of memory traces of those brain activity patterns which are most accurately recognized by BCI classifiers as correspondent with limb movements. We also observed a tendency of increase in the activity of motor imagery after training. The hemodynamic activity in all these 14 areas during real movements was either approximatly the same or significantly higher than during motor imagery; activity during imagined leg movements was higher that that during imagined arm movements, except for the areas of representation of arms.

Keeping brains young with making music.

PubMed

Rogenmoser, Lars; Kernbach, Julius; Schlaug, Gottfried; Gaser, Christian

2018-01-01

Music-making is a widespread leisure and professional activity that has garnered interest over the years due to its effect on brain and cognitive development and its potential as a rehabilitative and restorative therapy of brain dysfunctions. We investigated whether music-making has a potential age-protecting effect on the brain. For this, we studied anatomical magnetic resonance images obtained from three matched groups of subjects who differed in their lifetime dose of music-making activities (i.e., professional musicians, amateur musicians, and non-musicians). For each subject, we calculated a so-called BrainAGE score which corresponds to the discrepancy (in years) between chronological age and the "age of the brain", with negative values reflecting an age-decelerating brain and positive values an age-accelerating brain, respectively. The index of "brain age" was estimated using a machine-learning algorithm that was trained in a large independent sample to identify anatomical correlates of brain-aging. Compared to non-musicians, musicians overall had lower BrainAGE scores, with amateur musicians having the lowest scores suggesting that music-making has an age-decelerating effect on the brain. Unlike the amateur musicians, the professional musicians showed a positive correlation between their BrainAGE scores and years of music-making, possibly indicating that engaging more intensely in just one otherwise enriching activity might not be as beneficial than if the activity is one of several that an amateur musician engages in. Intense music-making activities at a professional level could also lead to stress-related interferences and a less enriched environment than that of amateur musicians, possibly somewhat diminishing the otherwise positive effect of music-making.

Functional Brain Activation in Response to a Clinical Vestibular Test Correlates with Balance

PubMed Central

Noohi, Fatemeh; Kinnaird, Catherine; DeDios, Yiri; Kofman, Igor S.; Wood, Scott; Bloomberg, Jacob; Mulavara, Ajitkumar; Seidler, Rachael

2017-01-01

The current study characterizes brain fMRI activation in response to two modes of vestibular stimulation: Skull tap and auditory tone burst. The auditory tone burst has been used in previous studies to elicit either a vestibulo-spinal reflex [saccular-mediated colic Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (cVEMP)], or an ocular muscle response [utricle-mediated ocular VEMP (oVEMP)]. Research suggests that the skull tap elicits both saccular and utricle-mediated VEMPs, while being faster and less irritating for subjects than the high decibel tones required to elicit VEMPs. However, it is not clear whether the skull tap and auditory tone burst elicit the same pattern of brain activity. Previous imaging studies have documented activity in the anterior and posterior insula, superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, inferior frontal gyrus, and the anterior cingulate cortex in response to different modes of vestibular stimulation. Here we hypothesized that pneumatically powered skull taps would elicit a similar pattern of brain activity as shown in previous studies. Our results provide the first evidence of using pneumatically powered skull taps to elicit vestibular activity inside the MRI scanner. A conjunction analysis revealed that skull taps elicit overlapping activation with auditory tone bursts in the canonical vestibular cortical regions. Further, our postural control assessments revealed that greater amplitude of brain activation in response to vestibular stimulation was associated with better balance control for both techniques. Additionally, we found that skull taps elicit more robust vestibular activity compared to auditory tone bursts, with less reported aversive effects, highlighting the utility of this approach for future clinical and basic science research. PMID:28344549

Relationships between the resting-state network and the P3: Evidence from a scalp EEG study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Fali; Liu, Tiejun; Wang, Fei; Li, He; Gong, Diankun; Zhang, Rui; Jiang, Yi; Tian, Yin; Guo, Daqing; Yao, Dezhong; Xu, Peng

2015-10-01

The P3 is an important event-related potential that can be used to identify neural activity related to the cognitive processes of the human brain. However, the relationships, especially the functional correlations, between resting-state brain activity and the P3 have not been well established. In this study, we investigated the relationships between P3 properties (i.e., amplitude and latency) and resting-state brain networks. The results indicated that P3 amplitude was significantly correlated with resting-state network topology, and in general, larger P3 amplitudes could be evoked when the resting-state brain network was more efficient. However, no significant relationships were found for the corresponding P3 latency. Additionally, the long-range connections between the prefrontal/frontal and parietal/occipital brain regions, which represent the synchronous activity of these areas, were functionally related to the P3 parameters, especially P3 amplitude. The findings of the current study may help us better understand inter-subject variation in the P3, which may be instructive for clinical diagnosis, cognitive neuroscience studies, and potential subject selection for brain-computer interface applications.

Quercetin protects rat cortical neurons against traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Du, Guoliang; Zhao, Zongmao; Chen, Yonghan; Li, Zonghao; Tian, Yaohui; Liu, Zhifeng; Liu, Bin; Song, Jianqiang

2018-06-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that traumatic brain injury (TBI) may cause neurological deficits and neuronal cell apoptosis. Quercetin, one of the most widely distributed flavonoids, possesses anti‑inflammatory, anti‑blood coagulation, anti‑ischemic and anti‑cancer activities, and neuroprotective effects in the context of brain injury. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the neuroprotective effects of quercetin in TBI. A total of 75 rats were randomly arranged into 3 groups as follows: Sham group (Sham); TBI group (TBI); and TBI + quercetin group (Que). Brain edema was evaluated by analysis of brain water content. The neurobehavioral status of the rats was evaluated by Neurological Severity Scoring. Immunohistochemical and western blot analyses were used to measure the expression of certain proteins. The results of the present study demonstrated that post‑TBI administration of quercetin may attenuate brain edema, in addition to improving motor function in rats. Additionally, quercetin caused a marked inhibition of extracellular signal‑regulated kinase 1/2 phosphorylation and activated Akt serine/threonine protein kinase phosphorylation, which may result in attenuation of neuronal apoptosis. The present study provided novel insights into the mechanism through which quercetin may exert its neuroprotective activity in a rat model of TBI.

Exploring the motivational brain: effects of implicit power motivation on brain activation in response to facial expressions of emotion.

PubMed

Schultheiss, Oliver C; Wirth, Michelle M; Waugh, Christian E; Stanton, Steven J; Meier, Elizabeth A; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia

2008-12-01

This study tested the hypothesis that implicit power motivation (nPower), in interaction with power incentives, influences activation of brain systems mediating motivation. Twelve individuals low (lowest quartile) and 12 individuals high (highest quartile) in nPower, as assessed per content coding of picture stories, were selected from a larger initial participant pool and participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study during which they viewed high-dominance (angry faces), low-dominance (surprised faces) and control stimuli (neutral faces, gray squares) under oddball-task conditions. Consistent with hypotheses, high-power participants showed stronger activation in response to emotional faces in brain structures involved in emotion and motivation (insula, dorsal striatum, orbitofrontal cortex) than low-power participants.

Trachyspermum ammi Seeds Supplementation Helps Reverse Scopolamine, Alprazolam and Electroshock Induced Amnesia.

PubMed

Soni, Kapil; Parle, Milind

2017-05-01

The present study was designed to explore the beneficial effects of successive 10 days administration of Trachyspermum ammi seed's powder (TASP) along with diet (at the dose of 0.5%, 1.0% and 2.0% w/w) on learning and memory of mice. A total of 306 mice divided in 51 equal groups were employed in the study. Passive avoidance paradigm (PAP) and Object recognition Task (ORT) were employed as exteroceptive models. The brain acetylcholinesterase activity (AChE), serum cholesterol, brain monoaldehyde (MDA), brain reduced glutathione (GSH) and brain nitrite were estimated and Alprazolam, Scopolamine and Electroshock induced amnesia was employed to describe the actions. Treatment of TASP significantly increased step down latency of PAA and significantly increased discrimination index of ORT in groups with or without amnesia when compared to respective control groups. Furthermore, TASP administration resulted in significant fall in brain AChE activity, brain MDA level and brain nitrite level with simultaneous rise in brain GSH level, thereby decreased oxidative damage. A significant decrease in serum cholesterol was also observed. Ajowan supplementation may prove a remedy for the management of cognitive disorders owing to have pro-cholinergic, antioxidant and hypo-lipidemic activities.

Spinal Cord as an Adjunct to Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Defining “No Evidence of Disease Activity” in Multiple Sclerosis

PubMed Central

Tummala, Subhash; Singhal, Tarun; Oommen, Vinit V.; Kim, Gloria; Khalid, Fariha; Healy, Brian C.

2017-01-01

Background: Monitoring patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) for “no evidence of disease activity” (NEDA) may help guide disease-modifying therapy (DMT) management decisions. Whereas surveillance brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is common, the role of spinal cord monitoring for NEDA is unknown. Objective: To evaluate the role of brain and spinal cord 3T MRI in the 1-year evaluation of NEDA. Methods: Of 61 study patients (3 clinically isolated syndrome, 56 relapsing-remitting, 2 secondary progressive), 56 (91.8%) were receiving DMT. The MRI included brain fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and cervical/thoracic T2-weighted fast spin echo images. On MRI, NEDA was defined as the absence of new or enlarging T2 lesions at 1 year. Results: Thirty-nine patients (63.9%) achieved NEDA by brain MRI, only one of whom had spinal cord activity. This translates to a false-positive rate for NEDA based on the brain of 2.6% (95% CI, 0.1%–13.5%). Thirty-eight patients (62.3%) had NEDA by brain and spinal cord MRI. Fifty-five patients (90.2%) had NEDA by spinal cord MRI, 17 of whom had brain activity. Of the 22 patients (36.1%) with brain changes, 5 had spinal cord changes. No evidence of disease activity was sustained in 48.3% of patients at 1 year and was the same with the addition of spinal cord MRI. Patients with MRI activity in either the brain or the spinal cord only were more likely to have activity in the brain (P = .0001). Conclusions: Spinal cord MRI had a low diagnostic yield as an adjunct to brain MRI at 3T in monitoring patients with MS for NEDA over 1 year. Studies with larger data sets are needed to confirm these findings. PMID:28603465

Neuroimaging and Neuromodulation: Complementary Approaches for Identifying the Neuronal Correlates of Tinnitus

PubMed Central

Langguth, Berthold; Schecklmann, Martin; Lehner, Astrid; Landgrebe, Michael; Poeppl, Timm Benjamin; Kreuzer, Peter Michal; Schlee, Winfried; Weisz, Nathan; Vanneste, Sven; De Ridder, Dirk

2012-01-01

An inherent limitation of functional imaging studies is their correlational approach. More information about critical contributions of specific brain regions can be gained by focal transient perturbation of neural activity in specific regions with non-invasive focal brain stimulation methods. Functional imaging studies have revealed that tinnitus is related to alterations in neuronal activity of central auditory pathways. Modulation of neuronal activity in auditory cortical areas by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can reduce tinnitus loudness and, if applied repeatedly, exerts therapeutic effects, confirming the relevance of auditory cortex activation for tinnitus generation and persistence. Measurements of oscillatory brain activity before and after rTMS demonstrate that the same stimulation protocol has different effects on brain activity in different patients, presumably related to interindividual differences in baseline activity in the clinically heterogeneous study cohort. In addition to alterations in auditory pathways, imaging techniques also indicate the involvement of non-auditory brain areas, such as the fronto-parietal “awareness” network and the non-tinnitus-specific distress network consisting of the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and amygdale. Involvement of the hippocampus and the parahippocampal region putatively reflects the relevance of memory mechanisms in the persistence of the phantom percept and the associated distress. Preliminary studies targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and the parietal cortex with rTMS and with transcranial direct current stimulation confirm the relevance of the mentioned non-auditory networks. Available data indicate the important value added by brain stimulation as a complementary approach to neuroimaging for identifying the neuronal correlates of the various clinical aspects of tinnitus. PMID:22509155

Cell and brain tissue imaging of the flavonoid fisetin using label-free two-photon microscopy.

PubMed

Krasieva, Tatiana B; Ehren, Jennifer; O'Sullivan, Thomas; Tromberg, Bruce J; Maher, Pamela

2015-10-01

Over the last few years, we have identified an orally active, novel neuroprotective and cognition-enhancing molecule, the flavonoid fisetin. Fisetin not only has direct antioxidant activity but it can also increase the intracellular levels of glutathione, the major intracellular antioxidant. Fisetin can also activate key neurotrophic factor signaling pathways. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory activity against microglia and astrocytes and inhibits the activity of lipoxygenases, thereby reducing the production of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids and their by-products. However, key questions about its targets and brain penetration remain. In this study, we used label-free two-photon microscopy of intrinsic fisetin fluorescence to examine the localization of fisetin in living nerve cells and the brains of living mice. In cells, fisetin but not structurally related flavonols with different numbers of hydroxyl groups, localized to the nucleoli suggesting that key targets of fisetin may reside in this organelle. In the mouse brain, following intraperitoneal injection and oral administration, fisetin rapidly distributed to the blood vessels of the brain followed by a slower dispersion into the brain parenchyma. Thus, these results provide further support for the effects of fisetin on brain function. In addition, they suggest that label-free two-photon microscopy may prove useful for studying the intracellular and tissue distribution of other intrinsically-fluorescent flavonoids. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation alters activation and connectivity in cortical and subcortical reward systems: a tDCS-fMRI study.

PubMed

Weber, Matthew J; Messing, Samuel B; Rao, Hengyi; Detre, John A; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2014-08-01

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique used both experimentally and therapeutically to modulate regional brain function. However, few studies have directly measured the aftereffects of tDCS on brain activity or examined changes in task-related brain activity consequent to prefrontal tDCS. To investigate the neural effects of tDCS, we collected fMRI data from 22 human subjects, both at rest and while performing the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART), before and after true or sham transcranial direct current stimulation. TDCS decreased resting blood perfusion in orbitofrontal cortex and the right caudate and increased task-related activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in response to losses but not wins or increasing risk. Network analysis showed that whole-brain connectivity of the right ACC correlated positively with the number of pumps subjects were willing to make on the BART, and that tDCS reduced connectivity between the right ACC and the rest of the brain. Whole-brain connectivity of the right DLPFC also correlated negatively with pumps on the BART, as prior literature would suggest. Our results suggest that tDCS can alter activation and connectivity in regions distal to the electrodes. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cell and Brain Tissue Imaging of the Flavonoid Fisetin Using Label-Free Two-Photon Microscopy

PubMed Central

Krasieva, Tatiana B.; Ehren, Jennifer; O’Sullivan, Thomas; Tromberg, Bruce J.; Maher, Pamela

2015-01-01

Over the last few years, we have identified an orally active, novel neuroprotective and cognition-enhancing molecule, the flavonoid fisetin. Fisetin not only has direct antioxidant activity but it can also increase the intracellular levels of glutathione, the major intracellular antioxidant. Fisetin can also activate key neurotrophic factor signaling pathways. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory activity against microglia and astrocytes and inhibits the activity of lipoxygenases, thereby reducing the production of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids and their byproducts. However, key questions about its targets and brain penetration remain. In this study, we used label-free two-photon microscopy of intrinsic fisetin fluorescence to examine the localization of fisetin in living nerve cells and the brains of living mice. In cells, fisetin but not structurally related flavonols with different numbers of hydroxyl groups, localized to the nucleoli suggesting that key targets of fisetin may reside in this organelle. In the mouse brain, following intraperitoneal injection and oral administration, fisetin rapidly distributed to the blood vessels of the brain followed by a slower dispersion into the brain parenchyma. Thus, these results provide further support for the effects of fisetin on brain function. In addition, they suggest that label-free two-photon microscopy may prove useful for studying the intracellular and tissue distribution of other intrinsically-fluorescent flavonoids. PMID:26271433

Brain Mapping of Language and Auditory Perception in High-Functioning Autistic Adults: A PET Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muller, R-A.; Behen, M. E.; Rothermel, R. D.; Chugani, D. C.; Muzik, O.; Mangner, T. J.; Chugani, H. T.

1999-01-01

A study used positron emission tomography (PET) to study patterns of brain activation during auditory processing in five high-functioning adults with autism. Results found that participants showed reversed hemispheric dominance during the verbal auditory stimulation and reduced activation of the auditory cortex and cerebellum. (CR)

Improved Volitional Recall of Motor-Imagery-Related Brain Activation Patterns Using Real-Time Functional MRI-Based Neurofeedback.

PubMed

Bagarinao, Epifanio; Yoshida, Akihiro; Ueno, Mika; Terabe, Kazunori; Kato, Shohei; Isoda, Haruo; Nakai, Toshiharu

2018-01-01

Motor imagery (MI), a covert cognitive process where an action is mentally simulated but not actually performed, could be used as an effective neurorehabilitation tool for motor function improvement or recovery. Recent approaches employing brain-computer/brain-machine interfaces to provide online feedback of the MI during rehabilitation training have promising rehabilitation outcomes. In this study, we examined whether participants could volitionally recall MI-related brain activation patterns when guided using neurofeedback (NF) during training. The participants' performance was compared to that without NF. We hypothesized that participants would be able to consistently generate the relevant activation pattern associated with the MI task during training with NF compared to that without NF. To assess activation consistency, we used the performance of classifiers trained to discriminate MI-related brain activation patterns. Our results showed significantly higher predictive values of MI-related activation patterns during training with NF. Additionally, this improvement in the classification performance tends to be associated with the activation of middle temporal gyrus/inferior occipital gyrus, a region associated with visual motion processing, suggesting the importance of performance monitoring during MI task training. Taken together, these findings suggest that the efficacy of MI training, in terms of generating consistent brain activation patterns relevant to the task, can be enhanced by using NF as a mechanism to enable participants to volitionally recall task-related brain activation patterns.

Acupuncture inhibits cue-induced heroin craving and brain activation.

PubMed

Cai, Xinghui; Song, Xiaoge; Li, Chuanfu; Xu, Chunsheng; Li, Xiliang; Lu, Qi

2012-11-25

Previous research using functional MRI has shown that specific brain regions associated with drug dependence and cue-elicited heroin craving are activated by environmental cues. Craving is an important trigger of heroin relapse, and acupuncture may inhibit craving. In this study, we performed functional MRI in heroin addicts and control subjects. We compared differences in brain activation between the two groups during heroin cue exposure, heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture at the Zusanli point (ST36) without twirling of the needle, and heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture at the Zusanli point with twirling of the needle. Heroin cue exposure elicited significant activation in craving-related brain regions mainly in the frontal lobes and callosal gyri. Acupuncture without twirling did not significantly affect the range of brain activation induced by heroin cue exposure, but significantly changed the extent of the activation in the heroin addicts group. Acupuncture at the Zusanli point with twirling of the needle significantly decreased both the range and extent of activation induced by heroin cue exposure compared with heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture without twirling of the needle. These experimental findings indicate that presentation of heroin cues can induce activation in craving-related brain regions, which are involved in reward, learning and memory, cognition and emotion. Acupuncture at the Zusanli point can rapidly suppress the activation of specific brain regions related to craving, supporting its potential as an intervention for drug craving.

EEG Brain Wave Activity at Rest and during Evoked Attention in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Effects of Methylphenidate.

PubMed

Thomas, Bianca Lee; Viljoen, Margaretha

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to assess baseline EEG brain wave activity in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to examine the effects of evoked attention and methylphenidate on this activity. Children with ADHD (n = 19) were tested while they were stimulant free and during a period in which they were on stimulant (methylphenidate) medication. Control subjects (n = 18) were tested once. EEG brain wave activity was tested both at baseline and during focussed attention. Attention was evoked and EEG brain wave activity was determined by means of the BioGraph Infiniti biofeedback apparatus. The main finding of this study was that control subjects and stimulant-free children with ADHD exhibited the expected reactivity in high alpha-wave activity (11-12 Hz) from baseline to focussed attention; however, methylphenidate appeared to abolish this reactivity. Methylphenidate attenuates the normal cortical response to a cognitive challenge. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Japanese and English sentence reading comprehension and writing systems: An fMRI study of first and second language effects on brain activation.

PubMed

Buchweitz, Augusto; Mason, Robert A; Hasegawa, Mihoko; Just, Marcel A

2009-01-28

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare brain activation from Japanese readers reading hiragana (syllabic) and kanji (logographic) sentences, and English as a second language (L2). Kanji showed more activation than hiragana in right-hemisphere occipito-temporal lobe areas associated with visuospatial processing; hiragana, in turn, showed more activation than kanji in areas of the brain associated with phonological processing. L1 results underscore the difference in visuospatial and phonological processing demands between the systems. Reading in English as compared to either of the Japanese systems showed more activation in inferior frontal gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, and angular gyrus. The additional activation in English in these areas may have been associated with an increased cognitive demand for phonological processing and verbal working memory. More generally, L2 results suggest more effortful reading comprehension processes. The study contributes to the understanding of differential brain responses to different writing systems and to reading comprehension in a second language.

Transcranial direct current stimulation and power spectral parameters: a tDCS/EEG co-registration study

PubMed Central

Mangia, Anna L.; Pirini, Marco; Cappello, Angelo

2014-01-01

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) delivers low electric currents to the brain through the scalp. Constant electric currents induce shifts in neuronal membrane excitability, resulting in secondary changes in cortical activity. Concomitant electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring during tDCS can provide valuable information on the tDCS mechanisms of action. This study examined the effects of anodal tDCS on spontaneous cortical activity in a resting brain to disclose possible modulation of spontaneous oscillatory brain activity. EEG activity was measured in ten healthy subjects during and after a session of anodal stimulation of the postero-parietal cortex to detect the tDCS-induced alterations. Changes in the theta, alpha, beta, and gamma power bands were investigated. Three main findings emerged: (1) an increase in theta band activity during the first minutes of stimulation; (2) an increase in alpha and beta power during and after stimulation; (3) a widespread activation in several brain regions. PMID:25147519

Effects of virtual reality-based bilateral upper-extremity training on brain activity in post-stroke patients.

PubMed

Lee, Su-Hyun; Kim, Yu-Mi; Lee, Byoung-Hee

2015-07-01

[Purpose] This study investigated the therapeutic effects of virtual reality-based bilateral upper-extremity training on brain activity in patients with stroke. [Subjects and Methods] Eighteen chronic stroke patients were divided into two groups: the virtual reality-based bilateral upper-extremity training group (n = 10) and the bilateral upper-limb training group (n = 8). The virtual reality-based bilateral upper-extremity training group performed bilateral upper-extremity exercises in a virtual reality environment, while the bilateral upper-limb training group performed only bilateral upper-extremity exercise. All training was conducted 30 minutes per day, three times per week for six weeks, followed by brain activity evaluation. [Results] Electroencephalography showed significant increases in concentration in the frontopolar 2 and frontal 4 areas, and significant increases in brain activity in the frontopolar 1 and frontal 3 areas in the virtual reality-based bilateral upper-extremity training group. [Conclusion] Virtual reality-based bilateral upper-extremity training can improve the brain activity of stroke patients. Thus, virtual reality-based bilateral upper-extremity training is feasible and beneficial for improving brain activation in stroke patients.

Lorcaserin Administration Decreases Activation of Brain Centers in Response to Food Cues and These Emotion- and Salience-Related Changes Correlate With Weight Loss Effects: A 4-Week-Long Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Clinical Trial.

PubMed

Farr, Olivia M; Upadhyay, Jagriti; Gavrieli, Anna; Camp, Michelle; Spyrou, Nikolaos; Kaye, Harper; Mathew, Hannah; Vamvini, Maria; Koniaris, Anastasia; Kilim, Holly; Srnka, Alexandra; Migdal, Alexandra; Mantzoros, Christos S

2016-10-01

Lorcaserin is a serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine 2c receptor agonist effective in treating obesity. Studies in rodents have shown that lorcaserin acts in the brain to exert its weight-reducing effects, but this has not yet been studied in humans. We performed a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial with 48 obese participants and used functional MRI to study the effects of lorcaserin on the brain. Subjects taking lorcaserin had decreased brain activations in the attention-related parietal and visual cortices in response to highly palatable food cues at 1 week in the fasting state and in the parietal cortex in response to any food cues at 4 weeks in the fed state. Decreases in emotion- and salience-related limbic activity, including the insula and amygdala, were attenuated at 4 weeks. Decreases in caloric intake, weight, and BMI correlated with activations in the amygdala, parietal, and visual cortices at baseline. These data suggest that lorcaserin exerts its weight-reducing effects by decreasing attention-related brain activations to food cues (parietal and visual cortices) and emotional and limbic activity (insula, amygdala). Results indicating that baseline activation of the amygdala relates to increased efficacy suggest that lorcaserin would be of particular benefit to emotional eaters. © 2016 by the American Diabetes Association.

Lorcaserin Administration Decreases Activation of Brain Centers in Response to Food Cues and These Emotion- and Salience-Related Changes Correlate With Weight Loss Effects: A 4-Week-Long Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Clinical Trial

PubMed Central

Farr, Olivia M.; Upadhyay, Jagriti; Gavrieli, Anna; Camp, Michelle; Spyrou, Nikolaos; Kaye, Harper; Mathew, Hannah; Vamvini, Maria; Koniaris, Anastasia; Kilim, Holly; Srnka, Alexandra; Migdal, Alexandra

2016-01-01

Lorcaserin is a serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine 2c receptor agonist effective in treating obesity. Studies in rodents have shown that lorcaserin acts in the brain to exert its weight-reducing effects, but this has not yet been studied in humans. We performed a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial with 48 obese participants and used functional MRI to study the effects of lorcaserin on the brain. Subjects taking lorcaserin had decreased brain activations in the attention-related parietal and visual cortices in response to highly palatable food cues at 1 week in the fasting state and in the parietal cortex in response to any food cues at 4 weeks in the fed state. Decreases in emotion- and salience-related limbic activity, including the insula and amygdala, were attenuated at 4 weeks. Decreases in caloric intake, weight, and BMI correlated with activations in the amygdala, parietal, and visual cortices at baseline. These data suggest that lorcaserin exerts its weight-reducing effects by decreasing attention-related brain activations to food cues (parietal and visual cortices) and emotional and limbic activity (insula, amygdala). Results indicating that baseline activation of the amygdala relates to increased efficacy suggest that lorcaserin would be of particular benefit to emotional eaters. PMID:27385157

Effects of green and black tea consumption on brain wave activities in healthy volunteers as measured by a simplified Electroencephalogram (EEG): A feasibility study.

PubMed

Okello, Edward J; Abadi, Awatf M; Abadi, Saad A

2016-06-01

Tea has been associated with many mental benefits, such as attention enhancement, clarity of mind, and relaxation. These psychosomatic states can be measured in terms of brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG). Brain activity can be assessed either during a state of passive activity or when performing attention tasks and it can provide useful information about the brain's state. This study investigated the effects of green and black consumption on brain activity as measured by a simplified EEG, during passive activity. Eight healthy volunteers participated in the study. The EEG measurements were performed using a two channel EEG brain mapping instrument - HeadCoach™. Fast Fourier transform algorithm and EEGLAB toolbox using the Matlab software were used for data processing and analysis. Alpha, theta, and beta wave activities were all found to increase after 1 hour of green and black tea consumption, albeit, with very considerable inter-individual variations. Our findings provide further evidence for the putative beneficial effects of tea. The highly significant increase in theta waves (P < 0.004) between 30 minutes and 1 hour post-consumption of green tea may be an indication of its putative role in cognitive function, specifically alertness and attention. There were considerable inter-individual variations in response to the two teas which may be due genetic polymorphisms in metabolism and/or influence of variety/blend, dose and content of the selected products whose chemistry and therefore efficacy will have been influenced by 'from field to shelf practices'.

Complex network analysis of resting-state fMRI of the brain.

PubMed

Anwar, Abdul Rauf; Hashmy, Muhammad Yousaf; Imran, Bilal; Riaz, Muhammad Hussnain; Mehdi, Sabtain Muhammad Muntazir; Muthalib, Makii; Perrey, Stephane; Deuschl, Gunther; Groppa, Sergiu; Muthuraman, Muthuraman

2016-08-01

Due to the fact that the brain activity hardly ever diminishes in healthy individuals, analysis of resting state functionality of the brain seems pertinent. Various resting state networks are active inside the idle brain at any time. Based on various neuro-imaging studies, it is understood that various structurally distant regions of the brain could be functionally connected. Regions of the brain, that are functionally connected, during rest constitutes to the resting state network. In the present study, we employed the complex network measures to estimate the presence of community structures within a network. Such estimate is named as modularity. Instead of using a traditional correlation matrix, we used a coherence matrix taken from the causality measure between different nodes. Our results show that in prolonged resting state the modularity starts to decrease. This decrease was observed in all the resting state networks and on both sides of the brain. Our study highlights the usage of coherence matrix instead of correlation matrix for complex network analysis.

Neuromagnetic brain activity associated with anticipatory postural adjustments for bimanual load lifting.

PubMed

Ng, Tommy H B; Sowman, Paul F; Brock, Jon; Johnson, Blake W

2013-02-01

During bimanual load lifting, the brain must anticipate the effects of unloading upon the load-bearing arm. Little is currently known about the neural networks that coordinate these anticipatory postural adjustments. We measured neuromagnetic brain activity with whole-head magnetoencephalography while participants performed a bimanual load-lifting task. Anticipatory adjustments were associated with reduction in biceps brachii muscle activity of the load-bearing arm and pre-movement desynchronization of the cortical beta rhythm. Beamforming analyses localized anticipatory brain activity to the precentral gyrus, basal ganglia, supplementary motor area, and thalamus, contralateral to the load-bearing arm. To our knowledge this is the first human neuroimaging study to directly investigate anticipatory postural adjustments and to explicitly partition the anticipatory and volitional aspects of brain activity in bimanual load lifting. These data contribute to our understanding of the neural systems supporting anticipatory postural adjustments in healthy adults. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brain cholinesterase activity of nestling great egrets, snowy egrets, and black-crowned night-herons

USGS Publications Warehouse

Custer, T.W.; Ohlendorf, H.M.

1989-01-01

Inhibition of brain cholinesterase (ChE) activity in birds is often used to diagnose exposure or death from organophosphorus or carbmate pesticides. Brain ChE activity in the young of altricial species increase with age; however, this relationship has only been demonstrated in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Brain ChE activity of nestling great egrets (Casmerodius albus) collected from a colony in Texas increased significantly with age and did not differ among individuals from different nests. Brain ChE activity of nestling snowy egrets (Egretta thula) and black-crowned night -herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) collected in one colony each from Rhode Island, Texas, and California also increased significantly with age and did not differ among individuals from different nests or colonies. This study further demonstrates that age must be considered when evaluating exposure of nestling altricial birds to ChE inhibitors.

Brain cholinesterase activity of nestling great egrets snowy egrets and black-crowned night-herons

USGS Publications Warehouse

Custer, T.W.; Ohlendorf, H.M.

1989-01-01

Inhibition of brain cholinesterase (ChE) activity in birds is often used to diagnose exposure or death from organophosphorus or carbamate pesticides. Brain ChE activity in the young of altricial species increases with age; however, this relationship has only been demonstrated in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Brain ChE activity of nestling great egrets (Casmerodius albus) collected from a colony in Texas (USA) increased significantly with age and did not differ among individuals from different nests. Brain ChE activity of nestling snowy egrets (Egretta thula) and black-crowned night-herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) collected in one colony each from Rhode Island, Texas and California (USA) also increased significantly with age and did not differ among individuals from different nests or colonies. This study further demonstrates that age must be considered when evaluating exposure of nestling altricial birds to ChE inhibitors.

Whole-brain activity mapping onto a zebrafish brain atlas.

PubMed

Randlett, Owen; Wee, Caroline L; Naumann, Eva A; Nnaemeka, Onyeka; Schoppik, David; Fitzgerald, James E; Portugues, Ruben; Lacoste, Alix M B; Riegler, Clemens; Engert, Florian; Schier, Alexander F

2015-11-01

In order to localize the neural circuits involved in generating behaviors, it is necessary to assign activity onto anatomical maps of the nervous system. Using brain registration across hundreds of larval zebrafish, we have built an expandable open-source atlas containing molecular labels and definitions of anatomical regions, the Z-Brain. Using this platform and immunohistochemical detection of phosphorylated extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) as a readout of neural activity, we have developed a system to create and contextualize whole-brain maps of stimulus- and behavior-dependent neural activity. This mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP)-mapping assay is technically simple, and data analysis is completely automated. Because MAP-mapping is performed on freely swimming fish, it is applicable to studies of nearly any stimulus or behavior. Here we demonstrate our high-throughput approach using pharmacological, visual and noxious stimuli, as well as hunting and feeding. The resultant maps outline hundreds of areas associated with behaviors.

Psychomotor speed and functional brain MRI 2 years after completing a physical activity treatment.

PubMed

Rosano, Caterina; Venkatraman, Vijay K; Guralnik, Jack; Newman, Anne B; Glynn, Nancy W; Launer, Lenore; Taylor, Christopher A; Williamson, Jeff; Studenski, Stephanie; Pahor, Marco; Aizenstein, Howard

2010-06-01

Short-term adherence to physical activity (PA) in older adults improves psychomotor processing abilities and is associated with greater brain activation. It is not known whether these associations are also significant for longer-term adherence to moderate-intensity activities. We measured the cross-sectional association of regular walking with brain activation while performing the digit symbol substitution test (DSST). Participants of the lifestyle interventions and independence for elders-pilot study were examined 2 years after completing a 1-year treatment, consisting of either PA or education in successful aging (SA). Data were obtained from 20 PA participants who reported having remained active for 2 years after the end of the treatment and from 10 SA participants who reported having remained sedentary during the same period (mean age: 81.5 and 80.8 years). Complete brain activation and behavioral data were available for 17 PA and 10 SA participants. Two years after the formal intervention had ended, the PA group engaged in more minutes of moderate activity and had significantly greater DSST score and higher brain activation within regions important for processing speed (left dorsolateral prefrontal, posterior parietal, and anterior cingulate cortices). Associations were independent of self-reported health, blood pressure, cognition, medication records, gray matter atrophy, and white matter hyperintensities. Persistent engagement in PA may have beneficial effects on psychomotor processing speed and brain activation, even for moderate levels and even when started late in life. Future studies are warranted to assess whether these beneficial effects are explained by delayed neuronal degeneration and/or new neurogenesis.

Modulation of thermal pain-related brain activity with virtual reality: evidence from fMRI.

PubMed

Hoffman, Hunter G; Richards, Todd L; Coda, Barbara; Bills, Aric R; Blough, David; Richards, Anne L; Sharar, Sam R

2004-06-07

This study investigated the neural correlates of virtual reality analgesia. Virtual reality significantly reduced subjective pain ratings (i.e. analgesia). Using fMRI, pain-related brain activity was measured for each participant during conditions of no virtual reality and during virtual reality (order randomized). As predicted, virtual reality significantly reduced pain-related brain activity in all five regions of interest; the anterior cingulate cortex, primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, insula, and thalamus (p<0.002, corrected). Results showed direct modulation of human brain pain responses by virtual reality distraction. Copyright 2004 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins

Benefits from dietary polyphenols for brain aging and Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Rossi, L; Mazzitelli, S; Arciello, M; Capo, C R; Rotilio, G

2008-12-01

Brain aging and the most diffused neurodegenerative diseases of the elderly are characterized by oxidative damage, redox metals homeostasis impairment and inflammation. Food polyphenols can counteract these alterations in vitro and are therefore suggested to have potential anti-aging and brain-protective activities, as also indicated by the results of some epidemiological studies. Despite the huge and increasing amount of the in vitro studies trying to unravel the mechanisms of action of dietary polyphenols, the research in this field is still incomplete, and questions about bioavailability, biotransformation, synergism with other dietary factors, mechanisms of the antioxidant activity, risks inherent to their possible pro-oxidant activities are still unanswered. Most of all, the capacity of the majority of these compounds to cross the blood-brain barrier and reach brain is still unknown. This commentary discusses recent data on these aspects, particularly focusing on effects of curcumin, resveratrol and catechins on Alzheimer's disease.

Temporal orienting precedes intersensory attention and has opposing effects on early evoked brain activity.

PubMed

Keil, Julian; Pomper, Ulrich; Feuerbach, Nele; Senkowski, Daniel

2017-03-01

Intersensory attention (IA) describes the process of directing attention to a specific modality. Temporal orienting (TO) characterizes directing attention to a specific moment in time. Previously, studies indicated that these two processes could have opposite effects on early evoked brain activity. The exact time-course and processing stages of both processes are still unknown. In this human electroencephalography study, we investigated the effects of IA and TO on visuo-tactile stimulus processing within one paradigm. IA was manipulated by presenting auditory cues to indicate whether participants should detect visual or tactile targets in visuo-tactile stimuli. TO was manipulated by presenting stimuli block-wise at fixed or variable inter-stimulus intervals. We observed that TO affects evoked activity to visuo-tactile stimuli prior to IA. Moreover, we found that TO reduces the amplitude of early evoked brain activity, whereas IA enhances it. Using beamformer source-localization, we observed that IA increases neural responses in sensory areas of the attended modality whereas TO reduces brain activity in widespread cortical areas. Based on these findings we derive an updated working model for the effects of temporal and intersensory attention on early evoked brain activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Grass Might Be Greener: Medical Marijuana Patients Exhibit Altered Brain Activity and Improved Executive Function after 3 Months of Treatment

PubMed Central

Gruber, Staci A.; Sagar, Kelly A.; Dahlgren, Mary K.; Gonenc, Atilla; Smith, Rosemary T.; Lambros, Ashley M.; Cabrera, Korine B.; Lukas, Scott E.

2018-01-01

The vast majority of states have enacted full or partial medical marijuana (MMJ) programs, causing the number of patients seeking certification for MMJ use to increase dramatically in recent years. Despite increased use of MMJ across the nation, no studies thus far have examined the specific impact of MMJ on cognitive function and related brain activation. In the present study, MMJ patients seeking treatment for a variety of documented medical conditions were assessed prior to initiating MMJ treatment and after 3 months of treatment as part of a larger longitudinal study. In order to examine the effect of MMJ treatment on task-related brain activation, MMJ patients completed the Multi-Source Interference Test (MSIT) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also collected data regarding conventional medication use, clinical state, and health-related measures at each visit. Following 3 months of treatment, MMJ patients demonstrated improved task performance accompanied by changes in brain activation patterns within the cingulate cortex and frontal regions. Interestingly, after MMJ treatment, brain activation patterns appeared more similar to those exhibited by healthy controls from previous studies than at pre-treatment, suggestive of a potential normalization of brain function relative to baseline. These findings suggest that MMJ use may result in different effects relative to recreational marijuana (MJ) use, as recreational consumers have been shown to exhibit decrements in task performance accompanied by altered brain activation. Moreover, patients in the current study also reported improvements in clinical state and health-related measures as well as notable decreases in prescription medication use, particularly opioids and benzodiapezines after 3 months of treatment. Further research is needed to clarify the specific neurobiologic impact, clinical efficacy, and unique effects of MMJ for a range of indications and how it compares to recreational MJ use. PMID:29387010

The Grass Might Be Greener: Medical Marijuana Patients Exhibit Altered Brain Activity and Improved Executive Function after 3 Months of Treatment.

PubMed

Gruber, Staci A; Sagar, Kelly A; Dahlgren, Mary K; Gonenc, Atilla; Smith, Rosemary T; Lambros, Ashley M; Cabrera, Korine B; Lukas, Scott E

2017-01-01

The vast majority of states have enacted full or partial medical marijuana (MMJ) programs, causing the number of patients seeking certification for MMJ use to increase dramatically in recent years. Despite increased use of MMJ across the nation, no studies thus far have examined the specific impact of MMJ on cognitive function and related brain activation. In the present study, MMJ patients seeking treatment for a variety of documented medical conditions were assessed prior to initiating MMJ treatment and after 3 months of treatment as part of a larger longitudinal study. In order to examine the effect of MMJ treatment on task-related brain activation, MMJ patients completed the Multi-Source Interference Test (MSIT) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also collected data regarding conventional medication use, clinical state, and health-related measures at each visit. Following 3 months of treatment, MMJ patients demonstrated improved task performance accompanied by changes in brain activation patterns within the cingulate cortex and frontal regions. Interestingly, after MMJ treatment, brain activation patterns appeared more similar to those exhibited by healthy controls from previous studies than at pre-treatment, suggestive of a potential normalization of brain function relative to baseline. These findings suggest that MMJ use may result in different effects relative to recreational marijuana (MJ) use, as recreational consumers have been shown to exhibit decrements in task performance accompanied by altered brain activation. Moreover, patients in the current study also reported improvements in clinical state and health-related measures as well as notable decreases in prescription medication use, particularly opioids and benzodiapezines after 3 months of treatment. Further research is needed to clarify the specific neurobiologic impact, clinical efficacy, and unique effects of MMJ for a range of indications and how it compares to recreational MJ use.

Complex network analysis of brain functional connectivity under a multi-step cognitive task

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Shi-Min; Chen, Wei; Liu, Dong-Bai; Tang, Ming; Chen, Xun

2017-01-01

Functional brain network has been widely studied to understand the relationship between brain organization and behavior. In this paper, we aim to explore the functional connectivity of brain network under a multi-step cognitive task involving consecutive behaviors, and further understand the effect of behaviors on the brain organization. The functional brain networks are constructed based on a high spatial and temporal resolution fMRI dataset and analyzed via complex network based approach. We find that at voxel level the functional brain network shows robust small-worldness and scale-free characteristics, while its assortativity and rich-club organization are slightly restricted to the order of behaviors performed. More interestingly, the functional connectivity of brain network in activated ROIs strongly correlates with behaviors and is obviously restricted to the order of behaviors performed. These empirical results suggest that the brain organization has the generic properties of small-worldness and scale-free characteristics, and its diverse functional connectivity emerging from activated ROIs is strongly driven by these behavioral activities via the plasticity of brain.

Changes of brain response induced by simulated weightlessness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Jinhe; Yan, Gongdong; Guan, Zhiqiang

The characteristics change of brain response was studied during 15° head-down tilt (HDT) comparing with 45° head-up tilt (HUT). The brain responses evaluated included the EEG power spectra change at rest and during mental arithmetic, and the event-related potentials (ERPs) of somatosensory, selective attention and mental arithmetic activities. The prominent feature of brain response change during HDT revealed that the brain function was inhibited to some extent. Such inhibition included that the significant increment of "40Hz" activity during HUT arithmetic almost disappeared during HDT arithmetic, and that the positive-potential effect induced by HDT presented in all kinds of ERPs measured, but the slow negative wave reflecting mental arithmetic and memory process was elongated. These data suggest that the brain function be affected profoundly by the simulated weightlessness, therefore, the brain function change during space flight should be studied systematically.

Brain Connectivity Networks and the Aesthetic Experience of Music.

PubMed

Reybrouck, Mark; Vuust, Peter; Brattico, Elvira

2018-06-12

Listening to music is above all a human experience, which becomes an aesthetic experience when an individual immerses himself/herself in the music, dedicating attention to perceptual-cognitive-affective interpretation and evaluation. The study of these processes where the individual perceives, understands, enjoys and evaluates a set of auditory stimuli has mainly been focused on the effect of music on specific brain structures, as measured with neurophysiology and neuroimaging techniques. The very recent application of network science algorithms to brain research allows an insight into the functional connectivity between brain regions. These studies in network neuroscience have identified distinct circuits that function during goal-directed tasks and resting states. We review recent neuroimaging findings which indicate that music listening is traceable in terms of network connectivity and activations of target regions in the brain, in particular between the auditory cortex, the reward brain system and brain regions active during mind wandering.

Sleeping of a Complex Brain Networks with Hierarchical Organization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ying-Yue; Yang, Qiu-Ying; Chen, Tian-Lun

2009-01-01

The dynamical behavior in the cortical brain network of macaque is studied by modeling each cortical area with a subnetwork of interacting excitable neurons. We characterize the system by studying how to perform the transition, which is now topology-dependent, from the active state to that with no activity. This could be a naive model for the wakening and sleeping of a brain-like system, i.e., a multi-component system with two different dynamical behavior.

Multifractal analysis of real and imaginary movements: EEG study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pavlov, Alexey N.; Maksimenko, Vladimir A.; Runnova, Anastasiya E.; Khramova, Marina V.; Pisarchik, Alexander N.

2018-04-01

We study abilities of the wavelet-based multifractal analysis in recognition specific dynamics of electrical brain activity associated with real and imaginary movements. Based on the singularity spectra we analyze electroencephalograms (EEGs) acquired in untrained humans (operators) during imagination of hands movements, and show a possibility to distinguish between the related EEG patterns and the recordings performed during real movements or the background electrical brain activity. We discuss how such recognition depends on the selected brain region.

Are treatment effects of neurofeedback training in children with ADHD related to the successful regulation of brain activity? A review on the learning of regulation of brain activity and a contribution to the discussion on specificity

PubMed Central

Zuberer, Agnieszka; Brandeis, Daniel; Drechsler, Renate

2015-01-01

While issues of efficacy and specificity are crucial for the future of neurofeedback training, there may be alternative designs and control analyses to circumvent the methodological and ethical problems associated with double-blind placebo studies. Surprisingly, most NF studies do not report the most immediate result of their NF training, i.e., whether or not children with ADHD gain control over their brain activity during the training sessions. For the investigation of specificity, however, it seems essential to analyze the learning and adaptation processes that take place in the course of the training and to relate improvements in self-regulated brain activity across training sessions to behavioral, neuropsychological and electrophysiological outcomes. To this aim, a review of studies on neurofeedback training with ADHD patients which include the analysis of learning across training sessions or relate training performance to outcome is presented. Methods on how to evaluate and quantify learning of EEG regulation over time are discussed. “Non-learning” has been reported in a small number of ADHD-studies, but has not been a focus of general methodological discussion so far. For this reason, selected results from the brain-computer interface (BCI) research on the so-called “brain-computer illiteracy”, the inability to gain control over one’s brain activity, are also included. It is concluded that in the discussion on specificity, more attention should be devoted to the analysis of EEG regulation performance in the course of the training and its impact on clinical outcome. It is necessary to improve the knowledge on characteristic cross-session and within-session learning trajectories in ADHD and to provide the best conditions for learning. PMID:25870550

A novel fMRI paradigm suggests that pedaling-related brain activation is altered after stroke

PubMed Central

Promjunyakul, Nutta-on; Schmit, Brian D.; Schindler-Ivens, Sheila M.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure pedaling-related brain activation in individuals with stroke and age-matched controls. We also sought to identify stroke-related changes in brain activation associated with pedaling. Fourteen stroke and 12 control subjects were asked to pedal a custom, MRI-compatible device during fMRI. Subjects also performed lower limb tapping to localize brain regions involved in lower limb movement. All stroke and control subjects were able to pedal while positioned for fMRI. Two control subjects were withdrawn due to claustrophobia, and one control data set was excluded from analysis due to an incidental finding. In the stroke group, one subject was unable to enter the gantry due to excess adiposity, and one stroke data set was excluded from analysis due to excessive head motion. Consequently, 81% of subjects (12/14 stroke, 9/12 control) completed all procedures and provided valid pedaling-related fMRI data. In these subjects, head motion was ≤3 mm. In both groups, brain activation localized to the medial aspect of M1, S1, and Brodmann’s area 6 (BA6) and to the cerebellum (vermis, lobules IV, V, VIII). The location of brain activation was consistent with leg areas. Pedaling-related brain activation was apparent on both sides of the brain, with values for laterality index (LI) of –0.06 (0.20) in the stroke cortex, 0.05 (±0.06) in the control cortex, 0.29 (0.33) in the stroke cerebellum, and 0.04 (0.15) in the control cerebellum. In the stroke group, activation in the cerebellum – but not cortex – was significantly lateralized toward the damaged side of the brain (p = 0.01). The volume of pedaling-related brain activation was smaller in stroke as compared to control subjects. Differences reached statistical significance when all active regions were examined together [p = 0.03; 27,694 (9,608) μL stroke; 37,819 (9,169) μL control]. When individual regions were examined separately, reduced brain activation volume reached statistical significance in BA6 [p = 0.04; 4,350 (2,347) μL stroke; 6,938 (3,134) μL control] and cerebellum [p = 0.001; 4,591 (1,757) μL stroke; 8,381 (2,835) μL control]. Regardless of whether activated regions were examined together or separately, there were no significant between-group differences in brain activation intensity [p = 0.17; 1.30 (0.25)% stroke; 1.16 (0.20)% control]. Reduced volume in the stroke group was not observed during lower limb tapping and could not be fully attributed to differences in head motion or movement rate. There was a tendency for pedaling-related brain activation volume to increase with increasing work performed by the paretic limb during pedaling (p = 0.08, r = 0.525). Hence, the results of this study provide two original and important contributions. First, we demonstrated that pedaling can be used with fMRI to examine brain activation associated with lower limb movement in people with stroke. Unlike previous lower limb movements examined with fMRI, pedaling involves continuous, reciprocal, multijoint movement of both limbs. In this respect, pedaling has many characteristics of functional lower limb movements, such as walking. Thus, the importance of our contribution lies in the establishment of a novel paradigm that can be used to understand how the brain adapts to stroke to produce functional lower limb movements. Second, preliminary observations suggest that brain activation volume is reduced during pedaling post-stroke. Reduced brain activation volume may be due to anatomic, physiology, and/or behavioral differences between groups, but methodological issues cannot be excluded. Importantly, brain action volume post-stroke was both task-dependent and mutable, which suggests that it could be modified through rehabilitation. Future work will explore these possibilities. PMID:26089789

Distribution of renin activity and angiotensinogen in rat brain. Effects of dietary sodium chloride intake on brain renin.

PubMed Central

Genain, C P; Van Loon, G R; Kotchen, T A

1985-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the biochemistry and the regulation of the brain renin-angiotensin system in the Sprague-Dawley rat. Renin activity and angiotensinogen concentrations (direct and indirect radioimmunoassays) were measured in several brain areas and in neuroendocrine glands. Regional renin activities were measured in separate groups of rats on high and low NaCl diets. Mean tissue renin activities ranged from 2.2 +/- 0.6 to 54.4 +/- 19.7 fmol/mg protein per h (mean of 7 +/- SD), with the highest amounts in pineal, pituitary, and pons-medulla. NaCl depletion increased renin activity in selected regions; based on estimates of residual plasma contamination (despite perfusion of brains with saline), increased renin activity of pineal gland and posterior pituitary was attributed to higher plasma renin. To eliminate contamination by plasma renin, 16-h-nephrectomized rats were also studied. In anephric rats, NaCl depletion increased renin activity by 92% in olfactory bulbs and by 97% in anterior pituitary compared with NaCl-replete state. These elevations could not be accounted for by hyperreninemia. Brain renin activity was low and was unaffected by dietary NaCl in amygdala, hypothalamus, striatum, frontal cortex, and cerebellum. In contrast to renin, highest angiotensinogen concentrations were measured in hypothalamus and cerebellum. Overall, angiotensinogen measurements with the direct and the indirect assays were highly correlated (n = 56, r = 0.96, P less than 0.001). We conclude that (a) NaCl deprivation increases renin in olfactory bulbs and anterior pituitary of the rat, unrelated to contamination by plasma renin; and (b) the existence of angiotensinogen, the precursor of angiotensins, is demonstrated by direct radioimmunoassay throughout the brain and in neuroendocrine glands. PMID:3902894

Evaluation of chlorpyrifos toxicity through a 28-day study: Cholinesterase activity, oxidative stress responses, parent compound/metabolite levels, and primary DNA damage in blood and brain tissue of adult male Wistar rats.

PubMed

Kopjar, Nevenka; Žunec, Suzana; Mendaš, Gordana; Micek, Vedran; Kašuba, Vilena; Mikolić, Anja; Lovaković, Blanka Tariba; Milić, Mirta; Pavičić, Ivan; Čermak, Ana Marija Marjanović; Pizent, Alica; Lucić Vrdoljak, Ana; Želježić, Davor

2018-01-05

In this 28 day-study, we evaluated the effects of the insecticide chlorpyrifos orally administered to Wistar rats at doses 0.160, 0.015, and 0.010 mg/kg b. w./day. Following treatment, total cholinesterase activity and activities of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) were measured. Oxidative stress responses were evaluated using a battery of endpoints to establish lipid peroxidation, changes in total antioxidant capacity, level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), glutathione (GSH) level and activities of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. Using HPLC-UV DAD analysis, levels of the parent compound and its main metabolite 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol in plasma and brain tissue were measured. The genotoxic effect was estimated using alkaline comet assay in leukocytes and brain tissue. The exposure did not result in significant effects on total cholinesterase, AChE and BChE activity in plasma and brain tissue. Lipid peroxidation slightly increased both in plasma and brain tissue. Total antioxidant capacity, ROS and GSH levels were marginally influenced by the exposure. Treatment led to significant increases of GSH-Px activity in blood, SOD activity in erythrocytes and a slight increase of catalase activity in plasma. HPLC-UV DAD analysis revealed the presence of both the parent compound and its main metabolite in the plasma of all of the experimental animals and brain tissue of the animals treated at the two higher doses. All of the tested doses of chlorpyrifos were slightly genotoxic, both to leukocytes and brain tissue. Our results call for further research using other sensitive biomarkers of effect, along with different exposure scenarios. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Greater impulsivity is associated with decreased brain activation in obese women during a delay discounting task.

PubMed

Stoeckel, Luke E; Murdaugh, Donna L; Cox, James E; Cook, Edwin W; Weller, Rosalyn E

2013-06-01

Impulsivity and poor inhibitory control are associated with higher rates of delay discounting (DD), or a greater preference for smaller, more immediate rewards at the expense of larger, but delayed rewards. Of the many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of DD, few have investigated the correlation between individual differences in DD rate and brain activation related to DD trial difficulty, with difficult DD trials expected to activate putative executive function brain areas involved in impulse control. In the current study, we correlated patterns of brain activation as measured by fMRI during difficult vs. easy trials of a DD task with DD rate (k) in obese women. Difficulty was defined by how much a reward choice deviated from an individual's 'indifference point', or the point where the subjective preference for an immediate and a delayed reward was approximately equivalent. We found that greater delay discounting was correlated with less modulation of activation in putative executive function brain areas, such as the middle and superior frontal gyri and inferior parietal lobule, in response to difficult compared to easy DD trials. These results support the suggestion that increased impulsivity is associated with deficient functioning of executive function areas of the brain.

Altered regional homogeneity of spontaneous brain activity in idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia.

PubMed

Wang, Yanping; Zhang, Xiaoling; Guan, Qiaobing; Wan, Lihong; Yi, Yahui; Liu, Chun-Feng

2015-01-01

The pathophysiology of idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (ITN) has conventionally been thought to be induced by neurovascular compression theory. Recent structural brain imaging evidence has suggested an additional central component for ITN pathophysiology. However, far less attention has been given to investigations of the basis of abnormal resting-state brain activity in these patients. The objective of this study was to investigate local brain activity in patients with ITN and its correlation with clinical variables of pain. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 17 patients with ITN and 19 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were analyzed using regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis, which is a data-driven approach used to measure the regional synchronization of spontaneous brain activity. Patients with ITN had decreased ReHo in the left amygdala, right parahippocampal gyrus, and left cerebellum and increased ReHo in the right inferior temporal gyrus, right thalamus, right inferior parietal lobule, and left postcentral gyrus (corrected). Furthermore, the increase in ReHo in the left precentral gyrus was positively correlated with visual analog scale (r=0.54; P=0.002). Our study found abnormal functional homogeneity of intrinsic brain activity in several regions in ITN, suggesting the maladaptivity of the process of daily pain attacks and a central role for the pathophysiology of ITN.

Meta-analysis of functional brain imaging in specific phobia.

PubMed

Ipser, Jonathan C; Singh, Leesha; Stein, Dan J

2013-07-01

Although specific phobia is a prevalent anxiety disorder, evidence regarding its underlying functional neuroanatomy is inconsistent. A meta-analysis was undertaken to identify brain regions that were consistently responsive to phobic stimuli, and to characterize changes in brain activation following cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). We searched the PubMed, SCOPUS and PsycINFO databases to identify positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies comparing brain activation in specific phobia patients and healthy controls. Two raters independently extracted study data from all the eligible studies, and pooled coordinates from these studies using activation likelihood estimation, a quantitative meta-analytic technique. Resulting statistical parametric maps were compared between patients and healthy controls, in response to phobic versus fear-evoking stimuli, and before and after therapy. Thirteen studies were included, comprising 327 participants. Regions that were consistently activated in response to phobic stimuli included the left insula, amygdala, and globus pallidus. Compared to healthy controls, phobic subjects had increased activation in response to phobic stimuli in the left amygdala/globus pallidus, left insula, right thalamus (pulvinar), and cerebellum. Following exposure-based therapy widespread deactivation was observed in the right frontal cortex, limbic cortex, basal ganglia and cerebellum, with increased activation detected in the thalamus. Exposure to phobia-specific stimuli elicits brain activation that is consistent with current understandings of the neuroanatomy of fear conditioning and extinction. There is evidence that the effects of CBT in specific phobia may be mediated through the same underlying neurocircuitry. © 2013 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2013 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Effect of acute hypoxic shock on the rat brain morphology and tripeptidyl peptidase I activity.

PubMed

Petrova, Emilia B; Dimitrova, Mashenka B; Ivanov, Ivaylo P; Pavlova, Velichka G; Dimitrova, Stella G; Kadiysky, Dimitar S

2016-06-01

Hypoxic events are known to cause substantial damage to the hippocampus, cerebellum and striatum. The impact of hypoxic shock on other brain parts is not sufficiently studied. Recent studies show that tripeptidyl peptidase I (TPPI) activity in fish is altered after a hypoxic stress pointing out at a possible enzyme involvement in response to hypoxia. Similar studies are not performed in mammals. In this work, the effect of sodium nitrite-induced acute hypoxic shock on the rat brain was studied at different post-treatment periods. Morphological changes in cerebral cortex, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, thalamus, mesencephalon and pons were assessed using silver-copper impregnation for neurodegeneration. TPPI activity was biochemically assayed and localized by enzyme histochemistry. Although less vulnerable to oxidative stress, the studied brain areas showed different histopathological changes, such as neuronal loss and tissue vacuolization, dilatation of the smallest capillaries and impairment of neuronal processes. TPPI activity was strictly regulated following the hypoxic stress. It was found to increase 12-24h post-treatment, then decreased followed by a slow process of recovery. The enzyme histochemistry revealed a temporary enzyme deficiency in all types of neurons. These findings indicate a possible involvement of the enzyme in rat brain response to hypoxic stress. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Influence of Fragrances on Human Psychophysiological Activity: With Special Reference to Human Electroencephalographic Response

PubMed Central

Sowndhararajan, Kandhasamy; Kim, Songmun

2016-01-01

The influence of fragrances such as perfumes and room fresheners on the psychophysiological activities of humans has been known for a long time, and its significance is gradually increasing in the medicinal and cosmetic industries. A fragrance consists of volatile chemicals with a molecular weight of less than 300 Da that humans perceive through the olfactory system. In humans, about 300 active olfactory receptor genes are devoted to detecting thousands of different fragrance molecules through a large family of olfactory receptors of a diverse protein sequence. The sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress, and working capacity. Electrophysiological studies have revealed that various fragrances affected spontaneous brain activities and cognitive functions, which are measured by an electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG is a good temporal measure of responses in the central nervous system and it provides information about the physiological state of the brain both in health and disease. The EEG power spectrum is classified into different frequency bands such as delta (0.5–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (13–30 Hz) and gamma (30–50 Hz), and each band is correlated with different features of brain states. A quantitative EEG uses computer software to provide the topographic mapping of the brain activity in frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital brain regions. It is well known that decreases of alpha and beta activities and increases of delta and theta activities are associated with brain pathology and general cognitive decline. In the last few decades, many scientific studies were conducted to investigate the effect of inhalation of aroma on human brain functions. The studies have suggested a significant role for olfactory stimulation in the alteration of cognition, mood, and social behavior. This review aims to evaluate the available literature regarding the influence of fragrances on the psychophysiological activities of humans with special reference to EEG changes. PMID:27916830

Functional brain mapping of actual car-driving using [18F]FDG-PET.

PubMed

Jeong, Myeonggi; Tashiro, Manabu; Singh, Laxsmi N; Yamaguchi, Keiichiro; Horikawa, Etsuo; Miyake, Masayasu; Watanuki, Shouichi; Iwata, Ren; Fukuda, Hiroshi; Takahashi, Yasuo; Itoh, Masatoshi

2006-11-01

This study aims at identifying the brain activation during actual car-driving on the road, and at comparing the results to those of previous studies on simulated car-driving. Thirty normal volunteers, aged 20 to 56 years, were divided into three subgroups, active driving, passive driving and control groups, for examination by positron emission tomography (PET) and [18F]2-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose (FDG). The active driving subjects (n = 10) drove for 30 minutes on quiet normal roads with a few traffic signals. The passive driving subjects (n = 10) participated as passengers on the front seat. The control subjects (n = 10) remained seated in a lit room with their eyes open. Voxel-based t-statistics were applied using SPM2 to search brain activation among the subgroups mentioned above. Significant brain activation was detected during active driving in the primary and secondary visual cortices, primary sensorimotor areas, premotor area, parietal association area, cingulate gyrus, the parahippocampal gyrus as well as in thalamus and cerebellum. The passive driving manifested a similar-looking activation pattern, lacking activations in the premotor area, cingulate and parahippocampal gyri and thalamus. Direct comparison of the active and passive driving conditions revealed activation in the cerebellum. The result of actual driving looked similar to that of simulated driving, suggesting that visual perception and visuomotor coordination were the main brain functions while driving. In terms of attention and autonomic arousal, however, it seems there was a significant difference between simulated and actual driving possibly due to risk of accidents. Autonomic and emotional aspects of driving should be studied using an actual driving study-design.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Methods

PubMed Central

Chen, Jingyuan E.; Glover, Gary H.

2015-01-01

Since its inception in 1992, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has become an indispensible tool for studying cognition in both the healthy and dysfunctional brain. FMRI monitors changes in the oxygenation of brain tissue resulting from altered metabolism consequent to a task-based evoked neural response or from spontaneous fluctuations in neural activity in the absence of conscious mentation (the “resting state”). Task-based studies have revealed neural correlates of a large number of important cognitive processes, while fMRI studies performed in the resting state have demonstrated brain-wide networks that result from brain regions with synchronized, apparently spontaneous activity. In this article, we review the methods used to acquire and analyze fMRI signals. PMID:26248581

Hippocampal Context Processing during Acquisition of a Predictive Learning Task Is Associated with Renewal in Extinction Recall.

PubMed

Lissek, Silke; Glaubitz, Benjamin; Schmidt-Wilcke, Tobias; Tegenthoff, Martin

2016-05-01

Renewal is defined as the recovery of an extinguished response if extinction and retrieval contexts differ. The context dependency of extinction, as demonstrated by renewal, has important implications for extinction-based therapies. Persons showing renewal (REN) exhibit higher hippocampal activation during extinction in associative learning than those without renewal (NOREN), demonstrating hippocampal context processing, and recruit ventromedial pFC in retrieval. Apart from these findings, brain processes generating renewal remain largely unknown. Conceivably, processing differences in task-relevant brain regions that ultimately lead to renewal may occur already in initial acquisition of associations. Therefore, in two fMRI studies, we investigated overall brain activation and hippocampal activation in REN and NOREN during acquisition of an associative learning task in response to presentation of a context alone or combined with a cue. Results of two studies demonstrated significant activation differences between the groups: In Study 1, a support vector machine classifier correctly assigned participants' brain activation patterns to REN and NOREN groups, respectively. In Study 2, REN and NOREN showed similar hippocampal involvement during context-only presentation, suggesting processing of novelty, whereas overall hippocampal activation to the context-cue compound, suggesting compound encoding, was higher in REN. Positive correlations between hippocampal activation and renewal level indicated more prominent hippocampal processing in REN. Results suggest that hippocampal processing of the context-cue compound rather than of context only during initial learning is related to a subsequent renewal effect. Presumably, REN participants use distinct encoding strategies during acquisition of context-related tasks, which reflect in their brain activation patterns and contribute to a renewal effect.

Pupil size signals mental effort deployed during multiple object tracking and predicts brain activity in the dorsal attention network and the locus coeruleus.

PubMed

Alnæs, Dag; Sneve, Markus Handal; Espeseth, Thomas; Endestad, Tor; van de Pavert, Steven Harry Pieter; Laeng, Bruno

2014-04-01

Attentional effort relates to the allocation of limited-capacity attentional resources to meet current task demands and involves the activation of top-down attentional systems in the brain. Pupillometry is a sensitive measure of this intensity aspect of top-down attentional control. Studies relate pupillary changes in response to cognitive processing to activity in the locus coeruleus (LC), which is the main hub of the brain's noradrenergic system and it is thought to modulate the operations of the brain's attentional systems. In the present study, participants performed a visual divided attention task known as multiple object tracking (MOT) while their pupil sizes were recorded by use of an infrared eye tracker and then were tested again with the same paradigm while brain activity was recorded using fMRI. We hypothesized that the individual pupil dilations, as an index of individual differences in mental effort, as originally proposed by Kahneman (1973), would be a better predictor of LC activity than the number of tracked objects during MOT. The current results support our hypothesis, since we observed pupil-related activity in the LC. Moreover, the changes in the pupil correlated with activity in the superior colliculus and the right thalamus, as well as cortical activity in the dorsal attention network, which previous studies have shown to be strongly activated during visual tracking of multiple targets. Follow-up pupillometric analyses of the MOT task in the same individuals also revealed that individual differences to cognitive load can be remarkably stable over a lag of several years. To our knowledge this is the first study using pupil dilations as an index of attentional effort in the MOT task and also relating these to functional changes in the brain that directly implicate the LC-NE system in the allocation of processing resources.

Brain Distribution of a Novel MEK Inhibitor E6201: Implications in the Treatment of Melanoma Brain Metastases.

PubMed

Gampa, Gautham; Kim, Minjee; Cook-Rostie, Nicholas; Laramy, Janice K; Sarkaria, Jann N; Paradiso, Linda; DePalatis, Louis; Elmquist, William F

2018-05-01

Clinically meaningful efficacy in the treatment of brain tumors, including melanoma brain metastases (MBM), requires selection of a potent inhibitor against a suitable target, and adequate drug distribution to target sites in the brain. Deregulated constitutive signaling of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway has been frequently observed in melanoma, and mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK) has been identified to be an important target. E6201 is a potent synthetic small-molecule MEK inhibitor. The purpose of this study was to evaluate brain distribution of E6201, and examine the impact of active efflux transport at the blood-brain barrier on the central nervous system (CNS) exposure of E6201. In vitro studies utilizing transfected Madin-Darby canine kidney II (MDCKII) cells indicate that E6201 is not a substrate of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and breast cancer resistance protein (Bcrp). In vivo studies also suggest a minimal involvement of P-gp and Bcrp in E6201's brain distribution. The total concentrations in brain were higher than in plasma, resulting in a brain-to-plasma AUC ratio (Kp) of 2.66 in wild-type mice. The brain distribution was modestly enhanced in Mdr1a/b -/- , Bcrp1 -/- , and Mdr1a/b -/- Bcrp1 -/- knockout mice. The nonspecific binding of E6201 was higher in brain compared with plasma. However, free-drug concentrations in brain following 40 mg/kg intravenous dose reach levels that exceed reported in vitro half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) values, suggesting that E6201 may be efficacious in inhibiting MEK-driven brain tumors. The brain distribution characteristics of E6201 make it an attractive targeted agent for clinical testing in MBM, glioblastoma, and other CNS tumors that may be effectively targeted with inhibition of MEK signaling. Copyright © 2018 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Functional connectivity during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency test: a multi-channel near infrared spectroscopy study (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Chun-Jung; Sun, Chia-Wei; Chou, Po-Han; Chuang, Ching-Cheng

2016-03-01

Verbal fluency tests (VFT) are widely used neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe and have been frequently used in various functional brain mapping studies. There are two versions of VFT based on the type of cue: the letter fluency task (LFT) and the category fluency task (CFT). However, the fundamental aspect of the brain connectivity across spatial regions of the fronto-temporal regions during the VFTs has not been elucidated to date. In this study we hypothesized that different cortical functional connectivity over bilateral fronto-temporal regions can be observed by means of multi-channel fNIRS in the LFT and the CFT respectively. Our results from fNIRS (ETG-4000) showed different patterns of brain functional connectivity consistent with these different cognitive requirements. We demonstrate more brain functional connectivity over frontal and temporal regions during LFT than CFT, and this was in line with previous brain activity studies using fNIRS demonstrating increased frontal and temporal region activation during LFT and CFT and more pronounced frontal activation by the LFT.

Cognitive-motor dual-task interference: A systematic review of neural correlates.

PubMed

Leone, Carmela; Feys, Peter; Moumdjian, Lousin; D'Amico, Emanuele; Zappia, Mario; Patti, Francesco

2017-04-01

Cognitive-motor interference refers to dual-tasking (DT) interference (DTi) occurring when the simultaneous performance of a cognitive and a motor task leads to a percentage change in one or both tasks. Several theories exist to explain DTi in humans: the capacity-sharing, the bottleneck and the cross-talk theories. Numerous studies investigating whether a specific brain locus is associated with cognitive-motor DTi have been conducted, but not systematically reviewed. We aimed to review the evidences on brain activity associated with the cognitive-motor DT, in order to better understand the neurological basis of the CMi. Results were reported according to the technique used to assess brain activity. Twenty-three articles met the inclusion criteria. Out of them, nine studies used functional magnetic resonance imaging to show an additive, under-additive, over- additive, or a mixed activation pattern of the brain. Seven studies used near-infrared spectroscopy, and seven neurophysiological instruments. Yet a specific DT locus in the brain cannot be concluded from the overall current literature. Future studies are warranted to overcome the shortcomings identified. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Acupuncture inhibits cue-induced heroin craving and brain activation★

PubMed Central

Cai, Xinghui; Song, Xiaoge; Li, Chuanfu; Xu, Chunsheng; Li, Xiliang; Lu, Qi

2012-01-01

Previous research using functional MRI has shown that specific brain regions associated with drug dependence and cue-elicited heroin craving are activated by environmental cues. Craving is an important trigger of heroin relapse, and acupuncture may inhibit craving. In this study, we performed functional MRI in heroin addicts and control subjects. We compared differences in brain activation between the two groups during heroin cue exposure, heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture at the Zusanli point (ST36) without twirling of the needle, and heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture at the Zusanli point with twirling of the needle. Heroin cue exposure elicited significant activation in craving-related brain regions mainly in the frontal lobes and callosal gyri. Acupuncture without twirling did not significantly affect the range of brain activation induced by heroin cue exposure, but significantly changed the extent of the activation in the heroin addicts group. Acupuncture at the Zusanli point with twirling of the needle significantly decreased both the range and extent of activation induced by heroin cue exposure compared with heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture without twirling of the needle. These experimental findings indicate that presentation of heroin cues can induce activation in craving-related brain regions, which are involved in reward, learning and memory, cognition and emotion. Acupuncture at the Zusanli point can rapidly suppress the activation of specific brain regions related to craving, supporting its potential as an intervention for drug craving. PMID:25368637

Association between brain activation (fMRI), cognition and school performance in extremely preterm and term born children.

PubMed

Griffiths, Silja Torvik; Aukland, Stein Magnus; Markestad, Trond; Eide, Geir Egil; Elgen, Irene; Craven, Alexander R; Hugdahl, Kenneth

2014-10-01

The purpose of the study was to investigate a possible association between brain activation in functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, cognition and school performance in extremely preterm children and term born controls. Twenty eight preterm and 28 term born children were scanned while performing a working memory/selective attention task, and school results from national standardized tests were collected. Brain activation maps reflected difference in cognitive skills but not in school performance. Differences in brain activation were found between children born preterm and at term, and between high and low performers in cognitive tests. However, the differences were located in different brain areas. The implication may be that lack of cognitive skills does not alone explain low performance due to prematurity. © 2014 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Brain and Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Damasio, Antonio R., Damasio, Hanna

1992-01-01

Discusses the advances made in understanding the brain structures responsible for language. Presents findings made using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomographic (PET) scans to study brain activity. These findings map the structures in the brain that manipulate concepts and those that turn concepts into words. (MCO)

Very Early Brain Damage Leads to Remodeling of the Working Memory System in Adulthood: A Combined fMRI/Tractography Study

PubMed Central

Karolis, Vyacheslav; Caldinelli, Chiara; Brittain, Philip J.; Kroll, Jasmin; Rodríguez-Toscano, Elisa; Tesse, Marcello; Colquhoun, Matthew; Howes, Oliver; Dell'Acqua, Flavio; Thiebaut de Schotten, Michel; Murray, Robin M.; Williams, Steven C.R.; Nosarti, Chiara

2015-01-01

The human brain can adapt to overcome injury even years after an initial insult. One hypothesis states that early brain injury survivors, by taking advantage of critical periods of high plasticity during childhood, should recover more successfully than those who suffer injury later in life. This hypothesis has been challenged by recent studies showing worse cognitive outcome in individuals with early brain injury, compared with individuals with later brain injury, with working memory particularly affected. We invited individuals who suffered perinatal brain injury (PBI) for an fMRI/diffusion MRI tractography study of working memory and hypothesized that, 30 years after the initial injury, working memory deficits in the PBI group would remain, despite compensatory activation in areas outside the typical working memory network. Furthermore we hypothesized that the amount of functional reorganization would be related to the level of injury to the dorsal cingulum tract, which connects medial frontal and parietal working memory structures. We found that adults who suffered PBI did not significantly differ from controls in working memory performance. They exhibited less activation in classic frontoparietal working memory areas and a relative overactivation of bilateral perisylvian cortex compared with controls. Structurally, the dorsal cingulum volume and hindrance-modulated orientational anisotropy was significantly reduced in the PBI group. Furthermore there was uniquely in the PBI group a significant negative correlation between the volume of this tract and activation in the bilateral perisylvian cortex and a positive correlation between this activation and task performance. This provides the first evidence of compensatory plasticity of the working memory network following PBI. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Here we used the example of perinatal brain injury (PBI) associated with very preterm birth to study the brain's ability to adapt to injury sustained early in life. In adulthood, individuals with PBI did not show significant deficits in working memory, but exhibited less activation in typical frontoparietal working memory areas. They also showed a relative overactivation of nontask-specific brain areas (perisylvian cortex) compared with controls, and such activation was negatively correlated with the size of white matter pathways involved in working memory (dorsal cingulum). Furthermore, this “extra” activation was associated with better working memory performance and could represent a novel compensatory mechanism following PBI. Such information could inform the development of neuroscience-based cognitive interventions following PBI. PMID:26631462

Characteristics of voxel prediction power in full-brain Granger causality analysis of fMRI data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garg, Rahul; Cecchi, Guillermo A.; Rao, A. Ravishankar

2011-03-01

Functional neuroimaging research is moving from the study of "activations" to the study of "interactions" among brain regions. Granger causality analysis provides a powerful technique to model spatio-temporal interactions among brain regions. We apply this technique to full-brain fMRI data without aggregating any voxel data into regions of interest (ROIs). We circumvent the problem of dimensionality using sparse regression from machine learning. On a simple finger-tapping experiment we found that (1) a small number of voxels in the brain have very high prediction power, explaining the future time course of other voxels in the brain; (2) these voxels occur in small sized clusters (of size 1-4 voxels) distributed throughout the brain; (3) albeit small, these clusters overlap with most of the clusters identified with the non-temporal General Linear Model (GLM); and (4) the method identifies clusters which, while not determined by the task and not detectable by GLM, still influence brain activity.

The Use of Event-Related Brain Potentials to Measure Cognitive Processing Deficits in the Brain-Injured.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torello, Michael W., Jr.; And Others

Until recently it has been possible only to measure the behavioral products of cognitive processing, e.g. reaction time. However, this is a rather indirect way of studying brain substrates of cognition. Psychophysiological techniques can be used to study the neural mechanisms of cognition. In this experiment brain electrical activity was measured…

Source-based neurofeedback methods using EEG recordings: training altered brain activity in a functional brain source derived from blind source separation

PubMed Central

White, David J.; Congedo, Marco; Ciorciari, Joseph

2014-01-01

A developing literature explores the use of neurofeedback in the treatment of a range of clinical conditions, particularly ADHD and epilepsy, whilst neurofeedback also provides an experimental tool for studying the functional significance of endogenous brain activity. A critical component of any neurofeedback method is the underlying physiological signal which forms the basis for the feedback. While the past decade has seen the emergence of fMRI-based protocols training spatially confined BOLD activity, traditional neurofeedback has utilized a small number of electrode sites on the scalp. As scalp EEG at a given electrode site reflects a linear mixture of activity from multiple brain sources and artifacts, efforts to successfully acquire some level of control over the signal may be confounded by these extraneous sources. Further, in the event of successful training, these traditional neurofeedback methods are likely influencing multiple brain regions and processes. The present work describes the use of source-based signal processing methods in EEG neurofeedback. The feasibility and potential utility of such methods were explored in an experiment training increased theta oscillatory activity in a source derived from Blind Source Separation (BSS) of EEG data obtained during completion of a complex cognitive task (spatial navigation). Learned increases in theta activity were observed in two of the four participants to complete 20 sessions of neurofeedback targeting this individually defined functional brain source. Source-based EEG neurofeedback methods using BSS may offer important advantages over traditional neurofeedback, by targeting the desired physiological signal in a more functionally and spatially specific manner. Having provided preliminary evidence of the feasibility of these methods, future work may study a range of clinically and experimentally relevant brain processes where individual brain sources may be targeted by source-based EEG neurofeedback. PMID:25374520

A preliminary study of sex differences in brain activation during a spatial navigation task in healthy adults.

PubMed

Sneider, Jennifer Tropp; Sava, Simona; Rogowska, Jadwiga; Yurgelun-Todd, Deborah A

2011-10-01

The hippocampus plays a significant role in spatial memory processing, with sex differences being prominent on various spatial tasks. This study examined sex differences in healthy adults, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in areas implicated in spatial processing during navigation of a virtual analogue of the Morris water-maze. There were three conditions: learning, hidden, and visible control. There were no significant differences in performance measures. However, sex differences were found in regional brain activation during learning in the right hippocampus, right parahippocampal gyrus, and the cingulate cortex. During the hidden condition, the hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and cingulate cortex were activated in both men and women. Additional brain areas involved in spatial processing may be recruited in women when learning information about the environment, by utilizing external cues (landmarks) more than do men, contributing to the observed sex differences in brain activation.

What does brain response to neutral faces tell us about major depression? evidence from machine learning and fMRI.

PubMed

Oliveira, Leticia; Ladouceur, Cecile D; Phillips, Mary L; Brammer, Michael; Mourao-Miranda, Janaina

2013-01-01

A considerable number of previous studies have shown abnormalities in the processing of emotional faces in major depression. Fewer studies, however, have focused specifically on abnormal processing of neutral faces despite evidence that depressed patients are slow and less accurate at recognizing neutral expressions in comparison with healthy controls. The current study aimed to investigate whether this misclassification described behaviourally for neutral faces also occurred when classifying patterns of brain activation to neutral faces for these patients. TWO INDEPENDENT DEPRESSED SAMPLES: (1) Nineteen medication-free patients with depression and 19 healthy volunteers and (2) Eighteen depressed individuals and 18 age and gender-ratio-matched healthy volunteers viewed emotional faces (sad/neutral; happy/neutral) during an fMRI experiment. We used a new pattern recognition framework: first, we trained the classifier to discriminate between two brain states (e.g. viewing happy faces vs. viewing neutral faces) using data only from healthy controls (HC). Second, we tested the classifier using patterns of brain activation of a patient and a healthy control for the same stimuli. Finally, we tested if the classifier's predictions (predictive probabilities) for emotional and neutral face classification were different for healthy controls and depressed patients. Predictive probabilities to patterns of brain activation to neutral faces in both groups of patients were significantly lower in comparison to the healthy controls. This difference was specific to neutral faces. There were no significant differences in predictive probabilities to patterns of brain activation to sad faces (sample 1) and happy faces (samples 2) between depressed patients and healthy controls. Our results suggest that the pattern of brain activation to neutral faces in depressed patients is not consistent with the pattern observed in healthy controls subject to the same stimuli. This difference in brain activation might underlie the behavioural misinterpretation of the neutral faces content by the depressed patients.

Selective Activation of Resting-State Networks following Focal Stimulation in a Connectome-Based Network Model of the Human Brain

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Abstract When the brain is stimulated, for example, by sensory inputs or goal-oriented tasks, the brain initially responds with activities in specific areas. The subsequent pattern formation of functional networks is constrained by the structural connectivity (SC) of the brain. The extent to which information is processed over short- or long-range SC is unclear. Whole-brain models based on long-range axonal connections, for example, can partly describe measured functional connectivity dynamics at rest. Here, we study the effect of SC on the network response to stimulation. We use a human whole-brain network model comprising long- and short-range connections. We systematically activate each cortical or thalamic area, and investigate the network response as a function of its short- and long-range SC. We show that when the brain is operating at the edge of criticality, stimulation causes a cascade of network recruitments, collapsing onto a smaller space that is partly constrained by SC. We found both short- and long-range SC essential to reproduce experimental results. In particular, the stimulation of specific areas results in the activation of one or more resting-state networks. We suggest that the stimulus-induced brain activity, which may indicate information and cognitive processing, follows specific routes imposed by structural networks explaining the emergence of functional networks. We provide a lookup table linking stimulation targets and functional network activations, which potentially can be useful in diagnostics and treatments with brain stimulation. PMID:27752540

Reading in the brain of children and adults: A meta‐analysis of 40 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies

PubMed Central

Martin, Anna; Schurz, Matthias; Kronbichler, Martin

2015-01-01

Abstract We used quantitative, coordinate‐based meta‐analysis to objectively synthesize age‐related commonalities and differences in brain activation patterns reported in 40 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of reading in children and adults. Twenty fMRI studies with adults (age means: 23–34 years) were matched to 20 studies with children (age means: 7–12 years). The separate meta‐analyses of these two sets showed a pattern of reading‐related brain activation common to children and adults in left ventral occipito‐temporal (OT), inferior frontal, and posterior parietal regions. The direct statistical comparison between the two meta‐analytic maps of children and adults revealed higher convergence in studies with children in left superior temporal and bilateral supplementary motor regions. In contrast, higher convergence in studies with adults was identified in bilateral posterior OT/cerebellar and left dorsal precentral regions. The results are discussed in relation to current neuroanatomical models of reading and tentative functional interpretations of reading‐related activation clusters in children and adults are provided. Hum Brain Mapp 36:1963–1981, 2015. © 2015 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.. PMID:25628041

Prefrontal-hippocampal-fusiform activity during encoding predicts intraindividual differences in free recall ability: an event-related functional-anatomic MRI study.

PubMed

Dickerson, B C; Miller, S L; Greve, D N; Dale, A M; Albert, M S; Schacter, D L; Sperling, R A

2007-01-01

The ability to spontaneously recall recently learned information is a fundamental mnemonic activity of daily life, but has received little study using functional neuroimaging. We developed a functional MRI (fMRI) paradigm to study regional brain activity during encoding that predicts free recall. In this event-related fMRI study, ten lists of fourteen pictures of common objects were shown to healthy young individuals and regional brain activity during encoding was analyzed based on subsequent free recall performance. Free recall of items was predicted by activity during encoding in hippocampal, fusiform, and inferior prefrontal cortical regions. Within-subject variance in free recall performance for the ten lists was predicted by a linear combination of condition-specific inferior prefrontal, hippocampal, and fusiform activity. Recall performance was better for lists in which prefrontal activity was greater for all items of the list and hippocampal and fusiform activity were greater specifically for items that were recalled from the list. Thus, the activity of medial temporal, fusiform, and prefrontal brain regions during the learning of new information is important for the subsequent free recall of this information. These fronto-temporal brain regions act together as a large-scale memory-related network, the components of which make distinct yet interacting contributions during encoding that predict subsequent successful free recall performance.

Prefrontal-Hippocampal-Fusiform Activity During Encoding Predicts Intraindividual Differences in Free Recall Ability: An Event-Related Functional-Anatomic MRI Study

PubMed Central

Dickerson, B.C.; Miller, S.L.; Greve, D.N.; Dale, A.M.; Albert, M.S.; Schacter, D.L.; Sperling, R.A.

2009-01-01

The ability to spontaneously recall recently learned information is a fundamental mnemonic activity of daily life, but has received little study using functional neuroimaging. We developed a functional MRI (fMRI) paradigm to study regional brain activity during encoding that predicts free recall. In this event-related fMRI study, ten lists of fourteen pictures of common objects were shown to healthy young individuals and regional brain activity during encoding was analyzed based on subsequent free recall performance. Free recall of items was predicted by activity during encoding in hippocampal, fusiform, and inferior prefrontal cortical regions. Within-subject variance in free recall performance for the ten lists was predicted by a linear combination of condition-specific inferior prefrontal, hippocampal, and fusiform activity. Recall performance was better for lists in which pre-frontal activity was greater for all items of the list and hippocampal and fusi-form activity were greater specifically for items that were recalled from the list. Thus, the activity of medial temporal, fusiform, and prefrontal brain regions during the learning of new information is important for the subsequent free recall of this information. These fronto-temporal brain regions act together as a large-scale memory-related network, the components of which make distinct yet interacting contributions during encoding that predict subsequent successful free recall performance. PMID:17604356

Patterns of Brain-Electrical Activity during Declarative Memory Performance in 10-Month-Old Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morasch, Katherine C.; Bell, Martha Ann

2009-01-01

This study of infant declarative memory concurrently examined brain-electrical activity and deferred imitation performance in 10-month-old infants. Continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) measures were collected throughout the activity-matched baseline, encoding (modeling) and retrieval (delayed test) phases of a within-subjects deferred imitation…

Volitional enhancement of firing synchrony and oscillation by neuronal operant conditioning: interaction with neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interface

PubMed Central

Sakurai, Yoshio; Song, Kichan; Tachibana, Shota; Takahashi, Susumu

2014-01-01

In this review, we focus on neuronal operant conditioning in which increments in neuronal activities are directly rewarded without behaviors. We discuss the potential of this approach to elucidate neuronal plasticity for enhancing specific brain functions and its interaction with the progress in neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interfaces. The key to-be-conditioned activities that this paper emphasizes are synchronous and oscillatory firings of multiple neurons that reflect activities of cell assemblies. First, we introduce certain well-known studies on neuronal operant conditioning in which conditioned enhancements of neuronal firing were reported in animals and humans. These studies demonstrated the feasibility of volitional control over neuronal activity. Second, we refer to the recent studies on operant conditioning of synchrony and oscillation of neuronal activities. In particular, we introduce a recent study showing volitional enhancement of oscillatory activity in monkey motor cortex and our study showing selective enhancement of firing synchrony of neighboring neurons in rat hippocampus. Third, we discuss the reasons for emphasizing firing synchrony and oscillation in neuronal operant conditioning, the main reason being that they reflect the activities of cell assemblies, which have been suggested to be basic neuronal codes representing information in the brain. Finally, we discuss the interaction of neuronal operant conditioning with neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interface (BMI). We argue that synchrony and oscillation of neuronal firing are the key activities required for developing both reliable neurorehabilitation and high-performance BMI. Further, we conclude that research of neuronal operant conditioning, neurorehabilitation, BMI, and system neuroscience will produce findings applicable to these interrelated fields, and neuronal synchrony and oscillation can be a common important bridge among all of them. PMID:24567704

Volitional enhancement of firing synchrony and oscillation by neuronal operant conditioning: interaction with neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interface.

PubMed

Sakurai, Yoshio; Song, Kichan; Tachibana, Shota; Takahashi, Susumu

2014-01-01

In this review, we focus on neuronal operant conditioning in which increments in neuronal activities are directly rewarded without behaviors. We discuss the potential of this approach to elucidate neuronal plasticity for enhancing specific brain functions and its interaction with the progress in neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interfaces. The key to-be-conditioned activities that this paper emphasizes are synchronous and oscillatory firings of multiple neurons that reflect activities of cell assemblies. First, we introduce certain well-known studies on neuronal operant conditioning in which conditioned enhancements of neuronal firing were reported in animals and humans. These studies demonstrated the feasibility of volitional control over neuronal activity. Second, we refer to the recent studies on operant conditioning of synchrony and oscillation of neuronal activities. In particular, we introduce a recent study showing volitional enhancement of oscillatory activity in monkey motor cortex and our study showing selective enhancement of firing synchrony of neighboring neurons in rat hippocampus. Third, we discuss the reasons for emphasizing firing synchrony and oscillation in neuronal operant conditioning, the main reason being that they reflect the activities of cell assemblies, which have been suggested to be basic neuronal codes representing information in the brain. Finally, we discuss the interaction of neuronal operant conditioning with neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interface (BMI). We argue that synchrony and oscillation of neuronal firing are the key activities required for developing both reliable neurorehabilitation and high-performance BMI. Further, we conclude that research of neuronal operant conditioning, neurorehabilitation, BMI, and system neuroscience will produce findings applicable to these interrelated fields, and neuronal synchrony and oscillation can be a common important bridge among all of them.

Cortical enlargement in autism is associated with a functional VNTR in the monoamine oxidase A gene.

PubMed

Davis, Lea K; Hazlett, Heather C; Librant, Amy L; Nopoulos, Peggy; Sheffield, Val C; Piven, Joesph; Wassink, Thomas H

2008-10-05

Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) is an enzyme expressed in the brain that metabolizes dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and serotonin. Abnormalities of serotonin neurotransmission have long been implicated in the psychopathology of autism. A polymorphism exists within the promoter region of the MAOA gene that influences MAOA expression levels so that "low activity" alleles are associated with increased neurotransmitter levels in the brain. Individuals with autism often exhibit elevated serotonin levels. Additional studies indicate that the "low activity" allele may be associated with lower IQ and more severe autistic symptoms. In this study we genotyped the MAOA promoter polymorphism in a group of 29 males (age 2-3 years) with autism and a group of 39 healthy pediatric controls for whom brain MRI data was available. We found a consistent association between the "low activity" allele and larger brain volumes for regions of the cortex in children with autism but not in controls. We did not find evidence for over-transmission of the "low activity" allele in a separate sample of 114 affected sib pair families. Nor did we find any unknown SNPs in yet another sample of 96 probands. Future studies will determine if there is a more severe clinical phenotype associated with both the "low activity" genotype and the larger brain volumes in our sample.

Linking neuronal brain activity to the glucose metabolism.

PubMed

Göbel, Britta; Oltmanns, Kerstin M; Chung, Matthias

2013-08-29

Energy homeostasis ensures the functionality of the entire organism. The human brain as a missing link in the global regulation of the complex whole body energy metabolism is subject to recent investigation. The goal of this study is to gain insight into the influence of neuronal brain activity on cerebral and peripheral energy metabolism. In particular, the tight link between brain energy supply and metabolic responses of the organism is of interest. We aim to identifying regulatory elements of the human brain in the whole body energy homeostasis. First, we introduce a general mathematical model describing the human whole body energy metabolism. It takes into account the two central roles of the brain in terms of energy metabolism. The brain is considered as energy consumer as well as regulatory instance. Secondly, we validate our mathematical model by experimental data. Cerebral high-energy phosphate content and peripheral glucose metabolism are measured in healthy men upon neuronal activation induced by transcranial direct current stimulation versus sham stimulation. By parameter estimation we identify model parameters that provide insight into underlying neurophysiological processes. Identified parameters reveal effects of neuronal activity on regulatory mechanisms of systemic glucose metabolism. Our examinations support the view that the brain increases its glucose supply upon neuronal activation. The results indicate that the brain supplies itself with energy according to its needs, and preeminence of cerebral energy supply is reflected. This mechanism ensures balanced cerebral energy homeostasis. The hypothesis of the central role of the brain in whole body energy homeostasis as active controller is supported.

Linking neuronal brain activity to the glucose metabolism

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Energy homeostasis ensures the functionality of the entire organism. The human brain as a missing link in the global regulation of the complex whole body energy metabolism is subject to recent investigation. The goal of this study is to gain insight into the influence of neuronal brain activity on cerebral and peripheral energy metabolism. In particular, the tight link between brain energy supply and metabolic responses of the organism is of interest. We aim to identifying regulatory elements of the human brain in the whole body energy homeostasis. Methods First, we introduce a general mathematical model describing the human whole body energy metabolism. It takes into account the two central roles of the brain in terms of energy metabolism. The brain is considered as energy consumer as well as regulatory instance. Secondly, we validate our mathematical model by experimental data. Cerebral high-energy phosphate content and peripheral glucose metabolism are measured in healthy men upon neuronal activation induced by transcranial direct current stimulation versus sham stimulation. By parameter estimation we identify model parameters that provide insight into underlying neurophysiological processes. Identified parameters reveal effects of neuronal activity on regulatory mechanisms of systemic glucose metabolism. Results Our examinations support the view that the brain increases its glucose supply upon neuronal activation. The results indicate that the brain supplies itself with energy according to its needs, and preeminence of cerebral energy supply is reflected. This mechanism ensures balanced cerebral energy homeostasis. Conclusions The hypothesis of the central role of the brain in whole body energy homeostasis as active controller is supported. PMID:23988084

Signaling pathways of interleukin-1 actions in the brain: anatomical distribution of phospho-ERK1/2 in the brain of rat treated systemically with interleukin-1beta.

PubMed

Nadjar, A; Combe, C; Busquet, P; Dantzer, R; Parnet, P

2005-01-01

Interleukin-1beta is released at the periphery during infection and acts on the nervous system to induce fever, neuroendocrine activation, and behavioral changes. These effects are mediated by brain type I IL-1 receptors. In vitro studies have shown the ability of interleukin-1beta to activate mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways including p38, c-Jun N-terminal kinase and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2). In contrast to other mitogen-activated protein kinases, little is known about ERK1/2 activation in the rat brain in response to interleukin-1beta. The aim of the present study was therefore to investigate spatial and temporal activation of ERK1/2 in the rat brain after peripheral administration of interleukin-1beta using immunohistochemistry to detect the phosphorylated form of the kinase. In non-stimulated conditions, phosphorylated ERK1/2 immunoreactivity was observed in neurons throughout the brain. Administration of interleukin-1beta (60 microg/kg, i.p.) induced the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 in areas at the interface between brain and blood or cerebrospinal fluid: meninges, circumventricular organs, endothelial like cells of the blood vessels, and in brain nuclei involved in behavioral depression, fever and neuroendocrine activation: paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, supraoptic nucleus, central amygdala and arcuate nucleus. Double labeling of phosphorylated ERK1/2 and cell markers revealed the expression of phosphorylated ERK1/2 in neurons, astrocytes and microglia. Since phosphorylated ERK1/2 was found in structures in which type I IL-1 receptor has already been identified as well as in structures lacking this receptor, activation of ERK1/2 is likely to occur in response to both direct and indirect action of interleukin-1beta on its target cells.

Isolated spinal cord contusion in rats induces chronic brain neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and cognitive impairment

PubMed Central

Wu, Junfang; Stoica, Bogdan A; Luo, Tao; Sabirzhanov, Boris; Zhao, Zaorui; Guanciale, Kelsey; Nayar, Suresh K; Foss, Catherine A; Pomper, Martin G; Faden, Alan I

2014-01-01

Cognitive dysfunction has been reported in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), but it has been questioned whether such changes may reflect concurrent head injury, and the issue has not been addressed mechanistically or in a well-controlled experimental model. Our recent rodent studies examining SCI-induced hyperesthesia revealed neuroinflammatory changes not only in supratentorial pain-regulatory sites, but also in other brain regions, suggesting that additional brain functions may be impacted following SCI. Here we examined effects of isolated thoracic SCI in rats on cognition, brain inflammation, and neurodegeneration. We show for the first time that SCI causes widespread microglial activation in the brain, with increased expression of markers for activated microglia/macrophages, including translocator protein and chemokine ligand 21 (C–C motif). Stereological analysis demonstrated significant neuronal loss in the cortex, thalamus, and hippocampus. SCI caused chronic impairment in spatial, retention, contextual, and fear-related emotional memory—evidenced by poor performance in the Morris water maze, novel objective recognition, and passive avoidance tests. Based on our prior work implicating cell cycle activation (CCA) in chronic neuroinflammation after SCI or traumatic brain injury, we evaluated whether CCA contributed to the observed changes. Increased expression of cell cycle-related genes and proteins was found in hippocampus and cortex after SCI. Posttraumatic brain inflammation, neuronal loss, and cognitive changes were attenuated by systemic post-injury administration of a selective cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. These studies demonstrate that chronic brain neurodegeneration occurs after isolated SCI, likely related to sustained microglial activation mediated by cell cycle activation. PMID:25483194

Differences in Monoamine Oxidase Activity in the Brain of Wistar and August Rats with High and Low Locomotor Activity: A Cytochemical Study.

PubMed

Sergutina, A V; Rakhmanova, V I

2016-06-01

Monoamine oxidase activity was quantitatively assessed by cytochemical method in brain structures (layers III and V of the sensorimotor cortex, caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens, hippocampal CA3 field) of rats of August line and Wistar population with high and low locomotor activity in the open fi eld test. Monoamine oxidase activity (substrate tryptamine) predominated in the nucleus accumbens of Wistar rats with high motor activity in comparison with rats with low locomotor activity. In August rats, enzyme activity (substrates tryptamine and serotonin) predominated in the hippocampus of animals with high motor activity. Comparison of August rats with low locomotor activity and Wistar rats with high motor activity (i.e. animals demonstrating maximum differences in motor function) revealed significantly higher activity of the enzyme (substrates tryptamine and serotonin) in the hippocampus of Wistar rats. The study demonstrates clear-cut morphochemical specificity of monoaminergic metabolism based on the differences in the cytochemical parameter "monoamine oxidase activity", in the studied brain structures, responsible for the formation and realization of goal-directed behavior in Wistar and August rats.

Multiscale energy reallocation during low-frequency steady-state brain response.

PubMed

Wang, Yifeng; Chen, Wang; Ye, Liangkai; Biswal, Bharat B; Yang, Xuezhi; Zou, Qijun; Yang, Pu; Yang, Qi; Wang, Xinqi; Cui, Qian; Duan, Xujun; Liao, Wei; Chen, Huafu

2018-05-01

Traditional task-evoked brain activations are based on detection and estimation of signal change from the mean signal. By contrast, the low-frequency steady-state brain response (lfSSBR) reflects frequency-tagging activity at the fundamental frequency of the task presentation and its harmonics. Compared to the activity at these resonant frequencies, brain responses at nonresonant frequencies are largely unknown. Additionally, because the lfSSBR is defined by power change, we hypothesize using Parseval's theorem that the power change reflects brain signal variability rather than the change of mean signal. Using a face recognition task, we observed power increase at the fundamental frequency (0.05 Hz) and two harmonics (0.1 and 0.15 Hz) and power decrease within the infra-slow frequency band (<0.1 Hz), suggesting a multifrequency energy reallocation. The consistency of power and variability was demonstrated by the high correlation (r > .955) of their spatial distribution and brain-behavior relationship at all frequency bands. Additionally, the reallocation of finite energy was observed across various brain regions and frequency bands, forming a particular spatiotemporal pattern. Overall, results from this study strongly suggest that frequency-specific power and variability may measure the same underlying brain activity and that these results may shed light on different mechanisms between lfSSBR and brain activation, and spatiotemporal characteristics of energy reallocation induced by cognitive tasks. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Resting-state functional brain connectivity: lessons from functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

PubMed

Niu, Haijing; He, Yong

2014-04-01

Resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (R-fNIRS) is an active area of interest and is currently attracting considerable attention as a new imaging tool for the study of resting-state brain function. Using variations in hemodynamic concentration signals, R-fNIRS measures the brain's low-frequency spontaneous neural activity, combining the advantages of portability, low-cost, high temporal sampling rate and less physical burden to participants. The temporal synchronization of spontaneous neuronal activity in anatomically separated regions is referred to as resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). In the past several years, an increasing body of R-fNIRS RSFC studies has led to many important findings about functional integration among local or whole-brain regions by measuring inter-regional temporal synchronization. Here, we summarize recent advances made in the R-fNIRS RSFC methodologies, from the detection of RSFC (e.g., seed-based correlation analysis, independent component analysis, whole-brain correlation analysis, and graph-theoretical topological analysis), to the assessment of RSFC performance (e.g., reliability, repeatability, and validity), to the application of RSFC in studying normal development and brain disorders. The literature reviewed here suggests that RSFC analyses based on R-fNIRS data are valid and reliable for the study of brain function in healthy and diseased populations, thus providing a promising imaging tool for cognitive science and clinics.

Pharmacologic Modulation of Hand Pain in Osteoarthritis: A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Using Naproxen

PubMed Central

Sanders, Duncan; Krause, Kristina; O'Muircheartaigh, Jonathan; Thacker, Michael A; Huggins, John P; Vennart, William; Massat, Nathalie J; Choy, Ernest; Williams, Steven C R; Howard, Matthew A

2015-01-01

Objective In an attempt to shed light on management of chronic pain conditions, there has long been a desire to complement behavioral measures of pain perception with measures of underlying brain mechanisms. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we undertook this study to investigate changes in brain activity following the administration of naproxen or placebo in patients with pain related to osteoarthritis (OA) of the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint. Methods A placebo-controlled, double-blind, 2-period crossover study was performed in 19 individuals with painful OA of the CMC joint of the right hand. Following placebo or naproxen treatment periods, a functionally relevant task was performed, and behavioral measures of the pain experience were collected in identical fMRI examinations. Voxelwise and a priori region of interest analyses were performed to detect between-period differences in brain activity. Results Significant reductions in brain activity following treatment with naproxen, compared to placebo, were observed in brain regions commonly associated with pain perception, including the bilateral primary somatosensory cortex, thalamus, and amygdala. Significant relationships between changes in perceived pain intensity and changes in brain activity were also observed in brain regions previously associated with pain intensity. Conclusion This study demonstrates the sensitivity of fMRI to detect the mechanisms underlying treatments of known efficacy. The data illustrate the enticing potential of fMRI as an adjunct to self-report for detecting early signals of efficacy of novel therapies, both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic, in small numbers of individuals with persistent pain. PMID:25533872

Assessment of brain activity during voluntary anal sphincter contraction: Comparative study in women with and without fecal incontinence.

PubMed

Parés, D; Martínez-Vilalta, M; Ortiz, H; Soriano-Mas, C; Maestre-Gonzalez, Y; Pujol, J; Grande, L

2018-04-14

Voluntary anal sphincter function is driven by an extended network of brain structures, most of which are still unknown. Disturbances in this function may cause fecal incontinence. The aim of this study was to characterize the cerebral areas involved in voluntary contraction of the anorectal sphincter in healthy women and in a group of patients with fecal incontinence by using a standardized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocol. This comparative study included 12 healthy women (mean age 53.17 ± 4.93 years) and 12 women with fecal incontinence (56.25 ± 6.94 years). An MRI-compatible anal manometer was used to register voluntary external anal sphincter contraction. During brain fMRI imaging, participants were cued to perform 10-s series of self-paced anal sphincter contractions at an approximate rate of 1 Hz. Brain structures linked to anal sphincter contractions were mapped and the findings were compared between the 2 study groups. There were no differences in the evoked brain activity between the 2 groups. In healthy women, group fMRI analysis revealed significant activations in medial primary motor cortices, supplementary motor area, bilateral putamen, and cerebellum, as well as in the supramarginal gyrus and visual areas. In patients with fecal incontinence, the activation pattern involved similar regions without significant differences with healthy women. This brain fMRI-anorectal protocol was able to map the brain regions linked to voluntary anal sphincter function in healthy and women with fecal incontinence. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Shadows of Music-Language Interaction on Low Frequency Brain Oscillatory Patterns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrus, Elisa; Koelsch, Stefan; Bhattacharya, Joydeep

2011-01-01

Electrophysiological studies investigating similarities between music and language perception have relied exclusively on the signal averaging technique, which does not adequately represent oscillatory aspects of electrical brain activity that are relevant for higher cognition. The current study investigated the patterns of brain oscillations…

Brain Activations Related to Saccadic Response Conflict are not Sensitive to Time on Task.

PubMed

Beldzik, Ewa; Domagalik, Aleksandra; Oginska, Halszka; Marek, Tadeusz; Fafrowicz, Magdalena

2015-01-01

Establishing a role of the dorsal medial frontal cortex in the performance monitoring and cognitive control has been a challenge to neuroscientists for the past decade. In light of recent findings, the conflict monitoring hypothesis has been elaborated to an action-outcome predictor theory. One of the findings that led to this re-evaluation was the fMRI study in which conflict-related brain activity was investigated in terms of the so-called time on task effect, i.e., a linear increase of the BOLD signal with longer response times. The aim of this study was to investigate brain regions involved in the processing of saccadic response conflict and to account for the time on task effect. A modified spatial cueing task was implemented in the event-related fMRI study with oculomotor responses. The results revealed several brain regions which show higher activity for incongruent trials in comparison to the congruent ones, including pre-supplementary motor area together with the frontal and parietal regions. Further analysis accounting for the effect of response time provided evidence that these brain activations were not sensitive to time on task but reflected purely the congruency effect.

Large-Scale functional network overlap is a general property of brain functional organization: Reconciling inconsistent fMRI findings from general-linear-model-based analyses

PubMed Central

Xu, Jiansong; Potenza, Marc N.; Calhoun, Vince D.; Zhang, Rubin; Yip, Sarah W.; Wall, John T.; Pearlson, Godfrey D.; Worhunsky, Patrick D.; Garrison, Kathleen A.; Moran, Joseph M.

2016-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies regularly use univariate general-linear-model-based analyses (GLM). Their findings are often inconsistent across different studies, perhaps because of several fundamental brain properties including functional heterogeneity, balanced excitation and inhibition (E/I), and sparseness of neuronal activities. These properties stipulate heterogeneous neuronal activities in the same voxels and likely limit the sensitivity and specificity of GLM. This paper selectively reviews findings of histological and electrophysiological studies and fMRI spatial independent component analysis (sICA) and reports new findings by applying sICA to two existing datasets. The extant and new findings consistently demonstrate several novel features of brain functional organization not revealed by GLM. They include overlap of large-scale functional networks (FNs) and their concurrent opposite modulations, and no significant modulations in activity of most FNs across the whole brain during any task conditions. These novel features of brain functional organization are highly consistent with the brain’s properties of functional heterogeneity, balanced E/I, and sparseness of neuronal activity, and may help reconcile inconsistent GLM findings. PMID:27592153

Abnormalities in emotion processing within cortical and subcortical regions in criminal psychopaths: evidence from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using pictures with emotional content.

PubMed

Müller, Jürgen L; Sommer, Monika; Wagner, Verena; Lange, Kirsten; Taschler, Heidrun; Röder, Christian H; Schuierer, Gerhardt; Klein, Helmfried E; Hajak, Göran

2003-07-15

Neurobiology of psychopathy is important for our understanding of current neuropsychiatric questions. Despite a growing interest in biological research in psychopathy, its neural underpinning remains obscure. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the influence of affective contents on brain activation in psychopaths. Series containing positive and negative pictures from the International Affective Picture System were shown to six male psychopaths and six male control subjects while 100 whole-brain echo-planar-imaging measurements were acquired. Differences in brain activation were evaluated using BrainVoyager software 4.6. In psychopaths, increased activation through negative contents was found right-sided in prefrontal regions and amygdala. Activation was reduced right-sided in the subgenual cingulate and the temporal gyrus, and left-sided in the dorsal cingulate and the parahippocampal gyrus. Increased activation through positive contents was found left-sided in the orbitofrontal regions. Activation was reduced in right medial frontal and medial temporal regions. These findings underline the hypotheses that psychopathy is neurobiologically reflected by dysregulation and disturbed functional connectivity of emotion-related brain regions. These findings may be interpreted within a framework including prefrontal regions that provide top-down control to and regulate bottom-up signals from limbic areas. Because of the small sample size, the results of this study have to be regarded as preliminary.

Measuring speaker–listener neural coupling with functional near infrared spectroscopy

PubMed Central

Liu, Yichuan; Piazza, Elise A.; Simony, Erez; Shewokis, Patricia A.; Onaral, Banu; Hasson, Uri; Ayaz, Hasan

2017-01-01

The present study investigates brain-to-brain coupling, defined as inter-subject correlations in the hemodynamic response, during natural verbal communication. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to record brain activity of 3 speakers telling stories and 15 listeners comprehending audio recordings of these stories. Listeners’ brain activity was significantly correlated with speakers’ with a delay. This between-brain correlation disappeared when verbal communication failed. We further compared the fNIRS and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) recordings of listeners comprehending the same story and found a significant relationship between the fNIRS oxygenated-hemoglobin concentration changes and the fMRI BOLD in brain areas associated with speech comprehension. This correlation between fNIRS and fMRI was only present when data from the same story were compared between the two modalities and vanished when data from different stories were compared; this cross-modality consistency further highlights the reliability of the spatiotemporal brain activation pattern as a measure of story comprehension. Our findings suggest that fNIRS can be used for investigating brain-to-brain coupling during verbal communication in natural settings. PMID:28240295

Multicenter phase 2 study of patupilone for recurrent or progressive brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer.

PubMed

Nayak, Lakshmi; DeAngelis, Lisa M; Robins, H Ian; Govindan, Ramaswamy; Gadgeel, Shirish; Kelly, Karen; Rigas, James R; Peereboom, David M; Rosenfeld, Steven S; Muzikansky, Alona; Zheng, Ming; Urban, Patrick; Abrey, Lauren E; Omuro, Antonio; Wen, Patrick Y

2015-12-01

Treatment options for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with brain metastases are limited. Patupilone (EPO906), a blood-brain barrier-penetrating, microtubule-targeting, cytotoxic agent, has shown clinical activity in phase 1/2 studies in patients with NSCLC. This study evaluates the efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and safety of patupilone in NSCLC brain metastases. Adult patients with NSCLC and confirmed progressive brain metastases received patupilone intravenously at 10 mg/m(2) every 3 weeks. The primary endpoint of this multinomial 2-stage study combined early progression (EP; death or progression within 3 weeks) and progression-free survival at 9 weeks (PFS9w) to determine drug activity. Fifty patients with a median age of 60 years (range, 33-74 years) were enrolled; the majority were men (58%), and most had received prior therapy for brain metastases (98%). The PFS9w rate was 36%, and the EP rate was 26%. Patupilone blood pharmacokinetic analyses showed mean areas under the concentration-time curve from time zero to 504 hours for cycles 1 and 3 of 1544 and 1978 ng h/mL, respectively, and a mean steady state distribution volume of 755 L/m(2) . Grade 3/4 adverse events (AEs), regardless of their relation with the study drug, included diarrhea (24%), pulmonary embolisms (8%), convulsions (4%), and peripheral neuropathy (4%). All patients discontinued the study drug: 31 (62%) for disease progression and 13 (26%) for AEs. Twenty-five of 32 deaths were due to brain metastases. The median time to progression and the overall survival were 3.2 and 8.8 months, respectively. This is the first prospective study of chemotherapy for recurrent brain metastases from NSCLC. In this population, patupilone demonstrated activity in heavily treated patients. © 2015 American Cancer Society.

Brain Activity in Patients With Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia Detected by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

PubMed

Kiyuna, Asanori; Kise, Norimoto; Hiratsuka, Munehisa; Kondo, Shunsuke; Uehara, Takayuki; Maeda, Hiroyuki; Ganaha, Akira; Suzuki, Mikio

2017-05-01

Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) is considered a focal dystonia. However, the detailed pathophysiology of SD remains unclear, despite the detection of abnormal activity in several brain regions. The aim of this study was to clarify the pathophysiological background of SD. This is a case-control study. Both task-related brain activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging by reading the five-digit numbers and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) measured by 150 T2-weighted echo planar images acquired without any task were investigated in 12 patients with adductor SD and in 16 healthy controls. The patients with SD showed significantly higher task-related brain activation in the left middle temporal gyrus, left thalamus, bilateral primary motor area, bilateral premotor area, bilateral cerebellum, bilateral somatosensory area, right insula, and right putamen compared with the controls. Region of interest voxel FC analysis revealed many FC changes within the cerebellum-basal ganglia-thalamus-cortex loop in the patients with SD. Of the significant connectivity changes between the patients with SD and the controls, the FC between the left thalamus and the left caudate nucleus was significantly correlated with clinical parameters in SD. The higher task-related brain activity in the insula and cerebellum was consistent with previous neuroimaging studies, suggesting that these areas are one of the unique characteristics of phonation-induced brain activity in SD. Based on FC analysis and their significant correlations with clinical parameters, the basal ganglia network plays an important role in the pathogenesis of SD. Copyright © 2017 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Effect of centrophenoxine, piracetam and aniracetam on the monoamine oxidase activity in different brain structures of rats].

PubMed

Stancheva, S L; Alova, L G

1988-01-01

In vitro studies of effects of some nootropic drugs (centrophenoxine, piracetam and aniracetam) on monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity in the rat striatum and hypothalamus, using tyramine, serotonin and beta-phenylethylamine as substrates, were carried out. At all concentrations used (5.10(-5)-1.10(-3) M) centrophenoxine inhibited total MAO, MAO A and MAO B in both brain structures. Piracetam activated striatal and hypothalamic total MAO, hypothalamic MAO A and MAO B but exerted a pronounced inhibitory effect on MAO A and MAO B activity in the striatum. Aniracetam inhibited total MAO and MAO A in both brain structures but activated striatal and hypothalamic MAO B. The different effects of centrophenoxine, piracetam and aniracetam on MAO activity in the brain structures support the view for the independent mode of action of nootropic drugs in spite of their similar molecular and metabolic activity.

Emotional face processing and flat affect in schizophrenia: functional and structural neural correlates.

PubMed

Lepage, M; Sergerie, K; Benoit, A; Czechowska, Y; Dickie, E; Armony, J L

2011-09-01

There is a general consensus in the literature that schizophrenia causes difficulties with facial emotion perception and discrimination. Functional brain imaging studies have observed reduced limbic activity during facial emotion perception but few studies have examined the relation to flat affect severity. A total of 26 people with schizophrenia and 26 healthy controls took part in this event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Sad, happy and neutral faces were presented in a pseudo-random order and participants indicated the gender of the face presented. Manual segmentation of the amygdala was performed on a structural T1 image. Both the schizophrenia group and the healthy control group rated the emotional valence of facial expressions similarly. Both groups exhibited increased brain activity during the perception of emotional faces relative to neutral ones in multiple brain regions, including multiple prefrontal regions bilaterally, the right amygdala, right cingulate cortex and cuneus. Group comparisons, however, revealed increased activity in the healthy group in the anterior cingulate, right parahippocampal gyrus and multiple visual areas. In schizophrenia, the severity of flat affect correlated significantly with neural activity in several brain areas including the amygdala and parahippocampal region bilaterally. These results suggest that many of the brain regions involved in emotional face perception, including the amygdala, are equally recruited in both schizophrenia and controls, but flat affect can also moderate activity in some other brain regions, notably in the left amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus bilaterally. There were no significant group differences in the volume of the amygdala.

Decrease in fMRI brain activation during working memory performed after sleeping under 10 lux light.

PubMed

Kang, Seung-Gul; Yoon, Ho-Kyoung; Cho, Chul-Hyun; Kwon, Soonwook; Kang, June; Park, Young-Min; Lee, Eunil; Kim, Leen; Lee, Heon-Jeong

2016-11-09

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of exposure to dim light at night (dLAN) when sleeping on functional brain activation during a working-memory tasks. We conducted the brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis on 20 healthy male subjects. All participants slept in a polysomnography laboratory without light exposure on the first and second nights and under a dim-light condition of either 5 or 10 lux on the third night. The fMRI scanning was conducted during n-back tasks after second and third nights. Statistical parametric maps revealed less activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) after exposure to 10-lux light. The brain activity in the right and left IFG areas decreased more during the 2-back task than during the 1- or 0-back task in the 10-lux group. The exposure to 5-lux light had no significant effect on brain activities. The exposure to dLAN might influence the brain function which is related to the cognition.

Cellular stress and apoptosis contribute to the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Dong, Daoyin; Zielke, Horst Ronald; Yeh, David; Yang, Peixin

2018-05-15

The molecular pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder, is still elusive. In this study, we investigated the possible roles of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, oxidative stress, and apoptosis as molecular mechanisms underlying autism. This study compared the activation of ER stress signals (protein kinase R-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase [PERK], activating transcription factor 6 [ATF6], inositol-requiring enzyme 1 alpha [IRE1α]) in different brain regions (prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, cerebellum) in subjects with autism and in age-matched controls. Our data showed that the activation of three signals of ER stress varies in different regions of the autistic brain. IRE1α was activated in cerebellum and prefrontal cortex but ATF6 was activated in hippocampus. PERK was not activated in the three regions. Furthermore, the activation of ER stress was confirmed because the expression of C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP), which is the common downstream indicators of ER stress signals, and most of ER chaperones were upregulated in the three regions. Consistent with the induction of ER stress, apoptosis was found in the three regions by detecting the cleavage of caspase 8 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase as well as using the transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay. Moreover, our data showed that oxidative stress was responsible for ER stress and apoptosis because the levels of 4-Hydroxynonenal and nitrotyrosine-modified proteins were significantly increased in the three regions. In conclusion, these data indicate that cellular stress and apoptosis may play important roles in the pathogenesis of autism. Autism Res 2018. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism results in significant morbidity and mortality in children. The functional and molecular changes in the autistic brains are unclear. The present study utilized autistic brain tissues from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Brain Tissue Bank for the analysis of cellular and molecular changes in autistic brains. Three key brain regions, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the frontal cortex, in six cases of autistic brains and six cases of non-autistic brains from 6 to 16 years old deceased children, were analyzed. The current study investigated the possible roles of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, oxidative stress, and apoptosis as molecular mechanisms underlying autism. The activation of three signals of ER stress (protein kinase R-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase, activating transcription factor 6, inositol-requiring enzyme 1 alpha) varies in different regions. The occurrence of ER stress leads to apoptosis in autistic brains. ER stress may result from oxidative stress because of elevated levels of the oxidative stress markers: 4-Hydroxynonenal and nitrotyrosine-modified proteins in autistic brains. These findings suggest that cellular stress and apoptosis may contribute to the autistic phenotype. Pharmaceuticals and/or dietary supplements, which can alleviate ER stress, oxidative stress and apoptosis, may be effective in ameliorating adverse phenotypes associated with autism. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Evaluation of Brain Activity Related to Speech and Handwriting Using NIRS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asano, Hirotoshi; Suzuki, Hiroaki; Ide, Hideto

The difference by the brain activity when writing it down speech the use of the near-infrared spectroscopy is examined in the present study. It is thought that it becomes a help of the communications between the nurse and people requiring long-term care if the identification of the information transmission means can be evaluated and be detected from the brain activity. Because the possibility of the evaluation of result, “Speech”, and “Writing” was shown, it reports.

Neurological soft signs are not "soft" in brain structure and functional networks: evidence from ALE meta-analysis.

PubMed

Zhao, Qing; Li, Zhi; Huang, Jia; Yan, Chao; Dazzan, Paola; Pantelis, Christos; Cheung, Eric F C; Lui, Simon S Y; Chan, Raymond C K

2014-05-01

Neurological soft signs (NSS) are associated with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. NSS have been conventionally considered as clinical neurological signs without localized brain regions. However, recent brain imaging studies suggest that NSS are partly localizable and may be associated with deficits in specific brain areas. We conducted an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis to quantitatively review structural and functional imaging studies that evaluated the brain correlates of NSS in patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Six structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and 15 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were included. The results from meta-analysis of the sMRI studies indicated that NSS were associated with atrophy of the precentral gyrus, the cerebellum, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the thalamus. The results from meta-analysis of the fMRI studies demonstrated that the NSS-related task was significantly associated with altered brain activation in the inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral putamen, the cerebellum, and the superior temporal gyrus. Our findings from both sMRI and fMRI meta-analyses further support the conceptualization of NSS as a manifestation of the "cerebello-thalamo-prefrontal" brain network model of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

Changes in Male Rat Sexual Behavior and Brain Activity Revealed by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Response to Chronic Mild Stress.

PubMed

Chen, Guotao; Yang, Baibing; Chen, Jianhuai; Zhu, Leilei; Jiang, Hesong; Yu, Wen; Zang, Fengchao; Chen, Yun; Dai, Yutian

2018-02-01

Non-organic erectile dysfunction (noED) at functional imaging has been related to abnormal brain activity and requires animal models for further research on the associated molecular mechanisms. To develop a noED animal model based on chronic mild stress and investigate brain activity changes. We used 6 weeks of chronic mild stress to induce depression. The sucrose consumption test was used to assess the hedonic state. The apomorphine test and sexual behavior test were used to select male rats with ED. Rats with depression and ED were considered to have noED. Blood oxygen level-dependent-based resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were conducted on these rats, and the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations and functional connectivity were analyzed to determine brain activity changes. The sexual behavior test and resting-state fMRI were used for outcome measures. The induction of depression was confirmed by the sucrose consumption test. A low intromission ratio and increased mount and intromission latencies were observed in male rats with depression. No erection was observed in male rats with depression during the apomorphine test. Male rats with depression and ED were considered to have noED. The possible central pathologic mechanism shown by fMRI involved the amygdaloid body, dorsal thalamus, hypothalamus, caudate-putamen, cingulate gyrus, insular cortex, visual cortex, sensory cortex, motor cortex, and cerebellum. Similar findings have been found in humans. The present study provided a novel noED rat model for further research on the central mechanism of noED. The present study developed a novel noED rat model and analyzed brain activity changes based at fMRI. The observed brain activity alterations might not extend to humans. The present study developed a novel noED rat model with brain activity alterations related to sexual arousal and erection, which will be helpful for further research involving the central mechanism of noED. Chen G, Yang B, Chen J, et al. Changes in Male Rat Sexual Behavior and Brain Activity Revealed by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Response to Chronic Mild Stress. J Sex Med 2018;15:136-147. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Sexual Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Atlas-guided volumetric diffuse optical tomography enhanced by generalized linear model analysis to image risk decision-making responses in young adults.

PubMed

Lin, Zi-Jing; Li, Lin; Cazzell, Mary; Liu, Hanli

2014-08-01

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is a variant of functional near infrared spectroscopy and has the capability of mapping or reconstructing three dimensional (3D) hemodynamic changes due to brain activity. Common methods used in DOT image analysis to define brain activation have limitations because the selection of activation period is relatively subjective. General linear model (GLM)-based analysis can overcome this limitation. In this study, we combine the atlas-guided 3D DOT image reconstruction with GLM-based analysis (i.e., voxel-wise GLM analysis) to investigate the brain activity that is associated with risk decision-making processes. Risk decision-making is an important cognitive process and thus is an essential topic in the field of neuroscience. The Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) is a valid experimental model and has been commonly used to assess human risk-taking actions and tendencies while facing risks. We have used the BART paradigm with a blocked design to investigate brain activations in the prefrontal and frontal cortical areas during decision-making from 37 human participants (22 males and 15 females). Voxel-wise GLM analysis was performed after a human brain atlas template and a depth compensation algorithm were combined to form atlas-guided DOT images. In this work, we wish to demonstrate the excellence of using voxel-wise GLM analysis with DOT to image and study cognitive functions in response to risk decision-making. Results have shown significant hemodynamic changes in the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the active-choice mode and a different activation pattern between genders; these findings correlate well with published literature in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and fNIRS studies. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Craving Responses to Methamphetamine and Sexual Visual Cues in Individuals With Methamphetamine Use Disorder After Long-Term Drug Rehabilitation

PubMed Central

Huang, Shucai; Zhang, Zhixue; Dai, Yuanyuan; Zhang, Changcun; Yang, Cheng; Fan, Lidan; Liu, Jun; Hao, Wei; Chen, Hongxian

2018-01-01

Studies utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) cue-reactivity paradigms have demonstrated that short-term abstinent or current methamphetamine (MA) users have increased brain activity in the ventral striatum, caudate nucleus and medial frontal cortex, when exposed to MA-related visual cues. However, patterns of brain activity following cue-reactivity in subjects with long-term MA abstinence, especially long-term compulsory drug rehabilitation, have not been well studied. To enrich knowledge in this field, functional brain imaging was conducted during a cue-reactivity paradigm task in 28 individuals with MA use disorder following long-term compulsory drug rehabilitation, and 27 healthy control subjects. The results showed that, when compared with controls, individuals with MA use disorder displayed elevated activity in the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and right lateral posterior cingulate cortex in response to MA-related images. Additionally, the anterior cingulate region of mPFC activation during the MA-related cue-reactivity paradigm was positively correlated with craving alterations and previous frequency of drug use. No significant differences in brain activity in response to pornographic images were found between the two groups. Compared to MA cues, individuals with MA use disorder had increased activation in the occipital lobe when exposed to pornographic cues. In conclusion, the present study indicates that, even after long-term drug rehabilitation, individuals with MA use disorder have unique brain activity when exposed to MA-related cues. Additionally, our results illustrate that the libido brain response might be restored, and that sexual demand might be more robust than drug demand, in individuals with MA use disorder following long-term drug rehabilitation. PMID:29725310

Craving Responses to Methamphetamine and Sexual Visual Cues in Individuals With Methamphetamine Use Disorder After Long-Term Drug Rehabilitation.

PubMed

Huang, Shucai; Zhang, Zhixue; Dai, Yuanyuan; Zhang, Changcun; Yang, Cheng; Fan, Lidan; Liu, Jun; Hao, Wei; Chen, Hongxian

2018-01-01

Studies utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) cue-reactivity paradigms have demonstrated that short-term abstinent or current methamphetamine (MA) users have increased brain activity in the ventral striatum, caudate nucleus and medial frontal cortex, when exposed to MA-related visual cues. However, patterns of brain activity following cue-reactivity in subjects with long-term MA abstinence, especially long-term compulsory drug rehabilitation, have not been well studied. To enrich knowledge in this field, functional brain imaging was conducted during a cue-reactivity paradigm task in 28 individuals with MA use disorder following long-term compulsory drug rehabilitation, and 27 healthy control subjects. The results showed that, when compared with controls, individuals with MA use disorder displayed elevated activity in the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and right lateral posterior cingulate cortex in response to MA-related images. Additionally, the anterior cingulate region of mPFC activation during the MA-related cue-reactivity paradigm was positively correlated with craving alterations and previous frequency of drug use. No significant differences in brain activity in response to pornographic images were found between the two groups. Compared to MA cues, individuals with MA use disorder had increased activation in the occipital lobe when exposed to pornographic cues. In conclusion, the present study indicates that, even after long-term drug rehabilitation, individuals with MA use disorder have unique brain activity when exposed to MA-related cues. Additionally, our results illustrate that the libido brain response might be restored, and that sexual demand might be more robust than drug demand, in individuals with MA use disorder following long-term drug rehabilitation.

Developmental changes in category-specific brain responses to numbers and letters in a working memory task

PubMed Central

Libertus, Melissa E.; Brannon, Elizabeth M.; Pelphrey, Kevin A.

2009-01-01

Neuroimaging studies have identified a common network of brain regions involving the prefrontal and parietal cortices across a variety of working memory (WM) tasks. However, previous studies have also reported category-specific dissociations of activation within this network. In this study, we investigated the development of category-specific activation in a WM task with digits, letters, and faces. Eight-year-old children and adults performed a 2-back WM task while their brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Overall, children were significantly slower and less accurate than adults on all three WM conditions (digits, letters, and faces); however, within each age group, behavioral performance across the three conditions was very similar. FMRI results revealed category-specific activation in adults but not children in the intraparietal sulcus for the digit condition. Likewise, during the letter condition, category-specific activation was observed in adults but not children in the left occipital–temporal cortex. In contrast, children and adults showed highly similar brain-activity patterns in the lateral fusiform gyri when solving the 2-back WM task with face stimuli. Our results suggest that 8-year-old children do not yet engage the typical brain regions that have been associated with abstract or semantic processing of numerical symbols and letters when these processes are task-irrelevant and the primary task is demanding. Nevertheless, brain activity in letter-responsive areas predicted children’s spelling performance underscoring the relationship between abstract processing of letters and linguistic abilities. Lastly, behavioral performance on the WM task was predictive of math and language abilities highlighting the connection between WM and other cognitive abilities in development. PMID:19027079

Monte Carlo simulation of near-infrared light propagation in realistic adult head models with hair follicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Boan; Fang, Xiang; Liu, Weichao; Li, Nanxi; Zhao, Ke; Li, Ting

2018-02-01

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) has been used to measure brain activation, which are clinically important. Monte Carlo simulation has been applied to the near infrared light propagation model in biological tissue, and has the function of predicting diffusion and brain activation. However, previous studies have rarely considered hair and hair follicles as a contributing factor. Here, we attempt to use MCVM (Monte Carlo simulation based on 3D voxelized media) to examine light transmission, absorption, fluence, spatial sensitivity distribution (SSD) and brain activation judgement in the presence or absence of the hair follicles. The data in this study is a series of high-resolution cryosectional color photograph of a standing Chinse male adult. We found that the number of photons transmitted under the scalp decreases dramatically and the photons exported to detector is also decreasing, as the density of hair follicles increases. If there is no hair follicle, the above data increase and has the maximum value. Meanwhile, the light distribution and brain activation have a stable change along with the change of hair follicles density. The findings indicated hair follicles make influence of NIRS in light distribution and brain activation judgement.

A functional magnetic resonance imaging assessment of small animals' phobia using virtual reality as a stimulus.

PubMed

Clemente, Miriam; Rey, Beatriz; Rodriguez-Pujadas, Aina; Breton-Lopez, Juani; Barros-Loscertales, Alfonso; Baños, Rosa M; Botella, Cristina; Alcañiz, Mariano; Avila, Cesar

2014-06-27

To date, still images or videos of real animals have been used in functional magnetic resonance imaging protocols to evaluate the brain activations associated with small animals' phobia. The objective of our study was to evaluate the brain activations associated with small animals' phobia through the use of virtual environments. This context will have the added benefit of allowing the subject to move and interact with the environment, giving the subject the illusion of being there. We have analyzed the brain activation in a group of phobic people while they navigated in a virtual environment that included the small animals that were the object of their phobia. We have found brain activation mainly in the left occipital inferior lobe (P<.05 corrected, cluster size=36), related to the enhanced visual attention to the phobic stimuli; and in the superior frontal gyrus (P<.005 uncorrected, cluster size=13), which is an area that has been previously related to the feeling of self-awareness. In our opinion, these results demonstrate that virtual stimulus can enhance brain activations consistent with previous studies with still images, but in an environment closer to the real situation the subject would face in their daily lives.

Glutamine synthetase activity and glutamate uptake in hippocampus and frontal cortex in portal hypertensive rats

PubMed Central

Acosta, Gabriela Beatriz; Fernández, María Alejandra; Roselló, Diego Martín; Tomaro, María Luján; Balestrasse, Karina; Lemberg, Abraham

2009-01-01

AIM: To study glutamine synthetase (GS) activity and glutamate uptake in the hippocampus and frontal cortex (FC) from rats with prehepatic portal vein hypertension. METHODS: Male Wistar rats were divided into sham-operated group and a portal hypertension (PH) group with a regulated stricture of the portal vein. Animals were sacrificed by decapitation 14 d after portal vein stricture. GS activity was determined in the hippocampus and FC. Specific uptake of radiolabeled L-glutamate was studied using synaptosome-enriched fractions that were freshly prepared from both brain areas. RESULTS: We observed that the activity of GS increased in the hippocampus of PH rats, as compared to control animals, and decreased in the FC. A significant decrease in glutamate uptake was found in both brain areas, and was more marked in the hippocampus. The decrease in glutamate uptake might have been caused by a deficient transport function, significantly and persistent increase in this excitatory neurotransmitter activity. CONCLUSION: The presence of moderate ammonia blood levels may add to the toxicity of excitotoxic glutamate in the brain, which causes alterations in brain function. Portal vein stricture that causes portal hypertension modifies the normal function in some brain regions. PMID:19533812

Brain State Is a Major Factor in Preseizure Hippocampal Network Activity and Influences Success of Seizure Intervention

PubMed Central

Ewell, Laura A.; Liang, Liang; Armstrong, Caren; Soltész, Ivan; Leutgeb, Stefan

2015-01-01

Neural dynamics preceding seizures are of interest because they may shed light on mechanisms of seizure generation and could be predictive. In healthy animals, hippocampal network activity is shaped by behavioral brain state and, in epilepsy, seizures selectively emerge during specific brain states. To determine the degree to which changes in network dynamics before seizure are pathological or reflect ongoing fluctuations in brain state, dorsal hippocampal neurons were recorded during spontaneous seizures in a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Seizures emerged from all brain states, but with a greater likelihood after REM sleep, potentially due to an observed increase in baseline excitability during periods of REM compared with other brains states also characterized by sustained theta oscillations. When comparing the firing patterns of the same neurons across brain states associated with and without seizures, activity dynamics before seizures followed patterns typical of the ongoing brain state, or brain state transitions, and did not differ until the onset of the electrographic seizure. Next, we tested whether disparate activity patterns during distinct brain states would influence the effectiveness of optogenetic curtailment of hippocampal seizures in a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Optogenetic curtailment was significantly more effective for seizures preceded by non-theta states compared with seizures that emerged from theta states. Our results indicate that consideration of behavioral brain state preceding a seizure is important for the appropriate interpretation of network dynamics leading up to a seizure and for designing effective seizure intervention. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Hippocampal single-unit activity is strongly shaped by behavioral brain state, yet this relationship has been largely ignored when studying activity dynamics before spontaneous seizures in medial temporal lobe epilepsy. In light of the increased attention on using single-unit activity for the prediction of seizure onset and closed-loop seizure intervention, we show a need for monitoring brain state to interpret correctly whether changes in neural activity before seizure onset is pathological or normal. Moreover, we also find that the brain state preceding a seizure determines the success of therapeutic interventions to curtail seizure duration. Together, these findings suggest that seizure prediction and intervention will be more successful if tailored for the specific brain states from which seizures emerge. PMID:26609157

Enhanced expression by the brain matrix of P-glycoprotein in brain capillary endothelial cells.

PubMed

Tatsuta, T; Naito, M; Mikami, K; Tsuruo, T

1994-10-01

P-glycoprotein (PGP), an active efflux pump of antitumor agents in multidrug-resistant tumor cells, exists in brain capillary endothelium and could be functionally involved in the blood-brain barrier. To study the regulatory mechanism of PGP expression in brain capillary endothelium, various mouse tissue matrices were tested for their abilities to enhance the expression of PGP in mouse brain capillary endothelial cells (MBEC), which express relatively small amounts of PGP. Of the four tissue matrices we examined, PGP expression in MBEC cultured on the brain matrix increased 2.0-fold. The PGP-inducing activity was similarly detected in bovine brain matrix, and the activity was enriched in the fraction of pl 9.0 by isoelectric focusing. The fraction, named PIC-fraction (PGP-inducing component), increased the PGP expression in MBEC 3.5-fold. By Northern blot analysis, a 3.3-fold enhancement of mdr gene expression was observed in MBEC cultured on the PIC-fraction. The PGP-inducing activity of the PIC-fraction was reduced by the treatment with trypsin but not with collagenase, suggesting that a proteinaceous factor distinct from type I collagen might be responsible for the PGP-inducing activity of PIC-fraction. Although the PIC-fraction increased the PGP expression in other mouse brain capillary endothelial cells, the PIC-fraction did not increase PGP expression in mouse aortic endothelial cells and KB carcinoma cell lines expressing various amounts of PGP. These observations suggest that PGP expression in brain capillary endothelium is specifically regulated by a tissue-specific factor in the brain matrix.

Role of aqueous extract of Cynodon dactylon in prevention of carbofuran- induced oxidative stress and acetylcholinesterase inhibition in rat brain.

PubMed

Rai, D K; Sharma, R K; Rai, P K; Watal, G; Sharma, B

2011-02-12

The present study was designed to investigate the ameliorating effect of aqueous extract of C. dactylon on carbofuran induced oxidative stress (OS) and alterations in the activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the brain of rats. Vitamin C was used as a positive control. Wistar rats were administered with single sub-acute oral dose (1.6 mgkg-1 b.wt.) of carbofuran for 24 h. The OS parameters such as lipid peroxidation (LPO) and the activities of antioxidant enzymes including super oxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), and that of AChE were studied in brain. Carbofuran treatment significantly increased the activities of SOD and CAT by 75 and 60%, respectively. It also induced the level of LPO by 113%. In contrast, the activities of GST and AChE were recorded to be diminished by 25 and 33%, respectively. Pretreatment of the rats with aqueous extract of C. dactylon (oral; 500mgkg-1) restored SOD activity completely but CAT activity only partially (7%). Carbofuran induced LPO was moderated by 95% in the brain of C. dactylon treated rats. The observed changes in OS parameters in C. dactylon treated group were comparable to that observed in vitamin C (200 mg-kg-1 b. wt.) treated group. Surprisingly, C. dactylon treatment significantly recovered the activity of AChE to a similar level as observed in the brain of control group. In contrast vitamin C treatment did not cause significant change in the activity of AChE in carbofuran treated group. There were no noticeable changes in the aforementioned study parameters in the brain of rats receiving C. dactylon and vitamin C, only. The results suggest that the study is extremely important in the context of development of new anticholinestesterase and antioxidant antidotes against carbofuran from C. dactylon.

How Different Types of Conceptual Relations Modulate Brain Activation during Semantic Priming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sachs, Olga; Weis, Susanne; Zellagui, Nadia; Sass, Katharina; Huber, Walter; Zvyagintsev, Mikhail; Mathiak, Klaus; Kircher, Tilo

2011-01-01

Semantic priming, a well-established technique to study conceptual representation, has thus far produced variable fMRI results, both regarding the type of priming effects and their correlation with brain activation. The aims of the current study were (a) to investigate two types of semantic relations--categorical versus associative--under…

Functional correlates of the therapeutic and adverse effects evoked by thalamic stimulation for essential tremor

PubMed Central

Gibson, William S.; Jo, Hang Joon; Testini, Paola; Cho, Shinho; Felmlee, Joel P.; Welker, Kirk M.; Klassen, Bryan T.; Min, Hoon-Ki

2016-01-01

Deep brain stimulation is an established neurosurgical therapy for movement disorders including essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. While typically highly effective, deep brain stimulation can sometimes yield suboptimal therapeutic benefit and can cause adverse effects. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that intraoperative functional magnetic resonance imaging could be used to detect deep brain stimulation-evoked changes in functional and effective connectivity that would correlate with the therapeutic and adverse effects of stimulation. Ten patients receiving deep brain stimulation of the ventralis intermedius thalamic nucleus for essential tremor underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during stimulation applied at a series of stimulation localizations, followed by evaluation of deep brain stimulation-evoked therapeutic and adverse effects. Correlations between the therapeutic effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (3 months postoperatively) and deep brain stimulation-evoked changes in functional and effective connectivity were assessed using region of interest-based correlation analysis and dynamic causal modelling, respectively. Further, we investigated whether brain regions might exist in which activation resulting from deep brain stimulation might correlate with the presence of paraesthesias, the most common deep brain stimulation-evoked adverse effect. Thalamic deep brain stimulation resulted in activation within established nodes of the tremor circuit: sensorimotor cortex, thalamus, contralateral cerebellar cortex and deep cerebellar nuclei (FDR q < 0.05). Stimulation-evoked activation in all these regions of interest, as well as activation within the supplementary motor area, brainstem, and inferior frontal gyrus, exhibited significant correlations with the long-term therapeutic effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (P < 0.05), with the strongest correlation (P < 0.001) observed within the contralateral cerebellum. Dynamic causal modelling revealed a correlation between therapeutic effectiveness and attenuated within-region inhibitory connectivity in cerebellum. Finally, specific subregions of sensorimotor cortex were identified in which deep brain stimulation-evoked activation correlated with the presence of unwanted paraesthesias. These results suggest that thalamic deep brain stimulation in tremor likely exerts its effects through modulation of both olivocerebellar and thalamocortical circuits. In addition, our findings indicate that deep brain stimulation-evoked functional activation maps obtained intraoperatively may contain predictive information pertaining to the therapeutic and adverse effects induced by deep brain stimulation. PMID:27329768

Dopaminergic Neurotransmission in the Human Brain: New Lessons from Perturbation and Imaging

PubMed Central

Ko, Ji Hyun; Strafella, Antonio P.

2012-01-01

Dopamine plays an important role in several brain functions and is involved in the pathogenesis of several psychiatric and neurological disorders. Neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography allow us to quantify dopaminergic activity in the living human brain. Combining these with brain stimulation techniques offers us the unique opportunity to tackle questions regarding region-specific neurochemical activity. Such studies may aid clinicians and scientists to disentangle neural circuitries within the human brain and thereby help them to understand the underlying mechanisms of a given function in relation to brain diseases. Furthermore, it may also aid the development of alternative treatment approaches for various neurological and psychiatric conditions. PMID:21536838

New developments on the neurobiological and pharmaco-genetic mechanisms underlying internet and videogame addiction.

PubMed

Weinstein, Aviv; Lejoyeux, Michel

2015-03-01

There is emerging evidence that the psychobiological mechanisms underlying behavioral addictions such as internet and videogame addiction resemble those of addiction for substances of abuse. Review of brain imaging, treatment and genetic studies on videogame and internet addiction. Literature search of published articles between 2009 and 2013 in Pubmed using "internet addiction" and "videogame addiction" as the search word. Twenty-nine studies have been selected and evaluated under the criteria of brain imaging, treatment, and genetics. Brain imaging studies of the resting state have shown that long-term internet game playing affected brain regions responsible for reward, impulse control and sensory-motor coordination. Brain activation studies have shown that videogame playing involved changes in reward and loss of control and that gaming pictures have activated regions similarly to those activated by cue-exposure to drugs. Structural studies have shown alterations in the volume of the ventral striatum possible as result of changes in reward. Furthermore, videogame playing was associated with dopamine release similar in magnitude to those of drugs of abuse and that there were faulty inhibitory control and reward mechanisms videogame addicted individuals. Finally, treatment studies using fMRI have shown reduction in craving for videogames and reduced associated brain activity. Videogame playing may be supported by similar neural mechanisms underlying drug abuse. Similar to drug and alcohol abuse, internet addiction results in sub-sensitivity of dopamine reward mechanisms. Given the fact that this research is in its early stage it is premature to conclude that internet addiction is equivalent to substance addictions. © American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.

Cue-induced brain activity in pathological gamblers.

PubMed

Crockford, David N; Goodyear, Bradley; Edwards, Jodi; Quickfall, Jeremy; el-Guebaly, Nady

2005-11-15

Previous studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have identified differential brain activity in healthy subjects performing gambling tasks and in pathological gambling (PG) subjects when exposed to motivational and emotional predecessors for gambling as well as during gambling or response inhibition tasks. The goal of the present study was to determine if PG subjects exhibit differential brain activity when exposed to visual gambling cues. Ten male DSM-IV-TR PG subjects and 10 matched healthy control subjects underwent fMRI during visual presentations of gambling-related video alternating with video of nature scenes. Pathological gambling subjects and control subjects exhibited overlap in areas of brain activity in response to the visual gambling cues; however, compared with control subjects, PG subjects exhibited significantly greater activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), including the inferior and medial frontal gyri, the right parahippocampal gyrus, and left occipital cortex, including the fusiform gyrus. Pathological gambling subjects also reported a significant increase in mean craving for gambling after the study. Post hoc analyses revealed a dissociation in visual processing stream (dorsal vs. ventral) activation by subject group and cue type. These findings may represent a component of cue-induced craving for gambling or conditioned behavior that could underlie pathological gambling.

Brain activation in response to randomized visual stimulation as obtained from conjunction and differential analysis: an fMRI study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nasaruddin, N. H.; Yusoff, A. N.; Kaur, S.

2014-11-01

The objective of this multiple-subjects functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to identify the common brain areas that are activated when viewing black-and-white checkerboard pattern stimuli of various shapes, pattern and size and to investigate specific brain areas that are involved in processing static and moving visual stimuli. Sixteen participants viewed the moving (expanding ring, rotating wedge, flipping hour glass and bowtie and arc quadrant) and static (full checkerboard) stimuli during an fMRI scan. All stimuli have black-and-white checkerboard pattern. Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) was used in generating brain activation. Differential analyses were implemented to separately search for areas involved in processing static and moving stimuli. In general, the stimuli of various shapes, pattern and size activated multiple brain areas mostly in the left hemisphere. The activation in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) was found to be significantly higher in processing moving visual stimuli as compared to static stimulus. In contrast, the activation in the left calcarine sulcus and left lingual gyrus were significantly higher for static stimulus as compared to moving stimuli. Visual stimulation of various shapes, pattern and size used in this study indicated left lateralization of activation. The involvement of the right MTG in processing moving visual information was evident from differential analysis, while the left calcarine sulcus and left lingual gyrus are the areas that are involved in the processing of static visual stimulus.

Alzheimer disease alters the relationship of cardiorespiratory fitness with brain activity during the stroop task.

PubMed

Vidoni, Eric D; Gayed, Matthew R; Honea, Robyn A; Savage, Cary R; Hobbs, Derek; Burns, Jeffrey M

2013-07-01

Despite mounting evidence that physical activity has positive benefits for brain and cognitive health, there has been little characterization of the relationship between cardiorespiratory (CR) fitness and cognition-associated brain activity as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The lack of evidence is particularly glaring for diseases such as Alzheimer disease (AD) that degrade cognitive and functional performance. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between regional brain activity during cognitive tasks and CR fitness level in people with and without AD. A case-control, single-observation study design was used. Thirty-four individuals (18 without dementia and 16 in the earliest stages of AD) completed maximal exercise testing and performed a Stroop task during fMRI. Cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely associated with anterior cingulate activity in the participants without dementia (r=-.48, P=.05) and unassociated with activation in those with AD (P>.7). Weak associations of CR fitness and middle frontal cortex were noted. The wide age range and the use of a single task in fMRI rather than multiple tasks challenging different cognitive capacities were limitations of the study. The results offer further support of the relationship between CR fitness and regional brain activity. However, this relationship may be attenuated by disease. Future work in this area may provide clinicians and researchers with interpretable and dependable regional fMRI biomarker signatures responsive to exercise intervention. It also may shed light on mechanisms by which exercise can support cognitive function.

Spatiotemporal patterns of ERP based on combined ICA-LORETA analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jiacai; Guo, Taomei; Xu, Yaqin; Zhao, Xiaojie; Yao, Li

2007-03-01

In contrast to the FMRI methods widely used up to now, this method try to understand more profoundly how the brain systems work under sentence processing task map accurately the spatiotemporal patterns of activity of the large neuronal populations in the human brain from the analysis of ERP data recorded on the brain scalp. In this study, an event-related brain potential (ERP) paradigm to record the on-line responses to the processing of sentences is chosen as an example. In order to give attention to both utilizing the ERPs' temporal resolution of milliseconds and overcoming the insensibility of cerebral location ERP sources, we separate these sources in space and time based on a combined method of independent component analysis (ICA) and low-resolution tomography (LORETA) algorithms. ICA blindly separate the input ERP data into a sum of temporally independent and spatially fixed components arising from distinct or overlapping brain or extra-brain sources. And then the spatial maps associated with each ICA component are analyzed, with use of LORETA to uniquely locate its cerebral sources throughout the full brain according to the assumption that neighboring neurons are simultaneously and synchronously activated. Our results show that the cerebral computation mechanism underlies content words reading is mediated by the orchestrated activity of several spatially distributed brain sources located in the temporal, frontal, and parietal areas, and activate at distinct time intervals and are grouped into different statistically independent components. Thus ICA-LORETA analysis provides an encouraging and effective method to study brain dynamics from ERP.

Resting-State Network Topology Differentiates Task Signals across the Adult Life Span.

PubMed

Chan, Micaela Y; Alhazmi, Fahd H; Park, Denise C; Savalia, Neil K; Wig, Gagan S

2017-03-08

Brain network connectivity differs across individuals. For example, older adults exhibit less segregated resting-state subnetworks relative to younger adults (Chan et al., 2014). It has been hypothesized that individual differences in network connectivity impact the recruitment of brain areas during task execution. While recent studies have described the spatial overlap between resting-state functional correlation (RSFC) subnetworks and task-evoked activity, it is unclear whether individual variations in the connectivity pattern of a brain area (topology) relates to its activity during task execution. We report data from 238 cognitively normal participants (humans), sampled across the adult life span (20-89 years), to reveal that RSFC-based network organization systematically relates to the recruitment of brain areas across two functionally distinct tasks (visual and semantic). The functional activity of brain areas (network nodes) were characterized according to their patterns of RSFC: nodes with relatively greater connections to nodes in their own functional system ("non-connector" nodes) exhibited greater activity than nodes with relatively greater connections to nodes in other systems ("connector" nodes). This "activation selectivity" was specific to those brain systems that were central to each of the tasks. Increasing age was accompanied by less differentiated network topology and a corresponding reduction in activation selectivity (or differentiation) across relevant network nodes. The results provide evidence that connectional topology of brain areas quantified at rest relates to the functional activity of those areas during task. Based on these findings, we propose a novel network-based theory for previous reports of the "dedifferentiation" in brain activity observed in aging. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Similar to other real-world networks, the organization of brain networks impacts their function. As brain network connectivity patterns differ across individuals, we hypothesized that individual differences in network connectivity would relate to differences in brain activity. Using functional MRI in a group of individuals sampled across the adult life span (20-89 years), we measured correlations at rest and related the functional connectivity patterns to measurements of functional activity during two independent tasks. Brain activity varied in relation to connectivity patterns revealed by large-scale network analysis. This relationship tracked the differences in connectivity patterns accompanied by older age, providing important evidence for a link between the topology of areal connectivity measured at rest and the functional recruitment of these areas during task performance. Copyright © 2017 Chan et al.

Sign Language and the Brain: A Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Ruth; MacSweeney, Mairead; Waters, Dafydd

2008-01-01

How are signed languages processed by the brain? This review briefly outlines some basic principles of brain structure and function and the methodological principles and techniques that have been used to investigate this question. We then summarize a number of different studies exploring brain activity associated with sign language processing…

Brain Activation in Response to Visually Evoked Sexual Arousal in Male-to-Female Transsexuals: 3.0 Tesla Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

PubMed Central

Oh, Seok-Kyun; Kim, Gwang-Won; Yang, Jong-Chul; Kim, Seok-Kwun; Kang, Heoung-Keun

2012-01-01

Objective This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to contrast the differential brain activation patterns in response to visual stimulation with both male and female erotic nude pictures in male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals who underwent a sex reassignment surgery. Materials and Methods A total of nine healthy MTF transsexuals after a sex reassignment surgery underwent fMRI on a 3.0 Tesla MR Scanner. The brain activation patterns were induced by visual stimulation with both male and female erotic nude pictures. Results The sex hormone levels of the postoperative MTF transsexuals were in the normal range of healthy heterosexual females. The brain areas, which were activated by viewing male nude pictures when compared with viewing female nude pictures, included predominantly the cerebellum, hippocampus, putamen, anterior cingulate gyrus, head of caudate nucleus, amygdala, midbrain, thalamus, insula, and body of caudate nucleus. On the other hand, brain activation induced by viewing female nude pictures was predominantly observed in the hypothalamus and the septal area. Conclusion Our findings suggest that distinct brain activation patterns associated with visual sexual arousal in postoperative MTF transsexuals reflect their sexual orientation to males. PMID:22563262

Using regional homogeneity to reveal altered spontaneous activity in patients with mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Wang, Yumei; Zhao, Xiaochuan; Xu, Shunjiang; Yu, Lulu; Wang, Lan; Song, Mei; Yang, Linlin; Wang, Xueyi

2015-01-01

Most patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are thought to be in an early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging reflects spontaneous brain activity and/or the endogenous/background neurophysiological process of the human brain. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) rapidly maps regional brain activity across the whole brain. In the present study, we used the ReHo index to explore whole brain spontaneous activity pattern in MCI. Our results showed that MCI subjects displayed an increased ReHo index in the paracentral lobe, precuneus, and postcentral and a decreased ReHo index in the medial temporal gyrus and hippocampus. Impairments in the medial temporal gyrus and hippocampus may serve as important markers distinguishing MCI from healthy aging. Moreover, the increased ReHo index observed in the postcentral and paracentral lobes might indicate compensation for the cognitive function losses in individuals with MCI.

Using Regional Homogeneity to Reveal Altered Spontaneous Activity in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment

PubMed Central

Wang, Yumei; Zhao, Xiaochuan; Xu, Shunjiang; Yu, Lulu; Wang, Lan; Song, Mei; Yang, Linlin; Wang, Xueyi

2015-01-01

Most patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are thought to be in an early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging reflects spontaneous brain activity and/or the endogenous/background neurophysiological process of the human brain. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) rapidly maps regional brain activity across the whole brain. In the present study, we used the ReHo index to explore whole brain spontaneous activity pattern in MCI. Our results showed that MCI subjects displayed an increased ReHo index in the paracentral lobe, precuneus, and postcentral and a decreased ReHo index in the medial temporal gyrus and hippocampus. Impairments in the medial temporal gyrus and hippocampus may serve as important markers distinguishing MCI from healthy aging. Moreover, the increased ReHo index observed in the postcentral and paracentral lobes might indicate compensation for the cognitive function losses in individuals with MCI. PMID:25738156

Dynamic time warping-based averaging framework for functional near-infrared spectroscopy brain imaging studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Li; Najafizadeh, Laleh

2017-06-01

We investigate the problem related to the averaging procedure in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) brain imaging studies. Typically, to reduce noise and to empower the signal strength associated with task-induced activities, recorded signals (e.g., in response to repeated stimuli or from a group of individuals) are averaged through a point-by-point conventional averaging technique. However, due to the existence of variable latencies in recorded activities, the use of the conventional averaging technique can lead to inaccuracies and loss of information in the averaged signal, which may result in inaccurate conclusions about the functionality of the brain. To improve the averaging accuracy in the presence of variable latencies, we present an averaging framework that employs dynamic time warping (DTW) to account for the temporal variation in the alignment of fNIRS signals to be averaged. As a proof of concept, we focus on the problem of localizing task-induced active brain regions. The framework is extensively tested on experimental data (obtained from both block design and event-related design experiments) as well as on simulated data. In all cases, it is shown that the DTW-based averaging technique outperforms the conventional-based averaging technique in estimating the location of task-induced active regions in the brain, suggesting that such advanced averaging methods should be employed in fNIRS brain imaging studies.

Brain activation during human male ejaculation revisited.

PubMed

Georgiadis, Janniko R; Reinders, A A T Simone; Van der Graaf, Ferdinand H C E; Paans, Anne M J; Kortekaas, Rudie

2007-04-16

In a prior [O]-H2O positron emission tomographic study we reported brain regions involved in human male ejaculation. Here, we used another, more recently acquired data set to evaluate the methodological approach of this previous study, and discovered that part of the reported activation pattern was not related to ejaculation. With a new analysis of these ejaculation data, we now demonstrate ejaculation-related activations in the deep cerebellar nuclei (dentate nucleus), anterior vermis, pons, and ventrolateral thalamus, and, most importantly, ejaculation-related deactivations throughout the prefrontal cortex. This revision offers a new and more accurate insight into the brain regions involved in human male ejaculation.

Differences in Brain Function and Changes with Intervention in Children with Poor Spelling and Reading Abilities

PubMed Central

Gebauer, Daniela; Fink, Andreas; Kargl, Reinhard; Reishofer, Gernot; Koschutnig, Karl; Purgstaller, Christian; Fazekas, Franz; Enzinger, Christian

2012-01-01

Previous fMRI studies in English-speaking samples suggested that specific interventions may alter brain function in language-relevant networks in children with reading and spelling difficulties, but this research strongly focused on reading impaired individuals. Only few studies so far investigated characteristics of brain activation associated with poor spelling ability and whether a specific spelling intervention may also be associated with distinct changes in brain activity patterns. We here investigated such effects of a morpheme-based spelling intervention on brain function in 20 children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities using repeated fMRI. Relative to 10 matched controls, children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities showed increased activation in frontal medial and right hemispheric regions and decreased activation in left occipito-temporal regions prior to the intervention, during processing of a lexical decision task. After five weeks of intervention, spelling and reading comprehension significantly improved in the training group, along with increased activation in the left temporal, parahippocampal and hippocampal regions. Conversely, the waiting group showed increases in right posterior regions. Our findings could indicate an increased left temporal activation associated with the recollection of the new learnt morpheme-based strategy related to successful training. PMID:22693600

In vitro studies of the blood-brain barrier using isolated brain capillaries and cultured endothelial cells.

PubMed

Goldstein, G W; Betz, A L; Bowman, P D; Dorovini-Zis, K

1986-01-01

The endothelial cells in brain capillaries are the anatomic site of the blood-brain barrier. To learn more about the biology of these specialized cells, we developed methods to prepare suspensions of purified brain microvessels as well as primary cultures of endothelial cells in monolayer. These two preparations allow for direct investigation of the metabolism, transport properties, and receptor content of the brain capillary. We used isolated brain microvessels to study distribution of membrane carriers between the luminal and the abluminal plasma membrane of endothelial cells. We found that Na+K+-ATPase and the A-system amino-acid transport system are located predominantly on the abluminal surface of brain capillary endothelial cells. This distribution of transport carriers is consistent with the low permeability of potassium and small neutral amino acids in the blood-to-brain direction. It suggests, however, that both solutes can be actively transported across brain capillaries from the brain interstitial fluid to the blood. In tissue culture, the endothelial cells form continuous tight junctions with their neighbors. This results in a cellular layer impermeable to protein tracers. When exposed to hyperosmolar solutions, in an attempt to mimic the conditions that open the blood-brain barrier in vivo, we found a reversible separation of the tight junctions between contiguous endothelial cells. No indication of activation of pinocytosis was observed. In vitro systems provide a novel approach for studying the function of the blood-brain barrier and allow for observations not possible with intact animals.

The estimation of hemodynamic signals measured by fNIRS response to cold pressor test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ansari, M. A.; Fazliazar, E.

2018-04-01

The estimation of cerebral hemodynamic signals has an important role for monitoring the stage of neurological diseases. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) can be used for monitoring of brain activities. fNIRS utilizes light in the near-infrared spectrum (650-1000 nm) to study the response of the brain vasculature to the changes in neural activities, called neurovascular coupling, within the cortex when cognitive activation occurs. The neurovascular coupling may be disrupted in the brain pathological condition. Therefore, we can also use fNIRS to diagnosis brain pathological conditions or to monitor the efficacy of related treatments. The Cold pressor test (CPT), followed by immersion of dominant hand or foot in the ice water, can induce cortical activities. The perception of pain induced by CPT can be related to cortical neurovascular coupling. Hence, the variation of cortical hemodynamic signals during CPT can be an indicator for studying neurovascular coupling. Here, we study the effect of pain induced by CPT on the temporal variation of concentration of oxyhemoglobin [HbO2] and deoxyhemoglobin [Hb] in the healthy brains. We use fNIRS data collected on forehead during a CPT from 11 healthy subjects, and the average data are compared with post-stimulus pain rating scores. The results show that the variation of [Hb] and [HbO2] are positively correlated with self-reported scores during the CPT. These results depict that fNIRS can be potentially applied to study the decoupling of neurovascular process in brain pathological conditions.

The neurophysiology of language: Insights from non-invasive brain stimulation in the healthy human brain.

PubMed

Hartwigsen, Gesa

2015-09-01

With the advent of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), a new decade in the study of language has started. NIBS allows for testing the functional relevance of language-related brain activation and enables the researcher to investigate how neural activation changes in response to focal perturbations. This review focuses on the application of NIBS in the healthy brain. First, some basic mechanisms will be introduced and the prerequisites for carrying out NIBS studies of language are addressed. The next section outlines how NIBS can be used to characterize the contribution of the stimulated area to a task. In this context, novel approaches such as multifocal transcranial magnetic stimulation and the condition-and-perturb approach are discussed. The third part addresses the combination of NIBS and neuroimaging in the study of plasticity. These approaches are particularly suited to investigate short-term reorganization in the healthy brain and may inform models of language recovery in post-stroke aphasia. Copyright © 2014 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ameliorative effects of oleanolic acid on fluoride induced metabolic and oxidative dysfunctions in rat brain: Experimental and biochemical studies.

PubMed

Sarkar, Chaitali; Pal, Sudipta; Das, Niranjan; Dinda, Biswanath

2014-04-01

Beneficial effects of oleanolic acid on fluoride-induced oxidative stress and certain metabolic dysfunctions were studied in four regions of rat brain. Male Wistar rats were treated with sodium fluoride at a dose of 20 mg/kg b.w./day (orally) for 30 days. Results indicate marked reduction in acidic, basic and neutral protein contents due to fluoride toxicity in cerebrum, cerebellum, pons and medulla. DNA, RNA contents significantly decreased in those regions after fluoride exposure. Activities of proteolytic enzymes (such as cathepsin, trypsin and pronase) were inhibited by fluoride, whereas transaminase enzyme (GOT and GPT) activities increased significantly in brain tissue. Fluoride appreciably elevated brain malondialdehyde level, free amino acid nitrogen, NO content and free OH radical generation. Additionally, fluoride perturbed GSH content and markedly reduced SOD, GPx, GR and CAT activities in brain tissues. Oral supplementation of oleanolic acid (a plant triterpenoid), at a dose of 5mg/kgb.w./day for last 14 days of fluoride treatment appreciably ameliorated fluoride-induced alteration of brain metabolic functions. Appreciable counteractive effects of oleanolic acid against fluoride-induced changes in protein and nucleic acid contents, proteolytic enzyme activities and other oxidative stress parameters indicate that oleanolic acid has potential antioxidative effects against fluoride-induced oxidative brain damage. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu Qingfeng; Shao Xiayan; Chen Jie

Biodegradable polymer-based nanoparticles have been widely studied to deliver therapeutic agents to the brain after intranasal administration. However, knowledge as to the side effects of nanoparticle delivery system to the brain is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the in vivo toxicity and immunogenicity of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) conjugated poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(lactic acid) nanoparticles (WGA-NP) after intranasal instillation. Sprague-Dawley rats were intranasally given WGA-NP for 7 continuous days. Amino acid neurotransmitters, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, reduced glutathione (GSH), acetylcholine, acetylcholinesterase activity, tumor necrosis factor {alpha} (TNF-{alpha}) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) in rat olfactory bulb (OB) and brain weremore » measured to estimate the in vivo toxicity of WGA-NP. Balb/C mice were intranasally immunized by WGA-NP and then WGA-specific antibodies in serum and nasal wash were detected by indirect ELISA. WGA-NP showed slight toxicity to brain tissue, as evidenced by increased glutamate level in rat brain and enhanced LDH activity in rat OB. No significant changes in acetylcholine level, acetylcholinesterase activity, GSH level, TNF-{alpha} level and IL-8 level were observed in rat OB and brain for the WGA-NP group. WGA-specific antibodies in mice serum and nasal wash were not increased after two intranasal immunizations of WGA-NP. These results demonstrate that WGA-NP is a safe carrier system for intranasal delivery of therapeutic agents to the brain.« less

Efficacy of brain-computer interface-driven neuromuscular electrical stimulation for chronic paresis after stroke.

PubMed

Mukaino, Masahiko; Ono, Takashi; Shindo, Keiichiro; Fujiwara, Toshiyuki; Ota, Tetsuo; Kimura, Akio; Liu, Meigen; Ushiba, Junichi

2014-04-01

Brain computer interface technology is of great interest to researchers as a potential therapeutic measure for people with severe neurological disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of brain computer interface, by comparing conventional neuromuscular electrical stimulation and brain computer interface-driven neuromuscular electrical stimulation, using an A-B-A-B withdrawal single-subject design. A 38-year-old male with severe hemiplegia due to a putaminal haemorrhage participated in this study. The design involved 2 epochs. In epoch A, the patient attempted to open his fingers during the application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation, irrespective of his actual brain activity. In epoch B, neuromuscular electrical stimulation was applied only when a significant motor-related cortical potential was observed in the electroencephalogram. The subject initially showed diffuse functional magnetic resonance imaging activation and small electro-encephalogram responses while attempting finger movement. Epoch A was associated with few neurological or clinical signs of improvement. Epoch B, with a brain computer interface, was associated with marked lateralization of electroencephalogram (EEG) and blood oxygenation level dependent responses. Voluntary electromyogram (EMG) activity, with significant EEG-EMG coherence, was also prompted. Clinical improvement in upper-extremity function and muscle tone was observed. These results indicate that self-directed training with a brain computer interface may induce activity- dependent cortical plasticity and promote functional recovery. This preliminary clinical investigation encourages further research using a controlled design.

Individual differences in intrinsic brain connectivity predict decision strategy.

PubMed

Barnes, Kelly Anne; Anderson, Kevin M; Plitt, Mark; Martin, Alex

2014-10-15

When humans are provided with ample time to make a decision, individual differences in strategy emerge. Using an adaptation of a well-studied decision making paradigm, motion direction discrimination, we probed the neural basis of individual differences in strategy. We tested whether strategies emerged from moment-to-moment reconfiguration of functional brain networks involved in decision making with task-evoked functional MRI (fMRI) and whether intrinsic properties of functional brain networks, measured at rest with functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI), were associated with strategy use. We found that human participants reliably selected one of two strategies across 2 days of task performance, either continuously accumulating evidence or waiting for task difficulty to decrease. Individual differences in decision strategy were predicted both by the degree of task-evoked activation of decision-related brain regions and by the strength of pretask correlated spontaneous brain activity. These results suggest that spontaneous brain activity constrains strategy selection on perceptual decisions.

Visual artistic creativity and the brain.

PubMed

Heilman, Kenneth M; Acosta, Lealani Mae

2013-01-01

Creativity is the development of a new or novel understanding--insight that leads to the expression of orderly relationships (e.g., finding and revealing the thread that unites). Visual artistic creativity plays an important role in the quality of human lives, and the goal of this chapter is to describe some of the brain mechanisms that may be important in visual artistic creativity. The initial major means of learning how the brain mediates any activity is to understand the anatomy and physiology that may support these processes. A further understanding of specific cognitive activities and behaviors may be gained by studying patients who have diseases of the brain and how these diseases influence these functions. Physiological recording such as electroencephalography and brain imaging techniques such as PET and fMRI have also allowed us to gain a better understanding of the brain mechanisms important in visual creativity. In this chapter, we discuss anatomic and physiological studies, as well as neuropsychological studies of healthy artists and patients with neurological disease that have helped us gain some insight into the brain mechanisms that mediate artistic creativity. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Brain in Space: A Teacher's Guide with Activities for Neuroscience.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacLeish, Marlene Y.; McLean, Bernice R.

This educators guide discusses the brain and contains activities on neuroscience. Activities include: (1) "The Space Life Sciences"; (2) "Space Neuroscience: A Special Area within the Space Life Sciences"; (3) "Space Life Sciences Research"; (4) "Neurolab: A Special Space Mission to Study the Nervous System"; (5) "The Nervous System"; (6)…

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRAIN AND OVARY AROMATASE ACTIVITY AND ISOFORM-SPECIFIC AROMATASE MRNA EXPRESSION IN THE FATHEAD MINNOW (PIMEPHALES PROMELAS)

EPA Science Inventory

There is growing evidence that some chemicals present in the environment have the capacity to inhibit, or potentially induce, aromatase activity. This study compared aromatase activities and isoform-specific mRNA expression in brain and ovary tissue from non-exposed fathead min...

Optical Topography of Evoked Brain Activity during Mental Tasks Involving Whole Number Operations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortiz, Enrique

2014-01-01

Students start to memorize arithmetic facts from early elementary school mathematics activities. Their fluency or lack of fluency with these facts could affect their efforts as they carry out mental calculations as adults. This study investigated participants' levels of brain activation and possible reasons for these levels as they solved…

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRAIN AND OVARY AROMATASE ACTIVITY AND ISOFORM-SPECIFIC AROMATASE MRNA EXPRESSION IN THE FATHEAD MINNOW (PIMEPHALES PROMELAS) - JOURNAL ARTICLE

EPA Science Inventory

There is growing evidence that some chemicals present in the environment have the capacity to inhibit, or potentially induce, aromatase activity. This study compared aromatase activities and isoform-specific mRNA expression in brain and ovary tissue from non-exposed fathead minn...

Neurofunctional maps of the 'maternal brain' and the effects of oxytocin: a multimodal voxel-based meta-analysis.

PubMed

Rocchetti, Matteo; Radua, Joaquim; Paloyelis, Yannis; Xenaki, Lida-Alkisti; Frascarelli, Marianna; Caverzasi, Edgardo; Politi, Pierluigi; Fusar-Poli, Paolo

2014-10-01

Several studies have tried to understand the possible neurobiological basis of mothering. The putative involvement of oxytocin, in this regard, has been deeply investigated. Performing a voxel-based meta-analysis, we aimed at testing the hypothesis of overlapping brain activation in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies investigating the mother-infant interaction and the oxytocin modulation of emotional stimuli in humans. We performed two systematic literature searches: fMRI studies investigating the neurofunctional correlates of the 'maternal brain' by employing mother-infant paradigms; and fMRI studies employing oxytocin during emotional tasks. A unimodal voxel-based meta-analysis was performed on each database, whereas a multimodal voxel-based meta-analytical tool was adopted to assess the hypothesis that the neurofunctional effects of oxytocin are detected in brain areas implicated in the 'maternal brain.' We found greater activation in the bilateral insula extending to the inferior frontal gyrus, basal ganglia and thalamus during mother-infant interaction and greater left insular activation associated with oxytocin administration versus placebo. Left insula extending to basal ganglia and frontotemporal gyri as well as bilateral thalamus and amygdala showed consistent activation across the two paradigms. Right insula also showed activation across the two paradigms, and dorsomedial frontal cortex activation in mothers but deactivation with oxytocin. Significant activation in areas involved in empathy, emotion regulation, motivation, social cognition and theory of mind emerged from our multimodal meta-analysis, supporting the need for further studies directly investigating the neurobiology of oxytocin in the mother-infant relationship. © 2014 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2014 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Japanese and English sentence reading comprehension and writing systems: An fMRI study of first and second language effects on brain activation

PubMed Central

Buchweitz, Augusto; Mason, Robert A.; Hasegawa, Mihoko; Just, Marcel A.

2009-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare brain activation from Japanese readers reading hiragana (syllabic) and kanji (logographic) sentences, and English as a second language (L2). Kanji showed more activation than hiragana in right-hemisphere occipito-temporal lobe areas associated with visuospatial processing; hiragana, in turn, showed more activation than kanji in areas of the brain associated with phonological processing. L1 results underscore the difference in visuospatial and phonological processing demands between the systems. Reading in English as compared to either of the Japanese systems showed more activation in inferior frontal gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, and angular gyrus. The additional activation in English in these areas may have been associated with an increased cognitive demand for phonological processing and verbal working memory. More generally, L2 results suggest more effortful reading comprehension processes. The study contributes to the understanding of differential brain responses to different writing systems and to reading comprehension in a second language. PMID:19946611

Mobile Phone Chips Reduce Increases in EEG Brain Activity Induced by Mobile Phone-Emitted Electromagnetic Fields.

PubMed

Henz, Diana; Schöllhorn, Wolfgang I; Poeggeler, Burkhard

2018-01-01

Recent neurophysiological studies indicate that exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by mobile phone radiation can exert effects on brain activity. One technical solution to reduce effects of EMFs in mobile phone use is provided in mobile phone chips that are applied to mobile phones or attached to their surfaces. To date, there are no systematical studies on the effects of mobile phone chip application on brain activity and the underlying neural mechanisms. The present study investigated whether mobile phone chips that are applied to mobile phones reduce effects of EMFs emitted by mobile phone radiation on electroencephalographic (EEG) brain activity in a laboratory study. Thirty participants volunteered in the present study. Experimental conditions (mobile phone chip, placebo chip, no chip) were set up in a randomized within-subjects design. Spontaneous EEG was recorded before and after mobile phone exposure for two 2-min sequences at resting conditions. During mobile phone exposure, spontaneous EEG was recorded for 30 min during resting conditions, and 5 min during performance of an attention test (d2-R). Results showed increased activity in the theta, alpha, beta and gamma bands during EMF exposure in the placebo and no chip conditions. Application of the mobile phone chip reduced effects of EMFs on EEG brain activity and attentional performance significantly. Attentional performance level was maintained regarding number of edited characters. Further, a dipole analysis revealed different underlying activation patterns in the chip condition compared to the placebo chip and no chip conditions. Finally, a correlational analysis for the EEG frequency bands and electromagnetic high-frequency (HF) emission showed significant correlations in the placebo chip and no chip condition for the theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands. In the chip condition, a significant correlation of HF with the theta and alpha bands, but not with the beta and gamma bands was shown. We hypothesize that a reduction of EEG beta and gamma activation constitutes the key neural mechanism in mobile phone chip use that supports the brain to a degree in maintaining its natural activity and performance level during mobile phone use.

Mobile Phone Chips Reduce Increases in EEG Brain Activity Induced by Mobile Phone-Emitted Electromagnetic Fields

PubMed Central

Henz, Diana; Schöllhorn, Wolfgang I.; Poeggeler, Burkhard

2018-01-01

Recent neurophysiological studies indicate that exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by mobile phone radiation can exert effects on brain activity. One technical solution to reduce effects of EMFs in mobile phone use is provided in mobile phone chips that are applied to mobile phones or attached to their surfaces. To date, there are no systematical studies on the effects of mobile phone chip application on brain activity and the underlying neural mechanisms. The present study investigated whether mobile phone chips that are applied to mobile phones reduce effects of EMFs emitted by mobile phone radiation on electroencephalographic (EEG) brain activity in a laboratory study. Thirty participants volunteered in the present study. Experimental conditions (mobile phone chip, placebo chip, no chip) were set up in a randomized within-subjects design. Spontaneous EEG was recorded before and after mobile phone exposure for two 2-min sequences at resting conditions. During mobile phone exposure, spontaneous EEG was recorded for 30 min during resting conditions, and 5 min during performance of an attention test (d2-R). Results showed increased activity in the theta, alpha, beta and gamma bands during EMF exposure in the placebo and no chip conditions. Application of the mobile phone chip reduced effects of EMFs on EEG brain activity and attentional performance significantly. Attentional performance level was maintained regarding number of edited characters. Further, a dipole analysis revealed different underlying activation patterns in the chip condition compared to the placebo chip and no chip conditions. Finally, a correlational analysis for the EEG frequency bands and electromagnetic high-frequency (HF) emission showed significant correlations in the placebo chip and no chip condition for the theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands. In the chip condition, a significant correlation of HF with the theta and alpha bands, but not with the beta and gamma bands was shown. We hypothesize that a reduction of EEG beta and gamma activation constitutes the key neural mechanism in mobile phone chip use that supports the brain to a degree in maintaining its natural activity and performance level during mobile phone use. PMID:29670503

A new methodical approach in neuroscience: assessing inter-personal brain coupling using functional near-infrared imaging (fNIRI) hyperscanning.

PubMed

Scholkmann, Felix; Holper, Lisa; Wolf, Ursula; Wolf, Martin

2013-11-27

Since the first demonstration of how to simultaneously measure brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on two subjects about 10 years ago, a new paradigm in neuroscience is emerging: measuring brain activity from two or more people simultaneously, termed "hyperscanning". The hyperscanning approach has the potential to reveal inter-personal brain mechanisms underlying interaction-mediated brain-to-brain coupling. These mechanisms are engaged during real social interactions, and cannot be captured using single-subject recordings. In particular, functional near-infrared imaging (fNIRI) hyperscanning is a promising new method, offering a cost-effective, easy to apply and reliable technology to measure inter-personal interactions in a natural context. In this short review we report on fNIRI hyperscanning studies published so far and summarize opportunities and challenges for future studies.

Effects of BDNF polymorphism and physical activity on episodic memory in the elderly: a cross sectional study.

PubMed

Canivet, Anne; Albinet, Cédric T; André, Nathalie; Pylouster, Jean; Rodríguez-Ballesteros, Montserrat; Kitzis, Alain; Audiffren, Michel

2015-01-01

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentration is highest in the hippocampus compared with that in other brain structures and affects episodic memory, a cognitive function that is impaired in older adults. According to the neurotrophic hypothesis, BDNF released during physical activity enhances brain plasticity and consequently brain health. However, even if the physical activity level is involved in the secretion of neurotrophin, this protein is also under the control of a specific gene. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of the interaction between physical activity and BDNF Val66Met (rs6265), a genetic polymorphism, on episodic memory. Two hundred and five volunteers aged 55 and older with a Mini Mental State Examination score ≥ 24 participated in this study. Four groups of participants were established according to their physical activity level and polymorphism BDNF profile (Active Val homozygous, Inactive Val homozygous, Active Met carriers, Inactive Met carriers). Episodic memory was evaluated based on the delayed recall of the Logical Memory test of the MEM III battery. As expected, the physical activity level interacted with BDNF polymorphism to affect episodic memory performance (p < .05). The active Val homozygous participants significantly outperformed the active Met carriers and inactive Val homozygous participants. This study clearly demonstrates an interaction between physical activity and BDNF Val66Met polymorphism that affects episodic memory in the elderly and confirms that physical activity contributes to the neurotrophic mechanism implicated in cognitive health. The interaction shows that only participants with Val/Val polymorphism benefited from physical activity.

A brief historical perspective on the advent of brain oscillations in the biological and psychological disciplines.

PubMed

Karakaş, Sirel; Barry, Robert J

2017-04-01

We aim to review the historical evolution that has led to the study of the brain (body)-mind relationship based on brain oscillations, to outline and illustrate the principles of neuro-oscillatory dynamics using research findings. The paper addresses the relevant developments in behavioral sciences after Wundt established the science of psychology, and developments in the neurosciences after alpha and gamma oscillations were discovered by Berger and Adrian, respectively. Basic neuroscientific studies have led to a number of principles: (1) spontaneous EEG is composed of a set of oscillatory components, (2) the brain responds with oscillatory activity, (3) poststimulus oscillatory activity is a function of prestimulus activity, (4) the brain response results from a superposition of oscillatory components, (5) there are multiplicities with regard to oscillations and functions, and (6) oscillations are spatially integrated. Findings of clinical studies suggest that oscillatory responses can serve as biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the field of psychology is still making limited use of neuro-oscillatory dynamics for a bio-behavioral understanding of cognitive-affective processes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Towards brain-activity-controlled information retrieval: Decoding image relevance from MEG signals.

PubMed

Kauppi, Jukka-Pekka; Kandemir, Melih; Saarinen, Veli-Matti; Hirvenkari, Lotta; Parkkonen, Lauri; Klami, Arto; Hari, Riitta; Kaski, Samuel

2015-05-15

We hypothesize that brain activity can be used to control future information retrieval systems. To this end, we conducted a feasibility study on predicting the relevance of visual objects from brain activity. We analyze both magnetoencephalographic (MEG) and gaze signals from nine subjects who were viewing image collages, a subset of which was relevant to a predetermined task. We report three findings: i) the relevance of an image a subject looks at can be decoded from MEG signals with performance significantly better than chance, ii) fusion of gaze-based and MEG-based classifiers significantly improves the prediction performance compared to using either signal alone, and iii) non-linear classification of the MEG signals using Gaussian process classifiers outperforms linear classification. These findings break new ground for building brain-activity-based interactive image retrieval systems, as well as for systems utilizing feedback both from brain activity and eye movements. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How can we study reasoning in the brain?

PubMed Central

Papo, David

2015-01-01

The brain did not develop a dedicated device for reasoning. This fact bears dramatic consequences. While for perceptuo-motor functions neural activity is shaped by the input's statistical properties, and processing is carried out at high speed in hardwired spatially segregated modules, in reasoning, neural activity is driven by internal dynamics and processing times, stages, and functional brain geometry are largely unconstrained a priori. Here, it is shown that the complex properties of spontaneous activity, which can be ignored in a short-lived event-related world, become prominent at the long time scales of certain forms of reasoning. It is argued that the neural correlates of reasoning should in fact be defined in terms of non-trivial generic properties of spontaneous brain activity, and that this implies resorting to concepts, analytical tools, and ways of designing experiments that are as yet non-standard in cognitive neuroscience. The implications in terms of models of brain activity, shape of the neural correlates, methods of data analysis, observability of the phenomenon, and experimental designs are discussed. PMID:25964755

How can we study reasoning in the brain?

PubMed

Papo, David

2015-01-01

The brain did not develop a dedicated device for reasoning. This fact bears dramatic consequences. While for perceptuo-motor functions neural activity is shaped by the input's statistical properties, and processing is carried out at high speed in hardwired spatially segregated modules, in reasoning, neural activity is driven by internal dynamics and processing times, stages, and functional brain geometry are largely unconstrained a priori. Here, it is shown that the complex properties of spontaneous activity, which can be ignored in a short-lived event-related world, become prominent at the long time scales of certain forms of reasoning. It is argued that the neural correlates of reasoning should in fact be defined in terms of non-trivial generic properties of spontaneous brain activity, and that this implies resorting to concepts, analytical tools, and ways of designing experiments that are as yet non-standard in cognitive neuroscience. The implications in terms of models of brain activity, shape of the neural correlates, methods of data analysis, observability of the phenomenon, and experimental designs are discussed.

Identifying bilingual semantic neural representations across languages

PubMed Central

Buchweitz, Augusto; Shinkareva, Svetlana V.; Mason, Robert A.; Mitchell, Tom M.; Just, Marcel Adam

2015-01-01

The goal of the study was to identify the neural representation of a noun's meaning in one language based on the neural representation of that same noun in another language. Machine learning methods were used to train classifiers to identify which individual noun bilingual participants were thinking about in one language based solely on their brain activation in the other language. The study shows reliable (p < .05) pattern-based classification accuracies for the classification of brain activity for nouns across languages. It also shows that the stable voxels used to classify the brain activation were located in areas associated with encoding information about semantic dimensions of the words in the study. The identification of the semantic trace of individual nouns from the pattern of cortical activity demonstrates the existence of a multi-voxel pattern of activation across the cortex for a single noun common to both languages in bilinguals. PMID:21978845

Human brain activity with functional NIR optical imager

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Qingming

2001-08-01

In this paper we reviewed the applications of functional near infrared optical imager in human brain activity. Optical imaging results of brain activity, including memory for new association, emotional thinking, mental arithmetic, pattern recognition ' where's Waldo?, occipital cortex in visual stimulation, and motor cortex in finger tapping, are demonstrated. It is shown that the NIR optical method opens up new fields of study of the human population, in adults under conditions of simulated or real stress that may have important effects upon functional performance. It makes practical and affordable for large populations the complex technology of measuring brain function. It is portable and low cost. In cognitive tasks subjects could report orally. The temporal resolution could be millisecond or less in theory. NIR method will have good prospects in exploring human brain secret.

In vivo recordings of brain activity using organic transistors

PubMed Central

Khodagholy, Dion; Doublet, Thomas; Quilichini, Pascale; Gurfinkel, Moshe; Leleux, Pierre; Ghestem, Antoine; Ismailova, Esma; Hervé, Thierry; Sanaur, Sébastien; Bernard, Christophe; Malliaras, George G.

2013-01-01

In vivo electrophysiological recordings of neuronal circuits are necessary for diagnostic purposes and for brain-machine interfaces. Organic electronic devices constitute a promising candidate because of their mechanical flexibility and biocompatibility. Here we demonstrate the engineering of an organic electrochemical transistor embedded in an ultrathin organic film designed to record electrophysiological signals on the surface of the brain. The device, tested in vivo on epileptiform discharges, displayed superior signal-to-noise ratio due to local amplification compared with surface electrodes. The organic transistor was able to record on the surface low-amplitude brain activities, which were poorly resolved with surface electrodes. This study introduces a new class of biocompatible, highly flexible devices for recording brain activity with superior signal-to-noise ratio that hold great promise for medical applications. PMID:23481383

In vivo recordings of brain activity using organic transistors.

PubMed

Khodagholy, Dion; Doublet, Thomas; Quilichini, Pascale; Gurfinkel, Moshe; Leleux, Pierre; Ghestem, Antoine; Ismailova, Esma; Hervé, Thierry; Sanaur, Sébastien; Bernard, Christophe; Malliaras, George G

2013-01-01

In vivo electrophysiological recordings of neuronal circuits are necessary for diagnostic purposes and for brain-machine interfaces. Organic electronic devices constitute a promising candidate because of their mechanical flexibility and biocompatibility. Here we demonstrate the engineering of an organic electrochemical transistor embedded in an ultrathin organic film designed to record electrophysiological signals on the surface of the brain. The device, tested in vivo on epileptiform discharges, displayed superior signal-to-noise ratio due to local amplification compared with surface electrodes. The organic transistor was able to record on the surface low-amplitude brain activities, which were poorly resolved with surface electrodes. This study introduces a new class of biocompatible, highly flexible devices for recording brain activity with superior signal-to-noise ratio that hold great promise for medical applications.

I know I've seen you before: Distinguishing recent-single-exposure-based familiarity from pre-existing familiarity

PubMed Central

Gimbel, Sarah I.; Brewer, James B.; Maril, Anat

2018-01-01

This study examines how individuals differentiate recent-single-exposure-based familiarity from pre-existing familiarity. If these are two distinct cognitive processes, are they supported by the same neural bases? This study examines how recent-single-exposure-based familiarity and multiple-previous-exposure-based familiarity are supported and represented in the brain using functional MRI. In a novel approach, we first behaviorally show that subjects can divide retrieval of items in pre-existing memory into judgments of recollection and familiarity. Then, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examine the differences in blood oxygen level dependent activity and regional connectivity during judgments of recent-single-exposure-based and pre-existing familiarity. Judgments of these two types of familiarity showed distinct regions of activation in a whole-brain analysis, in medial temporal lobe (MTL) substructures, and in MTL substructure functional-correlations with other brain regions. Specifically, within the MTL, perirhinal cortex showed increased activation during recent-single-exposure-based familiarity while parahippocampal cortex showed increased activation during judgments of pre-existing familiarity. We find that recent-single-exposure-based and pre-existing familiarity are represented as distinct neural processes in the brain; this is supported by differing patterns of brain activation and regional correlations. This spatially distinct regional brain involvement suggests that the two separate experiences of familiarity, recent-exposure-based familiarity and pre-existing familiarity, may be cognitively distinct. PMID:28073651

Neural predictors of chocolate intake following chocolate exposure.

PubMed

Frankort, Astrid; Roefs, Anne; Siep, Nicolette; Roebroeck, Alard; Havermans, Remco; Jansen, Anita

2015-04-01

Previous studies have shown that one's brain response to high-calorie food cues can predict long-term weight gain or weight loss. The neural correlates that predict food intake in the short term have, however, hardly been investigated. This study examined which brain regions' activation predicts chocolate intake after participants had been either exposed to real chocolate or to control stimuli during approximately one hour, with interruptions for fMRI measurements. Further we investigated whether the variance in chocolate intake could be better explained by activated brain regions than by self-reported craving. In total, five brain regions correlated with subsequent chocolate intake. The activation of two reward regions (the right caudate and the left frontopolar cortex) correlated positively with intake in the exposure group. The activation of two regions associated with cognitive control (the left dorsolateral and left mid-dorsolateral PFC) correlated negatively with intake in the control group. When the regression analysis was conducted with the exposure and the control group together, an additional region's activation (the right anterior PFC) correlated positively with chocolate intake. In all analyses, the intake variance explained by neural correlates was above and beyond the variance explained by self-reported craving. These results are in line with neuroimaging research showing that brain responses are a better predictor of subsequent intake than self-reported craving. Therefore, our findings might provide for a missing link by associating brain activation, previously shown to predict weight change, with short-term intake. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quantitative representations of an exaggerated anxiety response in the brain of female spider phobics-a parametric fMRI study.

PubMed

Zilverstand, Anna; Sorger, Bettina; Kaemingk, Anita; Goebel, Rainer

2017-06-01

We employed a novel parametric spider picture set in the context of a parametric fMRI anxiety provocation study, designed to tease apart brain regions involved in threat monitoring from regions representing an exaggerated anxiety response in spider phobics. For the stimulus set, we systematically manipulated perceived proximity of threat by varying a depicted spider's context, size, and posture. All stimuli were validated in a behavioral rating study (phobics n = 20; controls n = 20; all female). An independent group participated in a subsequent fMRI anxiety provocation study (phobics n = 7; controls n = 7; all female), in which we compared a whole-brain categorical to a whole-brain parametric analysis. Results demonstrated that the parametric analysis provided a richer characterization of the functional role of the involved brain networks. In three brain regions-the mid insula, the dorsal anterior cingulate, and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex-activation was linearly modulated by perceived proximity specifically in the spider phobia group, indicating a quantitative representation of an exaggerated anxiety response. In other regions (e.g., the amygdala), activation was linearly modulated in both groups, suggesting a functional role in threat monitoring. Prefrontal regions, such as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, were activated during anxiety provocation but did not show a stimulus-dependent linear modulation in either group. The results confirm that brain regions involved in anxiety processing hold a quantitative representation of a pathological anxiety response and more generally suggest that parametric fMRI designs may be a very powerful tool for clinical research in the future, particularly when developing novel brain-based interventions (e.g., neurofeedback training). Hum Brain Mapp 38:3025-3038, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A critical review of 5-HT brain microdialysis and behavior.

PubMed

Rueter, L E; Fornal, C A; Jacobs, B L

1997-01-01

Serotonin (5-HT) has been implicated in many central nervous system-mediated functions including sleep, arousal, feeding, motor activity and the stress response. In order to help establish the precise role of 5-HT in physiology and behavior, in vivo microdialysis studies have sought to identify the conditions under which the release of 5-HT is altered. Extracellular 5-HT levels have been monitored in more than fifteen regions of the brain during a variety of spontaneous behaviors, and in response to several physiological, environmental, and behavioral manipulations. The vast majority of these studies found increases (30-100%) in 5-HT release in almost all brain regions studied. Since electrophysiological studies have shown that behavioral arousal is the primary determinant of brain serotonergic neuronal activity, we suggest that the increase in 5-HT release seen during a wide variety of experimental conditions is largely due to one factor, namely an increase in behavioral arousal/motor activity associated with the manipulation.

A single acute hepatotoxic dose of CCl4 causes oxidative stress in the rat brain.

PubMed

Ritesh, K R; Suganya, A; Dileepkumar, H V; Rajashekar, Y; Shivanandappa, T

2015-01-01

Carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ), a hepatotoxic agent is widely used to study the toxic mechanisms in experimental animals. We have investigated whether oxidative stress is induced in the brain at a single hepatotoxic dosage (1 ml/kg bw) of CCl 4 . Increased lipid peroxidation (LPO), protein carbonyls (PC) content and glutathione (GSH) depletion were observed in the brain regions of rats treated with CCl 4 which was higher than that of liver. A drastic reduction in the activity of glutathione- S -transferase (GST) was seen in the brain regions which was higher than that of liver. Similarly, activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), NADH- and NADPH-dehydrogenase were reduced in the brain regions similar to that of liver. Higher induction of oxidative stress in the brain compared to that of liver implies vulnerability of the brain for CCl 4 neurotoxicity. Our study shows that a single hepatotoxic dose of CCl 4 is equally neurotoxic to rats.

Using Brain–Computer Interfaces and Brain-State Dependent Stimulation as Tools in Cognitive Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Jensen, Ole; Bahramisharif, Ali; Oostenveld, Robert; Klanke, Stefan; Hadjipapas, Avgis; Okazaki, Yuka O.; van Gerven, Marcel A. J.

2011-01-01

Large efforts are currently being made to develop and improve online analysis of brain activity which can be used, e.g., for brain–computer interfacing (BCI). A BCI allows a subject to control a device by willfully changing his/her own brain activity. BCI therefore holds the promise as a tool for aiding the disabled and for augmenting human performance. While technical developments obviously are important, we will here argue that new insight gained from cognitive neuroscience can be used to identify signatures of neural activation which reliably can be modulated by the subject at will. This review will focus mainly on oscillatory activity in the alpha band which is strongly modulated by changes in covert attention. Besides developing BCIs for their traditional purpose, they might also be used as a research tool for cognitive neuroscience. There is currently a strong interest in how brain-state fluctuations impact cognition. These state fluctuations are partly reflected by ongoing oscillatory activity. The functional role of the brain state can be investigated by introducing stimuli in real-time to subjects depending on the actual state of the brain. This principle of brain-state dependent stimulation may also be used as a practical tool for augmenting human behavior. In conclusion, new approaches based on online analysis of ongoing brain activity are currently in rapid development. These approaches are amongst others informed by new insight gained from electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography studies in cognitive neuroscience and hold the promise of providing new ways for investigating the brain at work. PMID:21687463

Human Brain Activity Patterns beyond the Isoelectric Line of Extreme Deep Coma

PubMed Central

Kroeger, Daniel; Florea, Bogdan; Amzica, Florin

2013-01-01

The electroencephalogram (EEG) reflects brain electrical activity. A flat (isoelectric) EEG, which is usually recorded during very deep coma, is considered to be a turning point between a living brain and a deceased brain. Therefore the isoelectric EEG constitutes, together with evidence of irreversible structural brain damage, one of the criteria for the assessment of brain death. In this study we use EEG recordings for humans on the one hand, and on the other hand double simultaneous intracellular recordings in the cortex and hippocampus, combined with EEG, in cats. They serve to demonstrate that a novel brain phenomenon is observable in both humans and animals during coma that is deeper than the one reflected by the isoelectric EEG, and that this state is characterized by brain activity generated within the hippocampal formation. This new state was induced either by medication applied to postanoxic coma (in human) or by application of high doses of anesthesia (isoflurane in animals) leading to an EEG activity of quasi-rhythmic sharp waves which henceforth we propose to call ν-complexes (Nu-complexes). Using simultaneous intracellular recordings in vivo in the cortex and hippocampus (especially in the CA3 region) we demonstrate that ν-complexes arise in the hippocampus and are subsequently transmitted to the cortex. The genesis of a hippocampal ν-complex depends upon another hippocampal activity, known as ripple activity, which is not overtly detectable at the cortical level. Based on our observations, we propose a scenario of how self-oscillations in hippocampal neurons can lead to a whole brain phenomenon during coma. PMID:24058669

[Systemic treatment of brain metastases from breast cancer: cytotoxic chemotherapy and targeted therapies].

PubMed

Bachelot, Thomas; Le Rhun, Emilie; Labidi-Gally, Intidar; Heudel, Pierre; Gilabert, Marine; Bonneterre, Jacques; Pierga, Jean-Yves; Gonçalves, Anthony

2013-01-01

Prevalence of brain metastases is increasing in breast cancer. Brain metastases represent a poor-prognosis disease for which local treatments continue to play a major role. In spite of the presence of a physiological blood-brain barrier limiting their activity, some systemic treatments may display a significant antitumor activity at the central nervous system level. In HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer with brain metastases not previously treated with whole brain radiotherapy, capecitabine and lapatinib combination obtains a volumetric reponse in two thirds of patients (LANDSCAPE study). If confirmed, these results could modify in selected patients the layout of therapeutic strategies. Promoting novel targeted approaches and innovative therapeutic combinations is a critical need to improve survival of breast cancer patients with brain metastases.

A significant increase in both basal and maximal calcineurin activity following fluid percussion injury in the rat.

PubMed

Kurz, Jonathan E; Parsons, J Travis; Rana, Aniruddha; Gibson, Cynthia J; Hamm, Robert J; Churn, Severn B

2005-04-01

Calcineurin, a neuronally enriched, calcium-stimulated phosphatase, is an important modulator of many neuronal processes, including several that are physiologically related to the pathology of traumatic brain injury. This study examined the effects of moderate, central fluid percussion injury on the activity of this important neuronal enzyme. Animals were sacrificed at several time-points postinjury and cortical, hippocampal, and cerebellar homogenates were assayed for calcineurin activity by dephosphorylation of p-nitrophenol phosphate. A significant brain injury-dependent increase was observed in both hippocampal and cortical homogenates under both basal and maximally-stimulated reaction conditions. This increase persisted 2-3 weeks post-injury. Brain injury did not alter substrate affinity, but did induce a significant increase in the apparent maximal dephosphorylation rate. Unlike the other brain regions, no change in calcineurin activity was observed in the cerebellum following brain injury. No brain region tested displayed a significant change in calcineurin enzyme levels as determined by Western blot, demonstrating that increased enzyme synthesis was not responsible for the observed increase in activity. The data support the conclusion that fluid percussion injury results in increased calcineurin activity in the rat forebrain. This increased activity has broad physiological implications, possibly resulting in altered cellular excitability or a greater likelihood of neuronal cell death.

Influence of Brain Stem on Axial and Hindlimb Spinal Locomotor Rhythm Generating Circuits of the Neonatal Mouse.

PubMed

Jean-Xavier, Céline; Perreault, Marie-Claude

2018-01-01

The trunk plays a pivotal role in limbed locomotion. Yet, little is known about how the brain stem controls trunk activity during walking. In this study, we assessed the spatiotemporal activity patterns of axial and hindlimb motoneurons (MNs) during drug-induced fictive locomotor-like activity (LLA) in an isolated brain stem-spinal cord preparation of the neonatal mouse. We also evaluated the extent to which these activity patterns are affected by removal of brain stem. Recordings were made in the segments T7, L2, and L5 using calcium imaging from individual axial MNs in the medial motor column (MMC) and hindlimb MNs in lateral motor column (LMC). The MN activities were analyzed during both the rhythmic and the tonic components of LLA, the tonic component being used as a readout of generalized increase in excitability in spinal locomotor networks. The most salient effect of brain stem removal was an increase in locomotor rhythm frequency and a concomitant reduction in burst durations in both MMC and LMC MNs. The lack of effect on the tonic component of LLA indicated specificity of action during the rhythmic component. Cooling-induced silencing of the brain stem reproduced the increase in rhythm frequency and accompanying decrease in burst durations in L2 MMC and LMC, suggesting a dependency on brain stem neuron activity. The work supports the idea that the brain stem locomotor circuits are operational already at birth and further suggests an important role in modulating trunk activity. The brain stem may influence the axial and hindlimb spinal locomotor rhythm generating circuits by extending their range of operation. This may represent a critical step of locomotor development when learning how to walk in different conditions and environments is a major endeavor.

Influence of Brain Stem on Axial and Hindlimb Spinal Locomotor Rhythm Generating Circuits of the Neonatal Mouse

PubMed Central

Jean-Xavier, Céline; Perreault, Marie-Claude

2018-01-01

The trunk plays a pivotal role in limbed locomotion. Yet, little is known about how the brain stem controls trunk activity during walking. In this study, we assessed the spatiotemporal activity patterns of axial and hindlimb motoneurons (MNs) during drug-induced fictive locomotor-like activity (LLA) in an isolated brain stem-spinal cord preparation of the neonatal mouse. We also evaluated the extent to which these activity patterns are affected by removal of brain stem. Recordings were made in the segments T7, L2, and L5 using calcium imaging from individual axial MNs in the medial motor column (MMC) and hindlimb MNs in lateral motor column (LMC). The MN activities were analyzed during both the rhythmic and the tonic components of LLA, the tonic component being used as a readout of generalized increase in excitability in spinal locomotor networks. The most salient effect of brain stem removal was an increase in locomotor rhythm frequency and a concomitant reduction in burst durations in both MMC and LMC MNs. The lack of effect on the tonic component of LLA indicated specificity of action during the rhythmic component. Cooling-induced silencing of the brain stem reproduced the increase in rhythm frequency and accompanying decrease in burst durations in L2 MMC and LMC, suggesting a dependency on brain stem neuron activity. The work supports the idea that the brain stem locomotor circuits are operational already at birth and further suggests an important role in modulating trunk activity. The brain stem may influence the axial and hindlimb spinal locomotor rhythm generating circuits by extending their range of operation. This may represent a critical step of locomotor development when learning how to walk in different conditions and environments is a major endeavor. PMID:29479302

A sLORETA study for gaze-independent BCI speller.

PubMed

Xingwei An; Jinwen Wei; Shuang Liu; Dong Ming

2017-07-01

EEG-based BCI (brain-computer-interface) speller, especially gaze-independent BCI speller, has become a hot topic in recent years. It provides direct spelling device by non-muscular method for people with severe motor impairments and with limited gaze movement. Brain needs to conduct both stimuli-driven and stimuli-related attention in fast presented BCI paradigms for such BCI speller applications. Few researchers studied the mechanism of brain response to such fast presented BCI applications. In this study, we compared the distribution of brain activation in visual, auditory, and audio-visual combined stimuli paradigms using sLORETA (standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography). Between groups comparisons showed the importance of visual and auditory stimuli in audio-visual combined paradigm. They both contribute to the activation of brain regions, with visual stimuli being the predominate stimuli. Visual stimuli related brain region was mainly located at parietal and occipital lobe, whereas response in frontal-temporal lobes might be caused by auditory stimuli. These regions played an important role in audio-visual bimodal paradigms. These new findings are important for future study of ERP speller as well as the mechanism of fast presented stimuli.

Functional neuroimaging insights into the physiology of human sleep.

PubMed

Dang-Vu, Thien Thanh; Schabus, Manuel; Desseilles, Martin; Sterpenich, Virginie; Bonjean, Maxime; Maquet, Pierre

2010-12-01

Functional brain imaging has been used in humans to noninvasively investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the generation of sleep stages. On the one hand, REM sleep has been associated with the activation of the pons, thalamus, limbic areas, and temporo-occipital cortices, and the deactivation of prefrontal areas, in line with theories of REM sleep generation and dreaming properties. On the other hand, during non-REM (NREM) sleep, decreases in brain activity have been consistently found in the brainstem, thalamus, and in several cortical areas including the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), in agreement with a homeostatic need for brain energy recovery. Benefiting from a better temporal resolution, more recent studies have characterized the brain activations related to phasic events within specific sleep stages. In particular, they have demonstrated that NREM sleep oscillations (spindles and slow waves) are indeed associated with increases in brain activity in specific subcortical and cortical areas involved in the generation or modulation of these waves. These data highlight that, even during NREM sleep, brain activity is increased, yet regionally specific and transient. Besides refining the understanding of sleep mechanisms, functional brain imaging has also advanced the description of the functional properties of sleep. For instance, it has been shown that the sleeping brain is still able to process external information and even detect the pertinence of its content. The relationship between sleep and memory has also been refined using neuroimaging, demonstrating post-learning reactivation during sleep, as well as the reorganization of memory representation on the systems level, sometimes with long-lasting effects on subsequent memory performance. Further imaging studies should focus on clarifying the role of specific sleep patterns for the processing of external stimuli, as well as the consolidation of freshly encoded information during sleep.

In silico predicted reproductive endocrine transcriptional regulatory networks during zebrafish (Danio rerio) development.

PubMed

Hala, D

2017-03-21

The interconnected topology of transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) readily lends to mathematical (or in silico) representation and analysis as a stoichiometric matrix. Such a matrix can be 'solved' using the mathematical method of extreme pathway (ExPa) analysis, which identifies uniquely activated genes subject to transcription factor (TF) availability. In this manuscript, in silico multi-tissue TRN models of brain, liver and gonad were used to study reproductive endocrine developmental programming in zebrafish (Danio rerio) from 0.25h post fertilization (hpf; zygote) to 90 days post fertilization (dpf; adult life stage). First, properties of TRN models were studied by sequentially activating all genes in multi-tissue models. This analysis showed the brain to exhibit lowest proportion of co-regulated genes (19%) relative to liver (23%) and gonad (32%). This was surprising given that the brain comprised 75% and 25% more TFs than liver and gonad respectively. Such 'hierarchy' of co-regulatory capability (brain

Training of verbal creativity modulates brain activity in regions associated with language‐ and memory‐related demands

PubMed Central

Benedek, Mathias; Koschutnig, Karl; Pirker, Eva; Berger, Elisabeth; Meister, Sabrina; Neubauer, Aljoscha C.; Papousek, Ilona; Weiss, Elisabeth M.

2015-01-01

Abstract This functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study was designed to investigate changes in functional patterns of brain activity during creative ideation as a result of a computerized, 3‐week verbal creativity training. The training was composed of various verbal divergent thinking exercises requiring participants to train approximately 20 min per day. Fifty‐three participants were tested three times (psychometric tests and fMRI assessment) with an intertest‐interval of 4 weeks each. Participants were randomly assigned to two different training groups, which received the training time‐delayed: The first training group was trained between the first and the second test, while the second group accomplished the training between the second and the third test session. At the behavioral level, only one training group showed improvements in different facets of verbal creativity right after the training. Yet, functional patterns of brain activity during creative ideation were strikingly similar across both training groups. Whole‐brain voxel‐wise analyses (along with supplementary region of interest analyses) revealed that the training was associated with activity changes in well‐known creativity‐related brain regions such as the left inferior parietal cortex and the left middle temporal gyrus, which have been shown as being particularly sensitive to the originality facet of creativity in previous research. Taken together, this study demonstrates that continuous engagement in a specific complex cognitive task like divergent thinking is associated with reliable changes of activity patterns in relevant brain areas, suggesting more effective search, retrieval, and integration from internal memory representations as a result of the training. Hum Brain Mapp 36:4104–4115, 2015. © 2015 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:26178653

Intrinsic brain subsystem associated with dietary restraint, disinhibition and hunger: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Zhao, Jizheng; Li, Mintong; Zhang, Yi; Song, Huaibo; von Deneen, Karen M; Shi, Yinggang; Liu, Yijun; He, Dongjian

2017-02-01

Eating behaviors are closely related to body weight, and eating traits are depicted in three dimensions: dietary restraint, disinhibition, and hunger. The current study aims to explore whether these aspects of eating behaviors are related to intrinsic brain activation, and to further investigate the relationship between the brain activation relating to these eating traits and body weight, as well as the link between function connectivity (FC) of the correlative brain regions and body weight. Our results demonstrated positive associations between dietary restraint and baseline activation of the frontal and the temporal regions (i.e., food reward encoding) and the limbic regions (i.e., homeostatic control, including the hypothalamus). Disinhibition was positively associated with the activation of the frontal motivational system (i.e., OFC) and the premotor cortex. Hunger was positively related to extensive activations in the prefrontal, temporal, and limbic, as well as in the cerebellum. Within the brain regions relating to dietary restraint, weight status was negatively correlated with FC of the left middle temporal gyrus and left inferior temporal gyrus, and was positively associated with the FC of regions in the anterior temporal gyrus and fusiform visual cortex. Weight status was positively associated with the FC within regions in the prefrontal motor cortex and the right ACC serving inhibition, and was negatively related with the FC of regions in the frontal cortical-basal ganglia-thalamic circuits responding to hunger control. Our data depicted an association between intrinsic brain activation and dietary restraint, disinhibition, and hunger, and presented the links of their activations and FCs with weight status.

Altered spontaneous brain activity in MRI-negative refractory temporal lobe epilepsy patients with major depressive disorder: A resting-state fMRI study.

PubMed

Zhu, Xi; He, Zhongqiong; Luo, Cheng; Qiu, Xiangmiao; He, Shixu; Peng, Anjiao; Zhang, Lin; Chen, Lei

2018-03-15

To investigate alterations in spontaneous brain activity in MRI-negative refractory temporal lobe epilepsy patients with major depressive disorder using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI). Eighteen MRI-negative refractory temporal lobe epilepsy patients with major depressive disorder (PDD), 17 MRI-negative refractory temporal lobe epilepsy patients without major depressive disorder (nPDD), and 21 matched healthy controls (HC) were recruited from West China Hospital of SiChuan University from April 2016 to June 2017. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) and 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were employed to confirm the diagnosis of major depressive disorder and assess the severity of depression. All participants underwent RS-fMRI scans using a 3.0T MRI system. MRI data were compared and analyzed using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) to measure spontaneous brain activity. These two methods were both used to evaluate spontaneous cerebral activity. The PDD group showed significantly altered spontaneous brain activity in the bilateral mesial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, angular gyrus, right parahippocampal gyrus, and right temporal pole. Meanwhile, compared with HC, the nPDD group demonstrated altered spontaneous brain activity in the temporal neocortex but no changes in mesial temporal structures. The PDD group showed regional brain activity alterations in the prefrontal-limbic system and dysfunction of the default mode network. The underlying pathophysiology of PDD may be provided for further studies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Behavioural and brain responses related to Internet search and memory.

PubMed

Dong, Guangheng; Potenza, Marc N

2015-10-01

The ready availability of data via searches on the Internet has changed how many people seek and perhaps store and recall information, although the brain mechanisms underlying these processes are not well understood. This study investigated brain mechanisms underlying Internet-based vs. non-Internet-based searching. The results showed that Internet searching was associated with lower accuracy in recalling information as compared with traditional book searching. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, Internet searching was associated with less regional brain activation in the left ventral stream, the association area of the temporal-parietal-occipital cortices, and the middle frontal cortex. When comparing novel items with remembered trials, Internet-based searching was associated with higher brain activation in the right orbitofrontal cortex and lower brain activation in the right middle temporal gyrus when facing those novel trials. Brain activations in the middle temporal gyrus were inversely correlated with response times, and brain activations in the orbitofrontal cortex were positively correlated with self-reported search impulses. Taken together, the results suggest that, although Internet-based searching may have facilitated the information-acquisition process, this process may have been performed more hastily and be more prone to difficulties in recollection. In addition, people appear less confident in recalling information learned through Internet searching and that recent Internet searching may promote motivation to use the Internet. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Brain Activity of Regular and Dyslexic Readers while Reading Hebrew as Compared to English Sentences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Breznitz, Zvia; Oren, Revital; Shaul, Shelley

2004-01-01

The aim of the present study was to examine differences among "regular" and dyslexic adult bilingual readers when processing reading and reading related skills in their first (L1 Hebrew) and second (L2 English) languages. Brain activity during reading Hebrew and English unexpected sentence endings was also studied. Behavioral and…

Lateralization of brain activation to imagination and smell of odors using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): left hemispheric localization of pleasant and right hemispheric localization of unpleasant odors.

PubMed

Henkin, R I; Levy, L M

2001-01-01

Our goal was to use functional MRI (fMRI) of brain to reveal activation in each cerebral hemisphere in response to imagination and smell of odors. FMRI brain scans were obtained in 24 normal subjects using multislice fast low angle shot (FLASH) MRI in response to imagination of banana and peppermint odors and in response to smell of corresponding odors of amyl acetate and menthone, respectively, and of pyridine. Three coronal sections selected from anterior to posterior brain regions were used. Similar studies were obtained in two patients with hyposmia using FLASH MRI and in one patient with hyposmia using echo planar imaging (EPI) both before and after theophylline treatment that returned smell function to or toward normal in each patient and in two patients with birhinal phantosmia (persistent foul odor) and global phantogeusia (persistent foul taste) with FLASH and EPI fMRI before and after treatment with neuroleptic drugs that inhibited their phantosmia and phantogeusia. Activation images were derived using correlation analysis. Ratios of hemispheric areas of brain activation to total hemispheric brain areas were calculated for FLASH fMRI, and numerical counts of pixel clusters in each hemisphere were made for EPI studies. Total pixel cluster counts in localized regions of each hemispheric section were also obtained. In normal subjects, activation generally occurred in left (L) > right (R) brain hemisphere in response to banana and peppermint odor imagination and to smell of corresponding odors of amyl acetate and menthone. Whereas there were no overall hemispheric differences for pyridine odor, activation in men was R > L hemisphere. Although absolute activation in both L and R hemispheres in response to banana odor imagination and amyl acetate smell was men > women, the ratio of L to R activation was women > men. In hyposmic patients studied by FLASH fMRI, activation to banana odor imagination and amyl acetate smell was L > R hemisphere both before and after theophylline treatment. In the hyposmic patient studied with EPI before theophylline treatment, activation to banana and peppermint odor imagination and to amyl acetate, menthone, and pyridine smell was R > L hemisphere; after theophylline treatment restored normal smell function, activation shifted completely with banana and peppermint odor imagination and amyl acetate and menthone smell to L > R hemisphere, consistent with responses in normal subjects. However, this shift also occurred for pyridine smell, which is opposite to responses in normal control subjects. In patients with phantosmia and phantogeusia, activation to phantosmia and phantogeusia before treatment was R > L hemisphere; after treatment inhibited phantosmia and phantogeusia, activation shifted with a slight L > R hemispheric lateralization. Localization of all lateralized responses indicated that anterior frontal and temporal cortices were brain regions most involved with imagination and smell of odors and with phantosmia and phantogeusia presence. Imagination and smell of odors perceived as pleasant generally activated the dominant or L > R brain hemisphere. Smell of odors perceived as unpleasant and unpleasant phantosmia and phantogeusia generally activated the contralateral or R > L brain hemisphere. With remission of phantosmia and phantogeusia, hemispheric activation was not only inhibited, but also there was a slight shift to L > R hemispheric predominance. Predominant L > R hemispheric differences in brain activation in normal subjects occurred in the order amyl acetate > menthone > pyridine, consistent with the hypothesis that pleasant odors are more appreciated in L hemisphere and unpleasant odors more in R hemisphere. Anterior frontal and temporal cortex regions previously found activated by imagination and smell of odors and phantosmia and phantogeusia perception accounted for most hemispheric differences.

The modulatory effect of adaptive deep brain stimulation on beta bursts in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Tinkhauser, Gerd; Pogosyan, Alek; Little, Simon; Beudel, Martijn; Herz, Damian M; Tan, Huiling; Brown, Peter

2017-04-01

Adaptive deep brain stimulation uses feedback about the state of neural circuits to control stimulation rather than delivering fixed stimulation all the time, as currently performed. In patients with Parkinson's disease, elevations in beta activity (13-35 Hz) in the subthalamic nucleus have been demonstrated to correlate with clinical impairment and have provided the basis for feedback control in trials of adaptive deep brain stimulation. These pilot studies have suggested that adaptive deep brain stimulation may potentially be more effective, efficient and selective than conventional deep brain stimulation, implying mechanistic differences between the two approaches. Here we test the hypothesis that such differences arise through differential effects on the temporal dynamics of beta activity. The latter is not constantly increased in Parkinson's disease, but comes in bursts of different durations and amplitudes. We demonstrate that the amplitude of beta activity in the subthalamic nucleus increases in proportion to burst duration, consistent with progressively increasing synchronization. Effective adaptive deep brain stimulation truncated long beta bursts shifting the distribution of burst duration away from long duration with large amplitude towards short duration, lower amplitude bursts. Critically, bursts with shorter duration are negatively and bursts with longer duration positively correlated with the motor impairment off stimulation. Conventional deep brain stimulation did not change the distribution of burst durations. Although both adaptive and conventional deep brain stimulation suppressed mean beta activity amplitude compared to the unstimulated state, this was achieved by a selective effect on burst duration during adaptive deep brain stimulation, whereas conventional deep brain stimulation globally suppressed beta activity. We posit that the relatively selective effect of adaptive deep brain stimulation provides a rationale for why this approach could be more efficacious than conventional continuous deep brain stimulation in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and helps inform how adaptive deep brain stimulation might best be delivered. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved.

Effect of Frustration on Brain Activation Pattern in Subjects with Different Temperament

PubMed Central

Bierzynska, Maria; Bielecki, Maksymilian; Marchewka, Artur; Debowska, Weronika; Duszyk, Anna; Zajkowski, Wojciech; Falkiewicz, Marcel; Nowicka, Anna; Strelau, Jan; Kossut, Malgorzata

2016-01-01

In spite of the prevalence of frustration in everyday life, very few neuroimaging studies were focused on this emotional state. In the current study we aimed to examine effects of frustration on brain activity while performing a well-learned task in participants with low and high tolerance for arousal. Prior to the functional magnetic resonance imaging session, the subjects underwent 2 weeks of Braille reading training. Frustration induction was obtained by using a novel highly difficult tactile task based on discrimination of Braille-like raised dots patterns and negative feedback. Effectiveness of this procedure has been confirmed in a pilot study using galvanic skin response and questionnaires. Brain activation pattern during tactile discrimination task before and after frustration were compared directly. Results revealed changes in brain activity in structures mostly reported in acute stress studies: striatum, cingulate cortex, insula, middle frontal gyrus and precuneus and in structures engaged in tactile Braille discrimination: SI and SII. Temperament type affected activation pattern. Subjects with low tolerance for arousal showed higher activation in the posterior cingulate gyrus, precuneus, and inferior parietal lobule than high reactivity group. Even though performance in the discrimination trials following frustration was unaltered, we observed increased activity of primary and secondary somatosensory cortex processing the tactile information. We interpret this effect as an indicator of additional involvement required to counteract the effects of frustration. PMID:26793136

Effect of Frustration on Brain Activation Pattern in Subjects with Different Temperament.

PubMed

Bierzynska, Maria; Bielecki, Maksymilian; Marchewka, Artur; Debowska, Weronika; Duszyk, Anna; Zajkowski, Wojciech; Falkiewicz, Marcel; Nowicka, Anna; Strelau, Jan; Kossut, Malgorzata

2015-01-01

In spite of the prevalence of frustration in everyday life, very few neuroimaging studies were focused on this emotional state. In the current study we aimed to examine effects of frustration on brain activity while performing a well-learned task in participants with low and high tolerance for arousal. Prior to the functional magnetic resonance imaging session, the subjects underwent 2 weeks of Braille reading training. Frustration induction was obtained by using a novel highly difficult tactile task based on discrimination of Braille-like raised dots patterns and negative feedback. Effectiveness of this procedure has been confirmed in a pilot study using galvanic skin response and questionnaires. Brain activation pattern during tactile discrimination task before and after frustration were compared directly. Results revealed changes in brain activity in structures mostly reported in acute stress studies: striatum, cingulate cortex, insula, middle frontal gyrus and precuneus and in structures engaged in tactile Braille discrimination: SI and SII. Temperament type affected activation pattern. Subjects with low tolerance for arousal showed higher activation in the posterior cingulate gyrus, precuneus, and inferior parietal lobule than high reactivity group. Even though performance in the discrimination trials following frustration was unaltered, we observed increased activity of primary and secondary somatosensory cortex processing the tactile information. We interpret this effect as an indicator of additional involvement required to counteract the effects of frustration.

Simulated driving and brain imaging: combining behavior, brain activity, and virtual reality.

PubMed

Carvalho, Kara N; Pearlson, Godfrey D; Astur, Robert S; Calhoun, Vince D

2006-01-01

Virtual reality in the form of simulated driving is a useful tool for studying the brain. Various clinical questions can be addressed, including both the role of alcohol as a modulator of brain function and regional brain activation related to elements of driving. We reviewed a study of the neural correlates of alcohol intoxication through the use of a simulated-driving paradigm and wished to demonstrate the utility of recording continuous-driving behavior through a new study using a programmable driving simulator developed at our center. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data was collected from subjects while operating a driving simulator. Independent component analysis (ICA) was used to analyze the data. Specific brain regions modulated by alcohol, and relationships between behavior, brain function, and alcohol blood levels were examined with aggregate behavioral measures. Fifteen driving epochs taken from two subjects while also recording continuously recorded driving variables were analyzed with ICA. Preliminary findings reveal that four independent components correlate with various aspects of behavior. An increase in braking while driving was found to increase activation in motor areas, while cerebellar areas showed signal increases during steering maintenance, yet signal decreases during steering changes. Additional components and significant findings are further outlined. In summary, continuous behavioral variables conjoined with ICA may offer new insight into the neural correlates of complex human behavior.

Physiological and psychological individual differences influence resting brain function measured by ASL perfusion.

PubMed

Kano, M; Coen, S J; Farmer, A D; Aziz, Q; Williams, S C R; Alsop, D C; Fukudo, S; O'Gorman, R L

2014-09-01

Effects of physiological and/or psychological inter-individual differences on the resting brain state have not been fully established. The present study investigated the effects of individual differences in basal autonomic tone and positive and negative personality dimensions on resting brain activity. Whole-brain resting cerebral perfusion images were acquired from 32 healthy subjects (16 males) using arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI. Neuroticism and extraversion were assessed with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised. Resting autonomic activity was assessed using a validated measure of baseline cardiac vagal tone (CVT) in each individual. Potential associations between the perfusion data and individual CVT (27 subjects) and personality score (28 subjects) were tested at the level of voxel clusters by fitting a multiple regression model at each intracerebral voxel. Greater baseline perfusion in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and cerebellum was associated with lower CVT. At a corrected significance threshold of p < 0.01, strong positive correlations were observed between extraversion and resting brain perfusion in the right caudate, brain stem, and cingulate gyrus. Significant negative correlations between neuroticism and regional cerebral perfusion were identified in the left amygdala, bilateral insula, ACC, and orbitofrontal cortex. These results suggest that individual autonomic tone and psychological variability influence resting brain activity in brain regions, previously shown to be associated with autonomic arousal (dorsal ACC) and personality traits (amygdala, caudate, etc.) during active task processing. The resting brain state may therefore need to be taken into account when interpreting the neurobiology of individual differences in structural and functional brain activity.

Age-related differences in brain network activation and co-activation during multiple object tracking.

PubMed

Dørum, Erlend S; Alnæs, Dag; Kaufmann, Tobias; Richard, Geneviève; Lund, Martina J; Tønnesen, Siren; Sneve, Markus H; Mathiesen, Nina C; Rustan, Øyvind G; Gjertsen, Øivind; Vatn, Sigurd; Fure, Brynjar; Andreassen, Ole A; Nordvik, Jan Egil; Westlye, Lars T

2016-11-01

Multiple object tracking (MOT) is a powerful paradigm for measuring sustained attention. Although previous fMRI studies have delineated the brain activation patterns associated with tracking and documented reduced tracking performance in aging, age-related effects on brain activation during MOT have not been characterized. In particular, it is unclear if the task-related activation of different brain networks is correlated, and also if this coordination between activations within brain networks shows differential effects of age. We obtained fMRI data during MOT at two load conditions from a group of younger ( n  = 25, mean age = 24.4 ± 5.1 years) and older ( n  = 21, mean age = 64.7 ± 7.4 years) healthy adults. Using a combination of voxel-wise and independent component analysis, we investigated age-related differences in the brain network activation. In order to explore to which degree activation of the various brain networks reflect unique and common mechanisms, we assessed the correlations between the brain networks' activations. Behavioral performance revealed an age-related reduction in MOT accuracy. Voxel and brain network level analyses converged on decreased load-dependent activations of the dorsal attention network (DAN) and decreased load-dependent deactivations of the default mode networks (DMN) in the old group. Lastly, we found stronger correlations in the task-related activations within DAN and within DMN components for younger adults, and stronger correlations between DAN and DMN components for older adults. Using MOT as means for measuring attentional performance, we have demonstrated an age-related attentional decline. Network-level analysis revealed age-related alterations in network recruitment consisting of diminished activations of DAN and diminished deactivations of DMN in older relative to younger adults. We found stronger correlations within DMN and within DAN components for younger adults and stronger correlations between DAN and DMN components for older adults, indicating age-related alterations in the coordinated network-level activation during attentional processing.

Review of Research: Neuroscience and the Impact of Brain Plasticity on Braille Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hannan, Cheryl Kamei

2006-01-01

In this systematic review of research, the author analyzes studies of neural cortical activation, brain plasticity, and braille reading. The conclusions regarding the brain's plasticity and ability to reorganize are encouraging for individuals with degenerative eye conditions or late-onset blindness because they indicate that the brain can make…

Inhibition of β2-adrenergic receptor reduces triple-negative breast cancer brain metastases: The potential benefit of perioperative β-blockade.

PubMed

Choy, Cecilia; Raytis, John L; Smith, David D; Duenas, Matthew; Neman, Josh; Jandial, Rahul; Lew, Michael W

2016-06-01

In response to recent studies, we investigated an association between perioperative β-blockade and breast cancer metastases. First, a retrospective study examining perioperative β-blocker use and cancer recurrence and metastases was conducted on 1,029 patients who underwent breast cancer surgery at the City of Hope Cancer Center between 2000 and 2010. We followed the clinical study and examined proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro of primary and brain-metastatic breast cancer cells in response to β2-activation and inhibition. We also investigated in vivo the metastatic potential of propranolol-treated metastatic cells. For stage II breast cancer patients, perioperative β-blockade was associated with decreased cancer recurrence using Cox regression analysis (hazard's ratio =0.51; 95% CI: 0.23-0.97; p=0.041). Triple-negative (TN) brain-metastatic cells were found to have increased β2-adrenergic receptor mRNA and protein expression relative to TN primary cells. In response to β2-adrenergic receptor activation, TN brain-metastatic cells also exhibited increased cell proliferation and migration relative to the control. These effects were abrogated by propranolol. Propranolol decreased β2-adrenergic receptor-activated invasion. In vivo, propranolol treatment of TN brain-metastatic cells decreased establishment of brain metastases. Our results suggest that stress and corresponding β2-activation may promote the establishment of brain metastases of TN breast cancer cells. In addition, our data suggest a benefit to perioperative β-blockade during surgery-induced stress with respect to breast cancer recurrence and metastases.

Inhibition of β2-adrenergic receptor reduces triple-negative breast cancer brain metastases: The potential benefit of perioperative β-blockade

PubMed Central

CHOY, CECILIA; RAYTIS, JOHN L.; SMITH, DAVID D.; DUENAS, MATTHEW; NEMAN, JOSH; JANDIAL, RAHUL; LEW, MICHAEL W.

2016-01-01

In response to recent studies, we investigated an association between perioperative β-blockade and breast cancer metastases. First, a retrospective study examining perioperative β-blocker use and cancer recurrence and metastases was conducted on 1,029 patients who underwent breast cancer surgery at the City of Hope Cancer Center between 2000 and 2010. We followed the clinical study and examined proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro of primary and brain-metastatic breast cancer cells in response to β2-activation and inhibition. We also investigated in vivo the metastatic potential of propranolol-treated metastatic cells. For stage II breast cancer patients, perioperative β-blockade was associated with decreased cancer recurrence using Cox regression analysis (hazard's ratio =0.51; 95% CI: 0.23–0.97; p=0.041). Triple-negative (TN) brain-metastatic cells were found to have increased β2-adrenergic receptor mRNA and protein expression relative to TN primary cells. In response to β2-adrenergic receptor activation, TN brain-metastatic cells also exhibited increased cell proliferation and migration relative to the control. These effects were abrogated by propranolol. Propranolol decreased β2-adrenergic receptor-activated invasion. In vivo, propranolol treatment of TN brain-metastatic cells decreased establishment of brain metastases. Our results suggest that stress and corresponding β2-activation may promote the establishment of brain metastases of TN breast cancer cells. In addition, our data suggest a benefit to perioperative β-blockade during surgery-induced stress with respect to breast cancer recurrence and metastases. PMID:27035124

Use of Multichannel Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Study Relationships Between Brain Regions and Neurocognitive Tasks of Selective/Divided Attention and 2-Back Working Memory.

PubMed

Tomita, Nozomi; Imai, Shoji; Kanayama, Yusuke; Kawashima, Issaku; Kumano, Hiroaki

2017-06-01

While dichotic listening (DL) was originally intended to measure bottom-up selective attention, it has also become a tool for measuring top-down selective attention. This study investigated the brain regions related to top-down selective and divided attention DL tasks and a 2-back task using alphanumeric and Japanese numeric sounds. Thirty-six healthy participants underwent near-infrared spectroscopy scanning while performing a top-down selective attentional DL task, a top-down divided attentional DL task, and a 2-back task. Pearson's correlations were calculated to show relationships between oxy-Hb concentration in each brain region and the score of each cognitive task. Different brain regions were activated during the DL and 2-back tasks. Brain regions activated in the top-down selective attention DL task were the left inferior prefrontal gyrus and left pars opercularis. The left temporopolar area was activated in the top-down divided attention DL task, and the left frontopolar area and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were activated in the 2-back task. As further evidence for the finding that each task measured different cognitive and brain area functions, neither the percentages of correct answers for the three tasks nor the response times for the selective attentional task and the divided attentional task were correlated to one another. Thus, the DL and 2-back tasks used in this study can assess multiple areas of cognitive, brain-related dysfunction to explore their relationship to different psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Intrinsic resting-state activity predicts working memory brain activation and behavioral performance.

PubMed

Zou, Qihong; Ross, Thomas J; Gu, Hong; Geng, Xiujuan; Zuo, Xi-Nian; Hong, L Elliot; Gao, Jia-Hong; Stein, Elliot A; Zang, Yu-Feng; Yang, Yihong

2013-12-01

Although resting-state brain activity has been demonstrated to correspond with task-evoked brain activation, the relationship between intrinsic and evoked brain activity has not been fully characterized. For example, it is unclear whether intrinsic activity can also predict task-evoked deactivation and whether the rest-task relationship is dependent on task load. In this study, we addressed these issues on 40 healthy control subjects using resting-state and task-driven [N-back working memory (WM) task] functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected in the same session. Using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) as an index of intrinsic resting-state activity, we found that ALFF in the middle frontal gyrus and inferior/superior parietal lobules was positively correlated with WM task-evoked activation, while ALFF in the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, superior frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus was negatively correlated with WM task-evoked deactivation. Further, the relationship between the intrinsic resting-state activity and task-evoked activation in lateral/superior frontal gyri, inferior/superior parietal lobules, superior temporal gyrus, and midline regions was stronger at higher WM task loads. In addition, both resting-state activity and the task-evoked activation in the superior parietal lobule/precuneus were significantly correlated with the WM task behavioral performance, explaining similar portions of intersubject performance variance. Together, these findings suggest that intrinsic resting-state activity facilitates or is permissive of specific brain circuit engagement to perform a cognitive task, and that resting activity can predict subsequent task-evoked brain responses and behavioral performance. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Altered spontaneous brain activity in patients with hemifacial spasm: a resting-state functional MRI study.

PubMed

Tu, Ye; Wei, Yongxu; Sun, Kun; Zhao, Weiguo; Yu, Buwei

2015-01-01

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to detect the alterations of spontaneous neuronal activity in various neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, but rarely in hemifacial spasm (HFS), a nervous system disorder. We used resting-state fMRI with regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis to investigate changes in spontaneous brain activity of patients with HFS and to determine the relationship of these functional changes with clinical features. Thirty patients with HFS and 33 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls were included in this study. Compared with controls, HFS patients had significantly decreased ReHo values in left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), left medial cingulate cortex (MCC), left lingual gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus (STG) and right precuneus; and increased ReHo values in left precentral gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right brainstem, and right cerebellum. Furthermore, the mean ReHo value in brainstem showed a positive correlation with the spasm severity (r = 0.404, p = 0.027), and the mean ReHo value in MFG was inversely related with spasm severity in HFS group (r = -0.398, p = 0.028). This study reveals that HFS is associated with abnormal spontaneous brain activity in brain regions most involved in motor control and blinking movement. The disturbances of spontaneous brain activity reflected by ReHo measurements may provide insights into the neurological pathophysiology of HFS.

Effects of incubation temperature and estrogen exposure on aromatase activity in the brain and gonads of embryonic alligators.

PubMed Central

Milnes, Matthew R; Roberts, Robert N; Guillette, Louis J

2002-01-01

During embryogenesis, incubation temperature and the hormonal environment influence gonadal differentiation of some reptiles, including all crocodilians. Current evidence suggests that aromatase, the enzyme that converts androgens to estrogens, has a role in sexual differentiation of species that exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). During the temperature-sensitive period (TSP) of sex determination, we compared aromatase activity in the brain and gonads of putative male and female alligator embryos to determine if aromatase activity in the embryonic brain could provide the hormonal environment necessary for ovarian development in a TSD species. In addition, we assessed the pattern of aromatase activity in the brain and gonads of embryos treated with estradiol-17beta (E(2)) and incubated at male-producing temperatures to compare enzyme activity in E(2) sex-reversed females to control males and females. This has particular significance regarding wildlife species living in areas contaminated with suspected environmental estrogens. Gonadal aromatase activity remained low during the early stages of the TSP in both sexes and increased late in the TSP only in females. Aromatase activity in the brain increased prior to gonadal differentiation in both sexes. These results suggest that aromatase activity in the brain is not directly responsible for mediating differentiation of the gonad. E(2) exposure at male-producing temperatures resulted in sex-reversed females that had intermediate gonad function and masculinized brain activity. This study indicates the need to examine multiple end points and to determine the persistence of developmental alterations in contaminant-exposed wildlife populations. PMID:12060834

Higher resting-state activity in reward-related brain circuits in obese versus normal-weight females independent of food intake.

PubMed

Hogenkamp, P S; Zhou, W; Dahlberg, L S; Stark, J; Larsen, A L; Olivo, G; Wiemerslage, L; Larsson, E-M; Sundbom, M; Benedict, C; Schiöth, H B

2016-11-01

In response to food cues, obese vs normal-weight individuals show greater activation in brain regions involved in the regulation of food intake under both fasted and sated conditions. Putative effects of obesity on task-independent low-frequency blood-oxygenation-level-dependent signals-that is, resting-state brain activity-in the context of food intake are, however, less well studied. To compare eyes closed, whole-brain low-frequency BOLD signals between severely obese and normal-weight females, as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations were measured in the morning following an overnight fast in 17 obese (age: 39±11 years, body mass index (BMI): 42.3±4.8 kg m - 2 ) and 12 normal-weight females (age: 36±12 years, BMI: 22.7±1.8 kg m - 2 ), both before and 30 min after consumption of a standardized meal (~260 kcal). Compared with normal-weight controls, obese females had increased low-frequency activity in clusters located in the putamen, claustrum and insula (P<0.05). This group difference was not altered by food intake. Self-reported hunger dropped and plasma glucose concentrations increased after food intake (P<0.05); however, these changes did not differ between the BMI groups. Reward-related brain regions are more active under resting-state conditions in obese than in normal-weight females. This difference was independent of food intake under the experimental settings applied in the current study. Future studies involving males and females, as well as utilizing repeated post-prandial resting-state fMRI scans and various types of meals are needed to further investigate how food intake alters resting-state brain activity in obese humans.

fMRI brain activation in patients with insomnia disorder during a working memory task.

PubMed

Son, Young-Don; Kang, Jae Myeong; Cho, Seong-Jin; Lee, Jung-Sun; Hwang, Hee Young; Kang, Seung-Gul

2018-05-01

This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate differences in the functional brain activation of patients with insomnia disorder (n = 21, mean age = 36.6) and of good sleepers (n = 26, mean age = 33.2) without other comorbidities or structural brain abnormalities during a working memory task. All participants completed a clinical questionnaire, were subjected to portable polysomnography (PSG), and performed the working memory task during an fMRI scan. The subjects who were suspected of major sleep disorder and comorbid psychiatric disorders except insomnia disorder were excluded. To compare the brain activation on working memory from the insomnia group with those from the good-sleeper group, a two-sample t test was performed. Statistical significance was determined using 3DClustSim with the updated algorithm to obtain a reasonable cluster size and p value for each analysis. We observed higher levels of brain activation in the right lateral inferior frontal cortex and the right superior temporal pole in the insomnia group compared to good sleepers (cluster-based multiple comparison correction, p < 0.001, k = 34 @ α = 0.01). Thus, patients with insomnia disorder showed increased brain activation during working memory relative to good sleepers, and this may be indicative of compensatory brain activation to maintain cognitive performance in patients with insomnia disorder without other comorbidities.

Brain-computer interface for alertness estimation and improving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hramov, Alexander; Maksimenko, Vladimir; Hramova, Marina

2018-02-01

Using wavelet analysis of the signals of electrical brain activity (EEG), we study the processes of neural activity, associated with perception of visual stimuli. We demonstrate that the brain can process visual stimuli in two scenarios: (i) perception is characterized by destruction of the alpha-waves and increase in the high-frequency (beta) activity, (ii) the beta-rhythm is not well pronounced, while the alpha-wave energy remains unchanged. The special experiments show that the motivation factor initiates the first scenario, explained by the increasing alertness. Based on the obtained results we build the brain-computer interface and demonstrate how the degree of the alertness can be estimated and controlled in real experiment.

Verbal fluency in research conducted with PET technique under conditions of extended cognitive activation with the use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) tracer.

PubMed

Zając-Lamparska, Ludmiła; Wiłkość, Monika; Markowska, Anita; Laskowska-Levy, Ilona Paulina; Wróbel, Marek; Małkowski, Bogdan

2017-08-29

Functional neuroimaging of the brain is a widely used method to study cognitive functions. The aim of this study was to compare the activity of the brain during performance of the tasks of phonemic and semantic fluency with the paced-overt technique in terms of prolonged activation of the brain. The study included 17 patients aged 20-40 years who were treated in the past for Hodgkin'slymphoma, now in remission. Due to the type of task, the subjectswere divided into two groups. Nine people performed the phonemic fluency task, and eight semantic. Due to the disease, all subjects were subject to neuropsychological diagnosis. The diagnosis of any cognitive impairment was an exclusion criterion. Neuroimaging was performed using PET technique with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) tracer. Performance of a verbal fluency test, regardless of the version of the task, was associated with greater activity of the left hemisphere of the brain. The most involved areas compared with other areas of key importance for the performance of verbal fluency tasks were frontal lobes. An increased activity of parietal structures was also shown. The study did not reveal differences in brain activity depending on the type of task. Performing the test in both phonemic and semantic form for a long time, in terms of increased cognitive control resulting from the test procedure, could result in significant advantage of prefrontal lobe activityin both types of tasks and made it impossible to observe the processes specific to each of them.

Hand grips strength effect on motor function in human brain using fMRI: a pilot study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ismail, S. S.; Mohamad, M.; Syazarina, S. O.; Nafisah, W. Y.

2014-11-01

Several methods of motor tasks for fMRI scanning have been evolving from simple to more complex tasks. Motor tasks on upper extremity were applied in order to excite the increscent of motor activation on contralesional and ipsilateral hemispheres in brain. The main objective of this study is to study the different conditions for motor tasks on upper extremity that affected the brain activation. Ten healthy right handed with normal vision (3 male and 7 female, age range=20-30 years, mean=24.6 years, SD=2.21) participated in this study. Prior to the scanning, participants were trained on hand grip tasks using rubber ball and pressure gauge tool outside the scanner. During fMRI session, a block design with 30-s task blocks and alternating 30-s rest periods was employed while participants viewed a computer screen via a back projection-mirror system and instructed to follow the instruction by gripping their hand with normal and strong grips using a rubber ball. Statistical Parametric mapping (SPM8) software was used to determine the brain activation. Both tasks activated the primary motor (M1), supplementary motor area (SMA), dorsal and ventral of premotor cortex area (PMA) in left hemisphere while in right hemisphere the area of primary motor (M1) somatosensory was activated. However, the comparison between both tasks revealed that the strong hand grip showed the higher activation at M1, PMA and SMA on left hemisphere and also the area of SMA on right hemisphere. Both conditions of motor tasks could provide insights the functional organization on human brain.

Functional grouping and cortical–subcortical interactions in emotion: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

PubMed Central

Kober, Hedy; Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Joseph, Josh; Bliss-Moreau, Eliza; Lindquist, Kristen; Wager, Tor D.

2009-01-01

We performed an updated quantitative meta-analysis of 162 neuroimaging studies of emotion using a novel multi-level kernel-based approach, focusing on locating brain regions consistently activated in emotional tasks and their functional organization into distributed functional groups, independent of semantically defined emotion category labels (e.g., “anger,” “fear”). Such brain-based analyses are critical if our ways of labeling emotions are to be evaluated and revised based on consistency with brain data. Consistent activations were limited to specific cortical sub-regions, including multiple functional areas within medial, orbital, and inferior lateral frontal cortices. Consistent with a wealth of animal literature, multiple subcortical activations were identified, including amygdala, ventral striatum, thalamus, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal gray. We used multivariate parcellation and clustering techniques to identify groups of co-activated brain regions across studies. These analyses identified six distributed functional groups, including medial and lateral frontal groups, two posterior cortical groups, and paralimbic and core limbic/brainstem groups. These functional groups provide information on potential organization of brain regions into large-scale networks. Specific follow-up analyses focused on amygdala, periaqueductal gray (PAG), and hypothalamic (Hy) activations, and identified frontal cortical areas co-activated with these core limbic structures. While multiple areas of frontal cortex co-activated with amygdala sub-regions, a specific region of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC, Brodmann’s Area 9/32) was the only area co-activated with both PAG and Hy. Subsequent mediation analyses were consistent with a pathway from dmPFC through PAG to Hy. These results suggest that medial frontal areas are more closely associated with core limbic activation than their lateral counterparts, and that dmPFC may play a particularly important role in the cognitive generation of emotional states. PMID:18579414

Alteration of Spontaneous Brain Activity After Hypoxia-Reoxygenation: A Resting-State fMRI Study.

PubMed

Zhang, Jiaxing; Chen, Ji; Fan, Cunxiu; Li, Jinqiang; Lin, Jianzhong; Yang, Tianhe; Fan, Ming

2017-03-01

Zhang, Jiaxing, Ji Chen, Cunxiu Fan, Jinqiang Li, Jianzhong Lin, Tianhe Yang, and Ming Fan. Alteration of spontaneous brain activity after hypoxia-reoxygenation: A resting-state fMRI study. High Alt Med Biol. 18:20-26, 2017.-The present study was designed to investigate the effect of hypoxia-reoxygenation on the spontaneous neuronal activity in brain. Sixteen sea-level (SL) soldiers (20.5 ± 0.7 years), who garrisoned the frontiers in high altitude (HA) (2300-4400 m) for two years and subsequently descended to sea level for one to seven days, were recruited. Control group consisted of 16 matched SL natives. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) of regional brain functional magnetic resonance imaging signal in resting state and functional connectivity (FC) between brain regions was analyzed. HA subjects showed significant increases of ALFF at several sites within the bilateral occipital cortices and significant decreases of ALFF in the right anterior insula and extending to the caudate, putamen, inferior frontal orbital cortex, temporal pole, and superior temporal gyrus; lower ALFF values in the right insula were positively correlated with low respiratory measurements. The right insula in HA subjects had increases of FC with the right superior temporal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, rolandic operculum, supramarginal gyrus, and inferior frontal triangular area. We thus demonstrated that hypoxia-reoxygenation had influence on the spontaneous neuronal activity in brain. The decrease of insular neuronal activity may be related to the reduction of ventilatory drive, while the increase of FC with insula may indicate a central compensation.

Brain Imaging of Human Sexual Response: Recent Developments and Future Directions.

PubMed

Ruesink, Gerben B; Georgiadis, Janniko R

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive summary of the latest developments in the experimental brain study of human sexuality, focusing on brain connectivity during the sexual response. Stable patterns of brain activation have been established for different phases of the sexual response, especially with regard to the wanting phase, and changes in these patterns can be linked to sexual response variations, including sexual dysfunctions. From this solid basis, connectivity studies of the human sexual response have begun to add a deeper understanding of the brain network function and structure involved. The study of "sexual" brain connectivity is still very young. Yet, by approaching the brain as a connected organ, the essence of brain function is captured much more accurately, increasing the likelihood of finding useful biomarkers and targets for intervention in sexual dysfunction.

A preliminary study of the effects of working memory training on brain function.

PubMed

Stevens, Michael C; Gaynor, Alexandra; Bessette, Katie L; Pearlson, Godfrey D

2016-06-01

Working memory (WM) training improves WM ability in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but its efficacy for non-cognitive ADHD impairments ADHD has been sharply debated. The purpose of this preliminary study was to characterize WM training-related changes in ADHD brain function and see if they were linked to clinical improvement. We examined 18 adolescents diagnosed with DSM-IV Combined-subtype ADHD before and after 25 sessions of WM training using a frequently employed approach (Cogmed™) using a nonverbal Sternberg WM fMRI task, neuropsychological tests, and participant- and parent-reports of ADHD symptom severity and associated functional impairment. Whole brain SPM8 analyses identified ADHD activation deficits compared to 18 non-ADHD control participants, then tested whether impaired ADHD frontoparietal brain activation would increase following WM training. Post hoc tests examined the relationships between neural changes and neurocognitive or clinical improvements. As predicted, WM training increased WM performance, ADHD clinical functioning, and WM-related ADHD brain activity in several frontal, parietal and temporal lobe regions. Increased left inferior frontal sulcus region activity was seen in all Encoding, Maintenance, and Retrieval Sternberg task phases. ADHD symptom severity improvements were most often positively correlated with activation gains in brain regions known to be engaged for WM-related executive processing; improvement of different symptom types had different neural correlates. The responsiveness of both amodal WM frontoparietal circuits and executive process-specific WM brain regions was altered by WM training. The latter might represent a promising, relatively unexplored treatment target for researchers seeking to optimize clinical response in ongoing ADHD WM training development efforts.

Influence of posterior dental arch length on brain activity during chewing in patients with mandibular distal extension removable partial dentures.

PubMed

Shoi, K; Fueki, K; Usui, N; Taira, M; Wakabayashi, N

2014-07-01

It is well known that shortened dental arch decreases masticatory function. However, its potential to change brain activity during mastication is unknown. The present study investigates the effect of a shortened posterior dental arch with mandibular removable partial dentures (RPDs) on brain activity during gum chewing. Eleven subjects with missing mandibular molars (mean age, 66.1 years) on both sides received experimental RPDs with interchangeable artificial molars in a crossover trial design. Brain activity during gum chewing with RPDs containing (full dental arch) and lacking artificial molars (shortened dental arch) was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Additionally, masticatory function was evaluated for each dental arch type. Food comminuting and mixing ability and the perceived chewing ability were significantly lower in subjects with a shortened dental arch than those with a full dental arch (P < 0.05). Brain activation during gum chewing with the full dental arch occurred in the middle frontal gyrus, primary sensorimotor cortex extending to the pre-central gyrus, supplementary motor area, putamen, insula and cerebellum. However, middle frontal gyrus activation was not observed during gum chewing with the shortened dental arch. These results suggest that shortened dental arch affects human brain activity in the middle frontal gyrus during gum chewing, and the decreased middle frontal gyrus activation may be associated with decreased masticatory function. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Minocycline encapsulated chitosan nanoparticles for central antinociceptive activity.

PubMed

Nagpal, Kalpana; Singh, S K; Mishra, D N

2015-01-01

The purpose of the study is to explore the central anti-nociceptive activity of brain targeted nanoparticles (NP) of minocycline hydrochloride (MH). The NP were formulated using the modified ionotropic gelation method (MHNP) and were coated with Tween 80 (T80) to target them to brain (cMHNP). The formulated nanoparticles have already been characterized for particle size, zeta potential, drug entrapment efficiency and in vitro drug release. The nanoparticles were then evaluated for pharmacodynamic activity using thermal methods. The pure drug and the formulation, MHNP were not able to show a statistically significant central analgesic activity. cMHNP on the other hand evidenced a significant central analgesic activity. Animal models evidenced that brain targeted nanoparticles may be utilized for effective delivery of central anti-nociceptive effect of MH. Further clinical studies are required to explore the activity for mankind. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cognitive Interventions in Older Persons: Do They Change the Functioning of the Brain?

PubMed Central

van Os, Yindee; de Vugt, Marjolein E.; van Boxtel, Martin

2015-01-01

Background. Cognitive interventions for older persons that may diminish the burden of cognitive problems and could delay conversion to dementia are of great importance. The underlying mechanisms of such interventions might be psychological compensation and neuronal plasticity. This review provides an overview of the literature concerning the evidence that cognitive interventions cause brain activation changes, even in damaged neural systems. Method. A systematic search of the literature was conducted in several international databases, Medline, Embase, Cinahl, Cochrane, and Psychinfo. The methodological quality was assessed according to the guidelines of the Dutch Institute for Health Care Improvement (CBO). Results. Nineteen relevant articles were included with varied methodological quality. All studies were conducted in diverse populations from healthy elderly to patients with dementia and show changes in brain activation after intervention. Conclusions. The results thus far show that cognitive interventions cause changes in brain activation patterns. The exact interpretation of these neurobiological changes remains unclear. More study is needed to understand the extent to which cognitive interventions are effective to delay conversion to dementia. Future studies should more explicitly try to relate clinically significant improvement to changes in brain activation. Long-term follow-up data are necessary to evaluate the stability of the effects. PMID:26583107

Functional brain correlates of motor response inhibition in children with developmental coordination disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Thornton, Siobhan; Bray, Signe; Langevin, Lisa Marie; Dewey, Deborah

2018-06-01

Motor impairment is associated with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and to a lesser extent with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Previous functional imaging studies investigated children with DCD or ADHD only; however, these two disorders co-occur in up to 50% of cases, suggesting that similar neural correlates are associated with these disorders. This study compared functional brain activation in children and adolescents (age range 8-17, M = 11.73, SD = 2.88) with DCD (n = 9), ADHD (n = 20), co-occurring DCD and ADHD (n = 18) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 20). When compared to TD controls, children with co-occurring DCD/ADHD showed decreased activation during response inhibition in primary motor and sensory cortices. These findings suggest that children with co-occurring DCD and ADHD display significant functional changes in brain activation that could interfere with inhibition of erroneous motor responses. In contrast to previous studies, significant alterations in brain activation relative to TD controls, were not found in children with isolated DCD or ADHD. These findings highlight the importance of considering co-occurring disorders when investigating brain function in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards a sensorimotor aesthetics of performing art.

PubMed

Calvo-Merino, B; Jola, C; Glaser, D E; Haggard, P

2008-09-01

The field of neuroaesthetics attempts to identify the brain processes underlying aesthetic experience, including but not limited to beauty. Previous neuroaesthetic studies have focussed largely on paintings and music, while performing arts such as dance have been less studied. Nevertheless, increasing knowledge of the neural mechanisms that represent the bodies and actions of others, and which contribute to empathy, make a neuroaesthetics of dance timely. Here, we present the first neuroscientific study of aesthetic perception in the context of the performing arts. We investigated brain areas whose activity during passive viewing of dance stimuli was related to later, independent aesthetic evaluation of the same stimuli. Brain activity of six naïve male subjects was measured using fMRI, while they watched 24 dance movements, and performed an irrelevant task. In a later session, participants rated each movement along a set of established aesthetic dimensions. The ratings were used to identify brain regions that were more active when viewing moves that received high average ratings than moves that received low average ratings. This contrast revealed bilateral activity in the occipital cortices and in right premotor cortex. Our results suggest a possible role of visual and sensorimotor brain areas in an automatic aesthetic response to dance. This sensorimotor response may explain why dance is widely appreciated in so many human cultures.

Quantification of fetal magnetoencephalographic activity in low-risk fetuses using burst duration and interburst interval.

PubMed

Vairavan, Srinivasan; Govindan, Rathinaswamy B; Haddad, Naim; Preissl, Hubert; Lowery, Curtis L; Siegel, Eric; Eswaran, Hari

2014-07-01

To identify quantitative MEG indices of spontaneous brain activity for fetal neurological maturation in normal pregnancies and examine the effect of fetal state on these indices. Spontaneous MEG brain activity was examined in 22 low-risk fetal recordings with gestational age (GA) ranging from 30 to 37 weeks. As major quantitative characteristics of spontaneous activity, burst duration (BD) and interburst interval (IBI) were studied in correlation with GA and fetal state. IBI showed a decrease with gestational age (-0.21 s/week, P=0.0031). This trend was only maintained in the quiet-sleep state. With respect to BD, no significant trends were detected with GA and state. IBI can be quantified as a fetal brain maturational parameter. The decrease in IBI over gestation was similar to the trend reported in the preterm neonatal EEG studies. Quiet sleep could be the optimal state to study such MEG maturational indices. With further investigation, indices extracted from spontaneous fetal brain activity may serve as an early warning for fetal neurological distress. Copyright © 2013 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

An fMRI study of theory of mind in schizophrenic patients with "passivity" symptoms.

PubMed

Brüne, Martin; Lissek, Silke; Fuchs, Nina; Witthaus, Henning; Peters, Sören; Nicolas, Volkmar; Juckel, Georg; Tegenthoff, Martin

2008-01-01

Several studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia underactivate brain regions involved in theory of mind relative to controls during functional brain imaging. However, in most studies the samples were fairly heterogeneous in terms of clinical symptomatology. We examined a group of nine patients with first episode or recurrent episodes, who clinically presented with predominant "passivity" symptoms such as third-person auditory hallucinations or delusion of control, using a cartoon-based theory of mind task and compared activation patterns with a group of 13 healthy controls. All patients responded well to antipsychotic treatment and were only mildly symptomatic at the time of testing. The patient group showed significantly less activation of the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and right insula compared with controls, but greater activation in dorsal areas of the medial prefrontal cortex, right temporal areas and left temporo-parietal junction. Patients with schizophrenia with predominant "passivity" symptoms and good response to antipsychotic treatment show a markedly diverging pattern of brain activation during theory of mind task performance compared with healthy controls. These findings suggest abnormal activation of those brain areas involved in the evaluation of self-reference during mental state attribution.

The permeability P-glycoprotein: a focus on enantioselectivity and brain distribution.

PubMed

Choong, Eva; Dobrinas, Maria; Carrupt, Pierre-Alain; Eap, Chin B

2010-08-01

The permeability glycoprotein (P-gp) is an important protein transporter involved in the disposition of many drugs with different chemical structures, but few studies have examined a possible stereoselectivity in its activity. P-gp can have a major impact on the distribution of drugs in selected organs, including the brain. Polymorphisms of the ABCB1 gene, which encodes for P-gp, can influence the kinetics of several drugs. A search including publications from 1990 up to 2009 was performed on P-gp stereoselectivity and on the impact of ABCB1 polymorphisms on enantiomer brain distribution. Despite stereoselectivity not being expected because of the large variability of chemical structures of P-gp substrates, structure-activity relationships suggest different P-gp-binding sites for enantiomers. Enantioselectivity in the activity of P-gp has been demonstrated by in vitro studies and in animal models (preferential transport of one enantiomer or different inhibitory potencies towards P-gp activity between enantiomers). There is also in vivo evidence of an enantioselective drug transport at the human blood-brain barrier. The significant enantioselective activity of P-gp might be clinically relevant and must be taken into account in future studies.

Similar brain networks for detecting visuo-motor and visuo-proprioceptive synchrony.

PubMed

Balslev, Daniela; Nielsen, Finn A; Lund, Torben E; Law, Ian; Paulson, Olaf B

2006-05-15

The ability to recognize feedback from own movement as opposed to the movement of someone else is important for motor control and social interaction. The neural processes involved in feedback recognition are incompletely understood. Two competing hypotheses have been proposed: the stimulus is compared with either (a) the proprioceptive feedback or with (b) the motor command and if they match, then the external stimulus is identified as feedback. Hypothesis (a) predicts that the neural mechanisms or brain areas involved in distinguishing self from other during passive and active movement are similar, whereas hypothesis (b) predicts that they are different. In this fMRI study, healthy subjects saw visual cursor movement that was either synchronous or asynchronous with their active or passive finger movements. The aim was to identify the brain areas where the neural activity depended on whether the visual stimulus was feedback from own movement and to contrast the functional activation maps for active and passive movement. We found activity increases in the right temporoparietal cortex in the condition with asynchronous relative to synchronous visual feedback from both active and passive movements. However, no statistically significant difference was found between these sets of activated areas when the active and passive movement conditions were compared. With a posterior probability of 0.95, no brain voxel had a contrast effect above 0.11% of the whole-brain mean signal. These results do not support the hypothesis that recognition of visual feedback during active and passive movement relies on different brain areas.

Multi-frequency localization of aberrant brain activity in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Xiang, Jing; Korostenskaja, Milena; Molloy, Cynthia; deGrauw, Xinyao; Leiken, Kimberly; Gilman, Carley; Meinzen-Derr, Jareen; Fujiwara, Hisako; Rose, Douglas F; Mitchell, Terry; Murray, Donna S

2016-01-01

The abnormality of intrinsic brain activity in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is still inconclusive. Contradictory results have been found pointing towards hyper-activity or hypo-activity in various brain regions. The present research aims to investigate the spatial and spectral signatures of aberrant brain activity in an unprecedented frequency range of 1-2884 Hz at source levels in ASD using newly developed methods. Seven ASD subjects and age- and gender-matched controls were studied using a high-sampling rate magnetoencephalography (MEG) system. Brain activity in delta (1-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), beta (12-30 Hz), low gamma (30-55 Hz), high gamma (65-90 Hz), ripples (90-200 Hz), high-frequency oscillations (HFOs, 200-1000 Hz), and very high-frequency oscillations (VHFOs, 1000-2884 Hz) was volumetrically localized and measured using wavelet and beamforming. In comparison to controls, ASD subjects had significantly higher odds of alpha activity (8-12 Hz) in the sensorimotor cortex (mu rhythm), and generally high-frequency activity (90-2884 Hz) in the frontal cortex. The source power of HFOs (200-1000 Hz) in the frontal cortex in ASD was significantly elevated as compared with controls. The results suggest that ASD has significantly altered intrinsic brain activity in both low- and high-frequency ranges. Increased intrinsic high-frequency activity in the frontal cortex may play a key role in ASD. Copyright © 2015 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Brain Response to Peripheral Insulin Declines with Age: A Contribution of the Blood-Brain Barrier?

PubMed Central

Heni, Martin; Maetzler, Walter; Fritsche, Andreas; Häring, Hans-Ulrich; Hennige, Anita M.

2015-01-01

Objectives It is a matter of debate whether impaired insulin action originates from a defect at the neural level or impaired transport of the hormone into the brain. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of aging on insulin concentrations in the periphery and the central nervous system as well as its impact on insulin-dependent brain activity. Methods Insulin, glucose and albumin concentrations were determined in 160 paired human serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. Additionally, insulin was applied in young and aged mice by subcutaneous injection or intracerebroventricularly to circumvent the blood-brain barrier. Insulin action and cortical activity were assessed by Western blotting and electrocorticography radiotelemetric measurements. Results In humans, CSF glucose and insulin concentrations were tightly correlated with the respective serum/plasma concentrations. The CSF/serum ratio for insulin was reduced in older subjects while the CSF/serum ratio for albumin increased with age like for most other proteins. Western blot analysis in murine whole brain lysates revealed impaired phosphorylation of AKT (P-AKT) in aged mice following peripheral insulin stimulation whereas P-AKT was comparable to levels in young mice after intracerebroventricular insulin application. As readout for insulin action in the brain, insulin-mediated cortical brain activity instantly increased in young mice subcutaneously injected with insulin but was significantly reduced and delayed in aged mice during the treatment period. When insulin was applied intracerebroventricularly into aged animals, brain activity was readily improved. Conclusions This study discloses age-dependent changes in insulin CSF/serum ratios in humans. In the elderly, cerebral insulin resistance might be partially attributed to an impaired transport of insulin into the central nervous system. PMID:25965336

Onion extract structural changes during in vitro digestion and its potential antioxidant effect on brain lipids obtained from low- and high-fat-fed mice.

PubMed

Hur, S J; Lee, S J; Kim, D H; Chun, S C; Lee, S K

2013-12-01

This study investigated the effects of onion (Allium cepa, L.) extract on the antioxidant activity of lipids in low-and high-fat-fed mouse brain lipids and its structural change during in vitro human digestion. The onion extracts were passed through an in vitro human digestion model that simulated the composition of the mouth, stomach, and small intestine juice. The brain lipids were collected from low- and high-fat-fed mouse brain and then incubated with the in vitro-digested onion extracts to determine the lipid oxidation. The results confirmed that the main phenolics of onion extract were kaempferol, myricetin, quercetin, and quercitrin. The quercetin content increased with digestion of the onion extract. Antioxidant activity was strongly influenced by in vitro human digestion of both onion extract and quercetin standard. After digestion by the small intestine, the antioxidant activity values were dramatically increased, whereas the antioxidant activity was less influenced by digestion in the stomach for both onion extract and quercetin standard. The inhibitory effect of lipid oxidation of onion extract in mouse brain lipids increased after digestion in the stomach. The inhibitory effect of lipid oxidation of onion extract was higher in the high-fat-fed mouse brain lipids than that in the low-fat-fed mouse brain lipids. The major study finding is that the antioxidative effect of onion extract may be higher in high-fat-fed mouse brain lipids than that in low-fat-fed mouse brain lipids. Thus, dietary onion may have important applications as a natural antioxidant agent in a high-fat diet.

Monitoring and control of amygdala neurofeedback involves distributed information processing in the human brain.

PubMed

Paret, Christian; Zähringer, Jenny; Ruf, Matthias; Gerchen, Martin Fungisai; Mall, Stephanie; Hendler, Talma; Schmahl, Christian; Ende, Gabriele

2018-03-30

Brain-computer interfaces provide conscious access to neural activity by means of brain-derived feedback ("neurofeedback"). An individual's abilities to monitor and control feedback are two necessary processes for effective neurofeedback therapy, yet their underlying functional neuroanatomy is still being debated. In this study, healthy subjects received visual feedback from their amygdala response to negative pictures. Activation and functional connectivity were analyzed to disentangle the role of brain regions in different processes. Feedback monitoring was mapped to the thalamus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), ventral striatum (VS), and rostral PFC. The VS responded to feedback corresponding to instructions while rPFC activity differentiated between conditions and predicted amygdala regulation. Control involved the lateral PFC, anterior cingulate, and insula. Monitoring and control activity overlapped in the VS and thalamus. Extending current neural models of neurofeedback, this study introduces monitoring and control of feedback as anatomically dissociated processes, and suggests their important role in voluntary neuromodulation. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Time use and physical activity in a specialised brain injury rehabilitation unit: an observational study.

PubMed

Hassett, Leanne; Wong, Siobhan; Sheaves, Emma; Daher, Maysaa; Grady, Andrew; Egan, Cara; Seeto, Carol; Hosking, Talia; Moseley, Anne

2018-04-18

To determine what is the use of time and physical activity in people undertaking inpatient rehabilitation in a specialised brain injury unit. To determine participants' level of independence related to the use of time and physical activity. Design: Cross-sectional observation study. Fourteen people [mean (SD) age 40 (15) years] with brain injuries undertaking inpatient rehabilitation. Participants were observed every 12 minutes over 5 days (Monday to Friday from 7:30 am until 7:30 pm) using a behaviour mapping tool. Observation of location, people present, body position and activity engaged in (both therapeutic and nontherapeutic). Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores were determined for each participant. Participants spent a large part of their time alone (34%) in sedentary positions (83%) and in their bedrooms (48%) doing non-therapeutic activities (78%). There was a positive relationship between a higher level of independence (higher FIM score) and being observed in active body positions (r=0.60; p=0.03) and participating in physically active therapeutic activities (r=0.53; p=0.05). Similar to stroke units, inpatients in a specialised brain injury unit spend large parts of the day sedentary, alone and doing non-therapeutic activities. Strategies need to be evaluated to address this problem, particularly for people with greater physical dependence.

GABA regulates synaptic integration of newly generated neurons in the adult brain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Shaoyu; Goh, Eyleen L. K.; Sailor, Kurt A.; Kitabatake, Yasuji; Ming, Guo-Li; Song, Hongjun

2006-02-01

Adult neurogenesis, the birth and integration of new neurons from adult neural stem cells, is a striking form of structural plasticity and highlights the regenerative capacity of the adult mammalian brain. Accumulating evidence suggests that neuronal activity regulates adult neurogenesis and that new neurons contribute to specific brain functions. The mechanism that regulates the integration of newly generated neurons into the pre-existing functional circuitry in the adult brain is unknown. Here we show that newborn granule cells in the dentate gyrus of the adult hippocampus are tonically activated by ambient GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) before being sequentially innervated by GABA- and glutamate-mediated synaptic inputs. GABA, the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the adult brain, initially exerts an excitatory action on newborn neurons owing to their high cytoplasmic chloride ion content. Conversion of GABA-induced depolarization (excitation) into hyperpolarization (inhibition) in newborn neurons leads to marked defects in their synapse formation and dendritic development in vivo. Our study identifies an essential role for GABA in the synaptic integration of newly generated neurons in the adult brain, and suggests an unexpected mechanism for activity-dependent regulation of adult neurogenesis, in which newborn neurons may sense neuronal network activity through tonic and phasic GABA activation.

A wireless neural recording system with a precision motorized microdrive for freely behaving animals

PubMed Central

Hasegawa, Taku; Fujimoto, Hisataka; Tashiro, Koichiro; Nonomura, Mayu; Tsuchiya, Akira; Watanabe, Dai

2015-01-01

The brain is composed of many different types of neurons. Therefore, analysis of brain activity with single-cell resolution could provide fundamental insights into brain mechanisms. However, the electrical signal of an individual neuron is very small, and precise isolation of single neuronal activity from moving subjects is still challenging. To measure single-unit signals in actively behaving states, establishment of technologies that enable fine control of electrode positioning and strict spike sorting is essential. To further apply such a single-cell recording approach to small brain areas in naturally behaving animals in large spaces or during social interaction, we developed a compact wireless recording system with a motorized microdrive. Wireless control of electrode placement facilitates the exploration of single neuronal activity without affecting animal behaviors. Because the system is equipped with a newly developed data-encoding program, the recorded data are readily compressed almost to theoretical limits and securely transmitted to a host computer. Brain activity can thereby be stably monitored in real time and further analyzed using online or offline spike sorting. Our wireless recording approach using a precision motorized microdrive will become a powerful tool for studying brain mechanisms underlying natural or social behaviors. PMID:25597933

Effects of age of acquisition on brain activation during Chinese character recognition.

PubMed

Weekes, Brendan Stuart; Chan, Alice H D; Tan, Li Hai

2008-01-01

The age of acquisition of a word (AoA) has a specific effect on brain activation during word identification in English and German. However, the neural locus of AoA effects differs across studies. According to Hernandez and Fiebach [Hernandez, A., & Fiebach, C. (2006). The brain bases of reading late-learned words: Evidence from functional MRI. Visual Cognition, 13(8), 1027-1043], the effects of AoA on brain activation depend on the predictability of the connections between input (orthography) and output (phonology) in a lexical network. We tested this hypothesis by examining AoA effects in a non-alphabetic script with relatively arbitrary mappings between orthography and phonology--Chinese. Our results showed that the effects of AoA in Chinese speakers are located in brain regions that are spatially distinctive including the bilateral middle temporal gyrus and the left inferior parietal cortex. An additional finding was that word frequency had an independent effect on brain activation in the right middle occipital gyrus only. We conclude that spatially distinctive effects of AoA on neural activity depend on the predictability of the mappings between orthography and phonology and reflect a division of labour towards greater lexical-semantic retrieval in non-alphabetic scripts.

Neuroimaging studies in people with gender incongruence.

PubMed

Kreukels, Baudewijntje P C; Guillamon, Antonio

2016-01-01

The current review gives an overview of brain studies in transgender people. First, we describe studies into the aetiology of feelings of gender incongruence, primarily addressing the sexual differentiation hypothesis: does the brain of transgender individuals resemble that of their natal sex, or that of their experienced gender? Findings from neuroimaging studies focusing on brain structure suggest that the brain phenotypes of trans women (MtF) and trans men (FtM) differ in various ways from control men and women with feminine, masculine, demasculinized and defeminized features. The brain phenotypes of people with feelings of gender incongruence may help us to figure out whether sex differentiation of the brain is atypical in these individuals, and shed light on gender identity development. Task-related imaging studies may show whether brain activation and task performance in transgender people is sex-atypical. Second, we review studies that evaluate the effects of cross-sex hormone treatment on the brain. This type of research provides knowledge on how changes in sex hormone levels may affect brain structure and function.

Alzheimer Disease Alters the Relationship of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Brain Activity During the Stroop Task

PubMed Central

Gayed, Matthew R.; Honea, Robyn A.; Savage, Cary R.; Hobbs, Derek; Burns, Jeffrey M.

2013-01-01

Background Despite mounting evidence that physical activity has positive benefits for brain and cognitive health, there has been little characterization of the relationship between cardiorespiratory (CR) fitness and cognition-associated brain activity as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The lack of evidence is particularly glaring for diseases such as Alzheimer disease (AD) that degrade cognitive and functional performance. Objective The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between regional brain activity during cognitive tasks and CR fitness level in people with and without AD. Design A case-control, single-observation study design was used. Methods Thirty-four individuals (18 without dementia and 16 in the earliest stages of AD) completed maximal exercise testing and performed a Stroop task during fMRI. Results Cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely associated with anterior cingulate activity in the participants without dementia (r=−.48, P=.05) and unassociated with activation in those with AD (P>.7). Weak associations of CR fitness and middle frontal cortex were noted. Limitations The wide age range and the use of a single task in fMRI rather than multiple tasks challenging different cognitive capacities were limitations of the study. Conclusions The results offer further support of the relationship between CR fitness and regional brain activity. However, this relationship may be attenuated by disease. Future work in this area may provide clinicians and researchers with interpretable and dependable regional fMRI biomarker signatures responsive to exercise intervention. It also may shed light on mechanisms by which exercise can support cognitive function. PMID:23559521

Monitoring of human brain functions in risk decision-making task by diffuse optical tomography using voxel-wise general linear model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Zi-Jing; Li, Lin; Cazzell, Marry; Liu, Hanli

2013-03-01

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive imaging technique which measures the hemodynamic changes that reflect the brain activity. Diffuse optical tomography (DOT), a variant of fNIRS with multi-channel NIRS measurements, has demonstrated capability of three dimensional (3D) reconstructions of hemodynamic changes due to the brain activity. Conventional method of DOT image analysis to define the brain activation is based upon the paired t-test between two different states, such as resting-state versus task-state. However, it has limitation because the selection of activation and post-activation period is relatively subjective. General linear model (GLM) based analysis can overcome this limitation. In this study, we combine the 3D DOT image reconstruction with GLM-based analysis (i.e., voxel-wise GLM analysis) to investigate the brain activity that is associated with the risk-decision making process. Risk decision-making is an important cognitive process and thus is an essential topic in the field of neuroscience. The balloon analogue risk task (BART) is a valid experimental model and has been commonly used in behavioral measures to assess human risk taking action and tendency while facing risks. We have utilized the BART paradigm with a blocked design to investigate brain activations in the prefrontal and frontal cortical areas during decision-making. Voxel-wise GLM analysis was performed on 18human participants (10 males and 8females).In this work, we wish to demonstrate the feasibility of using voxel-wise GLM analysis to image and study cognitive functions in response to risk decision making by DOT. Results have shown significant changes in the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the active choice mode and a different hemodynamic pattern between genders, which are in good agreements with published literatures in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and fNIRS studies.

Quantitative Imaging of Energy Expenditure in Human Brain

PubMed Central

Zhu, Xiao-Hong; Qiao, Hongyan; Du, Fei; Xiong, Qiang; Liu, Xiao; Zhang, Xiaoliang; Ugurbil, Kamil; Chen, Wei

2012-01-01

Despite the essential role of the brain energy generated from ATP hydrolysis in supporting cortical neuronal activity and brain function, it is challenging to noninvasively image and directly quantify the energy expenditure in the human brain. In this study, we applied an advanced in vivo 31P MRS imaging approach to obtain regional cerebral metabolic rates of high-energy phosphate reactions catalyzed by ATPase (CMRATPase) and creatine kinase (CMRCK), and to determine CMRATPase and CMRCK in pure grey mater (GM) and white mater (WM), respectively. It was found that both ATPase and CK rates are three times higher in GM than WM; and CMRCK is seven times higher than CMRATPase in GM and WM. Among the total brain ATP consumption in the human cortical GM and WM, 77% of them are used by GM in which approximately 96% is by neurons. A single cortical neuron utilizes approximately 4.7 billion ATPs per second in a resting human brain. This study demonstrates the unique utility of in vivo 31P MRS imaging modality for direct imaging of brain energy generated from ATP hydrolysis, and provides new insights into the human brain energetics and its role in supporting neuronal activity and brain function. PMID:22487547

Lifestyle-dependent brain change: a longitudinal cohort MRI study.

PubMed

Kim, Regina Ey; Yun, Chang-Ho; Thomas, Robert J; Oh, Jang-Hoon; Johnson, Hans J; Kim, Soriul; Lee, Seungku; Seo, Hyung Suk; Shin, Chol

2018-05-07

We investigated both independent and interconnected effects of 3 lifestyle factors on brain volume, measuring yearly changes using large-scale longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging, in middle-aged to older adults. We measured brain volumes in a cohort (n = 984, 49-79 years) from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study group, using baseline and follow-up estimates after 4 years. In our analysis, the accelerated brain atrophy in normal aging was observed across regions (e.g., brain tissue: -0.098 ± 0.01 mL/y, p < 0.001). An independent lifestyle-specific trend of brain atrophy across time was also evident in men, where smoking (p = 0.012) and physical activity (p = 0.014) showed the strongest association with the atrophy rate. Linear regression analysis of the interconnected effect revealed that brain atrophy is mitigated by intense physical activity in smoking males. Lifestyle factors did not show any significant effect on brain volume in women. These results provide important information regarding lifestyle factors that affect brain aging in mid-to-late adulthood. Our findings may aid in the identification of preventive measures against dementia. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Attentional performance is correlated with the local regional efficiency of intrinsic brain networks.

PubMed

Xu, Junhai; Yin, Xuntao; Ge, Haitao; Han, Yan; Pang, Zengchang; Tang, Yuchun; Liu, Baolin; Liu, Shuwei

2015-01-01

Attention is a crucial brain function for human beings. Using neuropsychological paradigms and task-based functional brain imaging, previous studies have indicated that widely distributed brain regions are engaged in three distinct attention subsystems: alerting, orienting and executive control (EC). Here, we explored the potential contribution of spontaneous brain activity to attention by examining whether resting-state activity could account for individual differences of the attentional performance in normal individuals. The resting-state functional images and behavioral data from attention network test (ANT) task were collected in 59 healthy subjects. Graph analysis was conducted to obtain the characteristics of functional brain networks and linear regression analyses were used to explore their relationships with behavioral performances of the three attentional components. We found that there was no significant relationship between the attentional performance and the global measures, while the attentional performance was associated with specific local regional efficiency. These regions related to the scores of alerting, orienting and EC largely overlapped with the regions activated in previous task-related functional imaging studies, and were consistent with the intrinsic dorsal and ventral attention networks (DAN/VAN). In addition, the strong associations between the attentional performance and specific regional efficiency suggested that there was a possible relationship between the DAN/VAN and task performances in the ANT. We concluded that the intrinsic activity of the human brain could reflect the processing efficiency of the attention system. Our findings revealed a robust evidence for the functional significance of the efficiently organized intrinsic brain network for highly productive cognitions and the hypothesized role of the DAN/VAN at rest.

Potassium Aspartate Attenuates Brain Injury Induced by Controlled Cortical Impact in Rats Through Increasing Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) Levels, Na+/K+-ATPase Activity and Reducing Brain Edema.

PubMed

Gu, Yi; Zhang, Jie; Zhao, Yumei; Su, Yujin; Zhang, Yazhuo

2016-12-13

BACKGROUND Potassium aspartate (PA), as an electrolyte supplement, is widely used in clinical practice. In our previous study, we found PA had neuroprotective effects against apoptosis after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in rats. In this study, we examine whether PA has protective effects on traumatic brain injury (TBI). MATERIAL AND METHODS TBI was induced by controlled cortical impact (CCI) in rats. Vehicle treatment (control) or PA treatment was administered intraperitoneally at 30 minutes after CCI. The modified neurological severity score (mNSS) and cortical lesion volume were examined. Brain edema and blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity were measured, as well as brain ATP contents, lactic acid levels, and Na+/K+-ATPase activities. RESULTS We found that CCI induced cortical injury in rats. Acute PA treatment at the dose of 62.5 mg/kg and 125 mg/kg significantly improved neurological deficits (p<0.05 and p<0.001, respectively) and decreased the cortical lesion volume (p<0.05 and p<0.001, respectively) compared with vehicle-only treatment. PA treatment at the dose of 125 mg/kg attenuated brain edema and ameliorated BBB integrity. In addition, PA treatment significantly reduced the loss of ATP (p<0.01), reduced lactic acid levels (p<0.001), and increased the activity of Na+/K+-ATPase (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate PA has neuroprotective effects on TBI through increasing ATP levels, Na+/K+-ATPase activity, and reducing brain edema. It provides experimental evidence for the clinical application of PA.

Impact of the Educational Boost Your Brain and Memory Program Among Senior Living Residents.

PubMed

Nicholson, Roscoe; O'Brien, Catherine

2017-12-01

This random assignment waitlist control intervention study examined an implementation of the educational Boost Your Brain and Memory cognitive fitness intervention in 12 senior living organizations. Older adult participants ( n = 166) completed measures of brain health knowledge, use of memory techniques, physical and intellectual activity, and mindfulness, at baseline and after the intervention group's completion of the course. Changes in knowledge scores and in self-reported physical and intellectual activity increased significantly more for intervention participants than for waitlist controls at the conclusion of the course. There were no significant changes between the groups in mindfulness or use of memory techniques. This suggests that in senior living settings Boost Your Brain and Memory is effective in educating participants about brain healthy behaviors and in motivating behavioral change in the areas of physical and intellectual activity.

Quantitative imaging of brain energy metabolisms and neuroenergetics using in vivo X-nuclear 2H, 17O and 31P MRS at ultra-high field.

PubMed

Zhu, Xiao-Hong; Lu, Ming; Chen, Wei

2018-07-01

Brain energy metabolism relies predominantly on glucose and oxygen utilization to generate biochemical energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is essential for maintaining basal electrophysiological activities in a resting brain and supporting evoked neuronal activity under an activated state. Studying complex neuroenergetic processes in the brain requires sophisticated neuroimaging techniques enabling noninvasive and quantitative assessment of cerebral energy metabolisms and quantification of metabolic rates. Recent state-of-the-art in vivo X-nuclear MRS techniques, including 2 H, 17 O and 31 P MRS have shown promise, especially at ultra-high fields, in the quest for understanding neuroenergetics and brain function using preclinical models and in human subjects under healthy and diseased conditions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Altered brain network centrality in patients with adult comitant exotropia strabismus: A resting-state fMRI study

PubMed Central

Tan, Gang; Dan, Zeng-Renqing; Zhang, Ying; Huang, Xin; Zhong, Yu-Lin; Ye, Lin-Hong; Rong, Rong; Ye, Lei; Zhou, Qiong; Shao, Yi

2017-01-01

Objective To investigate the underlying functional network brain-activity changes in patients with adult comitant exotropia strabismus (CES) and the relationship with clinical features using the voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) method. Methods A total of 30 patients with CES (17 men, 13 women), and 30 healthy controls (HCs; 17 men, 13 women) matched in age, sex, and education level participated in the study. DC was used to evaluate spontaneous brain activity. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to distinguish CESs from HCs. The relationship between mean DC values in various brain regions and behavioral performance was examined with correlation analysis. Results Compared with HCs, CES patients exhibited decreased DC values in the right cerebellum posterior lobe, right inferior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus and right superior parietal lobule/primary somatosensory cortex (S1), and increased DC values in the right superior temporal gyrus, bilateral anterior cingulate, right superior temporal gyrus, and left inferior parietal lobule. However, there was no correlation between mean DC values and behavioral performance in any brain regions. Conclusions Adult comitant exotropia strabismus is associated with abnormal brain network activity in various brain regions, possibly reflecting the pathological mechanisms of ocular motility disorders in CES. PMID:28679330

Cerebral energy metabolism and the brain's functional network architecture: an integrative review.

PubMed

Lord, Louis-David; Expert, Paul; Huckins, Jeremy F; Turkheimer, Federico E

2013-09-01

Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have emphasized the contributions of synchronized activity in distributed brain networks to cognitive processes in both health and disease. The brain's 'functional connectivity' is typically estimated from correlations in the activity time series of anatomically remote areas, and postulated to reflect information flow between neuronal populations. Although the topological properties of functional brain networks have been studied extensively, considerably less is known regarding the neurophysiological and biochemical factors underlying the temporal coordination of large neuronal ensembles. In this review, we highlight the critical contributions of high-frequency electrical oscillations in the γ-band (30 to 100 Hz) to the emergence of functional brain networks. After describing the neurobiological substrates of γ-band dynamics, we specifically discuss the elevated energy requirements of high-frequency neural oscillations, which represent a mechanistic link between the functional connectivity of brain regions and their respective metabolic demands. Experimental evidence is presented for the high oxygen and glucose consumption, and strong mitochondrial performance required to support rhythmic cortical activity in the γ-band. Finally, the implications of mitochondrial impairments and deficits in glucose metabolism for cognition and behavior are discussed in the context of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative syndromes characterized by large-scale changes in the organization of functional brain networks.

A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Assessment of Small Animals’ Phobia Using Virtual Reality as a Stimulus

PubMed Central

Rey, Beatriz; Rodriguez-Pujadas, Aina; Breton-Lopez, Juani; Barros-Loscertales, Alfonso; Baños, Rosa M; Botella, Cristina; Alcañiz, Mariano; Avila, Cesar

2014-01-01

Background To date, still images or videos of real animals have been used in functional magnetic resonance imaging protocols to evaluate the brain activations associated with small animals’ phobia. Objective The objective of our study was to evaluate the brain activations associated with small animals’ phobia through the use of virtual environments. This context will have the added benefit of allowing the subject to move and interact with the environment, giving the subject the illusion of being there. Methods We have analyzed the brain activation in a group of phobic people while they navigated in a virtual environment that included the small animals that were the object of their phobia. Results We have found brain activation mainly in the left occipital inferior lobe (P<.05 corrected, cluster size=36), related to the enhanced visual attention to the phobic stimuli; and in the superior frontal gyrus (P<.005 uncorrected, cluster size=13), which is an area that has been previously related to the feeling of self-awareness. Conclusions In our opinion, these results demonstrate that virtual stimulus can enhance brain activations consistent with previous studies with still images, but in an environment closer to the real situation the subject would face in their daily lives. PMID:25654753

Brain activation during neurocognitive testing using functional near-infrared spectroscopy in patients following concussion compared to healthy controls.

PubMed

Kontos, A P; Huppert, T J; Beluk, N H; Elbin, R J; Henry, L C; French, J; Dakan, S M; Collins, M W

2014-12-01

There is no accepted clinical imaging modality for concussion, and current imaging modalities including fMRI, DTI, and PET are expensive and inaccessible to most clinics/patients. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive, portable, and low-cost imaging modality that can measure brain activity. The purpose of this study was to compare brain activity as measured by fNIRS in concussed and age-matched controls during the performance of cognitive tasks from a computerized neurocognitive test battery. Participants included nine currently symptomatic patients aged 18-45 years with a recent (15-45 days) sport-related concussion and five age-matched healthy controls. The participants completed a computerized neurocognitive test battery while wearing the fNIRS unit. Our results demonstrated reduced brain activation in the concussed subject group during word memory, (spatial) design memory, digit-symbol substitution (symbol match), and working memory (X's and O's) tasks. Behavioral performance (percent-correct and reaction time respectively) was lower for concussed participants on the word memory, design memory, and symbol match tasks than controls. The results of this preliminary study suggest that fNIRS could be a useful, portable assessment tool to assess reduced brain activation and augment current approaches to assessment and management of patients following concussion.

Noninvasive optical evaluation of low frequency oscillations in prefrontal cortex hemodynamics during verbal working memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ting; Zhao, Yue; Li, Kai; Sun, Yunlong

2014-03-01

The low frequency oscillation (LFO) around 0.1 Hz has been observed recently in cerebral hemodynamic signals during rest/sleep, enhanced breathing, and head- up-tilting, showing that cerebral autoregulation can be accessed by LFOs. However, many brain function researches require direct measurement of LFOs during specified brain function activities. This pilot study explored using near-infrared spectroscopy/imaging (NIRS) to noninvasively and simultaneously detect LFOs of prefrontal cerebral hemodynamics (i.e., oxygenated/deoxygenated/total hemoglobin concentration: △[oxy-Hb]/ △[deoxy-Hb]/ △[tot-Hb]) during N-back visual verbal working memory task. The LFOs were extracted from the measured variables using power spectral analysis. We found the brain activation sites struck clear LFOs while other sites did not. The LFO of △[deoxy-Hb] acted as a negative pike and ranged in (0.05, 0.1) Hz, while LFOs of △[oxy-Hb] and △[tot-Hb] acted as a positive pike and ranged in (0.1, 0.15) Hz. The amplitude difference and frequency lag between △[deoxy-Hb] and △[oxy-Hb]/ △[tot-Hb] produced a more focused and sensitive activation map compare to hemodynamic amplitude-quantified activation maps. This study observed LFOs in brain activities and showed strong potential of LFOs in accessing brain functions.

The modulatory effect of adaptive deep brain stimulation on beta bursts in Parkinson’s disease

PubMed Central

Tinkhauser, Gerd; Pogosyan, Alek; Little, Simon; Beudel, Martijn; Herz, Damian M.; Tan, Huiling

2017-01-01

Abstract Adaptive deep brain stimulation uses feedback about the state of neural circuits to control stimulation rather than delivering fixed stimulation all the time, as currently performed. In patients with Parkinson’s disease, elevations in beta activity (13–35 Hz) in the subthalamic nucleus have been demonstrated to correlate with clinical impairment and have provided the basis for feedback control in trials of adaptive deep brain stimulation. These pilot studies have suggested that adaptive deep brain stimulation may potentially be more effective, efficient and selective than conventional deep brain stimulation, implying mechanistic differences between the two approaches. Here we test the hypothesis that such differences arise through differential effects on the temporal dynamics of beta activity. The latter is not constantly increased in Parkinson’s disease, but comes in bursts of different durations and amplitudes. We demonstrate that the amplitude of beta activity in the subthalamic nucleus increases in proportion to burst duration, consistent with progressively increasing synchronization. Effective adaptive deep brain stimulation truncated long beta bursts shifting the distribution of burst duration away from long duration with large amplitude towards short duration, lower amplitude bursts. Critically, bursts with shorter duration are negatively and bursts with longer duration positively correlated with the motor impairment off stimulation. Conventional deep brain stimulation did not change the distribution of burst durations. Although both adaptive and conventional deep brain stimulation suppressed mean beta activity amplitude compared to the unstimulated state, this was achieved by a selective effect on burst duration during adaptive deep brain stimulation, whereas conventional deep brain stimulation globally suppressed beta activity. We posit that the relatively selective effect of adaptive deep brain stimulation provides a rationale for why this approach could be more efficacious than conventional continuous deep brain stimulation in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, and helps inform how adaptive deep brain stimulation might best be delivered. PMID:28334851

PET imaging and quantitation of Internet-addicted patients and normal controls

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeong, Ha-Kyu; Kim, Hee-Joung; Jung, Haijo; Son, Hye-Kyung; Kim, Dong-Hyeon; Yun, Mijin; Shin, Yee-Jin; Lee, Jong-Doo

2002-04-01

Internet addicted patients (IAPs) have widely been increased, as Internet games are becoming very popular in daily life. The purpose of this study was to investigate regional brain activation patterns associated with excessive use of Internet games in adolescents. Six normal controls (NCs) and eight IAPs who were classified as addiction group by adapted version of DSM-IV for pathologic gambling were participated. 18F-FDG PET studies were performed for all adolescents at their rest and activated condition after 20 minutes of each subject's favorite Internet game. To investigate quantitative metabolic differences in both groups, all possible combinations of group comparison were carried out using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM 99). Regional brain activation foci were identified on Talairach coordinate. SPM results showed increased metabolic activation in occipital lobes for both groups. Higher metabolisms were seen at resting condition in IAPs than that of in NCs. In comparison to both groups, IAPs showed different patterns of regional brain metabolic activation compared with that of NCs. It suggests that addictive use of Internet games may result in functional alteration of developing brain in adolescents.

Common and distinct networks underlying reward valence and processing stages: A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies

PubMed Central

Liu, Xun; Hairston, Jacqueline; Schrier, Madeleine; Fan, Jin

2011-01-01

To better understand the reward circuitry in human brain, we conducted activation likelihood estimation (ALE) and parametric voxel-based meta-analyses (PVM) on 142 neuroimaging studies that examined brain activation in reward-related tasks in healthy adults. We observed several core brain areas that participated in reward-related decision making, including the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), caudate, putamen, thalamus, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), bilateral anterior insula, anterior (ACC) and posterior (PCC) cingulate cortex, as well as cognitive control regions in the inferior parietal lobule and prefrontal cortex (PFC). The NAcc was commonly activated by both positive and negative rewards across various stages of reward processing (e.g., anticipation, outcome, and evaluation). In addition, the medial OFC and PCC preferentially responded to positive rewards, whereas the ACC, bilateral anterior insula, and lateral PFC selectively responded to negative rewards. Reward anticipation activated the ACC, bilateral anterior insula, and brain stem, whereas reward outcome more significantly activated the NAcc, medial OFC, and amygdala. Neurobiological theories of reward-related decision making should therefore distributed and interrelated representations of reward valuation and valence assessment into account. PMID:21185861

Age-induced differences in brain neural activation elicited by visual emotional stimuli: A high-density EEG study.

PubMed

Tsolaki, Anthoula C; Kosmidou, Vasiliki E; Kompatsiaris, Ioannis Yiannis; Papadaniil, Chrysa; Hadjileontiadis, Leontios; Tsolaki, Magda

2017-01-06

Identifying the brain sources of neural activation during processing of emotional information remains a very challenging task. In this work, we investigated the response to different emotional stimuli and the effect of age on the neuronal activation. Two negative emotion conditions, i.e., 'anger' and 'fear' faces were presented to 22 adult female participants (11 young and 11 elderly) while acquiring high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) data of 256 channels. Brain source localization was utilized to study the modulations in the early N170 event-related-potential component. The results revealed alterations in the amplitude of N170 and the localization of areas with maximum neural activation. Furthermore, age-induced differences are shown in the topographic maps and the neural activation for both emotional stimuli. Overall, aging appeared to affect the limbic area and its implication to emotional processing. These findings can serve as a step toward the understanding of the way the brain functions and evolves with age which is a significant element in the design of assistive environments. Copyright © 2016 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Brain and Learning: Examining the Connection between Brain Activity, Spatial Intelligence, and Learning Outcomes in Online Visual Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Hyangsook

2013-01-01

The purpose of the study was to compare 2D and 3D visual presentation styles, both still frame and animation, on subjects' brain activity measured by the amplitude of EEG alpha wave and on their recall to see if alpha power and recall differ significantly by depth and movement of visual presentation style and by spatial intelligence. In addition,…

Task-Driven Activity Reduces the Cortical Activity Space of the Brain: Experiment and Whole-Brain Modeling

PubMed Central

Hagmann, Patric; Deco, Gustavo

2015-01-01

How a stimulus or a task alters the spontaneous dynamics of the brain remains a fundamental open question in neuroscience. One of the most robust hallmarks of task/stimulus-driven brain dynamics is the decrease of variability with respect to the spontaneous level, an effect seen across multiple experimental conditions and in brain signals observed at different spatiotemporal scales. Recently, it was observed that the trial-to-trial variability and temporal variance of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals decrease in the task-driven activity. Here we examined the dynamics of a large-scale model of the human cortex to provide a mechanistic understanding of these observations. The model allows computing the statistics of synaptic activity in the spontaneous condition and in putative tasks determined by external inputs to a given subset of brain regions. We demonstrated that external inputs decrease the variance, increase the covariances, and decrease the autocovariance of synaptic activity as a consequence of single node and large-scale network dynamics. Altogether, these changes in network statistics imply a reduction of entropy, meaning that the spontaneous synaptic activity outlines a larger multidimensional activity space than does the task-driven activity. We tested this model’s prediction on fMRI signals from healthy humans acquired during rest and task conditions and found a significant decrease of entropy in the stimulus-driven activity. Altogether, our study proposes a mechanism for increasing the information capacity of brain networks by enlarging the volume of possible activity configurations at rest and reliably settling into a confined stimulus-driven state to allow better transmission of stimulus-related information. PMID:26317432

Graph-based network analysis of resting-state functional MRI.

PubMed

Wang, Jinhui; Zuo, Xinian; He, Yong

2010-01-01

In the past decade, resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI) measures of brain activity have attracted considerable attention. Based on changes in the blood oxygen level-dependent signal, R-fMRI offers a novel way to assess the brain's spontaneous or intrinsic (i.e., task-free) activity with both high spatial and temporal resolutions. The properties of both the intra- and inter-regional connectivity of resting-state brain activity have been well documented, promoting our understanding of the brain as a complex network. Specifically, the topological organization of brain networks has been recently studied with graph theory. In this review, we will summarize the recent advances in graph-based brain network analyses of R-fMRI signals, both in typical and atypical populations. Application of these approaches to R-fMRI data has demonstrated non-trivial topological properties of functional networks in the human brain. Among these is the knowledge that the brain's intrinsic activity is organized as a small-world, highly efficient network, with significant modularity and highly connected hub regions. These network properties have also been found to change throughout normal development, aging, and in various pathological conditions. The literature reviewed here suggests that graph-based network analyses are capable of uncovering system-level changes associated with different processes in the resting brain, which could provide novel insights into the understanding of the underlying physiological mechanisms of brain function. We also highlight several potential research topics in the future.

Electroencephalographic inverse localization of brain activity in acute traumatic brain injury as a guide to surgery, monitoring and treatment

PubMed Central

Irimia, Andrei; Goh, S.-Y. Matthew; Torgerson, Carinna M.; Stein, Nathan R.; Chambers, Micah C.; Vespa, Paul M.; Van Horn, John D.

2013-01-01

Objective To inverse-localize epileptiform cortical electrical activity recorded from severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients using electroencephalography (EEG). Methods Three acute TBI cases were imaged using computed tomography (CT) and multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Semi-automatic segmentation was performed to partition the complete TBI head into 25 distinct tissue types, including 6 tissue types accounting for pathology. Segmentations were employed to generate a finite element method model of the head, and EEG activity generators were modeled as dipolar currents distributed over the cortical surface. Results We demonstrate anatomically faithful localization of EEG generators responsible for epileptiform discharges in severe TBI. By accounting for injury-related tissue conductivity changes, our work offers the most realistic implementation currently available for the inverse estimation of cortical activity in TBI. Conclusion Whereas standard localization techniques are available for electrical activity mapping in uninjured brains, they are rarely applied to acute TBI. Modern models of TBI-induced pathology can inform the localization of epileptogenic foci, improve surgical efficacy, contribute to the improvement of critical care monitoring and provide guidance for patient-tailored treatment. With approaches such as this, neurosurgeons and neurologists can study brain activity in acute TBI and obtain insights regarding injury effects upon brain metabolism and clinical outcome. PMID:24011495

Electroencephalographic inverse localization of brain activity in acute traumatic brain injury as a guide to surgery, monitoring and treatment.

PubMed

Irimia, Andrei; Goh, S-Y Matthew; Torgerson, Carinna M; Stein, Nathan R; Chambers, Micah C; Vespa, Paul M; Van Horn, John D

2013-10-01

To inverse-localize epileptiform cortical electrical activity recorded from severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients using electroencephalography (EEG). Three acute TBI cases were imaged using computed tomography (CT) and multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Semi-automatic segmentation was performed to partition the complete TBI head into 25 distinct tissue types, including 6 tissue types accounting for pathology. Segmentations were employed to generate a finite element method model of the head, and EEG activity generators were modeled as dipolar currents distributed over the cortical surface. We demonstrate anatomically faithful localization of EEG generators responsible for epileptiform discharges in severe TBI. By accounting for injury-related tissue conductivity changes, our work offers the most realistic implementation currently available for the inverse estimation of cortical activity in TBI. Whereas standard localization techniques are available for electrical activity mapping in uninjured brains, they are rarely applied to acute TBI. Modern models of TBI-induced pathology can inform the localization of epileptogenic foci, improve surgical efficacy, contribute to the improvement of critical care monitoring and provide guidance for patient-tailored treatment. With approaches such as this, neurosurgeons and neurologists can study brain activity in acute TBI and obtain insights regarding injury effects upon brain metabolism and clinical outcome. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Branding and a child's brain: an fMRI study of neural responses to logos.

PubMed

Bruce, Amanda S; Bruce, Jared M; Black, William R; Lepping, Rebecca J; Henry, Janice M; Cherry, Joseph Bradley C; Martin, Laura E; Papa, Vlad B; Davis, Ann M; Brooks, William M; Savage, Cary R

2014-01-01

Branding and advertising have a powerful effect on both familiarity and preference for products, yet no neuroimaging studies have examined neural response to logos in children. Food advertising is particularly pervasive and effective in manipulating choices in children. The purpose of this study was to examine how healthy children's brains respond to common food and other logos. A pilot validation study was first conducted with 32 children to select the most culturally familiar logos, and to match food and non-food logos on valence and intensity. A new sample of 17 healthy weight children were then scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Food logos compared to baseline were associated with increased activation in orbitofrontal cortex and inferior prefrontal cortex. Compared to non-food logos, food logos elicited increased activation in posterior cingulate cortex. Results confirmed that food logos activate some brain regions in children known to be associated with motivation. This marks the first study in children to examine brain responses to culturally familiar logos. Considering the pervasiveness of advertising, research should further investigate how children respond at the neural level to marketing.

Neural signatures of lexical tone reading.

PubMed

Kwok, Veronica P Y; Wang, Tianfu; Chen, Siping; Yakpo, Kofi; Zhu, Linlin; Fox, Peter T; Tan, Li Hai

2015-01-01

Research on how lexical tone is neuroanatomically represented in the human brain is central to our understanding of cortical regions subserving language. Past studies have exclusively focused on tone perception of the spoken language, and little is known as to the lexical tone processing in reading visual words and its associated brain mechanisms. In this study, we performed two experiments to identify neural substrates in Chinese tone reading. First, we used a tone judgment paradigm to investigate tone processing of visually presented Chinese characters. We found that, relative to baseline, tone perception of printed Chinese characters were mediated by strong brain activation in bilateral frontal regions, left inferior parietal lobule, left posterior middle/medial temporal gyrus, left inferior temporal region, bilateral visual systems, and cerebellum. Surprisingly, no activation was found in superior temporal regions, brain sites well known for speech tone processing. In activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to combine results of relevant published studies, we attempted to elucidate whether the left temporal cortex activities identified in Experiment one is consistent with those found in previous studies of auditory lexical tone perception. ALE results showed that only the left superior temporal gyrus and putamen were critical in auditory lexical tone processing. These findings suggest that activation in the superior temporal cortex associated with lexical tone perception is modality-dependent. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A systematic review of the efficacy of self-management programs for increasing physical activity in community-dwelling adults with acquired brain injury (ABI).

PubMed

Jones, Taryn M; Dean, Catherine M; Hush, Julia M; Dear, Blake F; Titov, Nickolai

2015-04-19

Individuals living with acquired brain injury, typically caused by stroke or trauma, are far less likely to achieve recommended levels of physical activity for optimal health and well-being. With a growing number of people living with chronic disease and disability globally, self-management programs are seen as integral to the management of these conditions and the prevention of secondary health conditions. However, to date, there has been no systematic review of the literature examining the efficacy of self-management programs specifically on physical activity in individuals with acquired brain injury, whether delivered face-to-face or remotely. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to evaluate the efficacy of self-management programs in increasing physical activity levels in adults living in the community following acquired brain injury. The efficacy of remote versus face-to-face delivery was also examined. A systematic review of the literature was conducted. Electronic databases were searched. Two independent reviewers screened all studies for eligibility, assessed risk of bias, and extracted relevant data. Five studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. Studies were widely heterogeneous with respect to program content and delivery characteristics and outcomes, although all programs utilized behavioral change principles. Four of the five studies examined interventions in which physical activity was a component of a multifaceted intervention, where the depth to which physical activity specific content was covered, and the extent to which skills were taught and practiced, could not be clearly established. Three studies showed favorable physical activity outcomes following self-management interventions for stroke; however, risk of bias was high, and overall efficacy remains unclear. Although not used in isolation from face-to-face delivery, remote delivery via telephone was the predominant form of delivery in two studies with support for its inclusion in self-management programs for individuals following stroke. The efficacy of self-management programs in increasing physical activity levels in community-dwelling adults following acquired brain injury (ABI) is still unknown. Research into the efficacy of self-management programs specifically aimed at improving physical activity in adults living in the community following acquired brain injury is needed. The efficacy of remote delivery methods also warrants further investigation. PROSPERO CRD42013006748.

Visualizing mushroom body response to a conditioned odor in honeybees

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faber, Till; Menzel, Randolf

2001-11-01

Combining differential conditioning with optophysiological recordings of bee brain activity allows the investigation of learning-related changes in complex neural systems. In this study we focused on the mushroom bodies of the bee brain. Presenting different odors to the animal leads to significant activation of the mushroom body lips. After differential conditioning, the rewarded odor leads to stronger activation than it did before training. Activation by the unrewarded odor remains unchanged. These results resemble findings in the bee's antennal lobes, which are the first olfactory relay station in the insect brain. As an integrative neural network, enhanced activation of the mushroom body lip may carry additional information, i.e., for processing odor concentrations.

Analysis of Time-Dependent Brain Network on Active and MI Tasks for Chronic Stroke Patients

PubMed Central

Chang, Won Hyuk; Kim, Yun-Hee; Lee, Seong-Whan; Kwon, Gyu Hyun

2015-01-01

Several researchers have analyzed brain activities by investigating brain networks. However, there is a lack of the research on the temporal characteristics of the brain network during a stroke by EEG and the comparative studies between motor execution and imagery, which became known to have similar motor functions and pathways. In this study, we proposed the possibility of temporal characteristics on the brain networks of a stroke. We analyzed the temporal properties of the brain networks for nine chronic stroke patients by the active and motor imagery tasks by EEG. High beta band has a specific role in the brain network during motor tasks. In the high beta band, for the active task, there were significant characteristics of centrality and small-worldness on bilateral primary motor cortices at the initial motor execution. The degree centrality significantly increased on the contralateral primary motor cortex, and local efficiency increased on the ipsilateral primary motor cortex. These results indicate that the ipsilateral primary motor cortex constructed a powerful subnetwork by influencing the linked channels as compensatory effect, although the contralateral primary motor cortex organized an inefficient network by using the connected channels due to lesions. For the MI task, degree centrality and local efficiency significantly decreased on the somatosensory area at the initial motor imagery. Then, there were significant correlations between the properties of brain networks and motor function on the contralateral primary motor cortex and somatosensory area for each motor execution/imagery task. Our results represented that the active and MI tasks have different mechanisms of motor acts. Based on these results, we indicated the possibility of customized rehabilitation according to different motor tasks. We expect these results to help in the construction of the customized rehabilitation system depending on motor tasks by understanding temporal functional characteristics on brain network for a stroke. PMID:26656269

Frontal brain activation during a working memory task: a time-domain fNIRS study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molteni, E.; Baselli, G.; Bianchi, A. M.; Caffini, M.; Contini, D.; Spinelli, L.; Torricelli, A.; Cerutti, S.; Cubeddu, R.

2009-02-01

We evaluated frontal brain activation during a working memory task with graded levels of difficulty in a group of 19 healthy subjects, by means of time-resolved fNIRS technique. Brain activation was computed, and was then separated into a "block-related" and a "tonic" components. Load-related increases of blood oxygenation were studied for the four different levels of task difficulty. Generalized Linear Models were applied to the data in order to explore the metabolic processes occurring during the mental effort and, possibly, their involvement in short term memorization. Results attest the presence of a persistent attentional-related metabolic activity, superimposed to a task-related mnemonic contribution. Moreover, a systemic component probably deriving from the extra-cerebral capillary bed was detected.

Neurophenomenology of an Altered State of Consciousness: An fMRI Case Study.

PubMed

Modestino, Edward J

2016-01-01

A research participant came to our lab with self-proclaimed, ecstatic, Kundalini meditative experiences. Using neurophenomenology and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we were able to identify brain activation in the left prefrontal cortex [primarily in left Brodmann׳s areas (BAs) 46 and 10, but also extending into BAs 11, 47, and 45] associated with this experience. The Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory provided evidence that this was a perceived altered state of consciousness. Additionally, the Physio-Kundalini Syndrome Index strongly suggested that what he was experiencing was indeed Kundalini. The feelings of joy, happiness and the left prefrontal brain region found in this study are consistent with many published neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies of meditation. This case study suggests that using first-person subjective experience within a phenomenological reduction process can be combined with neuroimaging to divulge objective brain regions associated with such experiences. Furthermore, this provides evidence that at least in this participant, the Kundalini experience is associated with brain activation in the left prefrontal cortex. Future research is needed to confirm these results in a large group study, perhaps contrasting brain activation of those who experience spontaneously emerging Kundalini with trained Kundalini practitioners. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anticonvulsant activity of 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucopyranose isolated from leaves of Mangifera indica.

PubMed

Viswanatha, G L; Mohan, C G; Shylaja, H; Yuvaraj, H C; Sunil, V

2013-07-01

The present study was aimed to evaluate the anticonvulsant activity of 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucopyranose (PGG) isolated from methanolic leaf extracts of Mangifera indica in mice. Anticonvulsant activity of PGG was evaluated against pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced and maximal electroshock (MES)-induced convulsions in mice. Additionally, locomotor activity and GABA levels in the brain were estimated to explore the possible CNS-depressant activity and mechanism behind the anticonvulsant activity, respectively. In these studies, PGG (2.5, 5, and 10 mg/kg, intraperitoneal (i.p.)) showed significant and dose-dependent inhibition of PTZ and MES-induced convulsions. Furthermore, PGG administration showed significant decrease in the locomotor activity as an indication of its CNS-depressant property; also, PGG has significantly increased the GABA levels in the cerebellum and whole brain other than the cerebellum. In conclusion, PGG isolated from M. indica showed potent anticonvulsant activity, and possible mechanism may be due to enhanced GABA levels in the brain.

Physical activity as a model for health neuroscience.

PubMed

Stillman, Chelsea M; Erickson, Kirk I

2018-05-06

Health neuroscience is a new interdisciplinary field that combines theories and techniques from health psychology and cognitive and social-affective neuroscience in order to understand how the brain affects and is affected by health behaviors. Physical activity (PA) research can serve as a useful model for various ways in which the brain can be incorporated into health neuroscience studies to better understand variability in the adoption and maintenance of, as well as benefits gained from, health behaviors. Here, we summarize evidence linking PA to brain and cognitive performance from studies conceptualizing the brain as either an outcome or mediator of cognitive change. We then discuss an emerging body of studies using a brain as a predictor approach. We discuss how studies using this approach complement existing PA studies and provide insight into a major source of variability in the outcomes of PA interventions, above and beyond the variability accounted for by known biological and demographic moderators. A more complete understanding of the bidirectional relationships between brain and behaviors, such as PA, could provide valuable insight into how to tailor interventions to optimally affect individuals, identify key barriers, and inform the development of novel policies to promote public health. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

Simultaneous real-time monitoring of multiple cortical systems.

PubMed

Gupta, Disha; Jeremy Hill, N; Brunner, Peter; Gunduz, Aysegul; Ritaccio, Anthony L; Schalk, Gerwin

2014-10-01

Real-time monitoring of the brain is potentially valuable for performance monitoring, communication, training or rehabilitation. In natural situations, the brain performs a complex mix of various sensory, motor or cognitive functions. Thus, real-time brain monitoring would be most valuable if (a) it could decode information from multiple brain systems simultaneously, and (b) this decoding of each brain system were robust to variations in the activity of other (unrelated) brain systems. Previous studies showed that it is possible to decode some information from different brain systems in retrospect and/or in isolation. In our study, we set out to determine whether it is possible to simultaneously decode important information about a user from different brain systems in real time, and to evaluate the impact of concurrent activity in different brain systems on decoding performance. We study these questions using electrocorticographic signals recorded in humans. We first document procedures for generating stable decoding models given little training data, and then report their use for offline and for real-time decoding from 12 subjects (six for offline parameter optimization, six for online experimentation). The subjects engage in tasks that involve movement intention, movement execution and auditory functions, separately, and then simultaneously. Main Results: Our real-time results demonstrate that our system can identify intention and movement periods in single trials with an accuracy of 80.4% and 86.8%, respectively (where 50% would be expected by chance). Simultaneously, the decoding of the power envelope of an auditory stimulus resulted in an average correlation coefficient of 0.37 between the actual and decoded power envelopes. These decoders were trained separately and executed simultaneously in real time. This study yielded the first demonstration that it is possible to decode simultaneously the functional activity of multiple independent brain systems. Our comparison of univariate and multivariate decoding strategies, and our analysis of the influence of their decoding parameters, provides benchmarks and guidelines for future research on this topic.

Simultaneous Real-Time Monitoring of Multiple Cortical Systems

PubMed Central

Gupta, Disha; Hill, N. Jeremy; Brunner, Peter; Gunduz, Aysegul; Ritaccio, Anthony L.; Schalk, Gerwin

2014-01-01

Objective Real-time monitoring of the brain is potentially valuable for performance monitoring, communication, training or rehabilitation. In natural situations, the brain performs a complex mix of various sensory, motor, or cognitive functions. Thus, real-time brain monitoring would be most valuable if (a) it could decode information from multiple brain systems simultaneously, and (b) this decoding of each brain system were robust to variations in the activity of other (unrelated) brain systems. Previous studies showed that it is possible to decode some information from different brain systems in retrospect and/or in isolation. In our study, we set out to determine whether it is possible to simultaneously decode important information about a user from different brain systems in real time, and to evaluate the impact of concurrent activity in different brain systems on decoding performance. Approach We study these questions using electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals recorded in humans. We first document procedures for generating stable decoding models given little training data, and then report their use for offline and for real-time decoding from 12 subjects (6 for offline parameter optimization, 6 for online experimentation). The subjects engage in tasks that involve movement intention, movement execution and auditory functions, separately, and then simultaneously. Main results Our real-time results demonstrate that our system can identify intention and movement periods in single trials with an accuracy of 80.4% and 86.8%, respectively (where 50% would be expected by chance). Simultaneously, the decoding of the power envelope of an auditory stimulus resulted in an average correlation coefficient of 0.37 between the actual and decoded power envelope. These decoders were trained separately and executed simultaneously in real time. Significance This study yielded the first demonstration that it is possible to decode simultaneously the functional activity of multiple independent brain systems. Our comparison of univariate and multivariate decoding strategies, and our analysis of the influence of their decoding parameters, provides benchmarks and guidelines for future research on this topic. PMID:25080161

Fetal Magnetoencephalography--Achievements and Challenges in the Study of Prenatal and Early Postnatal Brain Responses: A Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheridan, Carolin J.; Matuz, Tamara; Draganova, Rossitza; Eswaran, Hari; Preissl, Hubert

2010-01-01

Fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG) is the only non-invasive method for investigating evoked brain responses and spontaneous brain activity generated by the fetus "in utero". Fetal auditory as well as visual-evoked fields have been successfully recorded in basic stimulus-response studies. Moreover, paradigms investigating precursors for cognitive…

Classifying social anxiety disorder using multivoxel pattern analyses of brain function and structure☆

PubMed Central

Frick, Andreas; Gingnell, Malin; Marquand, Andre F.; Howner, Katarina; Fischer, Håkan; Kristiansson, Marianne; Williams, Steven C.R.; Fredrikson, Mats; Furmark, Tomas

2014-01-01

Functional neuroimaging of social anxiety disorder (SAD) support altered neural activation to threat-provoking stimuli focally in the fear network, while structural differences are distributed over the temporal and frontal cortices as well as limbic structures. Previous neuroimaging studies have investigated the brain at the voxel level using mass-univariate methods which do not enable detection of more complex patterns of activity and structural alterations that may separate SAD from healthy individuals. Support vector machine (SVM) is a supervised machine learning method that capitalizes on brain activation and structural patterns to classify individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate if it is possible to discriminate SAD patients (n = 14) from healthy controls (n = 12) using SVM based on (1) functional magnetic resonance imaging during fearful face processing and (2) regional gray matter volume. Whole brain and region of interest (fear network) SVM analyses were performed for both modalities. For functional scans, significant classifications were obtained both at whole brain level and when restricting the analysis to the fear network while gray matter SVM analyses correctly classified participants only when using the whole brain search volume. These results support that SAD is characterized by aberrant neural activation to affective stimuli in the fear network, while disorder-related alterations in regional gray matter volume are more diffusely distributed over the whole brain. SVM may thus be useful for identifying imaging biomarkers of SAD. PMID:24239689

Hierarchical Neural Representation of Dreamed Objects Revealed by Brain Decoding with Deep Neural Network Features.

PubMed

Horikawa, Tomoyasu; Kamitani, Yukiyasu

2017-01-01

Dreaming is generally thought to be generated by spontaneous brain activity during sleep with patterns common to waking experience. This view is supported by a recent study demonstrating that dreamed objects can be predicted from brain activity during sleep using statistical decoders trained with stimulus-induced brain activity. However, it remains unclear whether and how visual image features associated with dreamed objects are represented in the brain. In this study, we used a deep neural network (DNN) model for object recognition as a proxy for hierarchical visual feature representation, and DNN features for dreamed objects were analyzed with brain decoding of fMRI data collected during dreaming. The decoders were first trained with stimulus-induced brain activity labeled with the feature values of the stimulus image from multiple DNN layers. The decoders were then used to decode DNN features from the dream fMRI data, and the decoded features were compared with the averaged features of each object category calculated from a large-scale image database. We found that the feature values decoded from the dream fMRI data positively correlated with those associated with dreamed object categories at mid- to high-level DNN layers. Using the decoded features, the dreamed object category could be identified at above-chance levels by matching them to the averaged features for candidate categories. The results suggest that dreaming recruits hierarchical visual feature representations associated with objects, which may support phenomenal aspects of dream experience.

A Bayesian Model of Category-Specific Emotional Brain Responses

PubMed Central

Wager, Tor D.; Kang, Jian; Johnson, Timothy D.; Nichols, Thomas E.; Satpute, Ajay B.; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2015-01-01

Understanding emotion is critical for a science of healthy and disordered brain function, but the neurophysiological basis of emotional experience is still poorly understood. We analyzed human brain activity patterns from 148 studies of emotion categories (2159 total participants) using a novel hierarchical Bayesian model. The model allowed us to classify which of five categories—fear, anger, disgust, sadness, or happiness—is engaged by a study with 66% accuracy (43-86% across categories). Analyses of the activity patterns encoded in the model revealed that each emotion category is associated with unique, prototypical patterns of activity across multiple brain systems including the cortex, thalamus, amygdala, and other structures. The results indicate that emotion categories are not contained within any one region or system, but are represented as configurations across multiple brain networks. The model provides a precise summary of the prototypical patterns for each emotion category, and demonstrates that a sufficient characterization of emotion categories relies on (a) differential patterns of involvement in neocortical systems that differ between humans and other species, and (b) distinctive patterns of cortical-subcortical interactions. Thus, these findings are incompatible with several contemporary theories of emotion, including those that emphasize emotion-dedicated brain systems and those that propose emotion is localized primarily in subcortical activity. They are consistent with componential and constructionist views, which propose that emotions are differentiated by a combination of perceptual, mnemonic, prospective, and motivational elements. Such brain-based models of emotion provide a foundation for new translational and clinical approaches. PMID:25853490

[An fMRI Study of the Brain Activation Related to Intensive Positive Emotions During Viweing Erotic Pictures in 49-74 Old Men].

PubMed

Martynova, O; Portnova, G; Orlov, I

2016-01-01

According to psychological research erotic images are evaluated in the context of positive emotions as the most intense, most associated with emotional arousal, among the variety of pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. However it is difficult to separate areas of the brain that are related to the general emotional process from the activity of the brain areas involved in neuronal representations of reward system. The purpose of this study was to determine differences in the brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in male subjects in evaluating an intensity of pleasant images, including erotic, or unpleasant and neutral pictures. When comparing the condition with evaluation of the pleasant erotic images with conditions containing neutral or unpleasant stimuli, a significant activation was observed in the posterior cingulate cortex; the prefrontal cortex and the right globus pallidus. An increased activity of the right anterior central gyrus was observed in the conditions related to evaluation of pleasant and neutral stimuli. Thus, in the process of evaluating the intensity of emotional images of an erotic nature the active brain areas were related not only to neuronal representations of emotions, but also to motivations and control system of emotional arousal, which should be taken into account while using erotic pictures as intensive positive emotional stimuli.

Endotoxin-activated microglia injure brain derived endothelial cells via NF-κB, JAK-STAT and JNK stress kinase pathways

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background We previously showed that microglia damage blood brain barrier (BBB) components following ischemic brain insults, but the underlying mechanism(s) is/are not well known. Recent work has established the contribution of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation to several brain pathologies including ischemia, neurodegeneration and sepsis. The present study established the requirement of microglia for lipopolysaccharide (LPS) mediated endothelial cell death, and explored pathways involved in this toxicity. LPS is a classic TLR4 agonist, and is used here to model aspects of brain conditions where TLR4 stimulation occurs. Methods/Results In monocultures, LPS induced death in microglia, but not brain derived endothelial cells (EC). However, LPS increased EC death when cocultured with microglia. LPS led to nitric oxide (NO) and inducible NO synthase (iNOS) induction in microglia, but not in EC. Inhibiting microglial activation by blocking iNOS and other generators of NO or blocking reactive oxygen species (ROS) also prevented injury in these cocultures. To assess the signaling pathway(s) involved, inhibitors of several downstream TLR-4 activated pathways were studied. Inhibitors of NF-κB, JAK-STAT and JNK/SAPK decreased microglial activation and prevented cell death, although the effect of blocking JNK/SAPK was rather modest. Inhibitors of PI3K, ERK, and p38 MAPK had no effect. Conclusions We show that LPS-activated microglia promote BBB disruption through injury to endothelial cells, and the specific blockade of JAK-STAT, NF-κB may prove to be especially useful anti-inflammatory strategies to confer cerebrovascular protection. PMID:21385378

Comparative Analysis of Human and Rodent Brain Primary Neuronal Culture Spontaneous Activity Using Micro-Electrode Array Technology.

PubMed

Napoli, Alessandro; Obeid, Iyad

2016-03-01

Electrical activity in embryonic brain tissue has typically been studied using Micro Electrode Array (MEA) technology to make dozens of simultaneous recordings from dissociated neuronal cultures, brain stem cell progenitors, or brain slices from fetal rodents. Although these rodent neuronal primary culture electrical properties are mostly investigated, it has not been yet established to what extent the electrical characteristics of rodent brain neuronal cultures can be generalized to those of humans. A direct comparison of spontaneous spiking activity between rodent and human primary neurons grown under the same in vitro conditions using MEA technology has never been carried out before and will be described in the present study. Human and rodent dissociated fetal brain neuronal cultures were established in-vitro by culturing on a glass grid of 60 planar microelectrodes neurons under identical conditions. Three different cultures of human neurons were produced from tissue sourced from a single aborted fetus (at 16-18 gestational weeks) and these were compared with seven different cultures of embryonic rat neurons (at 18 gestational days) originally isolated from a single rat. The results show that the human and rodent cultures behaved significantly differently. Whereas the rodent cultures demonstrated robust spontaneous activation and network activity after only 10 days, the human cultures required nearly 40 days to achieve a substantially weaker level of electrical function. These results suggest that rat neuron preparations may yield inferences that do not necessarily transfer to humans. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

I know I've seen you before: Distinguishing recent-single-exposure-based familiarity from pre-existing familiarity.

PubMed

Gimbel, Sarah I; Brewer, James B; Maril, Anat

2017-03-01

This study examines how individuals differentiate recent-single-exposure-based familiarity from pre-existing familiarity. If these are two distinct cognitive processes, are they supported by the same neural bases? This study examines how recent-single-exposure-based familiarity and multiple-previous-exposure-based familiarity are supported and represented in the brain using functional MRI. In a novel approach, we first behaviorally show that subjects can divide retrieval of items in pre-existing memory into judgments of recollection and familiarity. Then, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examine the differences in blood oxygen level dependent activity and regional connectivity during judgments of recent-single-exposure-based and pre-existing familiarity. Judgments of these two types of familiarity showed distinct regions of activation in a whole-brain analysis, in medial temporal lobe (MTL) substructures, and in MTL substructure functional-correlations with other brain regions. Specifically, within the MTL, perirhinal cortex showed increased activation during recent-single-exposure-based familiarity while parahippocampal cortex showed increased activation during judgments of pre-existing familiarity. We find that recent-single-exposure-based and pre-existing familiarity are represented as distinct neural processes in the brain; this is supported by differing patterns of brain activation and regional correlations. This spatially distinct regional brain involvement suggests that the two separate experiences of familiarity, recent-exposure-based familiarity and pre-existing familiarity, may be cognitively distinct. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Tuning Up the Old Brain with New Tricks: Attention Training via Neurofeedback

PubMed Central

Jiang, Yang; Abiri, Reza; Zhao, Xiaopeng

2017-01-01

Neurofeedback (NF) is a form of biofeedback that uses real-time (RT) modulation of brain activity to enhance brain function and behavioral performance. Recent advances in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) and cognitive training (CT) have provided new tools and evidence that NF improves cognitive functions, such as attention and working memory (WM), beyond what is provided by traditional CT. More published studies have demonstrated the efficacy of NF, particularly for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. In contrast, there have been fewer studies done in older adults with or without cognitive impairment, with some notable exceptions. The focus of this review is to summarize current success in RT NF training of older brains aiming to match those of younger brains during attention/WM tasks. We also outline potential future advances in RT brainwave-based NF for improving attention training in older populations. The rapid growth in wireless recording of brain activity, machine learning classification and brain network analysis provides new tools for combating cognitive decline and brain aging in older adults. We optimistically conclude that NF, combined with new neuro-markers (event-related potentials and connectivity) and traditional features, promises to provide new hope for brain and CT in the growing older population. PMID:28348527

Altered metabolic activity in the developing brain of rats predisposed to high versus low depression-like behavior

PubMed Central

Melendez-Ferro, Miguel; Perez-Costas, Emma; Glover, Matthew E.; Jackson, Nateka L.; Stringfellow, Sara A.; Pugh, Phyllis C.; Fant, Andrew D.; Clinton, Sarah M.

2016-01-01

Individual differences in human temperament can increase risk for psychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety. Our laboratory utilized a rat model of temperamental differences to assess neurodevelopmental factors underlying emotional behavior differences. Rats selectively bred for low novelty exploration (Low Responders, LR) display high levels of anxiety- and depression-like behavior compared to High Novelty Responder (HR) rats. Using transcriptome profiling, the present study uncovered vast gene expression differences in the early postnatal HR versus LR limbic brain, including changes in genes involved in cellular metabolism. These data led us to hypothesize that rats prone to high (versus low) anxiety/depression-like behavior exhibit distinct patterns of brain metabolism during the first weeks of life, which may reflect disparate patterns of synaptogenesis and brain circuit development. Thus, in a second experiment we examined activity of Cytochrome C Oxidase (COX), an enzyme responsible for ATP production and a correlate of metabolic activity, to explore functional energetic differences in HR/LR early postnatal brain. We found that HR rats display higher COX activity in the amygdala and specific hippocampal subregions compared to LRs during the first 2 weeks of life. Correlational analysis examining COX levels across several brain regions and multiple early postnatal time points suggested desynchronization in the developmental timeline of the limbic HR versus LR brain during the first two postnatal weeks. These early divergent COX activity levels may reflect altered circuitry or synaptic activity in the early postnatal HR/LR brain, which could contribute to the emergence of their distinct behavioral phenotypes. PMID:26979051

The Impact of Brain Breaks Classroom-Based Physical Activities on Attitudes toward Physical Activity in Polish School Children in Third to Fifth Grade.

PubMed

Glapa, Agata; Grzesiak, Joanna; Laudanska-Krzeminska, Ida; Chin, Ming-Kai; Edginton, Christopher R; Mok, Magdalena Mo Ching; Bronikowski, Michal

2018-02-21

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in changing attitudes toward physical activity of school children in a community in Poland. In 2015, a sample of 326 pupils aged 9-11 years old from 19 classes at three selected primary schools were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups within the study. During the classes, children in the experimental group performed physical activities two times per day in three to five minutes using Brain Breaks® videos for four months, while the control group did not use the videos during the test period. Students' attitudes toward physical activities were assessed before and after the intervention using the "Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale". Repeated measures of ANOVA were used to examine the change from pre- to post-intervention. Overall, a repeated measures ANOVA indicated time-by-group interaction effects in 'Self-efficacy on learning with video exercises', F(1.32) = 75.28, p = 0.00, η2 = 0.19. Although the changes are minor, there were benefits of the intervention. It may be concluded that HOPSports Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Program contributes to better self-efficacy on learning while using video exercise of primary school children.

Toward systems neuroscience in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis of 75 fMRI studies.

PubMed

Li, Hui-Jie; Hou, Xiao-Hui; Liu, Han-Hui; Yue, Chun-Lin; He, Yong; Zuo, Xi-Nian

2015-03-01

Most of the previous task functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies found abnormalities in distributed brain regions in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and few studies investigated the brain network dysfunction from the system level. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to examine brain network dysfunction in MCI and AD. We systematically searched task-based fMRI studies in MCI and AD published between January 1990 and January 2014. Activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses were conducted to compare the significant group differences in brain activation, the significant voxels were overlaid onto seven referenced neuronal cortical networks derived from the resting-state fMRI data of 1,000 healthy participants. Thirty-nine task-based fMRI studies (697 MCI patients and 628 healthy controls) were included in MCI-related meta-analysis while 36 task-based fMRI studies (421 AD patients and 512 healthy controls) were included in AD-related meta-analysis. The meta-analytic results revealed that MCI and AD showed abnormal regional brain activation as well as large-scale brain networks. MCI patients showed hypoactivation in default, frontoparietal, and visual networks relative to healthy controls, whereas AD-related hypoactivation mainly located in visual, default, and ventral attention networks relative to healthy controls. Both MCI-related and AD-related hyperactivation fell in frontoparietal, ventral attention, default, and somatomotor networks relative to healthy controls. MCI and AD presented different pathological while shared similar compensatory large-scale networks in fulfilling the cognitive tasks. These system-level findings are helpful to link the fundamental declines of cognitive tasks to brain networks in MCI and AD. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Contextual and perceptual brain processes underlying moral cognition: a quantitative meta-analysis of moral reasoning and moral emotions.

PubMed

Sevinc, Gunes; Spreng, R Nathan

2014-01-01

Human morality has been investigated using a variety of tasks ranging from judgments of hypothetical dilemmas to viewing morally salient stimuli. These experiments have provided insight into neural correlates of moral judgments and emotions, yet these approaches reveal important differences in moral cognition. Moral reasoning tasks require active deliberation while moral emotion tasks involve the perception of stimuli with moral implications. We examined convergent and divergent brain activity associated with these experimental paradigms taking a quantitative meta-analytic approach. A systematic search of the literature yielded 40 studies. Studies involving explicit decisions in a moral situation were categorized as active (n = 22); studies evoking moral emotions were categorized as passive (n = 18). We conducted a coordinate-based meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimation to determine reliable patterns of brain activity. Results revealed a convergent pattern of reliable brain activity for both task categories in regions of the default network, consistent with the social and contextual information processes supported by this brain network. Active tasks revealed more reliable activity in the temporoparietal junction, angular gyrus and temporal pole. Active tasks demand deliberative reasoning and may disproportionately involve the retrieval of social knowledge from memory, mental state attribution, and construction of the context through associative processes. In contrast, passive tasks reliably engaged regions associated with visual and emotional information processing, including lingual gyrus and the amygdala. A laterality effect was observed in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, with active tasks engaging the left, and passive tasks engaging the right. While overlapping activity patterns suggest a shared neural network for both tasks, differential activity suggests that processing of moral input is affected by task demands. The results provide novel insight into distinct features of moral cognition, including the generation of moral context through associative processes and the perceptual detection of moral salience.

Contextual and Perceptual Brain Processes Underlying Moral Cognition: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis of Moral Reasoning and Moral Emotions

PubMed Central

Sevinc, Gunes; Spreng, R. Nathan

2014-01-01

Background and Objectives Human morality has been investigated using a variety of tasks ranging from judgments of hypothetical dilemmas to viewing morally salient stimuli. These experiments have provided insight into neural correlates of moral judgments and emotions, yet these approaches reveal important differences in moral cognition. Moral reasoning tasks require active deliberation while moral emotion tasks involve the perception of stimuli with moral implications. We examined convergent and divergent brain activity associated with these experimental paradigms taking a quantitative meta-analytic approach. Data Source A systematic search of the literature yielded 40 studies. Studies involving explicit decisions in a moral situation were categorized as active (n = 22); studies evoking moral emotions were categorized as passive (n = 18). We conducted a coordinate-based meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimation to determine reliable patterns of brain activity. Results & Conclusions Results revealed a convergent pattern of reliable brain activity for both task categories in regions of the default network, consistent with the social and contextual information processes supported by this brain network. Active tasks revealed more reliable activity in the temporoparietal junction, angular gyrus and temporal pole. Active tasks demand deliberative reasoning and may disproportionately involve the retrieval of social knowledge from memory, mental state attribution, and construction of the context through associative processes. In contrast, passive tasks reliably engaged regions associated with visual and emotional information processing, including lingual gyrus and the amygdala. A laterality effect was observed in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, with active tasks engaging the left, and passive tasks engaging the right. While overlapping activity patterns suggest a shared neural network for both tasks, differential activity suggests that processing of moral input is affected by task demands. The results provide novel insight into distinct features of moral cognition, including the generation of moral context through associative processes and the perceptual detection of moral salience. PMID:24503959

Adrenergic Blockade Bi-directionally and Asymmetrically Alters Functional Brain-Heart Communication and Prolongs Electrical Activities of the Brain and Heart during Asphyxic Cardiac Arrest

PubMed Central

Tian, Fangyun; Liu, Tiecheng; Xu, Gang; Li, Duan; Ghazi, Talha; Shick, Trevor; Sajjad, Azeem; Wang, Michael M.; Farrehi, Peter; Borjigin, Jimo

2018-01-01

Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States. The neurophysiological mechanism underlying sudden death is not well understood. Previously we have shown that the brain is highly stimulated in dying animals and that asphyxia-induced death could be delayed by blocking the intact brain-heart neuronal connection. These studies suggest that the autonomic nervous system plays an important role in mediating sudden cardiac arrest. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of phentolamine and atenolol, individually or combined, in prolonging functionality of the vital organs in CO2-mediated asphyxic cardiac arrest model. Rats received either saline, phentolamine, atenolol, or phentolamine plus atenolol, 30 min before the onset of asphyxia. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were simultaneously collected from each rat during the entire process and investigated for cardiac and brain functions using a battery of analytic tools. We found that adrenergic blockade significantly suppressed the initial decline of cardiac output, prolonged electrical activities of both brain and heart, asymmetrically altered functional connectivity within the brain, and altered, bi-directionally and asymmetrically, functional, and effective connectivity between the brain and heart. The protective effects of adrenergic blockers paralleled the suppression of brain and heart connectivity, especially in the right hemisphere associated with central regulation of sympathetic function. Collectively, our results demonstrate that blockade of brain-heart connection via alpha- and beta-adrenergic blockers significantly prolonged the detectable activities of both the heart and the brain in asphyxic rat. The beneficial effects of combined alpha and beta blockers may help extend the survival of cardiac arrest patients. PMID:29487541

Adrenergic Blockade Bi-directionally and Asymmetrically Alters Functional Brain-Heart Communication and Prolongs Electrical Activities of the Brain and Heart during Asphyxic Cardiac Arrest.

PubMed

Tian, Fangyun; Liu, Tiecheng; Xu, Gang; Li, Duan; Ghazi, Talha; Shick, Trevor; Sajjad, Azeem; Wang, Michael M; Farrehi, Peter; Borjigin, Jimo

2018-01-01

Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States. The neurophysiological mechanism underlying sudden death is not well understood. Previously we have shown that the brain is highly stimulated in dying animals and that asphyxia-induced death could be delayed by blocking the intact brain-heart neuronal connection. These studies suggest that the autonomic nervous system plays an important role in mediating sudden cardiac arrest. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of phentolamine and atenolol, individually or combined, in prolonging functionality of the vital organs in CO 2 -mediated asphyxic cardiac arrest model. Rats received either saline, phentolamine, atenolol, or phentolamine plus atenolol, 30 min before the onset of asphyxia. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were simultaneously collected from each rat during the entire process and investigated for cardiac and brain functions using a battery of analytic tools. We found that adrenergic blockade significantly suppressed the initial decline of cardiac output, prolonged electrical activities of both brain and heart, asymmetrically altered functional connectivity within the brain, and altered, bi-directionally and asymmetrically, functional, and effective connectivity between the brain and heart. The protective effects of adrenergic blockers paralleled the suppression of brain and heart connectivity, especially in the right hemisphere associated with central regulation of sympathetic function. Collectively, our results demonstrate that blockade of brain-heart connection via alpha- and beta-adrenergic blockers significantly prolonged the detectable activities of both the heart and the brain in asphyxic rat. The beneficial effects of combined alpha and beta blockers may help extend the survival of cardiac arrest patients.

High brain distribution of a new central nervous system drug candidate despite its P-glycoprotein-mediated efflux at the mouse blood-brain barrier.

PubMed

Taccola, Camille; Cartot-Cotton, Sylvaine; Valente, Delphine; Barneoud, Pascal; Aubert, Catherine; Boutet, Valérie; Gallen, Fabienne; Lochus, Murielle; Nicolic, Sophie; Dodacki, Agnès; Smirnova, Maria; Cisternino, Salvatore; Declèves, Xavier; Bourasset, Fanchon

2018-05-30

Efficacy of drugs aimed at treating central nervous system (CNS) disorders rely partly on their ability to cross the cerebral endothelium, also called the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which constitutes the main interface modulating exchanges of compounds between the brain and blood. In this work, we used both, conventional pharmacokinetics (PK) approach and in situ brain perfusion technique to study the blood and brain PK of PKRinh, an inhibitor of the double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) activation, in mice. PKRinh showed a supra dose-proportional blood exposure that was not observed in the brain, and a brain to blood AUC ratio of unbound drug smaller than 1 at all tested doses. These data suggested the implication of an active efflux at the BBB. Using in situ brain perfusion technique, we showed that PKRinh has a very high brain uptake clearance which saturates with increasing concentrations. Fitting the data to a Michaelis-Menten equation revealed that PKRinh transport through the BBB is composed of a passive unsaturable flux and an active saturable protein-mediated efflux with a k m of ≅ 3 μM. We were able to show that the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter P-gp (Abcb1), but not Bcrp (Abcg2), was involved in the brain to blood efflux of PKRinh. At the circulating PKRinh concentrations of this study, the P-gp was not saturated, in accordance with the linear brain PKRinh PK. Finally, PKRinh had high brain uptake clearance (14 μl/g/s) despite it is a good P-gp substrate (P-gp Efflux ratio ≅ 3.6), and reached similar values than the cerebral blood flow reference, diazepam, in P-gp saturation conditions. With its very unique brain transport properties, PKRinh improves our knowledge about P-gp-mediated efflux across the BBB for the development of new CNS directed drugs. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The temporal structures and functional significance of scale-free brain activity

PubMed Central

He, Biyu J.; Zempel, John M.; Snyder, Abraham Z.; Raichle, Marcus E.

2010-01-01

SUMMARY Scale-free dynamics, with a power spectrum following P ∝ f-β, are an intrinsic feature of many complex processes in nature. In neural systems, scale-free activity is often neglected in electrophysiological research. Here, we investigate scale-free dynamics in human brain and show that it contains extensive nested frequencies, with the phase of lower frequencies modulating the amplitude of higher frequencies in an upward progression across the frequency spectrum. The functional significance of scale-free brain activity is indicated by task performance modulation and regional variation, with β being larger in default network and visual cortex and smaller in hippocampus and cerebellum. The precise patterns of nested frequencies in the brain differ from other scale-free dynamics in nature, such as earth seismic waves and stock market fluctuations, suggesting system-specific generative mechanisms. Our findings reveal robust temporal structures and behavioral significance of scale-free brain activity and should motivate future study on its physiological mechanisms and cognitive implications. PMID:20471349

Brain signals do not demonstrate unconscious decision making: an interpretation based on graded conscious awareness.

PubMed

Miller, Jeff; Schwarz, Wolf

2014-02-01

Neuroscientific studies have shown that brain activity correlated with a decision to move can be observed before a person reports being consciously aware of having made that decision (e.g., Libet, Gleason, Wright, & Pearl, 1983; Soon, Brass, Heinze, & Haynes, 2008). Given that a later event (i.e., conscious awareness) cannot cause an earlier one (i.e., decision-related brain activity), such results have been interpreted as evidence that decisions are made unconsciously (e.g., Libet, 1985). We argue that this interpretation depends upon an all-or-none view of consciousness, and we offer an alternative interpretation of the early decision-related brain activity based on models in which conscious awareness of the decision to move develops gradually up to the level of a reporting criterion. Under this interpretation, the early brain activity reflects sub-criterion levels of awareness rather than complete absence of awareness and thus does not suggest that decisions are made unconsciously. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Revisiting atenolol as a low passive permeability marker.

PubMed

Chen, Xiaomei; Slättengren, Tim; de Lange, Elizabeth C M; Smith, David E; Hammarlund-Udenaes, Margareta

2017-10-31

Atenolol, a hydrophilic beta blocker, has been used as a model drug for studying passive permeability of biological membranes such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the intestinal epithelium. However, the extent of S-atenolol (the active enantiomer) distribution in brain has never been evaluated, at equilibrium, to confirm that no transporters are involved in its transport at the BBB. To assess whether S-atenolol, in fact, depicts the characteristics of a low passive permeable drug at the BBB, a microdialysis study was performed in rats to monitor the unbound concentrations of S-atenolol in brain extracellular fluid (ECF) and plasma during and after intravenous infusion. A pharmacokinetic model was developed, based on the microdialysis data, to estimate the permeability clearance of S-atenolol into and out of brain. In addition, the nonspecific binding of S-atenolol in brain homogenate was evaluated using equilibrium dialysis. The steady-state ratio of unbound S-atenolol concentrations in brain ECF to that in plasma (i.e., K p,uu,brain ) was 3.5% ± 0.4%, a value much less than unity. The unbound volume of distribution in brain (V u, brain ) of S-atenolol was also calculated as 0.69 ± 0.10 mL/g brain, indicating that S-atenolol is evenly distributed within brain parenchyma. Lastly, equilibrium dialysis showed limited nonspecific binding of S-atenolol in brain homogenate with an unbound fraction (f u,brain ) of 0.88 ± 0.07. It is concluded, based on K p,uu,brain being much smaller than unity, that S-atenolol is actively effluxed at the BBB, indicating the need to re-consider S-atenolol as a model drug for passive permeability studies of BBB transport or intestinal absorption.

Brain Gym. Simple Activities for Whole Brain Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dennison, Paul E.; Dennison, Gail E.

This booklet contains simple movements and activities that are used with students in Educational Kinesiology to enhance their experience of whole brain learning. Whole brain learning through movement repatterning and Brain Gym activities enable students to access those parts of the brain previously unavailable to them. These movements of body and…

Recovery of brain and plasma cholinesterase activities in ducklings exposed to organophosphorus pesticides

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fleming, W.J.

1981-01-01

Brain and plasma cholinesterase (ChE) activities were determined for mallard ducklings (Anas platyrhynchos) exposed to dicrotophos and fenthion. Recovery rates of brain ChE did not differ between ducklings administered a single oral dose vs. a 2-week dietary dose of these organophosphates. Exposure to the organophosphates, followed by recovery of brain ChE, did not significantly affect the degree of brain ChE inhibition or the recovery of ChE activity at a subsequent exposure. Recovery of brain ChE activity followed the general model Y = a + b(logX) with rapid recovery to about 50% of normal, followed by a slower rate of recovery until normal ChE activity levels were attained. Fenthion and dicrotophos-inhibited brain ChE were only slightly reactivated in vitro by pyridine-2-aldoxime methiodide, which suggested that spontaneous reactivation was not a primary method of recovery of ChE activity. Recovery of brain ChE activity can be modeled for interpretation of sublethal inhibition of brain ChE activities in wild birds following environmental applications of organophosphates. Plasma ChE activity is inferior to brain ChE activity for environmental monitoring, because of its rapid recovery and large degree of variation among individuals.

Japanese and English Sentence Reading Comprehension and Writing Systems: An fMRI Study of First and Second Language Effects on Brain Activation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buchweitz, Augusto; Mason, Robert A.; Hasegawa, Mihoko; Just, Marcel A.

2009-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare brain activation from native Japanese (L1) readers reading hiragana (syllabic) and kanji (logographic) sentences, and English as a second language (L2). Kanji showed more activation than hiragana in right-hemisphere occipito-temporal lobe areas associated with visuospatial…

fMRI Reactivity to High-Calorie Food Pictures Predicts Short- and Long-Term Outcome in a Weight-Loss Program

PubMed Central

Murdaugh, Donna L.; Cox, James E.; Cook, Edwin W.; Weller, Rosalyn E.

2011-01-01

Behavioral studies have suggested that food cues have stronger motivating effects in obese than in normal-weight individuals, which may be a risk factor underlying obesity. Previous cross-sectional neuroimaging studies have suggested that this difference is mediated by increased reactivity to food cues in parts of the reward system in obese individuals. To date, however, only a few prospective neuroimaging studies have been conducted to examine whether individual differences in brain activation elicited by food cues can predict differences in weight change. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate activation in reward-system as well as other brain regions in response to viewing high-calorie food vs. control pictures in 25 obese individuals before and after a 12-week psychosocial weight-loss treatment and at 9-mo follow-up. In those obese individuals who were least successful in losing weight during the treatment, we found greater pre-treatment activation to high-calorie food vs. control pictures in brain regions implicated in reward-system processes, such as the nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, and insula. We found similar correlations with weight loss in brain regions implicated by other studies in vision and attention, such as superior occipital cortex, inferior and superior parietal lobule, and prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, less successful weight maintenance at 9-mo follow-up was predicted by greater post-treatment activation in such brain regions as insula, ventral tegmental area, putamen, and fusiform gyrus. In summary, we found that greater activation in brain regions mediating motivational and attentional salience of food cues in obese individuals at the start of a weight-loss program was predictive of less success in the program and that such activation following the program predicted poorer weight control over a 9-mo follow-up period. PMID:22332246

Fingolimod's Impact on MRI Brain Volume Measures in Multiple Sclerosis: Results from MS-MRIUS.

PubMed

Zivadinov, Robert; Medin, Jennie; Khan, Nasreen; Korn, Jonathan R; Bergsland, Niels; Dwyer, Michael G; Chitnis, Tanuja; Naismith, Robert T; Alvarez, Enrique; Kinkel, Peter; Cohan, Stanley; Hunter, Samuel F; Silva, Diego; Weinstock-Guttman, Bianca

2018-05-11

Evidence is needed to understand the effect of fingolimod on slowing down brain atrophy progression in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in clinical practice. We investigated the effect of fingolimod on brain atrophy in MS patients with active disease (clinically and/or magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]) versus no evidence of active disease (NEAD). MS and clinical outcome and MRI in the United States (MS-MRIUS) is a multicenter, retrospective study that included 590 relapsing-remitting MS patients, who initiated fingolimod, and were followed for a median of 16 months. Patients with active disease at baseline (245, 41.5%) were defined as those who had one or more relapses in the year previous starting fingolimod, and/or displayed gadolinium enhancing lesions(s) at baseline MRI scan, whereas patients with NEAD at baseline (345, 58.5%) did not fulfill these criteria. Annualized percentage brain volume change (PBVC) and percentage lateral ventricle volume change (PLVVC) over the follow-up were analyzed in both groups. Over the follow-up, the rate of PBVC was -.38% in active disease and -.25% in NEAD patients (P = .076), whereas PLLVC was 1.76% in active disease and .28% in NEAD patients (P = .046). No changes in timed 25-foot walk (P = .619) and Expanded Disability Status Scale (P = .275) scores or MRI lesion accumulation (P > 0.08) were detected, although the active disease group had a higher proportion of relapses during the follow-up period (P = .02). The study provides real-world evidence that rate of brain atrophy in MS patients with underlying active disease and NEAD in fingolimod treated patients is below the established pathological cutoff for loss of whole brain volume (>-.4%) or expansion of lateral ventricles (> 3.5%). Copyright © 2018 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.

Compensatory Motor Network Connectivity is Associated with Motor Sequence Learning after Subcortical Stroke

PubMed Central

Wadden, Katie P.; Woodward, Todd S.; Metzak, Paul D.; Lavigne, Katie M.; Lakhani, Bimal; Auriat, Angela M.; Boyd, Lara A.

2015-01-01

Following stroke, functional networks reorganize and the brain demonstrates widespread alterations in cortical activity. Implicit motor learning is preserved after stroke. However the manner in which brain reorganization occurs, and how it supports behaviour within the damaged brain remains unclear. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we evaluated whole brain patterns of functional connectivity during the performance of an implicit tracking task at baseline and retention, following 5 days of practice. Following motor practice, a significant difference in connectivity within a motor network, consisting of bihemispheric activation of the sensory and motor cortices, parietal lobules, cerebellar and occipital lobules, was observed at retention. Healthy subjects demonstrated greater activity within this motor network during sequence learning compared to random practice. The stroke group did not show the same level of functional network integration, presumably due to the heterogeneity of functional reorganization following stroke. In a secondary analysis, a binary mask of the functional network activated from the aforementioned whole brain analyses was created to assess within-network connectivity, decreasing the spatial distribution and large variability of activation that exists within the lesioned brain. The stroke group demonstrated reduced clusters of connectivity within the masked brain regions as compared to the whole brain approach. Connectivity within this smaller motor network correlated with repeated sequence performance on the retention test. Increased functional integration within the motor network may be an important neurophysiological predictor of motor learning-related change in individuals with stroke. PMID:25757996

Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in the Brain: Physiological Mechanisms and Relevance to Pharmacology.

PubMed

Layé, Sophie; Nadjar, Agnès; Joffre, Corinne; Bazinet, Richard P

2018-01-01

Classically, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were largely thought to be relatively inert structural components of brain, largely important for the formation of cellular membranes. Over the past 10 years, a host of bioactive lipid mediators that are enzymatically derived from arachidonic acid, the main n-6 PUFA, and docosahexaenoic acid, the main n-3 PUFA in the brain, known to regulate peripheral immune function, have been detected in the brain and shown to regulate microglia activation. Recent advances have focused on how PUFA regulate the molecular signaling of microglia, especially in the context of neuroinflammation and behavior. Several active drugs regulate brain lipid signaling and provide proof of concept for targeting the brain. Because brain lipid metabolism relies on a complex integration of diet, peripheral metabolism, including the liver and blood, which supply the brain with PUFAs that can be altered by genetics, sex, and aging, there are many pathways that can be disrupted, leading to altered brain lipid homeostasis. Brain lipid signaling pathways are altered in neurologic disorders and may be viable targets for the development of novel therapeutics. In this study, we discuss in particular how n-3 PUFAs and their metabolites regulate microglia phenotype and function to exert their anti-inflammatory and proresolving activities in the brain. Copyright © 2017 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Comparison of laterality index of upper and lower limb movement using brain activated fMRI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harirchian, Mohammad Hossein; Oghabian, Mohammad Ali; Rezvanizadeh, Alireza; Bolandzadeh, Niousha

2008-03-01

Asymmetry of bilateral cerebral function, i.e. laterality, is an important phenomenon in many brain actions such as motor functions. This asymmetry maybe altered in some clinical conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The aim of this study was to delineate the laterality differences for upper and lower limbs in healthy subjects to compare this pattern with subjects suffering from MS in advance. Hence 9 Male healthy subjects underwent fMRI assessment, while they were asked to move their limbs in a predetermined pattern. The results showed that hands movement activates the brain with a significant lateralization in pre-motor cortex in comparison with lower limb. Also, dominant hands activate brain more lateralized than the non-dominant hand. In addition, Left basal ganglia were observed to be activated regardless of the hand used, While, These patterns of Brain activation was not detected in lower limbs. We hypothesize that this difference might be attributed to this point that hand is usually responsible for precise and fine voluntary movements, whereas lower limb joints are mainly responsible for locomotion, a function integrating voluntary and automatic bilateral movements.

Towards a constructionist approach to emotions: verification of the three-dimensional model of affect with EEG-independent component analysis.

PubMed

Wyczesany, Miroslaw; Ligeza, Tomasz S

2015-03-01

The locationist model of affect, which assumes separate brain structures devoted to particular discrete emotions, is currently being questioned as it has not received enough convincing experimental support. An alternative, constructionist approach suggests that our emotional states emerge from the interaction between brain functional networks, which are related to more general, continuous affective categories. In the study, we tested whether the three-dimensional model of affect based on valence, arousal, and dominance (VAD) can reflect brain activity in a more coherent way than the traditional locationist approach. Independent components of brain activity were derived from spontaneous EEG recordings and localized using the DIPFIT method. The correspondence between the spectral power of the revealed brain sources and a mood self-report quantified on the VAD space was analysed. Activation of four (out of nine) clusters of independent brain sources could be successfully explained by the specific combination of three VAD dimensions. The results support the constructionist theory of emotions.

Gender differences in brain activity toward unpleasant linguistic stimuli concerning interpersonal relationships: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Shirao, Naoko; Okamoto, Yasumasa; Okada, Go; Ueda, Kazutaka; Yamawaki, Shigeto

2005-10-01

Women are more vulnerable to psychosocial stressors such as interpersonal conflicts than men, and are more susceptible to some psychiatric disorders. We hypothesized that there are differences in the brain activity of men and women while perceiving unpleasant linguistic stimuli concerning interpersonal relationships, and that they underlie the different sensitivity toward these stressful stimuli. We carried out a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study on 13 young female adults and 13 young male adults who performed an emotional decision task including sets of unpleasant words concerning interpersonal relationships and sets of neutral words. In the women, the unpleasant words more significantly activated the bilateral caudate nuclei and left putamen than the neutral words. However, among the men, there was no difference in the level of activation of any brain area induced by the unpleasant or neutral word stimuli. Upon performing the task, there was a significant gender difference in brain activation. Moreover, among the female subjects, the activation in the bilateral caudate nuclei and left thalamus was negatively correlated with the average rating of pleasantness of the words concerning interpersonal conflicts by the subject. These results demonstrate gender differences in brain activity in processing unpleasant linguistic stimuli related to interpersonal conflicts. Our data suggest that the bilateral caudate nuclei and left putamen play an important role in the perception of words concerning interpersonal conflicts in women. The bilateral caudate nuclei and left thalamus may regulate a woman's sensitivity to unpleasant information about interpersonal difficulties.

Active music therapy in the rehabilitation of severe brain injured patients during coma recovery.

PubMed

Formisano, R; Vinicola, V; Penta, F; Matteis, M; Brunelli, S; Weckel, J W

2001-01-01

Active improvised music therapy may offer an adjuvant from of treatment in the early rehabilitation of severe brain-injured patients. Active music therapy consists of musical improvisation between patient and therapist by singing or by playing different musical instruments, according to the vital functions, the neurological conditions and the motor abilities of the patients. We studied 34 severe brain-injured patients with a mean coma duration of 52 days +/- 37.21 and a mean interval from coma onset to the beginning of rehabilitation of 154 days on average. Our preliminary results show a significant improvement of the collaboration of the severe brain-injured patients and a reduction of undesired behaviours such as inertia (reduced psychomotor initiative) or psychomotor agitation.

[Brain mapping in verbal and spatial thinking].

PubMed

Ivanitskiĭ, A M; Portnova, G V; Martynova, O V; Maĭorova, L A; Fedina, O N; Petrushevskiĭ, A G

2013-01-01

The goal of this study was to describe the topography of the active cortical areas and subcortical structuresin verbal and spatial thinking. The method of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used. 18 right-handed subjects participated in the study. Four types of tasks were presented: two experimental tasks--verbal (anagram) and spatial (search for a piece to complement a square), and two types of control tasks (written words and a spatial task, where all the pieces are identical). In solving verbal tasks the greater volume of activation was observed in the left hemisphere involving Broca's area, while the right middle frontal gyrus was activated in solving the spatial tasks. For occipital region an activation of the visual field 18 was more explicitin solving spatial problems, while the solution of anagrams caused an activation of the field 19 associated with higher levels of visual processing. The cerebellum was active bilaterally in both tasks with predominance in the second. The obtained fMRI data indicate that the verbal and spatial types of thinking are provided by an activation of narrow specific sets of brain structures, while the previous electrophysiological studies indicate the distributed nature of the brain processes in thinking. Combining these two approaches, it can be concluded that cognitive functions are supported by the systemic brain processes with a distinct location of the particular salient structures.

Perceptions of physical activity and walking in an early stage after stroke or acquired brain injury.

PubMed

Törnbom, Karin; Sunnerhagen, Katharina S; Danielsson, Anna

2017-01-01

Physical activity has been established as being highly beneficial for health after stroke. There are considerable global efforts to find rehabilitation programs that encourage increased physical activity for persons with stroke. However, many persons with stroke or acquired brain injury do not reach recommended levels of physical activity and increased knowledge about why is needed. We aimed to explore views and experiences of physical activity and walking among persons with stroke or acquired brain injury. A qualitative study was conducted, among persons with stroke (n = 8) or acquired brain injury (n = 2) from a rehabilitation unit at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were held about perceptions and experiences of walking and physical activity in general. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, with categories that were determined inductively. Physical activity in general and walking ability more specifically were considered very important by the participants. However, physical activity was, regardless of exercising habits pre-injury, associated with different kinds of negative feelings and experiences. Commonly reported internal barriers in the current study were; fatigue, fear of falling or getting hurt in traffic, lack of motivation and depression. Reported external barriers were mostly related to walking, for example; bad weather, uneven ground, lack of company or noisy or too busy surroundings. Persons with stroke or acquired brain injury found it difficult to engage in and sustain an eligible level of physical activity. Understanding individual concerns about motivators and barriers surrounding physical activity may facilitate the work of forming tailor-made rehabilitation for these groups, so that the levels of physical activity and walking can increase.

The Virtual Mouse Brain: A Computational Neuroinformatics Platform to Study Whole Mouse Brain Dynamics.

PubMed

Melozzi, Francesca; Woodman, Marmaduke M; Jirsa, Viktor K; Bernard, Christophe

2017-01-01

Connectome-based modeling of large-scale brain network dynamics enables causal in silico interrogation of the brain's structure-function relationship, necessitating the close integration of diverse neuroinformatics fields. Here we extend the open-source simulation software The Virtual Brain (TVB) to whole mouse brain network modeling based on individual diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI)-based or tracer-based detailed mouse connectomes. We provide practical examples on how to use The Virtual Mouse Brain (TVMB) to simulate brain activity, such as seizure propagation and the switching behavior of the resting state dynamics in health and disease. TVMB enables theoretically driven experimental planning and ways to test predictions in the numerous strains of mice available to study brain function in normal and pathological conditions.

77 FR 59106 - Glufosinate Ammonium; Pesticide Tolerances

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-26

... to conclude that the changes in brain glutamine synthetase activity are of significant concern for... technical material. In chronic studies in the rat, inhibition of brain glutamine synthetase, increased.... Changes in glutamine synthetase levels were observed in liver, kidney, and brain in rats. The altered...

[Changes of brain pain center and default mode network an electro acupuncture in Weizhong and Dachangshu acupoints: a task-fMRI study].

PubMed

Zhou, S; Cao, H X; Yu, L C; Jin, Y J; Jia, R H; Wen, Y R; Chen, X F

2016-02-23

To investigate the functional brain pain center and default mode network response to electro acupuncture stimulate in weizhong acupoints(BL40) and dachangshu acupoints(BL25). During January to February 2015, volunteers were enrolled in this study from the staff and student interns of Gansu Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. A total of 20 healthy, right-handed subjects, male 9, female 11, age (23±3) years, participated in this study. Block design task functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) 3.0 T was performed in all subjects by electro acupuncture stimulating at BL40 and BL25 from the same experienced acupuncturist.The needle connected electric acupuncture apparatus through tow long coaxial-cable. A block design with five 120 s blocks of rest time (OFF block, electric acupuncture turn off ) interspersed between five 60 s blocks of stimulation (ON block, electric acupuncture turn on) fMRI scan. Magnetic resonance data of brain function was collected and FSL(fMRI Software Library) software was used to analyze the data. All subjects' data were analyzed except 2 cases whose head movement were more than 2 mm. Activated brain function regions by electro acupuncture stimulate included temporal lobe lateral sulcus, lobus insularis, thalamus, supramarginal gyrus, prefrontal medial frontal gyrus. Negative activated brain regions included middle frontal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, cingulate cortex abdominal segment, parietal cortex.The functional pain central and default mode network were changed when electro acupuncture stimulate in(BL40) and(BL25). There are several brain activation regions and negative activated brain regions when administering electro acupuncture stimulation at BL40 and BL25.

Working Memory Training: Improving Intelligence--Changing Brain Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jausovec, Norbert; Jausovec, Ksenija

2012-01-01

The main objectives of the study were: to investigate whether training on working memory (WM) could improve fluid intelligence, and to investigate the effects WM training had on neuroelectric (electroencephalography--EEG) and hemodynamic (near-infrared spectroscopy--NIRS) patterns of brain activity. In a parallel group experimental design,…

Cholinergic Enhancement of Frontal Lobe Activity in Mild Cognitive Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saykin, Andrew J.; Wishart, Heather A.; Rabin, Laura A.; Flashman, Laura A.; McHugh, Tara L.; Mamourian, Alexander C.; Santulli, Robert B.

2004-01-01

Cholinesterase inhibitors positively affect cognition in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other conditions, but no controlled functional MRI studies have examined where their effects occur in the brain. We examined the effects of donepezil hydrochloride (Aricept[Registered sign]) on cognition and brain activity in patients with amnestic mild cognitive…

Prefrontal Brain Activity Predicts Temporally Extended Decision-Making Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yarkoni, Tal; Braver, Todd S.; Gray, Jeremy R.; Green, Leonard

2005-01-01

Although functional neuroimaging studies of human decision-making processes are increasingly common, most of the research in this area has relied on passive tasks that generate little individual variability. Relatively little attention has been paid to the ability of brain activity to predict overt behavior. Using functional magnetic resonance…

Face processing in autism spectrum disorders: from brain regions to brain networks

PubMed Central

Nomi, Jason S.; Uddin, Lucina Q.

2015-01-01

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by reduced attention to social stimuli including the human face. This hypo-responsiveness to stimuli that are engaging to typically developing individuals may result from dysfunctioning motivation, reward, and attention systems in the brain. Here we review an emerging neuroimaging literature that emphasizes a shift from focusing on hypo-activation of isolated brain regions such as the fusiform gyrus, amygdala, and superior temporal sulcus in ASD to a more holistic approach to understanding face perception as a process supported by distributed cortical and subcortical brain networks. We summarize evidence for atypical activation patterns within brain networks that may contribute to social deficits characteristic of the disorder. We conclude by pointing to gaps in the literature and future directions that will continue to shed light on aspects of face processing in autism that are still under-examined. In particular, we highlight the need for more developmental studies and studies examining ecologically valid and naturalistic social stimuli. PMID:25829246

Factors Influencing the Central Nervous System Distribution of a Novel Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase/Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Inhibitor GSK2126458: Implications for Overcoming Resistance with Combination Therapy for Melanoma Brain Metastases

PubMed Central

Vaidhyanathan, Shruthi; Wilken-Resman, Brynna; Ma, Daniel J.; Parrish, Karen E.; Mittapalli, Rajendar K.; Carlson, Brett L.; Sarkaria, Jann N.

2016-01-01

Small molecule inhibitors targeting the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway (Braf/mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase) have had success in extending survival for patients with metastatic melanoma. Unfortunately, resistance may occur via cross-activation of alternate signaling pathways. One approach to overcome resistance is to simultaneously target the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathway. Recent reports have shown that GSK2126458 [2,4-difluoro-N-(2-methoxy-5-(4-(pyridazin-4-yl)quinolin-6-yl)pyridin-3-yl) benzenesulfonamide], a dual phosphoinositide 3-kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor, can overcome acquired resistance to Braf and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase inhibitors in vitro. These resistance mechanisms may be especially important in melanoma brain metastases because of limited drug delivery across the blood–brain barrier. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influence the brain distribution of GSK2126458 and to examine the efficacy of GSK2126458 in a novel patient-derived melanoma xenograft (PDX) model. Both in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that GSK2126458 is a substrate for P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and breast cancer resistance protein (Bcrp), two dominant active efflux transporters in the blood–brain barrier. The steady-state brain distribution of GSK2126458 was 8-fold higher in the P-gp/Bcrp knockout mice compared with the wild type. We also observed that when simultaneously infused to steady state, GSK212658, dabrafenib, and trametinib, a rational combination to overcome mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor resistance, all had limited brain distribution. Coadministration of elacridar, a P-gp/Bcrp inhibitor, increased the brain distribution of GSK2126458 by approximately 7-fold in wild-type mice. In the PDX model, GSK2126458 showed efficacy in flank tumors but was ineffective in intracranial melanoma. These results show that P-gp and Bcrp are involved in limiting the brain distribution of GSK2126458 and provide a rationale for the lack of efficacy of GSK2126458 in the orthotopic PDX model. PMID:26604245

Brain Connectivity and Visual Attention

PubMed Central

Parks, Emily L.

2013-01-01

Abstract Emerging hypotheses suggest that efficient cognitive functioning requires the integration of separate, but interconnected cortical networks in the brain. Although task-related measures of brain activity suggest that a frontoparietal network is associated with the control of attention, little is known regarding how components within this distributed network act together or with other networks to achieve various attentional functions. This review considers both functional and structural studies of brain connectivity, as complemented by behavioral and task-related neuroimaging data. These studies show converging results: The frontal and parietal cortical regions are active together, over time, and identifiable frontoparietal networks are active in relation to specific task demands. However, the spontaneous, low-frequency fluctuations of brain activity that occur in the resting state, without specific task demands, also exhibit patterns of connectivity that closely resemble the task-related, frontoparietal attention networks. Both task-related and resting-state networks exhibit consistent relations to behavioral measures of attention. Further, anatomical structure, particularly white matter pathways as defined by diffusion tensor imaging, places constraints on intrinsic functional connectivity. Lastly, connectivity analyses applied to investigate cognitive differences across individuals in both healthy and diseased states suggest that disconnection of attentional networks is linked to deficits in cognitive functioning, and in extreme cases, to disorders of attention. Thus, comprehensive theories of visual attention and their clinical translation depend on the continued integration of behavioral, task-related neuroimaging, and brain connectivity measures. PMID:23597177

Multiple faces of pain: effects of chronic pain on the brain regulation of facial expression

PubMed Central

Vachon-Presseau, Etienne; Roy, Mathieu; Woo, Choong-Wan; Kunz, Miriam; Martel, Marc-Olivier; Sullivan, Michael J.; Jackson, Philip L.; Wager, Tor D.; Rainville, Pierre

2018-01-01

Pain behaviors are shaped by social demands and learning processes, and chronic pain has been previously suggested to affect their meaning. In this study, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging with in-scanner video recording during thermal pain stimulations and use multilevel mediation analyses to study the brain mediators of pain facial expressions and the perception of pain intensity (self-reports) in healthy individuals and patients with chronic back pain (CBP). Behavioral data showed that the relation between pain expression and pain report was disrupted in CBP. In both patients with CBP and healthy controls, brain activity varying on a trial-by-trial basis with pain facial expressions was mainly located in the primary motor cortex and completely dissociated from the pattern of brain activity varying with pain intensity ratings. Stronger activity was observed in CBP specifically during pain facial expressions in several nonmotor brain regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex, the precuneus, and the medial temporal lobe. In sharp contrast, no moderating effect of chronic pain was observed on brain activity associated with pain intensity ratings. Our results demonstrate that pain facial expressions and pain intensity ratings reflect different aspects of pain processing and support psychosocial models of pain suggesting that distinctive mechanisms are involved in the regulation of pain behaviors in chronic pain. PMID:27411160

A non invasive wearable sensor for the measurement of brain temperature.

PubMed

Dittmar, A; Gehin, C; Delhomme, G; Boivin, D; Dumont, G; Mott, C

2006-01-01

As the thermoregulation centres are deep in the brain, the cerebral temperature is one of the most important markers of fever, circadian rhythms physical and mental activities. However due to a lack of accessibility, the brain temperature is not easily measured. The axillary, buccal, tympanic and rectal temperatures do not reflect exactly the cerebral temperature. Nevertheless the rectal temperature is used as probably the most reliable indicator of the core body temperature. The brain temperature can be measured using NMR spectroscopy, microwave radiometry, near infrared spectroscopy, ultra-sound thermometry. However none of those methods are amenable to long term ambulatory use outside of the laboratory or of the hospital during normal daily activities, sport, etc. The brain core temperature "BCT" sensor, developed by the Biomedical Microsensors dpt of LPM at INSA-Lyon is a flexible active sensor using "zero-heat-flow" principle. The sensor has been used for experimental measurement: brain temperature during mental activity, and in hospital for the study of circadian rhythms. The results are in agreement with the measurement by the rectal probe. There are 2 versions of this sensor: a non ambulatory for the use in hospitals, and an ambulatory version using teletransmission. We are working for improving the autonomy of the ambulatory version up to several days. This wearable biomedical sensor (WBS) can be used for circadian assessment for chronobiology studies and in medical therapies.

Protective effects of Curcuma longa against neurobehavioral and neurochemical damage caused by cerium chloride in mice.

PubMed

Kadri, Yamina; Nciri, Riadh; Brahmi, Noura; Saidi, Saber; Harrath, Abdel Halim; Alwasel, Saleh; Aldahmash, Waleed; El Feki, Abdelfatteh; Allagui, Mohamed Salah

2018-05-07

Cerium chloride (CeCl 3 ) is considered an environmental pollutant and a potent neurotoxic agent. Medicinal plants have many bioactive compounds that provide protection against damage caused by such pollutants. Curcuma longa is a bioactive compound-rich plant with very important antioxidant properties. To study the preventive and healing effects of Curcuma longa on cerium-damaged mouse brains, we intraperitoneally injected cerium chloride (CeCl 3 , 20 mg/kg BW) along with Curcuma longa extract, administrated by gavage (100 mg/kg BW), into mice for 60 days. We then examined mouse behavior, brain tissue damage, and brain oxidative stress parameters. Our results revealed a significant modification in the behavior of the CeCl 3 -treated mice. In addition, CeCl 3 induced a significant increment in lipid peroxidation, carbonyl protein (PCO), and advanced oxidation protein product levels, as well as a significant reduction in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity remarkably increased in the brain of CeCl 3 -treated mice. Histopathological observations confirmed these results. Curcuma longa attenuated CeCl 3 -induced oxidative stress and increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes. It also decreased AChE activity in the CeCl 3 -damaged mouse brain that was confirmed by histopathology. In conclusion, this study suggests that Curcuma longa has a neuroprotective effect against CeCl 3 -induced damage in the brain.

Neuroprotective effects of NAP against excitotoxic brain damage in the newborn mice: implications for cerebral palsy.

PubMed

Sokolowska, P; Passemard, S; Mok, A; Schwendimann, L; Gozes, I; Gressens, P

2011-01-26

Activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) was shown to be essential for embryogenesis and brain development while NAP, an active motif of ADNP, is neuroprotective in a broad range of neurodegenerative disorders. In the present study, we examined the protective potential of ADNP/NAP in a mouse model of excitotoxic brain lesion mimicking brain damage associated with cerebral palsy. We demonstrated that NAP had a potent neuroprotective effect against ibotenate-induced excitotoxic damage in the cortical plate and the white matter of P5 mice, and moderate against brain lesions of P0 mice. In contrast, endogenous ADNP appears not to be involved in the response to excitotoxic challenge in the studied model. Our findings further show that NAP reduced the number of apoptotic neurons through activation of PI-3K/Akt pathway in the cortical plate or both PI-3K/Akt and MAPK/MEK1 kinases in the white matter. In addition, NAP prevented ibotenate-induced loss of pre-oligodendrocytes without affecting the number of astrocytes or activated microglia around the site of injection. These findings indicate that protective actions of NAP are mediated by triggering transduction pathways that are crucial for neuronal and oligodendroglial survival, thus, NAP might be a promising therapeutic agent for treating developing brain damage. © 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Residual effects of cannabis use in adolescent and adult brains - A meta-analysis of fMRI studies.

PubMed

Blest-Hopley, Grace; Giampietro, Vincent; Bhattacharyya, Sagnik

2018-05-01

While numerous studies have investigated the residual effects of cannabis use on human brain function, results of these studies have been inconsistent. Using meta-analytic approaches we summarize the effects of prolonged cannabis exposure on human brain function as measured using task-based functional MRI (fMRI) across studies employing a range of cognitive activation tasks comparing regular cannabis users with non-users. Separate meta-analyses were carried out for studies investigating adult and adolescent cannabis users. Systematic literature search identified 20 manuscripts (13 adult and 7 adolescent studies) meeting study inclusion criteria. Adult analyses compared 530 cannabis users to 580 healthy controls while adolescent analyses compared 219 cannabis users to 224 healthy controls. In adult cannabis users brain activation was increased in the superior and posterior transverse temporal and inferior frontal gyri and decreased in the striate area, insula and middle temporal gyrus. In adolescent cannabis users, activation was increased in the inferior parietal gyrus and putamen compared to healthy controls. Functional alteration in these areas may reflect compensatory neuroadaptive changes in cannabis users. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A meta-analysis of neurofunctional imaging studies of emotion and cognition in major depression.

PubMed

Diener, Carsten; Kuehner, Christine; Brusniak, Wencke; Ubl, Bettina; Wessa, Michèle; Flor, Herta

2012-07-02

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by altered emotional and cognitive functioning. We performed a voxel-based whole-brain meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging data on altered emotion and cognition in MDD. Forty peer-reviewed studies in English-language published between 1998 and 2010 were included, which used functional neuroimaging during cognitive-emotional challenge in adult individuals with MDD and healthy controls. All studies reported between-groups differences for whole-brain analyses in standardized neuroanatomical space and were subjected to Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) of brain cluster showing altered responsivity in MDD. ALE resulted in thresholded and false discovery rate corrected hypo- and hyperactive brain regions. Against the background of a complex neural activation pattern, studies converged in predominantly hypoactive cluster in the anterior insular and rostral anterior cingulate cortex linked to affectively biased information processing and poor cognitive control. Frontal areas showed not only similar under- but also over-activation during cognitive-emotional challenge. On the subcortical level, we identified activation alterations in the thalamus and striatum which were involved in biased valence processing of emotional stimuli in MDD. These results for active conditions extend findings from ALE meta-analyses of resting state and antidepressant treatment studies and emphasize the key role of the anterior insular and rostral anterior cingulate cortex for altered emotion and cognition in MDD. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The protocol and design of a randomised controlled study on training of attention within the first year after acquired brain injury.

PubMed

Bartfai, Aniko; Markovic, Gabriela; Sargenius Landahl, Kristina; Schult, Marie-Louise

2014-05-08

To describe the design of the study aiming to examine intensive targeted cognitive rehabilitation of attention in the acute (<4 months) and subacute rehabilitation phases (4-12 months) after acquired brain injury and to evaluate the effects on function, activity and participation (return to work). Within a prospective, randomised, controlled study 120 consecutive patients with stroke or traumatic brain injury were randomised to 20 hours of intensive attention training by Attention Process Training or by standard, activity based training. Progress was evaluated by Statistical Process Control and by pre and post measurement of functional and activity levels. Return to work was also evaluated in the post-acute phase. Primary endpoints were the changes in the attention measure, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test and changes in work ability. Secondary endpoints included measurement of cognitive functions, activity and work return. There were 3, 6 and 12-month follow ups focussing on health economics. The study will provide information on rehabilitation of attention in the early phases after ABI; effects on function, activity and return to work. Further, the application of Statistical Process Control might enable closer investigation of the cognitive changes after acquired brain injury and demonstrate the usefulness of process measures in rehabilitation. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol. NCT02091453, registered: 19 March 2014.

Familiarity promotes the blurring of self and other in the neural representation of threat

PubMed Central

Beckes, Lane; Hasselmo, Karen

2013-01-01

Neurobiological investigations of empathy often support an embodied simulation account. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we monitored statistical associations between brain activations indicating self-focused threat to those indicating threats to a familiar friend or an unfamiliar stranger. Results in regions such as the anterior insula, putamen and supramarginal gyrus indicate that self-focused threat activations are robustly correlated with friend-focused threat activations but not stranger-focused threat activations. These results suggest that one of the defining features of human social bonding may be increasing levels of overlap between neural representations of self and other. This article presents a novel and important methodological approach to fMRI empathy studies, which informs how differences in brain activation can be detected in such studies and how covariate approaches can provide novel and important information regarding the brain and empathy. PMID:22563005

Effect of visual feedback on brain activation during motor tasks: an FMRI study.

PubMed

Noble, Jeremy W; Eng, Janice J; Boyd, Lara A

2013-07-01

This study examined the effect of visual feedback and force level on the neural mechanisms responsible for the performance of a motor task. We used a voxel-wise fMRI approach to determine the effect of visual feedback (with and without) during a grip force task at 35% and 70% of maximum voluntary contraction. Two areas (contralateral rostral premotor cortex and putamen) displayed an interaction between force and feedback conditions. When the main effect of feedback condition was analyzed, higher activation when visual feedback was available was found in 22 of the 24 active brain areas, while the two other regions (contralateral lingual gyrus and ipsilateral precuneus) showed greater levels of activity when no visual feedback was available. The results suggest that there is a potentially confounding influence of visual feedback on brain activation during a motor task, and for some regions, this is dependent on the level of force applied.

Human endogenous retrovirus W in brain lesions: Rationale for targeted therapy in multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

van Horssen, Jack; van der Pol, Susanne; Nijland, Philip; Amor, Sandra; Perron, Hervé

2016-07-01

Attempts to identify a causative agent of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) among environmental viruses have consistently failed suggesting that development of MS is a result from gene-environment interactions. A new pathogenic player within human genes, a human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) was identified from MS cells, named MS-associated retrovirus element (MSRV) and unveiled homologous multicopy HERVs (HERV-W). As independent studies revealed biological features of HERV-W on immune-mediated inflammation and on remyelinating cells, the present study characterized the presence of HERV-W envelope protein (MSRV-Env) at the cellular level, in different MS lesion stages to extend and validate previous studies. Immunohistological analysis of HERV-W envelope cellular expression in different lesion stages from a cohort of MS brains versus controls, using well-characterized and highly specific monoclonal antibodies. HERV-W envelope protein was detected in all MS brains and quite essentially in lesions. Immunohistochemistry showed dominant expression in macrophages and microglia, coinciding with areas of active demyelination, spread over the active lesions, or limited to the rim of active microglia in chronic active lesions or in few surviving astrocytes of inactive plaques. Weak expression was seen in MS normal appearing white matter. In active plaques, few lymphoid cells and astrocytes were also stained. This HERV-W expression was not observed in control brains. HERV-W was expressed in demyelinated lesions from MS brains, which were all positive for this endogenous pathogenic protein. Pronounced HERV-W immunoreactivity in active MS lesions was intimately associated with areas of active demyelination throughout the successive stages of lesion evolution in MS brains. Based on its pathogenic potential, this HERV-W (MSRV) endogenous toxin thus appears to be a novel therapeutic target in MS. It also has a unique positioning as an early and lifelong expressed pathogenic agonist, acting upstream the pathways in which dysregulated physiological effectors are usually targeted by present therapeutic strategies for MS. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abnormally increased and incoherent resting-state activity is shared between patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings.

PubMed

Liu, Chang; Xue, Zhimin; Palaniyappan, Lena; Zhou, Li; Liu, Haihong; Qi, Chang; Wu, Guowei; Mwansisya, Tumbwene E; Tao, Haojuan; Chen, Xudong; Huang, Xiaojun; Liu, Zhening; Pu, Weidan

2016-03-01

Several resting-state neuroimaging studies in schizophrenia indicate an excessive brain activity while others report an incoherent brain activity at rest. No direct evidence for the simultaneous presence of both excessive and incoherent brain activity has been established to date. Moreover, it is unclear whether unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients who share half of the affected patient's genotype also exhibit the excessive and incoherent brain activity that may render them vulnerable to the development of schizophrenia. 27 pairs of schizophrenia patients and their unaffected siblings, as well as 27 healthy controls, were scanned using gradient-echo echo-planar imaging at rest. By using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (Reho), we investigated the intensity and synchronization of local spontaneous neuronal activity in three groups. We observed that increased amplitude and reduced synchronization (coherence) of spontaneous neuronal activity were shared by patients and their unaffected siblings. The key brain regions with this abnormal neural pattern in both patients and siblings included the middle temporal, orbito-frontal, inferior occipital and fronto-insular gyrus. This abnormal neural pattern of excessive and incoherent neuronal activity shared by schizophrenia patients and their healthy siblings may improve our understanding of neuropathology and genetic predisposition in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

QEEG characteristics and spectrum weighted frequency for children diagnosed as autistic spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Pop-Jordanova, Nada; Zorcec, Tatjana; Demerdzieva, Aneta; Gucev, Zoran

2010-09-30

Autistic spectrum disorders are a group of neurological and developmental disorders associated with social, communication, sensory, behavioral and cognitive impairments, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, activities, or interests.The aim of this study was a) to analyze QEEG findings of autistic patients and to compare the results with data base; and b) to introduce the calculation of spectrum weighted frequency (brain rate) as an indicator of general mental arousal in these patients. Results for Q-EEG shows generally increased delta-theta activity in frontal region of the brain. Changes in QEEG pattern appeared to be in a non-linear correlation with maturational processes.Brain rate measured in CZ shows slow brain activity (5. 86) which is significantly lower than normal and corresponds to low general mental arousal.Recent research has shown that autistic disorders have as their basis disturbances of neural connectivity. Neurofeedback seems capable of remediating such disturbances when these data are considered as part of treatment planning. Prognosis of this pervasive disorder depends on the intellectual abilities: the better intellectual functioning, the possibilities for life adaptation are higherQEEG shows generally increased delta-theta activity in frontal region of the brain which is related to poor cognitive abilities.Brain rate measured in CZ shows slow brain activity related to under arousal.Pharmacotherapy combined with behavior therapy, social support and especially neurofeedback technique promise slight improvements.

Altered Network Oscillations and Functional Connectivity Dynamics in Children Born Very Preterm.

PubMed

Moiseev, Alexander; Doesburg, Sam M; Herdman, Anthony T; Ribary, Urs; Grunau, Ruth E

2015-09-01

Structural brain connections develop atypically in very preterm children, and altered functional connectivity is also evident in fMRI studies. Such alterations in brain network connectivity are associated with cognitive difficulties in this population. Little is known, however, about electrophysiological interactions among specific brain networks in children born very preterm. In the present study, we recorded magnetoencephalography while very preterm children and full-term controls performed a visual short-term memory task. Regions expressing task-dependent activity changes were identified using beamformer analysis, and inter-regional phase synchrony was calculated. Very preterm children expressed altered regional recruitment in distributed networks of brain areas, across standard physiological frequency ranges including the theta, alpha, beta and gamma bands. Reduced oscillatory synchrony was observed among task-activated brain regions in very preterm children, particularly for connections involving areas critical for executive abilities, including middle frontal gyrus. These findings suggest that inability to recruit neurophysiological activity and interactions in distributed networks including frontal regions may contribute to difficulties in cognitive development in children born very preterm.

Neurophysiological effects of modafinil on cue-exposure in cocaine dependence: a randomized placebo-controlled cross-over study using pharmacological fMRI.

PubMed

Goudriaan, Anna E; Veltman, Dick J; van den Brink, Wim; Dom, Geert; Schmaal, Lianne

2013-02-01

Enhanced reactivity to substance related cues is a central characteristic of addiction and has been associated with increased activity in motivation, attention, and memory related brain circuits and with a higher probability of relapse. Modafinil was promising in the first clinical trials in cocaine dependence, and was able to reduce craving in addictive disorders. However, its mechanism of action remains to be elucidated. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study therefore, cue reactivity in cocaine dependent patients was compared to cue reactivity in healthy controls (HCs) under modafinil and placebo conditions. An fMRI cue reactivity study, with a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over challenge with a single dose of modafinil (200mg) was employed in 13 treatment seeking cocaine dependent patients and 16 HCs. In the placebo condition, watching cocaine-related pictures (versus neutral pictures) resulted in higher brain activation in the medial frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, angular gyrus, left orbitofrontal cortex, and ventral tegmental area (VTA) in the cocaine dependent group compared to HCs. However, in the modafinil condition, no differences in brain activation patterns were found between cocaine dependent patients and HCs. Group interactions revealed decreased activity in the VTA and increased activity in the right ACC and putamen in the modafinil condition relative to the placebo condition in cocaine dependent patients, whereas such changes were not present in healthy controls. Decreases in self-reported craving when watching cocaine-related cues after modafinil administration compared to the placebo condition were associated with modafinil-induced increases in ACC and putamen activation. Enhanced cue reactivity in the cocaine dependent group compared to healthy controls was found in brain circuitries related to reward, motivation, and autobiographical memory processes. In cocaine dependent patients, these enhanced brain responses were attenuated by modafinil, mainly due to decreases in cue- reactivity in reward-related brain areas (VTA) and increases in cue reactivity in cognitive control areas (ACC). These modafinil-induced changes in brain activation in response to cocaine-related visual stimuli were associated with diminished self-reported craving. These findings imply that in cocaine dependent patients, modafinil, although mainly known as a cognitive enhancer, acts on both the motivational and the cognitive brain circuitry. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A cellular perspective on brain energy metabolism and functional imaging.

PubMed

Magistretti, Pierre J; Allaman, Igor

2015-05-20

The energy demands of the brain are high: they account for at least 20% of the body's energy consumption. Evolutionary studies indicate that the emergence of higher cognitive functions in humans is associated with an increased glucose utilization and expression of energy metabolism genes. Functional brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET, which are widely used in human neuroscience studies, detect signals that monitor energy delivery and use in register with neuronal activity. Recent technological advances in metabolic studies with cellular resolution have afforded decisive insights into the understanding of the cellular and molecular bases of the coupling between neuronal activity and energy metabolism and point at a key role of neuron-astrocyte metabolic interactions. This article reviews some of the most salient features emerging from recent studies and aims at providing an integration of brain energy metabolism across resolution scales. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Small Molecule Inhibitor of Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 Reduces Brain Amyloid-β Load and Improves Memory in an Animal Model of Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Akhter, Hasina; Huang, Wen-Tan; van Groen, Thomas; Kuo, Hui-Chien; Miyata, Toshio; Liu, Rui-Ming

2018-01-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a major cause of dementia in the elderly with no effective treatment. Accumulation of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in the brain is a pathological hallmark of AD and is believed to be a central disease-causing and disease-promoting event. In a previous study, we showed that deletion of plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), a primary inhibitor of tissue type and urokinase type plasminogen activators (tPA and uPA), significantly reduced brain Aβ load in APP/PS1 mice, an animal model of familial AD. In this study, we further show that oral administration of TM5275, a small molecule inhibitor of PAI-1, for a period of 6 weeks, inhibits the activity of PAI-1 and increases the activities of tPA and uPA as well as plasmin, which is associated with a reduction of Aβ load in the hippocampus and cortex and improvement of learning/memory function in APP/PS1 mice. Protein abundance of low density lipoprotein related protein-1 (LRP-1), a multi ligand endocytotic receptor involved in transporting Aβ out of the brain, as well as plasma Aβ42 are increased, whereas the expression and processing of full-length amyloid-β protein precursor is not affected by TM5275 treatment in APP/PS1 mice. In vitro studies further show that PAI-1 increases, whereas TM5275 reduces, Aβ40 level in the culture medium of SHSY5Y-APP neuroblastoma cells. Collectively, our data suggest that TM5275 improves memory function of APP/PS1 mice, probably by reducing brain Aβ accumulation through increasing plasmin-mediated degradation and LRP-1-mediated efflux of Aβ in the brain.

Healthy body, healthy mind: A mixed methods study of outcomes, barriers and supports for exercise by people who have chronic moderate-to-severe acquired brain injury.

PubMed

Lorenz, Laura S; Charrette, Ann L; O'Neil-Pirozzi, Therese M; Doucett, Julia M; Fong, Jeffrey

2018-01-01

Few people with chronic moderate-to-severe brain injury are following recommended physical activity guidelines. Investigate effects of planned, systematic physical activity while cultivating social and emotional well-being of people with chronic moderate-to-severe brain injury. Moderate-to-intensive physical activity would be associated with improvements in impairment and activity limitation measures (endurance, mobility, gait speed) immediately post-intervention and six weeks later (study week 12). The intervention was a single group pre-/post-intervention study with 14 people with chronic moderate-to-severe brain injury who live in brain injury group homes and exercised 60-90 min, 3 days per week for 6 weeks at a maximum heart rate of 50-80%. Pre-post measures (administered weeks 0, 6 and 12) were the 6 Minute Walk Test, High-level Mobility Assessment Tool and 10 Meter Walk Test. The qualitative component used a brief survey and semi-structured interview guide with participants, family members, and staff. Following program completion, post-intervention group changes were noted on all outcome measures and greater than minimal detectable change for people with brain injury. Three transitioned from low to high ambulatory status and maintained this change at 12 weeks. During interviews, participants agreed the program was stimulating. More than eighty percent liked working out in a group and felt better being active. Program impact included physical, cognitive and social/emotional aspects. Social aspects (group format, trainers) were highly motivating and supported by residents, family, and staff. Investments in transportation and recruiting and training interns to assist participants are critical to program sustainability and expansion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A preliminary study of the effects of working memory training on brain function in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

PubMed Central

Stevens, Michael C.; Gaynor, Alexandra; Bessette, Katie L.; Pearlson, Godfrey D.

2015-01-01

Working memory (WM) training improves WM ability in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but its efficacy for non-cognitive ADHD impairments ADHD has been sharply debated. The purpose of this preliminary study was to characterize WM training-related changes in ADHD brain function and see if they were linked to clinical improvement. We examined 18 adolescents diagnosed with DSM-IV Combined-subtype ADHD before and after 25 sessions of WM training using a frequently employed approach (CogmedTM) using a nonverbal Sternberg WM fMRI task, neuropsychological tests, and participant- and parent-reports of ADHD symptom severity and associated functional impairment. Whole brain SPM8 analyses identified ADHD activation deficits compared to 18 non-ADHD control participants, then tested whether impaired ADHD frontoparietal brain activation would increase following WM training. Post hoc tests examined the relationships between neural changes and neurocognitive or clinical improvements. As predicted, WM training increased WM performance, ADHD clinical functioning, and WM-related ADHD brain activity in several frontal, parietal and temporal lobe regions. Increased left inferior frontal sulcus region activity was seen in all Encoding, Maintenance, and Retrieval Sternberg task phases. ADHD symptom severity improvements were most often positively correlated with activation gains in brain regions known to be engaged for WM-related executive processing; improvement of different symptom types had different neural correlates. The responsiveness of both amodal WM frontoparietal circuits and executive process-specific WM brain regions was altered by WM training. The latter might represent a promising, relatively unexplored treatment target for researchers seeking to optimize clinical response in ongoing ADHD WM training development efforts. PMID:26138580

Altered brain activation and connectivity during anticipation of uncertain threat in trait anxiety.

PubMed

Geng, Haiyang; Wang, Yi; Gu, Ruolei; Luo, Yue-Jia; Xu, Pengfei; Huang, Yuxia; Li, Xuebing

2018-06-08

In the research field of anxiety, previous studies generally focus on emotional responses following threat. A recent model of anxiety proposes that altered anticipation prior to uncertain threat is related with the development of anxiety. Behavioral findings have built the relationship between anxiety and distinct anticipatory processes including attention, estimation of threat, and emotional responses. However, few studies have characterized the brain organization underlying anticipation of uncertain threat and its role in anxiety. In the present study, we used an emotional anticipation paradigm with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the aforementioned topics by employing brain activation and general psychophysiological interactions (gPPI) analysis. In the activation analysis, we found that high trait anxious individuals showed significantly increased activation in the thalamus, middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), as well as decreased activation in the precuneus, during anticipation of uncertain threat compared to the certain condition. In the gPPI analysis, the key regions including the amygdala, dmPFC, and precuneus showed altered connections with distributed brain areas including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior parietal sulcus (IPS), insula, para-hippocampus gyrus (PHA), thalamus, and MTG involved in anticipation of uncertain threat in anxious individuals. Taken together, our findings indicate that during the anticipation of uncertain threat, anxious individuals showed altered activations and functional connectivity in widely distributed brain areas, which may be critical for abnormal perception, estimation, and emotion reactions during the anticipation of uncertain threat. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Reward and motivation systems: a brain mapping study of early-stage intense romantic love in Chinese participants.

PubMed

Xu, Xiaomeng; Aron, Arthur; Brown, Lucy; Cao, Guikang; Feng, Tingyong; Weng, Xuchu

2011-02-01

Early-stage romantic love has been studied previously in the United States and United Kingdom (Aron et al. [2005]: J Neurophysiol 94:327–337; Bartels and Zeki [2000]: Neuroreport 11:3829–3834; Ortigue et al. [2007]: J Cogn Neurosci 19:1218–1230), revealing activation in the reward and motivation systems of the brain. In this study, we asked what systems are activated for early-stage romantic love in Easterners, specifically Chinese participants? Are these activations affected by individual differences within a cultural context of Traditionality and Modernity? Also, are these brain activations correlated with later satisfaction in the relationship? In Beijing, we used the same procedure used by Aron et al. (Aron et al. [2005]: J Neurophysiol 94:327–337). The stimuli for 18 Chinese participants were a picture of the face of their beloved, the face of a familiar acquaintance, and a countback task. We found significant activations specific to the beloved in the reward and motivation systems, particularly, the ventral tegmental area and the caudate. The mid-orbitofrontal cortex and cerebellum were also activated, whereas amygdala, medial orbitofrontal, and medial accumbens activity were decreased relative to the familiar acquaintance. Self-reported Traditionality and Modernity scores were each positively correlated with activity in the nucleus accumbens, although in different regions and sides of the brain. Activity in the subgenual area and the superior frontal gyrus was associated with higher relationship happiness at 18-month follow-up. Our results show that midbrain dopamine-rich reward/motivation systems were activated by early-stage romantic love in Chinese participants, as found by other studies. Neural activity was associated with Traditionality and Modernity attitudes as well as with later relationship happiness for Chinese participants.

Neural correlate of spatial presence in an arousing and noninteractive virtual reality: an EEG and psychophysiology study.

PubMed

Baumgartner, Thomas; Valko, Lilian; Esslen, Michaela; Jäncke, Lutz

2006-02-01

Using electroencephalography (EEG), psychophysiology, and psychometric measures, this is the first study which investigated the neurophysiological underpinnings of spatial presence. Spatial presence is considered a sense of being physically situated within a spatial environment portrayed by a medium (e.g., television, virtual reality). Twelve healthy children and 11 healthy adolescents were watching different virtual roller coaster scenarios. During a control session, the roller coaster cab drove through a horizontal roundabout track. The following realistic roller coaster rides consisted of spectacular ups, downs, and loops. Low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) and event-related desynchronization (ERD) were used to analyze the EEG data. As expected, we found that, compared to the control condition, experiencing a virtual roller coaster ride evoked in both groups strong SP experiences, increased electrodermal reactions, and activations in parietal brain areas known to be involved in spatial navigation. In addition, brain areas that receive homeostatic afferents from somatic and visceral sensations of the body were strongly activated. Most interesting, children (as compared to adolescents) reported higher spatial presence experiences and demonstrated a different frontal activation pattern. While adolescents showed increased activation in prefrontal areas known to be involved in the control of executive functions, children demonstrated a decreased activity in these brain regions. Interestingly, recent neuroanatomical and neurophysiological studies have shown that the frontal brain continues to develop to adult status well into adolescence. Thus, the result of our study implies that the increased spatial presence experience in children may result from the not fully developed control functions of the frontal cortex.