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While a large amount of research has studied the facilitation of visual speech on auditory speech recognition, few have investigated the processing of visual speech gestures in motor-oriented tasks that focus on the spatial and motor features of the articulator actions instead of the phonetic features of auditory and visual speech. The current study examined the engagement of spatial and phonetic processing of visual speech in a motor-oriented speech imitation task. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure the haemodynamic activities related to spatial processing and audiovisual integration in the superior parietal lobe (SPL) and the posterior superior/middle temporal gyrus (pSTG/pMTG) respectively. In addition, visuo-labial and visuo-lingual speech were compared with examine the influence of visual familiarity and audiovisual association on the processes in question. fNIRS revealed significant activations in the SPL but found no supra-additive audiovisual activations in the pSTG/pMTG, suggesting that the processing of audiovisual speech stimuli was primarily focused on spatial processes related to action comprehension and preparation, whereas phonetic processes related to audiovisual integration was minimal. Comparisons between visuo-labial and visuo-lingual speech imitations revealed no significant difference in the activation of the SPL or the pSTG/pMTG, suggesting that a higher degree of visual familiarity and audiovisual association did not significantly influence how visuo-labial speech was processed compared with visuo-lingual speech. The current study offered insights on the pattern of visual-speech processing under a motor-oriented task objective and provided further evidence for the modulation of multimodal speech integration by voluntary selective attention and task objective.

Contains fulltext : 237002.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) The neurobiology of sentence production has been largely understudied compared to the neurobiology of sentence comprehension, due to difficulties with experimental control and motion-related artifacts in neuroimaging. We studied the neural response to constituents of increasing size and specifically focused on the similarities and differences in the production and comprehension of the same stimuli. Participants had to either produce or listen to stimuli in a gradient of constituent size based on a visual prompt. Larger constituent sizes engaged the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and middle temporal gyrus (LMTG) extending to inferior parietal areas in both production and comprehension, confirming that the neural resources for syntactic encoding and decoding are largely overlapping. An ROI analysis in LIFG and LMTG also showed that production elicited larger responses to constituent size than comprehension and that the LMTG was more engaged in comprehension than production, while the LIFG was more engaged in production than comprehension. Finally, increasing constituent size was characterized by later BOLD peaks in comprehension but earlier peaks in production. These results show that syntactic encoding and parsing engage overlapping areas, but there are asymmetries in the engagement of the language network due to the specific requirements of production and comprehension. 14 p.

Background and purpose The purpose of the current study is to detect changes of graph-theory-based degree centrality (DC) and their relationship with the clinical treatment effects of anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) for patients with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) using resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI). Methods RS-fMRI data from 35 CAE patients were collected and compared with findings from 35 age and gender matched healthy controls (HCs). The patients were treated with AEDs for 46.03 weeks before undergoing a second RS-fMRI scan. Results CAE children at baseline showed increased DC in thalamus, postcentral and precentral and reduced DC in medial frontal cortex, superior frontal cortex, middle temporal cortex, angular and precuneus. However, those abnormalities showed a clear renormalization after AEDs treatments. We then explored the viability of graph-theory-based degree centrality to accurately classify effectiveness to AEDs. Support Vector Machine analysis using leave-one-out cross-validation achieved a correct classification rate of 84.22% [sensitivity 78.76%, specificity 89.65%, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) 0.96] for differentiating effective subjects from ineffective subjects. Brain areas that contributed most to the classification model were mainly located within the right thalamus, bilateral middle temporal gyrus, right medial frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, left precuneus, bilateral angular right precentral and left postcentral. Furthermore, the DC change within the bilateral angular are positively correlated with the symptom improvements after AEDs treatment. Conclusion These findings suggest that graph-theory-based measures, such as DC, combined with machine-learning algorithms, can provide crucial insights into pathophysiological mechanisms and the effectiveness of AEDs.

Background Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is widely used for heroin use disorder. Although its curative effect is remarkable, there are problems associated with its use. While previous studies have found that methadone use may have certain effects on cerebral white matter, its effect on gray matter (GM) and its related neural networks is unclear. This study aimed to observe the effects of long-term methadone use on cerebral GM and the changes in related neural networks. Methods Patients receiving MMT treatment for heroin use disorder (N=50) were recruited. Longitudinal self-control was adopted, and the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to compare the difference in cerebral GM volume before and after 1 year of methadone use, then we select the brain region where the GM volume changed as the region of interest (ROI), and use the DPARSF software for the whole brain function connection, and the differences in brain function connections before and after 1year MMT treatment were compared. Results Our results demonstrated that, after 1 year of MMT, patients showed smaller GM volume in the bilateral insula, occipital lingual gyrus, right cingulate gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, caudate nucleus, temporal, and occipital regions, and the resting neural network of the brain also changed. Conclusions We speculate that long-term methadone use can lead to damage to GM structure and adaptive changes in the neural network of patients with heroin use disorder, mainly involving emotional perception, spatial localization, working memory, and other related functions.

Background: This study aimed to examine whether 40-Hz auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) are impaired in participants at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P) and predict clinical outcomes. Methods: Magnetoencephalography data were collected during a 40-Hz ASSR paradigm for a group of 116 CHR-P participants, 33 patients with first-episode psychosis (15 antipsychotic-naive), a psychosis risk–negative group (n = 38), and 49 healthy control subjects. Analysis of group differences of 40-Hz intertrial phase coherence and 40-Hz amplitude focused on right Heschl’s gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, hippocampus, and thalamus after establishing significant activations during 40-Hz ASSR stimulation. Linear regression and linear discriminant analyses were used to predict clinical outcomes in CHR-P participants, including transition to psychosis and persistence of attenuated psychotic symptoms (APSs). Results: CHR-P participants and patients with first-episode psychosis were impaired in 40-Hz amplitude in the right thalamus and hippocampus. In addition, patients with first-episode psychosis were impaired in 40-Hz amplitude in the right Heschl’s gyrus, and CHR-P participants in 40-Hz intertrial phase coherence in the right Heschl’s gyrus. The 40-Hz ASSR deficits were pronounced in CHR-P participants who later transitioned to psychosis (n = 13) or showed persistent APSs (n = 34). Importantly, both APS persistence and transition to psychosis were predicted by 40-Hz ASSR impairments, with ASSR activity in the right hippocampus, superior temporal gyrus, and middle temporal gyrus correctly classifying 69.2% individuals with nonpersistent APSs and 73.5% individuals with persistent APSs (area under the curve = 0.842), and right thalamus 40-Hz activity correctly classifying 76.9% transitioned and 53.6% nontransitioned CHR-P participants (area under the curve = 0.695). Conclusions: Our data indicate that deficits in gamma-band entrainment in the primary auditory cortex and subcortical areas constitute a potential biomarker for predicting clinical outcomes in CHR-P participants.

Background Weight gain (WG) is a frequently reported side effect of subthalamic deep brain stimulation; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The active contact locations influence the clinical outcomes of subthalamic deep brain stimulation, but it is unclear whether WG is directly associated with the active contact locations. We aimed to determine whether WG is associated with the subthalamic deep brain stimulation active contact locations. Methods We enrolled 14 patients with Parkinson’s disease who underwent bilateral subthalamic deep brain stimulation between 2013 and 2019. Bodyweight and body mass index were measured before and one year following the surgery. The Lead-DBS Matlab toolbox was used to determine the active contact locations based on magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. We also created sweet spot maps for WG using voxel-wise statistics, based on volume of tissue activation and the WG of each patient. Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography data were also acquired before and one year following surgery, and statistical parametric mapping was used to evaluate changes in brain metabolism. We examined which brain regions’ metabolism fluctuation significantly correlated with increased body mass index scores and positron emission tomography data. Results One year after surgery, the body mass index increase was 2.03 kg/m2. The sweet spots for WG were bilateral, mainly located dorsally outside of the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Furthermore, WG was correlated with increased metabolism in the left limbic and associative regions, including the middle temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and orbital gyrus. Conclusions Although the mechanisms underlying WG following subthalamic deep brain stimulation are possibly multifactorial, our findings suggest that dorsal stimulation outside of STN may lead to WG. The metabolic changes in limbic and associative cortical regions after STN-DBS may also be one of the mechanisms underlying WG. Further studies are warranted to confirm whether dorsal stimulation outside of STN changes the activities of these cortical regions.

Bipolar patients (BD) in the euthymic phase show almost no symptoms, nevertheless possibility of relapse is still present. We expected to find a psychobiological trace of their vulnerability by analyzing a specific network-the Language Network (LN)-connecting many high-level processes and brain regions measured at rest. According to Crow's hypothesis on the key role of language in the origin of psychoses, we expected an altered asymmetry of the LN in euthymic BDs. Eighteen euthymic BD patients (10 females; age = 54.50 ± 11.38 years) and 16 healthy controls (HC) (8 females; age = 51.16 ± 11.44 years) underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan at rest. The LN was extracted through independent component analysis. Then, LN time series was used to compute the fractional amplitude of the low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) index, which was then correlated with clinical scales. Compared with HC, euthymic patients showed an altered LN with greater activation of Broca's area right homologous and anterior insula together with reduced activation of left middle temporal gyrus. The normalized fALFF analysis on BD patients' LN time series revealed that the Slow-5 fALFF band was positively correlated with residual mania symptoms but negatively associated with depression scores. In line with Crow's hypothesis postulating an altered language hemispheric asymmetry in psychoses, we revealed, in euthymic BD patients, a right shift involving both the temporal and frontal linguistic hubs. The fALFF applied to LN allowed us to highlight a number of significant correlations of this measure with residual mania and depression psychiatric symptoms. ispartof: TRANSLATIONAL PSYCHIATRY vol:12 issue:1 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Non-motor symptoms like cognitive impairment are a huge burden for patients with Parkinson’s disease. We examined conflict adaptation by using the congruency sequence effect as an index of adaptation in 17 patients with Parkinson’s disease and 18 healthy controls with an Eriksen flanker task using functional magnet resonance imaging to reveal possible differences in executive function performance. We observed overall increased response times in patients with Parkinson’s disease compared to healthy controls. A flanker interference effect and congruency sequence effect occurred in both groups. A significant interaction of current and previous trial type was revealed, but no effect of response sequence concerning left or right motor responses. Therefore, top-down conflict monitoring processes are likely the main contributors leading to the congruency sequence effect in our paradigm. In both groups incongruent flanker events elicited activation in the middle temporal gyrus, inferior parietal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the insula in contrast to congruent flanker events. A psychophysiological interactions analysis revealed increased functional connectivity of inferior parietal cortex as a seed to the left prefrontal thalamus during incongruent vs. congruent and neutral stimuli in patients with Parkinson’s disease that may reflect compensatory facilitating action selection processes. We conclude that patients with Parkinson’s disease exhibit conflict adaptation comparable to healthy controls when investigated while receiving their usual medication.

The dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) has been consistently reported to be associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recent studies have linked DRD4 to functional connectivity among specific brain regions. The current study aimed to compare the effects of the DRD4 genotype on functional integrity in drug-naïve ADHD children and healthy children. Resting-state functional MRI images were acquired from 49 children with ADHD and 37 healthy controls (HCs). We investigated the effects of the 2-repeat allele of DRD4 on brain network connectivity in both groups using a parameter called the degree of centrality (DC), which indexes local functional relationships across the entire brain connectome. A voxel-wise two-way ANCOVA was performed to examine the diagnosis-by-genotype interactions on DC maps. Significant diagnosis-by-genotype interactions with DC were found in the temporal lobe, including the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) and bilateral middle temporal gyrus (MTG) (GRF corrected at voxel level p

The aim of the study is to explore interhemispheric homotopic functional connectivity alterations in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with and without neuropsychiatric lupus (NPSLE and non-NPSLE, respectively) and their potential correlations with clinical characteristics and neuropsychological performance. Based on resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data collected from SLE patients and matched healthy controls (HCs), the voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) analysis was conducted to measure functional homotopy. Subsequently, correlations between altered functional homotopy and clinical/neuropsychological data were analyzed. Compared with the HC group, both NPSLE and non-NPSLE groups showed attenuated homotopic connectivity in middle temporal gyrus (MTG), cuneus (CUN), middle occipital gyrus (MOG), angular gyrus (ANG), and postcentral gyrus (PoCG). NPSLE patients also exhibited decreased homotopic connectivity in inferior parietal gyrus (IPG) and middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Compared with non-NPSLE patients, NPSLE patients showed weaker interhemispheric homotopic functional connectivity in MOG. Decreased homotopic functional connectivity in PoCG, IPG, and MOG were associated with the anxiety state of SLE patients. Our findings revealed attenuated functional homotopy in both NPSLE and non-NPSLE groups compared to the HC group, which appeared to be more severe in patients with comorbid neuropsychiatric lupus. Interhemispheric homotopy dysconnectivity may participate in the neuropathology of anxiety symptoms in SLE.

BackgroundCluster headache is an excruciating disorder with no cure. Greater occipital nerve blockades can transiently suppress attacks in approximately 50% of patients, however, its mechanism of action remains uncertain, and there are no reliable predictors of treatment response. To address this, we investigated the effect of occipital nerve blockade on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), an index of brain activity, and differences between treatment responders and non-responders. Finally, we compared baseline perfusion maps from patients to a matched group of healthy controls.Methods21 male, treatment-naive patients were recruited while in a cluster headache bout. During a pain-free phase between headaches, patients underwent pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelled MRI assessments to provide quantitative indices of rCBF. MRIs were performed prior to and 7-to-21 days following treatment. Patients also recorded the frequency of their headache attacks in a daily paper diary. Neuropsychological assessment including anxiety, depression and quality of life measures was performed in a first, scanning free session for each patient.ResultsFollowing treatment, patients demonstrated relative rCBF reductions in posterior temporal gyrus, cerebellum and caudate, and rCBF increases in occipital cortex. Responders demonstrated relative rCBF increases, compared to non-responders, in medial prefrontal cortex and lateral occipital cortex at baseline, but relative reductions in cingulate and middle temporal cortices. rCBF was increased in patients compared to healthy controls in cerebellum and hippocampus, but reduced in orbitofrontal cortex, insula and middle temporal gyrus.ConclusionsWe provide new mechanistic insights regarding the aetiology of cluster headache, the mechanisms of action of occipital nerve blockades and potential predictors of treatment response. Future investigation should determine whether observed effects are reproducible and extend to other headache disorders.

Suicidal ideation (SI) is a direct risk factor for suicide in patients with depression. Regarding the emergence of SI, previous studies have discovered many risk factors, including childhood abuse as the major public problem. Previous imaging studies have demonstrated that SI or childhood abuse has effects on brain structure and function, respectively, but the interaction effects between them have not been fully studied. To explore the interaction effect between SI and childhood abuse, 215 patients with major depressive disorder completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to evaluate childhood abuse and Beck’s Scale for Suicidal Ideation to evaluate SI. Then, they completed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within one week after completing questionnaires. Respectively, we preprocessed the structural and functional images and analyzed gray matter volumes (GMV) and mean fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (mfALFF) values. Results showed that the changes of GMV in the cuneus, precuneus, paracentric lobule, inferior frontal gyrus, and caudate nucleus and local activity in cuneal and middle temporal gyrus are in relation with SI and childhood abuse. And in left caudate, SI and childhood abuse interact with each other on the influence of GMV. That is, the influence of SI in GMV was related to childhood abuse, and the influence of childhood abuse in GMV was also related to SI. Therefore, the combination of SI and childhood abuse based on imaging should help us better understand the suicide ideation developing mechanism and propose more effective targeted prevention strategies for suicide prevention.

Mathematics and science are highly integrated disciplines, but the brain association between mathematics and science remains unclear. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of 34 undergraduates (17 males, mean age = 20.3±1.64 years old) while they completed mathematical, physical and chemical principles, arithmetic computation, and sentence comprehension. We examined neural activation level, neural activation pattern, and neural connectivity to investigate the neural associations between mathematics and science (including physics and chemistry). The results showed that mathematical, physical, and chemical principles elicited similar neural activation level and neural activation pattern in the visuospatial network (mainly in the middle frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule), which were different from those elicited by sentence comprehension; those three principles also elicited similar neural activation level and neural activation pattern in the semantic network (mainly in the middle temporal gyrus, angular gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), in contrast to that elicited by arithmetic computation. Effective connectivity analyses showed stronger connectivity between the middle temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule for mathematical, physical, and chemical principles than for sentence comprehension. The results suggest that visuospatial and semantic networks were critical for processing both mathematics and science.

Background Selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SelAH) is designed to treat medically refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with reduced morbidity compared to standard anterior temporal lobectomy. At our institution, we perform SelAH via a transcortical approach via small corticectomy in the middle temporal gyrus. Objective To discuss the surgical anatomy and nuances of SelAH, share our institutional experience, and perform a review of literature. Methods Institutional experience was recorded by collecting demographic and outcome data from 1999 to 2017 under an Institutional Review Board protocol in a prospective manner using a REDCap database. Results A total of 211 SelAH procedures were performed at our institution between 1999 and 2017. Of these patients, 54% (113/211) were females. The average age at surgery was 39.4 yr. Two-year Engel outcome data were available for 168 patients, of which 73% (123/168) had Engel I outcomes. Engel II outcomes were reported in 16.6% (28/168), III in 4.7% (8/168), and IV in 5.3% (9/168). Our review of literature showed that this is comparable to the seizure freedom rates reported by other groups. We then reviewed our surgical methodology based on operative reports and created illustrations of the surgical anatomy of temporal lobe approach. These illustrations were compared with postoperative magnetic resonance imaging to provide a better 3D understanding of the complex architecture of mesial temporal structures. Conclusion SelAH is a minimally invasive, safe, and effective approach for the treatment of medically refractory epilepsy with good surgical outcomes and low morbidity. We feel that mastering the complex anatomy of this approach helps achieve successful outcomes.

The processes and organizational principles of information involved in object recognition have been a subject of intense debate. These research efforts led to the understanding that local computations and feedforward/feedback connections are essential to our representations and their organization. Recent data, however, has demonstrated that distal computations also play a role in how information is locally processed. Here we focus on how long-range connectivity and local functional organization of information are related, by exploring regions that show overlapping category-preferences for two categories and testing whether their connections are related with distal representations in a category-specific way. We used an approach that relates functional connectivity with distal areas to local voxel-wise category-preferences. Specifically, we focused on two areas that show an overlap in category-preferences for tools and hands-the inferior parietal lobule/anterior intraparietal sulcus (IPL/aIPS) and the posterior middle temporal gyrus/lateral occipital temporal cortex (pMTG/LOTC) - and how connectivity from these two areas relate to voxel-wise category-preferences in two ventral temporal regions dedicated to the processing of tools and hands separately-the left medial fusiform gyrus and the fusiform body area respectively-as well as across the brain. We show that the functional connections of the two overlap areas correlate with categorical preferences for each category independently. These results show that regions that process both tools and hands maintain object topography in a category-specific way. This potentially allows for a category-specific flow of information that is pertinent to computing object representations.

Background There has been a considerable focus on the changes of functional connections between brain regions in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by previous resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) studies. However, little is known about the function of brain information integration between the two hemispheres of the brain. This study explores differences in interhemispheric coordination between T2DM patients and normal control (NC) subjects using the voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method. We also assess whether differences in VMHC were relevant to cognitive dysfunction in T2DM patients. Methods Sixty-nine T2DM patients and 69 NC subjects were enrolled (matched for age, sex and education level). All participants underwent cognitive assessments. VMHC between brain regions was obtained by rs-fMRI analysis. Partial correlation analysis (after controlling for age, sex and education level) was used to explore the correlation between VMHC value and neuropsychological tests. Results Compared with NC subjects, T2DM patients exhibited significantly lower VMHC in the medial orbitofrontal gyrus cortex (mOFC), anterior cingulate gyrus, inferior parietal lobe, superior and middle temporal gyrus (MTG), middle occipital gyrus, and superior occipital gyrus. Moreover, after applying Bonferroni correction, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score and VMHC value for the MTG were significantly positively correlated in T2DM patients. In contrast, T2DM patients exhibited higher VMHC in the cerebellum posterior lobe and tonsil and inferior temporal gyrus than the NCs. Conclusions Our study indicates that functional coordination between homotopic brain regions is generally impaired in T2DM patients. In brain regions with decreased VMHC in the default mode network (DMN), MTG impairment could serve as a critical node for T2DM-related cognitive dysfunction. Furthermore, the increased VMHC observed in the cerebellum and inferior temporal gyrus might indicate a functional coordination mechanism.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder whose aetiology is currently unknown. Although numerous studies have attempted to identify the genetic risk factor(s) of AD, the interpretability and/or the prediction accuracies achieved by these studies remained unsatisfactory, reducing their clinical significance. Here, we employ the ensemble of random-forest and regularized regression model (LASSO) to the AD-associated microarray datasets from four brain regions - Prefrontal cortex, Middle temporal gyrus, Hippocampus, and Entorhinal cortex- to discover novel genetic biomarkers through a machine learning-based feature-selection classification scheme. The proposed scheme unrevealed the most optimum and biologically significant classifiers within each brain region, which achieved by far the highest prediction accuracy of AD in 5-fold cross-validation (99% average). Interestingly, along with the novel and prominent biomarkers including CORO1C, SLC25A46, RAE1, ANKIB1, CRLF3, PDYN, numerous non-coding RNA genes were also observed as discriminator, of which AK057435 and BC037880 are uncharacterized long non-coding RNA genes.

Congruency monitoring of action occurs in individuals with relevant motor experience while observing actions. However, it remains unclear whether congruency monitoring can occur at the motor level and the extent to which expertise contributes. Here, we examined the behavioral performance and electrophysiological brain activity of individuals with and without domain-specific expertise when judging the action congruency of occluded video clips of a snowboard halfpipe trick and normal walking. For the halfpipe trick, experts exhibited better task performance and greater midline theta oscillations before possible incongruency compared with controls. Source reconstruction for the theta oscillation revealed a stronger activation in the middle and superior frontal gyrus for experts in response to incongruency compared with controls. Incongruent halfpipe actions elicited a higher N400 amplitude in experts compared with congruent actions, while no such differences were observed in controls. Source reconstruction revealed the activation in the board frontal regions and middle temporal gyrus for experts. These findings suggest that congruency monitoring can occur at the motor level during action observations and is modulated by individual expertise. The modulation of expertise reflects in the special N400 effect and midline theta oscillation.

Background. Linguistic impairment following cerebellar lesions is characterized by a marked cerebellocerebral diaschisis with decreased perfusion in the left cerebral hemisphere. Case. We report on a 60-year-old right-handed French chef who presented with linguistic deficits following a right cerebellar infarction. Neurolinguistic examinations in the acute phase showed impaired graphomotor planning, especially for kanji (Japanese morphograms). Despite the absence of any structural damage to the supratentorial brain regions, a quantitative 123I-IMP SPECT study revealed a relative hypoperfusion, mainly around the left posterior middle temporal gyrus, considered to be a crossed cerebellar-cerebral diaschisis. We performed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and observed that a picture card task could increase blood perfusion in the affected area. This task was as follows: once he saw a picture card depicting a dish, the patient had to list the ingredients that make up the dish. For example, he had to name vegetables, meat, and spices upon seeing a “curry” picture card. We added this task to his daily speech-hearing therapy regimen. In the chronic phase, we confirmed symptom amelioration in linguistic performance-paralleled reduction in the level of hypoperfusion on SPECT study. Discussion. This case is the first report of an fNIRS approach used to evaluate evidence-based prospective speech-hearing tasks by observing blood flow to the hypoperfused area of the cerebral cortex surface.

Humans automatically and unintentionally detect and remember regularities in the visual environment−a type of learning termed visual statistical learning (VSL). Many aspects of learning from reward resemble statistical learning in some respects, yet whether and how reward learning impacts VSL is largely unexamined. In two studies, we investigated the impact of reward on VSL and examined the neural basis of this interaction using fMRI. Subjects completed a risky choice task, in which they learned the values (high or low) of fractal images through a trial-and-error binary-choice task. Unbeknownst to subjects, we paired images so that some images always predicted other images on the following trial. This led to four types of pairings (High-High, High-Low, Low-High, and Low-Low). In a subsequent recognition task and reward memory task, we asked them to choose the more familiar of two pairs (a target and a foil) and to recall the value of images (high or low). We found better recognition when the first image of a pair was a high-value image, with High-High pairs showing the highest recognition rate. To investigate the neural basis of this effect, we measured brain responses to visual images that were associated with both varying levels of reward and sequential contingencies with event-related fMRI. Subjects completed the same risky choice task and then passively viewed a stream of the images with pairwise relationships intact. Brain responses to images during the risky choice task were affected by both value and statistical contingencies. When we compared responses between the first image of a pair that was high-value and the first image of a pair that was low-value, we found greater activation in regions that included inferior frontal gyrus, left anterior cingulate gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, caudate, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, and lateral occipital cortex. These findings are not driven solely by the value difference, but rather the interaction between statistically structured information and reward − the same value contrast yielded no regions for either second-image contrasts or for singletons. Our results suggest that the first images of pairs that were associated with high-value, in comparison to those associated with low-value, were involved in greater attentional engagement, potentially enabling better memory for statistically learned pairs and reward information. Additionally, we found neural evidence that when an image contains both statistical structure and reward information, the reward learning may be predicted by the type of the statistical structure it is associated with. We conclude that reward contingencies affect VSL, with high-value associated with stronger behavioral and neural signatures of such learning.

Children’s behavioral problems have been associated with their family environments. Here, we investigate whether specific features of brain structures could relate to this link. Using structural magnetic resonance imaging of 8756 children aged 9-11 from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental study, we show that high family conflict and low parental monitoring scores are associated with children’s behavioral problems, as well as with smaller cortical areas of the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and middle temporal gyrus. A longitudinal analysis indicates that psychiatric problems scores are associated with increased family conflict and decreased parental monitoring 1 year later, and mediate associations between the reduced cortical areas and family conflict, and parental monitoring scores. These results emphasize the relationships between the brain structure of children, their family environments, and their behavioral problems., Child behavior has been associated with parenting behavior. Here, the authors investigate associations between child behavior, parental behavior, and structural MRI using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental (ABCD) study dataset.

Previous studies have confirmed the sex difference of gray matter asymmetry in typically developing controls and the abnormal gray matter asymmetry in autism spectrum disorders. However, whether and how sex differences of gray matter asymmetry exist in autism spectrum disorders remains studied. This paper analyzes the above issues and explores correlations between gray matter asymmetry and autistic symptoms. Data from 72 children (36 males and 36 females) with autism spectrum disorders and 72 typically developing-controls (36 males and 36 females) between 8 and 14 years were included and obtained from the autism brain imaging data exchange repository (autism brain imaging data exchange I and autism brain imaging data exchange II). The voxel-based morphometry approach was used to assess gray matter asymmetry in T1-weighted brain data, and gray matter asymmetry was quantified as asymmetry index. A 2 × 2 analysis of covariance was used to identify asymmetry index differences among the four groups. Pearson correlation analysis was performed for asymmetry index values extracted from the clusters with significant differences between the four groups and autistic symptoms (social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive behaviors) measured by the revised autism diagnostic interview scale. Results showed that specific brain regions showed significant main effects for diagnosis in which autism spectrum disorders patients had more leftward asymmetry than typically developing-controls for the parahippocampal gyrus and the postcentral gyrus; specific brain regions showed significant main effects for sex in which females showed more rightward asymmetry for the middle temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, and postcentral gyrus and minor rightward asymmetry for the superior frontal gyrus than males; significant diagnosis × sex interaction effects were identified in the angular gyrus and middle occipital gyrus. Pearson correlation analysis showed that males with autism spectrum disorders had a positive association between the asymmetry index value in the middle occipital gyrus and more significant verbal impairment measured by the revised autism diagnostic interview (r = 0.387, p = 0.026). The asymmetry index value in the parahippocampal gyrus was positively associated with more severe social impairment in females with autism spectrum disorders (r = 0.422, p = 0.020). We identified that the sex difference of gray matter asymmetry in children with autism spectrum disorders is qualitative rather than quantitative, which is relatively novel. Our findings provide the theoretical basis for conducting separate studies and using sex-specific diagnostic methods and treatments for males and females children with autism spectrum disorders.

Correctly identifying friends and foes is integral to successful group living. Here, we use repetition suppression to examine the neural circuitry underlying generalized group categorization—the process of categorizing in-group and out-group members across multiple social categories. Participants assigned to an arbitrary team (i.e., Eagles or Rattlers) underwent fMRI while categorizing political and arbitrary in-group and out-group members. We found that frontoparietal control network exhibited repetition suppression in response to “identical in-group” (Democrat-Democrat or Eagles-Eagles) and “different in-group” (Eagles-Democrat or Democrat-Eagles) trials relative to “out-group/in-group trials” (Republican-Democrat or Rattler-Eagles). Specifically, the repetition suppression contrast map included bilateral superior parietal lobule, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and bilateral middle temporal gyrus. Participants who reported an increased tendency to join and value their social groups exhibited decreased repetition suppression in bilateral DLPFC. Comparison of our whole-brain repetition suppression map with an independently identified map of frontoparietal control network revealed 34.3% overlap. Social categorization requires recognizing both a target’s group membership but also the target’s orientation toward one’s self. Fittingly, we find that generalized social categorization engages a network that acts as a functional bridge between dorsal attentional (exogenously-oriented) and default mode (internally-oriented) networks.

Adolescent depression is prevalent, debilitating, and associated with chronic lifetime mental health disorders. Understanding the neurobiology of depression is critical to developing novel treatments. We tested a neurofeedback protocol targeting emotional regulation and self-processing circuitry and examined brain activity associated with reduced symptom severity, as measured through self-report questionnaires, four hours after neurofeedback. Depressed (n = 34) and healthy (n = 19) adolescents participated in (i) a brief neurofeedback task that involves simultaneously viewing their own happy face, recalling a positive autobiographical memory, and increasing amygdala-hippocampal activity; (ii) a self- vs. other- face recognition task with happy, neutral, and sad facial expressions before and after the neurofeedback. In depressed youth, reduced depression after neurofeedback was associated with increased self-referential and visual areas’ activity during neurofeedback, specifically, increased activity in the cuneus, precuneus and parietal lobe. Reduced depression was also associated with increased activation of emotional regulation and cross-modal areas during a self-recognition task. These areas included the cerebellum, middle temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus. However, decreased rumination was linked to decreased precuneus, angular and temporal gyri activity during neurofeedback. These results tentatively suggest that neurofeedback may induce short-term neurobiological changes in the self-referential and emotional regulation networks associated with reduced symptom severity among depressed adolescents.

Background Deficits in emotion recognition have been repeatedly documented in patients diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but their neural basis is unknown so far. Methods In the current study, adult patients with ADHD (n = 44) and healthy control subjects (n = 43) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during explicit emotion recognition of stimuli expressing affective information in face, voice, or face–voice combinations. The employed experimental paradigm allowed us to delineate areas for processing audiovisual information based on their functional activation profile, including the bilateral posterior superior temporal gyrus/middle temporal gyrus, amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and precuneus, as well as the right posterior thalamus. Results As expected, unbiased hit rates for correct classification of the expressed emotions were lower in patients with ADHD than in healthy control subjects irrespective of the presented sensory modality. This deficit at a behavioral level was accompanied by lower activation in patients with ADHD versus healthy control subjects in the cortex adjacent to the right superior temporal gyrus/middle temporal gyrus and the right posterior thalamus, which represent key areas for processing socially relevant signals and their integration across modalities. A cortical region adjacent to the right posterior superior temporal gyrus was the only brain region that showed a significant correlation between brain activation and emotion identification performance. Conclusions Altogether, these results provide the first evidence for a potential neural substrate of the observed impairments in emotion recognition in adults with ADHD.

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients are at risk of memory deficits, which have been linked to functional network disturbances, particularly of integration of the default mode network (DMN). However, the cellular substrates of functional network integration are unknown. We leverage a unique cross-scale dataset of drug-resistant TLE patients (n = 31), who underwent pseudo resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) and/or neuropsychological testing before neurosurgery. fMRI and MEG underwent atlas-based connectivity analyses. Functional network centrality of the lateral middle temporal gyrus, part of the DMN, was used as a measure of local network integration. Subsequently, non-pathological cortical tissue from this region was used for single cell morphological and electrophysiological patch-clamp analysis, assessing integration in terms of total dendritic length and action potential rise speed. As could be hypothesized, greater network centrality related to better memory performance. Moreover, greater network centrality correlated with more integrative properties at the cellular level across patients. We conclude that individual differences in cognitively relevant functional network integration of a DMN region are mirrored by differences in cellular integrative properties of this region in TLE patients. These findings connect previously separate scales of investigation, increasing translational insight into focal pathology and large-scale network disturbances in TLE.

NEW FINDINGS What is the central question of this study? White matter lesions (WMLs) are a brain disease characterized by altered brain structural and functional connectivity, but findings have shown an inconsistent pattern: are there distinct cortical thickness changes in patients with WMLs subtypes? What is the main finding and its importance? Patients with WMLs with non-dementia vascular cognitive impairment and WMLs with vascular dementia showed distinct pathophysiology in cortical thickness. These neural correlates of WMLs should be considered in future treatment. ABSTRACT The effect of cortical thickness on white matter lesions (WMLs) in patients with distinct vascular cognitive impairments is relatively unknown. This study investigated the correlation between cortical thickness and vascular cognitive manifestations. WML patients and healthy controls from Beijing Tiantan Hospital between 2014 and 2018 were included. The patients were further divided into two subgroups, namely WMLs with non-dementia vascular cognitive impairment (WML-VCIND) and WMLs with vascular dementia (WML-VaD) according to the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale and the Beijing version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Changes in cortical thickness were calculated using FreeSurfer. Pearson's correlation analysis was performed to explore the relationship between cognitive manifestations and cortical thickness in WML patients. Forty-five WML patients and 23 healthy controls were recruited. The WML group exhibited significant difference in cortical thickness compared to the control group. Significantly decreased cortical thickness in the middle and superior frontal gyri, middle temporal gyrus, angular gyrus and insula was found in the WML-VaD versus WML-VCIND subgroup. Cortical thickness deficits of the left caudal middle frontal gyrus (r = 0.451, P = 0.002), left rostral middle frontal gyrus (r = 0.514, P

The relationship between language and thinking has long been a matter of debate and a research focus in studies on thinking and problem solving, including creativity. Previous behavioral studies have found that verbalization of one's internal thoughts does not participate in or even interfere with the creative insight process, thus suggesting that insight may take place nonverbally. In contrast to this hypothesis, the present study proposes a new one. That is, given that the basic categories or fundamental functions of key concepts or objects are critically changed or expanded during insightful thinking, the linguistic processing accompanying insight can be reflected as category-related representation and recategorization processes, which can be critically mediated by the posterior middle temporal gyrus and the angular gyrus (pMTG/AG). Using constraint-relaxation insight riddles as materials in a guided-insight experimental design with external hints to trigger the insightful representational change, this preliminary neuroimaging study of 11 participants found the involvement of pMTG/AG during moments of induced insight, but did not find the activation of left ventral frontal areas which are typically involved in verbalizing of one's internal thoughts. Although this observation still cannot exclude the possibility of internal verbalization in insightful restructuring, it implies that linguistic processing in insight may take the more fundamental form of category-related processing.