Using neural modeling and functional neuroimaging to study the neural basis of auditory object processing

Viewing cognitive functions as mediated by networks has begun to play a central role in interpreting neuroscientific data, and studies evaluating interregional functional and effective connectivity have become staples of the neuroimaging literature. The neurobiological substrates of functional and effective connectivity are, however, uncertain. We have constructed neurobiologically realistic models for visual and auditory object processing with multiple interconnected brain regions that perform delayed match-to-sample (DMS) tasks. We used these models to investigate how neurobiological parameters affect the interregional functional connectivity between functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) time-series. Variability is included in the models as subject-to-subject differences in the strengths of anatomical connections, scan-to-scan changes in the level of attention, and trial-to-trial interactions with non-specific neurons processing noise stimuli. We find that time-series correlations between integrated synaptic activities between the anterior temporal and the prefrontal cortex were larger during the DMS task than during a control task. These results were less clear when the integrated synaptic activity was haemodynamically convolved to generate simulated fMRI activity. As the strength of the model anatomical connectivity between temporal and frontal cortex was weakened, so too was the strength of the corresponding functional connectivity. These results provide a partial validation for using fMRI functional connectivity to assess brain interregional relations.

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Neural modeling and functional neuroimaging

Human Brain Mapping ◽

10.1002/hbm.460010405 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

pp. 269-283 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Barry Horwitz ◽

Olaf Sporns

Keyword(s):

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Neural Modeling

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The experience of time: neural mechanisms and the interplay of emotion, cognition and embodiment

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2009.0025 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 364 (1525) ◽

pp. 1809-1813 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Marc Wittmann ◽

Virginie van Wassenhove

Keyword(s):

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Pharmacological Interventions ◽

Time Intervals ◽

Experience Of Time ◽

Cognitive Neurosciences ◽

Sense Of Time ◽

Introductory Paper ◽

Behavioural Experiments ◽

The Brain

Time research has been a neglected topic in the cognitive neurosciences of the last decades: how do humans perceive time? How and where in the brain is time processed? This introductory paper provides an overview of the empirical and theoretical papers on the psychological and neural basis of time perception collected in this theme issue. Contributors from the fields of cognitive psychology, psychiatry, neurology and neuroanatomy tackle this complex question with a variety of techniques ranging from psychophysical and behavioural experiments to pharmacological interventions and functional neuroimaging. Several (and some new) models of how and where in the brain time is processed are presented in this unique collection of recent research that covers experienced time intervals from milliseconds to minutes. We hope this volume to be conducive in developing a better understanding of the sense of time as part of complex set of brain–body factors that include cognitive, emotional and body states.

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The longitudinal stability of fMRI activation during reward processing in adolescents and young adults

10.1101/2020.08.06.236596 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

David AA Baranger ◽

Morgan Lindenmuth ◽

Melissa Nance ◽

Amanda E. Guyer ◽

Kate Keenan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Individual Difference ◽

Disease Risk ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Reward Processing ◽

Adolescents And Young Adults ◽

Psychiatric Disease ◽

Group Level ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Reward Function

AbstractBackgroundThe use of functional neuroimaging has been an extremely fruitful avenue for investigating the neural basis of human reward function. This approach has included identification of potential neurobiological mechanisms of psychiatric disease and examination of environmental, experiential, and biological factors that may contribute to disease risk via effects on the reward system. However, a central and largely unexamined assumption of much of this research is that neural reward function is an individual difference characteristic that is relatively stable over time.MethodsIn two independent samples of adolescents and young adults studied longitudinally (Ns = 145 & 153, 100% female & 100% male, ages 15-21 & 20-22, 2-4 scans & 2 scans respectively), we tested within-person stability of reward-task BOLD activation, with a median of 1 and 2 years between scans. We examined multiple commonly used contrasts of active states and baseline in both the anticipation and feedback phases of a card-guessing reward task. We examined the effects of cortical parcellation resolution, contrast, network (reward regions and resting-state networks), region-size, and activation strength and variability on the stability of reward-related activation.ResultsOverall, stability (ICC; intra-class correlation) across 1-2 years was modest. In both samples, contrasts of an active state relative to a baseline were more stable (e.g., Win>Baseline; mean ICC = 0.13 – 0.33) than contrasts of two active states (e.g., Win>Loss; mean ICC = 0.048 – 0.05). Additionally, activation in reward regions was less stable than in many non-task networks (e.g., dorsal attention), and activation in regions with greater between-subject variability showed higher stability in both samples.ConclusionsThese results show that functional neuroimaging activation to reward has modest stability over 1-2 years. Notably, results suggest that contrasts intended to map cognitive function and show robust group-level effects (i.e. Win > Loss) may be less effective in studies of individual differences and disease risk. The robustness of group-level activation should be weighed against other factors when selecting regions of interest in individual difference fMRI studies.

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Ictal and interictal brain activation in episodic migraine: Neural basis for extent of allodynia

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0244320 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. e0244320

Author(s):

Nasim Maleki ◽

Edina Szabo ◽

Lino Becerra ◽

Eric Moulton ◽

Steven J. Scrivani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Imaging Study ◽

Brain Activation ◽

Episodic Migraine ◽

Pain Tolerance ◽

Trigeminal Nucleus ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Noxious Heat ◽

No Activation

In some patients, migraine attacks are associated with symptoms of allodynia which can be localized (cephalic) or generalized (extracephalic). Using functional neuroimaging and cutaneous thermal stimulation, we aimed to investigate the differences in brain activation of patients with episodic migraine (n = 19) based on their allodynic status defined by changes between ictal and interictal pain tolerance threshold for each subject at the time of imaging. In this prospective imaging study, differences were found in brain activity between the ictal and interictal visits in the brainstem/pons, thalamus, insula, cerebellum and cingulate cortex. Significant differences were also observed in the pattern of activation along the trigeminal pathway to noxious heat stimuli in no allodynia vs. generalized allodynia in the thalamus and the trigeminal nucleus but there were no activation differences in the trigeminal ganglion. The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings provide direct evidence for the view that in migraine patients who are allodynic during the ictal phase of their attacks, the spinal trigeminal nucleus and posterior thalamus become hyper-responsive (sensitized)–to the extent that they mediate cephalic and extracephalic allodynia, respectively. In addition, descending analgesic systems seem as “switched off” in generalized allodynia.

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Neural basis for adaptive motor behavior during car driving

10.1101/2021.10.03.462866 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ryu Ohata ◽

Kenji Ogawa ◽

Hiroshi Imamizu

Keyword(s):

Driving Simulator ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Motor Behavior ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Daily Practice ◽

Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Unique Contribution ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Sensitivity Change ◽

Car Driving

AbstractCar driving is supported by motor skills trained through continuous daily practice. One of the skills unique to expert drivers is the ability to detect abrupt changes in the driving environment and then quickly adapt their operation mode to the changes. Previous functional neuroimaging studies on motor control investigated the mechanisms underlying behaviors adaptive to changes in control properties of simple experimental devices such as a computer mouse or a joystick. The switching of multiple internal models mainly engages adaptive behaviors and underlies the interplay between the cerebellum and frontoparietal network (FPN) regions as the neural process. However, it remains unclear whether the neural mechanisms identified through an experimental paradigm using such simple devices also underlie practical driving behaviors. In the current study, we measure functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activities while participants control a realistic driving simulator inside the MRI scanner. Here, the accelerator sensitivity of a virtual car is abruptly changed, requiring participants to respond to this change as quickly as possible. We first compare brain activities before and after the sensitivity change. As a result, sensorimotor areas, including the left cerebellum, increase their activities after the sensitivity change. Moreover, after the change, activity significantly increases in the inferior parietal lobe and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, parts of the FPN regions. By contrast, the posterior cingulate cortex, a part of the default mode network, deactivates after the sensitivity change. Our results suggest that the neural bases found in previous experiments using the simpler devices can serve as the foundation of adaptive car driving. At the same time, this study also highlights the unique contribution of non-motor-related regions to addressing the high cognitive demands of driving.

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The Neural Basis of Motivational Influences on Cognitive Control

10.1101/113126 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Cameron Parro ◽

Matthew L Dixon ◽

Kalina Christoff

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Large Scale ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Premotor Cortex ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

Neural Basis ◽

The Brain

AbstractCognitive control mechanisms support the deliberate regulation of thought and behavior based on current goals. Recent work suggests that motivational incentives improve cognitive control, and has begun to elucidate the brain regions that may support this effect. Here, we conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of motivated cognitive control using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) and Neurosynth in order to delineate the brain regions that are consistently activated across studies. The analysis included functional neuroimaging studies that investigated changes in brain activation during cognitive control tasks when reward incentives were present versus absent. The ALE analysis revealed consistent recruitment in regions associated with the frontoparietal control network including the inferior frontal sulcus (IFS) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS), as well as consistent recruitment in regions associated with the salience network including the anterior insula and anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC). A large-scale exploratory meta-analysis using Neurosynth replicated the ALE results, and also identified the caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens, medial thalamus, inferior frontal junction/premotor cortex (IFJ/PMC), and hippocampus. Finally, we conducted separate ALE analyses to compare recruitment during cue and target periods, which tap into proactive engagement of rule-outcome associations, and the mobilization of appropriate viscero-motor states to execute a response, respectively. We found that largely distinct sets of brain regions are recruited during cue and target periods. Altogether, these findings suggest that flexible interactions between frontoparietal, salience, and dopaminergic midbrain-striatal networks may allow control demands to be precisely tailored based on expected value.

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Merging Clinical Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging to Evaluate the Construct Validity and Neural Network Engagement of the n-Back Task

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s135561771400054x ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 20 (7) ◽

pp. 736-750 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Tonisha E. Kearney-Ramos ◽

Jennifer S. Fausett ◽

Jennifer L. Gess ◽

Ashley Reno ◽

Jennifer Peraza ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Construct Validity ◽

Convergent Validity ◽

Discriminant Validity ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Time Variability ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Clinical Neuropsychology ◽

Reaction Time Variability ◽

Back Task

AbstractThe n-back task is a widely used neuroimaging paradigm for studying the neural basis of working memory (WM); however, its neuropsychometric properties have received little empirical investigation. The present study merged clinical neuropsychology and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the construct validity of the letter variant of the n-back task (LNB) and to further identify the task-evoked networks involved in WM. Construct validity of the LNB task was investigated using a bootstrapping approach to correlate LNB task performance across clinically validated neuropsychological measures of WM to establish convergent validity, as well as measures of related but distinct cognitive constructs (i.e., attention and short-term memory) to establish discriminant validity. Independent component analysis (ICA) identified brain networks active during the LNB task in 34 healthy control participants, and general linear modeling determined task-relatedness of these networks. Bootstrap correlation analyses revealed moderate to high correlations among measures expected to converge with LNB (|ρ|≥0.37) and weak correlations among measures expected to discriminate (|ρ|≤0.29), controlling for age and education. ICA identified 35 independent networks, 17 of which demonstrated engagement significantly related to task condition, controlling for reaction time variability. Of these, the bilateral frontoparietal networks, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, bilateral superior parietal lobules including precuneus, and frontoinsular network were preferentially recruited by the 2-back condition compared to 0-back control condition, indicating WM involvement. These results support the use of the LNB as a measure of WM and confirm its use in probing the network-level neural correlates of WM processing. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–15)

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Spontaneous processing of abstract categorical information in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2005.0436 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 261-265 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Yale E Cohen ◽

Marc D Hauser ◽

Brian E Russ

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Significant Role ◽

Human Cognition ◽

Object Processing ◽

Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Categorical Information ◽

Different Types ◽

Category Discrimination ◽

Auditory Object ◽

Abstract Categories

In various aspects of linguistic analysis and human cognition, some forms of observed variation are ignored in the service of handling more abstract categories. In the absence of training, rhesus discriminate between different types of vocalizations based on the information conveyed as opposed to their acoustic morphologies. We hypothesized that neurons in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vPFC), an area involved in auditory-object processing, might be involved in this spontaneous categorization. To test this hypothesis, we recorded vPFC activity while rhesus listened to vocalizations conveying information about food and non-food events. Results showed between, but not within category discrimination. That is, vPFC neurons discriminated between vocalizations associated with food versus non-food events but not within the class of food calls associated with differences in quality. These results indicate that the vPFC plays a significant role in spontaneously processing abstract categorical information.

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The functional neuro-anatomy of the human response to fear: A brief review

South African Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v17i1.270 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 6

Author(s):

A Del Casale ◽

S Ferracuti ◽

G D Kotzalidis ◽

C Rapinesi ◽

D Serata ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotional Response ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Living Environment ◽

Attention Capture ◽

Fear Learning ◽

Imaging Studies ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Future Improvement ◽

Neuroimaging Techniques

The perception of fear and subsequent appropriate behavioral responding are crucial for the adaptation of species to their living environment. Functional neuroimaging studies of the neural basis of fear during the last few decades in humans contributed to significant advancement in the understanding of its mechanisms. Imaging studies help us delineating the role of amygdala-based neurocircuitry in fear activation and attention capture. The aim of this paper was to briefly review the most recent functional neuroimaging studies of fear perception, modulation and learning. Important knowledge was acquired about the factors that set fear in motion, including the role of nonconscious processes and the character of fear in guiding attention. A subcortical network interacts with the prefrontal cortex to modulate emotional response that allows better coping with environmental and social circumstances. Fear learning reduces the need to relearn about danger, and flexibility processes readjust fear behavior when external circumstances change. Future improvement of functional and other neuroimaging techniques may promote better clarification of the neurocircuitry involved in fear perception, learning and modulation.

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