scholarly journals Conservative and disruptive modes of adolescent change in brain functional connectivity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
František Váša ◽  
Rafael Romero-Garcia ◽  
Manfred G. Kitzbichler ◽  
Jakob Seidlitz ◽  
Kirstie J. Whitaker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Aerobic Glycolysis ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Association Cortex ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Strongly Connected

AbstractAdolescent changes in human brain function are not entirely understood. Here we used multi-echo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure developmental change in functional connectivity (FC) of resting-state oscillations between pairs of 330 cortical regions and 16 subcortical regions in N=298 healthy adolescents. Participants were aged 14-26 years and were scanned on two or more occasions at least 6 months apart. We found two distinct modes of age-related change in FC: “conservative” and “disruptive”. Conservative development was characteristic of primary cortex, which was strongly connected at 14 years and became even more connected in the period 14-26 years. Disruptive development was characteristic of association cortex, hippocampus and amygdala, which were not strongly connected at 14 years but became more strongly connected during adolescence. We defined the maturational index (MI) as the signed coefficient of the linear relationship between baseline FC (at 14 years,FC14) and adolescent change in FC (∆FC14−26). Disruptive systems (with negative MI) were functionally specialised for social cognition and autobiographical memory and were significantly co-located with prior maps of aerobic glycolysis (AG), AG-related gene expression, post-natal expansion of cortical surface area, and adolescent shrinkage of cortical depth. We conclude that human brain organization is disrupted during adolescence by the emergence of strong functional connectivity of subcortical nuclei and association cortical areas, representing metabolically expensive re-modelling of synaptic connectivity between brain regions that were not strongly connected in childhood. We suggest that this re-modelling process may support emergence of social skills and self-awareness during healthy human adolescence.

scholarly journals Conservative and disruptive modes of adolescent change in human brain functional connectivity

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 3248-3253 ◽  
Author(s):  
František Váša ◽  
Rafael Romero-Garcia ◽  
Manfred G. Kitzbichler ◽  
Jakob Seidlitz ◽  
Kirstie J. Whitaker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Aerobic Glycolysis ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Association Cortex ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Subcortical Regions ◽  
Cortical Regions

Adolescent changes in human brain function are not entirely understood. Here, we used multiecho functional MRI (fMRI) to measure developmental change in functional connectivity (FC) of resting-state oscillations between pairs of 330 cortical regions and 16 subcortical regions in 298 healthy adolescents scanned 520 times. Participants were aged 14 to 26 y and were scanned on 1 to 3 occasions at least 6 mo apart. We found 2 distinct modes of age-related change in FC: “conservative” and “disruptive.” Conservative development was characteristic of primary cortex, which was strongly connected at 14 y and became even more connected in the period from 14 to 26 y. Disruptive development was characteristic of association cortex and subcortical regions, where connectivity was remodeled: connections that were weak at 14 y became stronger during adolescence, and connections that were strong at 14 y became weaker. These modes of development were quantified using the maturational index (MI), estimated as Spearman’s correlation between edgewise baseline FC (at 14 y, FC14) and adolescent change in FC (ΔFC14−26), at each region. Disruptive systems (with negative MI) were activated by social cognition and autobiographical memory tasks in prior fMRI data and significantly colocated with prior maps of aerobic glycolysis (AG), AG-related gene expression, postnatal cortical surface expansion, and adolescent shrinkage of cortical thickness. The presence of these 2 modes of development was robust to numerous sensitivity analyses. We conclude that human brain organization is disrupted during adolescence by remodeling of FC between association cortical and subcortical areas.

scholarly journals Functional Connectivity in Aging

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziskus Liem ◽  
Linda Geerligs ◽  
Jessica S. Damoiseaux ◽  
Daniel S. Margulies
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
The Past ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Brain Structure And Function ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain

A large body of research shows that aging is accompanied by localized changes in brain structure and function. However, over the past decade the neuroimaging community has begun to recognize the importance of investigating the brain as a network. Brain regions don’t function independently, rather they form an expansive network that allows for communication between distant areas and enables complex cognitive functioning. Hence, age-related changes in the network structure might explain changes in cognitive functioning.Characterizing this network by investigating the brain’s functional connectivity has enabled new insights into brain organization. In this chapter, we will outline how the brain’s functional connectivity is affected by aging and how changes in functional connectivity relate to changes in cognitive functioning. We will address how neurodegenerative pathology influences functional connectivity and how, based on these measurements, biomarkers for clinical outcome might be developed in the future.

scholarly journals Changes in functional connectivity associated with facial expression processing over the working adult lifespan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Murray ◽  
Justin O'Brien ◽  
Veena Kumari
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Expression Recognition ◽  
Frontal Pole ◽  
Adult Lifespan ◽  
Age Related

The recognition of negative emotions from facial expressions is shown to decline across the adult lifespan, with some evidence that this decline begins around middle age. While some studies have suggested ageing may be associated with changes in neural response to emotional expressions, it is not known whether ageing is associated with changes in the network connectivity associated with processing emotional expressions. In this study, we examined the effect of participant age on whole-brain connectivity to various brain regions that have been associated with connectivity during emotion processing: the left and right amygdalae, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS). The study involved healthy participants aged 20-65 who viewed facial expressions displaying anger, fear, happiness, and neutral expressions during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We found effects of age on connectivity between the left amygdala and voxels in the occipital pole and cerebellum, between the right amygdala and voxels in the frontal pole, and between the rpSTS and voxels in the orbitofrontal cortex, but no effect of age on connectivity with the mPFC. Furthermore, ageing was more greatly associated with a decline in connectivity to the left amygdala and rpSTS for negative expressions in comparison to happy and neutral expressions, consistent with the literature suggesting a specific age-related decline in the recognition of negative emotions. These results add to the literature surrounding ageing and expression recognition by suggesting that changes in underlying functional connectivity might contribute to changes in recognition of negative facial expressions across the adult lifespan.

scholarly journals Large-scale network integration in the human brain tracks temporal fluctuations in memory encoding performance

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruedeerat Keerativittayayut ◽  
Ryuta Aoki ◽  
Mitra Taghizadeh Sarabi ◽  
Koji Jimura ◽  
Kiyoshi Nakahara
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Graph Metrics ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Network States

Although activation/deactivation of specific brain regions has been shown to be predictive of successful memory encoding, the relationship between time-varying large-scale brain networks and fluctuations of memory encoding performance remains unclear. Here, we investigated time-varying functional connectivity patterns across the human brain in periods of 30–40 s, which have recently been implicated in various cognitive functions. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants performed a memory encoding task, and their performance was assessed with a subsequent surprise memory test. A graph analysis of functional connectivity patterns revealed that increased integration of the subcortical, default-mode, salience, and visual subnetworks with other subnetworks is a hallmark of successful memory encoding. Moreover, multivariate analysis using the graph metrics of integration reliably classified the brain network states into the period of high (vs. low) memory encoding performance. Our findings suggest that a diverse set of brain systems dynamically interact to support successful memory encoding.

Neurocognitive Aging and Functional Connectivity Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hana Burianová
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Cognitive Improvement ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Neurocognitive Aging

Determining the mechanisms that underlie neurocognitive aging, such as compensation or dedifferentiation, and facilitating the development of effective strategies for cognitive improvement is essential due to the steadily rising aging population. One approach to study the characteristics of healthy aging comprises the assessment of functional connectivity, delineating markers of age-related neurocognitive plasticity. Functional connectivity paradigms characterize complex one-to-many (or many-to-many) structure–function relations, as higher-level cognitive processes are mediated by the interaction among a number of functionally related neural areas rather than localized to discrete brain regions. Task-related or resting-state interregional correlations of brain activity have been used as reliable indices of functional connectivity, delineating age-related alterations in a number of large-scale brain networks, which subserve attention, working memory, episodic retrieval, and task-switching. Together with behavioral and regional activation studies, connectivity studies and modeling approaches have contributed to our understanding of the mechanisms of age-related reorganization of distributed functional networks; specifically, reduced neural specificity (dedifferentiation) and associated impairment in inhibitory control and compensatory neural recruitment.

scholarly journals Age-Related Reorganizational Changes in Modularity and Functional Connectivity of Human Brain Networks

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
pp. 662-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Song ◽  
Rasmus M. Birn ◽  
Mélanie Boly ◽  
Timothy B. Meier ◽  
Veena A. Nair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Age Related

scholarly journals The more you know: Investigating why adults get a bigger memory boost from semantic congruency than children

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Chun Wang ◽  
Simona Ghetti ◽  
Garvin Brod ◽  
Silvia A. Bunge
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Source Memory ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Age Related ◽  
With Memory

AbstractHumans possess the capacity to employ prior knowledge in the service of our ability to remember; thus, memory is oftentimes superior for information that is semantically congruent with our prior knowledge. This congruency benefit grows during development, but little is understood about neurodevelopmental differences that underlie this growth. Here, we sought to explore the brain mechanisms underlying these phenomena. To this end, we examined the neural substrates of semantically congruent vs. incongruent item-context associations in 116 children and 25 young adults who performed encoding and retrieval tasks during functional MRI data collection. Participants encoded item-context pairs by judging whether an item belonged in a scene. Episodic memory was then tested with a source memory task. Consistent with prior work, source memory accuracy improved with age, and was greater for congruent than incongruent pairs; further, this congruency benefit was greater in adults than children. Age-related differences were observed across univariate, functional connectivity, and multivariate analyses, particularly in lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). In sum, our results revealed two general age differences. First, left ventrolateral/rostrolateral PFC exhibited age-related increases in univariate activity, as well as greater functional connectivity with temporal regions during the processing of congruency. Second, right rostrolateral PFC activation was associated with successfully encoded congruent associations in adults, but not children. Finally, multivariate analyses provided evidence for stronger veridical memory in adults than children in right ventrolateral PFC. These effects in right lateral PFC were significantly correlated with memory performance, implicating them in the process of remembering congruent associations. These results connect brain regions associated with top-down control in the congruency benefit and age-related improvements therein.

scholarly journals A comprehensive neural simulation of slow-wave sleep and highly responsive wakefulness dynamics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer S Goldman ◽  
Lionel Kusch ◽  
Bahar Hazal Yalcinkaya ◽  
Damien Depannemaecker ◽  
Trang-Anh Estelle Nghiem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Slow Wave Sleep ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Mean Field ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Inhibitory Neurons ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Brain States

Hallmarks of neural dynamics during healthy human brain states span spatial scales from neuromodulators acting on microscopic ion channels to macroscopic changes in communication between brain regions. Developing a scale-integrated understanding of neural dynamics has therefore remained challenging. Here, we perform the integration across scales using mean-field modeling of Adaptive Exponential (AdEx) neurons, explicitly incorporating intrinsic properties of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. We report that when AdEx mean-field neural populations are connected via structural tracts defined by the human connectome, macroscopic dynamics resembling human brain activity emerge. Importantly, the model can qualitatively and quantitatively account for properties of empirical spontaneous and stimulus-evoked dynamics in the space, time, phase, and frequency domains. Remarkably, the model also reproduces brain-wide enhanced responsiveness and capacity to encode information particularly during wake-like states, as quantified using the perturbational complexity index. The model was run using The Virtual Brain (TVB) simulator, and is open-access in EBRAINS. This approach not only provides a scale-integrated understanding of brain states and their underlying mechanisms, but also open access tools to investigate brain responsiveness, toward producing a more unified, formal understanding of experimental data from conscious and unconscious states, as well as their associated pathologies.

scholarly journals Age-related change in task-evoked amygdala-prefrontal circuitry: a multiverse approach with an accelerated longitudinal cohort aged 4-22 years

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Alexander Bloom ◽  
Michelle VanTieghem ◽  
Laurel Gabard-Durnam ◽  
Dylan G Gee ◽  
Jessica Flannery ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Separation Anxiety ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Functional Changes ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Amygdala Reactivity

There has been considerable interest in the development of the amygdala and its connections with medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) given the central role of these brain regions in emotional processes. While several studies have suggested that this circuitry exhibits functional changes across the first two decades of life, they have typically employed cross-sectional designs, and findings have been mixed. Additionally, analytic choices may contribute to discrepancies across studies. Here we used an accelerated longitudinal design to examine task-evoked changes in amygdala-mPFC circuitry from 4-22 years of age (N=98; 183 total scans; 1-3 scans per participant). Participants were recruited from the greater Los Angeles area, and completed an event-related emotional face (fear, neutral) task designed to be appropriate for the wide age range. 'Multiverse' analyses examined the robustness of our findings to fMRI analysis choices. 2808 parallel analyses varying in preprocessing and modeling choices found evidence for average age-related decreases in amygdala reactivity to faces. Greater amygdala reactivity at younger ages was attributable to elevated responses during the first few trials relative to later trials. Within-participant changes in amygdala reactivity with age could not be differentiated from between-participant differences, however. Across analysis decision points, we did not find consistent evidence of age-related change in amygdala-mPFC connectivity through generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) or beta-series correlation (BSC) methods. We also did not find evidence for associations between separation anxiety behaviors and amygdala reactivity or amygdala-mPFC connectivity. Within the context of this faces task and age range, age-related changes in amygdala reactivity were more robust to processing pipeline than were task-evoked functional connectivity measures, particularly those using gPPI. These findings highlight both the challenges in estimating developmental change in longitudinal cohorts and the value of multiverse approaches in developmental neuroimaging for assessing robustness of results.

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