scholarly journals Human decisions about when to act originate within a basal forebrain–nigral circuit

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (21) ◽  
pp. 11799-11810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nima Khalighinejad ◽  
Luke Priestley ◽  
Saad Jbabdi ◽  
Matthew F. S. Rushworth
Keyword(s):  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Interaction Analysis ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Pedunculopontine Nucleus ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Subcortical Structures ◽  
Psychophysiological Interaction

Decisions about when to act are critical for survival in humans as in animals, but how a desire is translated into the decision that an action is worth taking at any particular point in time is incompletely understood. Here we show that a simple model developed to explain when animals decide it is worth taking an action also explains a significant portion of the variance in timing observed when humans take voluntary actions. The model focuses on the current environment’s potential for reward, the timing of the individual’s own recent actions, and the outcomes of those actions. We show, by using ultrahigh-field MRI scanning, that in addition to anterior cingulate cortex within medial frontal cortex, a group of subcortical structures including striatum, substantia nigra, basal forebrain (BF), pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), and habenula (HB) encode trial-by-trial variation in action time. Further analysis of the activity patterns found in each area together with psychophysiological interaction analysis and structural equation modeling suggested a model in which BF integrates contextual information that will influence the decision about when to act and communicates this information, in parallel with PPN and HB influences, to nigrostriatal circuits. It is then in the nigrostriatal circuit that action initiation per se begins.

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

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.

scholarly journals Relationship between Specific (Dis)Utility and the Frequency of Driving a Car

2005 ◽  
Vol 1926 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-95
Author(s):  
Marco Diana
Keyword(s):  
Travel Behavior ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Measurement Problem ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Driving Frequency ◽  
Transportation Demand ◽  
Socioeconomic Variables ◽  
Planning Models ◽  
Complex Relationships

An interesting issue in contemporary travel behavior research is whether the transportation demand has to be considered purely derived from underlying activity patterns or whether a utility is also associated with traveling per se. In the latter case, substantial amendments of current planning models would be needed to represent this phenomenon adequately. Earlier research consistently gave evidence of the existence of this specific utility, but its quantification is hindered by a specific measurement problem because survey respondents tend to mingle the utility of traveling and the utility of reaching a destination. The present work defines a methodology to quantify the decrement in the specific utility of driving a car due to the presence of difficulties and self-limiting behaviors. This is in turn responsible for an alteration of driving frequency. A structural equation modeling technique is used for the analysis. The structural submodel represents the complex relationships between socioeconomic variables, specific utility, and driving frequency. The measurement submodel defines the specific utility on the basis of reported self-evaluations concerning physical fitness and self-limiting behaviors while driving. An application of the method based on data collected in the 2002 National Transportation Availability and Use Survey is presented. The results show that the decrement of specific utility (which can be seen as a disutility) of driving a car has an important impact on the frequency of performing this activity compared with the derived utility that is customarily modeled through socioeconomic variables.

scholarly journals Control-Value Appraisals, Enjoyment, and Boredom in Mathematics: A Longitudinal Latent Interaction Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 1339-1368 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Putwain ◽  
Reinhard Pekrun ◽  
Laura J. Nicholson ◽  
Wendy Symes ◽  
Sandra Becker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Control ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Interaction Analysis ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Achievement Emotions ◽  
Control Value ◽  
Self Report Data

Based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, this longitudinal study examined students’ control-value appraisals as antecedents of their enjoyment and boredom in mathematics. Self-report data for appraisals and emotions were collected from 579 students in their final year of primary schooling over three waves. Data were analyzed using latent interaction structural equation modeling. Control-value appraisals predicted emotions interactively depending on which specific subjective value was paired with perceived control. Achievement value amplified the positive relation between perceived control and enjoyment, and intrinsic value reduced the negative relation between perceived control and boredom. These longitudinal findings demonstrate that control and value appraisals, and their interaction, are critically important for the development of students’ enjoyment and boredom over time.

scholarly journals Abnormal reward valuation and event-related connectivity in unmedicated major depressive disorder

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rupprechter ◽  
A. Stankevicius ◽  
Q. J. M. Huys ◽  
P. Series ◽  
J. D. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Major Depressive Disorder ◽  
Depressive Disorder ◽  
Interaction Analysis ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Major Depressive ◽  
Psychophysiological Interaction ◽  
Value Estimation ◽  
Reward Valuation

Abstract Background Experience of emotion is closely linked to valuation. Mood can be viewed as a bias to experience positive or negative emotions and abnormally biased subjective reward valuation and cognitions are core characteristics of major depression. Methods Thirty-four unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder and controls estimated the probability that fractal stimuli were associated with reward, based on passive observations, so they could subsequently choose the higher of either their estimated fractal value or an explicitly presented reward probability. Using model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging, we estimated each subject's internal value estimation, with psychophysiological interaction analysis used to examine event-related connectivity, testing hypotheses of abnormal reward valuation and cingulate connectivity in depression. Results Reward value encoding in the hippocampus and rostral anterior cingulate was abnormal in depression. In addition, abnormal decision-making in depression was associated with increased anterior mid-cingulate activity and a signal in this region encoded the difference between the values of the two options. This localised decision-making and its impairment to the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) consistent with theories of cognitive control. Notably, subjects with depression had significantly decreased event-related connectivity between the aMCC and rostral cingulate regions during decision-making, implying impaired communication between the neural substrates of expected value estimation and decision-making in depression. Conclusions Our findings support the theory that abnormal neural reward valuation plays a central role in major depressive disorder (MDD). To the extent that emotion reflects valuation, abnormal valuation could explain abnormal emotional experience in MDD, reflect a core pathophysiological process and be a target of treatment.

scholarly journals Reliability of Fronto–Amygdala Coupling during Emotional Face Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Nord ◽  
Alan Gray ◽  
Oliver Robinson ◽  
Jonathan Roiser
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Interaction Analysis ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Emotion Identification ◽  
Emotional Face Processing ◽  
Psychophysiological Interaction ◽  
Imaging Research ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Emotional Face

One of the most exciting translational prospects for brain imaging research is the potential use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) ‘biomarkers’ to predict an individual’s risk of developing a neuropsychiatric disorder or the likelihood of responding to a particular intervention. This proposal depends critically on reliable measurements at the level of the individual. Several previous studies have reported relatively poor reliability of amygdala activation during emotional face processing, a key putative fMRI ‘biomarker’. However, the reliability of amygdala connectivity measures is much less well understood. Here, we assessed the reliability of task-modulated coupling between three seed regions (left and right amygdala and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex) and the dorsomedial frontal/cingulate cortex (DMFC), measured using a psychophysiological interaction analysis in 29 healthy individuals scanned approximately two weeks apart. We performed two runs on each day of three different emotional face-processing tasks: emotion identification, emotion matching, and gender classification. We tested both between-day reliability and within-day (between-run) reliability. We found good-to-excellent within-subject reliability of amygdala–DMFC coupling, both between days (in two tasks), and within day (in one task). This suggests that disorder-relevant regional coupling may be sufficiently reliable to be used as a predictor of treatment response or clinical risk in future clinical studies.

Network interactions among limbic cortices, basal forebrain, and cerebellum differentiate a tone conditioned as a Pavlovian excitor or inhibitor: fluorodeoxyglucose mapping and covariance structural modeling

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 1717-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. McIntosh ◽  
F. Gonzalez-Lima
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation Modeling ◽  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Regional Activity ◽  
Path Coefficients

1. The objective was to examine how opposite learned behavioral responses to the same physical tone were differentiated by the pattern of interactions between extraauditory neural regions. This was pursued using a new approach combining behavior, neuroimaging, and network analysis to integrate information about differences in regional activity with differences in the covariance relationships between brain areas. 2. A tone was used as either a Pavlovian conditioned excitor or inhibitor. Rats were conditioned with reinforced trials of a conditioned excitor (A+) intermixed with nonreinforced trials of a tone-light compound (AX-). The tone was the excitor (A+) for the tone-excitor group and was the inhibitor (X-) for the tone-inhibitor group. After conditioning, all rats were injected with [14C(U)]2-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) and presented with the same tone. 3. FDG autoradiography was used to measure regional activity and to generate interregional correlations of activity resulting from the presentation of the tone. A stepwise discriminant analysis was used to select brain regions that differentiated the excitor from the inhibitor effects. 4. Network analysis consisted of constructing an anatomic model of the brain regions, selected by the discriminant analysis, linking the regions with their known anatomical connections. Then, functional models for the tone-excitor and -inhibitor groups were constructed using structural equation modeling. Correlations of activity between regions were decomposed to calculate numerical weights, or path coefficients, for each anatomic path. These path coefficients were used to compare the interactions for the tone-excitor and -inhibitor models. 5. Regional differences in FDG uptake were found in the sulcal frontal cortex (SFC), lateral septum (LS), medial septum/diagonal band (MS/DB), retrosplenial cortex (RS), and dentate-interpositus nuclei of the cerebellum (DEN). Discriminant analysis selected three other regions that significantly discriminated the tone-excitor and -inhibitor groups: perirhinal cortex (PRh), nucleus accumbens (ACB), and the anteroventral nucleus of the thalamus (AVN). 6. Structural equation modeling identified two functional circuits that differentiated the groups. One involved the basal forebrain regions (LS, MS/DB, ACB) and the other limbic thalamocortical structures (SFC, RS, PRh, AVN). Differences in the interactions within these circuits were mainly in sign of the covariance relationships between regions, from positive for the tone-excitor model to negative path coefficients for the tone-inhibitor model. The path coefficient between the basal forebrain circuit and the limbic thalamocortical circuit showed the largest magnitude difference. This quantitative difference was mediated by a path from the MS/DB to PRh.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

scholarly journals Pubertal development mediates the association between family environment and brain structure and function in childhood

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Thijssen ◽  
Paul Collins ◽  
Monica Luciana
Keyword(s):  
Fractional Anisotropy ◽  
Family Environment ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Pubertal Development ◽  
Emotional Behavior ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Pubertal Stage

Psychosocial Acceleration Theory suggests that pubertal maturation is accelerated in response to adversity. Additionally, suboptimal caregiving accelerates development of the amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) circuit. These findings may be related. Here, we assess whether associations between family environment (FE) and measures of the amygdala-mPFC circuit are mediated by pubertal development in n=2000+ 9-10 y.o. children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD, http://dx.doi.org/10.15154/1412097). Using Structural Equation Modeling, demographic, child-reported, and parent-reported data on family dynamics were compiled into a higher-level FE latent variable. MRI preprocessing and compilations were performed by ABCD’s data analysis core. Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) thickness, area, white matter fractional anisotropy, amygdala volume, and cingulo-opercular network (CON)-amygdala resting-state functional connectivity (FC) were assessed. For CON-left amygdala FC, ACC cortical thickness and ACC fractional anisotropy, significant indirect effects indicated that stressful FE relates to more advanced pubertal stage and more mature brain function/structure. For CON-amygdala FC, a marginally significant indirect effect was found. For ACC area, evidence for quadratic mediation by pubertal stage was found. Sex stratified analyses suggest stronger results for girls. Despite small effect sizes, structural measures of circuits important for emotional behavior are associated with FE and show initial evidence of accelerated pubertal development.

A Psychometric Study of the Quality Perception Questionnaire

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaele Cioffi† ◽  
Anna Coluccia ◽  
Fabio Ferretti ◽  
Francesca Lorini ◽  
Aristide Saggino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Fit Indices ◽  
Quality Perception ◽  
Italian Survey ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Instrument Measuring ◽  
Hospital Structures

The present paper reexamines the psychometric properties of the Quality Perception Questionnaire (QPQ), an Italian survey instrument measuring patients’ perceptions of the quality of a recent hospital admission experience, in a sample of 4400 patients (Mage = 56.42 years; SD = 19.71 years, 48.8% females). The 14-item survey measures four factors: satisfaction with medical doctors, nursing staff, auxiliary staff, and hospital structures. First, we tested two models using a confirmatory factor analysis (structural equation modeling): a four orthogonal factor and a four oblique factor model. The SEM fit indices and the χ² difference suggested the acceptance of the second model. We then did a simulation using a bootstrap with 1000 replications. Results confirmed the four oblique factor solution. Third, we tested whether there were significant differences with respect to age or sex. The multivariate general linear model showed no significant differences in the factors with respect to sex or age.

Suicide Risk Among College Student

Crisis ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 416-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Shadick ◽  
Faedra Backus Dagirmanjian ◽  
Baptiste Barbot
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Minority ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
First Year ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
First Year College Students

Abstract. Background: Research on young adults in the general population has identified a relationship between sexual minority identification and risk for suicide. Differential rates of suicidal ideation and attempts have also been found across racial and ethnic groups. Aims: This study examined risk for suicide among university students, based on membership in one or more marginalized groups (sexual minority and racial minority identification). Method: Data were collected from first-year college students (N = 4,345) at an urban university. Structural equation modeling was employed to model a suicidality construct, based on which a "risk for suicide" category system was derived. Chi-square and logistic regression analyses were then conducted to estimate the relationship between the background variables of interest and suicide risk. Results: Students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) were associated with higher suicide risk than their heterosexual peers. Students of color were slightly less at risk than their heterosexual peers. However, LGB students of color were associated with elevated suicide risk relative to heterosexual peers. Conclusion: Results indicate that belonging to multiple marginalized groups may increase one's risk for suicide, though these effects are not simply additive. Findings highlight the complexity of the intersection between marginalized identities and suicidality.

Low Self-Control of Emotions as an Antecedent of Self-Reported Physical Symptoms: A Longitudinal Perspective

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marja Kokkonen ◽  
Lea Pulkkinen ◽  
Taru Kinnunen
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Personality Characteristics ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire ◽  
Positive Direction ◽  
Data Collections ◽  
Low Self Control

The study was part of the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, underway since 1968, in which children's low self-control of emotions was studied using teacher ratings at age 8 in terms of inattentiveness, shifting moods, aggression, and anxiety. The study was based on data from 112 women and 112 men who participated in the previous data collections at ages 8, 27, and 36. At age 27, the participants had been assessed in Neuroticism (N) using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire , and at age 36 they filled in several inventories measuring, among others, conscious and active attempts to repair negative emotions in a more positive direction as well as physical symptoms. The present study used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesis that personality characteristics indicating low self-control of emotions at ages 8 and 27 are antecedents of self-reported physical symptoms at age 36; and that this relationship is indirect, mediated by attempts to repair negative emotions in a more positive direction. The findings showed, albeit for men only, that inattentiveness at age 8 was positively related to self-reported physical symptoms at age 36 via high N at age 27 and low attempts to repair negative emotions at age 36. Additionally, N at age 27 was directly linked to self-reported physical symptoms at age 36. The mediation of an active attempt to repair negative emotions was not found for women. Correlations revealed, however, that shifting moods and aggression in girls were antecedents of self-reported physical symptoms in adulthood, particularly, pain and fatigue.

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