Dual color mesoscopic imaging reveals spatiotemporally heterogeneous coordination of cholinergic and neocortical activity

AbstractAcetylcholine (ACh) is associated with the modulation of brain activity linked to arousal, attention, and emotional valence. We performed dual-color mesoscopic imaging of ACh and calcium across the neocortex of awake mice to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of cholinergic signaling and their relationship to cortical output. We find distinct movement-defined behavioral states are represented in spatially heterogeneous cholinergic networks that are differentially coupled to fluctuations in local circuit activity.

Download Full-text

Correlation between fetal brain activity patterns and behavioral states: An exploratory fetal magnetoencephalography study

Experimental Neurology ◽

10.1016/j.expneurol.2011.01.003 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 228 (2) ◽

pp. 200-205 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Naim Haddad ◽

Rathinaswamy B. Govindan ◽

Srinivasan Vairavan ◽

Eric Siegel ◽

Jessica Temple ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Fetal Brain ◽

Behavioral States

Download Full-text

Optical-flow analysis toolbox for characterization of spatiotemporal dynamics in mesoscale optical imaging of brain activity

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.03.034 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 153 ◽

pp. 58-74 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Navvab Afrashteh ◽

Samsoon Inayat ◽

Mostafa Mohsenvand ◽

Majid H. Mohajerani

Keyword(s):

Optical Flow ◽

Optical Imaging ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Flow Analysis ◽

Spatiotemporal Dynamics

Download Full-text

Nonlinear relationship between emotional valence and brain activity: Evidence of separate negative and positive valence dimensions

Human Brain Mapping ◽

10.1002/hbm.20915 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 31 (7) ◽

pp. 1030-1040 ◽

Cited By ~ 59

Author(s):

Mikko Viinikainen ◽

Iiro P. Jääskeläinen ◽

Yuri Alexandrov ◽

Marja H. Balk ◽

Taina Autti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Nonlinear Relationship ◽

Positive Valence

Download Full-text

Interaction between catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met genotype and genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia during explicit processing of aversive facial stimuli

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291712001134 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 279-292 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

L. Lo Bianco ◽

G. Blasi ◽

P. Taurisano ◽

A. Di Giorgio ◽

F. Ferrante ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Genetic Risk ◽

Emotion Dysregulation ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Brain Disorder ◽

Brain Physiology ◽

Facial Stimuli ◽

Explicit Processing ◽

Implicit And Explicit

BackgroundEmotion dysregulation is a key feature of schizophrenia, a brain disorder strongly associated with genetic risk and aberrant dopamine signalling. Dopamine is inactivated by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), whose gene contains a functional polymorphism (COMT Val158Met) associated with differential activity of the enzyme and with brain physiology of emotion processing. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether genetic risk for schizophrenia and COMT Val158Met genotype interact on brain activity during implicit and explicit emotion processing.MethodA total of 25 patients with schizophrenia, 23 healthy siblings of patients and 24 comparison subjects genotyped for COMT Val158Met underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during implicit and explicit processing of facial stimuli with negative emotional valence.ResultsWe found a main effect of diagnosis in the right amygdala, with decreased activity in patients and siblings compared with control subjects. Furthermore, a genotype × diagnosis interaction was found in the left middle frontal gyrus, such that the effect of genetic risk for schizophrenia was evident in the context of the Val/Val genotype only, i.e. the phenotype of reduced activity was present especially in Val/Val patients and siblings. Finally, a complete inversion of the COMT effect between patients and healthy subjects was found in the left striatum during explicit processing.ConclusionsOverall, these results suggest complex interactions between genetically determined dopamine signalling and risk for schizophrenia on brain activity in the prefrontal cortex during emotion processing. On the other hand, the effects in the striatum may represent state-related epiphenomena of the disorder itself.

Download Full-text

Exploring the prediction of emotional valence and pharmacologic effect across fMRI studies of antidepressants

10.1101/382408 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Barron ◽

Mehraveh Salehi ◽

Michael Browning ◽

Catherine J Harmer ◽

R. Todd Constable ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Antidepressant Drugs ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Gradient Boosting ◽

Parameter Estimates ◽

Brain Response ◽

Consistent Manner ◽

Functional Patterns ◽

Pharmacologic Effect ◽

Emotional Face

ABSTRACTBackgroundClinically approved antidepressants modulate the brain’s emotional valence circuits, suggesting that the response of these circuits could serve as a biomarker for screening candidate antidepressant drugs. However, it is necessary that these modulations can be reliably detected. Here, we apply a cross-validated predictive model to classify emotional valence and pharmacologic effect across eleven task-based fMRI datasets (n=306) exploring the effect of antidepressant administration on emotional face processing.MethodsWe created subject-level contrast of parameter estimates of the emotional faces task and used the Shen whole-brain parcellation scheme to define 268 subject-level features that trained a cross-validated gradient-boosting machine protocol to classify emotional valence (fearful vs happy face visual conditions) and pharmacologic effect (drug vs placebo administration) within and across studies.ResultsWe found patterns of brain activity that classify emotional valence with a statistically significant level of accuracy (70% across-all-subjects; range from 50-87% across-study). Our classifier failed to consistently discriminate drug from placebo. Subject population (healthy or unhealthy), treatment group (drug or placebo), and drug administration protocol (dose and duration) affected this accuracy with similar populations better predicting one another.ConclusionsWe found limited evidence that antidepressants modulated brain response in a consistent manner, however found a consistent signature for emotional valence. Variable functional patterns across studies suggest that predictive modeling can inform biomarker development in mental health and in pharmacotherapy development. Our results suggest that case-controlled designs and more standardized protocols are required for functional imaging to provide robust biomarkers for drug development.

Download Full-text

Animal-oriented virtual environments: illusion, dilation, and discovery

F1000Research ◽

10.12688/f1000research.3557.1 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 202

Author(s):

Bradly Alicea

Keyword(s):

Virtual Environments ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Space Time ◽

Time Dilation ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Future Directions ◽

And Behavior ◽

And Training ◽

Dilate Space

As a research tool, virtual environments (VEs) hold immense promise for brain scientists. Yet to fully realize this potential in non-human systems, theoretical and conceptual perspectives must be developed. When selectively coupled to nervous systems, virtual environments can help us better understand the functional architecture of animals’ brains during naturalistic behaviors. While this will no doubt allow us to further our understanding of the neural basis of behavior, there is also an opportunity to uncover the diversity inherent in brain activity and behavior. This is due to two properties of virtual environments: the ability to create sensory illusions, and the ability to dilate space and/or time. These and other potential manipulations will be characterized as the effects of virtuality. In addition, the systems-level outcomes of virtual environment enhanced perception will be discussed in the context of the uncanny valley and other expected relationships between emotional valence, cognition, and training. These effects and their usefulness for brain science will be understood in the context of three types of neurobehavioral phenomena: sensorimotor integration, spatial navigation, and interactivity. For each of these behaviors, a combination of illusory and space/time dilation examples will be reviewed. Once these examples are presented, the implications for improving upon virtual models for more directly inducing the mental phenomena of illusion and space/time dilation will be considered. To conclude, future directions for integrating the use of VEs into a strategy of broader biological inquiry will be presented.

Download Full-text

Dynamic representation of time in brain states

10.1101/069278 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Fernanda Dantas Bueno ◽

Vanessa C. Morita ◽

Raphael Y. de Camargo ◽

Marcelo B. Reyes ◽

Marcelo S. Caetano ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Spatiotemporal Dynamics ◽

Process Time ◽

Scalar Property ◽

Dynamic Representation ◽

Temporal Intervals ◽

Temporal Encoding ◽

Brain States ◽

Multivariate Pattern

ABSTRACTThe ability to process time on the scale of milliseconds and seconds is essential for behaviour. A growing number of studies have started to focus on brain dynamics as a mechanism for temporal encoding. Although there is growing evidence in favour of this view from computational and in vitro studies, there is still a lack of results from experiments in humans. We show that high-dimensional brain states revealed by multivariate pattern analysis of human EEG are correlated to temporal judgements. First, we show that, as participants estimate temporal intervals, the spatiotemporal dynamics of their brain activity are consistent across trials. Second, we present evidence that these dynamics exhibit properties of temporal perception, such as the scalar property. Lastly, we show that it is possible to predict temporal judgements based on brain states. These results show how scalp recordings can reveal the spatiotemporal dynamics of human brain activity related to temporal processing.

Download Full-text

Spontaneous Infra-slow Brain Activity Has Unique Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Laminar Structure

Neuron ◽

10.1016/j.neuron.2018.03.015 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 98 (2) ◽

pp. 297-305.e6 ◽

Cited By ~ 77

Author(s):

Anish Mitra ◽

Andrew Kraft ◽

Patrick Wright ◽

Benjamin Acland ◽

Abraham Z. Snyder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activity ◽

Spatiotemporal Dynamics ◽

Laminar Structure

Download Full-text

Optical-flow analysis toolbox for characterization of spatiotemporal dynamics in mesoscale optical imaging of brain activity

10.1101/087676 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Navvab Afrashteh ◽

Samsoon Inayat ◽

Mostafa Mohsenvand ◽

Majid H. Mohajerani

Keyword(s):

Optical Flow ◽

Optical Imaging ◽

Velocity Vector ◽

Vector Fields ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Spatiotemporal Dynamics ◽

Sources And Sinks ◽

Quantitative Analyses ◽

Sensory Evoked

AbstractWide-field optical imaging techniques constitute powerful tools to sample and study mesoscale neuronal activity. The sampled data constitutes a sequence of image frames in which one can perceive the flow of brain activity starting and terminating at source and sink locations respectively. The most common data analyses include qualitative assessment to identify sources and sinks of activity as well as their trajectories. The quantitative analyses is mostly based on computing the temporal variation of the intensity of pixels while a few studies have also reported estimates of wave motion using optical-flow techniques from computer vision. A comprehensive toolbox for the quantitative analyses of mesoscale brain activity data however is still missing. We present a graphical-user-interface based Matlab® toolbox for investigating the spatiotemporal dynamics of mesoscale brain activity using optical-flow analyses. The toolbox includes the implementation of three optical-flow methods namely Horn-Schunck, Combined Local-Global, and Temporospatial algorithms for estimating velocity vector fields of perceived flow in mesoscale brain activity. From the velocity vector fields we determine the locations of sources and sinks as well as the trajectories and temporal velocities of activity flow. Using our toolbox, we compare the efficacy of the three optical-flow methods for determining spatiotemporal dynamics by using simulated data. We also demonstrate the application of optical-flow methods onto sensory-evoked calcium and voltage imaging data. Our results indicate that the combined local-global method we employ, yields results that correlate with the manual assessment. The automated approach permits rapid and effective quantification of mesoscale brain dynamics and may facilitate the study of brain function in response to new experiences or pathology.Conflicts of InterestnoneAuthor contribution statementMHM, MM, NV, and SI designed the study. NA and SI wrote Matlab® code for the toolbox and designed the simulated data. MHM, and NA performed the experiments. NA and SI analyzed the data. SI, NA, and MHM wrote the manuscript.

Download Full-text

To jump or not to jump: The Bereitschaftspotential required to jump into 192-meter abyss

10.1101/255083 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

M. Nann ◽

L.G. Cohen ◽

L. Deecke ◽

S.R. Soekadar

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Spatiotemporal Dynamics ◽

Brain Potential ◽

Laboratory Conditions ◽

Life Threatening ◽

Motor Initiation ◽

First Time

AbstractSelf-initiated voluntary acts, such as pressing a button, are preceded by a negative electrical brain potential, the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), that can be recorded over the human scalp using electroencephalography (EEG). Up to now, the BP required to initiate voluntary acts has only been recorded under well-controlled laboratory conditions.It is thus not known if this form of brain activity also underlies motor initiation in possible life-threatening decision making, such as jumping into a 192-meter abyss, an act requiring extraordinary willpower. Here, we report BP before self-initiated 192-meter extreme bungee jumping across two semi-professional cliff divers (both male, mean age 19.3 years). We found that the spatiotemporal dynamics of the BP is comparable to that recorded under laboratory conditions. These results, possible through recent advancements in wireless and portable EEG technology, document for the first time pre-movement brain activity preceding possible life-threatening decision making.

Download Full-text