The indispensable role of the cerebellum in visual divergent thinking

Abstract Recent research has shown that the cerebellum is involved not only in motor control but also in higher-level activities, which are closely related to creativity. This study aimed to explore the role of the cerebellum in visual divergent thinking based on its intrinsic activity. To this end, we selected the resting-state fMRI data of high- (n = 22) and low-level creativity groups (n = 22), and adopted the voxel-wise, seed-wise, and dynamic functional connectivity to identify the differences between the two groups. Furthermore, the topological properties of the cerebello-cerebral network and their relations with visual divergent thinking were calculated. The voxel-wise functional connectivity results indicated group differences across the cerebellar (e.g. lobules VI, VIIb, Crus I, and Crus II) and cerebral regions (e.g. superior frontal cortex, middle frontal cortex, and inferior parietal gyrus), as well as the cerebellar lobules (e.g. lobules VIIIa, IX, and X) and the cerebral brain regions (the cuneus and precentral gyrus). We found a significant correlation between visual divergent thinking and activities of the left lobules VI, VIIb, Crus I, and Crus II, which are associated with executive functions. Our overall results provide novel insight into the important role of the cerebellum in visual divergent thinking.

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Propagating patterns of intrinsic activity along macroscale gradients coordinate functional connections across the whole brain

10.1101/2020.12.11.422071 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Behnaz Yousefi ◽

Shella Keilholz

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Spatial Organization ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Intrinsic Activity ◽

Resting State Networks ◽

Whole Brain ◽

Functional Connections ◽

Driving Mechanisms

The intrinsic activity of the human brain, observed with resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) and functional connectivity, exhibits macroscale spatial organization such as resting-state networks (RSNs) and functional connectivity gradients (FCGs). Dynamic analysis techniques have shown that the time-averaged maps captured by functional connectivity are mere summaries of time-varying patterns with distinct spatial and temporal characteristics. A better understanding of these patterns might provide insight into aspects of the brain intrinsic activity that cannot be inferred by functional connectivity, RSNs or FCGs. Here, we describe three spatiotemporal patterns of coordinated activity across the whole brain obtained by averaging similar ~20-second-long segments of rsfMRI timeseries. In each of these patterns, activity propagates along a particular macroscale FCG, simultaneously across the cortical sheet and in most other brain regions. In some areas, like the thalamus, the propagation suggests previously-undescribed FCGs. The coordinated activity across areas is consistent with known tract-based connections, and nuanced differences in the timing of peak activity between brain regions point to plausible driving mechanisms. The magnitude of correlation within and particularly between RSNs is remarkably diminished when these patterns are regressed from the rsfMRI timeseries, a quantitative demonstration of their significant role in functional connectivity. Taken together, our results suggest that a few recurring patterns of propagating intrinsic activity along macroscale gradients give rise to and coordinate functional connections across the whole brain.

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Inflammation is Correlated with Abnormal Functional Connectivity in Unmedicated Bipolar Depression: A Resting State FMRI Study

10.21203/rs.3.rs-28937/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Guixian Tang ◽

Pan Chen ◽

Guanmao Chen ◽

Shuming Zhong ◽

Jiaying Gong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Bipolar Depression ◽

Serum Levels ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Precentral Gyrus ◽

Fmri Study ◽

The Right ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Objectives Inflammation might play a role in bipolar disorder (BD), but it remains unclear the relationship between inflammation and brain structural and functional abnormalities in patients with BD. In this study, we focused on the alterations of functional connectivity (FC), peripheral pro-inflammatory cytokines and their correlations to investigate the role of inflammation in FC in BD depression.Methods In this study, 42 unmedicated patients with BD II depression and 62 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. Resting-state-functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was performed in all participants and independent component analysis (ICA) was used. Serum levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Interleukin-8 (IL-8) were measured in all participants. Correlation between FC values and IL-6 and IL-8 levels in BD was calculated.Results Compared with the HCs, BD II patients showed decreased FC in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) implicating the limbic network and the right precentral gyrus implicating the somatomotor network (SMN). BD II showed increased IL-6 (P = 0.039), IL-8 (P = 0.002) levels. Moreover, abnormal FC in the right precentral gyrus were inversely correlated with the IL-8 (r=-0.458, P = 0.004) levels in BD II. No significant correlation was found between FC in the left OFC and cytokines levels.Conclusions Our findings that serum IL-8 levels is associated with impaired FC in the right precentral gyrus in BD II patients suggest that inflammation might play a crucial role in brain functional abnormalities in BD.

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Effects of long-term cocaine self-administration on brain resting-state functional connectivity in nonhuman primates

Translational Psychiatry ◽

10.1038/s41398-020-01101-z ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Stephen J. Kohut ◽

Dionyssios Mintzopoulos ◽

Brian D. Kangas ◽

Hannah Shields ◽

Kelly Brown ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Resting State ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Self Administration ◽

Chronic Cocaine

AbstractLong-term cocaine use is associated with a variety of neural and behavioral deficits that impact daily function. This study was conducted to examine the effects of chronic cocaine self-administration on resting-state functional connectivity of the dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) and putamen—two brain regions involved in cognitive function and motoric behavior—identified in a whole brain analysis. Six adult male squirrel monkeys self-administered cocaine (0.32 mg/kg/inj) over 140 sessions. Six additional monkeys that had not received any drug treatment for ~1.5 years served as drug-free controls. Resting-state fMRI imaging sessions at 9.4 Tesla were conducted under isoflurane anesthesia. Functional connectivity maps were derived using seed regions placed in the left dACC or putamen. Results show that cocaine maintained robust self-administration with an average total intake of 367 mg/kg (range: 299–424 mg/kg). In the cocaine group, functional connectivity between the dACC seed and regions primarily involved in motoric behavior was weaker, whereas connectivity between the dACC seed and areas implicated in reward and cognitive processing was stronger. In the putamen seed, weaker widespread connectivity was found between the putamen and other motor regions as well as with prefrontal areas that regulate higher-order executive function; stronger connectivity was found with reward-related regions. dACC connectivity was associated with total cocaine intake. These data indicate that functional connectivity between regions involved in motor, reward, and cognitive processing differed between subjects with recent histories of cocaine self-administration and controls; in dACC, connectivity appears to be related to cumulative cocaine dosage during chronic exposure.

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On the role of the corpus callosum in interhemispheric functional connectivity in humans

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1707050114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (50) ◽

pp. 13278-13283 ◽

Cited By ~ 68

Author(s):

Jarod L. Roland ◽

Abraham Z. Snyder ◽

Carl D. Hacker ◽

Anish Mitra ◽

Joshua S. Shimony ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Corpus Callosum ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Limited Sample ◽

Temporal Correlations ◽

Before And After

Resting state functional connectivity is defined in terms of temporal correlations between physiologic signals, most commonly studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Major features of functional connectivity correspond to structural (axonal) connectivity. However, this relation is not one-to-one. Interhemispheric functional connectivity in relation to the corpus callosum presents a case in point. Specifically, several reports have documented nearly intact interhemispheric functional connectivity in individuals in whom the corpus callosum (the major commissure between the hemispheres) never develops. To investigate this question, we assessed functional connectivity before and after surgical section of the corpus callosum in 22 patients with medically refractory epilepsy. Section of the corpus callosum markedly reduced interhemispheric functional connectivity. This effect was more profound in multimodal associative areas in the frontal and parietal lobe than primary regions of sensorimotor and visual function. Moreover, no evidence of recovery was observed in a limited sample in which multiyear, longitudinal follow-up was obtained. Comparison of partial vs. complete callosotomy revealed several effects implying the existence of polysynaptic functional connectivity between remote brain regions. Thus, our results demonstrate that callosal as well as extracallosal anatomical connections play a role in the maintenance of interhemispheric functional connectivity.

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Altered Intra- and Interregional Synchronization in Resting-State Cerebral Networks Associated with Chronic Tinnitus

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2015/475382 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2015 ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Yu-Chen Chen ◽

Jian Zhang ◽

Xiao-Wei Li ◽

Wenqing Xia ◽

Xu Feng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Chronic Tinnitus ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Tinnitus Distress ◽

The Right

Objective. Subjective tinnitus is hypothesized to arise from aberrant neural activity; however, its neural bases are poorly understood. To identify aberrant neural networks involved in chronic tinnitus, we compared the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) patterns of tinnitus patients and healthy controls.Materials and Methods. Resting-state fMRI measurements were obtained from a group of chronic tinnitus patients (n=29) with normal hearing and well-matched healthy controls (n=30). Regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis and functional connectivity analysis were used to identify abnormal brain activity; these abnormalities were compared to tinnitus distress.Results. Relative to healthy controls, tinnitus patients had significant greater ReHo values in several brain regions including the bilateral anterior insula (AI), left inferior frontal gyrus, and right supramarginal gyrus. Furthermore, the left AI showed enhanced functional connectivity with the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), while the right AI had enhanced functional connectivity with the right MFG; these measures were positively correlated with Tinnitus Handicap Questionnaires (r=0.459,P=0.012andr=0.479,P=0.009, resp.).Conclusions. Chronic tinnitus patients showed abnormal intra- and interregional synchronization in several resting-state cerebral networks; these abnormalities were correlated with clinical tinnitus distress. These results suggest that tinnitus distress is exacerbated by attention networks that focus on internally generated phantom sounds.

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Longitudinal Spatial Patterns of Intrinsic Brain Activity and Functional Connectivity in Upper Limb Amputees Patients

10.21203/rs.2.21498/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

bingbo bao ◽

xuyun hua ◽

haifeng wei ◽

pengbo luo ◽

hongyi zhu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Brain Plasticity ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Brain Network ◽

Intrinsic Connectivity ◽

Intrinsic Brain Activity

Abstract Background: Amputation in adults is a serious condition and most patients were associated with the remapping of representations in motor and sensory brain network. Methods: The present study includes 8 healthy volunteers and 16 patients with amputation. We use resting-state fMRI to investigate the local and extent brain plasticity in patients suffering from amputation simultaneously. Both the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and degree centrality (DC) were used for the assessment of neuroplasticity in central level. Results: We described changes in spatial patterns of intrinsic brain activity and functional connectivity in amputees in the present study and we found that not only the sensory and motor cortex, but also the related brain regions involved in the functional plasticity after upper extremity deafferentation. Conclusion: Our findings showed local and extensive cortical changes in the sensorimotor and cognitive-related brain regions, which may imply the dysfunction in not only sensory and motor function, but also sensorimotor integration and motor plan. The activation and intrinsic connectivity in the brain changed a lot showed correlation with the deafferentation status.

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Dynamic Expression of Brain Functional Systems Disclosed by Fine-Scale Analysis of Edge Time Series

10.1101/2020.08.23.263541 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Olaf Sporns ◽

Joshua Faskowitz ◽

Andreia Sofia Teixera ◽

Richard F. Betzel

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Statistical Dependence ◽

Fine Scale ◽

Time Step ◽

Functional Systems

AbstractFunctional connectivity (FC) describes the statistical dependence between brain regions in resting-state fMRI studies and is usually estimated as the Pearson correlation of time courses. Clustering reveals densely coupled sets of regions constituting a set of resting-state networks or functional systems. These systems manifest most clearly when FC is sampled over longer epochs lasting many minutes but appear to fluctuate on shorter time scales. Here, we propose a new approach to track these temporal fluctuations. Un-wrapping FC signal correlations yields pairwise co-fluctuation time series, one for each node pair/edge, and reveals fine-scale dynamics across the network. Co-fluctuations partition the network, at each time step, into exactly two communities. Sampled over time, the overlay of these bipartitions, a binary decomposition of the original time series, very closely approximates functional connectivity. Bipartitions exhibit characteristic spatiotemporal patterns that are reproducible across participants and imaging sessions and disclose fine-scale profiles of the time-varying levels of expression of functional systems. Our findings document that functional systems appear transiently and intermittently, and that FC results from the overlay of many variable instances of system expression. Potential applications of this decomposition of functional connectivity into a set of binary patterns are discussed.

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Additive and interaction effects of working memory and motor sequence training on brain functional connectivity

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-02492-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Priska Zuber ◽

Laura Gaetano ◽

Alessandra Griffa ◽

Manuel Huerbin ◽

Ludovico Pedullà ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Resting State ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Interactive Effects ◽

Angular Gyrus ◽

Precentral Gyrus ◽

Motor Sequence ◽

Brain Functional Connectivity

AbstractAlthough shared behavioral and neural mechanisms between working memory (WM) and motor sequence learning (MSL) have been suggested, the additive and interactive effects of training have not been studied. This study aimed at investigating changes in brain functional connectivity (FC) induced by sequential (WM + MSL and MSL + WM) and combined (WM × MSL) training programs. 54 healthy subjects (27 women; mean age: 30.2 ± 8.6 years) allocated to three training groups underwent twenty-four 40-min training sessions over 6 weeks and four cognitive assessments including functional MRI. A double-baseline approach was applied to account for practice effects. Test performances were compared using linear mixed-effects models and t-tests. Resting state fMRI data were analysed using FSL. Processing speed, verbal WM and manual dexterity increased following training in all groups. MSL + WM training led to additive effects in processing speed and verbal WM. Increased FC was found after training in a network including the right angular gyrus, left superior temporal sulcus, right superior parietal gyrus, bilateral middle temporal gyri and left precentral gyrus. No difference in FC was found between double baselines. Results indicate distinct patterns of resting state FC modulation related to sequential and combined WM and MSL training suggesting a relevance of the order of training performance. These observations could provide new insight for the planning of effective training/rehabilitation.

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Resting-state functional connectivity of social brain regions predicts motivated dishonesty

10.1101/2021.11.10.468161 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Luoyao Pang ◽

Huidi Li ◽

Quanying Liu ◽

Yue-jia Luo ◽

Dean Mobbs ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Region Of Interest ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Social Brain ◽

Moral Regulation ◽

Interpretable Model ◽

Reward Valuation

Motivated dishonesty is a typical social behavior varying from person to person. Resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) is capable of identifying unique patterns from functional connectivity (FC) between brain networks. To identify the relevant neural patterns and build an interpretable model to predict dishonesty, we scanned 8-min rsfMRI before an information-passing task. In the task, we employed monetary rewards to induce dishonesty. We applied both connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) and region-of-interest (ROI) analysis to examine the association between FC and dishonesty. CPM indicated that the stronger FC between fronto-parietal and default mode networks can predict a higher dishonesty rate. The ROIs were set in the regions involving four cognitive processes (self-reference, cognitive control, reward valuation, and moral regulation). The ROI analyses showed that a stronger FC between these regions and the prefrontal cortex can predict a higher dishonesty rate. Our study offers an integrated model to predict dishonesty with rsfMRI, and the results suggest that the frequent motivated dishonest behavior may require a higher engagement of social brain regions.

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Directed functional connectivity using dynamic graphical models

10.1101/198887 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Simon Schwab ◽

Ruth Harbord ◽

Valerio Zerbi ◽

Lloyd Elliott ◽

Soroosh Afyouni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Graphical Models ◽

Resting State ◽

Graphical Model ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Reciprocal Relationship ◽

Validity And Reliability ◽

Varying Coefficients ◽

Time Varying Coefficients

AbstractThere are a growing number of neuroimaging methods that model spatio-temporal patterns of brain activity to allow more meaningful characterizations of brain networks. This paper proposes dynamic graphical models (DGMs) for dynamic, directed functional connectivity. DGMs are a multivariate graphical model with time-varying coefficients that describe instantaneous directed relationships between nodes. A further benefit of DGMs is that networks may contain loops and that large networks can be estimated. We use network simulations, human resting-state fMRI (N = 500) to investigate the validity and reliability of the estimated networks. We simulate systematic lags of the hemodynamic response at different brain regions to investigate how these lags potentially bias directionality estimates. In the presence of such lag confounds (0.4–0.8 seconds offset between connected nodes), our method has a sensitivity of 72%–77% to detect the true direction. Stronger lag confounds have reduced sensitivity, but do not increase false positives (i.e., directionality estimates of the opposite direction). In human resting-state fMRI, we find the DMN has consistent influence on the cerebellar, the limbic and the auditory/temporal network, as well a consistent reciprocal relationship between the visual medial and visual lateral network. Finally, we apply the method in a small mouse fMRI sample and discover a highly plausible relationship between areas in the hippocampus feeding into the cingulate cortex. We provide a computationally efficient implementation of DGM as a free software package for R.

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