scholarly journals The anterior insula channels prefrontal expectancy signals during affective processing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Teckentrup ◽  
Johan N. van der Meer ◽  
Viola Borchardt ◽  
Yan Fan ◽  
Monja P. Neuser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Information Flow ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
Anterior Insula ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Affective Processing ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Affective Content ◽  
Cross Correlations

AbstractExpectancy shapes our perception of impending events. Although such an interplay between cognitive and affective processes is often impaired in mental disorders, it is not well understood how top-down expectancy signals modulate future affect. We therefore track the information flow in the brain during cognitive and affective processing segregated in time using task-specific cross-correlations. Participants in two independent fMRI studies (N1 = 37 & N2 = 55) were instructed to imagine a situation with affective content as indicated by a cue, which was then followed by an emotional picture congruent with expectancy. To correct for intrinsic covariance of brain function, we calculate resting-state cross-correlations analogous to the task. First, using factorial modeling of delta cross-correlations (task-rest) of the first study, we find that the magnitude of expectancy signals in the anterior insula cortex (AIC) modulates the BOLD response to emotional pictures in the anterior cingulate and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in opposite directions. Second, using hierarchical linear modeling of lagged connectivity, we demonstrate that expectancy signals in the AIC indeed foreshadow this opposing pattern in the prefrontal cortex. Third, we replicate the results in the second study using a higher temporal resolution, showing that our task-specific cross-correlation approach robustly uncovers the dynamics of information flow. We conclude that the AIC arbitrates the recruitment of distinct prefrontal networks during cued picture processing according to triggered expectations. Taken together, our study provides new insights into neuronal pathways channeling cognition and affect within well-defined brain networks. Better understanding of such dynamics could lead to new applications tracking aberrant information processing in mental disorders.

Brain Basis of Developmental Change in Visuospatial Working Memory

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1045-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Suzanne Scherf ◽  
John A. Sweeney ◽  
Beatriz Luna
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Anterior Insula ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Brain Circuitry ◽  
Brain Changes ◽  
Performance Enhancing

Although brain changes associated with the acquisition of cognitive abilities in early childhood involve increasing localized specialization, little is known about the brain changes associated with the refinement of existing cognitive abilities that reach maturity in adolescence. The goal of this study was to investigate developmental changes in functional brain circuitry that support improvements in visuospatial working memory from childhood to adulthood. We tested thirty 8- to 47-year-olds in an oculomotor delayed response task. Developmental transitions in brain circuitry included both quantitative changes in the recruitment of necessary working memory regions and qualitative changes in the specific regions recruited into the functional working memory circuitry. Children recruited limited activation from core working memory regions (dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC] and parietal regions) and relied primarily on ventromedial regions (caudate nucleus and anterior insula). With adolescence emerged a more diffuse network (DLPFC, anterior cingulate, posterior parietal, anterior insula) that included the functional integration of premotor response preparation and execution circuitry. Finally, adults recruited the most specialized network of localized regions together with additional performance-enhancing regions, including left-lateralized DLPFC, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and supramarginal gyrus. These results suggest that the maturation of adult-level cognition involves a combination of increasing localization within necessary regions and their integration with performance-enhancing regions.

How to Perform Idiographic and a Combination of Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches

2010 ◽  
Vol 218 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Schmidt ◽  
Franziska Perels ◽  
Bernhard Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Training Group ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cross Correlations ◽  
Time Series Analyses

The aim of the study is to combine and compare person-oriented and nomothetic approaches to analyze longitudinal data with time series analyses and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Based on the evaluation of an intervention study both approaches were used to compare individual and group data. In this study, a training was implemented to foster students’ self-regulation and selected results were presented at the individual and group level for the variables planning and motivation. To analyze data with time series analysis, cross-correlations and trend analyses were conducted. Cross-correlations revealed similar results on the aggregated and individual level whereas trend analysis indicated different results of these two levels. Results of HLM analyses for longitudinal data suggested that students’ motivation has more influence than the type of training group on students’ planning. The findings demonstrate that individual and group-level results differ and that both methods have different focuses. This means that it is useful to combine time series analyses and HLM approaches when analyzing longitudinal data.

scholarly journals Context-invariant neural dynamics underlying the encoding of Bayesian uncertainty, but not confidence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo G. Fiore ◽  
Xiaosi Gu
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Anterior Insula ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
Network Computing ◽  
Evidence Accumulation ◽  
Healthy Humans

AbstractBeliefs about action-outcomes contingencies are often updated in opaque environments where feedbacks might be inaccessible and agents might need to rely on other information for evidence accumulation. It remains unclear, however, whether and how the neural dynamics subserving confidence and uncertainty during belief updating might be context-dependent. Here, we applied a Bayesian model to estimate uncertainty and confidence in healthy humans (n=28) using two multi-option fMRI tasks, one with and one without feedbacks. We found that across both tasks, uncertainty was computed in the anterior insular, anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, whereas confidence was encoded in anterior hippocampus, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex. However, dynamic causal modelling (DCM) revealed a critical divergence between how effective connectivity in these networks was modulated by the available information. Specifically, there was directional influence from the anterior insula to other regions during uncertainty encoding, independent of outcome availability. Conversely, the network computing confidence was driven either by the anterior hippocampus when outcomes were not available, or by the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala when feedbacks were immediately accessible. These findings indicate that confidence encoding might largely rely on evidence accumulation and therefore dynamically changes as a function of the available sensory information (i.e. symbolic sequences monitored by the hippocampus, and monetary feedbacks computed by amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex). In contrast, uncertainty could be triggered by any information that disputes existing beliefs (i.e. processed in the insula), independent of its content.Significance StatementOur choices are guided by our beliefs about action-outcome contingencies. In environments where only one action leads to a desired outcome, high estimated action-outcome probabilities result in confidence, whereas low probabilities distributed across multiple choices result in uncertainty. These estimations are continuously updated, sometimes based on feedbacks provided by the environment, but sometimes this update takes place in opaque environments where feedbacks are not readily available. Here, we show that uncertainty computations are driven by the anterior insula, independent of feedback availability. Conversely, confidence encoding dynamically adapts to the information available, as we found it was driven either by the anterior hippocampus, when feedback was absent, or by the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, otherwise.

Malfunctional Reorganization in the Developing Limbo-Prefrontal System in Animals: Implications for Human Psychoses?

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-14
Author(s):  
Gertraud Teuchert-Noodt ◽  
Ralf R. Dawirs
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Dentate Gyrus ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Regulatory Mechanisms ◽  
Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Invasive Method ◽  
Activity Dependent

Abstract: Neuroplasticity research in connection with mental disorders has recently bridged the gap between basic neurobiology and applied neuropsychology. A non-invasive method in the gerbil (Meriones unguiculus) - the restricted versus enriched breading and the systemically applied single methamphetamine dose - offers an experimental approach to investigate psychoses. Acts of intervening affirm an activity dependent malfunctional reorganization in the prefrontal cortex and in the hippocampal dentate gyrus and reveal the dopamine position as being critical for the disruption of interactions between the areas concerned. From the extent of plasticity effects the probability and risk of psycho-cognitive development may be derived. Advance may be expected from insights into regulatory mechanisms of neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus which is obviously to meet the necessary requirements to promote psycho-cognitive functions/malfunctions via the limbo-prefrontal circuit.

The Relationship Between Leader–Member Exchange and Employees’ Proactive Behaviors

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-111
Author(s):  
Fong-Yi Lai ◽  
Szu-Chi Lu ◽  
Cheng-Chen Lin ◽  
Yu-Chin Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Leader Member Exchange ◽  
Voice Behavior ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Member Exchange ◽  
Multi Temporal ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

Abstract. The present study proposed that, unlike prior leader–member exchange (LMX) research which often implicitly assumed that each leader develops equal-quality relationships with their supervisors (leader’s LMX; LLX), every leader develops different relationships with their supervisors and, in turn, receive different amounts of resources. Moreover, these differentiated relationships with superiors will influence how leader–member relationship quality affects team members’ voice and creativity. We adopted a multi-temporal (three wave) and multi-source (leaders and employees) research design. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 227 bank employees working in 52 departments. Results of the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis showed that LLX moderates the relationship between LMX and team members’ voice behavior and creative performance. Strengths, limitations, practical implications, and directions for future research are discussed.

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