scholarly journals Aesthetic appraisals of literary style and emotional intensity in narrative engagement are neurally dissociable

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Hartung ◽  
Yuchao Wang ◽  
Marloes Mak ◽  
Roel Willems ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Semantic Integration ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Emotional Intensity ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Frontoparietal Network ◽  
Dependent Signal ◽  
Narrative Engagement

AbstractHumans are deeply affected by stories, yet it is unclear how. In this study, we explored two aspects of aesthetic experiences during narrative engagement - literariness and narrative fluctuations in appraised emotional intensity. Independent ratings of literariness and emotional intensity of two literary stories were used to predict blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal changes in 52 listeners from an existing fMRI dataset. Literariness was associated with increased activation in brain areas linked to semantic integration (left angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and precuneus), and decreased activation in bilateral middle temporal cortices, associated with semantic representations and word memory. Emotional intensity correlated with decreased activation in a bilateral frontoparietal network that is often associated with controlled attention. Our results confirm a neural dissociation in processing literary form and emotional content in stories and generate new questions about the function of and interaction between attention, social cognition, and semantic systems during literary engagement and aesthetic experiences.

scholarly journals Preprint: Out of the Ordinary: Neural correlates of literary form and emotional content in aesthetic engagement with literature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Hartung ◽  
Yuchao Wang ◽  
Marloes Mak ◽  
Roel M. Willems ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Semantic Integration ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Emotional Content ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Emotional Intensity ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Frontoparietal Network ◽  
Dependent Signal

We explored two aspects of aesthetic experiences during narrative engagement - literariness and emotional intensity. Independent ratings of literariness and emotional intensity of two literary stories were used to predict blood oxygen-level-dependent signal changes in 52 listeners from an existing fMRI dataset. Literariness was associated with increased activation in brain areas linked to semantic integration (left angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and precuneus), and decreased activation in bilateral middle temporal cortices, associated with semantic representations and word memory. Emotional intensity correlated with decreased activation in a bilateral frontoparietal network that is often associated with controlled attention. Our results confirm a neural dissociation in processing literary form and emotional content in stories and generate new questions about the function of and interaction between attention, social cognition, and semantic systems during literary engagement and aesthetic experiences.

scholarly journals Effects of Age on Prestimulus Neural Activity Predictive of Successful Memory Encoding: An fMRI Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Song Liu ◽  
Joshua D Koen ◽  
Michael D Rugg
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Left Hippocampus ◽  
Dependent Signal ◽  
Left Angular Gyrus

Abstract Prestimulus subsequent memory effects (SMEs)—differences in neural activity preceding the onset of study items that are predictive of later memory performance—have consistently been reported in young adults. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment investigated potential age-related differences in prestimulus SMEs. During study, healthy young and older participants made one of two semantic judgments on images, with the judgment signaled by a preceding cue. In test phase, participants first made an item recognition judgment and, for each item judged old, a source memory judgment. Age-invariant prestimulus SMEs were observed in left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, left hippocampus, and right subgenual cortex. In each case, the effects reflected lower blood oxygen level dependent signal for later recognized items, regardless of source accuracy, than for unrecognized items. A similar age-invariant pattern was observed in left orbitofrontal cortex, but this effect was specific to items attracting a correct source response compared to unrecognized items. In contrast, the left angular gyrus and fusiform cortex demonstrated negative prestimulus SMEs that were exclusive to young participants. The findings indicate that age differences in prestimulus SMEs are regionally specific and suggest that prestimulus SMEs reflect multiple cognitive processes, only some of which are vulnerable to advancing age.

Motor network recovery in patients with chronic spinal cord compression: a longitudinal study following decompression surgery

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayla Ryan ◽  
Sandy Goncalves ◽  
Robert Bartha ◽  
Neil Duggal
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Compression ◽  
Surgical Intervention ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Cord Compression ◽  
Decompression Surgery ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Motor Network ◽  
Dependent Signal

OBJECTIVEThe authors used functional MRI to assess cortical reorganization of the motor network after chronic spinal cord compression and to characterize the plasticity that occurs following surgical intervention.METHODSA 3-T MRI scanner was used to acquire functional images of the brain in 22 patients with reversible cervical spinal cord compression and 10 control subjects. Controls performed a finger-tapping task on 3 different occasions (baseline, 6-week follow-up, and 6-month follow-up), whereas patients performed the identical task before surgery and again 6 weeks and 6 months after spinal decompression surgery.RESULTSAfter surgical intervention, an increased percentage blood oxygen level–dependent signal and volume of activation was observed within the contralateral and ipsilateral motor network. The volume of activation of the contralateral primary motor cortex was associated with functional measures both at baseline (r = 0.55, p < 0.01) and 6 months after surgery (r = 0.55, p < 0.01). The percentage blood oxygen level–dependent signal of the ipsilateral supplementary motor area 6 months after surgery was associated with increased function 6 months after surgery (r = 0.48, p < 0.01).CONCLUSIONSPlasticity of the contralateral and ipsilateral motor network plays complementary roles in maintaining neurological function in patients with spinal cord compression and may be critical in the recovery phase following surgery.

scholarly journals Aberrant blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal oscillations across frequency bands characterize the alcoholic brain

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 824-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jui-Yang Hong ◽  
Eva M. Müller-Oehring ◽  
Adolf Pfefferbaum ◽  
Edith V. Sullivan ◽  
Dongjin Kwon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Blood Oxygen ◽  
Oxygen Level ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Frequency Bands ◽  
Dependent Signal

scholarly journals fMRI of the rod scotoma elucidates cortical rod pathways and implications for lesion measurements

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (16) ◽  
pp. 5201-5206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Barton ◽  
Alyssa A. Brewer
Keyword(s):  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Cortical Reorganization ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Traumatic Lesion ◽  
Electrophysiological Studies ◽  
Short Term Adaptation ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Dependent Signal

Are silencing, ectopic shifts, and receptive field (RF) scaling in cortical scotoma projection zones (SPZs) the result of long-term reorganization (plasticity) or short-term adaptation? Electrophysiological studies of SPZs after retinal lesions in animal models remain controversial, because they are unable to conclusively answer this question because of limitations of the methodology. Here, we used functional MRI (fMRI) visual field mapping through population RF (pRF) modeling with moving bar stimuli under photopic and scotopic conditions to measure the effects of the rod scotoma in human early visual cortex. As a naturally occurring central scotoma, it has a large cortical representation, is free of traumatic lesion complications, is completely reversible, and has not reorganized under normal conditions (but can as seen in rod monochromats). We found that the pRFs overlapping the SPZ in V1, V2, V3, hV4, and VO-1 generally (i) reduced their blood oxygen level-dependent signal coherence and (ii) shifted their pRFs more eccentric but (iii) scaled their pRF sizes in variable ways. Thus, silencing, ectopic shifts, and pRF scaling in SPZs are not unique identifiers of cortical reorganization; rather, they can be the expected result of short-term adaptation. However, are there differences between rod and cone signals in V1, V2, V3, hV4, and VO-1? We did not find differences for all five maps in more peripheral eccentricities outside of rod scotoma influence in coherence, eccentricity representation, or pRF size. Thus, rod and cone signals seem to be processed similarly in cortex.

scholarly journals Blood oxygen level-dependent signal responses in corticolimbic ‘emotions’ circuitry of lactating rats facing intruder threat to pups

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 934-945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin C. Nephew ◽  
Martha K. Caffrey ◽  
Ada C. Felix-Ortiz ◽  
Craig F. Ferris ◽  
Marcelo Febo
Keyword(s):  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Blood Oxygen ◽  
Oxygen Level ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Dependent Signal
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