When self comes to a wandering mind: Brain representations and dynamics of self-generated concepts in spontaneous thought

Self-relevant concepts are major building blocks of spontaneous thought, and their dynamics in a natural stream of thought are likely to reveal one's internal states important for mental health. Here we conducted an fMRI experiment (n = 62) to examine brain representations and dynamics of self-generated concepts in the context of spontaneous thought using a newly developed free association-based thought sampling task. The dynamics of conceptual associations were predictive of individual differences in general negative affectivity, replicating across multiple datasets (n = 196). Reflecting on self-generated concepts strongly engaged brain regions linked to autobiographical memory, conceptual processes, emotion, and autonomic regulation, including the medial prefrontal and medial temporal subcortical structures. Multivariate pattern-based predictive modeling revealed that the neural representations of valence became more person-specific as the level of perceived self-relevance increased. Overall, this study provides a hint of how self-generated concepts in spontaneous thought construct inner affective states and idiosyncrasies.

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A three-dimensional thalamocortical dataset for characterizing brain heterogeneity

10.1101/2020.05.22.111617 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Judy A. Prasad ◽

Aishwarya H. Balwani ◽

Erik C. Johnson ◽

Joseph D. Miano ◽

Vandana Sampathkumar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Three Dimensional ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Regions Of Interest ◽

Subcortical Structures ◽

Neural Structure ◽

Brain Areas ◽

X Ray ◽

Anatomical Imaging ◽

Brain Pathways ◽

Critical Aspects

AbstractNeural cytoarchitecture is heterogeneous, varying both across and within brain regions. The consistent identification of regions of interest is one of the most critical aspects in examining neurocircuitry, as these structures serve as the vital landmarks with which to map brain pathways. Access to continuous, three-dimensional volumes that span multiple brain areas not only provides richer context for identifying such landmarks, but also enables a deeper probing of the microstructures within. Here, we describe a three-dimensional X-ray microtomography imaging dataset of a well-known and validated thalamocortical sample, encompassing a range of cortical and subcortical structures. In doing so, we provide the field with access to a micron-scale anatomical imaging dataset ideal for studying heterogeneity of neural structure.

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Emotional aspects of language

ANALES RANM ◽

10.32440/ar.2018.135.02.supl01.art04 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 135 (135(02)) ◽

pp. 41-46

Author(s):

J.A. Hinojosa ◽

E.M. Moreno ◽

P. Ferré ◽

M.A. Pozo

Keyword(s):

Language Processing ◽

Language Comprehension ◽

Developmental Psychology ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Emotional Content ◽

Current Work ◽

Subcortical Structures ◽

Emotional Aspects ◽

The Relationship ◽

And Linguistics

Up to date the study of the relationship between language and emotion has received little attention from researchers. In the current work we will summarize evidence coming from the fields of developmental psychology and affective neurolinguistics. The results from different studies indicate that learning emotional language has its own idiosyncrasy. Also, the emotional content of words, sentences and texts modulates several levels of language processing, including phonological, lexico-semantic and morpho-syntactic aspects of language comprehension and production. Finally, the interactions between language and emotion involve the activation of several brain regions linked to distinct affective and linguistics processes, like parts of frontal and temporal cortices or subcortical structures such as the amygdala. Overall, the results of these studies clearly show that emotional content determines certain aspects of how we acquire and process language.

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Neurocircuitries of Emotion Processing Affected in Major Depressive Disorder

Cognitive Dimensions of Major Depressive Disorder ◽

10.1093/med/9780198810940.003.0009 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 101-114

Author(s):

Anjali Sankar ◽

Cynthia H.Y. Fu

Keyword(s):

Major Depression ◽

Predictive Accuracy ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Affective State ◽

Brain Regions ◽

First Episode ◽

Neuroimaging Data ◽

Multivariate Pattern ◽

Future Work ◽

Hallmark Feature

Impairments in processing emotions are a hallmark feature of depression. Advances in neuroimaging techniques have rapidly improved our understanding of the pathophysiology underlying major depression. In this chapter, we provide an overview of influential neural models of emotion perception and regulation and discuss the neurocircuitries of emotion processing that are affected. Major depression is characterized by impairments in widespread brain regions that are evident in the first episode. Models have sought to distinguish the neural circuitry associated with recognition of the emotion, integration of somatic responses, and monitoring of the affective state. In particular, there has been a preponderance of research on the neurocircuitries affected during processing of mood-congruent negative emotional stimuli in depression. While neuroimaging correlates have been investigated and models proposed, these findings have had limited clinical applicability to date. Novel methods such as multivariate pattern recognition applied to neuroimaging data might enable identification of reliable, valid, and robust biomarkers with high predictive accuracy that can be applied to an individual. Last, we discuss avenues for extension and future work.

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Glutamate in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia

Psychotic Disorders ◽

10.1093/med/9780190653279.003.0032 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 287-296

Author(s):

Daniel C. Javitt

Keyword(s):

Visual System ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Negative Symptoms ◽

Glutamate Release ◽

Critical Role ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Subcortical Structures ◽

Impaired Metabolism

Glutamate theories of schizophrenia were first proposed over 30 years ago and since that time have become increasingly accepted. Theories are supported by the ability of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonists such as phencyclidine (PCP) or ketamine to induce symptoms that closely resemble those of schizophrenia. Moreover, NMDAR antagonists uniquely reproduce the level of negative symptoms and cognitive deficits observed in schizophrenia, suggesting that such models may be particularly appropriate to poor outcome forms of the disorder. As opposed to dopamine, which is most prominent within frontostriatal brain regions, glutamate neurons are present throughout cortex and subcortical structures. Thus, NMDAR theories predict widespread disturbances across cortical and thalamic pathways, including sensory brain regions. In auditory cortex, NMDAR play a critical role in the generation of mismatch negativity (MMN), which may therefore serve as a translational marker of NMDAR dysfunction across species. In the visual system, NMDAR play a critical role in function of the magnocellular visual system. Deficits in both auditory and visual processing contribute to social and communication deficits, which, in turn, lead to poor functional outcome. By contrast, NMDAR dysfunction within the frontohippocampal system may contribute to well described deficits in working memory, executive processing and long-term memory formation. Deficits in NMDAR function may be driven by disturbances in presynaptic glutamate release, impaired metabolism of NMDAR modulators such as glycine or D-serine, or intrinsic abnormalities in NMDAR themselves.

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Neural tracking of subjective value under riskand ambiguity in adolescence

Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience ◽

10.3758/s13415-019-00749-5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (6) ◽

pp. 1364-1378 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Neeltje E. Blankenstein ◽

Anna C. K. van Duijvenvoorde

Keyword(s):

Brain Activation ◽

Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽

Building Blocks ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Activation Patterns ◽

Subjective Value ◽

Adolescent Risk ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Adolescent Sample ◽

Superior Parietal Cortex

Abstract Although many neuroimaging studies on adolescent risk taking have focused on brain activation during outcome valuation, less attention has been paid to the neural correlates of choice valuation. Subjective choice valuation may be particularly influenced by whether a choice presents risk (known probabilities) or ambiguity (unknown probabilities), which has rarely been studied in developmental samples. Therefore, we examined the neural tracking of subjective value during choice under risk and ambiguity in a large sample of adolescents (N = 188, 12–22 years). Specifically, we investigated which brain regions tracked subjective value coding under risk and ambiguity. A model-based approach to estimate individuals’ risk and ambiguity attitudes showed prominent variation in individuals’ aversions to risk and ambiguity. Furthermore, participants subjectively experienced the ambiguous options as being riskier than the risky options. Subjective value tracking under risk was coded by activation in ventral striatum and superior parietal cortex. Subjective value tracking under ambiguity was coded by dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and superior temporal gyrus activation. Finally, overlapping activation in the dorsomedial PFC was observed for subjective value under both conditions. Overall, this is the first study to chart brain activation patterns for subjective choice valuation under risk and ambiguity in an adolescent sample, which shows that the building blocks for risk and ambiguity processing are already present in early adolescence. Finally, we highlight the potential of combining behavioral modeling with fMRI for investigating choice valuation in adolescence, which may ultimately aid in understanding who takes risks and why.

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Microstructural Changes in Motor Functional Conversion Disorder: Multimodal Imaging Approach on a Case

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10060385 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 385

Author(s):

Mariachiara Longarzo ◽

Carlo Cavaliere ◽

Giulia Mele ◽

Stefano Tozza ◽

Liberatore Tramontano ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Resting State ◽

Fdg Pet ◽

Structural Parameters ◽

Clinical Manifestations ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Motor Dysfunction ◽

Motor Disorder ◽

Subcortical Structures ◽

Microstructural Changes ◽

Conversion Disorders

Background: Functional motor conversion disorders are characterized by neurological symptoms unrelated to brain structural lesions. The present study was conducted on a woman presenting motor symptoms causing motor dysfunction, using advanced multimodal neuroimaging techniques, electrophysiological and neuropsychological assessment. Methods. The patient underwent fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography-computed tomography (FDG-PET-CT) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with both task and resting-state paradigms and was compared with 11 healthy matched controls. To test differences in structural parameters, Bayesian comparison was performed. To test differences in functional parameters, a first- and second-level analysis was performed in task fMRI, while a seed-to-seed analysis to evaluate the connections between brain regions and identify intersubject variations was performed in resting-state fMRI. Results. FDG-PET showed two patterns of brain metabolism, involving the cortical and subcortical structures. Regarding the diffusion data, microstructural parameters were altered for U-shape fibers for the hand and feet regions. Resting-state analysis showed hypoconnectivity between the parahippocampal and superior temporal gyrus. Neurophysiological assessment showed no alterations. Finally, an initial cognitive impairment was observed, paralleled by an anxiety and mild depressive state. Conclusions. While we confirmed no structural alterations sustaining this functional motor disorder, we report microstructural changes in sensory–motor integration for both the hand and feet regions that could functionally support clinical manifestations.

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The role of self–other distinction in understanding others' mental and emotional states: neurocognitive mechanisms in children and adults

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2015.0074 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 371 (1686) ◽

pp. 20150074 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Nikolaus Steinbeis

Keyword(s):

Social Interactions ◽

Fundamental Problem ◽

Building Blocks ◽

Neural Circuitry ◽

Developmental Changes ◽

Emotional States ◽

Social Environments ◽

Affective States ◽

Affective Domains

Social interactions come with the fundamental problem of trying to understand others' mental and affective states while under the overpowering influence of one's own concurrent thoughts and feelings. The ability to distinguish between simultaneous representations of others' current experiences as well as our own is crucial to navigate our complex social environments successfully. The developmental building blocks of this ability and how this is given rise to by functional and structural brain development remains poorly understood. In this review, I outline some of the key findings on the role of self–other distinction in understanding others' mental as well as emotional states in children and adults. I will begin by clarifying the crucial role for self–other distinction in avoiding egocentric attributions of one's own cognitive as well as affective states to others in adults and outline the underlying neural circuitry in overcoming such egocentricity. This will provide the basis for a discussion of the emergence of self–other distinction in early childhood as well as developmental changes therein throughout childhood and into adulthood. I will demonstrate that self–other distinction of cognitive and emotional states is already dissociable early in development. Concomitantly, I will show that processes of self–other distinction in cognitive and affective domains rely on adjacent but distinct neural circuitry each with unique connectivity profiles, presumably related to the nature of the distinction that needs to be made.

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Inactivation of Prefrontal Cortex Delays Emergence From Sevoflurane Anesthesia

Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnsys.2021.690717 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Emma R. Huels ◽

Trent Groenhout ◽

Christopher W. Fields ◽

Tiecheng Liu ◽

George A. Mashour ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Association Cortex ◽

Sprague Dawley ◽

Subcortical Structures ◽

Behavioral Arousal ◽

Barrel Field ◽

Loss Of Righting Reflex ◽

Parietal Association Cortex ◽

Righting Reflex

Studies aimed at investigating brain regions involved in arousal state control have been traditionally limited to subcortical structures. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that inactivation of prefrontal cortex, but not two subregions within parietal cortex—somatosensory barrel field and medial/lateral parietal association cortex—would suppress arousal, as measured by an increase in anesthetic sensitivity. Male and female Sprague Dawley rats were surgically prepared for recording electroencephalogram and bilateral infusion into prefrontal cortex (N = 13), somatosensory barrel field (N = 10), or medial/lateral parietal association cortex (N = 9). After at least 10 days of post-surgical recovery, 156 μM tetrodotoxin or saline was microinjected into one of the cortical sites. Ninety minutes after injection, rats were anesthetized with 2.5% sevoflurane and the time to loss of righting reflex, a surrogate for loss of consciousness, was measured. Sevoflurane was stopped after 45 min and the time to return of righting reflex, a surrogate for return of consciousness, was measured. Tetrodotoxin-mediated inactivation of all three cortical sites decreased (p < 0.05) the time to loss of righting reflex. By contrast, only inactivation of prefrontal cortex, but not somatosensory barrel field or medial/lateral parietal association cortex, increased (p < 0.001) the time to return of righting reflex. Burst suppression ratio was not altered following inactivation of any of the cortical sites, suggesting that there was no global effect due to pharmacologic lesion. These findings demonstrate that prefrontal cortex plays a causal role in emergence from anesthesia and behavioral arousal.

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Investigating Data Cleaning Methods to Improve Performance of Brain–Computer Interfaces Based on Stereo-Electroencephalography

Frontiers in Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnins.2021.725384 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Shengjie Liu ◽

Guangye Li ◽

Shize Jiang ◽

Xiaolong Wu ◽

Jie Hu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Cleaning ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Reference Electrode ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Subcortical Structures ◽

Implanted Electrodes ◽

Average Reference ◽

Depth Electrodes ◽

Cleaning Methods

Stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) utilizes localized and penetrating depth electrodes to directly measure electrophysiological brain activity. The implanted electrodes generally provide a sparse sampling of multiple brain regions, including both cortical and subcortical structures, making the SEEG neural recordings a potential source for the brain–computer interface (BCI) purpose in recent years. For SEEG signals, data cleaning is an essential preprocessing step in removing excessive noises for further analysis. However, little is known about what kinds of effect that different data cleaning methods may exert on BCI decoding performance and, moreover, what are the reasons causing the differentiated effects. To address these questions, we adopted five different data cleaning methods, including common average reference, gray–white matter reference, electrode shaft reference, bipolar reference, and Laplacian reference, to process the SEEG data and evaluated the effect of these methods on improving BCI decoding performance. Additionally, we also comparatively investigated the changes of SEEG signals induced by these different methods from multiple-domain (e.g., spatial, spectral, and temporal domain). The results showed that data cleaning methods could improve the accuracy of gesture decoding, where the Laplacian reference produced the best performance. Further analysis revealed that the superiority of the data cleaning method with excellent performance might be attributed to the increased distinguishability in the low-frequency band. The findings of this work highlighted the importance of applying proper data clean methods for SEEG signals and proposed the application of Laplacian reference for SEEG-based BCI.

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Neural substrates for moral judgments of psychological versus physical harm

10.31234/osf.io/g9he3 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Lily Tsoi ◽

James A Dungan ◽

Alek Chakroff ◽

Liane Young

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Psychological Impact ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Moral Judgments ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Adults With Autism ◽

Temporoparietal Junction ◽

The Right ◽

Multivariate Pattern

Although harm primarily elicits thoughts of physical injuries, harm can also take the form of negative psychological impact. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the extent to which moral judgments of physical and psychological harms are processed similarly, focusing on brain regions implicated in mental state reasoning or theory of mind, a key cognitive process for moral judgment. Univariate analyses reveal similar levels of theory of mind processing for psychological and physical harms, though multivariate pattern analyses (MVPA) reveal sensitivity to the psychological/physical distinction in two regions implicated in theory of mind: the right temporoparietal junction and the precuneus. Moreover, while there were no differences in neurotypical adults and adults with autism spectrum disorder with regard to neural activity related to theory of mind, there was a group difference in the recruitment of the anterior cingulate cortex for psychological versus physical harms. Altogether, these results reveal sensitivity within regions implicated in theory of mind to the physical / psychological distinction as well as neural processes that capture clinically relevant differences in evaluations of psychological harms versus physical harms.

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