Functional Connectivity with the Parahippocampal Gyrus during Successful Scene Memory Formation using fMRI and PsychoPhysiological Interaction Analysis

BackgroundPrevious studies have highlighted the role of the brain reward and cognitive control systems in the etiology of anorexia nervosa (AN). In an attempt to disentangle the relative contribution of these systems to the disorder, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate hemodynamic responses to reward-related stimuli presented both subliminally and supraliminally in acutely underweight AN patients and age-matched healthy controls (HC).MethodsfMRI data were collected from a total of 35 AN patients and 35 HC, while they passively viewed subliminally and supraliminally presented streams of food, positive social, and neutral stimuli. Activation patterns of the group×stimulation condition×stimulus type interaction were interrogated to investigate potential group differences in processing different stimulus types under the two stimulation conditions. Moreover, changes in functional connectivity were investigated using generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis.ResultsAN patients showed a generally increased response to supraliminally presented stimuli in the inferior frontal junction (IFJ), but no alterations within the reward system. Increased activation during supraliminal stimulation with food stimuli was observed in the AN group in visual regions including superior occipital gyrus and the fusiform gyrus/parahippocampal gyrus. No group difference was found with respect to the subliminal stimulation condition and functional connectivity.ConclusionIncreased IFJ activation in AN during supraliminal stimulation may indicate hyperactive cognitive control, which resonates with clinical presentation of excessive self-control in AN patients. Increased activation to food stimuli in visual regions may be interpreted in light of an attentional food bias in AN.

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The Effects of Functionally Guided, Connectivity-Based rTMS on Amygdala Activation

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11040494 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 494

Author(s):

Lysianne Beynel ◽

Ethan Campbell ◽

Maria Naclerio ◽

Jeffrey T. Galla ◽

Angikar Ghosal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Psychiatric Disorders ◽

Interaction Analysis ◽

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Subcortical Structures ◽

Video Clips ◽

Amygdala Activation ◽

Psychophysiological Interaction

While repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is widely used to treat psychiatric disorders, innovations are needed to improve its efficacy. An important limitation is that while psychiatric disorders are associated with fronto-limbic dysregulation, rTMS does not have sufficient depth penetration to modulate affected subcortical structures. Recent advances in task-related functional connectivity provide a means to better link superficial and deeper cortical sources with the possibility of increasing fronto-limbic modulation to induce stronger therapeutic effects. The objective of this pilot study was to test whether task-related, connectivity-based rTMS could modulate amygdala activation through its connectivity with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). fMRI was collected to identify a node in the mPFC showing the strongest connectivity with the amygdala, as defined by psychophysiological interaction analysis. To promote Hebbian-like plasticity, and potentially stronger modulation, 5 Hz rTMS was applied while participants viewed frightening video-clips that engaged the fronto-limbic network. Significant increases in both the mPFC and amygdala were found for active rTMS compared to sham, offering promising preliminary evidence that functional connectivity-based targeting may provide a useful approach to treat network dysregulation. Further research is needed to better understand connectivity influences on rTMS effects to leverage this information to improve therapeutic applications.

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Brain Functional Connectivity Correlates of Response in the 7.5% CO2 Inhalational Model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Pilot Study

The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology ◽

10.1093/ijnp/pyaa019 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 268-273

Author(s):

Nathan T M Huneke ◽

M John Broulidakis ◽

Angela Darekar ◽

David S Baldwin ◽

Matthew Garner

Keyword(s):

Anxiety Disorder ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽

Interaction Analysis ◽

Generalized Anxiety ◽

Affective Valence ◽

Potential Threat ◽

Midcingulate Cortex ◽

Psychophysiological Interaction ◽

Co2 Challenge

Abstract Background The 7.5% CO2 inhalational model can be used to explore potential treatments for generalized anxiety disorder. However, it is unknown how inter-individual variability in the functional architecture of negative affective valence systems might relate to anxiogenic response in this model. Methods A total of 13 healthy volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a passive emotional face perception task. We explored task-evoked functional connectivity in the potential threat system through generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis. Within 7 days, these participants underwent prolonged 7.5% CO2 inhalation, and results from the generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis were correlated with CO2 outcome measures. Results Functional connectivity between ventromedial prefrontal cortex and right amygdala positively correlated with heart rate and subjective anxiety, while connectivity between midcingulate cortex and left amygdala negatively correlated with anxiety during CO2 challenge. Conclusions Response to CO2 challenge correlated with task-evoked functional connectivity in the potential threat system. Further studies should assess whether this translates into clinical populations.

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Hippocampal Involvement in Processing of Indistinct Visual Motion Stimuli

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00226 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 1344-1357 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Eva M. Fraedrich ◽

Virginia L. Flanagin ◽

Jeng-Ren Duann ◽

Thomas Brandt ◽

Stefan Glasauer

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Visual Motion ◽

Interaction Analysis ◽

Memory Task ◽

Visual Object ◽

Object Processing ◽

Functional Link ◽

Psychophysiological Interaction ◽

Hippocampal Networks ◽

Increased Activity

Perception of known patterns results from the interaction of current sensory input with existing internal representations. It is unclear how perceptual and mnemonic processes interact when visual input is dynamic and structured such that it does not allow immediate recognition of obvious objects and forms. In an fMRI experiment, meaningful visual motion stimuli depicting movement through a virtual tunnel and indistinct, meaningless visual motion stimuli, achieved through phase scrambling of the same stimuli, were presented while participants performed an optic flow task. We found that our indistinct visual motion stimuli evoked hippocampal activation, whereas the corresponding meaningful stimuli did not. Using independent component analysis, we were able to demonstrate a functional connectivity between the hippocampus and early visual areas, with increased activity for indistinct stimuli. In a second experiment, we used the same stimuli to test whether our results depended on the participants' task. We found task-independent bilateral hippocampal activation in response to indistinct motion stimuli. For both experiments, psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed a coupling from posterior hippocampus to dorsal visuospatial and ventral visual object processing areas when viewing indistinct stimuli. These results indicate a close functional link between stimulus-dependent perceptual and mnemonic processes. The observed pattern of hippocampal functional connectivity, in the absence of an explicit memory task, suggests that cortical–hippocampal networks are recruited when visual stimuli are temporally uncertain and do not immediately reveal a clear meaning.

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Discrete Parieto-Frontal Functional Connectivity Related to Grasping

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.90249.2008 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 101 (3) ◽

pp. 1267-1282 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Noriaki Hattori ◽

Hiroshi Shibasaki ◽

Lewis Wheaton ◽

Tao Wu ◽

Masao Matsuhashi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Sensorimotor Integration ◽

Interaction Analysis ◽

Premotor Cortex ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Neuronal Connections ◽

Psychophysiological Interaction ◽

Mri Study ◽

Flow Of Information

The human inferior parietal lobule (IPL) is known to have neuronal connections with the frontal lobe, and these connections have been shown to be associated with sensorimotor integration to perform various types of movement such as grasping. The function of these anatomical connections has not been fully investigated. We studied the judgment of graspability of objects in an event-related functional MRI study in healthy subjects, and found activation in two different regions within IPL: one in the left dorsal IPL extending to the intraparietal sulcus and the other in the left ventral IPL. The former region was activated only in the judgment of graspable objects, whereas the latter was activated in the judgment of both graspable and nongraspable objects although the activation was greater for the graspable objects. Psychophysiological interaction analysis showed that these regions had similar but discrete functional connectivity to the lateral and medial frontal cortices. In relation to this particular task, the left dorsal IPL had functional connectivity to the left ventral premotor cortex, supplementary motor area (SMA) and right cerebellar cortex, whereas the left ventral IPL had functional connectivity to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and pre-SMA. These findings suggest that the connection from the left dorsal IPL is associated specifically with automatic flow of information about grasping behavior. By contrast, the connection from the left ventral IPL might be related to motor imagination or enhanced external attention to the presented stimuli.

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Dynamic Alterations in Neural Networks Supporting Aversive Learning in Children Exposed to Trauma: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Psychopathology

10.31234/osf.io/pz9m5 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Stephanie N. DeCross ◽

Kelly Sambrook ◽

Margaret Sheridan ◽

Nim Tottenham ◽

Katie A McLaughlin

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Longitudinal Design ◽

Region Of Interest ◽

Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Functional Coupling ◽

Neural Activation ◽

Aversive Learning ◽

Frontal Pole

Altered aversive learning represents a potential mechanism through which childhood trauma (CT) might influence risk for psychopathology. This study examines the temporal dynamics of neural activation and patterns of functional connectivity during aversive learning in children with and without CT, and evaluates whether these neural patterns mediate the association of CT with psychopathology in a longitudinal design. 147 children (aged 8-16 years, 77 with CT) completed a fear conditioning procedure during an fMRI scan. Dynamic patterns of neural activation were examined in whole-brain and region-of-interest analyses; functional connectivity was assessed with generalized psychophysiological interaction analyses. We evaluated whether the associations between CT and psychopathology symptoms at baseline and two-year follow-up were mediated by neural activation and connectivity during aversive learning. Children exposed to trauma displayed blunted patterns of neural activation over time during CS+>CS- in right amygdala and during CS->CS+ in right hippocampus and frontal pole. Additionally, during CS+>CS-, CT was associated with elevated functional connectivity of right amygdala with fronto-parietal regions and reduced connectivity with hippocampus, posterior parahippocampal gyrus, and posterior cingulate cortex. The longitudinal association between CT and later externalizing symptoms was mediated by blunted activation in right amygdala and insula. Reduced amygdala-hippocampal connectivity mediated the association of CT with transdiagnostic anxiety symptoms. CT is associated with poor threat-safety discrimination and altered functional coupling between salience and default mode network regions during aversive learning. These altered neural dynamics during learning may be key mechanisms linking CT with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

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Effect of direct eye contact in women with PTSD related to interpersonal trauma: Psychophysiological interaction analysis of connectivity of an innate alarm system

Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging ◽

10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.02.010 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 232 (2) ◽

pp. 162-167 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Carolin Steuwe ◽

Judith K. Daniels ◽

Paul A. Frewen ◽

Maria Densmore ◽

Jean Theberge ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Interaction Analysis ◽

Eye Contact ◽

Interpersonal Trauma ◽

Alarm System ◽

Psychophysiological Interaction

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Noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation and the trigeminal autonomic reflex

Neurology ◽

10.1212/wnl.0000000000008865 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 94 (10) ◽

pp. e1085-e1093 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Maike Möller ◽

Jan Mehnert ◽

Celina F. Schroeder ◽

Arne May

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Vagus Nerve ◽

Nerve Stimulation ◽

Vagus Nerve Stimulation ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Pontine Nucleus ◽

Fmri Session ◽

Autonomic Reflex ◽

The Right ◽

Healthy Participants

ObjectiveThe trigeminal autonomic reflex is a physiologic reflex that plays a crucial role in primary headache and particularly in trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias, such as cluster headache. Previous studies have shown that this reflex can be modulated by the vagus nerve, leading to an inhibition of the parasympathetic output of the reflex in healthy participants. The aim of the present study was to characterize neural correlates of the modulatory effect of noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) on the trigeminal autonomic reflex.MethodsTwenty-one healthy participants were included in a 2-day, randomized, single-blind, within-subject design. The reflex was activated inside the MRI scanner using kinetic oscillation stimulation placed in the left nostril, resulting in an increase in lacrimation. After the first fMRI session, the participants received either sham vagus nerve stimulation or nVNS outside the scanner and underwent a subsequent fMRI session.ResultsnVNS prompted an increase in activation of the left pontine nucleus and a decreased activation of the right parahippocampal gyrus. Psychophysiologic interaction analyses revealed an increased functional connectivity between the left pontine nucleus and the right hypothalamus and a decreased functional connectivity between the right parahippocampal gyrus and the bilateral spinal trigeminal nuclei (sTN).ConclusionsThese findings indicate a complex network involved in the modulatory effect of nVNS including the hypothalamus, the sTN, the pontine nucleus, and the parahippocampal gyrus.

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The Role of the Cerebellum in Sub- and Supraliminal Error Correction during Sensorimotor Synchronization: Evidence from fMRI and TMS

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2010.21506 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (5) ◽

pp. 1100-1112 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Janine D. Bijsterbosch ◽

Kwang-Hyuk Lee ◽

Michael D. Hunter ◽

Daniel T. Tsoi ◽

Sudheer Lankappa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Error Correction ◽

Interaction Analysis ◽

Phase Shifts ◽

Sensorimotor Synchronization ◽

Psychophysiological Interaction ◽

Temporal Coupling ◽

Sensory Cortices ◽

Cerebellar Dentate Nucleus ◽

The Right

Our ability to interact physically with objects in the external world critically depends on temporal coupling between perception and movement (sensorimotor timing) and swift behavioral adjustment to changes in the environment (error correction). In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of the correction of subliminal and supraliminal phase shifts during a sensorimotor synchronization task. In particular, we focused on the role of the cerebellum because this structure has been shown to play a role in both motor timing and error correction. Experiment 1 used fMRI to show that the right cerebellar dentate nucleus and primary motor and sensory cortices were activated during regular timing and during the correction of subliminal errors. The correction of supraliminal phase shifts led to additional activations in the left cerebellum and right inferior parietal and frontal areas. Furthermore, a psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed that supraliminal error correction was associated with enhanced connectivity of the left cerebellum with frontal, auditory, and sensory cortices and with the right cerebellum. Experiment 2 showed that suppression of the left but not the right cerebellum with theta burst TMS significantly affected supraliminal error correction. These findings provide evidence that the left lateral cerebellum is essential for supraliminal error correction during sensorimotor synchronization.

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Orienting Attention in Time Activates Left Intraparietal Sulcus for Both Perceptual and Motor Task Goals

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00030 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (11) ◽

pp. 3318-3330 ◽

Cited By ~ 62

Author(s):

Karen Davranche ◽

Bruno Nazarian ◽

Franck Vidal ◽

Jennifer Coull

Keyword(s):

Parietal Cortex ◽

Interaction Analysis ◽

Target Identification ◽

Motor Task ◽

Intraparietal Sulcus ◽

General Utility ◽

Inferior Parietal Cortex ◽

Psychophysiological Interaction ◽

Left Parietal Cortex ◽

Temporal Orienting

Attention can be directed not only toward a location in space but also to a moment in time (“temporal orienting”). Temporally informative cues allow subjects to predict when an imminent event will occur, thereby speeding responses to that event. In contrast to spatial orienting, temporal orienting preferentially activates left inferior parietal cortex. Yet, left parietal cortex is also implicated in selective motor attention, suggesting its activation during temporal orienting could merely reflect incidental engagement of preparatory motor processes. Using fMRI, we therefore examined whether temporal orienting would still activate left parietal cortex when the cued target required a difficult perceptual discrimination rather than a speeded motor response. Behaviorally, temporal orienting improved accuracy of target identification as well as speed of target detection, demonstrating the general utility of temporal cues. Crucially, temporal orienting selectively activated left inferior parietal cortex for both motor and perceptual versions of the task. Moreover, conjunction analysis formally revealed a region deep in left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) as common to both tasks, thereby identifying it as a core neural substrate for temporal orienting. Despite the context-independent nature of left IPS activation, complementary psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed how the functional connectivity of left IPS changed as a function of task context. Specifically, left IPS activity covaried with premotor activity during motor temporal orienting but with visual extrastriate activity during perceptual temporal orienting, thereby revealing a cooperative network that comprises both temporal orienting and task-specific processing nodes.

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