Differences in Chemo-signaling Compound-Evoked Brain Activity in Male and Female Young Adults: A Pilot Study in the Role of Sexual Dimorphism in Olfactory Chemo-Signaling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor D. Ottesen ◽  
Kevin C. Davis ◽  
Landon K. Hobbs ◽  
Nathan M. Muncy ◽  
Nicholas M. Stevens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Neural Development ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Multivariate Model ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Activation Patterns

AbstractIntroductionPrevious studies have shown that putative pheromones 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND) and estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST) cause activation in the preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus in men and women. Sex differences in neural activation patterns have been demonstrated when participants are subject to pheromone stimulation; however, whether other compounds give rise to similar neural activity has not been completely investigated.MethodsTwenty-nine young adults [16 female (21.3+/−0.54; mean yrs+/−SE), 13 male (22.85+/−0.42)] participated in a 3-block design, where participants were exposed to a scent (lavender), a synthetic male pheromone (4,16-androstadien-3b-ol; ALD), and a synthetic female pheromone (1,3,5(10),16-Estratetraen-3-ol; EST) via an automated olfactometer. Whole-brain, high-resolution (1.8mm3) functional MRI data from a Siemens Trio 3T MRI scanner were collected during all blocks. Five adults were excluded due to excessive movement. MANOVA analysis, a 2 × 3 multivariate model and analysis of 2×2 effects between sex and subsets of stimuli was done for activation over the whole brain and small volumes involved in olfaction.ResultsExploratory analysis of 2×2 effects between sex and subsets of stimuli exhibited significant interactions when assessing activations over the whole brain, and small volumes involved in olfaction. The left and right frontal poles (LFP, RFP) shows significant interaction when assessing sex with lavender and EST for whole brain analysis. For small volume analysis, the right orbitofrontal cortex (ROFC) exhibited a sex with lavender and ALD interaction, and a sex with lavender and EST interaction was observed in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). Main effects of sex, stimulus, or interaction show no differences analyzed using a 2 × 3 multivariate model.ConclusionThe study shows there is a sexually dimorphic response in the olfactory system to pheromones not previously studied. Scents like lavender do not have this same response. These distinct functional differences in activation patterns may be a result of neural development and maturation differences between sexes. Future studies should expand this pilot study and involve a younger demographic to accurately determine the age at which the olfactory response differentiates between males and females.

scholarly journals Distributed affective space represents multiple emotion categories across the brain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heini Saarimäki ◽  
Lara Farzaneh Ejtehadian ◽  
Enrico Glerean ◽  
liro P. Jääskeläinen ◽  
Patrik Vuilleumier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Organization ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Subjective Feeling ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Discrete Emotion ◽  
Subcortical Regions ◽  
The Brain

The functional organization of human emotion systems as well as their neuroanatomical basis and segregation in the brain remains unresolved. Here we used pattern classification and hierarchical clustering to reveal and characterize the organization of discrete emotion categories in the human brain. We induced 14 emotions (6 “basic”, such as fear and anger; and 8 “non-basic”, such as shame and gratitude) and a neutral state in participants using guided mental imagery while their brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twelve out of 14 emotions could be reliably classified from the fMRI signals. All emotions engaged a multitude of brain areas, primarily in midline cortices including anterior and posterior cingulate and precuneus, in subcortical regions, and in motor regions including cerebellum and premotor cortex. Similarity of subjective emotional experiences was associated with similarity of the corresponding neural activation patterns. We conclude that the emotions included in the study have discrete neural bases characterized by specific, distributed activation patterns in widespread cortical and subcortical circuits, and highlight both overlaps and differences in the locations of these for each emotion. Locally differentiated engagement of these globally shared circuits defines the unique neural fingerprint activity pattern and the corresponding subjective feeling associated with each emotion.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of conscious tactile perception: An analysis of BOLD activation patterns and graph metrics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Grund ◽  
Norman Forschack ◽  
Till Nierhaus ◽  
Arno Villringer
Keyword(s):  
Bayes Factor ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Tactile Perception ◽  
Functional Network ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Brain Functional Network ◽  
Graph Metrics

AbstractTheories of human consciousness substantially vary in the proposed spatial extent of brain activity associated with conscious perception as well as in the assumed functional alterations within the involved brain regions. Here, we investigate which local and global changes in brain activity accompany conscious somatosensory perception following electrical finger nerve stimulation, and whether there are whole-brain functional network alterations by means of graph metrics. Thirty-eight healthy participants performed a somatosensory detection task and reported their decision confidence during fMRI. For conscious tactile perception in contrast to undetected near-threshold trials (misses), we observed increased BOLD activity in the precuneus, the intraparietal sulcus, the insula, the nucleus accumbens, the inferior frontal gyrus and the contralateral secondary somatosensory cortex. For misses compared to correct rejections, bilateral secondary somatosensory cortices, supplementary motor cortex and insula showed greater activations. The analysis of whole-brain functional network topology for hits, misses and correct rejections, did not result in any significant differences in modularity, participation, clustering or path length, which was supported by Bayes factor statistics. In conclusion, for conscious somatosensory perception, our results are consistent with an involvement of (probably) domain-general brain areas (precuneus, insula, inferior frontal gyrus) in addition to somatosensory regions; our data do not support the notion of specific changes in graph metrics associated with conscious experience. For the employed somatosensory submodality of fine electrical current stimulation, this speaks for a global broadcasting of sensory content across the brain without substantial reconfiguration of the whole-brain functional network resulting in an integrative conscious experience.

scholarly journals The neural bases of program comprehension: a coordinate-based fMRI meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiharu Ikutani ◽  
Takeshi D. Itoh ◽  
Takatomi Kubo
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
Program Comprehension ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Neural Bases ◽  
Kernel Density Analysis

AbstractThe understanding of brain activity during program comprehension have advanced thanks to noninvasive neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, individual neuroimaging studies of program comprehension often provided inconsistent results and made it difficult to identify the neural bases. To identify the essential brain regions, this study performed a small meta-analysis on recent fMRI studies of program comprehension using multilevel kernel density analysis (MKDA). Our analysis identified a set of brain regions consistently activated in various program comprehension tasks. These regions consisted of three clusters, each of which centered at the left inferior frontal gyrus pars triangularis (IFG Tri), posterior part of middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), and right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Additionally, subsequent analyses revealed relationships among the activation patterns in the previous studies and multiple cognitive functions. These findings suggest that program comprehension mainly recycles the language-related networks and partially employs other domain-general resources in the human brain.

A Whole Brain EEG Analysis of Musicianship

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-56
Author(s):  
Estela Ribeiro ◽  
Carlos Eduardo Thomaz
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Classification Problem ◽  
Time Instant ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Features Selection ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Acoustic Feature ◽  
Whole Brain

The neural activation patterns provoked in response to music listening can reveal whether a subject did or did not receive music training. In the current exploratory study, we have approached this two-group (musicians and nonmusicians) classification problem through a computational framework composed of the following steps: Acoustic features extraction; Acoustic features selection; Trigger selection; EEG signal processing; and Multivariate statistical analysis. We are particularly interested in analyzing the brain data on a global level, considering its activity registered in electroencephalogram (EEG) signals on a given time instant. Our experiment's results—with 26 volunteers (13 musicians and 13 nonmusicians) who listened the classical music Hungarian Dance No. 5 from Johannes Brahms—have shown that is possible to linearly differentiate musicians and nonmusicians with classification accuracies that range from 69.2% (test set) to 93.8% (training set), despite the limited sample sizes available. Additionally, given the whole brain vector navigation method described and implemented here, our results suggest that it is possible to highlight the most expressive and discriminant changes in the participants brain activity patterns depending on the acoustic feature extracted from the audio.

scholarly journals Bilateral versus ipsilesional cortico-subcortical activity patterns in stroke show hemispheric dependence

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Cristina Vidal ◽  
Paula Banca ◽  
Augusto G Pascoal ◽  
Gustavo C Santo ◽  
João Sargento-Freitas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Prognostic Indicator ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Hemispheric Stroke ◽  
Constraint Induced Movement Therapy ◽  
Motor Outcomes

Background Understanding of interhemispheric interactions in stroke patients during motor control is an important clinical neuroscience quest that may provide important clues for neurorehabilitation. In stroke patients, bilateral overactivation in both hemispheres has been interpreted as a poor prognostic indicator of functional recovery. In contrast, ipsilesional patterns have been linked with better motor outcomes. Aim We investigated the pathophysiology of hemispheric interactions during limb movement without and with contralateral restraint, to mimic the effects of constraint-induced movement therapy. We used neuroimaging to probe brain activity with such a movement-dependent interhemispheric modulation paradigm. Methods We used an fMRI block design during which the plegic/paretic upper limb was recruited/mobilized to perform unilateral arm elevation, as a function of presence versus absence of contralateral limb restriction ( n = 20, with balanced left/right lesion sites). Results Analysis of 10 right-hemispheric stroke participants yielded bilateral sensorimotor cortex activation in all movement phases in contrast with the unilateral dominance seen in the 10 left-hemispheric stroke participants. Superimposition of contralateral restriction led to a prominent shift from activation to deactivation response patterns, in particular in cortical and basal ganglia motor areas in right-hemispheric stroke. Left-hemispheric stroke was in general characterized by reduced activation patterns, even in the absence of restriction, which induced additional cortical silencing. Conclusion The observed hemispheric-dependent activation/deactivation shifts are novel and these pathophysiological observations suggest short-term neuroplasticity that may be useful for hemisphere-tailored neurorehabilitation.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of Dual-Task Walking: Effects of Cognitive versus Motor Interference in Young Adults

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Beurskens ◽  
Fabian Steinberg ◽  
Franziska Antoniewicz ◽  
Wanja Wolff ◽  
Urs Granacher
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Human Locomotion ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Gait Velocity ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Behavioral Studies

Walking while concurrently performing cognitive and/or motor interference tasks is the norm rather than the exception during everyday life and there is evidence from behavioral studies that it negatively affects human locomotion. However, there is hardly any information available regarding the underlying neural correlates of single- and dual-task walking. We had 12 young adults (23.8 ± 2.8 years) walk while concurrently performing a cognitive interference (CI) or a motor interference (MI) task. Simultaneously, neural activation in frontal, central, and parietal brain areas was registered using a mobile EEG system. Results showed that the MI task but not the CI task affected walking performance in terms of significantly decreased gait velocity and stride length and significantly increased stride time and tempo-spatial variability. Average activity in alpha and beta frequencies was significantly modulated during both CI and MI walking conditions in frontal and central brain regions, indicating an increased cognitive load during dual-task walking. Our results suggest that impaired motor performance during dual-task walking is mirrored in neural activation patterns of the brain. This finding is in line with established cognitive theories arguing that dual-task situations overstrain cognitive capabilities resulting in motor performance decrements.

scholarly journals Neural Pattern Similarity Unveils the Integration of Social Information and Aversive Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 5410-5419
Author(s):  
Irem Undeger ◽  
Renée M Visser ◽  
Andreas Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Multivariate Pattern Analysis ◽  
Aversive Learning ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Pattern Similarity ◽  
Making Choices ◽  
Multivariate Pattern

Abstract Attributing intentions to others’ actions is important for learning to avoid their potentially harmful consequences. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging multivariate pattern analysis to investigate how the brain integrates information about others’ intentions with the aversive outcome of their actions. In an interactive aversive learning task, participants (n = 33) were scanned while watching two alleged coparticipants (confederates)—one making choices intentionally and the other unintentionally—leading to aversive (a mild shock) or safe (no shock) outcomes to the participant. We assessed the trial-by-trial changes in participants’ neural activation patterns related to observing the coparticipants and experiencing the outcome of their choices. Participants reported a higher number of shocks, more discomfort, and more anger to shocks given by the intentional player. Intentionality enhanced responses to aversive actions in the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, and the anterior superior temporal sulcus. Our findings indicate that neural pattern similarities index the integration of social and threat information across the cortex.

Long-Known Music Exposure Effects on Brain Imaging and Cognition in Early-Stage Cognitive Decline: A Pilot Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Corinne E. Fischer ◽  
Nathan Churchill ◽  
Melissa Leggieri ◽  
Veronica Vuong ◽  
Michael Tau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Longitudinal Changes ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Clear Objective

Background: Repeated exposure to long-known music has been shown to have a beneficial effect on cognitive performance in patients with AD. However, the brain mechanisms underlying improvement in cognitive performance are not yet clear. Objective: In this pilot study we propose to examine the effect of repeated long-known music exposure on imaging indices and corresponding changes in cognitive function in patients with early-stage cognitive decline. Methods: Participants with early-stage cognitive decline were assigned to three weeks of daily long-known music listening, lasting one hour in duration. A cognitive battery was administered, and brain activity was measured before and after intervention. Paired-measures tests evaluated the longitudinal changes in brain structure, function, and cognition associated with the intervention. Results: Fourteen participants completed the music-based intervention, including 6 musicians and 8 non-musicians. Post-baseline there was a reduction in brain activity in key nodes of a music-related network, including the bilateral basal ganglia and right inferior frontal gyrus, and declines in fronto-temporal functional connectivity and radial diffusivity of dorsal white matter. Musician status also significantly modified longitudinal changes in functional and structural brain measures. There was also a significant improvement in the memory subdomain of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Conclusion: These preliminary results suggest that neuroplastic mechanisms may mediate improvements in cognitive functioning associated with exposure to long-known music listening and that these mechanisms may be different in musicians compared to non-musicians.

scholarly journals Reliability of single-subject neural activation patterns in speech production tasks

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul A. Frankford ◽  
Alfonso Nieto-Castañón ◽  
Jason A. Tourville ◽  
Frank H. Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Speech Disorders ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Activation Patterns

AbstractSpeech neuroimaging research targeting individual speakers could help elucidate differences that may be crucial to understanding speech disorders. However, this research necessitates reliable brain activation across multiple speech production sessions. In the present study, we evaluated the reliability of speech-related brain activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging data from twenty neuro-typical subjects who participated in two experiments involving reading aloud simple speech stimuli. Using traditional methods like the Dice and intraclass correlation coefficients, we found that most individuals displayed moderate to high reliability. We also found that a novel machine-learning subject classifier could identify these individuals by their speech activation patterns with 97% accuracy from among a dataset of seventy-five subjects. These results suggest that single-subject speech research would yield valid results and that investigations into the reliability of speech activation in people with speech disorders are warranted.

scholarly journals A synergy-based hand control is encoded in human motor cortical areas

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Leo ◽  
Giacomo Handjaras ◽  
Matteo Bianchi ◽  
Hamal Marino ◽  
Marco Gabiccini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Cortical Level ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Kinematic Synergies

How the human brain controls hand movements to carry out different tasks is still debated. The concept of synergy has been proposed to indicate functional modules that may simplify the control of hand postures by simultaneously recruiting sets of muscles and joints. However, whether and to what extent synergic hand postures are encoded as such at a cortical level remains unknown. Here, we combined kinematic, electromyography, and brain activity measures obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging while subjects performed a variety of movements towards virtual objects. Hand postural information, encoded through kinematic synergies, were represented in cortical areas devoted to hand motor control and successfully discriminated individual grasping movements, significantly outperforming alternative somatotopic or muscle-based models. Importantly, hand postural synergies were predicted by neural activation patterns within primary motor cortex. These findings support a novel cortical organization for hand movement control and open potential applications for brain-computer interfaces and neuroprostheses.

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