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White matter degradation has been proposed as one possible explanation for age-related cognitive decline. The human brain is, however, a network and it may be more appropriate to relate cognitive functions to properties of the network rather than specific brain regions. Cognitive domains were measured annually (mean follow-up = 1.25 ± 0.61 years), including processing speed, memory, language, visuospatial, and executive functions. Diffusion tensor imaging was performed at baseline in 90 clinically normal older adults (aged 54–86). We report on graph theory-based analyses of diffusion tensor imaging tract-derived connectivity. The machine learning approach was used to predict the rate of cognitive decline from white matter connectivity data. The reduced efficacy of white matter networks could predict the performance of these cognitive domains except memory. The predicted scores were significantly correlated with the real scores. For the local regions for predicting the cognitive changes, the right precuneus, left inferior parietal lobe and cuneus are the most important regions for predicting monthly change of executive function; some left partial and occipital regions are the most important for the changed of attention; the right frontal and temporal regions are the most important for the changed of language. Our findings suggested that the global white matter connectivity characteristics are the valuable predictive index for the longitudinal cognitive decline. For the first time, topological efficiency of white matter connectivity maps which related to special domains of cognitive decline in the elderly are identified.

Background: Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD) is a chronic functional vestibular disorder, but its pathogenesis is still unclear. Results of our previous study revealed altered spontaneous functional activity of cuneus and precuneus in PPPD patients, which may be associated with the development of PPPD. The study aimed to explore the changes in functional integration, especially the changes in functional connectivity strength (FCS) in the cuneus and precuneus in patients with PPPD using FCS and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analyses.Methods: Twelve PPPD patients and 12 healthy controls were enrolled. Functional MRI (fMRI) was further performed in all subjects. Global FCS, long--range FCS (lFCS) and short-range FCS (sFCS) were calculated to explore the FCS changes in PPPD patients. Moreover, seed-based FC analysis was performed on regions with altered FCS to further investigate the alterations in FC and the possible causes for FCS changes. Correlation analysis between FCS/FC and clinical indicators in PPPD patients were performed.Results: Compared with healthy controls, no significant change in global FCS and lFCS was found in PPPD patients. PPPD patients exhibited weaker sFCS in the cuneus and precuneus (K=621, PConclusion: PPPD patients exhibited altered FCS in the bilateral precuneus and cuneus, which may be associated with abnormal integration of visual and vestibular information and abnormal integration between different spatial reference frames.

BACKGROUND: Irritability predicts concurrent and prospective psychiatric disorders across the lifespan. Anxiety commonly co-occurs with irritability, and such comorbidity complicates care. Understanding the mechanisms of comorbid traits is necessary to inform treatment decisions. This study aimed to disentangle neural mechanisms of irritability from anxiety in the context of attentional shifting toward and away from emotional faces in youths from treatment-seeking families. METHODS: Youths (N = 45), mean age = 14.01 years (standard deviation = 1.89) completed a dot-probe task during functional magnetic resonance imaging acquisition. Whole-brain activation analyses evaluated the effect of irritability on neural reactivity in the context of varying attentional shifting toward and away from emotional faces, both depending on and above and beyond anxiety (i.e., with anxiety as [a] a moderator and [b] a covariate, respectively). RESULTS: Higher irritability levels related to distinct task-related patterns of cuneus activation, depending on comorbid anxiety levels. Increased irritability also related to distinct task-related patterns of parietal, temporal, occipital, and cerebellar activation, controlling for anxiety. Overall, youths with higher levels of irritability evinced more pronounced fluctuations in neural reactivity across task conditions. CONCLUSION: The present study contributes to a literature delineating the unique and shared neural mechanisms of overlapping symptom dimensions, which will be necessary to ultimately build a brain- and behavior-based nosology that forms the basis for more targeted and effective treatments.

Attributing mental states to others in social interactions [Theory of Mind (ToM)] often depends on visual social cues like eye gaze or mimic. This study presents an event-related potentials task (Brainy-ERP) that was developed in order to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of first-, second-, and third-order cognitive and affective ToM processing. The task was based on social visual cues and involved electroencephalographic event-related potential (ERP) analyses and exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analyses (eLORETA) source localization analyses. Results showed that in cognitive and affective conditions, first-order trials elicited greater Anterior P2 (180-370 ms) amplitudes. In the cognitive condition, third-order trials elicited greatest amplitudes in the broadly distributed early negative slow wave (eNSW, 260-470 ms) and the late NSW (LNSW, 460-1,000 ms). In the affective condition, third-order and second-order trials elicited greatest amplitudes in a broadly distributed NSW (250-1,000 ms). Regarding affective trials in the NSW time span, statistical significant differences and trends were shown regarding activation of underlying brain regions. Third-order trials elicited greatest activation in a number of regions typically associated with the ToM network, especially the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), cuneus, and temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Furthermore, ToM low performers (participants with high accuracy but longer reaction times) showed by trend smaller Posterior N1 and significantly smaller eNSW amplitudes compared to average and high performers. This study offers new insights into electrophysiological correlates of basic and higher order cognitive and affective ToM processing and its precise time course.

Background: The present study aimed to investigate the use of imaging biomarkers to predict the outcome of acupuncture in patients with migraine without aura (MwoA). Methods: Forty-one patients with MwoA received 4 weeks of acupuncture treatment and two brain imaging sessions at the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University. Patients kept a headache diary for 4 weeks before treatment and during acupuncture treatment. Responders were defined as those with at least a 50% reduction in the number of migraine days. The machine learning method was used to distinguish responders from non-responders based on pre-treatment brain gray matter (GM) volume. Longitudinal changes in GM predictive regions were also analyzed. Results: After 4 weeks of acupuncture, 19 patients were classified as responders. Based on 10-fold cross-validation for the selection of GM features, the linear support vector machine produced a classification model with 73% sensitivity, 85% specificity, and 83% accuracy. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.7871. This classification model included 10 GM areas that were mainly distributed in the frontal, temporal, parietal, precuneus, and cuneus gyri. The reduction in the number of migraine days was correlated with baseline GM volume in the cuneus, parietal, and frontal gyri in all patients. Moreover, the left cuneus showed a longitudinal increase in GM volume in responders. Conclusion: The results suggest that pre-treatment brain structure could be a novel predictor of the outcome of acupuncture in the treatment of MwoA. Imaging features could be a useful tool for the prediction of acupuncture efficacy, which would enable the development of a personalized medicine strategy.

The cerebellum is connected to numerous regions of the contralateral side of the cerebrum. Motor and cognitive deficits following neonatal cerebellar hemorrhages (CbH) in extremely preterm neonates may be related to remote cortical alterations, following disrupted cerebello-cerebral connectivity as was previously shown within six CbH infants. In this retrospective case series study, we used MRI and advanced surface-based analyses to reconstruct gray matter (GM) changes in cortical thickness and cortical surface area in extremely preterm neonates (median age = 26; range: 24.9–26.7 gestational weeks) with large isolated unilateral CbH (N = 5 patients). Each CbH infant was matched with their own preterm infant cohort (range: 20–36 infants) based on sex and gestational age at birth. On a macro level, our data revealed that the contralateral cerebral hemisphere of CbH neonates did not show less cortical thickness or cortical surface area than their ipsilateral cerebral hemisphere at term. None of the cases differed from their matched cohort groups in average cortical thickness or average cortical surface area in the ipsilateral or contralateral cerebral hemisphere. On a micro (i.e. vertex) level, we established high variability in significant local cortical GM alteration patterns across case-cohort groups, in which the cases showed thicker or bigger volume in some regions, among which the caudal middle frontal gyrus, insula and parahippocampal gyrus, and thinner or less volume in other regions, among which the cuneus, precuneus and supratentorial gyrus. This study highlights that cerebellar injury during postnatal stages may have widespread bilateral influence on the early maturation of cerebral cortical regions, which implicate complex cerebello-cerebral interactions to be present at term birth.

Cannabis use in adolescents and young adults is linked with aberrant brain structure, although findings to date are inconsistent. We examined whether aerobic fitness moderated the effects of cannabis on cortical surface structure and whether gender may play a moderating role. Seventy-four adolescents and young adults completed three-weeks of monitored abstinence, aerobic fitness testing, and structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). Whole-sample linear regressions examined the effects of gender, VO2 max, cannabis use, and their interactions on the surface area (SA) and local gyrification index (LGI). Cannabis use was associated with greater cuneus SA. Gender-by-cannabis predicted precuneus and frontal SA, and precentral, supramarginal, and frontal LGI, female cannabis users demonstrated greater LGI, whereas male cannabis users demonstrated decreased LGI compared to non-users. Aerobic fitness was positively associated with various SA and LGI regions. Cannabis-by-aerobic fitness predicted cuneus SA and occipital LGI. These findings demonstrate that aerobic fitness moderates the impact of cannabis on cortical surface structure, and gender differences are evident. These moderating factors may help explain inconsistencies in the literature and warrant further investigation. Present findings and aerobic fitness literature jointly suggest aerobic intervention may be a low-cost avenue for improving cortical surface structure, although the impact may be gender-specific.

Aberrant emotion processing is a core characteristic of panic disorder (PD). Findings concerning the underlying neural pathways remain inconsistent. We applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the context of a task based on the circumplex model of affect. This model links affective states to two underlying neurophysiological systems: arousal and valence. Twenty-two healthy participants and 20 participants with PD rated arousal and valence in response to affective faces during fMRI. In healthy controls, we found that arousal modulated the hemodynamic response in the parahippocampus, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the cuneus during face perception. Valence and extreme ratings of valence modulated the hemodynamic response in temporal, parietal, somatosensory, premotor and cerebellar regions. Comparing healthy controls to participants with PD, we found that healthy controls showed a stronger modulation of the hemodynamic response during face perception associated with extreme ratings of valence in the parahippocampus and the supplementary motor area. This suggests parahippocampal dysfunction in the processing of highly valenced affective faces in PD, which may underlie aberrant contextualization of strong affective stimuli. Our findings need to be interpreted with care as they were adjusted for multiple comparisons using a liberal correction procedure.

Multimodal neuroimaging features provide opportunities for accurate classification and personalized treatment options in the psychiatric domain. This study aimed to investigate whether brain features predict responses to the overall treatment of schizophrenia at the end of the first or a single hospitalization. Structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from two independent samples (N = 85 and 63, separately) of schizophrenia patients at baseline were included. After treatment, patients were classified as responders and non-responders. Radiomics features of gray matter morphology and functional connectivity were extracted using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator. Support vector machine was used to explore the predictive performance. Prediction models were based on structural features (cortical thickness, surface area, gray matter regional volume, mean curvature, metric distortion, and sulcal depth), functional features (functional connectivity), and combined features. There were 12 features after dimensionality reduction. The structural features involved the right precuneus, cuneus, and inferior parietal lobule. The functional features predominately included inter-hemispheric connectivity. We observed a prediction accuracy of 80.38% (sensitivity: 87.28%; specificity 82.47%) for the model using functional features, and 69.68% (sensitivity: 83.96%; specificity: 72.41%) for the one using structural features. Our model combining both structural and functional features achieved a higher accuracy of 85.03%, with 92.04% responder and 80.23% non-responders to the overall treatment to be correctly predicted. These results highlight the power of structural and functional MRI-derived radiomics features to predict early response to treatment in schizophrenia. Prediction models of the very early treatment response in schizophrenia could augment effective therapeutic strategies.

To explore the morphological and microstructural changes of grey and white matter in the patients of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO). Twenty-five TAO patients and 25 well-matched healthy controls were recruited. Structural T1- and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry and voxel-based analysis of diffusion tensor imaging. Compared with healthy controls, TAO group showed significantly decreased grey matter volume in the brain region of the right middle frontal gyrus. Meanwhile, TAO group showed significantly decreased fractional anisotropy (FA), but increased mean, axial and radial diffusivities in the brain regions of the right superior occipital gyrus, middle occipital gyrus and cuneus in TAO group. In addition, the FA value in significant brain regions showed a positive correlation with visual acuity (r = 0.456, P = 0.025) and a negative correlation with disease duration (r = − 0.609, P = 0.003). Significant morphological and microstructural abnormalities in areas corresponding to known functional deficits of vision and cognition could be found in TAO patients. These results extended our understanding of neural relationships with TAO.

The presence of above-chance unconscious behavioral responses following stimulus presentation to the blind hemifield of hemianopic patients (blindsight) is a well-known phenomenon. What is still lacking is a systematic study of the neuroanatomical bases of two distinct aspects of blindsight: the unconscious above chance performance and the phenomenological aspects that may be associated. Here, we tested 17 hemianopic patients in two tasks i.e. movement and orientation discrimination of a visual grating presented to the sighted or blind hemifield. We classified patients in four groups on the basis of the presence of above chance unconscious discrimination without or with perceptual awareness reports for stimulus presentation to the blind hemifield. A fifth group was represented by patients with interruption of the Optic Radiation. In the various groups we carried out analyses of lesion extent of various cortical areas, probabilistic tractography as well as assessment of the cortical thickness of the intact hemisphere. All patients had lesions mainly, but not only, in the occipital lobe and the statistical comparison of their extent provided clues as to the critical anatomical substrate of unconscious above-chance performance and of perceptual awareness reports, respectively. In fact, the two areas that turned out to be critical for above-chance performance in the discrimination of moving versus non-moving visual stimuli were the Precuneus and the Posterior Cingulate Gyrus while for perceptual awareness reports the crucial areas were Intracalcarine, Supracalcarine, Cuneus, and the Posterior Cingulate Gyrus. Interestingly, the proportion of perceptual awareness reports was higher in patients with a spared right hemisphere. As to probabilistic tractography, all pathways examined yielded higher positive values for patients with perceptual awareness reports. Finally, the cortical thickness of the intact hemisphere was greater in patients showing above-chance performance than in those at chance. This effect is likely to be a result of neuroplastic compensatory mechanisms.

Objective We compared the cognitive performance and neuroelectric responses during a selective attentional task in judo athletes with different levels of expertise. Methods Judo black and white belt athletes performed both general and specific fitness tests while simultaneously completing a Stroop color-word test recorded by 64 electroencephalogram channels. Results Cognitive behavioral performance and event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) present no differences between groups. However, the topographic analysis found different neural source patterns in each group. Judo black belts compared to judo white belts presented a greater peak amplitude of P300 in the middle frontal gyrus and of N200 in the cuneus, but slower latency of P300 in the precuneus. Conclusion Despite no difference in cognitive behavioral performance, judo expertise causes a difference in the allocation of attentional and conflict detection neural resources.

Lactate is now recognized as an important intermediate in brain metabolism, but its role is still under investigation. In this work we mapped the distribution of lactate and bicarbonate produced from intravenously injected 13C-pyruvate over the whole brain using a new imaging method, hyperpolarized 13C MRI (N = 14, ages 23 to 77). Segmenting the 13C-lactate images into brain atlas regions revealed a pattern of lactate that was preserved across individuals. Higher lactate signal was observed in cortical grey matter compared to white matter and was highest in the precuneus, cuneus and lingual gyrus. Bicarbonate signal, indicating flux of [1–13C]pyruvate into the TCA cycle, also displayed consistent spatial distribution. One-way ANOVA to test for significant differences in lactate among atlas regions gave F = 87.6 and p

Highlights • Inter-hemispheric coordination is progressively disrupted in HBV-RC patients • Inter-hemispheric FC partly mediates the impact of CC atrophy on PHES performance in HBV-RC patients • Inter-hemispheric coordination can be used to classify HBV-RC patients, Patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related cirrhosis (HBV-RC) and minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) exhibit alterations in homotopic inter-hemispheric functional connectivity (FC) and corpus callosum (CC) degeneration. However, the progression of inter-hemispheric dysconnectivity in cirrhotic patients from no MHE (NMHE) to MHE and its association with the progression of diseased-related cognitive impairment remain uncharacterized. We hypothesized that inter-hemispheric dysconnectivity exists in NMHE patients and further deteriorates at the MHE stage, which is associated with performance measured by psychometric hepatic encephalopathy scores (PHES) that can characterize cirrhotic patients with NMHE and MHE. Using inter-hemispheric homotopic FC and CC (and its subfields) volumetric measurements in 31 patients with HBV-RC (17 with NMHE and 14 with MHE) and 37 healthy controls, we verified that MHE patients had significant attenuated inter-hemispheric homotopic FC in the bilateral cuneus, post-central gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and superior temporal gyms, as well as CC degeneration in total CC, CC2, CC3, and CC4 (each comparison had a corrected P < 0.05). In contrast, NMHE patients had relatively less severe inter-hemispheric homotopic FC and no CC degeneration. In addition, the degeneration of the CC and inter-hemispheric homotopic functional disconnections correlated with poor PHES performances in all cirrhotic patients (NMHE and MHE). Furthermore, impairment of inter-hemispheric homotopic FC partially mediated the association between CC degeneration and worse PHES performance. Notably, a combination of inter-hemispheric homotopic FC and CC volumes had higher discriminative values according to the area under the curve (AUC) score (AUC = 0.908, P < 0.001) to classify patients into MHE or NMHE groups when compared with either alone. Our findings shed light on the progression of inter-hemispheric dysconnectivity in relation to the progression of disease-related cognitive impairment in patients with HBV-RC.

Major depressive disorder (MDD), especially combined with anxiety, has a high incidence and low detection rate in China. Literature has shown that patients under major depression with anxiety (MDA) are more likely to nominate a somatic, rather than psychological, symptom as their presenting complaint. In the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), clinical symptoms of MDD patients are mainly categorized into two different syndrome patterns: Deficiency and Excess. We intend to use resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to investigate their brain functional differences and hopefully to find their brain function mechanism. For our research, 42 drug-naive MDA patients were divided into two groups (21 for Deficiency and 21 for Excess), with an additional 19 unaffected participants in the normal control (NC) group. We took Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), and brain fMRI scan for each group and analyzed the data. We first used Degree Centrality (DC) to map the functional differences in brain regions, utilized these regions as seed points, and used a seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis to identify the specific functional connection between groups. The Deficiency group was found to have higher HAMD scores, HAMA scores, and HAMD somatic factor than the Excess group. In the DC analysis, significant decreases were found in the right precuneus of both the Deficiency and Excess groups compared to the NC group. In the FC analysis, the right precuneus showed significant decreased network connectivity with the bilateral cuneus, as well as the right lingual gyrus in the Deficiency group when compared to the NC group and the Excess group. Through our research, it was found that precuneus dysfunction may have a relationship with MDA and Deficiency patients have more severe physical and emotional symptoms, and we realized that a larger sample size and multiple brain mode observations were needed in further research.

Pregnancy and the early postpartum period alter the structure of the brain; particularly in regions related to parental care. However, the enduring effects of this period on human brain structure and cognition in late life is unknown. Here we use magnetic resonance imaging to examine differences in cortical thickness related to parenthood in late life, for both sexes. In 235 healthy older women, we find a positive relationship between parity (number of children parented) and memory performance in mothers. Parity was also associated with differences in cortical thickness in women in the parahippocampus, precuneus, cuneus and pericalcarine sulcus. We also compared non-parents to parents of one child, in a sub-sample of older women (N = 45) and men (N = 35). For females, six regions differed in cortical thickness between parents and non-parents; these regions were consistent with those seen earlier in life in previous studies. For males, five regions differed in cortical thickness between parents and non-parents. We are first to reveal parenthood-related brain differences in late-life; our results are consistent with previously identified areas that are altered during pregnancy and the postpartum period. This study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that neural changes associated with early stages of parenthood persist into older age, and for women, may be related to marginally better cognitive outcomes.

International audience; Adolescence represents a key developmental period in terms of both mood and overweight and is linked to disturbed eating behavior. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the basis of food intake in healthy adolescents by considering mood impacts which remain largely unexplored. Hence this study aims to investigate the impact of hunger and mood on cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in healthy adolescents. Fifteen participants underwent two MRI sessions including a 3D pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling sequence: pre-lunch (hunger) and post-lunch (satiety). Mood was assessed using the Multiscore Depression Inventory for Children. We found higher CBF values in the posterior insula in response to hunger compared to satiety, an area of the brain which contributes to the anticipation and motivation of feeding. In response to satiation, we observed higher CBF values in the precuneus, lingual gyrus and cuneus which are involved in the aspects of response inhibition related to food intake. Furthermore, we show that correlation between mood assessment and CBF is modulated by appetite in the precuneus, anterior cingulate gyrus, anterior orbitofrontal gyrus, occipital gyrus and cuneus, suggesting that participants affected by depressed mood could use ruminative processing in order to evaluate the reward of an upcoming meal.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02868619.

*Yücel, Kaan ( Aksaray, Yazar ), Purpose: One out of three migraine patients might have accompanying restless legs syndrome (RLS). In our study, we aimed to compare the volumes of the brain structures of migraineurs with and without RLS. Methods: We had 37 female patients with migraine and 17 females as the control group. Nineteen migraineurs had no RLS (RLS0) and 18 migraineurs had comorbidity of RLS (RLS1). The volumes of the brain structures were obtained by manual measurements, volBrain, and voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Manually, we measured caudate and putamen volumes. We used age, years of education, depression, anxiety scores, and total intracranial volume as covariates. Results: According to VBM analyses, the volumes of the left superior occipital gyrus and precuneus were increased, and the substantia nigra and cuneus were decreased in the RLS1 group compared with the RLS0 group. RLS1 patients had larger superior temporal gyrus, Brodmann area 38, and left insula, and RLS0 patients had larger Brodmann area 22, right superior temporal gyrus, and Heschl gyrus compared with controls. Migraine and RLS0 patients had a smaller corpus callosum anteriorly, whereas RLS1 patients had a smaller splenium. Caudate volumes were larger in migraine patients via the three techniques. There was a positive relation between the caudate and putamen volumes and attack frequency. Conclusions: Comorbidity of RLS might be a confounding factor in structural neuroimaging studies in migraine. Deficits in the visual network seem to be related to accompanying RLS; deficits in the auditory network are particularly related to migraine.

Objectives：Schizophrenia is a predominant product of pathological alterations distributed throughout interconnected neural systems. Functional connections (FCs) methodology is an effective lever to investigate macroscopic neural activity patterns underlying critical aspects of cognition and behaviour. However, region properties of brain architecture have been less investigated by special markers of dynamical graph in general mental disorders. Methods：Embracing the eigenvector centrality in holism significance, our important process is to uncover noticeable edges and regions with antagonistic stance between morbid and normal FCs of 67 healthy controls (HCs) and 53 chronic schizophrenia patients (SZs). Results: Results suggest that, there are 12 abnormal edges with significant p value of FCs weight, such as lingual gyrus L versus cuneus L, thalamus L versus middle frontal gyrus R, superior temporal gyrus R versus thalamus R. Importantly, SZs' superior temporal gyrus R, parahippocampal gyrus L and parahippocampal gyrus R are endowed with different eigenvector centrality scores. Conclusion: Consistent with SZs' positive symptoms of hallucinations, and negative symptoms of thinking impairment, it can be infer that the functional separation and integration are destroyed in schizophrenia. Thought the strict contrastive study, it is worth stressing that eigenvector centrality is a meaningful biological marker to excavating schizophrenic psychopathology.

Occipital epilepsy is the least common among surgical series because: (1) the location makes it hard to asses by EEG; (2) the seizure semiology often reflects propagation; and (3) surgery entails a high risk of neurological deficits. In children, subjective symptoms are harder to assess, adding to the difficulty of a proper diagnosis. We aimed to determine electroclinical characteristics of occipital lobe epilepsy in a paediatric population by reviewing 20 children between one and 16 years, who had undergone intracranial recordings with depth electrodes. Eight patients had pure occipital epilepsies and 12 had "occipital plus" epilepsies. We identified four different seizure spreading patterns: (1) pure occipital (40%) with oculomotor symptoms; (2) temporal (30%) with hypomotor behaviour and automatisms; (3) frontal (20%) with movements of the limbs; and (4) spasms (10%). Two thirds of the children above 11 years reported visual aura, but this was probably underestimated in younger children as some seizures began with non-specific motion arrest. Automatisms were only observed when the lateral temporal lobe was involved. Patients with a pure occipital form had a seizure onset zone strictly in the occipital lobe. Lingual and cuneus gyri were the most epileptogenic structures. Scalp EEG showed diffuse EEG abnormalities in two thirds of the patients and 25% of these led to false lateralization of the SOZ. Although MRI lesions were always visible, imaging and scalp EEG could be misleading and often not sufficient to guide surgery. After surgery, 68% of the patients were classified as Engel Class I, and surgical outcome was even better for patients in whom the supracalcarine area was affected, with 87.5% reaching seizure freedom. Seizure spread patterns in occipital epilepsy are similar in paediatric and adult populations, even though it is often impossible to obtain subjective symptoms in children. Postsurgical outcome is better than in adults, especially in patients in whom the supracalcarine area is affected.

While several methodologies exist for quantifying gray and white matter properties in humans, relatively little is known regarding the spatial organization and the intersubject variability of cerebral vessels. To resolve this, we developed a fast, open‐source processing algorithm using advanced vessel segmentation schemes and iterative nonlinear registration to isolate, extract, and quantify cerebral vessels in susceptibility weighting imaging (SWI) and time‐of‐flight angiography (TOF‐MRA) datasets acquired in a large cohort (n = 42) of healthy individuals. From this, whole‐brain venous and arterial probabilistic maps were generated along with the computation of regional densities and diameters within regions based on popular anatomical and functional atlases. The results show that cerebral vasculature is highly heterogeneous, displaying disproportionally large vessel densities in brain areas such as the anterior and posterior cingulate, cuneus, precuneus, parahippocampus, insula, and temporal gyri. On average, venous densities were slightly higher and less variable across subjects than arterial. Moreover, regional variations in both venous and arterial density were significantly correlated to cortical thickness (R = 0.42). This publicly available new atlas of the human cerebrovascular system provides a first step toward quantifying morphological changes in the diseased brain and serving as a potential regression tool in fMRI analysis.

This fMRI study investigated brain activity while soccer players were imagining creative moves in real soccer decision‐making situations. After presenting brief video clips of a soccer scene, participants had to imagine themselves as the acting player and think either of a creative or obvious move that might lead to a goal. Findings revealed stronger activation during trials in which the generation of obvious moves was required, relative to trials requiring creative moves. The reversed contrast (creative > obvious) showed no significant effects. Activations were mainly left‐lateralized, primarily involving the cuneus, middle temporal gyrus, and the rolandic operculum, which are known to support the processing of multimodal input from different sensory, motor and perceptual sources. Interestingly, more creative solutions in the soccer task were associated with smaller contrast values for the activation difference between obvious and creative trials, or even with more activation in the latter. Furthermore, higher trait creative potential (as assessed by a figural creativity test) was associated with stronger activation differences between both conditions. These findings suggest that with increasing soccer‐specific creative task performance, the processing of the manifold information provided by the soccer scenario becomes increasingly important, while in individuals with higher trait creative potential these processes were recruited to a minor degree. This study showed that soccer‐specific creativity tasks modulate activation levels in a network of regions supporting various cognitive functions such as semantic information processing, visual and motor imagery, and the processing and integration of sensorimotor and somatosensory information.

Gait impairment during complex walking in older adults is thought to result from a progressive failure to compensate for deteriorating peripheral inputs by central neural processes. It is the primary hypothesis of this article that failure of higher cerebral adaptations may already be present in middle-aged adults who do not present observable gait impairments. We, therefore, compared metabolic brain activity during steering of gait (ie, complex locomotion) and straight walking (ie, simple locomotion) in young and middle-aged individuals. Cerebral distribution of [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose, a marker of brain synaptic activity, was assessed during over ground straight walking and steering of gait using positron emission tomography in seven young adults (aged 24 ± 3) and seven middle-aged adults (aged 59 ± 3). Brain regions involved in steering of gait (posterior parietal cortex, superior frontal gyrus, and cerebellum) are retained in middle age. However, despite similar walking performance, there are age-related differences in the distribution of [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose during steering: middle-aged adults have (i) increased activation of precentral and fusiform gyri, (ii) reduced deactivation of multisensory cortices (inferior frontal, postcentral, and fusiform gyri), and (iii) reduced activation of the middle frontal gyrus and cuneus. Our results suggest that preclinical decline in central sensorimotor processing in middle age is observable during complex walking.

The cingulate island sign (CIS) on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET); i.e., the relative preservation of mid-posterior cingulate cortex metabolism, is a supportive biomarker in the diagnostic criteria for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Information is lacking, however, regarding the diagnostic value of the CIS on FDG PET or 123I-iodoamphetamine single-photon emission computed tomography (IMP SPECT) for differentiating between mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) (MCI-AD) and MCI due to DLB (MCI-DLB). We examined the CIS ratio for nine AD patients, nine DLB patients, eight patients with MCI-AD, and nine patients with MCI-DLB using FDG PET and IMP SPECT. The CIS ratio was calculated as the total count density for the mid-posterior cingulate cortex divided by the total count density for the precuneus and cuneus using the stereotactic extraction estimation method. In the dementia groups, receiver operating characteristic analysis of the CIS ratio showed significant accuracy for differentiating between AD and DLB on both FDG PET and IMP SPECT. In the MCI groups, only the FDG PET-derived CIS ratio displayed significant accuracy for differentiating between AD and DLB. A larger study is needed to replicate these findings.

The personal importance of religion or spirituality (R/S) has been associated with a lower risk for major depression (MDD), suicidal behavior, reduced cortical thinning and increased posterior EEG alpha, which has also been linked to antidepressant treatment response in MDD. Building on prior event-related potential (ERP) findings using an emotional hemifield paradigm, this study examined whether abnormal early (preconscious) responsivity to negative arousing stimuli, which is indicative of right parietotemporal dysfunction in both MDD patients and individuals at clinical high risk for MDD, is likewise moderated by R/S. We reanalyzed 72-channel ERP data from 127 individuals at high or low family risk for MDD (Kayser et al., 2017, NeuroImage Clin. 14, 692–707) after R/S stratification (low R/S importance, low/high risk, n = 38/61; high R/S importance, n = 15/13). ERPs were transformed to reference-free current source density (CSD) and quantified by temporal principal components analysis (tPCA). This report focused on N2 sink (peak latency 212 ms), the earliest prominent CSD-tPCA component previously found to be sensitive to emotional content. While overall N2 sink reflected activation of occipitotemporal cortex (prestriate/cuneus), as estimated via a distributed inverse solution, affective significance was marked by a relative (i.e., superimposed) positivity. Statistical analyses employed both non-parametric permutation tests and repeated measures ANOVA for mixed factorial designs with unstructured covariance matrix, including sex, age, and clinical covariates. Participants with low R/S importance, independent of risk status, showed greater ERP responsivity to negative than neutral stimuli, particularly over the right hemisphere. In contrast, early emotional ERP responsivity and asymmetry was substantially reduced for high risk individuals with high R/S importance, however, enhanced for low risk individuals with high R/S importance. Hemifield modulations of these effects (i.e., emotional ERP enhancements with left visual field/right hemisphere stimulus presentations) further corroborated these observations. Results suggest down-regulation of a right-lateralized network for salience detection at an early processing stage in high risk and high R/S importance individuals, presumably to prevent overactivation of ventral brain regions further downstream. These findings may point to a neurophysiological mechanism underlying resilience of families at risk for depression with high R/S prioritization.

Recent studies have examined the effects of conventional transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on working memory (WM) performance, but this method has relatively low spatial precision and generally involves a reference electrode that complicates interpretation. Herein, we report a repeated-measures crossover study of 25 healthy adults who underwent multielectrode tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), right DLPFC, or sham in 3 separate visits. Shortly after each stimulation session, participants performed a verbal WM (VWM) task during magnetoencephalography, and the resulting data were examined in the time–frequency domain and imaged using a beamformer. We found that after left DLPFC stimulation, participants exhibited stronger responses across a network of left-lateralized cortical areas, including the supramarginal gyrus, prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and cuneus, as well as the right hemispheric homologues of these regions. Importantly, these effects were specific to the alpha-band, which has been previously implicated in VWM processing. Although stimulation condition did not significantly affect performance, stepwise regression revealed a relationship between reaction time and response amplitude in the left precuneus and supramarginal gyrus. These findings suggest that multielectrode tDCS targeting the left DLPFC affects the neural dynamics underlying offline VWM processing, including utilization of a more extensive bilateral cortical network.

Subjective tinnitus is an auditory phantom perceptual disorder without an objective biomarker. Bothersome tinnitus in single-sided deafness (SSD) is particularly challenging to treat because the deaf ear can no longer be stimulated by acoustic means. We contrasted an SSD cohort with bothersome tinnitus (TIN; N = 15) against an SSD cohort with no or non-bothersome tinnitus (NO TIN; N = 15) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). All study participants had normal hearing in one ear and severe or profound hearing loss in the other. We evaluated corticostriatal functional connectivity differences by placing seeds in the caudate nucleus and Heschl’s Gyrus (HG) of both hemispheres. The TIN cohort showed increased functional connectivity between the left caudate and left HG, and left and right HG and the left caudate. Within the TIN cohort, functional connectivity between the right caudate and cuneus was correlated with the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) relaxation subscale. And, functional connectivity between the right caudate and superior lateral occipital cortex, and the right caudate and anterior supramarginal gyrus were correlated with the TFI control subscale. These findings support a striatal gating model of tinnitus and suggest tinnitus biomarkers to monitor treatment response and to target specific brain areas for innovative neuromodulation therapies.

Adolescence is a neuroplastic period for self-processing and emotion regulation transformations, that if derailed, are linked to persistent depression. Neural mechanisms of adolescent self-processing and emotion regulation ought to be targeted via new treatments, given moderate effectiveness of current interventions. Thus, we implemented a novel neurofeedback protocol in adolescents to test the engagement of circuits sub-serving self-processing and emotion regulation. Methods: Depressed (n = 34) and healthy (n = 19) adolescents underwent neurofeedback training using a novel task. They saw their happy face as a cue to recall positive memories and increased displayed amygdala and hippocampus activity. The control condition was counting-backwards while viewing another happy face. A self vs. other face recognition task was administered before and after neurofeedback training. Results: Adolescents showed higher frontotemporal activity during neurofeedback and higher amygdala and hippocampus and hippocampi activity in time series and region of interest analyses respectively. Before neurofeedback there was higher saliency network engagement for self-face recognition, but that network engagement was lower after neurofeedback. Depressed youth exhibited higher fusiform, inferior parietal lobule and cuneus activity during neurofeedback, but controls appeared to increase amygdala and hippocampus activity faster compared to depressed adolescents. Conclusions: Neurofeedback recruited frontotemporal cortices that support social cognition and emotion regulation. Amygdala and hippocampus engagement via neurofeedback appears to change limbic-frontotemporal networks during self-face recognition. A placebo group or condition and contrasting amygdala and hippocampus, hippocampi or right amygdala versus frontal loci of neurofeedback, e.g. dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, with longer duration of neurofeedback training will elucidate dosage and loci of neurofeedback in adolescents. Keywords: Neurofeedback, Adolescence, Depression, Amygdala, Hippocampus, Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, Self-face recognition

Rhynobrissus cuneus, a small, irregular sea urchin, was originally described from 5 tests washed onto the beach at Fort Macon, NC, and it has been reported only once since, from 7 specimens collected from Playa Jicacal, Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Here we record R. cuneus from Buxton Beach, Dare County, NC, ∼124 km (77 mi) directly northeast of the 1957 record. This is only the third report of R. cuneus and represents the northernmost record of the species. Specimens were found as empty tests washed ashore, most likely a result of recent beach-restoration activities.

Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a devastating motor disorder associated with the etiological process of schizophrenia or antipsychotic medication treatments. To examine whether cerebral morphological changes may manifest in TD, we used voxel-based morphometry to analyze high-resolution T1-weighted brain structural magnetic resonance images from 32 schizophrenics with TD (TD group), 31 schizophrenics without TD (non-TD group), and 32 healthy controls (HC group). We also assessed psychopathological symptoms with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and TD severity with the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS). We compared gray matter volumes (GMVs) among groups, and tested for correlations between GMV changes and psychopathological symptoms or TD severity. The results showed significant differences in GMV in the frontal and temporal cortices, insula and cerebellum among the three groups. Brainstem and inferior frontal and precentral gyri GMVs were significantly larger, whereas cuneus and lingual gyrus GMVs were significantly smaller in the TD group as compared to non-TD group. Further, the cuneus and lingual gyrus GMVs were positively correlated with AIMS scores in the TD group. The current results suggest that TD may be associated with the alterations in GMV that are different from that of schizophrenics without TD. Further studies are needed to confirm and to examine the functional significance of these structural findings.

Food branding is ubiquitous, however, not all children are equally susceptible to its effects. The objectives of this study were to 1) determine whether food brands evoke differential response than non-food brands in brain areas related to motivation and inhibitory control using blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and 2) determine the association between brain response and energy intake at test-meals presented with or without brands. Twenty-eight 7-10 year-old children completed four visits as part of a within-subjects design where they consumed three multi-item test-meals presented with familiar food brands, novel food brand, and no brand. On the fourth visit an fMRI was performed where children passively viewed food brands, non-food brands and control images. A whole-brain analysis was conducted to compare BOLD response between conditions. Pearson's correlations were calculated to determine the association between brain response and meal intake. Relative to non-food brands, food brand images were associated with increased activity in the right lingual gyrus. Relative to control, food and non-food brand images were associated with greater response in bilateral fusiform gyri and decreased response in the cuneus, precuneus, lingual gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus. Less activation in the bilateral fusiform gyrus to both food and non-food brands was associated with greater energy intake of the branded vs unbranded meal. These findings may help explain differences in the susceptibility to the intake-promoting effects of food advertising in children.

Although online gaming may lead to Internet gaming disorder (IGD), most players are recreational game users (RGUs) who do not develop IGD. Thus far, little is known about brain structural abnormalities in IGD subjects relative to RGUs. The inclusion of RGUs as a control group could minimize the potential effects of gaming experience and gaming-related cue familiarity on the neural mechanism of IGD subjects. In this study, structural magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from 38 IGD subjects and 66 RGUs with comparable age, gender, and educational level. Group differences in cortical thickness and volume were analyzed using the FreeSurfer software. Correlations between cortical changes and addiction severity were calculated for both groups. Compared with the RGU group, the IGD group showed significantly decreased cortical thickness in the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, bilateral cuneus, precentral gyrus, and right middle temporal gyrus. Moreover, significantly reduced cortical volume was observed in the left superior temporal gyrus and right supramarginal gyrus in the IGD group. Whole-brain correlational analysis indicated different correlations between the two groups. The brain regions that showed group differences were considered to be involved in cognitive control, decision making, and reward/loss processing. These functions may serve as potential mechanisms that explain why IGD individuals experience negative outcomes in frequent game playing.

Background Structural and functional brain imaging methods have identified age-related changes in brain structures involved in gait control. This cross-sectional study aims to investigate gray matter networks associated with gait control in aging using structural covariance analysis. Methods Walking speed were measured in 326 nondemented older community-dwellers (age 71.3 ± 4.5; 41.7% female) under three different walking conditions: normal walking and two challenging tasks: motor (ie, fast speed) and an attention-demanding dual task (ie, backward counting). Results Three main individual gray matter regions were positively correlated with walking speed (ie, slower walking speed was associated with lower brain volumes): right thalamus, right caudate nucleus, and left middle frontal gyrus for normal walking, rapid walking, and dual-task walking condition, respectively. The structural covariance analysis revealed that prefrontal regions were part of the networks associated with every walking condition; the right caudate was associated specifically with the hippocampus, amygdala and insula for the rapid walking condition, and the left middle frontal gyrus with a network involving the cuneus for the dual-task condition. Conclusion Our results suggest that brain networks associated with gait control vary according to walking speed and depend on each walking condition. Gait control in aging involved a distributed network including regions for emotional control that are recruited in challenging walking conditions.

Purpose To identify cerebral radiomic features related to diagnosis and subtyping of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to build and evaluate classification models for ADHD diagnosis and subtyping on the basis of the identified features. Materials and Methods A consecutive cohort of 83 age- and sex-matched children with newly diagnosed and never-treated ADHD (mean age 10.83 years ± 2.30; range, 7-14 years; 71 boys, 40 with ADHD-inattentive [ADHD-I] and 43 with ADHD-combined [ADHD-C, or inattentive and hyperactive]) and 87 healthy control subjects (mean age, 11.21 years ± 2.51; range, 7-15 years; 72 boys) underwent anatomic and diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Features representing the shape properties of gray matter and diffusion properties of white matter were extracted for each participant. The initial feature set was input into an all-relevant feature selection procedure within cross-validation loops to identify features with significant discriminative power for diagnosis and subtyping. Random forest classifiers were constructed and evaluated on the basis of identified features. Results No overall difference was found between children with ADHD and control subjects in total brain volume (1069830.00 mm3 ± 90743.36 vs 1079 213.00 mm3 ± 92742.25, respectively; P = .51) or total gray and white matter volume (611978.10 mm3 ± 51622.81 vs 616960.20 mm3 ± 51872.93, respectively; P = .53; 413532.00 mm3 ± 41 114.33 vs 418173.60 mm3 ± 42395.48, respectively; P = .47). The mean classification accuracy achieved with classifiers to discriminate patients with ADHD from control subjects was 73.7%. Alteration in cortical shape in the left temporal lobe, bilateral cuneus, and regions around the left central sulcus contributed significantly to group discrimination. The mean classification accuracy with classifiers to discriminate ADHD-I from ADHD-C was 80.1%, with significant discriminating features located in the default mode network and insular cortex. Conclusion The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that cerebral morphometric alterations can allow discrimination between patients with ADHD and control subjects and also between the most common ADHD subtypes. By identifying features relevant for diagnosis and subtyping, these findings may advance the understanding of neurodevelopmental alterations related to ADHD. © RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

In a constantly changing environment we must adapt to both abrupt and gradual changes to incoming information. Previously, we demonstrated that a distributed network (including the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex) was active when participants updated their initial representations (e.g., it's a cat) in a gradually morphing picture task (e.g., now it's a rabbit; Stöttinger et al., 2015). To shed light on whether these activations reflect the proactive decisions to update or perceptual uncertainty, we introduced two additional conditions. By presenting picture morphs twice we controlled for uncertainty in perceptual decision making. Inducing an abrupt shift in a third condition allowed us to differentiate between a proactive decision in uncertainty-driven updating and a reactive decision in surprise-based updating. We replicated our earlier result, showing the robustness of the effect. In addition, we found activation in the anterior insula (bilaterally) and the mid frontal area/ACC in all three conditions, indicative of the importance of these areas in updating of all kinds. When participants were naïve as to the identity of the second object, we found higher activations in the mid-cingulate cortex and cuneus – areas typically associated with task difficulty, in addition to higher activations in the right TPJ most likely reflecting the shift to a new perspective. Activations associated with the proactive decision to update to a new interpretation were found in a network including the dorsal ACC known to be involved in exploration and the endogenous decision to switch to a new interpretation. These findings suggest a general network commonly engaged in all types of perceptual decision making supported by additional networks associated with perceptual uncertainty or updating provoked by either proactive or reactive decision making.

To date, fractionation of the nicotine addiction phenotype has been limited to that based primarily on characteristics of cigarette use, although it is widely appreciated that a variety of individual factors are associated with tobacco use disorder. Identifying subtypes of tobacco use disorder based on such factors may lead to better understanding of potential treatment targets, individualize treatments and improve outcomes. In this preliminary study, to identify potential subgroups, we applied hierarchical clustering to a broad range of assessments measuring personality, IQ and psychiatric symptoms, as well as various environmental and experiential characteristics from 102 otherwise healthy cigarette smokers. The identified subgroups were further compared on various resting-state fMRI measures from a subset (N = 65) of individuals who also underwent resting-state fMRI scanning. The clustering dendrogram indicated that smokers can be divided into three subgroups. Each subgroup had unique clinical assessment characteristics. The division yielded imaging differences between subgroups in the supplementary motor area/middle cingulate cortex and the cuneus. Regression analyses showed that amplitude of low frequency fluctuations in the supplementary motor area/middle cingulate cortex differed between groups and were negatively correlated with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale subscale Difficulty Describing Feelings.

This study aimed to detect different patterns of cerebral hypoperfusion in DLB according to clinical staging. Thirty-three patients with DLB were recruited by clinical dementia rating (CDR) stage. Compared with control, cerebral hypoperfusion was mainly observed in the lingual gyrus, the cuneus, the occipital gyrus in CDR 0.5 group; the fusiform gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus, and the posterior cingulate in CDR 1; and the lingual gyrus, the cuneus, the hippocampus, the fusiform gyrus, and the inferior frontal gyrus in CDR 2. Our findings suggest that cerebral hypoperfusion spreads to the frontal cortex and temporal lobes as disease progresses.

Objective Depression is linked to alterations in both emotion and self-processing. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess neural activation in healthy and depressed youth to a novel task that combined emotion processing with self-face recognition. Methods An fMRI study involving 81 adolescents (50.6% females; Mage=14.61, SD=1.65) comprised of depressed (DEP, n=43), and healthy controls (HC, n=38). Participants completed a clinical interview and self-report measures during an initial assessment. In the scanner, adolescents completed a face recognition task, viewing emotional (happy, sad, neutral) images of their own face (self) or the face of another youth (other). Results DEP youth showed higher activity in the cuneus (F=26.29) and post and precentral gyri (F=20.76), across all conditions compared to HC. Sad faces elicited higher posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus (F=10.36) and inferior parietal cortex activity (F=11.0), and self faces elicited higher precuneus, fusiform (F=16.39), insula and putamen (F=16.82) activity in all youth. DEP showed higher middle temporal activity to neutral faces but lower activity to sad faces compared to HC, who showed the opposite pattern (F=12.86). DEP also showed hypoactive mid-temporal limbic activity relative to controls when identifying their self happy face vs. neutral face, yet showed hyperactivity when identifying the other happy face vs. neutral face, and HC showed the opposite pattern (F=10.94). Conclusions The neurophysiology of self-face recognition is altered in adolescent depression. Specifically, depression was associated with decreased activity in neural areas that support emotional and associative processing for positive self-faces and increased processing for neutral self-faces. These results suggest that depression in adolescents is associated with hypoactive emotional processing and encoding of positive self-related visual information. This abnormal neural activity at the intersection of reward and self-processing among depressed youth might have long lasting impact in self-formation and future adult self-representations, given that adolescence is a sensitive period for self-development.

In contrast to scalp EEG, our knowledge of the normal physiological intracranial EEG activity is scarce. This multicentre study provides an atlas of normal intracranial EEG of the human brain during wakefulness. Here we present the results of power spectra analysis during wakefulness. Intracranial electrodes are placed in or on the brain of epilepsy patients when candidates for surgical treatment and non-invasive approaches failed to sufficiently localize the epileptic focus. Electrode contacts are usually in cortical regions showing epileptic activity, but some are placed in normal regions, at distance from the epileptogenic zone or lesion. Intracranial EEG channels defined using strict criteria as very likely to be in healthy brain regions were selected from three tertiary epilepsy centres. All contacts were localized in a common stereotactic space allowing the accumulation and superposition of results from many subjects. Sixty-second artefact-free sections during wakefulness were selected. Power spectra were calculated for 38 brain regions, and compared to a set of channels with no spectral peaks in order to identify significant peaks in the different regions. A total of 1785 channels with normal brain activity from 106 patients were identified. There were on average 2.7 channels per cm 3 of cortical grey matter. The number of contacts per brain region averaged 47 (range 6-178). We found significant differences in the spectral density distributions across the different brain lobes, with beta activity in the frontal lobe (20-24 Hz), a clear alpha peak in the occipital lobe (9.25-10.25 Hz), intermediate alpha (8.25-9.25 Hz) and beta (17-20 Hz) frequencies in the parietal lobe, and lower alpha (7.75-8.25 Hz) and delta (0.75-2.25 Hz) peaks in the temporal lobe. Some cortical regions showed a specific electrophysiological signature: peaks present in > 60% of channels were found in the precentral gyrus (lateral: peak frequency range, 20-24 Hz; mesial: 24-30 Hz), opercular part of the inferior frontal gyrus (20-24 Hz), cuneus (7.75-8.75 Hz), and hippocampus (0.75-1.25 Hz). Eight per cent of all analysed channels had more than one spectral peak; these channels were mostly recording from sensory and motor regions. Alpha activity was not present throughout the occipital lobe, and some cortical regions showed peaks in delta activity during wakefulness. This is the first atlas of normal intracranial EEG activity; it includes dense coverage of all cortical regions in a common stereotactic space, enabling direct comparisons of EEG across subjects. This atlas provides a normative baseline against which clinical EEGs and experimental results can be compared. It is provided as an open web resource (https://mni-open-ieegatlas.research.mcgill.ca).

Background Schizophrenia is a clinical syndrome, and its causes have not been well determined. The objective of this study was to investigate the alteration of brain functional connectivity between schizophrenia and healthy control, and present a practical solution for accurately identifying schizophrenia at single-subject level. Methods 24 schizophrenia patients and 21 matched healthy subjects were recruited to undergo the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scanning. First, we constructed the brain network by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient between each pair of the brain regions. Then, this study proposed a novel non-negative discriminant functional connectivity selection method, i.e. non-negative elastic-net based method (N2EN), to extract the alteration of brain functional connectivity between schizophrenia and healthy control. It ranks the significance of the connectivity with a uniform criterion by introducing the non-negative constraint. Finally, kernel discriminant analysis (KDA) is exploited to classify the subjects with the selected discriminant brain connectivity features. Results The proposed method is applied into schizophrenia classification, and achieves the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 100, 90.48 and 95.56%, respectively. Our findings also indicate the alteration of functional network can be used as the biomarks for guiding the schizophrenia diagnosis. The regions of cuneus, superior frontal gyrus, medial, paracentral lobule, calcarine fissure, surrounding cortex, etc. are highly relevant to schizophrenia. Conclusions This study provides a method for accurately identifying schizophrenia, which outperforms several state-of-the-art methods, including conventional brain network classification, multi-threshold brain network based classification, frequent sub-graph based brain network classification and support vector machine. Our investigation suggested that the selected discriminant resting-state functional connectivities are meaningful features for classifying schizophrenia and healthy control.

// Yi Shao 1, * , Jing Bao 1, * , Xin Huang 1, 2 , Fu-Qing Zhou 3 , Lei Ye 1 , You-Lan Min 1 , Lin Yang 1 , Zubin Sethi 4 , Qing Yuan 1 and Qiong Zhou 1 1 Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi, China 2 Department of Ophthalmology, The People's Hospital of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430060, Hubei, China 3 Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi, China 4 University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33146, USA * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Qiong Zhou, email: 375135747@qq.com Keywords: monocular blindness; voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity; resting state; functional magnetic resonance imaging Received: December 05, 2017 Accepted: January 25, 2018 Epub: February 14, 2018 Published: March 06, 2018 ABSTRACT Objective: In the present study, we investigated the brain interhemispheric functional connectivity changes in left eye MB versus right eye MB patients by voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) methods. Methods: A total of 31 patients with MB (15 with left eye MB and 16 with right eye MB), and 31 healthy controls (HCs) closely matched for age were recruited. All subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) examinations. The VMHC method was used to evaluate directly functional interactions between the hemispheres. A one-way ANOVA was performed to determine the regions in which the VMHC differs between the three groups. Patients with MB were distinguished from HCs by a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The relationships between the mean VMHC signal values in many brain regions and clinical features in MB patients were calculated by pearson correlation analysis. Results: Compared with HCs, MB patients had significantly decreased VMHC values in the cuneus/calcarine/lingual gyrus. Furthermore, left eye MB showed decreased VMHC values in the cuneus/calcarine/lingual gyrus and showed increased VMHC values in the insula and middle frontal gyrus compared with HC. In addition, right eye MB showed decreased VMHC values in the cuneus/calcarine/lingual gyrus, primary motor cortex (M1)/primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and superior parietal lobule. Conclusion: MB subjects showed abnormal brain interhemispheric functional connectivity in visual pathways. Furthermore, different patterns of brain interhemispheric functional connectivity occurred in the left eye and right eye MB. These VMHC values provide much useful information to explain the neural mechanism changes in MB.

BackgroundThe dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) and visual memory deficits have been consistently reported to be associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study aimed to examine whether a DAT1 haplotype affected functional and structural brain alterations in children with ADHD and whether those alterations were associated with visual memory.MethodWe recruited a total of 37 drug-naïve children with ADHD (17 with the DAT1 rs27048 (C)/rs429699 (T) haplotype and 20 without the CT haplotype) and 37 typically developing children (17 with the CT haplotype and 20 without the CT haplotype). Visual memory was assessed by the pattern recognition memory (PRM) and spatial recognition memory (SRM) tasks. We analyzed functional and structural brain architecture with regional homogeneity (ReHo) and gray matter volume (GMV).ResultsThe CT haplotype was associated with decreased ReHo in the left superior occipital gyrus, cuneus, and precuneus; and decreased GMV in the left superior occipital gyrus, cuneus, and precuneus, and in the right angular gyrus. Significant interactions of ADHD and the CT haplotype were found in the right postcentral gyrus for ReHo and in the right supplementary motor area for GMV. For the ADHD-CT group, we found negative correlations of total correct responses in PRM and SRM and positive correlations of mean latency of correct responses in PRM with the GMV in the left superior occipital gyrus, cuneus, and precuneus.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the DAT1-related GMV alterations in the posterior cortical regions may contribute to visual memory performance in children with ADHD.

Previous studies suggested that the patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizure had structural abnormalities in the thalamus, cingulated cortex and some other specific brain regions. Concurrently, the abnormality in thalamocortical network and basal ganglia network has been found in idiopathic generalized epilepsy. The cingulated cortex, a nexus of information processing and regulation in human brain, is implicated in the propagation of generalized spike in IGE and the previous studies have suggested that the structural features and functional connectivity of the cingulated cortex have been changed. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the alterations in the cingulated cortex in generalized tonic-clonic seizure by combining morphological and functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging. 19 patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizure and 19 age-and gender-matched healthy controls were involved in the study. The three-dimensional high-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired for voxel-based morphometry analysis, two-sample t-test run on the T1-weighted structural images revealed clusters exhibiting significant decreases in grey-matter volume in the generalized tonic-clonic seizure group, located within the cingulated cortex, thalamus, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and cerebellum. The decreased gray matter volume in the cingulated cortex indicating that the cingulated cortex has structural impairments in generalized tonic-clonic seizure patients. The bilateral cingulated cortex, as detected with decreased gray matter volume in patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizure through voxel-based morphometry analysis, was selected as seed regions for functional connectivity analysis. Compared with controls, we found decreased functional connectivity to left anterior cingulated cortex (ROI1) in the cuneus, frontal lobe and precentral gyrus. There was no significant result when seeding at the right anterior cingulum gyrus (ROI2). The results of the ROI3 (left middle cingulum) revealed the significantly decreased functional connectivity in the parietal lobe and frontal lobe. Seeding at the ROI4 (right middle cingulum), decreased functional connectivity showed in the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, frontal lobe. Seeding at the ROI5 (left posterior cingulum), decreased functional connectivity showed in the temporal lobe and frontal lobe. Seeding at the ROI6 (right posterior cingulum), decreased functional connectivity showed in the cuneus and frontal lobe. We did not find any increased functional connectivity of the posterior cingulated cortex (ROI3-ROI6) for the generalized tonic-clonic seizure patients in comparison to the controls (p

The Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) is widely used for cognitive evaluation of information processing speed (IPS), required in many cognitive operations. Despite being unspecific for different neurological disorders, it is sensitive to assess impaired performance related to stroke, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, and multiple sclerosis. However, in addition to evaluate the presence and severity of IPS impairment, it is of interest to determine the localization and integration of brain regions responsible for the functions assessed by the SDMT.To review the studies that adapted the SDMT to the magnetic resonance environment and obtain the brain areas associated with the performance of the task in healthy subjects with a meta-analysis.A systematic review was performed using ten studies published between 1990 and 2017, and selected from four databases. All studies included participants of both genders and age between 18 and 50 years, used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and SDMT adaptation and reported brain regions associated with the task. Six of them also reported the region coordinates in a standard space, so they were included in a meta-analysis. Activation Likelihood Estimation algorithm, with significance for p0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons, was used to identify areas that are robustly related to the performance of the SDMT.The areas predominantly reported in the studies of our meta-analysis were regions of the frontoparietal attentional network and occipital cortex, as well as cuneus, precuneus, and cerebellum. Individually all regions that survived the statistical threshold are consistent with what is expected after reviewing prospective studies.The present study allowed the identification of brain areas activated during the performance of the SDMT in healthy subjects, and therefore it will help understanding the differences in brain activation by this task in clinical populations. Moreover, it may guide future studies of therapeutic strategies and interventions in those populations.

Previous studies have indicated that memory training may help older people improve cognition. However, evidence regarding who will benefit from such memory trainings has not been fully discovered yet. Understanding the clinical and neural inter-individual differences for predicting cognitive improvement is important for maximizing the training efficacy of memory-training programs. The purpose of this study was to find the individual characteristics and brain morphological characteristics that predict cognitive improvement after a multi-strategic memory training based on metamemory concept. Among a total of 49 older adults, 39 participated in the memory-training program and 10 did not. All of them underwent brain MRIs at the entry of the training and received the neuropsychological tests twice, before and after the training. Stepwise regression analysis showed that lower years of education predicted cognitive improvement in the training group. In MRI, thinner cortices of precuneus, cuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus and higher white matter anisotropy of the splenium of corpus callosum predicted cognitive improvement in the training group. Old age, lower education level and individual differences in cortical thickness and white matter microstructure of the episodic memory network may predict outcomes following multi-strategic training.

In animal experiments, radial traveling waves have been recorded on the surface of the cortex. In humans, the recording by microelectrode matrices reveals only fragments of such waves. Our basic assumption is that the source of the EEG/MEG in the alpha and beta bands are radial traveling waves. Similar waves are generated in the networks of recurrently coupled neurons, where excitation is propagated through intracortical connections. We simulated traveling waves on the surface of the human brain and compared the simulation data with the experimental signals of the evoked and spontaneous MEG. Model waves were assigned a number of epicenters in the ROI on the cortical surface, different propagation velocities, and phase. The frequency of the model wave was determined from the spectral and wavelet analyzes. Correlation data allowed us to localize radial waves and to select their parameters in the postcentral sulcus with stimulation of the median nerve and in the cuneus sulcus at rest in healthy human adults. Our approach resulted in a successful reconstruction of the radial waves’ dynamics on individual brain surfaces.

Purpose To test the feasibility of the phase difference enhanced (PADRE) imaging for differentiation between Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and control subjects on 3T MR imaging. Materials and methods Fifteen patients with AD and 10 age-matched control subjects underwent two-dimensional fast field echo imaging to obtain PADRE images on a 3T MR scanner. A double Gaussian distribution model was used to determine the threshold phase value for differentiation between the physiologic and non-physiologic iron in the cerebral cortices, and PADRE images were processed with the threshold. Using a 4-point grading system, two readers independently assessed the signal of the four cerebral cortices on PADRE images: the cuneus, precuneus, superior frontal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus. The difference in the signals in each cortex between the AD patients and age-matched control subjects was determined by using Mann-Whitney U test. Inter-rater reliability was determined by Kappa analysis. We also evaluated the correlation between Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score and the hypointense grade, and between disease duration and the hypointense grade using the Spearman rank correlation test. Results The threshold phase value for differentiation between the physiologic and non-physiologic iron was -4.6% π (radian). The mean grades of the cuneus, precuneus, and superior temporal gyrus were significantly higher for the AD patients than for the control subjects (P = 0.002). Excellent inter-rater reliability was seen in the precuneus (kappa = 0.93), superior temporal gyrus (kappa = 0.94), and superior frontal gyrus (kappa = 0.93); good inter-rater reliability was observed in the cuneus (kappa = 0.75). We found a statistical correlation between MMSE score and the hypointense grade in superior temporal gyrus (STG) (P = 0.008), and no correlation between disease duration and the hypointense grade in any gyrus. Conclusion Our results suggest the feasibility of PADRE imaging at 3T for differentiation between AD patients and control subjects.

During financial decision-making tasks, humans often make “rational” decisions, where they maximize expected reward. However, this rationality may compete with a bias that reflects past outcomes. That is, if one just lost money or won money, this may impact future decisions. It is unclear how past outcomes influence future decisions in humans, and how neural circuits encode present and past information. In this study, six human subjects performed a financial decision-making task while we recorded local field potentials from multiple brain structures. We constructed a model for each subject characterizing bets on each trial as a function of present and past information. The models suggest that some patients are more influenced by previous trial outcomes (i.e., previous return and risk) than others who stick to more fixed decision strategies. In addition, past return and present risk modulated with the activity in the cuneus; while present return and past risk modulated with the activity in the superior temporal gyrus and the angular gyrus, respectively. Our findings suggest that these structures play a role in decision-making beyond their classical functions by incorporating predictions and risks in humans’ decision strategy, and provide new insight into how humans link their internal biases to decisions.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of occipital lobe and posterior cingulate perfusion in predicting dopamine transporter imaging outcome using a quantitative measure of analysis. Patients and methods: In total, 99 patients with cognitive complaints who had undergone both technetium-99m hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime single-photon emission computed tomography (99mTc-HMPAO SPECT) and 123Iioflupane (123I-FP-CIT also called DaTSCAN) imaging in a dementia diagnostic center were analyzed. Measures of perfusion were calculated from HMPAO SPECT images for the medial and lateral occipital lobe, the posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus and cuneus regions of interest using statistical parametric mapping 8. DaTSCAN images were quantified and specific binding ratios were calculated independent from HMPAO SPECT results. Statistical parametric mapping and tests of associations between perfusion and 123I-FP-CIT imaging were completed. Results: Regions of interest on HMPAO yielded poor predictive values when used independently to predict 123I-FP-CIT status; however, the combination of normal posterior cingulate perfusion with medial and lateral occipital hypoperfusion was associated significantly with 123I-FP-CIT status, χ2 (1, N= 99)=9.72, P = 0.002. This combination also yielded a high positive likelihood ratio and specificity (11.1, 98%). Sensitivity was, however, low (22%). No significant perfusion differences were found when abnormal and normal 123I-FP-CIT groups were compared directly using voxel-based morphometry (PConclusion: The combination of medial and lateral occipital hypoperfusion with preserved posterior cingulate gyrus perfusion is highly specific for individuals with a positive 123I-FP-CIT scan in a clinical sample where diagnostic doubt exists. This regional combination, however, lacks sensitivity; therefore, absence of the sign cannot be used to rule out dementia with Lewy bodies. A positive finding provides strong evidence to rule in dementia with Lewy bodies.