Reduced Thalamus Volume and Enhanced Thalamus and Fronto-Parietal Network Integration in the Chess Experts

Abstract The ability of chess experts depends to a large extent on spatial visual processing, attention, and working memory, all of which are thought to be mediated by the thalamus. This study explored whether continued practice and rehearsal over a long period of time results in structural changes in the thalamic region. We found smaller gray matter volume regions in the thalami of expert Chinese chess players in comparison with novice players. We then used these regions as seeds for resting-state functional connectivity analysis and observed significantly strengthened integration between the thalamus and fronto-parietal network in expert Chinese chess players. This strengthened integration that includes a group of brain regions showing an increase in activation to external stimulation, particularly during tasks relying on working memory and attention. Our findings demonstrate structural changes in the thalamus caused by a wide range of engagement in chess problem solving, and that this strengthened functional integration with widely distributed circuitry better supports high-level cognitive control of behavior.

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Gray-Matter Expansion of Social Brain Networks in Individuals High in Public Self-Consciousness

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11030374 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 374

Author(s):

Tomoyo Morita ◽

Minoru Asada ◽

Eiichi Naito

Keyword(s):

Gray Matter ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Brain Networks ◽

Japanese Version ◽

Brain Regions ◽

The Self ◽

Social Brain ◽

Default Mode ◽

Public Self Consciousness

Self-consciousness is a personality trait associated with an individual’s concern regarding observable (public) and unobservable (private) aspects of self. Prompted by previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies, we examined possible gray-matter expansions in emotion-related and default mode networks in individuals with higher public or private self-consciousness. One hundred healthy young adults answered the Japanese version of the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) questionnaire and underwent structural MRI. A voxel-based morphometry analysis revealed that individuals scoring higher on the public SCS showed expansions of gray matter in the emotion-related regions of the cingulate and insular cortices and in the default mode network of the precuneus and medial prefrontal cortex. In addition, these gray-matter expansions were particularly related to the trait of “concern about being evaluated by others”, which was one of the subfactors constituting public self-consciousness. Conversely, no relationship was observed between gray-matter volume in any brain regions and the private SCS scores. This is the first study showing that the personal trait of concern regarding public aspects of the self may cause long-term substantial structural changes in social brain networks.

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Association between cytomegalovirus infection, reduced gray matter volume, and resting-state functional hypoconnectivity in major depressive disorder: a replication and extension

Translational Psychiatry ◽

10.1038/s41398-021-01558-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Haixia Zheng ◽

Bart N. Ford ◽

Rayus Kuplicki ◽

Kaiping Burrows ◽

Peter W. Hunt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Major Depressive Disorder ◽

Depressive Disorder ◽

Gray Matter ◽

Resting State ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Affective Processing ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Major Depressive ◽

Matter Volume

AbstractHuman cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a neurotropic herpes virus known to cause neuropathology in patients with impaired immunity. Previously, we reported a reduction in the gray matter volume (GMV) of several brain regions in two independent samples of participants who were seropositive for HCMV (HCMV+) compared to matched participants who were seronegative for HCMV (HCMV−). In addition to an independent replication of the GMV findings, this study aimed to examine whether HCMV+ was associated with differences in resting-state functional connectivity (rsfMRI-FC). After balancing on 11 clinical/demographic variables using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), GMV and rsfMRI-FC were obtained from 99 participants with major depressive disorder (MDD) who were classified into 42 HCMV+ and 57 HCMV− individuals. Relative to the HCMV− group, the HCMV+ group showed a significant reduction of GMV in nine cortical regions. Volume reduction in the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (standardized beta coefficient (SBC) = −0.32, [95%CI, −0.62 to −0.02]) and the left pars orbitalis (SBC = −0.34, [95%CI, −0.63 to −0.05]) in the HCMV+ group was also observed in the previous study. Regardless of the parcellation method or analytical approach, relative to the HCMV− group, the HCMV+ group showed hypoconnectivity between the hubs of the sensorimotor network (bilateral postcentral gyrus) and the hubs of the salience network (bilateral insula) with effect sizes ranging from SBC = −0.57 to −0.99. These findings support the hypothesis that a positive HCMV serostatus is associated with altered connectivity of regions that are important for stress and affective processing and further supports a possible etiological role of HCMV in depression.

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Neurobiological mechanisms underlying internet and gaming disorder (IGD)

Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience ◽

10.31887/dcns.2020.22.2/aweinstein ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 113-126

Keyword(s):

Computer Games ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Internet Gaming Disorder ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Sensory Function ◽

Gaming Disorder ◽

Control Networks ◽

Internet Gaming ◽

The Impact

This review summarizes studies on the neurobiological correlates of internet gaming disorder (IGD), presently the most direct approach to analyzing the impact of digital technology and the internet on brain mechanisms. Brain imaging studies have shown that IGD shares, to a large extent, neurobiological alterations that are typical for other addictions, such as: (i) activation in brain regions associated with reward, as evident from cue exposure and craving studies and neurotransmitter systems studies that indicate an involvement of dopamine-mediated reward mechanisms; (ii) reduced activity in impulse control areas and impaired decision making; and (iii) reduced functional connectivity in brain networks that are involved in cognitive control, executive function, motivation, and reward. Moreover, there are structural changes, mainly reduction in gray-matter volume and white-matter density. Comorbidity studies indicate that executive control networks in attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may increase the susceptibility to develop IGD. Most importantly, this review also outlines findings that show the effects of excessive use of screens, here referring to the playing of computer games, which activate many brain regions associated with cognitive, motor, and sensory function and not directly involved in other forms of addiction. This review describes and summarizes comprehensively the neurobiological correlates of addictive internet use in adolescents and young adults.

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Cascade process mediated by left hippocampus and left superior frontal gyrus affects relationship between aging and cognitive dysfunction

10.21203/rs.3.rs-844058/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yumika Kokudai ◽

Motoyasu Honma ◽

Yuri Masaoka ◽

Masaki Yoshida ◽

Haruko Sugiyama ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Function ◽

Cognitive Dysfunction ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽

Cascade Process ◽

Superior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Wide Range ◽

Left Hippocampus ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Background: Cognitive function declines with age and has been shown to be associated with atrophy in some brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex. However, the details of the relationship between aging and cognitive dysfunction are not well understood.Methods: Across a wide range of ages (24- to 85-years-old), this research measured the gray matter volume of structural magnetic resonance imaging data in 39 participants, while some brain regions were set as mediator variables to assess the cascade process between aging and cognitive dysfunction in a path analysis.Results: Path analysis showed that age affected the left hippocampus, thereby directly affecting the left superior frontal gyrus. Furthermore, the gyrus directly affected higher order flexibility and maintenance abilities calculated as assessed in the Wisconsin card sorting test, and the two abilities affected an assessment of general cognitive function. Conclusion: Our finding suggests that a cascade process mediated by the left hippocampus and left superior frontal gyrus is involved in the relationship between aging and cognitive dysfunction.

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Functional Activation-Informed Structural Changes during Stroke Recovery: A Longitudinal MRI Study

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2017/4345205 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Zhiyuan Wu ◽

Lin Cheng ◽

Guo-Yuan Yang ◽

Shanbao Tong ◽

Junfeng Sun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gray Matter ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Structural Information ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Stroke Recovery ◽

Functional Reorganization ◽

Matter Volume ◽

Initial Stage ◽

Mri Study

Objective. Neuroimaging studies revealed the functional reorganization or the structural changes during stroke recovery. However, previous studies did not combine the functional and structural information and the results might be affected by heterogeneous lesion. This study aimed to investigate functional activation-informed structural changes during stroke recovery. Methods. MRI data of twelve stroke patients were collected at four consecutive time points during the first 3 months after stroke onset. Functional activation during finger-tapping task was used to inform the analysis of structural changes of activated brain regions. Correlation between structural changes in motor-related activated brain regions and motor function recovery was estimated. Results. The averaged gray matter volume (aGMV) of contralesional activated brain regions and laterality index of gray matter volume (LIGMV) increased during stroke recovery, and LIGMV was positively correlated with Fugl-Meyer Index (FMI) at initial stage after stroke. The aGMV of bilateral activated brain regions was negatively correlated with FMI during the stroke recovery. Conclusion. This study demonstrated that combining the stroke-induced functional reorganization and structural change provided new insights into the underlying innate plasticity process during stroke recovery. Significance. This study proposed a new approach to integrate functional and structural information for investigating the innate plasticity after stroke.

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Lower Working Memory Performance in Overweight and Obese Adolescents Is Mediated by White Matter Microstructure

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617715001265 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 281-292 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Gabriela Alarcón ◽

Siddharth Ray ◽

Bonnie J. Nagel

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

White Matter ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Gray Matter Volume ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Bold Signal ◽

The Relationship

AbstractObjectives: Elevated body mass index (BMI) is associated with deficits in working memory, reduced gray matter volume in frontal and parietal lobes, as well as changes in white matter (WM) microstructure. The current study examined whether BMI was related to working memory performance and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activity, as well as WM microstructure during adolescence. Methods: Linear regressions with BMI and (1) verbal working memory BOLD signal, (2) spatial working memory BOLD signal, and (3) fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of WM microstructure, were conducted in a sample of 152 healthy adolescents ranging in BMI. Results: BMI was inversely related to IQ and verbal and spatial working memory accuracy; however, there was no significant relationship between BMI and BOLD response for either verbal or spatial working memory. Furthermore, BMI was negatively correlated with FA in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and left inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF). ILF FA and IQ significantly mediated the relationship between BMI and verbal working memory performance, whereas SLF FA, but not IQ, significantly mediated the relationship between BMI and accuracy of both verbal and spatial working memory. Conclusions: These findings indicate that higher BMI is associated with decreased FA in WM fibers connecting brain regions that support working memory, and that WM microstructural deficits may underlie inferior working memory performance in youth with higher BMI. Of interest, BMI did not show the same relationship with working memory BOLD activity, which may indicate that changes in brain structure precede changes in function. (JINS, 2015, 21, 281–292)

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Behaviour and neuropathology in mice injected with human contactin-associated protein 2 antibodies

Brain ◽

10.1093/brain/awz119 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 142 (7) ◽

pp. 2000-2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Maria Pia Giannoccaro ◽

David A Menassa ◽

Leslie Jacobson ◽

Ester Coutinho ◽

Gennaro Prota ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Hippocampal Neurons ◽

Morphological Changes ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Complement C3 ◽

Short Term ◽

Wide Range ◽

Fos Expression

Abstract Serum antibodies that bind to the surface of neurons or glia are associated with a wide range of rare but treatable CNS diseases. In many, if not most instances, the serum levels are higher than CSF levels yet most of the reported attempts to reproduce the human disease in mice have used infusion of antibodies into the mouse cerebral ventricle(s) or intrathecal space. We used the intraperitoneal route and injected purified plasma IgG from either a CASPR2-antibody-positive patient (n = 10 mice) or healthy individual (n = 9 mice) daily for 8 days. Lipopolysaccharide was injected intraperitoneally on Day 3 to cause a temporary breach in the blood brain barrier. A wide range of baseline behaviours, including tests of locomotion, coordination, memory, anxiety and social interactions, were established before the injections and tested from Day 5 until Day 11. At termination, brain tissue was analysed for human IgG, CASPR2 and c-fos expression, lymphocyte infiltration, and neuronal, astrocytic and microglial markers. Mice exposed to CASPR2-IgG, compared with control-IgG injected mice, displayed reduced working memory during the continuous spontaneous alternation test with trends towards reduced short-term and long-term memories. In the open field tests, activities were not different from controls, but in the reciprocal social interaction test, CASPR2-IgG injected mice showed longer latency to start interacting, associated with more freezing behaviour and reduced non-social activities of rearing and grooming. At termination, neuropathology showed more IgG deposited in the brains of CASPR2-IgG injected mice, but a trend towards increased CASPR2 expression; these results were mirrored in short-term in vitro experiments where CASPR2-IgG binding to hippocampal neurons and to CASPR2-transfected HEK cells led to some internalization of the IgG, but with a trend towards higher surface CASPR2 expression. Despite these limited results, in the CASPR2-IgG injected mouse brains there was increased c-fos expression in the piriform-entorhinal cortex and hypothalamus, and a modest loss of Purkinje cells. There was also increased microglia density, morphological changes in both microglia and astrocytes and raised complement C3 expression on astrocytes, all consistent with glial activation. Patients with CASPR2 antibodies can present with a range of clinical features reflecting central, autonomic and peripheral dysfunction. Although the behavioural changes in mice were limited to social interactions and mild working-memory defects, the neuropathological features indicate potentially widespread effects of the antibodies on different brain regions.

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Neural Integration in Body Perception

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01299 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (10) ◽

pp. 1442-1451 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Richard Ramsey

Keyword(s):

Functional Integration ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Neural Systems ◽

Action Perception ◽

Body Perception ◽

Visual Stream ◽

Related Information ◽

Neuroscience Research ◽

Wide Range ◽

Ventral Visual Stream

The perception of other people is instrumental in guiding social interactions. For example, the appearance of the human body cues a wide range of inferences regarding sex, age, health, and personality, as well as emotional state and intentions, which influence social behavior. To date, most neuroscience research on body perception has aimed to characterize the functional contribution of segregated patches of cortex in the ventral visual stream. In light of the growing prominence of network architectures in neuroscience, the current article reviews neuroimaging studies that measure functional integration between different brain regions during body perception. The review demonstrates that body perception is not restricted to processing in the ventral visual stream but instead reflects a functional alliance between the ventral visual stream and extended neural systems associated with action perception, executive functions, and theory of mind. Overall, these findings demonstrate how body percepts are constructed through interactions in distributed brain networks and underscore that functional segregation and integration should be considered together when formulating neurocognitive theories of body perception. Insight from such an updated model of body perception generalizes to inform the organizational structure of social perception and cognition more generally and also informs disorders of body image, such as anorexia nervosa, which may rely on atypical integration of body-related information.

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Neural integration in body perception

10.31234/osf.io/x2rms ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Richard Ramsey

Keyword(s):

Functional Integration ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Neural Systems ◽

Action Perception ◽

Body Perception ◽

Visual Stream ◽

Related Information ◽

Neuroscience Research ◽

Wide Range ◽

Ventral Visual Stream

The perception of other people is instrumental in guiding social interactions. For example, the appearance of the human body cues a wide range of inferences regarding sex, age, health and personality, as well as emotional state and intentions, which influence social behaviour. To date, most neuroscience research on body perception has aimed to characterise the functional contribution of segregated patches of cortex in the ventral visual stream. In light of the growing prominence of network architectures in neuroscience, the current paper reviews neuroimaging studies that measure functional integration between different brain regions during body perception. The review demonstrates that body perception is not restricted to processing in the ventral visual stream, but instead reflects a functional alliance between the ventral visual stream and extended neural systems associated with action perception, executive functions and theory-of-mind. Overall, these findings demonstrate how body percepts are constructed through interactions in distributed brain networks and underscores that functional segregation and integration should be considered together when formulating neurocognitive theories of body perception. Insight from such an updated model of body perception generalises to inform the organisational structure of social perception and cognition more generally, and also informs disorders of body image, such as anorexia nervosa, which may rely on atypical integration of body-related information.

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Bilingual experiences induce dynamic structural changes to basal ganglia and the thalamus

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1017465/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michal Korenar ◽

Jeanine Treffers-Daller ◽

Christos Pliatsikas

Keyword(s):

Basal Ganglia ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Caudate Nuclei ◽

Linear Pattern ◽

Wide Range ◽

Non Linear ◽

Additive Mixed Models ◽

Linear Effects ◽

Structural Adaptations

Abstract Bilingualism has been linked to structural adaptations of subcortical brain regions that are important nodes in controlling of multiple languages. However, research on the location and extent of these adaptations has yielded variable patterns. Existing literature on bilingualism-induced brain adaptations has so far largely overseen evidence from other domains that experience-based structural neuroplasticity often triggers non-linear adaptations which follow expansion-renormalisation trajectories. Here we use generalised additive mixed models (GAMMs) to investigate the non-linear effects of quantified bilingual experiences on the basal ganglia and thalamus in a sample of bilinguals with wide range of bilingual experiences. Our results revealed that volumes of bilateral caudate nuclei and accumbens were positively related to bilingual experiences in a non-linear pattern, with increases followed by decreases, in the most experienced bilinguals, suggesting a return to baseline volume at higher levels of bilingual experience. Moreover, volumes of putamen and thalamus were positively linearly predicted by bilingual experiences. The results offer the first direct evidence that bilingualism, similarly to other cognitively demanding skills, leads to dynamic subcortical structural adaptations which can be nonlinear, in line with expansion-renormalisation models of experience-dependent neuroplasticity.

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