scholarly journals Increased activation in the bilateral anterior insulae in response to others in pain in mothers compared to non-mothers

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Sophia Plank ◽  
Catherine Hindi Attar ◽  
Stefanie L. Kunas ◽  
Isabel Dziobek ◽  
Felix Bermpohl
Keyword(s):  
Neural Response ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Superior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Children’S Wellbeing ◽  
Empathy For Pain ◽  
Adults And Children

AbstractEmpathy allows us to share emotions and encourages us to help others. It is especially important in the context of parenting where children’s wellbeing is dependent on their parents’ understanding and fulfilment of their needs. To date, little is known about differences in empathy responses of parents and non-parents. Using stimuli depicting adults and children in pain, this study focuses on the interaction of motherhood and neural responses in areas associated with empathy. Mothers showed higher activation to both adults and children in pain in the bilateral anterior insulae, key regions of empathy for pain. Additionally, mothers more strongly activated the inferior frontal, superior temporal and the medial superior frontal gyrus. Differences between adult and child stimuli were only found in occipital areas in both mothers and non-mothers. Our results suggest a stronger neural response to others in pain in mothers than non-mothers regardless of whether the person is a child or an adult. This could indicate a possible influence of motherhood on overall neural responses to others in pain rather than motherhood specifically shaping child-related responses. Alternatively, stronger responses to others in pain could increase the likelihood for women to be in a relationship and subsequently to have a child.

scholarly journals Social hierarchy modulates neural responses of empathy for pain

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunliang Feng ◽  
Zhihao Li ◽  
Xue Feng ◽  
Lili Wang ◽  
Tengxiang Tian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Empathy For Pain

scholarly journals Increased anticipatory but decreased consummatory brain responses to food in sisters of anorexia nervosa patients

BJPsych Open ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Horndasch ◽  
Sophie O'Keefe ◽  
Anneka Lamond ◽  
Katie Brown ◽  
Ciara McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Family History ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Food Cues ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Increased Activity

BackgroundWe have previously shown increased anticipatory and consummatory neural responses to rewarding and aversive food stimuli in women recovered from anorexia nervosa (AN).AimsTo determine whether these differences are trait markers for AN, we examined the neural response in those with a familial history but no personal history of AN.MethodThirty-six volunteers were recruited: 15 who had a sister with anorexia nervosa (family history) and 21 control participants. Using fMRI we examined the neural response during an anticipatory phase (food cues, rewarding and aversive), an effort phase and a consummatory phase (rewarding and aversive tastes).ResultsFamily history (FH) volunteers showed increased activity in the caudate during the anticipation of both reward and aversive food and in the thalamus and amygdala during anticipation of aversive only. FH had decreased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the pallidum and the superior frontal gyrus during taste consumption.ConclusionsIncreased neural anticipatory but decreased consummatory responses to food might be a biomarker for AN. Interventions that could normalise these differences may help to prevent disorder onset.

Encoding of Compressive Stress During Indentation by Slowly Adapting Type I Mechanoreceptors in Rat Hairy Skin

2002 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1686-1693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqing Ge ◽  
Partap S. Khalsa
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Stress ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Type I ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Neuron Response ◽  
Study Support ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Different Diameters

The mechanical state encoded by slowly adapting type 1 mechanoreceptors (SAI) during indentation was examined using an isolated preparation in a rat model. Skin and its intact innervation were harvested from the medial thigh of the rat hindlimb and placed in a dish, with the corium side down, containing synthetic interstitial fluid. The margins of the skin were coupled to an apparatus that could stretch and apply compression to the skin. Using a standard teased nerve preparation, the neural responses of single SAIs were identified. SAIs were stimulated, using controlled compressive stress while simultaneously measuring displacement, by compressing the skin between indenters (flat cylinders) of different diameters and a hard platform. SAIs were subcategorized according to whether their neural response saturated above or below 10 kPa compressive stress (SAI-H or SAI-L, respectively). Linear regression was used to evaluate the relationships between neuron response and stress and force and displacement. For all SAIs, the mean neural response was significantly and substantially more highly correlated with compressive stress than force or displacement. For the SAI-L subcategory, the mean correlation coefficient was significantly and substantially greater for stress than for force but not significantly different for displacement. The data from this study support the hypothesis that SAI mechanoreceptors stimulated by indentation encode compressive stress rather than force, displacement, or strain.

scholarly journals The neural response to the temporal fine structure of continuous musical pieces is not affected by selective attention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Octave Etard ◽  
Rémy Ben Messaoud ◽  
Gabriel Gaugain ◽  
Tobias Reichenbach
Keyword(s):  
Fine Structure ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Temporal Fine Structure ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Neural Encoding ◽  
Human Volunteers ◽  
Eeg Recordings ◽  
Single Instrument

AbstractSpeech and music are spectro-temporally complex acoustic signals that a highly relevant for humans. Both contain a temporal fine structure that is encoded in the neural responses of subcortical and cortical processing centres. The subcortical response to the temporal fine structure of speech has recently been shown to be modulated by selective attention to one of two competing voices. Music similarly often consists of several simultaneous melodic lines, and a listener can selectively attend to a particular one at a time. However, the neural mechanisms that enable such selective attention remain largely enigmatic, not least since most investigations to date have focussed on short and simplified musical stimuli. Here we study the neural encoding of classical musical pieces in human volunteers, using scalp electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. We presented volunteers with continuous musical pieces composed of one or two instruments. In the latter case, the participants were asked to selectively attend to one of the two competing instruments and to perform a vibrato identification task. We used linear encoding and decoding models to relate the recorded EEG activity to the stimulus waveform. We show that we can measure neural responses to the temporal fine structure of melodic lines played by one single instrument, at the population level as well as for most individual subjects. The neural response peaks at a latency of 7.6 ms and is not measurable past 15 ms. When analysing the neural responses elicited by competing instruments, we find no evidence of attentional modulation. Our results show that, much like speech, the temporal fine structure of music is tracked by neural activity. In contrast to speech, however, this response appears unaffected by selective attention in the context of our experiment.

Neural transduction in Xenopus laevis lateral line system

1978 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 432-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Strelioff ◽  
V. Honrubia
Keyword(s):  
Hair Cell ◽  
Lateral Line ◽  
Hair Cells ◽  
Water Movement ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Cell Systems ◽  
Afferent Fibers ◽  
Neural Excitation ◽  
Electrical Stimuli

1. The process of neural excitation in hair cell systems was studied in an in vitro preparation of the Xenopus laevis (African clawed toad) lateral line organ. A specially designed stimulus chamber was used to apply accurately controlled pressure, water movement, or electrical stimuli, and to record the neural responses of the two afferent fibers innervating each organ or stitch. The objective of the study was to determine the characteristics of the neural responses to these stimuli, and thus gain insight into the transduction process. 2. A sustained deflection of the hair cell cilia due to a constant flow of water past the capula resulted in a maintained change in the mean firing rate (MFR) of the afferent fibers. The data also demonstrated that the neural response was proportional to the velocity of the water flow and indicated that both deflection and movement of the cilia were the effective physiological stimuli for this hair cell system. 3. The preparations responded to sinusoidal water movements (past the capula) over the entire frequency range of the stimulus chamber, 0.1-130 Hz, and were most sensitive between 10 and 40 Hz. The variation of the MFR and the percent modulation indicated that the average dynamic range of each organ was 23.5 dB. 4. The thresholds, if any, for sustained pressure changes and for sinusoidal pressure variations in the absence of water movements were very high. Due to the limitations of the stimulus chamber it was not possible to generate pressure stimuli of sufficient magnitude to elicit a neural response without also generating suprathreshold water-movement stimuli. Sustained pressures had no detectable effect on the neural response to water-movement stimuli. 5. The preparations were very sensitive to electrical potentials applied across the toad skin on which the hair cells were located. Potentials which made the ciliated surfaces of the hair cells positive with respect to their bases increased the MFR of the fibers, whereas negative potentials decreased it. The responses to sinusoidal electrical stimuli were similar to responses to water-movement stimuli with respect to frequency and dynamic ranges. Thresholds as low as 100 muV peak to peak (p-p) for 16-Hz stimuli were found. 6. The characteristics of the neural responses to electrical stimulation as well as supporting data obtained from the studies of the effects of anoxia on the evoked responses indicate that the electrical stimulus acts on the hair cells or on the synapses, rather than directly on the nerve fibers. This finding suggests that receptor potentials or their associated currents play an important role in the process of neural excitation in hair cell systems.

No Evidence of Attentional Modulation of the Neural Response to the Temporal Fine Structure of Continuous Musical Pieces

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Octave Etard ◽  
Rémy Ben Messaoud ◽  
Gabriel Gaugain ◽  
Tobias Reichenbach
Keyword(s):  
Fine Structure ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Temporal Fine Structure ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Attentional Modulation ◽  
Eeg Recordings

Abstract Speech and music are spectrotemporally complex acoustic signals that are highly relevant for humans. Both contain a temporal fine structure that is encoded in the neural responses of subcortical and cortical processing centers. The subcortical response to the temporal fine structure of speech has recently been shown to be modulated by selective attention to one of two competing voices. Music similarly often consists of several simultaneous melodic lines, and a listener can selectively attend to a particular one at a time. However, the neural mechanisms that enable such selective attention remain largely enigmatic, not least since most investigations to date have focused on short and simplified musical stimuli. Here, we studied the neural encoding of classical musical pieces in human volunteers, using scalp EEG recordings. We presented volunteers with continuous musical pieces composed of one or two instruments. In the latter case, the participants were asked to selectively attend to one of the two competing instruments and to perform a vibrato identification task. We used linear encoding and decoding models to relate the recorded EEG activity to the stimulus waveform. We show that we can measure neural responses to the temporal fine structure of melodic lines played by one single instrument, at the population level as well as for most individual participants. The neural response peaks at a latency of 7.6 msec and is not measurable past 15 msec. When analyzing the neural responses to the temporal fine structure elicited by competing instruments, we found no evidence of attentional modulation. We observed, however, that low-frequency neural activity exhibited a modulation consistent with the behavioral task at latencies from 100 to 160 msec, in a similar manner to the attentional modulation observed in continuous speech (N100). Our results show that, much like speech, the temporal fine structure of music is tracked by neural activity. In contrast to speech, however, this response appears unaffected by selective attention in the context of our experiment.

scholarly journals Increased neural responses to empathy for pain might explain how acute stress increases prosociality

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Tomova ◽  
J. Majdandžić ◽  
A. Hummer ◽  
C. Windischberger ◽  
M. Heinrichs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acute Stress ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Empathy For Pain

scholarly journals SA-I Mechanoreceptor Position in Fingertip Skin May Impact Sensitivity to Edge Stimuli

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. Gerling
Keyword(s):  
Solid Mechanics ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Anatomical Location ◽  
Sampling Point ◽  
Type I ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Receptor Organ

Background:The skin plays a role in conditioning mechanical indentation into distributions of stress/strain that mechanoreceptors convert into neural signals. Solid mechanics methods have modelled the skin to predict the in vivo neural response from mechanoreceptors. Despite their promise, current models cannot explain the role that anatomical positioning and receptor organ morphology play in producing differences in neural response. This work hypothesises that the skin's intermediate ridges may help explain, in part, the sensitivity of slowly adapting type I (SA-I) mechanoreceptors to edge stimuli.Method:Two finite-element models of the fingertip were built, validated and used to analyse the functionality of the intermediate ridges. One of the two-dimensional, cross-sectional models included intermediate ridges, while the other did not. The analysis sought to determine if intermediate ridges (1) increase the magnitude of strain energy density (SED) near the SA-I location and (2) help differentiate one 2.0-mm indenter from two 0.5-mm wide indenters with a 1.0-mm gap.Results:Higher concentrations of SED were found near the tips of the intermediate ridges, the anatomical location that coincides with the SA-I receptors. This first result suggested that the location of the SA-Is in the stiffer epidermal tissue helps magnify their response to edge stimuli. The second result was that both models were equally capable of predicting the spatial structure within the in vivo neural responses, and therefore the addition of intermediate ridges did not help in differentiating the indenters.Conclusion:The finding, a 15%–35% increase in response when the sampling point lies within the stiffer tissue at the same depth, seeks to inform the positioning of force sensors in robotic skin substrates.

Neural response to angry and disgusted facial expressions in bulimia nervosa

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (11) ◽  
pp. 2375-2384 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Ashworth ◽  
A. Pringle ◽  
R. Norbury ◽  
C. J. Harmer ◽  
P. J. Cowen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Interpersonal Difficulties ◽  
Amygdala Response ◽  
Clinical Interest ◽  
The Right ◽  
Free Women

BackgroundProcessing emotional facial expressions is of interest in eating disorders (EDs) as impairments in recognizing and understanding social cues might underlie the interpersonal difficulties experienced by these patients. Disgust and anger are of particular theoretical and clinical interest. The current study investigated the neural response to facial expressions of anger and disgust in bulimia nervosa (BN).MethodParticipants were 12 medication-free women with BN in an acute episode (mean age 24 years), and 16 age-, gender- and IQ-matched healthy volunteers (HVs). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine neural responses to angry and disgusted facial expressions.ResultsCompared with HVs, patients with BN had a decreased neural response in the precuneus to facial expressions of both anger and disgust and a decreased neural response to angry facial expressions in the right amygdala.ConclusionsThe neural response to emotional facial expressions in BN differs from that found in HVs. The precuneus response may be consistent with the application of mentalization theory to EDs, and the amygdala response with relevant ED theory. The findings are preliminary, but novel, and require replication in a larger sample.

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