From ATOM to GradiATOM: Cortical gradients support time and space processing as revealed by a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

AbstractAccording to the ATOM (A Theory Of Magnitude), formulated by Walsh more than fifteen years ago, there is a general system of magnitude in the brain that comprises regions, such as the parietal cortex, shared by space, time and other magnitudes (Walsh, 2003).The present meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies used the Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) method in order to determine the set of regions commonly activated in space and time processing and to establish the neural activations specific to each magnitude domain. Following PRISMA guidelines, we included in the analysis a total of 112 and 114 experiments, exploring space and time processing, respectively.We clearly identified the presence of a system of brain regions commonly recruited in both space and time and that includes: bilateral insula, the pre-supplementary motor area (SMA), the right frontal operculum and the intraparietal sulci. These regions might be the best candidates to form the core magnitude neural system. Surprisingly, along each of these regions but the insula, ALE values progressed in a cortical gradient from time to space. The SMA exhibited an anterior-posterior gradient, with space activating more-anterior regions (i.e., pre-SMA) and time activating more-posterior regions (i.e., SMA-proper). Frontal and parietal regions showed a dorsal-ventral gradient: space is mediated by dorsal frontal and parietal regions, and time recruits ventral frontal and parietal regions.Our study supports but also expands the ATOM theory. Therefore, we here re-named it the ‘GradiATOM’ theory (Gradient Theory of Magnitude), proposing that gradient organization can facilitate the transformations and integrations of magnitude representations by allowing space- and time-related neural populations to interact with each other over minimal distances.

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Neural Underpinnings of Numerical and Spatial Cognition: An fMRI Meta-Analysis of Brain Regions Associated with Symbolic Number, Arithmetic, and Mental Rotation

10.31234/osf.io/dyqrx ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Zachary Hawes ◽

H Moriah Sokolowski ◽

Chuka Bosah Ononye ◽

Daniel Ansari

Keyword(s):

Mental Rotation ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Angular Gyrus ◽

Number Representation ◽

Neural Underpinnings ◽

The Right ◽

Symbolic Number

Where and under what conditions do spatial and numerical skills converge and diverge in the brain? To address this question, we conducted a meta-analysis of brain regions associated with basic symbolic number processing, arithmetic, and mental rotation. We used Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) to construct quantitative meta-analytic maps synthesizing results from 86 neuroimaging papers (~ 30 studies/cognitive process). All three cognitive processes were found to activate bilateral parietal regions in and around the intraparietal sulcus (IPS); a finding consistent with shared processing accounts. Numerical and arithmetic processing were associated with overlap in the left angular gyrus, whereas mental rotation and arithmetic both showed activity in the middle frontal gyri. These patterns suggest regions of cortex potentially more specialized for symbolic number representation and domain-general mental manipulation, respectively. Additionally, arithmetic was associated with unique activity throughout the fronto-parietal network and mental rotation was associated with unique activity in the right superior parietal lobe. Overall, these results provide new insights into the intersection of numerical and spatial thought in the human brain.

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Neural effects of social environmental stress – an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291716000477 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 46 (10) ◽

pp. 2015-2023 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

O. Mothersill ◽

G. Donohoe

Keyword(s):

Environmental Stress ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Environmental Stressors ◽

Bold Response ◽

Activation Likelihood Estimation ◽

Mri Studies ◽

Social Environmental ◽

The Right

BackgroundSocial environmental stress, including childhood abuse and deprivation, is associated with increased rates of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. However, the neural mechanisms mediating risk are not completely understood. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have reported effects of social environmental stress on a variety of brain regions, but interpretation of results is complicated by the variety of environmental risk factors examined and different methods employed.MethodWe examined brain regions consistently showing differences in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response in individuals exposed to higher levels of environmental stress by performing a coordinate-based meta-analysis on 54 functional MRI studies using activation likelihood estimation (ALE), including an overall sample of 3044 participants. We performed separate ALE analyses on studies examining adults (mean age ⩾18 years) and children/adolescents (mean age <18 years) and a contrast analysis comparing the two types of study.ResultsAcross both adult and children/adolescent studies, ALE meta-analysis revealed several clusters in which differences in BOLD response were associated with social environmental stress across multiple studies. These clusters incorporated several brain regions, among which the right amygdala was most frequently implicated.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that a variety of social environmental stressors is associated with differences in the BOLD response of specific brain regions such as the right amygdala in both children/adolescents and adults. What remains unknown is whether these environmental stressors have differential effects on treatment response in these brain regions.

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Neural Correlates of Anti-appetite Medications: an fMRI Meta-analysis

Current Neuropharmacology ◽

10.2174/1570159x19666210914142227 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

Author(s):

Andy Wai Kan Yeung

Keyword(s):

Meta Analysis ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Physiological Effect ◽

Activity Level ◽

Considerable Proportion ◽

Food Cues ◽

The Right ◽

Cerebral Processing

: Food craving is a health issue for a considerable proportion of the general population. Medications have been introduced to alleviate the craving or reduce the appetite via a neuropharmacological approach. However, the underlying cerebral processing of the medications was largely unknown. This study aimed to meta-analyze existing neuroimaging findings. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus to identify relevant publications. Original studies that reported brain imaging findings using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were initially included. The reported coordinates of brain activation available from the studies were extracted and meta-analyzed with the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach via the software GingerALE. The overall analysis pooling data from 24 studies showed that the right claustrum and insula were the targeted sites of altered cerebral processing of food cues by the medications. Subgroup analysis pooling data from 11 studies showed that these sites had reduced activity level under medications compared to placebo. The location of this significant cluster partially overlapped with that attributable to affective value processing of food cue in a prior meta-analysis. No brain regions were found to have increased activity level by medications. These neural correlates may help explain the physiological effect of food consumption by anti-appetite and anti-obesity medications.

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Seeking the “beauty center” in the brain: A meta-analysis of fMRI studies of beautiful human faces and visual art

10.1101/081539 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Chuan-Peng Hu ◽

Yi Huang ◽

Simon B. Eickhoff ◽

Kaiping Peng ◽

Jie Sui

Keyword(s):

Visual Art ◽

Ventral Striatum ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Neural Basis ◽

The Common ◽

Conjunction Analysis ◽

Human Faces ◽

The Brain

AbstractThe existence of a common beauty is a long-standing debate in philosophy and related disciplines. In the last two decades, cognitive neuroscientists have sought to elucidate this issue by exploring the common neural basis of the experience of beauty. Still, empirical evidence for such common neural basis of different forms of beauty is not conclusive. To address this question, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on the existing neuroimaging studies of beauty appreciation of faces and visual art by non-expert adults (49 studies, 982 participants, meta-data are available at https://osf.io/s9xds/). We observed that perceiving these two forms of beauty activated distinct brain regions: while the beauty of faces convergently activated the left ventral striatum, the beauty of visual art convergently activated the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC). However, a conjunction analysis failed to reveal any common brain regions for the beauty of visual art and faces. The implications of these results are discussed.

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The correlation between fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation-based resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and facial emotion recognition ability in patients with first-episode schizophrenia

10.21203/rs.3.rs-919680/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Qijie Kuang ◽

Yi Liu ◽

Sumiao Zhou ◽

Taiyong Bi ◽

Lin Mi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Recognition ◽

Resting State ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Facial Emotion ◽

First Episode ◽

The Right ◽

First Episode Schizophrenia

Abstract Our aim was to analyse the correlation between the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) and facial emotion recognition (FER) ability in patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FSZ). A total of 28 patients with FSZ and 33 healthy controls (HCs) completed visual search tasks for FER ability. Regions of interest (ROIs) related to facial emotion were obtained from a previous meta-analysis. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to understand the correlation between fALFF and FER ability. Our results indicated that the patients performed worse than the HCs in the accuracy performances of happy FER and fearful FER. The previous meta-analysis results showed that the brain regions related to FER included the bilateral amygdala (AMY)/hippocampus (HIP), right fusiform gyrus (FFG), and right supplementary motor area (SMA). Pearson correlation showed that the fALFF of the right FFG was associated with high-load fearful FER accuracy (r = -0.43, p = 0.022). Multiple regression analysis showed that the fALFF of the right FFG was an independent contributor to fearful FER accuracy. Our study indicates that FER ability is correlated with resting-state intrinsic activity in brain regions related to facial emotion, which may provide a reference for the study of FER in schizophrenia.

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Meta-analysis of resting-state fMRI in depression: generating spatial hypotheses for potential clinical applications

10.7287/peerj.preprints.412v1 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Benedikt Sundermann ◽

Mona Olde lütke Beverborg ◽

Bettina Pfleiderer

Keyword(s):

Resting State ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Diagnostic Classification Models ◽

Spontaneous Brain Activity

Information derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during wakeful rest has been introduced as a candidate diagnostic biomarker in unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD). Multiple reports of resting state fMRI in MDD describe group effects. Such prior knowledge can be adopted to pre-select potentially discriminating features, for example for diagnostic classification models with the aim to improve diagnostic accuracy. Purpose of this analysis was to consolidate spatial information about alterations of spontaneous brain activity in MDD to serve such feature selection and as a secondary aim to improve understanding of disease mechanisms. 32 studies were included in final analyses. Coordinates extracted from the original reports were assigned to two categories based on directionality of findings. Meta-analyses were calculated using the non-additive activation likelihood estimation approach with coordinates organized by subject group to account for non-independent samples. Results were compared with established resting state networks (RSNs) and spatial representations of recently introduced temporally independent functional modes (TFMs) of spontaneous brain activity. Converging evidence revealed a distributed pattern of brain regions with increased or decreased spontaneous activity in MDD. The most distinct finding was hyperactivity/ hyperconnectivity presumably reflecting the interaction of cortical midline structures (posterior default mode network components associated with self-referential processing and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex) with lateral frontal areas related to externally-directed cognition. One particular TFM seems to better comprehend the findings than classical RSNs. Alterations that can be captured by resting state fMRI show considerable overlap with those identifiable with other neuroimaging modalities though differing in some aspects.

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The Neural Basis of Motivational Influences on Cognitive Control

10.1101/113126 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Cameron Parro ◽

Matthew L Dixon ◽

Kalina Christoff

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Large Scale ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Premotor Cortex ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

Neural Basis ◽

The Brain

AbstractCognitive control mechanisms support the deliberate regulation of thought and behavior based on current goals. Recent work suggests that motivational incentives improve cognitive control, and has begun to elucidate the brain regions that may support this effect. Here, we conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of motivated cognitive control using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) and Neurosynth in order to delineate the brain regions that are consistently activated across studies. The analysis included functional neuroimaging studies that investigated changes in brain activation during cognitive control tasks when reward incentives were present versus absent. The ALE analysis revealed consistent recruitment in regions associated with the frontoparietal control network including the inferior frontal sulcus (IFS) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS), as well as consistent recruitment in regions associated with the salience network including the anterior insula and anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC). A large-scale exploratory meta-analysis using Neurosynth replicated the ALE results, and also identified the caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens, medial thalamus, inferior frontal junction/premotor cortex (IFJ/PMC), and hippocampus. Finally, we conducted separate ALE analyses to compare recruitment during cue and target periods, which tap into proactive engagement of rule-outcome associations, and the mobilization of appropriate viscero-motor states to execute a response, respectively. We found that largely distinct sets of brain regions are recruited during cue and target periods. Altogether, these findings suggest that flexible interactions between frontoparietal, salience, and dopaminergic midbrain-striatal networks may allow control demands to be precisely tailored based on expected value.

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Prismatic Adaptation Induces Plastic Changes onto Spatial and Temporal Domains in Near and Far Space

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2016/3495075 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ivan Patané ◽

Alessandro Farnè ◽

Francesca Frassinetti

Keyword(s):

Spatial Representations ◽

Time And Space ◽

Time Processing ◽

Space And Time ◽

Near Space ◽

Space Processing ◽

Plastic Changes ◽

Temporal And Spatial ◽

Sensorimotor Plasticity ◽

Prismatic Adaptation

A large literature has documented interactions between space and time suggesting that the two experiential domains may share a common format in a generalized magnitude system (ATOM theory). To further explore this hypothesis, here we measured the extent to which time and space are sensitive to the same sensorimotor plasticity processes, as induced by classical prismatic adaptation procedures (PA). We also exanimated whether spatial-attention shifts on time and space processing, produced through PA, extend to stimuli presented beyond the immediate near space. Results indicated that PA affected both temporal and spatial representations not only in the near space (i.e., the region within which the adaptation occurred), but also in the far space. In addition, both rightward and leftward PA directions caused opposite and symmetrical modulations on time processing, whereas only leftward PA biased space processing rightward. We discuss these findings within the ATOM framework and models that account for PA effects on space and time processing. We propose that the differential and asymmetrical effects following PA may suggest that temporal and spatial representations are not perfectly aligned.

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Brain Network Underlying Executive Functions in Gambling and Alcohol Use Disorders: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10060353 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 353 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alessandro Quaglieri ◽

Emanuela Mari ◽

Maddalena Boccia ◽

Laura Piccardi ◽

Cecilia Guariglia ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Use ◽

Executive Functions ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Brain Network ◽

Middle Frontal Gyrus ◽

Activation Likelihood Estimation ◽

Lentiform Nucleus ◽

Study Approach ◽

The Right

Background: Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have suggested that common features characterize both Gambling Disorder (GD) and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), but these conditions have rarely been compared. Methods: We provide evidence for the similarities and differences between GD and AUD in neural correlates of executive functions by performing an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of 34 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies involving executive function processes in individuals diagnosed with GD and AUD and healthy controls (HC). Results: GD showed greater bilateral clusters of activation compared with HC, mainly located in the head and body of the caudate, right middle frontal gyrus, right putamen, and hypothalamus. Differently, AUD showed enhanced activation compared with HC in the right lentiform nucleus, right middle frontal gyrus, and the precuneus; it also showed clusters of deactivation in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, left middle cingulate cortex, and inferior portion of the left putamen. Conclusions: Going beyond the limitations of a single study approach, these findings provide evidence, for the first time, that both disorders are associated with specific neural alterations in the neural network for executive functions.

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Hyperconnectivity Between The Posterior Cingulate and Middle Frontal and Temporal Gyrus in Depression: Based On Functional Connectivity Meta-Analyses.

10.21203/rs.3.rs-633328/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ziqing Zhu ◽

You Wang ◽

Way Lau ◽

Xinhua Wei ◽

Yingjun Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Emotional Regulation ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Structural Basis ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Posterior Cingulate ◽

The Right

Abstract BackgroundDisrupted whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the posterior cingulate (PCC) has been highlighted to associate with cognitive and affective dysfunction in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, prior findings showed certain inconsistency about the RSFC of the PCC in MDD. This study aims to investigate the aberrant RSFC of the PCC in MDD using anisotropic effect-size version of seed-based d mapping (AES-SDM). MethodsWeb of Science and PubMed were searched for studies investigating PCC-based RSFC in MDD. A total of 17 studies, involving 804 patients and 724 healthy controls (HCs), fit our selection criteria. Additionally, to seek for the link between functional and structural differences, we did a meta-analysis on the studies in conjunction with Voxel-based morphology (VBM) analysis. ResultsThe PCC showed higher RSFC with the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and lower RSFC with the left superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and the left precuneus in patients with MDD than HCs. Notably, the left MTG and the left MFG were the overlapped regions of aberrant VBM and RSFC results.ConclusionsOur results indicated that the aberrant RSFC between the PCC and brain regions sub-serving cognitive control and emotional regulation in patients with MDD. And such functional alterations may have structural basis. These findings may underlie the mechanisms of deficits in cognitive control and emotional regulation of MDD.

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