scholarly journals Sex and pedagogy influences in physics learning-related reorganization of brain activation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica E. Bartley ◽  
Michael C. Riedel ◽  
Taylor Salo ◽  
Katherine L. Bottenhorn ◽  
Emily R. Boeving ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Introductory Physics ◽  
Physics Learning ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Physics Instruction ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Before And After

ABSTRACTPhysics is a challenging academic pursuit in which university students regularly struggle to achieve success. Female students tend to perform negatively on introductory physics conceptual assessments compared to their male peers; however, active-learning classroom curricula are known to broadly improve performance on these tests. Here, we used fMRI to delineate physics-related brain activity in 107 students and probed for changes following a semester of active-learning or lecture-based physics instruction. Large-scale reorganization of brain activity accompanying learning occurred in a mixed frontoparietal and default mode network. Sex differences were observed in frontoparietal, default mode, and primary visual areas before and after instruction. Regions showing significant pedagogy, sex, and time interactions were revealed during physics retrieval, suggesting the type of class students complete may influence sex differences in how students retrieve information. These results reveal potentially elucidating sex and pedagogy differences underlying the neural mechanisms supporting physics learning.

scholarly journals Sex differences in brain correlates of STEM anxiety

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel A. Gonzalez ◽  
Katherine L. Bottenhorn ◽  
Jessica E. Bartley ◽  
Timothy Hayes ◽  
Michael C. Riedel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Math Anxiety ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Stem Learning ◽  
Default Mode

Abstract Anxiety is known to dysregulate the salience, default mode, and central executive networks of the human brain, yet this phenomenon has not been fully explored across the STEM learning experience, where anxiety can impact negatively academic performance. Here, we evaluated anxiety and large-scale brain connectivity in 101 undergraduate physics students. We found sex differences in STEM-related and clinical anxiety, with longitudinal increases in science anxiety observed for both female and male students. Sex-specific relationships between STEM anxiety and brain connectivity emerged, with male students exhibiting distinct inter-network connectivity for STEM and clinical anxiety, and female students demonstrating no significant within-sex correlations. Anxiety was negatively correlated with academic performance in sex-specific ways at both pre- and post-instruction. Moreover, math anxiety in male students mediated the relation between default mode-salience connectivity and course grade. Together, these results reveal complex sex differences in the neural mechanisms driving how anxiety is related to STEM learning.

scholarly journals Sex differences in brain correlates of STEM anxiety

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel A. Gonzalez ◽  
Katherine L. Bottenhorn ◽  
Jessica E. Bartley ◽  
Timothy Hayes ◽  
Michael C. Riedel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Math Anxiety ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Stem Learning ◽  
Default Mode

ABSTRACTAnxiety is known to dysregulate the salience, default mode, and central executive networks of the human brain, yet this phenomenon has not been fully explored across the STEM learning experience, where anxiety can impact negatively academic performance. Here, we evaluated anxiety and large-scale brain connectivity in 101 undergraduate physics students. We found sex differences in STEM-related but not clinical anxiety, with longitudinal increases in science anxiety observed for both female and male students. Sex-specific impacts of STEM anxiety on brain connectivity emerged, with male students exhibiting distinct inter-network connectivity for STEM and clinical anxiety and female students demonstrating no significant within-sex correlations. Anxiety was negatively correlated with academic performance in sex-specific ways at both pre-and post-instruction. Moreover, math anxiety in male students mediated the relation between default mode-salience connectivity and course grade. Together, these results reveal complex sex differences in the neural mechanisms driving how anxiety impacts STEM learning.

scholarly journals Virtual reality-based sensorimotor adaptation shapes subsequent spontaneous and naturalistic stimulus-driven brain activity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meytal Wilf ◽  
Celine Dupuis ◽  
Davide Nardo ◽  
Diana Huber ◽  
Sibilla Sander ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Visual Response ◽  
Spatial Shift ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Behavioural Tests ◽  
The Right

Our everyday life summons numerous novel sensorimotor experiences, to which our brain needs to adapt in order to function properly. However, tracking plasticity of naturalistic behaviour and associated brain modulations is challenging. Here we tackled this question implementing a prism adaptation training in virtual reality (VRPA) in combination with functional neuroimaging. Three groups of healthy participants (N=45) underwent VRPA (with a spatial shift either to the left/right side, or with no shift), and performed fMRI sessions before and after training. To capture modulations in free-flowing, task-free brain activity, the fMRI sessions included resting state and free viewing of naturalistic videos. We found significant decreases in spontaneous functional connectivity between large-scale cortical networks, namely attentional and default mode/fronto-parietal networks, only for adaptation groups. Additionally, VRPA was found to bias visual representations of naturalistic videos, as following rightward adaptation, we found upregulation of visual response in an area in the parieto-occipital sulcus (POS) in the right hemisphere. Notably, the extent of POS upregulation correlated with the size of the VRPA induced after-effect measured in behavioural tests. This study demonstrates that a brief VRPA exposure is able to change large-scale cortical connectivity and correspondingly bias the representation of naturalistic sensory inputs.

scholarly journals Content-specific activity in frontoparietal and default-mode networks during prior-guided visual perception

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos González-García ◽  
Matthew W Flounders ◽  
Raymond Chang ◽  
Alexis T Baria ◽  
Biyu J He
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Specific Activity ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Representational Space ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
The Brain

How prior knowledge shapes perceptual processing across the human brain, particularly in the frontoparietal (FPN) and default-mode (DMN) networks, remains unknown. Using ultra-high-field (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we elucidated the effects that the acquisition of prior knowledge has on perceptual processing across the brain. We observed that prior knowledge significantly impacted neural representations in the FPN and DMN, rendering responses to individual visual images more distinct from each other, and more similar to the image-specific prior. In addition, neural representations were structured in a hierarchy that remained stable across perceptual conditions, with early visual areas and DMN anchored at the two extremes. Two large-scale cortical gradients occur along this hierarchy: first, dimensionality of the neural representational space increased along the hierarchy; second, prior’s impact on neural representations was greater in higher-order areas. These results reveal extensive and graded influences of prior knowledge on perceptual processing across the brain.

scholarly journals Effective psychological treatment for PTSD changes the dynamics of specific large-scale brain networks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Charquero-Ballester ◽  
Birgit Kleim ◽  
Diego Vidaurre ◽  
Christian Ruff ◽  
Eloise Stark ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Therapy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Psychological Treatment ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Temporal Precision ◽  
Data Driven Approach ◽  
Post Traumatic

AbstractVery little is known about the role of effective cognitive therapy in reversing imbalances in brain activity after trauma. We hypothesised that exaggerated threat perception characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and subsequent recovery from this disorder, are underpinned by changes in the dynamics of large-scale brain networks. Here, we use a novel data-driven approach with high temporal precision to find recurring brain networks from fMRI data and estimate when these networks become active during exposure to either trauma reminders or neutral pictures. We found that PTSD patients spend less time in two default mode sub-networks in contrast to trauma-exposed healthy controls, and that PTSD symptom severity correlates positively with time spent in the salience network during exposure to trauma reminders. The former are important for different aspects of self-referential processing and the latter for detection of threat. Importantly, the decreased time in the default mode sub-networks is rebalanced after successful cognitive therapy for PTSD. Our results show that remittance of PTSD through trauma-focused cognitive therapy is associated with the successful reinstatement of a healthy balance in self-referential and threat detection brain networks.

scholarly journals Stimulus- and Neural-Referred Visual Receptive Field Properties following Hemispherectomy: A Case Study Revisited

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hinke N. Halbertsma ◽  
Koen V. Haak ◽  
Frans W. Cornelissen
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Functional Reorganization ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Scale Properties

Damage to the visual system can result in (a partial) loss of vision, in response to which the visual system may functionally reorganize. Yet the timing, extent, and conditions under which this occurs are not well understood. Hence, studies in individuals with diverse congenital and acquired conditions and using various methods are needed to better understand this. In the present study, we examined the visual system of a young girl who received a hemispherectomy at the age of three and who consequently suffered from hemianopia. We did so by evaluating the corticocortical and retinocortical projections in the visual system of her remaining hemisphere. For the examination of these aspects, we analyzed the characteristics of the connective fields (“neural-referred” receptive fields) based on both resting-state (RS) and retinotopy data. The evaluation of RS data, reflecting brain activity independent from visual stimulation, is of particular interest as it is not biased by the patient’s atypical visual percept. We found that, primarily when the patient was at rest, the connective fields between V1 and both early and late visual areas were larger than normal. These abnormally large connective fields could be a sign either of functional reorganization or of unmasked suppressive feedback signals that are normally masked by interhemispheric signals. Furthermore, we confirmed our previous finding of abnormal retinocortical or “stimulus-referred” projections in both early and late visual areas. More specifically, we found an enlarged foveal representation and smaller population receptive fields. These differences could also be a sign of functional reorganization or rather a reflection of the interruption visual information that travels, via the remainder of the visual pathway, from the retina to the visual cortex. To conclude, while we do find indications for relatively subtle changes in visual field map properties, we found no evidence of large-scale reorganization—even though the patient could have benefitted from this. Our work suggests that at a later developmental stage, large-scale reorganization of the visual system no longer occurs, while small-scale properties may still change to facilitate adaptive processing and viewing strategies.

The Attenuation of Very Low Frequency Brain Oscillations in Transitions from a Rest State to Active Attention

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 191-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzannah K. Helps ◽  
Samantha J. Broyd ◽  
Christopher J. James ◽  
Anke Karl ◽  
Edmund J. S. Sonuga-Barke
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Sampling Rate ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Adhd Symptoms ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Very Low Frequency ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Interference Hypothesis ◽  
Mode Interference

Background: The default mode interference hypothesis ( Sonuga-Barke & Castellanos, 2007 ) predicts (1) the attenuation of very low frequency oscillations (VLFO; e.g., .05 Hz) in brain activity within the default mode network during the transition from rest to task, and (2) that failures to attenuate in this way will lead to an increased likelihood of periodic attention lapses that are synchronized to the VLFO pattern. Here, we tested these predictions using DC-EEG recordings within and outside of a previously identified network of electrode locations hypothesized to reflect DMN activity (i.e., S3 network; Helps et al., 2008 ). Method: 24 young adults (mean age 22.3 years; 8 male), sampled to include a wide range of ADHD symptoms, took part in a study of rest to task transitions. Two conditions were compared: 5 min of rest (eyes open) and a 10-min simple 2-choice RT task with a relatively high sampling rate (ISI 1 s). DC-EEG was recorded during both conditions, and the low-frequency spectrum was decomposed and measures of the power within specific bands extracted. Results: Shift from rest to task led to an attenuation of VLFO activity within the S3 network which was inversely associated with ADHD symptoms. RT during task also showed a VLFO signature. During task there was a small but significant degree of synchronization between EEG and RT in the VLFO band. Attenuators showed a lower degree of synchrony than nonattenuators. Discussion: The results provide some initial EEG-based support for the default mode interference hypothesis and suggest that failure to attenuate VLFO in the S3 network is associated with higher synchrony between low-frequency brain activity and RT fluctuations during a simple RT task. Although significant, the effects were small and future research should employ tasks with a higher sampling rate to increase the possibility of extracting robust and stable signals.

The Effect of Active Site-inhibited Factor VIIa on Tissue Factor-initiated Coagulation Using Platelets before and after Aspirin Administration

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (04) ◽  
pp. 1202-1208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Kjalke ◽  
Julie A Oliver ◽  
Dougald M Monroe ◽  
Maureane Hoffman ◽  
Mirella Ezban ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tissue Factor ◽  
Active Site ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Thrombin Generation ◽  
Factor Viia ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Antithrombotic Agent ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Ic50 Values

SummaryActive site-inactivated factor VIIa has potential as an antithrombotic agent. The effects of D-Phe-L-Phe-L-Arg-chloromethyl ketone-treated factor VIla (FFR-FVIIa) were evaluated in a cell-based system mimicking in vivo initiation of coagulation. FFR-FVIIa inhibited platelet activation (as measured by expression of P-selectin) and subsequent large-scale thrombin generation in a dose-dependent manner with IC50 values of 1.4 ± 0.8 nM (n = 8) and 0.9 ± 0.7 nM (n = 7), respectively. Kd for factor VIIa binding to monocytes ki for FFR-FVIIa competing with factor VIIa were similar (11.4 ± 0.8 pM and 10.6 ± 1.1 pM, respectively), showing that FFR-FVIIa binds to tissue factor in the tenase complex with the same affinity as factor VIIa. Using platelets from volunteers before and after ingestion of aspirin (1.3 g), there were no significant differences in the IC50 values of FFR-FVIIa [after aspirin ingestion, the IC50 values were 1.7 ± 0.9 nM (n = 8) for P-selectin expression, p = 0.37, and 1.4 ± 1.3 nM (n = 7) for thrombin generation, p = 0.38]. This shows that aspirin treatment of platelets does not influence the inhibition of tissue factor-initiated coagulation by FFR-FVIIa, probably because thrombin activation of platelets is not entirely dependent upon expression of thromboxane A2.

Reaction-based Enumeration, Active Learning, and Free Energy Calculations to Rapidly Explore Synthetically Tractable Chemical Space and Optimize Potency of Cyclin Dependent Kinase 2 Inhibitors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Konze ◽  
Pieter Bos ◽  
Markus Dahlgren ◽  
Karl Leswing ◽  
Ivan Tubert-Brohman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Chemical Space ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Free Energy Calculations ◽  
Computational Technique ◽  
Cyclin Dependent Kinase ◽  
Energy Calculations

We report a new computational technique, PathFinder, that uses retrosynthetic analysis followed by combinatorial synthesis to generate novel compounds in synthetically accessible chemical space. Coupling PathFinder with active learning and cloud-based free energy calculations allows for large-scale potency predictions of compounds on a timescale that impacts drug discovery. The process is further accelerated by using a combination of population-based statistics and active learning techniques. Using this approach, we rapidly optimized R-groups and core hops for inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinase 2. We explored greater than 300 thousand ideas and identified 35 ligands with diverse commercially available R-groups and a predicted IC<sub>50</sub> < 100 nM, and four unique cores with a predicted IC<sub>50</sub> < 100 nM. The rapid turnaround time, and scale of chemical exploration, suggests that this is a useful approach to accelerate the discovery of novel chemical matter in drug discovery campaigns.

Reaction-based Enumeration, Active Learning, and Free Energy Calculations to Rapidly Explore Synthetically Tractable Chemical Space and Optimize Potency of Cyclin Dependent Kinase 2 Inhibitors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Konze ◽  
Pieter Bos ◽  
Markus Dahlgren ◽  
Karl Leswing ◽  
Ivan Tubert-Brohman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Chemical Space ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Free Energy Calculations ◽  
Computational Technique ◽  
Cyclin Dependent Kinase ◽  
Energy Calculations

We report a new computational technique, PathFinder, that uses retrosynthetic analysis followed by combinatorial synthesis to generate novel compounds in synthetically accessible chemical space. Coupling PathFinder with active learning and cloud-based free energy calculations allows for large-scale potency predictions of compounds on a timescale that impacts drug discovery. The process is further accelerated by using a combination of population-based statistics and active learning techniques. Using this approach, we rapidly optimized R-groups and core hops for inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinase 2. We explored greater than 300 thousand ideas and identified 35 ligands with diverse commercially available R-groups and a predicted IC<sub>50</sub> < 100 nM, and four unique cores with a predicted IC<sub>50</sub> < 100 nM. The rapid turnaround time, and scale of chemical exploration, suggests that this is a useful approach to accelerate the discovery of novel chemical matter in drug discovery campaigns.

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