Dual n-back training improves functional connectivity of the right inferior frontal gyrus at rest

AbstractSeveral studies have shown that the benefits of working memory (WM) training can be attributed to functional and structural neural changes in the underlying neural substrate. In the current study, we investigated whether the functional connectivity of the brain at rest in the default mode network (DMN) changes with WM training. We varied the complexity of the training intervention so, that half of the participants attended dual n-back training whereas the other half attended single n-back training. This way we could assess the effects of different training task parameters on possible connectivity changes. After 16 training sessions, the dual n-back training group showed improved performance accompanied by increased functional connectivity of the ventral DMN in the right inferior frontal gyrus, which correlated with improvements in WM. We also observed decreased functional connectivity in the left superior parietal cortex in this group. The single n-back training group did not show significant training-related changes. These results show that a demanding short-term WM training intervention can alter the default state of the brain.

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Disentangling Mathematics from Executive Functions by Investigating Unique Functional Connectivity Patterns Predictive of Mathematics Ability

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01367 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 560-573 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kenny Skagerlund ◽

Taylor Bolt ◽

Jason S. Nomi ◽

Mikael Skagenholt ◽

Daniel Västfjäll ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Premotor Cortex ◽

Mathematical Ability ◽

Angular Gyrus ◽

Intraparietal Sulcus ◽

Supramarginal Gyrus ◽

Connectivity Patterns ◽

The Right

What are the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms that give rise to mathematical competence? This study investigated the relationship between tests of mathematical ability completed outside the scanner and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) of cytoarchitectonically defined subdivisions of the parietal cortex in adults. These parietal areas are also involved in executive functions (EFs). Therefore, it remains unclear whether there are unique networks for mathematical processing. We investigate the neural networks for mathematical cognition and three measures of EF using resting-state fMRI data collected from 51 healthy adults. Using 10 ROIs in seed to whole-brain voxel-wise analyses, the results showed that arithmetical ability was correlated with FC between the right anterior intraparietal sulcus (hIP1) and the left supramarginal gyrus and between the right posterior intraparietal sulcus (hIP3) and the left middle frontal gyrus and the right premotor cortex. The connection between the posterior portion of the left angular gyrus and the left inferior frontal gyrus was also correlated with mathematical ability. Covariates of EF eliminated connectivity patterns with nodes in inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus, suggesting neural overlap. Controlling for EF, we found unique connections correlated with mathematical ability between the right hIP1 and the left supramarginal gyrus and between hIP3 bilaterally to premotor cortex bilaterally. This is partly in line with the “mapping hypothesis” of numerical cognition in which the right intraparietal sulcus subserves nonsymbolic number processing and connects to the left parietal cortex, responsible for calculation procedures. We show that FC within this circuitry is a significant predictor of math ability in adulthood.

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Association Between Trait Empathy and Resting Brain Activity in Women With Primary Dysmenorrhea During the Pain and Pain-Free Phases

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2020.608928 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Wanghuan Dun ◽

Tongtong Fan ◽

Qiming Wang ◽

Ke Wang ◽

Jing Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Brain Network ◽

Primary Dysmenorrhea ◽

Pain Experience ◽

Current State ◽

The Neural Network ◽

The Right ◽

The Brain

Empathy refers to the ability to understand someone else's emotions and fluctuates with the current state in healthy individuals. However, little is known about the neural network of empathy in clinical populations at different pain states. The current study aimed to examine the effects of long-term pain on empathy-related networks and whether empathy varied at different pain states by studying primary dysmenorrhea (PDM) patients. Multivariate partial least squares was employed in 46 PDM women and 46 healthy controls (HC) during periovulatory, luteal, and menstruation phases. We identified neural networks associated with different aspects of empathy in both groups. Part of the obtained empathy-related network in PDM exhibited a similar activity compared with HC, including the right anterior insula and other regions, whereas others have an opposite activity in PDM, including the inferior frontal gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule. These results indicated an abnormal regulation to empathy in PDM. Furthermore, there was no difference in empathy association patterns in PDM between the pain and pain-free states. This study suggested that long-term pain experience may lead to an abnormal function of the brain network for empathy processing that did not vary with the pain or pain-free state across the menstrual cycle.

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Neural Basis of Depression Related to a Dominant Right Hemisphere: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Behavioural Neurology ◽

10.1155/2018/5024520 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Mi Li ◽

Hongpei Xu ◽

Shengfu Lu

Keyword(s):

Right Hemisphere ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Middle Temporal ◽

Middle Occipital Gyrus ◽

The Right ◽

Depressive Patients ◽

The Brain ◽

Left Middle

Background. In the past, studies on the lateralization of the left and right hemispheres of the brain suggested that depression is dominated by the right hemisphere of the brain, but the neural basis of this theory remains unclear. Method. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain was performed in 22 depressive patients and 15 healthy controls. The differences in the mean values of the regional homogeneity (ReHo) of two groups were compared, and the low-frequency amplitudes of these differential brain regions were compared. Results. The results show that compared with healthy subjects, depressive patients had increased ReHo values in the right superior temporal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, triangular part of the right inferior frontal gyrus, orbital part of the right inferior frontal gyrus, right superior occipital gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, bilateral anterior cingulate, and paracingulate gyri; reduced ReHo values were seen in the right fusiform gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus, left lingual gyrus, and left inferior parietal except in the supramarginal and angular gyri. Conclusions. The results show that regional homogeneity mainly occurs in the right brain, and the overall performance of the brain is such that right hemisphere synchronization is enhanced while left hemisphere synchronization is weakened. ReHo abnormalities in the resting state can predict abnormalities in individual neurological activities that reflect changes in the structure and function of the brain; abnormalities shown with this indicator are the neuronal basis for the phenomenon that the right hemisphere of the brain has a dominant effect on depression.

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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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The Effect of Oxygen on Verbal Performance : An fMRI Study

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.321-323.996 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 321-323 ◽

pp. 996-999

Author(s):

Soon Cheol Chung ◽

Ji Hye You ◽

Bong Soo Lee ◽

Gye Rae Tack ◽

Sin Kim ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Single Shot ◽

Brain Images ◽

Oxygen Administration ◽

Effect Of Oxygen ◽

The Right ◽

The Brain ◽

Verbal Performance ◽

Verbal Cognition

This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that administration of the air with 30% oxygen compared with normal air (21% oxygen) enhances verbal cognitive functioning through increased activation in the brain. Nine male college students participated in the study. The experiment consisted of two runs, one for verbal cognition task with normal air (21% oxygen) and the other for verbal cognition task with hyperoxic air (30% oxygen). Functional brain images were taken with a 3T MRI using the single-shot EPI method. From the results of the verbal behavioral analysis, the accuracy rate was enhanced with 30% oxygen administration when compared to 21% oxygen. The activities were observed at the occipital, parietal, temporal and frontal lobes during both 21% and 30% oxygen administration. There were more activations observed at the right middle frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, and left fusiform gyrus with 30% oxygen administration. These results suggest that a higher concentration of breathed oxygen increases saturation of blood oxygen in the brain, and facilitates verbal performance.

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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.

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The Involvement of Occipital and Inferior Frontal Cortex in the Phonological Learning of Chinese Characters

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2010.21571 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (8) ◽

pp. 1998-2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Yuan Deng ◽

Tai-li Chou ◽

Guo-sheng Ding ◽

Dan-ling Peng ◽

James R. Booth

Keyword(s):

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

English Speakers ◽

Chinese Characters ◽

Delayed Recall ◽

Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Phonological Learning ◽

Lingual Gyrus ◽

Improved Performance ◽

The Right ◽

Specific Learning

Neural changes related to the learning of the pronunciation of Chinese characters in English speakers were examined using fMRI. We examined the item-specific learning effects for trained characters and the generalization of phonetic knowledge to novel transfer characters that shared a phonetic radical (part of a character that gives a clue to the whole character's pronunciation) with trained characters. Behavioral results showed that shared phonetic information improved performance for transfer characters. Neuroimaging results for trained characters over learning found increased activation in the right lingual gyrus, and greater activation enhancement in the left inferior frontal gyrus (Brodmann's area 44) was correlated with higher accuracy improvement. Moreover, greater activation for transfer characters in these two regions at the late stage of training was correlated with better knowledge of the phonetic radical in a delayed recall test. The current study suggests that the right lingual gyrus and the left inferior frontal gyrus are crucial for the learning of Chinese characters and the generalization of that knowledge to novel characters. Left inferior frontal gyrus is likely involved in phonological segmentation, whereas right lingual gyrus may subserve processing visual–orthographic information.

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Lateralization in intrinsic functional connectivity of the temporoparietal junction with salience- and attention-related brain networks

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00674.2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 108 (12) ◽

pp. 3382-3392 ◽

Cited By ~ 90

Author(s):

Aaron Kucyi ◽

Mojgan Hodaie ◽

Karen D. Davis

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Brain Networks ◽

Spatial Neglect ◽

Independent State ◽

Attention Network ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

Healthy Humans ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

The Right

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is activated during detection of salient stimuli, including pain, in the sensory environment. Right TPJ damage more often produces spatial neglect than left TPJ damage. We recently reported a right lateralized system of white matter connectivity of the TPJ. However, lateralization in intrinsic TPJ functional connectivity during a task/stimuli-independent state has not been fully characterized. Here we used resting-state functional MRI in healthy humans to compare the functional connectivity of right and left TPJ with salience- and attention-related brain networks. Independent components analysis revealed that both right and left TPJ were functionally connected with a network that included the anterior insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), and mid-cingulate cortex, considered to be the salience/ventral attention network. Dual regression revealed this network was more strongly connected with right TPJ than left TPJ. Seed-based functional connectivity analysis showed 1) negative connectivity the TPJ bilaterally with the “default mode network”; 2) positive connectivity of TPJ bilaterally with the salience/ventral attention network; 3) stronger connectivity between right TPJ compared with left TPJ with regions within the salience/ventral attention network and mid-insula, S2, and temporal/parietal opercula (implicated in pain); and 4) stronger connectivity of left TPJ compared with right TPJ with the “executive control network,” including the dorsomedial/medial PFC, inferior frontal gyrus, and cerebellum (crus I/II). Our findings build on classic lesion and neuroimaging studies, demonstrating a complex spatial network organization of lateralization in TPJ functional connectivity in the absence of an overt stimulus.

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Romantic jealousy is positively associated with fronto-striatal, insula and limbic responses to angry faces

10.1101/502096 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Xiaoxiao Zheng ◽

Lizhu Luo ◽

Jialin Li ◽

Lei Xu ◽

Feng Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Dorsal Striatum ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Romantic Jealousy ◽

The Right ◽

Emotional Face ◽

Emotional Responsivity

AbstractRomantic jealousy is a complex social emotion combining the different primary emotions of anger, fear and sadness. Previous evidence has suggested the involvement of fronto-striatal dopaminergic circuitry in clinical pathological jealousy, although little is known about overlaps with the neural representation of primary emotions involved in non-morbid jealousy. In the current study, 85 healthy subjects underwent fMRI during resting state and an emotional face recognition paradigm. A total of 150 faces (happy, angry, fearful, sad, neutral) were presented and subjects were required to identify the expression and rate its intensity. Trait romantic jealousy was assessed using the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale. Behavioral results showed that only intensity ratings of angry faces were positively associated with subjects’ jealousy scores. During processing of angry versus neutral expression faces, subjects with higher jealousy scores exhibited greater activation in the right thalamus, insula, fusiform gyrus and hippocampus, left dorsal striatum and superior parietal lobule and bilateral cerebellum and inferior frontal gyrus after controlling for trait aggression and sex. Functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and caudate was also increased. No associations with resting state functional connectivity were found. Overall, the present study demonstrates an association between romantic jealousy and increased intensity ratings of angry faces as well as in activity and functional connectivity of dorsal striatal-inferior frontal circuitry. Thus, increased emotional responsivity to social threat and enhanced activity in limbic regions and dopaminergic fronto-striatal circuitry may be features of both non-morbid and pathological jealousy.

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Connectivity profile laterality in corticostriatal functional circuitry: a fingerprinting approach

10.1101/2021.06.04.447001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Cole Korponay ◽

Elliot A Stein ◽

Thomas Ross

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Support Vector ◽

Hemispheric Differences ◽

Regional Localization ◽

Discovery Sample ◽

Corticostriatal Circuits ◽

Primary Driver ◽

The Difference ◽

The Right

An abnormal magnitude of hemispheric difference (i.e. laterality) in corticostriatal circuits is a shared feature of numerous neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Detailed quantitation and regional localization of corticostriatal laterality in normative samples stands to further the understanding of hemispheric differences in healthy and disease states. Here, we used a fingerprinting approach to quantify functional connectivity profile laterality (the overall magnitude by which a voxel's profile of connectivity with homotopic regions of the ipsilateral and contralateral cortex differs) in the striatum. Laterality magnitude heatmaps revealed laterality hotspots (constituting outliers in the voxelwise distribution) in the right ventrolateral putamen and left central caudate. Findings were replicated in an independent sample, with significant (p<0.05) spatial overlap observed between the location of the laterality hotspots across samples, as measured via Dice coefficients. At both hotspots, a primary driver of overall laterality was the difference in striatal connectivity strength with the right and left pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus. Right and left striatum laterality magnitude maps were found to significantly differ (p<0.05) at the hotspot locations. Moreover, using subjects' left, but not right, striatum laterality magnitude maps, a support vector machine trained on a discovery sample (n=77) and tested on a replication sample (n=77) significantly predicted (r=0.25, p=0.028) subject performance on a language task, known for its lateralized nature. Laterality magnitude maps remained consistent across different cortical atlas parcellations and did not differ significantly between right handed and left handed individuals. In sum, meaningful variation in functional connectivity profile laterality, both spatially within the striatum and across subjects, is evident in corticostriatal circuits. Findings provide a basis to examine corticostriatal connectivity profile laterality in psychiatric illness.

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