scholarly journals A geometric representation unveils learning dynamics in primate neurons

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yarden Cohen ◽  
Elad Schneidman ◽  
Rony Paz
Keyword(s):  
De Novo ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
Geometric Representation ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Magnitude Increase ◽  
Vector Magnitude

AbstractPrimates can quickly and advantageously adopt new behaviors based on changing stimuli relationships. We studied acquisition of a classification task while recording single neurons in the dorsal-anterior-cingulate-cortex (dACC) and the Striatum. Monkeys performed trial-by-trial classification on a rich set of multi-cue patterns, allowing de-novo learning every few days. To examine neural dynamics during the learning itself, we represent each rule with a spanning set of the space formed by the stimuli features. Because neural preference can be expressed by feature combinations, we can track neural dynamics in geometrical terms in this space, allowing a compact description of neural trajectories by observing changes in either vector-magnitude and/or angle-to- rule. We find that a large fraction of cells in both regions follow the behavior during learning. Neurons in the dACC mainly rotate towards the policy, suggesting an increase in selectivity that approximates the rule; whereas in the Putamen we also find a prominent magnitude increase, suggesting strengthening of confidence. Additionally, magnitude increases in the striatum followed rotation in the dACC. Finally, the neural representation at the end of the session predicted next-day behavior. The use of this novel framework enables tracking of neural dynamics during learning and suggests differential yet complementing roles for these brain regions.

Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 931-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Nathan DeWall ◽  
Geoff MacDonald ◽  
Gregory D. Webster ◽  
Carrie L. Masten ◽  
Roy F. Baumeister ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Social Pain ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain—physical and social—may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants’ brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.

Neural Dynamics of Rejection Sensitivity

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 945-956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Kross ◽  
Tobias Egner ◽  
Kevin Ochsner ◽  
Joy Hirsch ◽  
Geraldine Downey
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Rejection Sensitivity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Affective Stimuli ◽  
Emotional Appraisal ◽  
Interest Level

Rejection sensitivity (RS) is the tendency to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore whether individual differences in RS are mediated by differential recruitment of brain regions involved in emotional appraisal and/or cognitive control. High and low RS participants were scanned while viewing either representational paintings depicting themes of rejection and acceptance or nonrepresentational control paintings matched for positive or negative valence, arousal and interest level. Across all participants, rejection versus acceptance images activated regions of the brain involved in processing affective stimuli (posterior cingulate, insula), and cognitive control (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; medial frontal cortex). Low and high RS individuals' responses to rejection versus acceptance images were not, however, identical. Low RS individuals displayed significantly more activity in left inferior and right dorsal frontal regions, and activity in these areas correlated negatively with participants' self-report distress ratings. In addition, control analyses revealed no effect of viewing negative versus positive images in any of the areas described above, suggesting that the aforementioned activations were involved in rejection-relevant processing rather than processing negatively valenced stimuli per se. Taken together, these findings suggest that responses in regions traditionally implicated in emotional processing and cognitive control are sensitive to rejection stimuli irrespective of RS, but that low RS individuals may activate prefrontal structures to regulate distress associated with viewing such images.

scholarly journals Altered resting-state functional connectivity of the frontal-striatal circuit in elderly with apathy

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261334
Author(s):  
Chizuko Hamada ◽  
Toshikazu Kawagoe ◽  
Masahiro Takamura ◽  
Atsushi Nagai ◽  
Shuhei Yamaguchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Psychiatric Disease ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Aged People

Apathy is defined as reduction of goal-directed behaviors and a common nuisance syndrome of neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease. The underlying mechanism of apathy implicates changes of the front-striatal circuit, but its precise alteration is unclear for apathy in healthy aged people. The aim of our study is to investigate how the frontal-striatal circuit is changed in elderly with apathy using resting-state functional MRI. Eighteen subjects with apathy (7 female, 63.7 ± 3.0 years) and eighteen subjects without apathy (10 female, 64.8 ± 3.0 years) who underwent neuropsychological assessment and MRI measurement were recruited. We compared functional connectivity with/within the striatum between the apathy and non-apathy groups. The seed-to-voxel group analysis for functional connectivity between the striatum and other brain regions showed that the connectivity was decreased between the ventral rostral putamen and the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex/supplementary motor area in the apathy group compared to the non-apathy group while the connectivity was increased between the dorsal caudate and the left sensorimotor area. Moreover, the ROI-to-ROI analysis within the striatum indicated reduction of functional connectivity between the ventral regions and dorsal regions of the striatum in the apathy group. Our findings suggest that the changes in functional connectivity balance among different frontal-striatum circuits contribute to apathy in elderly.

scholarly journals Language switching training modulates the neural network of non-linguistic cognitive control

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0247100
Author(s):  
Mo Chen ◽  
Fengyang Ma ◽  
Zhaoqi Zhang ◽  
Shuhua Li ◽  
Man Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Language Switching ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
The Neural Network ◽  
The Impact

Bilingual language experience, such as switching between languages, has been shown to shape both cognitive and neural mechanisms of non-linguistic cognitive control. However, the neural adaptations induced by language switching remain unclear. Using fMRI, the current study examined the impact of short-term language switching training on the neural network of domain-general cognitive control for unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals. Effective connectivity maps were constructed by using the extended unified structural equation models (euSEM) within 10 common brain regions involved in both language control and domain-general cognitive control. Results showed that, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex/pre-supplementary motor area (dACC/pre-SMA) lost connection from the right thalamus after training, suggesting that less neural connectivity was required to complete the same domain-general cognitive control task. These findings not only provide direct evidence for the modulation of language switching training on the neural interaction of domain-general cognitive control, but also have important implications for revealing the potential neurocognitive adaptation effects of specific bilingual language experiences.

scholarly journals Neuronal selectivity for spatial positions of offers and choices in five reward regions

2016 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 1098-1111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb E. Strait ◽  
Brianna J. Sleezer ◽  
Tommy C. Blanchard ◽  
Habiba Azab ◽  
Meghan D. Castagno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Binding Problem ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Value Coding

When we evaluate an option, how is the neural representation of its value linked to information that identifies it, such as its position in space? We hypothesized that value information and identity cues are not bound together at a particular point but are represented together at the single unit level throughout the entirety of the choice process. We examined neuronal responses in two-option gambling tasks with lateralized and asynchronous presentation of offers in five reward regions: orbitofrontal cortex (OFC, area 13), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC, area 14), ventral striatum (VS), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC, area 25). Neuronal responses in all areas are sensitive to the positions of both offers and of choices. This selectivity is strongest in reward-sensitive neurons, indicating that it is not a property of a specialized subpopulation of cells. We did not find consistent contralateral or any other organization to these responses, indicating that they may be difficult to detect with aggregate measures like neuroimaging or studies of lesion effects. These results suggest that value coding is wed to factors that identify the object throughout the reward system and suggest a possible solution to the binding problem raised by abstract value encoding schemes.

scholarly journals Neural Representation of Costs and Rewards in Decision Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1096
Author(s):  
Yixuan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
The Brain

Decision making is crucial for animal survival because the choices they make based on their current situation could influence their future rewards and could have potential costs. This review summarises recent developments in decision making, discusses how rewards and costs could be encoded in the brain, and how different options are compared such that the most optimal one is chosen. The reward and cost are mainly encoded by the forebrain structures (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex), and their value is updated through learning. The recent development on dopamine and the lateral habenula’s role in reporting prediction errors and instructing learning will be emphasised. The importance of dopamine in powering the choice and accounting for the internal state will also be discussed. While the orbitofrontal cortex is the place where the state values are stored, the anterior cingulate cortex is more important when the environment is volatile. All of these structures compare different attributes of the task simultaneously, and the local competition of different neuronal networks allows for the selection of the most appropriate one. Therefore, the total value of the task is not encoded as a scalar quantity in the brain but, instead, as an emergent phenomenon, arising from the computation at different brain regions.

scholarly journals An insula-driven network computes decision uncertainty and promotes abstinence in chronic cocaine users

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ju-Chi Yu ◽  
Vincenzo G. Fiore ◽  
Richard W. Briggs ◽  
Jacquelyn Braud ◽  
Katya Rubia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Insular Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Excitatory Connection ◽  
Chronic Cocaine

AbstractThe anterior insular cortex (AIC) and its interconnected brain regions have been associated with both addiction and decision-making under uncertainty. However, the causal interactions in this uncertainty-encoding neurocircuitry and how these neural dynamics impact relapse remain elusive. Here, we used model-based fMRI to measure choice uncertainty in a motor decision task in 61 individuals with cocaine use disorder (CUD) and 25 healthy controls. CUD participants were assessed before discharge from a residential treatment program and followed for up to 24 weeks. We found that choice uncertainty was tracked by the AIC, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and ventral striatum (VS), across participants. Stronger activations in these regions measured pre-discharge predicted longer abstinence after discharge in individuals with CUD. Dynamic causal modelling revealed an AIC-to-dACC directed connectivity modulated by uncertainty in controls, but a dACC-to-AIC connectivity in CUD participants. This reversal was mostly driven by early-relapsers (<30 days). Furthermore, CUD individuals who displayed a stronger AIC-to-dACC excitatory connection during uncertainty encoding remained abstinent for longer periods. These findings reveal a critical role of an AIC-driven, uncertainty-encoding neurocircuitry in protecting against relapse and promoting abstinence.

scholarly journals Simultaneous representation of a spectrum of dynamically changing value estimates during decision making

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Meder ◽  
Nils Kolling ◽  
Lennart Verhagen ◽  
Marco K Wittmann ◽  
Jacqueline Scholl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Selection Mechanism ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Temporal Scaling ◽  
Changing Environments ◽  
Simultaneous Representation ◽  
Different Time Scales

SummaryDecisions are based on value expectations derived from experience. We show that dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and three other brain regions hold multiple representations of choice value based on different time-scales of experience organized in terms of systematic gradients across the cortex. Some parts of each area represent value estimates based on recent reward experience while others represent value estimates based on experience over the longer term. The value estimates within these four brain areas interact with one another according to their temporal scaling. Some aspects of the representations change dynamically as the environment changes. The spectrum of value estimates may act as a flexible selection mechanism for combining experience-derived value information with other aspects of value to allow flexible and adaptive decisions in changing environments.

scholarly journals Structural and functional imaging of the hippocampus in young people at familial risk of depression

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (14) ◽  
pp. 2939-2948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. N. Mannie ◽  
N. Filippini ◽  
C. Williams ◽  
J. Near ◽  
C. E. Mackay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Young People ◽  
Familial Risk ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Parental History ◽  
History Of

BackgroundMajor depression is associated with abnormalities in the function and structure of the hippocampus. However, it is unclear whether these abnormalities might also be present in people ‘at risk’ of illness.MethodWe studied 62 young people (mean age 18.8 years) at familial risk of depression (FH+) but who had never been depressed themselves. Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging to assess hippocampal structure and neural responses to a task designed to activate hippocampal memory networks. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to measure levels of a combination of glutamine and glutamate (Glx) in the right hippocampus. A total of 59 matched controls with no history of mood disorder in a first-degree relative underwent the same investigations.ResultsHippocampal volume did not differ between FH+ participants and controls; however, relative to controls, during the memory task, FH+ participants showed increased activation in brain regions encompassing the insular cortices, putamen and pallidum as well as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). FH+ participants also had increased hippocampal levels of Glx.ConclusionsEuthymic individuals with a parental history of depression demonstrate increased activation of hippocampal-related neural networks during a memory task, particularly in brain regions involved in processing the salience of stimuli. Changes in the activity of the ACC replicate previous findings in FH+ participants using different psychological tasks; this suggests that task-related abnormalities in the ACC may be a marker of vulnerability to depression. Increased levels of Glx in the hippocampus might also represent a risk biomarker but follow-up studies will be required to test these various possibilities.

scholarly journals The Dual-Task Cost Is Due to Neural Interferences Disrupting the Optimal Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of the Competing Tasks

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Mac-Auliffe ◽  
Benoit Chatard ◽  
Mathilde Petton ◽  
Anne-Claire Croizé ◽  
Florian Sipp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Neural Origin ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Dual-tasking is extremely prominent nowadays, despite ample evidence that it comes with a performance cost: the Dual-Task (DT) cost. Neuroimaging studies have established that tasks are more likely to interfere if they rely on common brain regions, but the precise neural origin of the DT cost has proven elusive so far, mostly because fMRI does not record neural activity directly and cannot reveal the key effect of timing, and how the spatio-temporal neural dynamics of the tasks coincide. Recently, DT electrophysiological studies in monkeys have recorded neural populations shared by the two tasks with millisecond precision to provide a much finer understanding of the origin of the DT cost. We used a similar approach in humans, with intracranial EEG, to assess the neural origin of the DT cost in a particularly challenging naturalistic paradigm which required accurate motor responses to frequent visual stimuli (task T1) and the retrieval of information from long-term memory (task T2), as when answering passengers’ questions while driving. We found that T2 elicited neuroelectric interferences in the gamma-band (&gt;40 Hz), in key regions of the T1 network including the Multiple Demand Network. They reproduced the effect of disruptive electrocortical stimulations to create a situation of dynamical incompatibility, which might explain the DT cost. Yet, participants were able to flexibly adapt their strategy to minimize interference, and most surprisingly, reduce the reliance of T1 on key regions of the executive control network-the anterior insula and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex-with no performance decrement.

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