Morphological and functional variability in central and subcentral motor cortex of the human brain

AbstractThere is a long-established link between anatomy and function in the somatomotor system in the mammalian cerebral cortex. The morphology of the central sulcus is predictive of the location of functional activation peaks relating to movement of different effectors in individuals. By contrast, morphological variation in the subcentral region and its relationship to function is, as yet, unknown. Investigating the subcentral region is particularly important in the context of speech, since control of the larynx during human speech production is related to activity in this region. Here, we examined the relationship between morphology in the central and subcentral region and the location of functional activity during movement of the hand, lips, tongue, and larynx at the individual participant level. We provide a systematic description of the sulcal patterns of the subcentral and adjacent opercular cortex, including the inter-individual variability in sulcal morphology. We show that, in the majority of participants, the anterior subcentral sulcus is not continuous, but consists of two distinct segments. A robust relationship between morphology of the central and subcentral sulcal segments and movement of different effectors is demonstrated. Inter-individual variability of underlying anatomy might thus explain previous inconsistent findings, in particular regarding the ventral larynx area in subcentral cortex. A surface registration based on sulcal labels indicated that such anatomical information can improve the alignment of functional data for group studies.

Download Full-text

Analysing the Relationship between Nutrition and the Microbial Composition of the Oral Biofilm—Insights from the Analysis of Individual Variability

Antibiotics ◽

10.3390/antibiotics9080479 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 479

Author(s):

Kirstin Vach ◽

Ali Al-Ahmad ◽

Annette Anderson ◽

Johan Peter Woelber ◽

Lamprini Karygianni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dietary Habits ◽

Individual Variability ◽

Oral Microbiota ◽

Oral Diseases ◽

Oral Biofilm ◽

Microbial Composition ◽

Mean Values ◽

Individual Variations ◽

The Individual ◽

The Relationship

The influence of a change in nutrition on the oral microbiota are discussed in literature, but usually only changes of population mean values are reported. This paper introduces simple methods to also analyse and report the variability of patients’ reactions considering data from the culture analysis of oral biofilm. The framework was illustrated by an experimental study exposing eleven participants to different nutrition schemes in five consecutive phases. Substantial inter-individual variations in the individual reactions were observed. A new coherence index made it possible to identify 14 instances where the direction of individual changes tended to coincide with the direction of the mean change with more than 95% probability. The heterogeneity in variability across different bacteria species was limited. This allowed us to develop recommendations for sample sizes in future studies. For studies measuring the concentration change of bacteria as a reaction to nutrition change, the use of replications and analysis of the variability is recommended. In order to detect moderate effects of a change in nutrition on the concentration of single bacterial taxa, 30 participants with three repetitions are often adequate. Insights into the relationship between nutrition and the microbial composition can be helpful for the development of dietary habits that promote the establishment of a healthy microbial flora and can therefore prevent the initiation of oral diseases such as caries and periodontitis.

Download Full-text

Multi-Hops Functional Connectivity Improves Individual Prediction of Fusiform Face Activation via a Graph Neural Network

Frontiers in Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnins.2020.596109 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

Author(s):

Dongya Wu ◽

Xin Li ◽

Jun Feng

Keyword(s):

Neural Network ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Brain Connectivity ◽

Face Area ◽

The Face ◽

The Individual ◽

The Right ◽

And Function ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Brain

Brain connectivity plays an important role in determining the brain region’s function. Previous researchers proposed that the brain region’s function is characterized by that region’s input and output connectivity profiles. Following this proposal, numerous studies have investigated the relationship between connectivity and function. However, this proposal only utilizes direct connectivity profiles and thus is deficient in explaining individual differences in the brain region’s function. To overcome this problem, we proposed that a brain region’s function is characterized by that region’s multi-hops connectivity profile. To test this proposal, we used multi-hops functional connectivity to predict the individual face activation of the right fusiform face area (rFFA) via a multi-layer graph neural network and showed that the prediction performance is essentially improved. Results also indicated that the two-layer graph neural network is the best in characterizing rFFA’s face activation and revealed a hierarchical network for the face processing of rFFA.

Download Full-text

Multi-hops functional connectivity improves individual prediction of fusiform face activation via a graph neural network

10.1101/2020.09.21.305839 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Dongya Wu ◽

Xin Li ◽

Jun Feng

Keyword(s):

Neural Network ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Brain Connectivity ◽

Face Area ◽

The Face ◽

The Individual ◽

The Right ◽

And Function ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Brain

AbstractBrain connectivity plays an important role in determining the brain region’s function. Previous researchers proposed that the brain region’s function is characterized by that region’s input and output connectivity profiles. Following this proposal, numerous studies have investigated the relationship between connectivity and function. However, based on a preliminary analysis, this proposal is deficient in explaining individual differences in the brain region’s function. To overcome this problem, we proposed that a brain region’s function is characterized by that region’s multi-hops connectivity profile. To test this proposal, we used multi-hops functional connectivity to predict the individual face response of the right fusiform face area (rFFA) via a multi-layers graph neural network and showed that the prediction performance is essentially improved. Results also indicated that the 2-layers graph neural network is the best in characterizing rFFA’s face response and revealed a hierarchical network for the face processing of rFFA.

Download Full-text

On the Relationship between Values and Adjustment in Old Men

The International Journal of Aging and Human Development ◽

10.2190/q5yq-t24d-ypka-qp5q ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 57-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Toni Antonucci

Keyword(s):

Older Individuals ◽

Aged Sample ◽

Middle Aged ◽

Satisfaction Scale ◽

Work Related ◽

White Middle Class ◽

The Individual ◽

And Function ◽

Old Men ◽

The Relationship

It was hypothesized that values should reflect the ontogenetic development of the individual, and that a person should develop values that are appropriate to his role, development, and function within the society. Forty white middle-class males were given the Havighurst Life Satisfaction Scale and several values to be rated on the Semantic Differential. It was shown that adjusted old men considered work related values to be much less important than unadjusted men. Further, a comparison of the present older sample with a middle-aged sample revealed that the older individuals rated hedonistic values as much more important than the middle-aged sample.

Download Full-text

The church and the secular: The effect of the post-secular on Christianity

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies ◽

10.4102/hts.v70i1.2605 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 70 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jaco Beyers

Keyword(s):

Civil Religion ◽

Emile Durkheim ◽

New Paradigm ◽

New Era ◽

Form And Function ◽

The Enlightenment ◽

The Individual ◽

And Function ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Church

Paradigms determine relationships. During the Enlightenment period Emile Durkheim proposed a relationship between the sacred and the profane. Religion, which is concerned with the sacred, was defined in terms of being different from the profane. The profane came to denote the secular. The organic character of religion caused some scholars to predict the end of the church at the hand of modernisation and rationalisation. Some scholars instead envisaged a new form and function of the church. Some scholars anticipated the growth of Christianity. Reality shows that Christianity has not died out but seems to be growing. The new era we are currently in (identified as the postmodern) has been described as the post-secular age where a process of re-sacralisation takes place. How will the post-secular influence the church? What will the relationship between the church and the secular be like under a new paradigm? This article suggests that within a postmodern paradigm, the post-secular will emphasise the place of the individual in the church. Fragmentation of society will also be the result of the post-secular. Religiosity in future will have to contend with fundamentalism and civil religion.

Download Full-text

Towards a Relational Understanding of the Performance Ecosystem

Organised Sound ◽

10.1017/s1355771811000069 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 120-124 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Tom Davis

Keyword(s):

Relational Aesthetics ◽

Conceptual Tool ◽

Relational Understanding ◽

Individual Participant ◽

The Creation ◽

The Individual ◽

The Relationship

This article seeks to form a deeper understanding of the performance ecosystem by drawing parallels with Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics and Guattari's conception of subjectivity as outlined in Chaosmosis. Through an examination of participation within performance, and a recognition of the mutability of the roles of performer, listener, instrument and environment in the creation of the music event, this article examines the place of subjectivity, the capacity for self-creation, in the formation of a group aesthetic. Such a concept places the creation of meaning not within the individual participant but rather within the relationship between participants in a situation, a relationship that recognises the interaction between individuals, societies and institutions in its production. Such a discussion helps further our understanding of the performance ecosystem as a conceptual tool.

Download Full-text

Trend Extraction in Functional Data of Amplitudes of R and T Waves in Exercise Electrocardiogram

Fluctuation and Noise Letters ◽

10.1142/s0219477517500146 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (02) ◽

pp. 1750014 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Camillo Cammarota ◽

Mario Curione

Keyword(s):

Functional Data ◽

Normal Subjects ◽

Individual Variability ◽

Time Variability ◽

Early Recovery ◽

Zero Crossing ◽

Trend Extraction ◽

Response To Stress ◽

The Individual ◽

T Waves

The amplitudes of R and T waves of the electrocardiogram (ECG) recorded during the exercise test show both large inter- and intra-individual variability in response to stress. We analyze a dataset of 65 normal subjects undergoing ambulatory test. We model the dataset of R and T series in the framework of functional data, assuming that the individual series are realizations of a non-stationary process, centered at the population trend. We test the time variability of this trend computing a simultaneous confidence band and the zero crossing of its derivative. The analysis shows that the amplitudes of the R and T waves have opposite responses to stress, consisting respectively in a bump and a dip at the early recovery stage. Our findings support the existence of a relationship between R and T wave amplitudes and respectively diastolic and systolic ventricular volumes.

Download Full-text

The People and the Poster: Theorizing the Soviet Viewer, 1920–1931

Slavic Review ◽

10.1017/slr.2019.231 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 78 (3) ◽

pp. 717-737

Author(s):

Mollie Arbuthnot

Keyword(s):

Political Art ◽

Political Messages ◽

Form And Function ◽

Modern Subject ◽

The People ◽

Intellectual Context ◽

The Individual ◽

And Function ◽

The Relationship

The relationship between political posters and their intended viewers was the focus of numerous texts in the 1920s; this article analyzes the ways in which Soviet theorists sought to understand this relationship. They operated in an intellectual context that tried to conceive the modern subject as an active consumer and co-creator, rather than a passive audience. Their study of the contexts of viewing, of display practices and of the role of the viewer as an active participant in the creation of meaning, caused concern about the risk of misunderstandings and led to calls for images to address specific audiences with greater clarity. Many imagined that audiences and producers of images were in dialogue with one another, negotiating over the content, form, and function of political art. The image would thus mediate the relationship between individual and state, integrating political messages into everyday life, and aiming to integrate the individual into the process and practice of propaganda.

Download Full-text

ROZWIJANIE ROZUMIENIA PUBLICYSTYCZNYCH AUDYCJI RADIOWYCH: SPECYFIKA ETAPU POPRZEDZAJĄCEGO SŁUCHANIE

Neofilolog ◽

10.14746/n.2013.40.1.5 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 59-77

Author(s):

Joanna Górecka ◽

Bernadeta Wojciechowska

Keyword(s):

Form And Function ◽

Advanced Students ◽

Current Affairs ◽

Comprehension Process ◽

The Individual ◽

Communicative Actions ◽

Radio Programs ◽

And Function ◽

The Relationship

The paper focuses on the development of the listening comprehension of advanced students of French as a foreign language and concerns current affairs radio programs. It presents the main conclusions discussed with reference to one of the problems researched within a larger academic project conducted from 2010 to 2013. The aim of the paper is to determine some essential principles that should guide the development of questions in the pre-listening stage so that, during the subsequent while-listening stage, they could foster the individual comprehension process. The conclusions emphasize the relationship between the form and function of these pre-listening stage questions and the quality of cognitive and communicative actions performed by the listeners.

Download Full-text