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The cerebellum has been involved in social abilities and autism. Given that the cerebellum is connected to the cortex via the cerebello‐thalamo‐cortical loop, the connectivity between the cerebellum and cortical regions involved in social interactions, that is, the right temporo‐parietal junction (rTPJ) has been studied in individuals with autism, who suffer from prototypical deficits in social abilities. However, existing studies with small samples of categorical, case–control comparisons have yielded inconsistent results due to the inherent heterogeneity of autism, suggesting that investigating how clinical dimensions are related to cerebellar–rTPJ functional connectivity might be more relevant. Therefore, our objective was to study the functional connectivity between the cerebellum and rTPJ, focusing on its association with social abilities from a dimensional perspective in a transdiagnostic sample. We analyzed structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional MRI (fMRI) scans obtained during naturalistic films watching from a large transdiagnostic dataset, the Healthy Brain Network (HBN), and examined the association between cerebellum–rTPJ functional connectivity and social abilities measured with the social responsiveness scale (SRS). We conducted univariate seed‐to‐voxel analysis, multivariate canonical correlation analysis (CCA), and predictive support vector regression (SVR). We included 1404 subjects in the structural analysis (age: 10.516 ± 3.034, range: 5.822–21.820, 506 females) and 414 subjects in the functional analysis (age: 11.260 ± 3.318 years, range: 6.020–21.820, 161 females). Our CCA model revealed a significant association between cerebellum–rTPJ functional connectivity, full‐scale IQ (FSIQ) and SRS scores. However, this effect was primarily driven by FSIQ as suggested by SVR and univariate seed‐to‐voxel analysis. We also demonstrated the specificity of the rTPJ and the influence of structural anatomy in this association. Our results suggest that there is a complex relationship between cerebellum–rTPJ connectivity, social performance and IQ. This relationship is specific to the cerebellum–rTPJ connectivity, and is largely related to structural anatomy in these two regions. Practitioner Points: We analyzed cerebellum–right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) connectivity in a pediatric transdiagnostic sample.We found a complex relationship between cerebellum and rTPJ connectivity, social performance and IQ.Cerebellum and rTPJ functional connectivity is related to structural anatomy in these two regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apathy is a common symptom in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and is associated with an increased risk of progression to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The neural substrates underlying apathy in aMCI may involve multiple brain regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex and the temporo-parietal region. Here we investigated neurometabolites in brain regions that may underlie apathy in aMCI patients using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). Twenty-eight aMCI patients with varying degrees of apathy and 20 matched controls underwent 1H-MRS. Spectra were acquired from single voxels in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (DACC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and right temporo-parietal cortex (TPC). Apathy was measured with the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES). Spearman partial correlations between metabolite concentrations in each region and severity of apathy were determined. Additionally, analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were performed to determine whether metabolite changes differed between patients with or without clinically-diagnosed apathy. The degree of apathy was found to be negatively correlated with choline and myo-inositol (mI) in the TPC. Additional exploratory analyses suggested that N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/mI ratio was reduced in aMCI without clinical apathy but not in aMCI with clinical apathy. In the DACC, glutamate and glutamine (Glx) levels tended to be higher in the aMCI with apathy group compared to controls and reduced in association with depression scores. In conclusion, apathy in aMCI patients was associated with neurometabolite changes indicative of altered membranal integrity and glial function in the right TPC. Findings also indicated that in a clinically-diagnosed aMCI cohort, apathy symptoms may be suggestive of neural changes that are distinct from aMCI without apathy.

We inherently maintain a stable perception of the world despite frequent changes in the head, eye, and body positions. Such “orientation constancy” is a prerequisite for coherent spatial perception and sensorimotor planning. As a multimodal sensory reference, perception of upright represents neural processes that subserve orientation constancy through integration of sensory information encoding the eye, head, and body positions. Although perception of upright is distinct from perception of body orientation, they share similar neural substrates within the cerebral cortical networks involved in perception of spatial orientation. These cortical networks, mainly within the temporo-parietal junction, are crucial for multisensory processing and integration that generate sensory reference frames for coherent perception of self-position and extrapersonal space transformations. In this review, we focus on these neural mechanisms and discuss (i) neurobehavioral aspects of orientation constancy, (ii) sensory models that address the neurophysiology underlying perception of upright, and (iii) the current evidence for the role of cerebral cortex in perception of upright and orientation constancy, including findings from the neurological disorders that affect cortical function.

We inherently maintain a stable perception of the world despite frequent changes in the head, eye, and body positions. Such "orientation constancy" is a prerequisite for coherent spatial perception and sensorimotor planning. As a multimodal sensory reference, perception of upright represents neural processes that subserve orientation constancy through integration of sensory information encoding the eye, head, and body positions. Although perception of upright is distinct from perception of body orientation, they share similar neural substrates within the cerebral cortical networks involved in perception of spatial orientation. These cortical networks, mainly within the temporo-parietal junction, are crucial for multisensory processing and integration that generate sensory reference frames for coherent perception of self-position and extrapersonal space transformations. In this review, we focus on these neural mechanisms and discuss (i) neurobehavioral aspects of orientation constancy, (ii) sensory models that address the neurophysiology underlying perception of upright, and (iii) the current evidence for the role of cerebral cortex in perception of upright and orientation constancy, including findings from the neurological disorders that affect cortical function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multisensory perception research has largely focused on exteroceptive signals, but recent evidence has revealed the integration of interoceptive signals with exteroceptive information. Such research revealed that heartbeat signals affect sensory (e.g., visual) processing: however, it is unknown how they impact the perception of body images. Here we linked our participants' heartbeat to visual stimuli and investigated the spatio-temporal brain dynamics of cardio-visual stimulation on the processing of human body images. We recorded visual evoked potentials with 64-channel electroencephalography while showing a body or a scrambled-body (control) that appeared at the frequency of the on-line recorded participants' heartbeat or not (not-synchronous, control). Extending earlier studies, we found a body-independent effect, with cardiac signals enhancing visual processing during two time periods (77–130 ms and 145–246 ms). Within the second (later) time-window we detected a second effect characterised by enhanced activity in parietal, temporo-occipital, inferior frontal, and right basal ganglia-insula regions, but only when non-scrambled body images were flashed synchronously with the heartbeat (208–224 ms). In conclusion, our results highlight the role of interoceptive information for the visual processing of human body pictures within a network integrating cardio-visual signals of relevance for perceptual and cognitive aspects of visual body processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) are believed to be core structures of human brain networks that activate when sensory top-down expectancies guide goal directed behavior and attentive perception. But it is unclear how activity in IFG and TPJ coordinates during attention demanding tasks and whether functional interactions between both structures are related to successful attentional performance. Here, we tested these questions in electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings in human subjects using a visual detection task that required sustained attentional expectancy in order to detect non-salient, near-threshold visual events. We found that during sustained attention the successful visual detection was predicted by increased phase synchronization of band-limited 15–30 Hz beta band activity that was absent prior to misses. Increased beta-band phase alignment during attentional engagement early during the task was restricted to inferior and lateral prefrontal cortex, but with sustained attention it extended to long-range IFG–TPJ phase synchronization and included superior prefrontal areas. In addition to beta, a widely distributed network of brain areas comprising the occipital cortex showed enhanced and reduced alpha band phase synchronization before correct detections. These findings identify long-range phase synchrony in the 15–30 Hz beta band as the mesoscale brain signal that predicts the successful deployment of attentional expectancy of sensory events. We speculate that localized beta coherent states in prefrontal cortex index ‘top-down’ sensory expectancy whose coupling with TPJ subregions facilitates the gating of relevant visual information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although language is a tool for communication, most research in the neuroscience of language has focused on studying words and sentences, while little is known about the brain mechanisms of speech acts, or communicative functions, for which words and sentences are used as tools. Here the neural processing of two types of speech acts, Naming and Requesting, was addressed using the time-resolved event-related potential (ERP) technique. The brain responses for Naming and Request diverged as early as ~120 ms after the onset of the critical words, at the same time as, or even before, the earliest brain manifestations of semantic word properties could be detected. Request-evoked potentials were generally larger in amplitude than those for Naming. The use of identical words in closely matched settings for both speech acts rules out explanation of the difference in terms of phonological, lexical, semantic properties or word expectancy. The cortical sources underlying the ERP enhancement for Requests were found in the fronto-central cortex, consistent with the activation of action knowledge, as well as in right temporo-parietal junction, possibly reflecting additional implications of speech acts for social interaction and theory of mind. These results provide the first evidence for surprisingly early access to pragmatic and social interactive knowledge, which possibly occurs in parallel with other types of linguistic processing, and thus supports the near-simultaneous access to different subtypes of psycholinguistic information [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We used fMRI to examine patterns of brain activity associated with component processes of visual word recognition and their relationships to individual differences in reading skill. We manipulated both the judgments adults made on written stimuli and the characteristics of the stimuli. Phonological processing led to activation in left inferior frontal and temporal regions whereas semantic processing was associated with bilateral middle frontal activation. Individual differences in reading subskills were reflected in differences in the degree to which cortical regions were engaged during reading. Variation in sight word reading efficiency was associated with degree of activation in visual cortex. Increased phonological decoding skill was associated with greater activation in left temporo-parietal cortex. Greater reading comprehension ability was associated with decreased activation in anterior cingulate and temporal regions. Notably, associations between reading ability and neural activation indicate that brain/behavior relationships among skilled readers differ from patterns associated with dyslexia and reading development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Spatiotemporal brain activation profiles were obtained from 27 middle school students experiencing difficulties in reading comprehension as well as word-level skills (RD) and 23 age- and IQ-matched non-reading impaired students during performance of an oral pseudoword reading task using Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Based on their scores on standardized reading fluency tests 1 year later, students with RD who showed significant improvement were classified as Adequate Responders (AR) whereas those not demonstrating such gains were classified as Inadequate Responders (IR). At baseline, activation profiles of the AR group featured increased activity in the left supramarginal and angular gyri, as well as in the superior and middle temporal gyri, bilaterally compared to IR. The degree of activity in these regions was a significant predictor of the amount of subsequent gains in reading fluency. These results extend previous functional brain imaging findings of beginning readers, suggesting that recruitment of brain areas that typically serve as key components of the brain circuit for reading is an important factor in determining response to intervention in older struggling readers. (JINS, 2011, 17, 875–885) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercepting and avoiding collisions with moving objects are fundamental skills in daily life. Anticipatory behavior is required because of significant delays in transforming sensory information about target and body motion into a timed motor response. The ability to predict the kinematics and kinetics of interception or avoidance hundreds of milliseconds before the event may depend on several different sources of information and on different strategies of sensory-motor coordination. What are exactly the sources of spatio-temporal information and what are the control strategies remain controversial issues. Indeed, these topics have been the battlefield of contrasting views on how the brain interprets visual information to guide movement. Here we attempt a synthetic overview of the vast literature on interception. We discuss in detail the behavioral and neurophysiological aspects of interception of targets falling under gravity, as this topic has received special attention in recent years. We show that visual cues alone are insufficient to predict the time and place of interception or avoidance, and they need to be supplemented by prior knowledge (or internal models) about several features of the dynamic interaction with the moving object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apathy is a common symptom in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and is associated with an increased risk of progression to Alzheimer's disease (AD). The neural substrates underlying apathy in aMCI may involve multiple brain regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex and the temporo-parietal region. Here we investigated neurometabolites in brain regions that may underlie apathy in aMCI patients using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1 H-MRS). Twenty-eight aMCI patients with varying degrees of apathy and 20 matched controls underwent 1 H-MRS. Spectra were acquired from single voxels in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (DACC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and right temporo-parietal cortex (TPC). Apathy was measured with the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES). Spearman partial correlations between metabolite concentrations in each region and severity of apathy were determined. Additionally, analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were performed to determine whether metabolite changes differed between patients with or without clinically-diagnosed apathy. The degree of apathy was found to be negatively correlated with choline and myo-inositol (mI) in the TPC. Additional exploratory analyses suggested that N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/mI ratio was reduced in aMCI without clinical apathy but not in aMCI with clinical apathy. In the DACC, glutamate and glutamine (Glx) levels tended to be higher in the aMCI with apathy group compared to controls and reduced in association with depression scores. In conclusion, apathy in aMCI patients was associated with neurometabolite changes indicative of altered membranal integrity and glial function in the right TPC. Findings also indicated that in a clinically-diagnosed aMCI cohort, apathy symptoms may be suggestive of neural changes that are distinct from aMCI without apathy.