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Background: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a standard test for screening and monitoring cognitive functions. Objective: This study explored the two-year changes in MoCA scores in older adults. Methods: Fifty-seven participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 87 participants with normal cognition completed the baseline and two-year follow-up assessments. Apart from MoCA, tests on visuospatial judgment, memory, and motor-related executive function were administered. Results: The results identified three MCI subgroups based on the differential changes in MoCA scores. They were the consistently low, consistently high, and low-to-high between-time performances. These heterogeneous test performances are on contrary to the significant deteriorations in executive function and finger dexterity across all subgroups. Repeated exposure to MoCA tests during the follow-up period was found to be a plausible indicator of the MCI subgroup categorization. Conclusion: Findings raise concerns over adopting brief clinical instrument for repeated testing, such as MoCA, for monitoring MCI conditions among older adults.

BACKGROUND: Evidence has suggested that exercise protects against cognitive decline in aging, but the recent lockdown measures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have limited the opportunity for outdoor exercise. Herein we tested the effects of an indoor exercise, Qigong, on neurocognitive functioning as well as its potential neuro-immune pathway. METHODS: We conducted a 12-week randomized active-controlled trial with two study arms in cognitively healthy older people. We applied Wu Xing Ping Heng Gong (Qigong), which was designed by an experienced Daoist Qigong master, to the experimental group, whereas we applied the physical stretching exercise to the control group. The Qigong exercise consisted of a range of movements involving the stretching of arms and legs, the turning of the torso, and relaxing, which would follow the fundamental principles of Daoism and traditional Chinese medicine (e.g., Qi). We measured aging-sensitive neurocognitive abilities, serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels, and brain structural volumes in the experimental (Qigong, n = 22) and control groups (stretching, n = 26) before and after the 12-week training. RESULTS: We observed that Qigong caused significant improvement in processing speed (t (46) = 2.03, p = 0.048) and sustained attention (t (46) = -2.34, p = 0.023), increased hippocampal volume (t (41) = 3.94, p

The uniqueness of neural processes between allocentric and egocentric spatial coding has been controversial. The distinctive paradigms used in previous studies for manipulating spatial coding could have attributed for the inconsistent results. This study was aimed to generate converging evidence from previous functional brain imaging experiments for collating neural substrates associated with these two types of spatial coding. An additional aim was to test whether test-taking processes would have influenced the results. We obtained coordinate-based functional neuroimaging data for 447 subjects and performed activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis. Among the 28 experiments, the results indicate two common clusters of convergence. They were the right precuneus and the right superior frontal gyrus as parts of the parieto-frontal circuit. Between-type differences were in the parieto-occipital circuit, with allocentric showing convergence in the superior occipital gyrus (SOG) cluster compared with egocentric showing convergence in the middle occipital gyrus (MOG) cluster. Task-specific influences were only found in allocentric spatial coding. Spatial judgment-oriented tasks seem to increase the demands on manipulating spatial relationships among the visual objects, while spatial navigation tasks seem to increase the demands on maintaining object representations. Our findings address the theoretical controversies on spatial coding that both the allocentric and egocentric types are common in their processes mediated by the parieto-frontal network, while unique and additional processes in the allocentric type are mediated by the parieto-occipital network. The positive results on possible task-specific confound offer insights into the future design of spatial tasks for eliciting spatial coding processes.

BACKGROUND Early detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) symptoms is an important step to the subsequent medical diagnostic and intervention. We developed a new screening test called the Efficient Online MCI Screening System (EOmciSS) for use in community-dwelling older adults. It is a self-paced rapid cognitive test to be completed within 10 minutes on tablets or mobile phones in homes or elderly centers. OBJECTIVE This study was aimed to test the validity of the EOmciSS for identifying community-dwelling older adults with MCI risks. METHODS The participants (N=827) completed the EOmciSS and other criterion instruments. The evidence of the psychometric properties included subscale item difficulty, discriminative index, internal consistency, and construct validity. We further tested the between-group discrimination using cross-validation method on the labelled MCI and normal cognitive groups. RESULTS Three accuracy and one reaction time factors explained the structure of the 20 item factors. Difficulty levels of the item factors in the accuracy factors, namely Trail Making, Clock Drawing and Cube Copying, and Delayed Recall were 0.63 to 0.99; while those of the reaction time factor were 0.77 to 0.95. Discriminative indices of the medium to high difficulty item factors were ranged from 0.39 to 0.97. The internal consistency indices (Cronbach’s Alpha) ranged from 0.41 (for few item factor) to 0.96. Training dataset indicated nine item factors as the significant predictors for the MCI versus NC classification. Presence of depressive symptoms was identified as a significant factor influencing participants’ performance, which was an integral part of the test system. Age, education level and proficiency level of using electronic device of the participants did not significantly influence their scores and classification. Application of the MCI/NC cut off score (7.90 out of 9,67) to the validation dataset yielded an AUC value of 0.912 (P < .001) (95% C.I. 0.868-0.955). The sensitivity and specificity were 84.9% and 85.1% respectively, and the Youden index was 0.70. CONCLUSIONS The EOmciSS shows satisfactory evidence on its validity and reliability for identifying older adults with significant risks of MCI. The user-interface, online operation and self-paced format allow the test system to be operated by older adult users or their caregivers in different community settings such as home and elderly centers. Depressive symptoms, found influencing the test performances and hence the MCI risks, should be an integral part in future MCI screening system. CLINICALTRIAL Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2000039411

Stress is an inevitable element of everyday living. Developmental studies suggested that adolescents are more vulnerable and sensitive to the effect of stress due to their developing brains, especially in areas related to stress perception and processing. This voxel-based morphometry study examined the association between various neurobiological markers and the level of perceived stress experienced by adolescents (n = 26) and middle-aged adults (n = 26). Our findings indicated that differences existed in the relationships between perceived stress and the structural volume of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) extending to the insula and amygdala. Specifically, the levels of perceived stress and the grey matter volume of the orbitofrontal cortex, the insula, and the amygdala were positively related in adolescents but negatively related for adults. Furthermore, a significant negative correlation between perceived stress and cortisol levels was observed in adults, whereas the relationship between perceived stress and cortisol levels was not significant for adolescents. Perceived stress measurement may be better than cortisol levels in terms of reflecting the emotional states of adolescents. In sum, the relationships between perceived stress and neurobiological markers were different between adolescents and middle-aged adults and thus appeared to be age dependent.

Introduction Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a life-altering event. Motor vehicle accidents and falls are common causes of traumatic SCI, and SCI outcomes may be affected by patients' ages and injury sites. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with unfavorable in-hospital outcomes, focusing on the impact of patients' ages and SCI lesion sites. Methods Data of 25,988 patients hospitalized with traumatic SCI in the US National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database from 2005 to 2014 were extracted and analyzed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the factors associated with SCI outcomes, including in-hospital deaths, adverse discharge, and prolonged hospital stays. Results Multivariate analysis revealed that the oldest ages (>65 years) were significantly associated with increased in-hospital mortality compared with the youngest ages at all lesion sites (cervical, odds ratio [OR]: 5.474, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.465 to 6.709; thoracic, OR: 5.940, 95% CI: 3.881 to 9.091; and lumbosacral, OR: 6.254, 95% CI: 2.920 to 13.394). Older ages were also significantly associated with increased adverse outcomes at all sites (cervical, OR: 2.460, 95% CI: 2.180 to 2.777; thoracic, OR: 2.347, 95% CI: 1.900 to 2.900; and lumbosacral, OR: 2.743, 95% CI: 2.133 to 3.527). Intermediate ages (35 to 64) were also significantly associated with increased in-hospital death and adverse discharge at cervical and thoracic SCIs, but not at lumbosacral sites. Discussion For hospitalized patients with traumatic SCI, older age independently predicts worse in-hospital outcomes, with greatest effects seen in patients aged 65 years and older. Study findings suggest that extra vigilance and targeted management strategies are warranted in managing SCI patients aged 65 years and older during hospitalization.

Our brain during distinct developmental phases may show differential responses to perceived psychological stress, yet existing research specifically examining neurodevelopmental changes in stress processing is scarce. To fill in this research gap, this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined the relationship between perceived stress and resting-state neural connectivity patterns among 67 healthy volunteers belonging to three age groups (adolescents, young adults and adults), who were supposed to be at separate neurodevelopmental phases and exhibit different affect regulatory processes in the brain. While the groups showed no significant difference in self-reported general perceived stress levels, the functional connectivity between amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) was positively and negatively correlated with perceived stress in adolescents and young adults respectively, while no significant correlations were observed in adults. Furthermore, among adolescents, the causal functional interaction between amygdala and vmPFC exhibited bottom-up connectivity, and that between amygdala and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex exhibited top-down connectivity, both of which changed to bilateral directions, i.e. both bottom-up and top-down connections, in both young adults and adults, supporting the notion that the amygdala and prefrontal cortical circuitries undergo functional reorganizations during brain development. These novel findings have important clinical implications in treating stress-related affective disorders in young individuals., Highlights • Age moderates the relationship between prefrontal-amygdala circuitry and perceived stress. • The VMPFC-amygdala connectivity were distinct in different age groups. • The VMPFC-amygdala connectivity was positively related to stress in adolescents. • The VMPFC-amygdala connectivity was negatively related to stress in young adults. • The Ventral PFC-amygdala connectivity was bi-directional in adults.

Objective Late-life depression is a significant health risk factor for older adults, part of which is perceived loneliness. In this voxel-based morphometry study, we examined the relationships between perceived loneliness and depression recurrence. Methods Fifty-two older adults were recruited, and they were split into 3 groups: single episode, multiple episodes, or normal control groups, according to their clinical histories. Results This result suggests the level of functioning regarding the reward system may be negatively related to the number of depressive episodes. Taken together, the findings of this study offer important insight into the neural underpinnings of the course and chronicity of late-life depression.

The quality of life in neurological disorders (Neuro-QoL) is a U.S. National Institutes of Health initiative that produced a set of self-report measures of physical, mental, and social health experienced by adults or children who have a neurological condition or disorder. To describe the content of the Neuro-QoL at the item level using the World Health Organization’s international classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF). We assessed the Neuro-QoL for its content coverage of functioning and disability relative to each of the four ICF domains (i.e., body functions, body structures, activities and participation, and environment). We used second-level ICF three-digit codes to classify items into categories within each ICF domain and computed the percentage of categories within each ICF domain that were represented in the Neuro-QoL items. All items of Neuro-QoL could be mapped to the ICF categories at the second-level classification codes. The activities and participation domain and the mental functions category of the body functions domain were the areas most often represented by Neuro-QoL. Neuro-QoL provides limited coverage of the environmental factors and body structure domains. Neuro-QoL measures map well to the ICF. The Neuro-QoL–ICF-mapped items provide a blueprint for users to select appropriate measures in ICF-based measurement applications.

Detrimental effects of long-term inhalation of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems have been widely reported. Recent studies have shown that exposure to PM2.5 also causes adverse neurocognitive effects. This study investigates the effects of inhaled ammonium sulfate, which is a major compound of inorganic air pollutants in PM2.5, on adult neurogenesis in aged Sprague-Dawley rats. A total of 20 rats were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 10) and control (n = 10) conditions, wherein they were exposed to either ammonium sulfate or sham air for 2 h per day and for 28 consecutive days. It was observed that ammonium sulfate inhibited the maturation process and diminished dendritic complexity of immature neurons in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus significantly, although the number of neural stem cells or the rates of differentiation were comparable between the two groups. Our findings provide clear evidence on the direct relationship between air quality and advantageous neurogenesis. Exposure to PM leads to specific adverse effects on the maturation process during neurogenesis.

Highlights • PSD patients showed GMV decreases in the left MFG. • Change of the MFG's GMV is independent from the lesions. • Hypoactivity in IFG and DLPFC may account for the PSD symptoms. • PSD patients may have difficulty in understanding and appraising negative emotions., Stroke survivors are known to suffer from post-stroke depression (PSD). However, the likelihood of structural changes in the brains of PSD patients has not been explored. This study aims to extract changes in the gray matter of these patients and test how these changes account for the PSD symptoms. High-resolution T1 weighted images were collected from 23 PSD patients diagnosed with subcortical stroke. Voxel-based morphometry and support vector machine analyses were used to analyze the data. The results were compared with those collected from 33 non-PSD patients. PSD group showed decreased gray matter volume (GMV) in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) when compared to the non-PSD patients. Together with the clinical and demographic variables, the MFG's GMV predictive model was able to distinguish PSD from the non-PSD patients (0•70 sensitivity and 0•88 specificity). The changes in the left inferior frontal gyrus (61%) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (39%) suggest that the somatic/affective symptoms in PSD is likely to be due to patients’ problems with understanding and appraising negative emotional stimuli. The impact brought by the reduced prefrontal to limbic system connectivity needs further exploration. These findings indicate possible systemic involvement of the frontolimbic network resulting in PSD after brain lesions which is likely to be independent from the location of the lesion. The results inform specific clinical interventions to be provided for treating depressive symptoms in post-stroke patients.

Previous research has highlighted the potential of fMRI in discriminating between truth and falsehood. However, falsehoods may not necessarily represent a deliberate intention to deceive; they can be a result of false memory too. It is important to show that fMRI can discriminate between deception and false memory, before it can be applied in legal contexts for deception detection. To this end, we performed a meta-analytic comparison of brain activation between deception and false memory. Activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses were conducted separately on 49 deception (61 contrasts; Ntotal = 991) and 28 false memory (32 contrasts; Ntotal = 484) studies. The contrasts obtained from these meta-analyses were entered into subsequent conjunction and contrast analyses. Deception and false memory tasks activated several frontoparietal regions. Both tasks activated the left superior frontal gyrus. Deception, relative to false memory, was associated with increased activation in the right superior temporal gyrus, right insula, left inferior parietal lobule and right superior frontal gyrus. These results provide some evidence to suggest that fMRI can discriminate between deception and false memory.

Cross-modal learning requires the use of information from different sensory modalities. This study investigated how the prior visual experience of late blind individuals could modulate neural processes associated with learning of sound localization. Learning was realized by standardized training on sound localization processing, and experience was investigated by comparing brain activations elicited from a sound localization task in individuals with (late blind, LB) and without (early blind, EB) prior visual experience. After the training, EB showed decreased activation in the precuneus, which was functionally connected to a limbic-multisensory network. In contrast, LB showed the increased activation of the precuneus. A subgroup of LB participants who demonstrated higher visuospatial working memory capabilities (LB-HVM) exhibited an enhanced precuneus-lingual gyrus network. This differential connectivity suggests that visuospatial working memory due to the prior visual experience gained via LB-HVM enhanced learning of sound localization. Active visuospatial navigation processes could have occurred in LB-HVM compared to the retrieval of previously bound information from long-term memory for EB. The precuneus appears to play a crucial role in learning of sound localization, disregarding prior visual experience. Prior visual experience, however, could enhance cross-modal learning by extending binding to the integration of unprocessed information, mediated by the cognitive functions that these experiences develop. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10548-017-0549-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background and aims: Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) offers another method of non-invasive brain stimulation in post-stroke rehabilitation. Because it is not known if tACS over bilateral mastoids (tACSbm) can promote the functional recovery in subacute post-stroke patients, we wish to learn the effect of tACSbm on improving neurological function and intracranial hemodynamics of subacute post-stroke patients.Methods: Sixty subacute post-stroke patients (mean age: 65.4 ± 9.8 years), 15 to 60 days after the onset, were randomly assigned to receiving 15 sessions of usual rehabilitation program without (n = 30) or with tACSbm (20 Hz and

BackgroundMonitoring the functional status of poststroke patients after they transition home is significant for rehabilitation. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies may provide an opportunity to reach and follow patients post discharge. However, the feasibility and validity of functional assessments administered by mHealth technologies are unknown.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the feasibility, validity, and reliability of functional assessments administered through the videoconference function of a mobile phone–based app compared with administration through the telephone function in poststroke patients after rehabilitation hospitalization.MethodsA randomized controlled trial was conducted in a rehabilitation hospital in Southeast China. Participants were randomly assigned to either a videoconference follow-up (n=60) or a telephone follow-up (n=60) group. We measured the functional status of participants in each group at 2-week and 3-month follow-up periods. Half the participants in each group were followed by face-to-face home visit assessments as the gold standard. Validity was assessed by comparing any score differences between videoconference follow-up and home visit assessments, as well as telephone follow-up and home visit assessments. Reliability was assessed by computing agreements between videoconference follow-up and home visit assessments, as well as telephone follow-up and home visit assessments. Feasibility was evaluated by the levels of completion, satisfaction, comfort, and confidence in the 2 groups.ResultsScores obtained from the videoconference follow-up were similar to those of the home visit assessment. However, most scores collected from telephone administration were higher than those of the home visit assessment. The agreement between videoconference follow-up and home visit assessments was higher than that between telephone follow-up and home visit assessments at all follow-up periods. In the telephone follow-up group, completion rates were 95% and 82% at 2-week and 3-month follow-up points, respectively. In the videoconference follow-up group, completion rates were 95% and 80% at 2-week and 3-month follow-up points, respectively. There were no differences in the completion rates between the 2 groups at all follow-up periods (X21=1.6, P=.21 for 2-week follow-up; X21=1.9, P=.17 for 3-month follow-up). Patients in the videoconference follow-up group perceived higher confidence than those in the telephone follow-up group at both 2-week and 3-month follow-up periods (X23=6.7, P=.04 for 2-week follow-up; X23=8.0, P=.04 for 3-month follow-up). The videoconference follow-up group demonstrated higher satisfaction than the telephone follow-up group at 3-month follow-up (X23=13.9; P=.03).ConclusionsThe videoconference follow-up assessment of functional status demonstrates higher validity and reliability, as well as higher confidence and satisfaction perceived by patients, than the telephone assessment. The videoconference assessment provides an efficient means of assessing functional outcomes of patients after hospital discharge. This method provides a novel solution for clinical trials requiring longitudinal assessments.Trial Registrationchictr.org.cn: ChiCTR1900027626; http://www.chictr.org.cn/edit.aspx?pid=44831&htm=4.

Background: Stroke survivors are known to suffer from post-stroke depression (PSD). However, the likelihood of structural changes in the brains of PSD patients has not been explored. This study aims to extract changes in the gray matter of these patients and test how these changes account for the PSD symptoms. Methods: High-resolution T1 weighted images were collected from 23 PSD patients diagnosed with subcortical stroke. Voxel-based morphometry and support vector machine analyses were used to analyze the data. The results were compared with those collected from 33 non-PSD patients. Findings: PSD group showed decreased gray matter volume (GMV) in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and increased GMV in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) when compared to the non-PSD patients. The changes in GMVs in the MFG and ACG suggest possible systemic involvement of the prefrontal-limbic network resulting in PSD after brain lesions which is likely to be independent from the location of the lesions. Furthermore, the combined GMV values of the MFG and ACG distinguished 81% of the PSD from the non-PSD patients (76·5% sensitivity and 87·5% specificity). Interpretation: The MFG-ACG model suggests that the PSD diagnosis is likely to attribute to abnomrmality in the prefrontal-limbic network. Reduced emotional control resulting in hyperactive emotional processing seems to aggravate the PSD symptoms of the post-stroke patients. Funding: This study was supported by the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital and the University Research Facility of Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Declaration of Interest: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest. Ethical Approval: The research protocol and implementation were in accordance with the "Declaration of Helsinki". Written informed consent was obtained from each patient and the ethics approval was obtained from the research committee of the hospital in which the study was conducted.

Background: Neuroplastic underpinnings of meditation-induced changes in affective processing are largely unclear. Methods: We included healthy older participants in an active-controlled experiment. They were involved a meditation training or a control relaxation training of eight weeks. Associations between behavioral and neural morphometric changes induced by the training were examined. Results: The meditation group demonstrated a change in valence perception indexed by more neutral valence ratings of positive and negative affective images. These behavioral changes were associated with synchronous structural enlargements in a prefrontal network involving the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the inferior frontal sulcus. In addition, these neuroplastic effects were modulated by the enlargement in the inferior frontal junction. In contrast, these prefrontal enlargements were absent in the active control group, which completed a relaxation training. Supported by a path analysis, we propose a model that describes how meditation may induce a series of prefrontal neuroplastic changes related to valence perception. These brain areas showing meditation-induced structural enlargements are reduced in older people with affective dysregulations. Conclusion: We demonstrated that a prefrontal network was enlarged after eight weeks of meditation training. Our findings yield translational insights in the endeavor to promote healthy aging by means of meditation.

OBJECTIVE To investigate how clinical experience and access to patient information regarding functional capability influence inter-rater reliability and validity of the Brief International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health Core Set for Stroke (ICF) assessment. METHODS Study 1 involved expert (clinical experience > 5 years) and novice (clinical experience

The in vivo neural activity of the pons during the perception of affective stimuli has not been studied despite the strong implications of its role in affective processing. To examine the activity of the pons during the viewing of affective stimuli, and to verify its functional and structural connectivity with other affective neural correlates, a multimodal magnetic resonance imaging methodology was employed in this study. We observed the in vivo activity of the pons when viewing affective stimuli. Furthermore, small-world connectivity indicated that the functional connectivity (FC) between the pons and the cortico-limbic affective regions was meaningful, with the coefficient λ being positively associated with self-reported emotional reactivity. The FC between the pons and the cortico-limbic-striatal areas was related to self-reported negative affect. Corroborating this finding was the observation that the tract passing through the pons and the left hippocampus was negatively related to self-reported positive affect and positively correlated with emotional reactivity. Our findings support the framework that the pons works conjunctively with the distributed cortico-limbic-striatal systems in shaping individuals' affective states and reactivity. Our work paves the path for future research on the contribution of the pons to the precipitation and maintenance of affective disorders.

Background. Oxford Cognitive Screen is designed for assessing cognitive functions of poststroke patients. This study was aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Chinese (Putonghua) version of the Oxford Cognitive Screen-Putonghua (OCS-P) for use among poststroke patients without neglect. Methods. Expert review panel evaluated content validity of the Chinese-translated items. After pilot tested the translated items, the patients and healthy participants completed the OCS-P as well as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-ChiB) and Goldenberg’s test. A group of patients completed OCS-P for the second time within seven days. Data analyses included confirmatory factor analysis, item difficulty and item-total correlation, inter- and intrarater reliability, internal consistency, and between-group discrimination. Results. One hundred patients and 120 younger (n=60) or older (n=60) healthy participants completed all the tests. Modifications were required for items in the “Picture Naming”, “Orientation”, and “Sentence Reading” subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure for the OCS-P subscales. The internal consistency coefficients for the three identified test dimensions were 0.30 to 0.52 (Cronbach’s alpha). Construct validity coefficients between the OCS-P and MoCA-ChiB subscales were 0.45 < r < 0.79 (p<0.001) and the “Praxis” subscale of OCS-P and Goldenberg’s test was r=0.72 (p<0.001). The interrater reliability coefficients for the subscales were in general higher than the intrarater reliability coefficients. The “Picture Naming” and “Numerical Cognition” subscales were the most significant (p=0.003) for differentiating patient participants from their older healthy counterpart. Conclusion. This study generated satisfactory evidence on the content validity, substantive validity, construct validity, inter- and intrarater reliability, and known-group discrimination of the OCS-P. They support its application among poststroke patients who speak Putonghua. Future studies could review the existing five-dimension domains for improving its structural validity and internal consistency as well as generate evidence of the OCS-P for use among the poststroke patients with neglect.

A dishonest person often utilizes another person’s obliviousness to appropriate the property that belongs to the other person. Previous researchers have studied the making of a dishonest choice and the manipulation of truthful information. Here, we have investigated the neural correlates of processing the outcomes of dishonest decisions. Participants in this study were asked to interact with counterparts in an economic game. They could accept the counterparts’ proposals on how to divide the profits (honest choice) or choose the alternative plan that was advantageous to themselves (dishonest choice), playing to the ignorance of their counterparts who had a 50% chance of detecting the situation. Successful dishonest choices (not being detected) would bring large rewards, whereas honest choices would lead to less of a reward, and failed dishonest choices (being caught) would result in no reward. Participants’ neural responses during the outcome presentations were recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) methods in different sessions. We found that the outcomes of successful dishonest (vs. honest) choices elicited stronger activations in the ventral striatum and posterior cingulate cortex and a smaller ERP component called feedback-related negativity (FRN), which suggests that positive outcome evaluation and attention processing were aroused by successful dishonest choices. Moreover, the outcomes of failed dishonest (relative to honest) choices were associated with different neural response patterns in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and P3b ERP component between human and computer counterparts, suggesting that processing the output of social decision making (playing human) is different from that of risk taking (playing computer). The findings advanced our understanding about the neural processing of outcome presentation after a dishonest choice has been made.

Shifting between one’s external and internal environments involves orienting attention. Studies on differentiating subprocesses associated with external-to-internal orienting attention are limited. This study aimed to reveal the characteristics of the disengagement, shifting and reengagement subprocesses by using somatosensory external stimuli and internally generated images. Study participants were to perceive nociceptive external stimuli (External Low (EL) or External High (EH)) induced by electrical stimulations (50 ms) followed by mentally rehearsing learned subnociceptive images (Internal Low (IL) and Internal High (IH)). Behavioral responses and EEG signals of the participants were recorded. The three significant components elicited were: fronto-central negativity (FCN; 128–180 ms), fronto-central P2 (200–260 ms), and central P3 (320–380 ms), which reflected the three subprocesses, respectively. Differences in the FCN and P2 amplitudes during the orienting to the subnociceptive images revealed only in the EH but not EL stimulus condition that are new findings. The results indicated that modulations of the disengagement and shifting processes only happened if the external nociceptive stimuli were of high salience and the external-to-internal incongruence was large. The reengaging process reflected from the amplitude of P3 correlated significantly with attenuation of the pain intensity felt from the external nociceptive stimuli. These findings suggested that the subprocesses underlying external-to-internal orienting attention serve different roles. Disengagement subprocess tends to be stimulus dependent, which is bottom-up in nature. Shifting and reengagement tend to be top-down subprocesses, which taps on cognitive control. This subprocess may account for the attenuation effects on perceived pain intensity after orienting attention.

Recent evidence suggests that the effects of meditation practice on affective processing and resilience have the potential to induce neuroplastic changes within the amygdala. Notably, literature speculates that meditation training may reduce amygdala activity during negative affective processing. Nonetheless, studies have thus far not verified this speculation. In this longitudinal study, participants (N = 21, 9 men) were trained in awareness-based compassion meditation (ABCM) or matched relaxation training. The effects of meditation training on amygdala activity were examined during passive viewing of affective and neutral stimuli in a non-meditative state. We found that the ABCM group exhibited significantly reduced anxiety and right amygdala activity during negative emotion processing than the relaxation group. Furthermore, ABCM participants who performed more compassion practice had stronger right amygdala activity reduction during negative emotion processing. The lower right amygdala activity after ABCM training may be associated with a general reduction in reactivity and distress. As all participants performed the emotion processing task in a non-meditative state, it appears likely that the changes in right amygdala activity are carried over from the meditation practice into the non-meditative state. These findings suggest that the distress-reducing effects of meditation practice on affective processing may transfer to ordinary states, which have important implications on stress management.

We conducted a systematic review to determine the effect of cognitive motor interference (CMI) for the prevention of falls in older adults.We searched studies through Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CINAHL, PEDro and the China Biology Medicine disc. Only randomised controlled trials examining the effects of CMI for older people were included. The primary outcome measure was falls; the secondary outcome measures included gait, balance function and reaction time.A total of 30 studies of 1,206 participants met the inclusion criteria, and 27 studies of 1,165 participants were used as data sources for the meta-analyses. The pooling revealed that CMI was superior to control group for fall rate [standard mean difference (SMD) (95% CI)=-3.03 (-4.33, -1.73), P0.0001], gait speed [SMD (95% CI)=0.36 (0.07, 0.66), P=0.01], step length [SMD (95% CI)=0.48 (0.16, 0.80), P=0.003], cadence [SMD (95% CI)=0.19 (0.01, 0.36), P=0.03], timed up and go test [SMD (95% CI)=-0.22 (-0.38, -0.06), P=0.007], centre of pressure displacement [SMD (95% CI)=-0.32 (-1.06, 0.43), P=0.04] and reaction time [SMD (95% CI)=-0.47 (-0.86, -0.08), P=0.02].The systematic review demonstrates that CMI is effective for preventing falls in older adults in the short term. However, there is, as yet, little evidence to support claims regarding long-term benefits. Hence, future studies should investigate the long-term effectiveness of CMI in terms of fall prevention in older adults.

This study examined the age-related subsequent memory effect (SME) in perceptual and semantic encoding using event-related potentials (ERPs). Seventeen younger adults and 17 older adults studied a series of Chinese characters either perceptually (by inspecting orthographic components) or semantically (by determining whether the depicted object makes sounds). The two tasks had similar levels of difficulty. The participants made studied or unstudied judgments during the recognition phase. Younger adults performed better in both conditions, with significant SMEs detected in the time windows of P2, N3, P550, and late positive component (LPC). In the older group, SMEs were observed in the P2 and N3 latencies in both conditions but were only detected in the P550 in the semantic condition. Between-group analyses showed larger frontal and central SMEs in the younger sample in the LPC latency regardless of encoding type. Aging effect appears to be stronger on influencing perceptual than semantic encoding processes. The effects seem to be associated with a decline in updating and maintaining representations during perceptual encoding. The age-related decline in the encoding function may be due in part to changes in frontal lobe function.

Comparing early- and late-onset blindness in individuals offers a unique model for studying the influence of visual experience on neural processing. This study investigated how prior visual experience would modulate auditory spatial processing among blind individuals. BOLD responses of early- and late-onset blind participants were captured while performing a sound localization task. The task required participants to listen to novel “Bat-ears” sounds, analyze the spatial information embedded in the sounds, and specify out of 15 locations where the sound would have been emitted. In addition to sound localization, participants were assessed on visuospatial working memory and general intellectual abilities. The results revealed common increases in BOLD responses in the middle occipital gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, precuneus, and precentral gyrus during sound localization for both groups. Between-group dissociations, however, were found in the right middle occipital gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus. The BOLD responses in the left superior frontal gyrus were significantly correlated with accuracy on sound localization and visuospatial working memory abilities among the late-onset blind participants. In contrast, the accuracy on sound localization only correlated with BOLD responses in the right middle occipital gyrus among the early-onset counterpart. The findings support the notion that early-onset blind individuals rely more on the occipital areas as a result of cross-modal plasticity for auditory spatial processing, while late-onset blind individuals rely more on the prefrontal areas which subserve visuospatial working memory.

Objective: To compare the effects of contralesional sensory cueing and limb activation with that of sham control in the treatment of unilateral neglect after stroke. Design: A randomized, single-blinded, sham-controlled pilot study. Setting: Two rehabilitation hospitals. Subjects: Forty subacute left hemiplegic stroke inpatients with unilateral neglect. Interventions: Participants were assigned randomly to 1 of 2 groups. The experimental group wore a wristwatch cueing device over the hemiplegic arm for three hours a day, five days per week, for three weeks, and also underwent conventional rehabilitation. Patients were encouraged to move their hemiplegic arm five consecutive times after each prompt. The sham group underwent the same rehabilitation process, except they wore a sham device. Main measures: Neglect, arm motor performance, and overall functioning were assessed pre- and posttraining, and at follow-up. Results: There were no significant differences between groups in outcome measures except the neglect drawing tasks ( p = 0.034) (the mean gain score from baseline to follow-up assessment was 5.2 (3.7) in the experimental group and 1.9 (3.5) in the sham group), across three time intervals. The experimental group showed greater improvement in arm motor performance than did the sham group. Conclusion: The results did not confirm that sensory cueing and limb activation treatment is effective when compared with those receiving placebo to reduce unilateral neglect, but it might be useful for promoting hemiplegic arm performance in stroke patients.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of types of motor skills, including open and closed skills on enhancing proactive and reactive controls for task switching. Thirty-six athletes in open (n=18) or closed (n=18) sports and a control group (n=18) completed the task-switching paradigm and the simple reaction task. The task-switching paradigm drew on the proactive and reactive control of executive functions, whereas the simple reaction task assessed the processing speed. Significant Validity×Group effect revealed that the participants with open skills had a lower switch cost of response time compared to the other two groups when the task cue was 100% valid; whereas the participants regardless of motor skills had a lower switch cost of response time compared to the control group when the task cue was 50% valid. Hierarchical stepwise regression analysis further confirmed these findings. For the simple reaction task, there were no differences found among the three groups. These findings suggest that experience in open skills has benefits of promoting both proactive and reactive controls for task switching, which corresponds to the activity context exposed by the participants. In contrast, experience in closed skills appears to only benefit development of reactive control for task switching. The neural mechanisms for the proactive and reactive controls of executive functions between experts with open and closed skills call for future study.

Rehabilitation of episodic memory declines typically focuses on alleviating the demand for recall and improving the retrieval process. Modulating the encoding is not commonly practiced, but may nevertheless be important. Seventeen event-related potential (ERP) studies interpreted using the subsequent memory effect, an index of successful encoding, are reviewed and the factors involved in encoding are discussed. The nature of the materials used for testing, modes of encoding, and the nature of the retrieval task are highlighted as important factors. Meaningful materials and processing information semantically enhance encoding to episodic memory. The stud-ies reviewed reveal that older persons process information more uniformly without elaboration compared with their younger counterparts. Although people with mild cognitive impairment have encoding and retrieval deficits, an elaborative type of encoding training that draws on successful encoding factors may help to improve memory performance.

This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Sensory Processing Measure-Hong Kong Chinese version (SPM-HKC), and to study the pattern of behavioral response of children towards sensory events across home and school settings. The two major forms of the SPM, Home Form and Main Classroom Form, were translated into Chinese in this study. The content validity of the SPM-HKC was reviewed by 20 expert panel members. A total of 547 typically developing children and 140 children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) were recruited for the field test on its reliability and validity. The findings of this study showed that the SPM-HKC was a valid and reliable tool in the screening for sensory processing difficulty of children aged 5-12 among the Chinese populations. But the correlation between the Home Form and the Main Classroom Form was low. It is recommended to use separate forms and norms to measure the performance of children across the home and school environments for more thorough understanding of difficulty in encountering daily sensory events.

Highlights • ALE meta-analysis reveals distributed brain networks for object and spatial functions in individuals with early blindness. • ALE contrast analysis reveals specific activations in the left cuneus and lingual gyrus for language function, suggesting a reverse hierarchical organization of the visual cortex for early blind individuals. • The findings contribute to visual rehabilitation in blind individuals by revealing the function-dependent and sensory-independent networks during nonvisual processing., Cross-modal occipital responses appear to be essential for nonvisual processing in individuals with early blindness. However, it is not clear whether the recruitment of occipital regions depends on functional domain or sensory modality. The current study utilized a coordinate-based meta-analysis to identify the distinct brain regions involved in the functional domains of object, spatial/motion, and language processing and the common brain regions involved in both auditory and tactile modalities in individuals with early blindness. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a total of 55 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The specific analyses revealed the brain regions that are consistently recruited for each function, such as the dorsal fronto-parietal network for spatial function and ventral occipito-temporal network for object function. This is consistent with the literature, suggesting that the two visual streams are preserved in early blind individuals. The contrast analyses found specific activations in the left cuneus and lingual gyrus for language function. This finding is novel and suggests a reverse hierarchical organization of the visual cortex for early blind individuals. The conjunction analyses found common activations in the right middle temporal gyrus, right precuneus and a left parieto-occipital region. Clinically, this work contributes to visual rehabilitation in early blind individuals by revealing the function-dependent and sensory-independent networks during nonvisual processing.

Objective This study was designed to explore the stages of change involved in return to work (RTW) for a group of workers who had been suffering from chronic pain. Method The participants were 67 (mean age = 42.67) injured workers who participated in a six-week RTW program. Assessments of the participants on various measures were conducted before and during the program, and at the end of the follow-up period (3 months post-program). Results The overall RTW rate of the participants was 65.7%. Most importantly, the participants’ RTW outcomes were found to be significantly predicted by their readiness for RTW (action) at the baseline. In the third week, their RTW was significantly predicted by their confidence in returning to work and their readiness for RTW (action). By the sixth week, their RTW outcomes were predicted by their readiness for RTW (pre-contemplation). Conclusion The results enable us to better understand the stage-of-change factors that might influence injured workers’ resumption of a productive work role and the rehabilitation process of RTW.

To understand neural reorganization of response regulation after stroke, a 54-year-old woman with a chronic left thalamic stroke performed a task requiring decisions about the directionality of an arrow during cerebral functional magnetic resonance imaging. Her performance was compared to 13 matched healthy control subjects. Her behavioral responses were slower but as accurate. Bilateral frontal activations were observed in the right medial frontal gyrus (BA 9), left superior frontal gyrus (BA 45), and left frontal rectus gyrus (BA 11). Activation in the right medial frontal gyrus, along with activity in close proximity to the anterior cingulate cortex, was observed, which may reflect reorganization of activity after the loss of function of the anterior cingulate cortex.

Cortisol homeostasis is important for cognitive and affective functions that depend on cortisol-sensitive brain regions including the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Recent studies have shown that training induces changes in the brain. We report the findings of a longitudinal study that verified the moderation effect of experience-induced changes in awareness on the neural–cortisol association in cortisol-sensitive brain regions. These findings provide the first piece of evidence that planned behavioral experience can moderate the neural–cortisol association. A range of changes in awareness was achieved in a sample of 21 Chinese participants, divided into two groups: Awareness-based compassion meditation (ABCM) (n = 10) and relaxation (n = 11). We observed that changes in awareness were significant moderators of hippocampal–cortisol changes. Furthermore, a significant negative association between changes in plasma cortisol level and the resting-state synchrony of the right hippocampal and insular-frontal-operculum regions was observed. These novel findings shed light on the inter-relationships between changes in hippocampal–cortisol levels and changes in awareness and preliminarily identify the neural underpinnings of interventions for cortisol-related abnormal functioning for further study.

The Cognistat is widely used to measure the cognitive profile of neurological patients. This study aimed to further obtain evidence on the construct and discriminative validity of the Putonghua version of the Cognistat (Cognistat-P) on poststroke patients with specific brain lesions. Cognistat-P was administered to poststroke patients (n = 98), as well as healthy elderly (n = 40) and adult (n = 34) participants as the control groups. Poststroke patients were further categorized into 4 lesion groups using standard brain slice templates. Exploratory factory analysis reflected a 2-factor structure for the Cognistat-P that resembles that for the original English version. The Construction, Similarities, and Judgment subtests were found to differentiate patients with frontal or parietal lesions from those with subcortical lesions (p .01, R(2) = .48). The Construction subtest, tapping the "fluid" ability, was the most useful for differentiating patients with parietal lesions from those with subcortical lesions. The Similarities subtest together with the Construction subtest was the most useful for differentiating patients with frontal lesions from those with subcortical lesions. This study established the validity of the Cognistat-P for differentiating poststroke patients with specific brain lesions. Future studies should replicate the results on a larger sample size and test the clinical significance of the Cognistat-P profiles.

It has been widely found that in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara et al. Cognition, 50(1), 7–15 1994) normal subjects would gradually learn to prefer obtaining rewards for long-term benefits than seeking immediate rewards to maximize the overall profit. The current study aimed to gain an understanding of how punishment frequency in the IGT would be processed and its association with subjects’ reward preferences. In this study, we employed the clinical version of the IGT, in which response options are not only different in the long-term outcome, but also associated with different punishment frequencies. Event-related functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to capture the subjects’ brain activity when performing the IGT. A total of 24 male subjects (mean age = 21.7 years, SD = 1.8 years), who were university students, participated in the experiment. It is found that subjects learned to select more from the decks that were advantageous in the long-term, but they were more sensitive to the effect of long-term outcome under the condition of high punishment frequency. The corresponding brain activation showed that the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) had significantly higher activation during the disadvantageous choices than the advantageous choices. Such activity difference between the two conditions of long-term outcome was more prominent with high punishment frequency than low punishment frequency; and this brain activity difference was significantly correlated with the behavioral performance under the condition of high punishment frequency. The results suggested that only in the context with high punishment frequency, there would be increased neural activity in ACC when subjects intended to select from the disadvantageous choices so that these choices would be inhibited and advantageous choices would be selected.