scholarly journals Dysfunctional and compensatory brain networks underlying math fluency

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle AN La ◽  
Debjani Saha ◽  
Karen F Berman ◽  
Hao Yang Tan
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Math Fluency ◽  
Compensatory Mechanisms ◽  
Occupational Outcomes ◽  
Mri Scans ◽  
High Level

AbstractPoor math fluency, or timed calculation (TC) performance, is a characteristic of dyscalculia, a common cause of poor educational and occupational outcomes. Here, we examined neural substrates of dysfunctional math fluency and potential compensatory mechanisms. We performed functional MRI scans of participants with divergent performance on an event-related TC paradigm (poor TC, <0.5 accuracy, n=34; vs. controls, accuracy>0.8, n=34). Individuals with poor TC had decreased intraparietal sulcus (IPS) engagement, and decreased IPS-striatal and IPS-prefrontal effective connectivity. We next examined an independent well-performing sample (TC accuracy>0.8, n=100), stratified according to relatively low-versus high-IPS activation during TC. Relatively reduced IPS engagement, or patterns of IPS-related effective connectivity similar to those with poor TC, appeared to be compensated for by increased engagement of effective connectivity involving fusiform gyrus, angular gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus and striatum. Neural connectivity involving high-level visual processing in fusiform gyrus and related ventral cortical networks may be relevant in compensatory function ameliorating aspects of dyscalculia and mathematical difficulty.

scholarly journals Brain Activation during Face Perception: Evidence of a Developmental Change

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 308-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. Aylward ◽  
J. E. Park ◽  
K. M. Field ◽  
A. C. Parsons ◽  
T. L. Richards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Behavioral Measure ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Mri Scans

Behavioral studies suggest that children under age 10 process faces using a piecemeal strategy based on individual distinctive facial features, whereas older children use a configural strategy based on the spatial relations among the face's features. The purpose of this study was to determine whether activation of the fusiform gyrus, which is involved in face processing in adults, is greater during face processing in older children (12–14 years) than in younger children (8– 10 years). Functional MRI scans were obtained while children viewed faces and houses. A developmental change was observed: Older children, but not younger children, showed significantly more activation in bilateral fusiform gyri for faces than for houses. Activation in the fusiform gyrus correlated significantly with age and with a behavioral measure of configural face processing. Regions believed to be involved in processing basic facial features were activated in both younger and older children. Some evidence was also observed for greater activation for houses versus faces for the older children than for the younger children, suggesting that processing of these two stimulus types becomes more differentiated as children age. The current results provide biological insight into changes in visual processing of faces that occur with normal development.

scholarly journals High-level language processing regions are not engaged in action observation or imitation

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 2555-2570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianna L. Pritchett ◽  
Caitlyn Hoeflin ◽  
Kami Koldewyn ◽  
Eyal Dechter ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
High Level Language ◽  
Left Frontal Lobe ◽  
High Level

A set of left frontal, temporal, and parietal brain regions respond robustly during language comprehension and production (e.g., Fedorenko E, Hsieh PJ, Nieto-Castañón A, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Kanwisher N. J Neurophysiol 104: 1177–1194, 2010; Menenti L, Gierhan SM, Segaert K, Hagoort P. Psychol Sci 22: 1173–1182, 2011). These regions have been further shown to be selective for language relative to other cognitive processes, including arithmetic, aspects of executive function, and music perception (e.g., Fedorenko E, Behr MK, Kanwisher N. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108: 16428–16433, 2011; Monti MM, Osherson DN. Brain Res 1428: 33–42, 2012). However, one claim about overlap between language and nonlinguistic cognition remains prominent. In particular, some have argued that language processing shares computational demands with action observation and/or execution (e.g., Rizzolatti G, Arbib MA. Trends Neurosci 21: 188–194, 1998; Koechlin E, Jubault T. Neuron 50: 963–974, 2006; Tettamanti M, Weniger D. Cortex 42: 491–494, 2006). However, the evidence for these claims is indirect, based on observing activation for language and action tasks within the same broad anatomical areas (e.g., on the lateral surface of the left frontal lobe). To test whether language indeed shares machinery with action observation/execution, we examined the responses of language brain regions, defined functionally in each individual participant (Fedorenko E, Hsieh PJ, Nieto-Castañón A, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Kanwisher N. J Neurophysiol 104: 1177–1194, 2010) to action observation ( experiments 1, 2, and 3a) and action imitation ( experiment 3b). With the exception of the language region in the angular gyrus, all language regions, including those in the inferior frontal gyrus (within “Broca’s area”), showed little or no response during action observation/imitation. These results add to the growing body of literature suggesting that high-level language regions are highly selective for language processing (see Fedorenko E, Varley R. Ann NY Acad Sci 1369: 132–153, 2016 for a review). NEW & NOTEWORTHY Many have argued for overlap in the machinery used to interpret language and others’ actions, either because action observation was a precursor to linguistic communication or because both require interpreting hierarchically-structured stimuli. However, existing evidence is indirect, relying on group analyses or reverse inference. We examined responses to action observation in language regions defined functionally in individual participants and found no response. Thus language comprehension and action observation recruit distinct circuits in the modern brain.

scholarly journals Electrocorticographic responses to time-compressed speech vary across the cortical auditory hierarchy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ido Davidesco ◽  
Thomas Thesen ◽  
Christopher J Honey ◽  
Lucia Melloni ◽  
Werner Doyle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Rate ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Original Sentence ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Usual Rate ◽  
Intelligible Speech ◽  
High Level

AbstractHuman listeners understand spoken language across a variety of rates, but when speech is presented three times or more faster than its usual rate, it becomes unintelligible. How the brain achieves such tolerance and why speech becomes unintelligible above certain rates is still unclear. We addressed these questions using electrocorticography (ECoG) recordings in 7 epileptic patients (two female). Patients rated the intelligibility of sentences presented at the original rate (100%), speeded rates (33% or 66% of the original sentence duration) and a slowed rate (150%). We then examined which parameters of the neural response covary with the transition from intelligible to unintelligible speech. Specifically, we asked whether neural responses: 1) track the acoustic envelope of the incoming speech; 2) “scale” with speech rate, i.e. whether neural responses elicited by slowed and speeded sentences can be linearly scaled to match the responses to the original sentence. Behaviorally, intelligibility was at ceiling for speech rates of 66% and above, but dropped significantly for the 33% rate. At the neural level, Superior Temporal Gyrus regions (STG) in close proximity to A1 (‘low-level’) tracked the acoustic envelope and linearly scaled with the input across all speech rates, irrespective of intelligibility. In contrast, secondary auditory areas in the STG as well as the inferior frontal gyrus and angular gyrus (‘high-level’) tracked the acoustic envelope and linearly scaled with input only for intelligible speech. These results help reconcile seemingly contradictory previous findings and provide better understanding of how information processing unfolds along the cortical auditory hierarchy.

scholarly journals A-063 Viewer Engagement Modulates Activation of Social Brain Systems: Evidence from a Natural Viewing fMRI Paradigm

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 853-853
Author(s):  
Pincus J ◽  
Koirala S ◽  
Li L ◽  
Klin A ◽  
Jones W ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Stimulus Category ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Social Disability

Abstract Objective Engagement is critical for social learning—information that does not engage cognition, even when looked at, will go unprocessed and unlearned. Consequently, atypical engagement can contribute to social disability. Despite its importance, the neural mechanisms underlying engagement remain unknown, largely because no studies have successfully quantified the individualized ways that viewers engage with the world. This study uses patterns of eye-blinking—a novel measure of engagement (Shultz, Klin, Jones, 2011)—to examine how a viewer’s own engagement with social stimuli (e.g. faces) modulates activation of social brain systems. Method Simultaneous functional MRI and eye-tracking data were collected while children (n = 12, ages 8–12) watched naturalistic social videos of children interacting. Eye-fixation and blink patterns were used to identify moments when viewers looked at a face and were ‘highly engaged’ or ‘less engaged’ with those faces. Whole-brain analyses compared brain activation in response to each condition of interest (‘highly engaging faces’, ‘less engaging faces’). Results Whole-brain analyses (z = 2.3, cluster corrected at p &lt; .05) reveal increased activation in bilateral occipital cortex, left middle temporal gyrus, bilateral posterior cingulate, left orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus, right angular gyrus, and right fusiform gyrus, when viewing faces perceived as ‘highly engaging’ versus ‘less engaging’. Conclusion Findings suggest that even when viewing the same stimulus category (e.g. faces), one’s own engagement with the stimulus modulates brain activation, even in canonical face processing areas like the fusiform gyrus. Insights into the neural mechanisms of engagement can inform future understanding of social disability and interventions for social learning.

scholarly journals Neuroanatomical dissociations of syntax and semantics revealed by lesion-symptom mapping

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Matchin ◽  
Alexandra Basilakos ◽  
Dirk-Bart den Ouden ◽  
Brielle C. Stark ◽  
Gregory Hickok ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Word Fluency ◽  
Specific Language Impairments ◽  
Lesion Symptom Mapping ◽  
High Level

AbstractIn the early and mid 1800s, scientists debated whether the human brain was functionally differentiated with respect to cognition. The issue was largely resolved when specific language impairments were identified following focal patterns of brain damage. However, neuroimaging has revived this discussion, as many studies find similar syntactic and semantic effects across the set of brain regions implicated in language. Here we address this modern debate using lesion-symptom mapping in two large, partially-overlapping groups of people with left hemisphere brain damage due to stroke (N=121, N=92). We identified multiple measure by region interaction effects, associating damage to the posterior middle temporal gyrus with syntactic comprehension deficits, damage to posterior inferior frontal gyrus with expressive agrammatism, and damage to inferior angular gyrus with semantic category word fluency deficits. Our results are inconsistent with recent hypotheses that regions of the language network play similar roles in high-level linguistic processing.

scholarly journals Diagnostic Task Specific Activations in Functional MRI and Aberrant Connectivity of Insula with Middle Frontal Gyrus Can Inform the Differential Diagnosis of Psychosis

Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Drozdstoy Stoyanov ◽  
Katrin Aryutova ◽  
Sevdalina Kandilarova ◽  
Rositsa Paunova ◽  
Zlatoslav Arabadzhiev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Paranoid Schizophrenia ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Insula ◽  
Middle Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Inhibitory Connection ◽  
Significant Difference

We constructed a novel design integrating the administration of a clinical self-assessment scale with simultaneous acquisition of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), aiming at cross-validation between psychopathology evaluation and neuroimaging techniques. We hypothesized that areas demonstrating differential activation in two groups of patients (the first group exhibiting paranoid delusions in the context of paranoid schizophrenia—SCH—and second group with a depressive episode in the context of major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder—DEP) will have distinct connectivity patterns and structural differences. Fifty-one patients with SCH (n = 25) or DEP (n = 26) were scanned with three different MRI sequences: a structural and two functional sequences—resting-state and task-related fMRI (the stimuli represent items from a paranoid-depressive self-evaluation scale). While no significant differences were found in gray matter volumes, we were able to discriminate between the two clinical entities by identifying two significant clusters of activations in the SCH group—the left Precuneus (PreCu) extending to the left Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC) and the right Angular Gyrus (AG). Additionally, the effective connectivity of the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), a part of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) to the Anterior Insula (AI), demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups with inhibitory connection demonstrated only in SCH. The observed activations of PreCu, PCC, and AG (involved in the Default Mode Network DMN) might be indirect evidence of the inhibitory connection from the DLPFC to AI, interfering with the balancing function of the insula as the dynamic switch in the DMN. The findings of our current study might suggest that the connectivity from DLPFC to the anterior insula can be interpreted as evidence for the presence of an aberrant network that leads to behavioral abnormalities, the manifestation of which depends on the direction of influence. The reduced effective connectivity from the AI to the DLPFC is manifested as depressive symptoms, and the inhibitory effect from the DLPFC to the AI is reflected in the paranoid symptoms of schizophrenia.

scholarly journals The Rapid Extraction of Gist—Early Neural Correlates of High-level Visual Processing

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Oppermann ◽  
Uwe Hassler ◽  
Jörg D. Jescheniak ◽  
Thomas Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Gamma Band ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Rapid Extraction ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Level ◽  
Individual Objects

The human cognitive system is highly efficient in extracting information from our visual environment. This efficiency is based on acquired knowledge that guides our attention toward relevant events and promotes the recognition of individual objects as they appear in visual scenes. The experience-based representation of such knowledge contains not only information about the individual objects but also about relations between them, such as the typical context in which individual objects co-occur. The present EEG study aimed at exploring the availability of such relational knowledge in the time course of visual scene processing, using oscillatory evoked gamma-band responses as a neural correlate for a currently activated cortical stimulus representation. Participants decided whether two simultaneously presented objects were conceptually coherent (e.g., mouse–cheese) or not (e.g., crown–mushroom). We obtained increased evoked gamma-band responses for coherent scenes compared with incoherent scenes beginning as early as 70 msec after stimulus onset within a distributed cortical network, including the right temporal, the right frontal, and the bilateral occipital cortex. This finding provides empirical evidence for the functional importance of evoked oscillatory activity in high-level vision beyond the visual cortex and, thus, gives new insights into the functional relevance of neuronal interactions. It also indicates the very early availability of experience-based knowledge that might be regarded as a fundamental mechanism for the rapid extraction of the gist of a scene.

scholarly journals Driving and visual deficits in stroke patients

2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Marcondes Braga ◽  
Renato Nickel ◽  
Marcos Lange ◽  
Élcio Juliato Piovesan
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Moderate Risk ◽  
Interference Factor ◽  
Visual Deficits ◽  
Useful Field Of View ◽  
High Level ◽  
Safe Performance ◽  
Intention Group

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of the present study was to conduct an exploratory assessment of visual impairment following stroke, and to discuss the possibilities of reintroducing patients to the activity of driving. Methods: The Useful Field of View test was used to assess visual processing and visual attention. Results: A total of 18 patients were included in the study, and were assigned to either the drive group (n = 9) or the intention group (n = 9). In the drive group, one patient was categorized as moderate-to-high risk; whereas, in the intention group, one patient was categorized as low-to-moderate risk. Additionally, two patients in the intention group were categorized as high risk. The patients did not perceive their visual deficits as a limitation. Conclusion: Visual attention is an interference factor in terms of the safe performance of driving after a stroke. All patients showed a high level of interest for the independence provided through being able to drive.

scholarly journals Disentangling Mathematics from Executive Functions by Investigating Unique Functional Connectivity Patterns Predictive of Mathematics Ability

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny Skagerlund ◽  
Taylor Bolt ◽  
Jason S. Nomi ◽  
Mikael Skagenholt ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Mathematical Ability ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Intraparietal Sulcus ◽  
Supramarginal Gyrus ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
The Right

What are the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms that give rise to mathematical competence? This study investigated the relationship between tests of mathematical ability completed outside the scanner and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) of cytoarchitectonically defined subdivisions of the parietal cortex in adults. These parietal areas are also involved in executive functions (EFs). Therefore, it remains unclear whether there are unique networks for mathematical processing. We investigate the neural networks for mathematical cognition and three measures of EF using resting-state fMRI data collected from 51 healthy adults. Using 10 ROIs in seed to whole-brain voxel-wise analyses, the results showed that arithmetical ability was correlated with FC between the right anterior intraparietal sulcus (hIP1) and the left supramarginal gyrus and between the right posterior intraparietal sulcus (hIP3) and the left middle frontal gyrus and the right premotor cortex. The connection between the posterior portion of the left angular gyrus and the left inferior frontal gyrus was also correlated with mathematical ability. Covariates of EF eliminated connectivity patterns with nodes in inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus, suggesting neural overlap. Controlling for EF, we found unique connections correlated with mathematical ability between the right hIP1 and the left supramarginal gyrus and between hIP3 bilaterally to premotor cortex bilaterally. This is partly in line with the “mapping hypothesis” of numerical cognition in which the right intraparietal sulcus subserves nonsymbolic number processing and connects to the left parietal cortex, responsible for calculation procedures. We show that FC within this circuitry is a significant predictor of math ability in adulthood.

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