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Despite decades of experimental and clinical practice, the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying neurofeedback (NF) training remain obscure. NF is a unique form of reinforcement learning (RL) task, during which participants are provided with rewarding feedback regarding desired changes in neural patterns. However, key RL considerations - including choices during practice, prediction errors, credit-assignment problems, or the exploration-exploitation tradeoff - have infrequently been considered in the context of NF. We offer an RL-based framework for NF, describing different internal states, actions, and rewards in common NF protocols, thus fashioning new proposals for characterizing, predicting, and hastening the course of learning. In this way we hope to advance current understanding of neural regulation via NF, and ultimately to promote its effectiveness, personalization, and clinical utility.

Reward processing is essential for our mental-health and well-being. In the current study, we developed and validated a scalable, fMRI-informed EEG model for monitoring reward processing related to activation in the ventral-striatum (VS), a significant node in the brain's reward system. To develop this EEG-based model of VS-related activation, we collected simultaneous EEG/fMRI data from 17 healthy individuals while listening to individually-tailored pleasurable music – a highly rewarding stimulus known to engage the VS. Using these cross-modal data, we constructed a generic regression model for predicting the concurrently acquired Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent (BOLD) signal from the VS using spectro-temporal features from the EEG signal (termed hereby VS-related-Electrical Finger Print; VS-EFP). The performance of the extracted model was examined using a series of tests that were applied on the original dataset and, importantly, an external validation dataset collected from a different group of 14 healthy individuals who underwent the same EEG/FMRI procedure. Our results showed that the VS-EFP model, as measured by simultaneous EEG, predicted BOLD activation in the VS and additional functionally relevant regions to a greater extent than an EFP model derived from a different anatomical region. The developed VS-EFP was also modulated by musical pleasure and predictive of the VS-BOLD during a monetary reward task, further indicating its functional relevance. These findings provide compelling evidence for the feasibility of using EEG alone to model neural activation related to the VS, paving the way for future use of this scalable neural probing approach in neural monitoring and self-guided neuromodulation.

Background Negative self-views, especially in the domain of power (i.e. social-rank), characterize social anxiety (SA). Neuroimaging studies on self-evaluations in SA have mainly focused on subcortical threat processing systems. Yet, self-evaluation may concurrently invoke diverse affective processing, as motivational systems related to desired self-views may also be activated. To investigate the conflictual nature that may accompany self-evaluation of certain social domains in SA, we examined brain activity related to both threat and reward processing. Methods Participants (N = 74) differing in self-reported SA-severity underwent fMRI while completing a self-evaluation task, wherein they judged the self-descriptiveness of high- v. low-intensity traits in the domains of power and affiliation (i.e. social connectedness). Participants also completed two auxiliary fMRI tasks designated to evoke reward- and threat-related activations in the ventral striatum (VS) and amygdala, respectively. We hypothesized that self-evaluations in SA, particularly in the domain of power, involve aberrant brain activity related to both threat and reward processing. Results SA-severity was more negatively associated with power than with affiliation self-evaluations. During self-evaluative judgment of high-power (e.g. dominant), SA-severity associated with increased activity in the VS and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Moreover, SA-severity correlated with higher similarity between brain activity patterns activated by high-power traits and patterns activated by incentive salience (i.e. reward anticipation) in the VS during the reward task. Conclusions Our findings indicate that self-evaluation of high-power in SA involves excessive striatal reward-related activation, and pinpoint the downregulation of VS-VMPFC activity within such self-evaluative context as a potential neural outcome for therapeutic interventions.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a protracted and debilitating consequence of traumatic events. Identifying early predictors of PTSD can inform the disorder's risk stratification and prevention. We used advanced computational models to evaluate the contribution of early neurocognitive performance measures to the accuracy of predicting chronic PTSD from demographics and early clinical features. We consecutively enrolled adult trauma survivors seen in a general hospital emergency department (ED) to a 14-month long prospective panel study. Extreme Gradient Boosting algorithm evaluated the incremental contribution to 14 months PTSD risk of demographic variables, 1-month clinical variables, and concurrent neurocognitive performance. The main outcome variable was PTSD diagnosis, 14 months after ED admission, obtained by trained clinicians using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). N = 138 trauma survivors (mean age = 34.25 ± 11.73, range = 18-64; n = 73 [53%] women) were evaluated 1 month after ED admission and followed for 14 months, at which time n = 33 (24%) met PTSD diagnosis. Demographics and clinical variables yielded a discriminatory accuracy of AUC = 0.68 in classifying PTSD diagnostic status. Adding neurocognitive functioning improved the discriminatory accuracy (AUC = 0.88); the largest contribution emanating from poorer cognitive flexibility, processing speed, motor coordination, controlled and sustained attention, emotional bias, and higher response inhibition, and recall memory. Impaired cognitive functioning 1-month after trauma exposure is a significant and independent risk factor for PTSD. Evaluating cognitive performance could improve early screening and prevention.

Background Contemporary views of emotion dysregulation in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) highlight reduced ability to flexibly select regulatory strategies according to differing situational demands. However, empirical evidence of reduced regulatory selection flexibility in PTSD is lacking. Multiple studies show that healthy individuals demonstrate regulatory selection flexibility manifested in selecting attentional disengagement regulatory strategies (e.g. distraction) in high-intensity emotional contexts and selecting engagement meaning change strategies (e.g. reappraisal) in low-intensity contexts. Accordingly, we hypothesized that PTSD populations will show reduced regulatory selection flexibility manifested in diminished increase in distraction (over reappraisal) preference as intensity increases from low to high intensity. Methods Study 1 compared student participants with high (N = 22) post-traumatic symptoms (PTS, meeting the clinical cutoff for PTSD) and participants with low (N = 22) post-traumatic symptoms. Study 2 compared PTSD diagnosed women (N = 31) due to childhood sexual abuse and matched non-clinical women (N = 31). In both studies, participants completed a well-established regulatory selection flexibility performance-based paradigm that involves selecting between distraction and reappraisal to regulate negative emotional words of low and high intensity. Results Beyond demonstrating adequate psychometric properties, Study 1 confirmed that relative to the low PTS group, the high PTS group presented reduced regulatory selection flexibility (p = 0.01, $\eta _{\rm p}^2$ = 0.14). Study 2 critically extended findings of Study 1, in showing similar reduced regulatory selection flexibility in a diagnosed PTSD population, relative to a non-clinical population (p = 0.002, $\eta _{\rm p}^2$ = 0.114). Conclusions Two studies provide converging evidence for reduced emotion regulatory selection flexibility in two PTSD populations.

Reward processing is essential for our mental-health and well-being. Here, we present the development and validation of a scalable fMRI-informed EEG model related to reward processing in the ventral-striatum (VS); a central reward circuit node. Simultaneous EEG/fMRI data were acquired from 17 healthy individuals listening to pleasurable music, and used to construct a one-class regression model for predicting the reward-related VS-BOLD signal using spectro-temporal features from the EEG. Validation analyses, applied on EEG/fMRI data from a different group (N=14), revealed that the EEG model predicted VS-BOLD activation from the simultaneous EEG to a greater extent than a model derived from another anatomical region. The VS-EEG-model was also modulated by musical pleasure and predictive of the VS-BOLD during a monetary reward task, further indicating it functional relevance. These findings provide compelling evidence for the use of a scalable yet precise EEG-only probe of VS-originated reward processing, which could serve for process specific neruo-monitoring and -modulation.

Background: Aerobic training has been shown to promote structural and functional neurocognitive plasticity in cognitively intact older adults. However, little is known about the neuroplastic potential of aerobic exercise in individuals at risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia. Objective: We aimed to explore the effect of aerobic exercise intervention and cardiorespiratory fitness improvement on brain and cognitive functions in older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Methods: 27 participants with aMCI were randomized to either aerobic training (n = 13) or balance and toning (BAT) control group (n = 14) for a 16-week intervention. Pre- and post-assessments included functional MRI experiments of brain activation during associative memory encoding and neural synchronization during complex information processing, cognitive evaluation using neuropsychological tests, and cardiorespiratory fitness assessment. Results: The aerobic group demonstrated increased frontal activity during memory encoding and increased neural synchronization in higher-order cognitive regions such as the frontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) following the intervention. In contrast, the BAT control group demonstrated decreased brain activity during memory encoding, primarily in occipital, temporal, and parietal areas. Increases in cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with increases in brain activation in both the left inferior frontal and precentral gyri. Furthermore, changes in cardiorespiratory fitness were also correlated with changes in performance on several neuropsychological tests. Conclusion: Aerobic exercise training may result in functional plasticity of high-order cognitive areas, especially, frontal regions, among older adults at risk of AD and dementia. Furthermore, cardiorespiratory fitness may be an important mediating factor of the observed changes in neurocognitive functions.

Forming positive beliefs about one’s ability to perform challenging tasks, often termed self-efficacy, is fundamental to motivation and emotional well-being. Self-efficacy crucially depends on positive social feedback, yet people differ in the degree to which they integrate such feedback into self-beliefs (i.e., positive bias). While diminished positive bias of this sort is linked to mood and anxiety, the neural processes by which positive feedback on public performance enhances self-efficacy remain unclear. To address this, we conducted a behavioral and fMRI study wherein participants delivered a public speech and received fictitious positive and neutral feedback on their performance in the MRI scanner. Before and after receiving feedback, participants evaluated their actual and expected performance. We found that reduced positive bias in updating self-efficacy based on positive social feedback associated with a psychopathological dimension reflecting symptoms of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Analysis of brain encoding of social feedback showed that a positive self-efficacy update bias associated with a stronger reward-related response in the ventral striatum (VS) and stronger coupling of the VS with a temporoparietal region involved in self-processing. Together, our findings demarcate a corticostriatal circuit that promotes positive bias in self-efficacy updating based on social feedback, and highlight the centrality of such bias to emotional well-being.

The functional neural mechanisms underlying the cognitive benefits of aerobic exercise have been a subject of ongoing research in recent years. However, while most neuroimaging studies to date which examined functional neural correlates of aerobic exercise have used simple stimuli in highly controlled and artificial experimental conditions, our everyday life experiences require a much more complex and dynamic neurocognitive processing. Therefore, we have used a naturalistic complex information processing fMRI paradigm of story comprehension to investigate the role of an aerobically active lifestyle in the processing of real-life cognitive-demanding situations. By employing the inter-subject correlation (inter-SC) approach, we have identified differences in reliable stimulus-induced neural responses between groups of aerobically active (n = 27) and non-active (n = 22) cognitively intact older adults (age 65–80). Since cardiorespiratory fitness has previously been suggested to play a key role in the neuroprotective potential of aerobic exercise, we have investigated its dose-response relationship with regional inter-subject neural responses. We found that aerobically active lifestyle and cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with more synchronized inter-subject neural responses during story comprehension in higher order cognitive and linguistic brain regions in the prefrontal and temporo-parietal cortices. In addition, while higher regional inter-SC values were associated with higher performance on a post-listening memory task, this was not translated to a significant between-group difference in task performance. We, therefore, suggest that the modulatory potential of aerobic exercise and cardiorespiratory fitness on cognitive processing may extend beyond simple and highly controlled stimuli to situations in which the brain faces continuous real-life complex information. Additional studies incorporating other aspects of real-life situations such as naturalistic visual stimuli, everyday life decision making, and motor responses in these situations are desired to further validate the observed relationship between aerobic exercise, cardiorespiratory fitness, and complex naturalistic information processing.

The hippocampus and the amygdala play a central role in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) pathogenesis. While alternations in volumes of both regions have been consistently observed in individuals with PTSD, it remains unknown whether these reflect pre-trauma vulnerability traits or acquired post-trauma consequences of the disorder. Here, we conducted a longitudinal panel study of adult civilian trauma survivors admitted to a general hospital emergency department (ED). One hundred eligible participants (mean age=32.97±10.97, n=56 [56%] females) completed both clinical interviews and structural MRI scans at 1-, 6-, and 14-months after ED admission (alias T1, T2, and T3). While all participants met PTSD diagnosis at T1, only n=29 still met PTSD diagnosis at T3 (a ‘non-Remission’ Group), while n=71 did not (a ‘Remission’ Group). Bayesian multilevel modeling analysis showed robust evidence for smaller right hippocampus volume (P+ of ~0.014) and moderate evidence for larger left amygdala volume (P+ of ~0.870) at T1 in the ‘non-Remission’ group, compared to the ‘Remission’ group. Subregion analysis further demonstrated robust evidence for decreased volume in the left and right subiculum and right CA1 hippocampal subregions (P+ of ~0.021-0.046) in the ‘non-Remission’ group. No time-dependent volumetric changes (T1 to T2 to T3) were observed across all participants or between groups. Results support the ‘vulnerability trait’ hypothesis, suggesting that lower initial volumes of specific hippocampus subregions are associated with non-remitting PTSD. The stable volume of all hippocampal and amygdala subregions does not support the idea of consequential, progressive, stress-related atrophy during the first critical year following trauma exposure.

We present here a unifying framework for affective phenomena: the Human Affectome. By synthesizing a large body of literature, we have converged on definitions that disambiguate the commonly used terms—affect, feeling, emotion, and mood. Based on this definitional foundation, and under the premise that affective states reflect allostatic concerns, we take a goal-directed, enactive perspective. The human affectome is comprised of allostatic features (valence, motivation, and arousal) and allostatic concerns, which differ in the amount of action required to alleviate allostatic load. Allostatic concerns often fall into three ranges: physiological (the most immediate), operational (intermediate to distal), and global. Global concerns involve summations of overall trajectory, general wellbeing, and self-identity. Within this organizational scheme, the human affectome allows vastly different scientific interests to reside within the same theoretical framework and relate to each other. We hope this framework serves as a common focal point for affective research.

BACKGROUND Stress-related mental disorders are highly prevalent and pose a significant burden on individuals and society. Improving strategies of their treatment and prevention requires knowledge about risk and resilience. This multi-center study aims to contribute to this endeavor by investigating psychological resilience in healthy, but vulnerable young adults over nine months. Resilience is operationalized as maintained or quickly recovered mental health despite exposure to stressors and assessed longitudinally in a frequent monitoring approach. OBJECTIVE We aim to investigate factors predicting, and adaptive processes and mechanisms contributing to mental resilience, and to provide a methodological and evidence-based framework for later intervention studies. METHODS In a multi-center setting, across five research sites, a sample with the total target size of N=250 male and female young adults is assessed longitudinally over nine months. Participants are included if they had an elevated level of (internalizing) mental health problems and reported at least three stressful life events while not affected by any mental disorder other than mild depression. At baseline, sociodemographic, psychological, neuropsychological, structural and functional brain imaging data, salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase, as well as cardiovascular data are acquired. In a six-months longitudinal phase I, bi-weekly online monitoring of stressor exposure, mental health problems, and positive appraisal style takes place, as well as monthly one-week ecological momentary assessments (EMA) and ecological physiological assessments (EPA). In a subsequent three-months longitudinal phase II, online monitoring is reduced to once a month and psychological resilience and risk factors are assessed again at the end of the nine-month period. In addition, genetic, epigenetic, and microbiome data are assessed at baseline, month three (microbiome only), and month six. As an approximation of resilience, an individual stressor reactivity (SR) score will be calculated. Using regularized regression methods, network modeling, ordinary differential equations, landmarking methods, and neural net-based methods for imputation and dimension reduction, we will identify predictors and mechanisms of SR and thus be able to identify resilience factors and mechanisms that facilitate adaptation to stressors. RESULTS Participant inclusion started in October 2020 and data acquisition is expected to be completed in June 2022. CONCLUSIONS The DynaM-OBS study provides a methodological framework and dataset to identify predictors and mechanisms of mental resilience, which are intended to serve as an empirical foundation for future intervention studies.

BackgroundChronic pain disorders are often associated with cognitive-emotional dysregulation. However, the relations between such dysregulation, underlying brain processes, and clinical symptom constellations, remain unclear. Here, we aimed to characterize the abnormalities in cognitive-emotional processing involved in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and their relation to disease severity.MethodsFifty-eight participants, 39 FMS patients (35F), and 19 healthy control subjects (16F) performed an EEG-based paradigm assessing attention allocation by extracting steady-state visually evoked potentials (ssVEP) in response to affective distractors presented during a cognitive task. Patients were also evaluated for pain severity, sleep quality, depression, and anxiety.ResultsEEG ssVEP measurement indicated that, compared to healthy controls, FMS patients displayed impaired affective discrimination, and sustained attention to negative distractors. Moreover, patients displayed decreased task-related fronto-occipital EEG connectivity. Lack of adaptive attentional discrimination, measured via EEG, was predictive of pain severity, while impairments in fronto-occipital connectivity were predictive of impaired sleep.ConclusionsFMS patients display maladaptive affective attention modulation, which predicts disease symptoms. These findings support the centrality of cognitive-emotional dysregulation in the pathophysiology of chronic pain.

Maximal aerobic capacity (MAC) has been associated with preserved neural tissue or brain maintenance (BM) in healthy older adults, including the hippocampus. Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is considered a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease. While aMCI is characterized by hippocampal deterioration, the MAC-hippocampal relationship in these patients is not well understood. In contrast to healthy individuals, neurocognitive protective effects in neurodegenerative populations have been associated with mechanisms of cognitive reserve (CR) altering the neuropathology-cognition relationship. We investigated the MAC-hippocampal relationship in aMCI (n = 29) from the perspectives of BM and CR mechanistic models with structural MRI and a memory fMRI paradigm using both group-level (higher-fit patients vs. lower-fit patients) and individual level (continuous correlation) approaches. While MAC was associated with smaller hippocampal volume, contradicting the BM model, higher-fit patients demonstrated statistically significant lower correlation between hippocampal volume and memory performance compared with the lower-fit patients, supporting the model of CR. In addition, while there was no difference in brain activity between the groups during low cognitive demand (encoding of familiar stimuli), higher MAC level was associated with increased cortical and sub-cortical activation during increased cognitive demand (encoding of novel stimuli) and also with bilateral hippocampal activity even when controlling for hippocampal volume, suggesting for an independent effect of MAC. Our results suggest that MAC may be associated with hippocampal-related cognitive reserve in aMCI through altering the relationship between hippocampal-related structural deterioration and cognitive function. In addition, MAC was found to be associated with increased capacity to recruit neural resources during increased cognitive demands.

Human pain is a salient stimulus composed of two main components: a sensory/somatic component, carrying peripheral nociceptive sensation via the spinothalamic tract and brainstem nuclei to the thalamus and then to sensory cortical regions, and an affective (suffering) component, where information from central thalamic nuclei is carried to the anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and other regions. While the sensory component processes information about stimulus location and intensity, the affective component processes information regarding pain-related expectations, motivation to reduce pain and pain unpleasantness. Unlike investigations of acute pain that are based on the introduction of real-time stimulus during brain recordings, chronic pain investigations are usually based on longitudinal and case-control studies, which are limited in their ability to infer the functional network topology of chronic pain. In the current study, we utilized the unique opportunity to target the CNS’s pain pathways in two different hierarchical locations to establish causality between pain relief and specific connectivity changes seen within the salience and sensorimotor networks. We examined how lesions to the affective and somatic pain pathways affect resting-state network topology in cancer patients suffering from severe intractable pain. Two procedures have been employed: percutaneous cervical cordotomy (n = 15), hypothesized to disrupt the transmission of the sensory component of pain along the spinothalamic tract, or stereotactic cingulotomy (n = 7), which refers to bilateral intracranial ablation of an area in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and is known to ameliorate the affective component of pain. Both procedures led to immediate significant alleviation of experienced pain and decreased functional connectivity within the salience network. However, only the sensory procedure (cordotomy) led to decreased connectivity within the sensorimotor network. Thus, our results support the existence of two converging systems relaying experienced pain, showing that pain-related suffering can be either directly influenced by interfering with the affective pathway or indirectly influenced by interfering with the ascending spinothalamic tract.

BACKGROUND: Low hippocampal volume could serve as an early risk factor for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in interaction with other brain anomalies of developmental origin. One such anomaly may well be a presence of large Cavum Septum Pellucidum (CSP), which has been loosely associated with PTSD. Here, we performed a longitudinal prospective study of recent trauma survivors. We hypothesized that at one-month after trauma exposure, the relation between hippocampal volume and PTSD symptom severity will be moderated by CSP volume, and that this early interaction will account for persistent PTSD symptoms at subsequent time-points. METHODS: 171 adults (87 females, average age=34.22, range=18–65) admitted to a general hospital’s emergency department following a traumatic event, underwent clinical assessment and structural MRI within one-month after trauma. Follow-up clinical evaluations were conducted at six (n=97) and fourteen (n=78) months after trauma. Hippocampus and CSP volumes were measured automatically by FreeSurfer software and verified manually by a neuroradiologist. RESULTS: At one-month following trauma, CSP volume significantly moderated the relation between hippocampal volume and PTSD severity (p=0.026), and this interaction further predicted symptom severity at fourteen months post-trauma (p=0.018). Specifically, individuals with smaller hippocampus and larger CSP at one-month post-trauma, showed more severe symptoms at one- and fourteen months following trauma exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides evidence for an early neuroanatomical risk factors for PTSD, which could also predict the progression of the disorder in the year following trauma exposure. Such a simple-to-acquire neuroanatomical signature for PTSD could guide early management, as well as long-term monitoring. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Neurobehavioral Moderators of Post-traumatic Disease Trajectories. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT03756545. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03756545

Live feedback from the brain can empower individuals to change their own brain activity. The premise behind neurofeedback (NF) is that an organism learns to control brain activation and function via contingent feedback. We outline here why this approach can aid emotion regulation research and treatment, and how this is achieved with feedback from the neural circuitry of emotion. The focus is, in particular, on functional MRI (fMRI) and fMRI-inspired mapping techniques that permit the probing of deep brain activation with scalp electroencephalography. The NF approach for self-neuromodulation is discussed with respect to the process-model of emotion regulation. We argue that real-time feedback from brain areas or from circuits can augment neuroscience-based emotion regulation practices and thus provides a promising tool for more precise clinical intervention and the alleviation of emotion dysregulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Passive listening to music, without sound production or evident movement, is long known to activate motor control regions. Nevertheless, the exact neuroanatomical correlates of the auditory-motor association and its underlying neural mechanisms have not been fully determined. Here, based on a NeuroSynth meta-analysis and three original fMRI paradigms of music perception, we show that the long-ignored pre-motor region, area 55b, an anatomically unique and functionally intriguing region, is a core hub of music perception. Moreover, results of a brain-behavior correlation analysis implicate neural entrainment as the underlying mechanism of area 55b’s contribution to music perception. In view of the current results and prior literature, area 55b is proposed as a keystone of sensorimotor integration, a fundamental brain machinery underlying simple to hierarchically complex behaviors. Refining the neuroanatomical and physiological understanding of sensorimotor integration is expected to have a major impact on various fields, from brain disorders to artificial general intelligence.

“Do what you do best” conveys an intuition about the association between ability and preference. In the field of emotion regulation, ability and preference are manifested in two central stages, namely, implementation and selection of regulatory strategies, which to date have been mainly studied separately. Accordingly, the present proof-of-concept study wished to provide preliminary evidence for an association between neural indices of implementation ability and behavioral selection preferences. In this pilot study, participants performed a classic neuroimaging regulatory implementation task that examined their ability (neurally reflected in the degree of amygdala modulation) to execute two central regulatory strategies, namely, attentional distraction and cognitive reappraisal while viewing negative images. Then participants performed a separate, classic behavioral selection task that examined their choice preferences for using distraction and reappraisal while viewing negative images. Confirming our conceptual framework, we found that exclusively for distraction, which has been associated with robust amygdala modulation, a decrease in amygdala activity during implementation (i.e., enhanced ability) was associated with enhanced preference to behaviorally select distraction [r(15) = −0.69, p = 0.004]. These preliminary findings link between two central emotion regulatory stages, suggesting a clue of the adaptive association between neural ability and behavioral preference for particular regulatory strategies.

Amygdala dysregulation is core to multiple psychiatric disorders. Real-time fMRI enables Amygdala self-modulation through NeuroFeedback (NF).Despite a surge in Amygdala-NF studies, a systematic quantification of self-modulation is lacking. Amygdala-NF dissemination is further restricted by absence of unifying framework dictating design choices and insufficient understanding of neural changes underlying successful self-modulation.The current meta-analysis of Amygdala-NF literature found that real-time feedback facilitates learned self-modulation more than placebo. Intriguingly, while we found that variability in design choices could be explained by the targeted domain, this was rarely highlighted by authors. Lastly, reanalysis of six fMRI data-sets (n=151), revealed that successful Amygdala down-modulation is coupled with deactivation of posterior insula and Default-Mode-Network major nodes, pointing to regulation related processes.While findings point to Amygdala self-modulation as a learned skill that could modify brain functionality, further placebo-controlled trials are necessary to prove clinical efficacy. We further suggest that studies should explicitly target neuro-behavioral domain, design studies accordingly and include ‘target engagement’ measures. We exemplify this idea through a ‘process-based’ NF approach for PTSD.

Alterations in hippocampal function have been shown in older adults, which are expressed as changes in hippocampal activity and connectivity. While hippocampal activation during memory demands has been demonstrated to decrease with age, some older individuals present increased activity, or hyperactivity, of the hippocampus which is associated with increased neuropathology and poor memory function. In addition, lower functional coherence between the hippocampus and core hubs of the default mode network (DMN), namely, the posteromedial and medial prefrontal cortices, as well as increased local intrahippocampal connectivity, were also demonstrated in cognitively intact older adults. Aerobic exercise has been shown to elicit neuroprotective effects on hippocampal structure and vasculature in aging, and improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness have been suggested to mediate these exercise-related effects. However, how these lifestyle factors relate to hippocampal function is not clear. Fifty-two cognitively intact older adults (aged 65–80 years) have been recruited and divided into physically active (n = 29) or non-active (n = 23) groups based on their aerobic activity lifestyle habits. Participants underwent resting-state and task-based fMRI experiments which included an associative memory encoding paradigm followed by a post-scan memory recognition test. In addition, 44 participants also performed cardiopulmonary exercise tests to evaluate cardiorespiratory fitness by measuring peak oxygen consumption (Vo2peak). While both groups demonstrated increased anterior hippocampal activation during memory encoding, a physically active lifestyle was associated with significantly lower activity level and higher memory performance in the recognition task. In addition, the physically active group also demonstrated higher functional connectivity of the anterior and posterior hippocampi with the core hubs of the DMN and lower local intra-hippocampal connectivity within and between hemispheres. Vo2peak was negatively associated with the hippocampal activation level and demonstrated a positive correlation with hippocampal-DMN connectivity. According to these findings, an aerobically active lifestyle may be associated with attenuation of hippocampal dysfunction in cognitively intact older adults.

Real-time fMRI neurofeedback is an increasingly popular neuroimaging technique that allows an individual to gain control over his/her own brain signals, which can lead to improvements in behavior in healthy participants as well as to improvements of clinical symptoms in patient populations. However, a considerably large ratio of participants undergoing neurofeedback training do not learn to control their own brain signals and, consequently, do not benefit from neurofeedback interventions, which limits clinical efficacy of neurofeedback interventions. As neurofeedback success varies between studies and participants, it is important to identify factors that might influence neurofeedback success. Here, for the first time, we employed a big data machine learning approach to investigate the influence of 20 different design-specific (e.g. activity vs. connectivity feedback), region of interest-specific (e.g. cortical vs. subcortical) and subject-specific factors (e.g. age) on neurofeedback performance and improvement in 608 participants from 28 independent experiments. With a classification accuracy of 60% (considerably different from chance level), we identified two factors that significantly influenced neurofeedback performance: Both the inclusion of a pre-training no-feedback run before neurofeedback training and neurofeedback training of patients as compared to healthy participants were associated with better neurofeedback performance. The positive effect of pre-training no-feedback runs on neurofeedback performance might be due to the familiarization of participants with the neurofeedback setup and the mental imagery task before neurofeedback training runs. Better performance of patients as compared to healthy participants might be driven by higher motivation of patients, higher ranges for the regulation of dysfunctional brain signals, or a more extensive piloting of clinical experimental paradigms. Due to the large heterogeneity of our dataset, these findings likely generalize across neurofeedback studies, thus providing guidance for designing more efficient neurofeedback studies specifically for improving clinical neurofeedback-based interventions. To facilitate the development of data-driven recommendations for specific design details and subpopulations the field would benefit from stronger engagement in open science research practices and data sharing. publishedVersion

Background Emergence from sedation entails rapid increase in the levels of both awareness and wakefulness, the two axes of consciousness. Functional MRI (fMRI) studies of emergence from sedation often focus on the recovery period, with no description of the moment of emergence. We hypothesised that by focusing on the moment of emergence, novel insights, primarily about subcortical activity and increased wakefulness, will be gained. Methods We conducted a resting state fMRI analysis of 17 male subjects (20–40 yr old) gradually entering into and emerging from deep sedation (average computed propofol concentrations of 2.41 and 1.11 μg ml−1, respectively), using target-controlled infusion of propofol. Results Functional connectivity analysis revealed a robust spatiotemporal signature of return of consciousness, in which subcortical seeds showed transient positive correlations that rapidly turned negative shortly after emergence. Elements of this signature included four components of the ascending reticular activating system: the ventral tegmentum area, the locus coeruleus, median raphe, and the mammillary body. The involvement of the rostral dorsolateral pontine tegmentum, which is specifically impaired in comatose patients with pontine lesions, in emergence was previously unknown. Conclusions Emergence from propofol sedation is characterised, and possibly driven, by a transient activation of brainstem loci. Some of these loci are known components of the ascending reticular activating system, whereas an additional locus was found that is also impaired in comatose patients.

With approximately 75% of smokers resuming cigarette smoking after using the Gold Standard Programme for smoking cessation, investigation into novel therapeutic approaches is warranted. Typically, smoking cue reactivity is crucial for smoking behaviour. Here we developed a novel closed-loop, smoking cue reactivity patterns EEG-based neurofeedback protocol and evaluated its therapeutic efficacy on nicotine addiction. During an evoked smoking cue reactivity task participants' brain activity patterns corresponding to smoking cues were obtained with multivariate pattern analysis of all EEG channels data, then during neurofeedback the EEG activity patterns of smoking cue reactivity were continuously deactivated with adaptive closed-loop training. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial, 60 nicotine-dependent participants were assigned to receive two neurofeedback training sessions (∼1 h/session) either from their own brain (n = 30, real-feedback group) or from the brain activity pattern of a matched participant (n = 30, yoked-feedback group). Cigarette craving and craving-related P300 were assessed at pre-neurofeedback and post-neurofeedback. The number of cigarettes smoked per day was assessed at baseline, 1 week, 1 month, and 4 months following the final neurofeedback visit. In the real-feedback group, participants successfully deactivated EEG activity patterns of smoking cue reactivity. The real-feedback group showed significant decrease in cigarette craving and craving-related P300 amplitudes compared with the yoked-feedback group. The rates of cigarettes smoked per day at 1 week, 1 month and 4 months follow-up decreased 30.6%, 38.2%, and 27.4% relative to baseline in the real-feedback group, compared to decreases of 14.0%, 13.7%, and 5.9% in the yoked-feedback group. The neurofeedback effects on craving change and smoking amount at the 4-month follow-up were further predicted by neural markers at pre-neurofeedback. This novel neurofeedback training approach produced significant short-term and long-term effects on cigarette craving and smoking behaviour, suggesting the neurofeedback protocol described herein is a promising brain-based tool for treating addiction.

How can music—merely a stream of sounds—be enjoyable for so many people? Recent accounts of this phenomenon are inspired by predictive coding models, hypothesizing that both confirmation and violations of musical expectations associate with the hedonic response to music via recruitment of the mesolimbic system and its connections with the auditory cortex. Here we provide support for this model, by revealing associations of music-induced pleasantness with musical surprises in the activity and connectivity patterns of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc)—a central component of the mesolimbic system. We examined neurobehavioral responses to surprises in three naturalistic musical pieces using fMRI and subjective ratings of valence and arousal. Surprises were associated with changes in reported valence and arousal, as well as with enhanced activations in the auditory cortex, insula and ventral striatum, relative to unsurprising events. Importantly, we found that surprise-related activation in the NAcc was more pronounced among individuals who experienced greater music-induced pleasantness. These participants also exhibited stronger surprise-related NAcc–auditory cortex connectivity during the most pleasant piece, relative to participants who found the music less pleasant. These findings provide a novel demonstration of a direct link between musical surprises, NAcc activation and music-induced pleasantness.

Interoception, the perception and interpretation of one's own bodily signals, is a key aspect of human caregiving that impacts infant health and well-being across life. Interoception relies on limbic structures, mainly the amygdala, and the agranular visceromotor cortex, particularly the anterior insula (AI), that integrate with the oxytocin (OT) system to support interoceptive sensitivity. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether interoception sensitivity in the parent's brain during the first months of parenting combines with sensitive parenting and OT-system functionality to predict children's somatic symptoms six years later. We followed 45 primary-caregiving first-time mothers and fathers and their infants across the first six years of parenting. In infancy (Time 1), parents' brain response to infant stimuli was imaged, salivary OT measured, and parent-infant interactions coded for parent sensitivity. In preschool (Time 2), parent and child's OT and parent sensitivity were measured again. At six years (Time 3), parents reported on children's somatic symptoms. Greater activation of the parent's AI bilaterally when his/her child was an infant predicted lower child somatic problems at six years. Parent sensitivity partially mediated the links between parental AI activation and child somatic symptoms. In addition, greater parental bilateral amygdala activity predicted higher child OT levels at 3 years and parental OT moderated the relations between preschoolers' OT and later somatic symptoms. Our findings chart two independent cross-generational pathways from interoception sensitivity in the parent's brain and child somatization. The first defines an evolutionary-ancient path including the amygdala and the OT system that support mammalian attention to arousal modulations in response to social cues; the second, via the AI, implicates higher-order interoceptive representations of bodily responses and affective states that underpins human embodiment.

Amygdala NeuroFeedback (NF) have the potential of being a valuable non-invasive intervention tool in many psychiatric disporders. However, the feasibility and best practices of this method have not been systematically examined. The current article presents a review of amygdala-NF studies, an analytic summary of study design parameters, and examination of brain mechanisms related to successful amygdala-NF performance. A meta-analysis of 33 publications showed that real amygdala-NF facilitates learned modulation compared to control conditions. In addition, while variability in study dsign parameters is high, these design choices are implicitly organized by the targeted valence domain (positive or negative). However, in most cases the neuro-behavioral effects of targeting such domains were not directly assessed. Lastly, re-analyzing six data sets of amygdala-fMRI-NF revealed that successful amygdala down-modulation is coupled with deactivation of the posterior insula and nodes in the Default-Mode-Network. Our findings suggest that amygdala self-modulation can be acquired using NF. Yet, additional controlled studies, relevant behavioral tasks before and after NF intervention, and neural 'target engagement' measures are critically needed to establish efficacy and specificity. In addition, the fMRI analysis presented here suggest that common accounts regarding the brain network involved in amygdala NF might reflect unsuccessful modulation attempts rather than successful modulation.

Angry outbursts during interpersonal provocations may lead to violence and prevails in numerous pathological conditions. In the anger-infused Ultimatum Game (aiUG), unfair monetary offers accompanied by written provocations induce anger. Rejection of such offers relates to aggression, whereas acceptance to anger regulation. We previously demonstrated the involvement of the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in accepting unfair offers and attenuating anger during an aiUG, suggestive of its role in anger regulation. Here, we aimed to enhance anger regulation by facilitating vmPFC activity during anger induction, using anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and simultaneously with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to validate modulation of vmPFC activity. In a cross-over, sham-controlled, double-blind study, participants (N = 25) were each scanned twice, counterbalancing sham and active tDCS applied during administration of the aiUG. Outcome measures included the effect of active versus sham stimulation on vmPFC activity, unfair offers' acceptance rates, self-reported anger, and aggressive behavior in a subsequent reactive aggression paradigm. Results indicate that active stimulation led to increased vmPFC activity during the processing of unfair offers, increased acceptance rates of these offers, and mitigated the increase in self-reported anger following the aiUG. We also noted a decrease in subsequent aggressive behavior following active stimulation, but only when active stimulation was conducted in the first experimental session. Finally, an exploratory finding indicated that participants with a stronger habitual tendency to use suppression as an emotion regulation strategy, reported less anger following the aiUG in the active compared to sham stimulation conditions. Findings support a potential causal link between vmPFC functionality and the experience and expression of anger, supporting vmPFC's role in anger regulation, and providing a promising avenue for reducing angry and aggressive outbursts during interpersonal provocations in various psychiatric and medical conditions.

The personality trait of neuroticism is considered a risk factor for stress vulnerability, putatively via its association with elevated limbic reactivity. Nevertheless, majority of evidence to date that relates neuroticism, neural reactivity and stress vulnerability stems from cross-sectional studies conducted in a “stress-free” environment. Here, using a unique prospective longitudinal design, we assessed personality, stress-related symptoms and neural reactivity at three time points over the course of four and a half years; accounting for prior to, during, and long-time following a stressful military service that included active combat. Results revealed that despite exposure to multiple potentiality traumatic events, majority of soldiers exhibited none-to-mild levels of posttraumatic and depressive symptoms during and following their military service. In contrast, a quadratic pattern of change in personality emerged overtime, with neuroticism being the only personality trait to increase during stressful military service and subsequently decrease following discharge. Elevated neuroticism during military service was associated with reduced amygdala and hippocampus activation in response to stress-related content, and this association was also reversed following discharge. A similar pattern was found between neuroticism and hippocampus-anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) functional connectivity in response to stress-related content. Taken together these findings suggest that stressful military service at young adulthood may yield a temporary increase in neuroticism mediated by a temporary decrease in limbic reactivity, with both effects being reversed long-time following discharge. Considering that participants exhibited low levels of stress-related symptoms throughout the study period, these dynamic patterns may depict behavioral and neural mechanisms that facilitate stress resilience.

Negative and positive valence systems (NVS and PVS) pertain to processing of aversive and rewarding stimuli, respectively. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been typically associated with abnormalities of the NVS, mostly related to heightened threat processing, yet more recent work also suggests deficits in PVS functionality in PTSD, mainly in the form of reduced reward functioning. The current study examined the hypothesis that individuals ability to recover from a potentially traumatic event relies on promoting reward-seeking behaviors (i.e., PVS) alongside diminished threat assessment (i.e., NVS), during the first year following trauma, a critical period for PTSD development or recovery. To do so, we longitudinally tracked behavioral and neural responses among 171 adult civilians with early post-traumatic stress symptoms at 1-, 6- and 14-months following trauma exposure (TP1, TP2, and TP3, respectively). At each time-point, participants played a naturalistic game encompassing dynamic provocation of risk-taking, punishments and rewards in an fMRI setting. Results showed that greater amygdala activation and functional connectivity with the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) in response to punishments (i.e., hyperactive NVS) at TP1 were associated with more severe post-traumatic stress symptoms at both TP1 and TP3 (but not at TP2), and specifically with more hyperarousal and intrusion symptoms. On the other hand, decreased ventral striatum (VS) activity and functional connectivity with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in response to rewards (i.e., hypoactive PVS) at TP1 were associated with more severe post-traumatic stress symptoms at TP3 (but not at TP1 or TP2), and specifically with more avoidance symptoms. Explainable machine learning revealed the primacy of the PVS over the NVS at TP1 in predicting PTSD symptom development from TP1 to TP3. Behaviorally, fewer risky choices in the task were associated with more severe symptoms at TP1, but not at TP2 or TP3. Finally, an integrative exploratory analysis revealed that reduction in risky choices in the task (from TP1 to TP2) moderated the relation between NVS hyperactivity at TP1 and symptom severity at TP3. Altogether, our results support the idea that trauma exposure might alter both NVS and PVS processing. While NVS presents early heightened saliency processing in the immediate aftermath of trauma, early PVS only affects the long-term outcome of traumatic stress. These insights inform possible mechanism-driven therapeutic strategies for PTSD, addressing not only negative but also positive valence processing.

Aging is associated with compromised neurocognition. While aerobic exercise has been linked with cognitive resilience, findings regarding its relationship with brain morphology are inconsistent. Furthermore, the biological underpinnings of the relationship between aerobic activity and memory in the aging human brain are unclear. To investigate these issues, we examined hippocampal and non-hippocampal structural correlates of aerobically active lifestyle and cardiorespiratory fitness in older adults. We then examined structural pathways which may potentially mediate the association between active lifestyle and memory. Fifty participants (aged 65-80) underwent structural and diffusion MRI, memory evaluation, were examined for active lifestyle and cardiorespiratory fitness. Morphological features of the hippocampus and fornix, white matter lesions, and brain atrophy were assessed. Active lifestyle and cardiorespiratory fitness correlated with all neurocognitive measures. An exploratory mediation analysis revealed hippocampal and white matter lesions pathways linking active lifestyle and cardiorespiratory fitness with memory. Our results support a neuroprotective role of aerobic exercise on the aging brain and suggest plausible morphological pathways that may underlie the relationship between aerobic exercise and memory.

Training an individual to change dysfunctional patterns of neural activity is an exciting way to harness neuroscience to improve mental health and wellbeing. In this chapter, the way forward in translating neurofeedback (NF) into effective clinical procedures is discussed. Focus is given to (1) how the precision of neural targeting might be improved via procedures such as DecNef, FC-Nef, and process-specific feedback contexts; (2) how NF may become more accessible and affordable by using fMRI-informed EEG and mobile technologies; and (3) how the NF procedure might become more personalized with the timing of training, feedback interfaces, and selected neural activity, all being specified as those which are estimated to get the best effect for each individual patient. The current state of NF as well as feasible ways forward given the known challenges and benefits of different NF technologies are considered.

This chapter reviews existing work on fMRI neurofeedback in disorders of emotion regulation such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, and anxiety disorders. We present a framework of what to target (disturbed or compensatory functions) as well as how to target (what interface to use and whether to up or downregulate). Considering what to target we suggest the following distinction: (a) targeting disturbed processes which aims to restore neural functions that are aberrant compared to the level of that seen in healthy controls, and (b) targeting compensatory functions which are aimed at leveraging what patients are already using to perform some task/function. With regard to targeting disturbed processes: in major depressive disorder this includes increasing amygdala responses to positive stimuli and decreasing salience network responses to negative stimuli. In posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder this includes decreasing limbic brain activity including that of the amygdala. With regard to targeting compensatory processes: in major depressive disorder this involves increasing responses to positive stimuli in prefrontal regions in order to compensate for the lack of limbic and salience network activation. These approaches require identifying neural substrates that may compensate for disturbed functions. In addition to an overview of results in these populations using these approaches, we also discuss major issues in clinical application of neurofeedback for emotion regulation including what and how to target and how to measure training outcome.

Awareness theory posits that individuals connected to a brain-computer interface can learn to estimate and discriminate their brain states. We used the amygdala Electrical Fingerprint (amyg-EFP) - a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging-inspired Electroencephalogram surrogate of deep brain activation - to investigate whether participants could accurately estimate their own brain activation. Ten participants completed up to 20 neurofeedback runs and estimated their amygdala-EFP activation (depicted as a thermometer) and confidence in this rating during each trial. We analysed data using multilevel models, predicting the real thermometer position with participant rated position and adjusted for activation during the previous trial. Hypotheses on learning regulation and improvement of estimation were not confirmed. However, participant ratings were significantly associated with the amyg-EFP signal. Higher rating accuracy also predicted higher subjective confidence in the rating. This proof-of-concept study introduces an approach to study awareness with fMRI-informed neurofeedback and provides initial evidence for metacognition in neurofeedback.

Real-time fMRI neurofeedback is an increasingly popular neuroimaging technique that allows an individual to gain control over his/her own brain signals, which can lead to improvements in behavior in healthy participants as well as to improvements of clinical symptoms in patient populations. However, a considerably large ratio of participants undergoing neurofeedback training do not learn to control their own brain signals and, consequently, do not benefit from neurofeedback interventions, which limits clinical efficacy of neurofeedback interventions. As neurofeedback success varies between studies and participants, it is important to identify factors that might influence neurofeedback success. Here, for the first time, we employed a big data machine learning approach to investigate the influence of 20 different design-specific (e.g. activity vs. connectivity feedback), region of interest-specific (e.g. cortical vs. subcortical) and subject-specific factors (e.g. age) on neurofeedback performance and improvement in 608 participants from 28 independent experiments.With a classification accuracy of 60% (considerably different from chance level), we identified two factors that significantly influenced neurofeedback performance: Both the inclusion of a pre-training no-feedback run before neurofeedback training and neurofeedback training of patients as compared to healthy participants were associated with better neurofeedback performance. The positive effect of pre-training no-feedback runs on neurofeedback performance might be due to the familiarization of participants with the neurofeedback setup and the mental imagery task before neurofeedback training runs. Better performance of patients as compared to healthy participants might be driven by higher motivation of patients, higher ranges for the regulation of dysfunctional brain signals, or a more extensive piloting of clinical experimental paradigms. Due to the large heterogeneity of our dataset, these findings likely generalize across neurofeedback studies, thus providing guidance for designing more efficient neurofeedback studies specifically for improving clinical neurofeedback-based interventions. To facilitate the development of data-driven recommendations for specific design details and subpopulations the field would benefit from stronger engagement in Open Science and data sharing.

Genetic counseling (GC) for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer is available mainly in academic settings. Despite equal risk, most low income public hospital patients remain unaware and untested. Remote counseling may be a solution, but research has been limited to phone counseling for insured patients. Our study compares in-person, phone, and video conference GC among high-risk patients in 3 public hospitals to determine the comparative effectiveness of GC delivered across modes with regard to patients’ knowledge, cancer distress, decisional conflict, perceived stress, risk perception, satisfaction, and recall. We also assessed whether patients have a preference for counseling mode and how that affects outcomes. This report describes the study design and lessons learned regarding recruitment. We conducted a multicenter partially randomized preference noninferiority trial with English-, Spanish-, and Cantonese-speaking patients assigned by randomization or patients´ preference to one of the three GC modes. High-risk patients were identified using a family history screener in clinics or by physician referral. Study staff verified risk by phone, invited participation, conducted informed consent, and administered a baseline survey. Enrollees were asked whether they could be randomized or if they preferred one GC mode. They were then given a GC appointment and called again within 2 weeks of counseling for a follow-up survey. Power calculations required 270 randomized patients. A total of 23,401 screener forms yielded 824 likely to be high-risk; 656 completed baseline surveys. Race/ethnic composition was 40% Latinx, 25% white, 19% African American, and 8% Asian. Of these, 531 were counseled, and 505 completed final surveys (283 from randomized patients). The majority (64%) of non-randomized patients chose counseling by phone, 33% chose in person, 3% chose video. • At every step, participation exceeded our projections, showing that diverse low-income patients were interested in participating in research that they deemed relevant. • Our greatest recruitment challenges were due more to settings than to patients. Collection of screeners varied greatly by month and/or clinic. Oncologists valued the risk services offered by the study, but intensive engagement was necessary with front-line staff/supervisors because of their job demands. • Partial randomization functioned well. Prior studies showed that many high-risk women refuse randomization for GC. Adding a preference arm necessitated a larger sample, but greater inclusiveness yields more generalizable findings. • Recruitment of Chinese-speaking patients was low (2.5%) due largely to structural barriers which we continue to explore. Practice-based safety net research presents numerous challenges that require close partnerships, extensive planning, and highly skilled staff capable of sensitive personnel engagement. The work is rewarded by real-world findings, the sine qua non in efforts to eliminate cancer disparities. Citation Format: Claudia Guerra, Robin Lee, Susan L Stewart, Celia Kaplan, Galen Joseph, Janice Tsoh, Niharika Dixit, Heather Cedermaz, Jin Kim, Jane Campbell, Lily X Wang, Amal Khoury, Cindy Hellman-Wylie, Rena J Pasick. Extending the reach of genetic counseling to the safety net: Study design and recruitment challenges of a randomized trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr A034.

Objective Presurgical memory functional MRI (fMRI) mapping for temporal lobe epilepsy surgery is important because of the excision of structures in the temporal lobe (e.g., hippocampus) that are relevant for intact memory. Although the American Academy of Neurology recommends the use of fMRI for presurgical mapping of epilepsy of verbal and nonverbal memory to predict memory outcome, there are still no specific recommendations about which tests to use. In the current study, we evaluate the potential for clinical utility of two established neuropsychological tests of memory adapted into the fMRI setting. Method We used the Verbal Paired Associates (VPA) for assessment of verbal memory and the Object Learning and Location (OLL) task for assessment of visuospatial memory. To confirm that these tasks engage the hippocampus, we examined their neural underpinning and patterns of laterality in 20 healthy volunteers (mean age = 26.35). Results During fMRI of the VPA task of verbal memory, we found a strong left-lateralized posterior hippocampal activation. Remembering the location of objects in the OLL task of visuospatial memory elicited right-lateralized hippocampal activation. Conclusions These findings demonstrate the utility of the VPA and OLL tests to delineate domain-specific activity and laterality and, as such, may provide supportive evidence to strengthen links between presurgical neuropsychological assessment and memory fMRI mapping for epilepsy surgery. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not only a threat to physical health but is also having severe impacts on mental health. While increases in stress-related symptomatology and other adverse psycho-social outcomes as well as their most important risk factors have been described, hardly anything is known about potential protective factors. Resilience refers to the maintenance of mental health despite adversity. In order to gain mechanistic insights about the relationship between described psycho-social resilience factors and resilience specifically in the current crisis, we assessed resilience factors, exposure to Corona crisis-specific and general stressors, as well as internalizing symptoms in a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 24 languages during the most intense phase of the lockdown in Europe (March 22nd to April 19th) in a convenience sample of N=15,970 adults. Resilience, as an outcome, was conceptualized as good mental health despite stressor exposure and measured as the inverse residual between actual and predicted symptom total score. Preregistered hypotheses (osf.io/r6btn) were tested with multiple regression models and mediation analyses. Results confirmed our primary hypothesis that positive appraisal style (PAS) is positively associated with resilience (p

We present a deep neural network method that enables learning of a personal representation from samples acquired while subjects are performing a self neuro-feedback task, guided by functional MRI (fMRI). The neurofeedback task (watch vs. regulate) provides the subjects with continuous feedback, contingent on the down-regulation of their Amygdala signal. The representation is learned by a self-supervised recurrent neural network that predicts the Amygdala activity in the next fMRI frame given recent fMRI frames and is conditioned on the learned individual representation. We show that our personal representation, learned solely using fMRI images, improves the next-frame prediction considerably and, more importantly, yields superior performance in linear prediction of psychiatric traits, compared to performing such predictions based on clinical data and personality tests. Our code is attached as supplementary and the data would be shared subject to ethical approvals.