Mental Imagery of Faces and Places Activates Corresponding Stimulus-Specific Brain Regions

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1013-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. O'Craven ◽  
N. Kanwisher
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Mental Image ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Selective Activation ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Processing Mechanisms ◽  
The Brain

What happens in the brain when you conjure up a mental image in your mind's eye? We tested whether the particular regions of extrastriate cortex activated during mental imagery depend on the content of the image. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we demonstrated selective activation within a region of cortex specialized for face perception during mental imagery of faces, and selective activation within a place-selective cortical region during imagery of places. In a further study, we compared the activation for imagery and perception in these regions, and found greater response magnitudes for perception than for imagery of the same items. Finally, we found that it is possible to determine the content of single cognitive events from an inspection of the fMRI data from individual imagery trials. These findings strengthen evidence that imagery and perception share common processing mechanisms, and demonstrate that the specific brain regions activated during mental imagery depend on the content of the visual image.

Evaluating the Mind’s Eye

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 1535-1542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Pearson ◽  
Rosanne L. Rademaker ◽  
Frank Tong
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Binocular Rivalry ◽  
Catch Trial ◽  
Mental Image ◽  
Perceptual Bias ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Entire Study ◽  
Demand Characteristics ◽  
Mind's Eye

Can people evaluate phenomenal qualities of internally generated experiences, such as whether a mental image is vivid or detailed? This question exemplifies a problem of metacognition: How well do people know their own thoughts? In the study reported here, participants were instructed to imagine a specific visual pattern and rate its vividness, after which they were presented with an ambiguous rivalry display that consisted of the previously imagined pattern plus an orthogonal pattern. On individual trials, higher ratings of vividness predicted a greater likelihood that the imagined pattern would appear dominant when the participant was subsequently presented with the binocular rivalry display. Off-line self-report questionnaires measuring imagery vividness also predicted individual differences in the strength of imagery bias over the entire study. Perceptual bias due to mental imagery could not be attributed to demand characteristics, as no bias was observed on catch-trial presentations of mock rivalry displays. Our findings provide novel evidence that people have a good metacognitive understanding of their own mental imagery and can reliably evaluate the vividness of single episodes of imagination.

scholarly journals Decoding Images in the Mind’s Eye: The Temporal Dynamics of Visual Imagery

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Sophia M. Shatek ◽  
Tijl Grootswagers ◽  
Amanda K. Robinson ◽  
Thomas A. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Santa Claus ◽  
Multivariate Pattern ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mind's Eye

Mental imagery is the ability to generate images in the mind in the absence of sensory input. Both perceptual visual processing and internally generated imagery engage large, overlapping networks of brain regions. However, it is unclear whether they are characterized by similar temporal dynamics. Recent magnetoencephalography work has shown that object category information was decodable from brain activity during mental imagery, but the timing was delayed relative to perception. The current study builds on these findings, using electroencephalography to investigate the dynamics of mental imagery. Sixteen participants viewed two images of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and two images of Santa Claus. On each trial, they viewed a sequence of the four images and were asked to imagine one of them, which was cued retroactively by its temporal location in the sequence. Time-resolved multivariate pattern analysis was used to decode the viewed and imagined stimuli. Although category and exemplar information was decodable for viewed stimuli, there were no informative patterns of activity during mental imagery. The current findings suggest stimulus complexity, task design and individual differences may influence the ability to successfully decode imagined images. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of prior findings of mental imagery.

On the Matrix, neuroscience and dialogue

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 458-474
Author(s):  
Martin Bhurruth
Keyword(s):  
Position Statement ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Chemical Systems ◽  
Level Of Functioning ◽  
Cognitive Levels ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Neuronal Connections ◽  
Biological Substrate ◽  
The Brain

The author poses a position statement that Foulkes underplayed the importance of emotions as an organizing principle in the mental life of groups, and indeed, paid very little attention to emotions in his published works. Evidence from the field of neuroscience is drawn upon to identify seven emotional neuro-chemical systems in the sub-cortical region of the brain. The fundamental emotions are: rage, fear, seeking, panic/grief, lust, care and play. The article makes a distinction between emotions, as being physiological responses triggered by neurochemical release caused by perception of both external and internal realities, whereas feelings are a higher order level of functioning at cognitive levels that can articulate cause, meaning and symbolism of the more visceral emotional experiences. The article puts forward the idea that emotions are the biological substrate of the Foundation Matrix, linking all of humanity and the mammalian world. In turn, groups and individuals have valences to particular emotional responses and this will be demonstrated with examples from the Personal, Social and Dynamic Matrices. An elaboration of the concept of dialogue, within the wider sphere of communication, is put forward, which the author argues is the group analytic expression of love (care). Love is mutative and facilitates the plasticity of the brain/mind relationship encouraging new neuronal connections to be made, linking sub-cortical brain regions with the neo-cortex thinking cap.

Management of Glioblastoma Multiforme by Phytochemicals: Applications of Nanoparticle Based Targeted Drug Delivery System

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayed Md Mumtaz ◽  
Gautam Bhardwaj ◽  
Shikha Goswami ◽  
Rajiv Kumar Tonk ◽  
Ramesh K. Goyal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Delivery ◽  
Glioblastoma Multiforme ◽  
Drug Delivery System ◽  
Delivery System ◽  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Drug Regimen ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Radio Therapy ◽  
Novel Drug ◽  
The Brain

: The Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM; grade IV astrocytoma) exhort tumor of star-shaped glial cell in the brain. It is a fast-growing tumor that spreads to nearby brain regions specifically to cerebral hemispheres in frontal and temporal lobes. The etiology of GBM is unknown, but major risk factors are genetic disorder like neurofibromatosis and schwanomatosis which develop the tumor in the nervous system. The management of GBM with chemo-radio therapy leads to resistance and current drug regimen like Temozolomide (TMZ) is less efficacious. The reasons behind failure of drugs are due to DNA alkylation in cell cycle by enzyme DNA guanidase and mitochondrial dysfunction. Naturally occurring bio-active compounds from plants known as phytochemicals, serve as vital sources for anti-cancer drugs. Some typical examples include taxol analogs, vinca alkaloids such as vincristine, vinblastine, podophyllotoxin analogs, camptothecin, curcumin, aloe emodin, quercetin, berberine e.t.c. These phytochemicals often act via regulating molecular pathways which are implicated in growth and progression of cancers. However the challenges posed by the presence of BBB/BBTB to restrict passage of these phytochemicals, culminates in their low bioavailability and relative toxicity. In this review we integrated nanotech as novel drug delivery system to deliver phytochemicals from traditional medicine to the specific site within the brain for the management of GBM.

Neuro-Clinical Signatures of Language Impairments: A Theoretical Framework for Function-to-structure Mapping in Clinics

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 800-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferath Kherif ◽  
Sandrine Muller
Keyword(s):  
Brain Mapping ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Structure Mapping ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language Recovery ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Bow Tie

In the past decades, neuroscientists and clinicians have collected a considerable amount of data and drastically increased our knowledge about the mapping of language in the brain. The emerging picture from the accumulated knowledge is that there are complex and combinatorial relationships between language functions and anatomical brain regions. Understanding the underlying principles of this complex mapping is of paramount importance for the identification of the brain signature of language and Neuro-Clinical signatures that explain language impairments and predict language recovery after stroke. We review recent attempts to addresses this question of language-brain mapping. We introduce the different concepts of mapping (from diffeomorphic one-to-one mapping to many-to-many mapping). We build those different forms of mapping to derive a theoretical framework where the current principles of brain architectures including redundancy, degeneracy, pluri-potentiality and bow-tie network are described.

scholarly journals Neuroinflammation and protein pathology in Parkinson’s disease dementia

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonina Kouli ◽  
Marta Camacho ◽  
Kieren Allinson ◽  
Caroline H. Williams-Gray
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
T Lymphocytes ◽  
Substantia Nigra ◽  
Amyloid Β ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Parkinson’S Disease Dementia ◽  
Activated Microglia ◽  
Cell Counts ◽  
The Brain

AbstractParkinson’s disease dementia is neuropathologically characterized by aggregates of α-synuclein (Lewy bodies) in limbic and neocortical areas of the brain with additional involvement of Alzheimer’s disease-type pathology. Whilst immune activation is well-described in Parkinson’s disease (PD), how it links to protein aggregation and its role in PD dementia has not been explored. We hypothesized that neuroinflammatory processes are a critical contributor to the pathology of PDD. To address this hypothesis, we examined 7 brain regions at postmortem from 17 PD patients with no dementia (PDND), 11 patients with PD dementia (PDD), and 14 age and sex-matched neurologically healthy controls. Digital quantification after immunohistochemical staining showed a significant increase in the severity of α-synuclein pathology in the hippocampus, entorhinal and occipitotemporal cortex of PDD compared to PDND cases. In contrast, there was no difference in either tau or amyloid-β pathology between the groups in any of the examined regions. Importantly, we found an increase in activated microglia in the amygdala of demented PD brains compared to controls which correlated significantly with the extent of α-synuclein pathology in this region. Significant infiltration of CD4+ T lymphocytes into the brain parenchyma was commonly observed in PDND and PDD cases compared to controls, in both the substantia nigra and the amygdala. Amongst PDND/PDD cases, CD4+ T cell counts in the amygdala correlated with activated microglia, α-synuclein and tau pathology. Upregulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 1β was also evident in the substantia nigra as well as the frontal cortex in PDND/PDD versus controls with a concomitant upregulation in Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in these regions, as well as the amygdala. The evidence presented in this study show an increased immune response in limbic and cortical brain regions, including increased microglial activation, infiltration of T lymphocytes, upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines and TLR gene expression, which has not been previously reported in the postmortem PDD brain.

scholarly journals An architectonic type principle in the development of laminar patterns of cortico-cortical connections

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah F. Beul ◽  
Alexandros Goulas ◽  
Claus C. Hilgetag
Keyword(s):  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Adult Brain ◽  
Mammalian Brain ◽  
Cortical Connections ◽  
Cortical Projections ◽  
Structural Connections ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Brain

AbstractStructural connections between cortical areas form an intricate network with a high degree of specificity. Many aspects of this complex network organization in the adult mammalian cortex are captured by an architectonic type principle, which relates structural connections to the architectonic differentiation of brain regions. In particular, the laminar patterns of projection origins are a prominent feature of structural connections that varies in a graded manner with the relative architectonic differentiation of connected areas in the adult brain. Here we show that the architectonic type principle is already apparent for the laminar origins of cortico-cortical projections in the immature cortex of the macaque monkey. We find that prenatal and neonatal laminar patterns correlate with cortical architectonic differentiation, and that the relation of laminar patterns to architectonic differences between connected areas is not substantially altered by the complete loss of visual input. Moreover, we find that the degree of change in laminar patterns that projections undergo during development varies in proportion to the relative architectonic differentiation of the connected areas. Hence, it appears that initial biases in laminar projection patterns become progressively strengthened by later developmental processes. These findings suggest that early neurogenetic processes during the formation of the brain are sufficient to establish the characteristic laminar projection patterns. This conclusion is in line with previously suggested mechanistic explanations underlying the emergence of the architectonic type principle and provides further constraints for exploring the fundamental factors that shape structural connectivity in the mammalian brain.

scholarly journals Antagonism between brain regions relevant for cognitive control and emotional memory facilitates the generation of humorous ideas

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Bitsch ◽  
Philipp Berger ◽  
Andreas Fink ◽  
Arne Nagels ◽  
Benjamin Straube ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Frontal Brain ◽  
Successful Resolution ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe ability to generate humor gives rise to positive emotions and thus facilitate the successful resolution of adversity. Although there is consensus that inhibitory processes might be related to broaden the way of thinking, the neural underpinnings of these mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, a humorous alternative uses task and a stroop task, to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying the emergence of humorous ideas in 24 subjects. Neuroimaging results indicate that greater cognitive control abilities are associated with increased activation in the amygdala, the hippocampus and the superior and medial frontal gyrus during the generation of humorous ideas. Examining the neural mechanisms more closely shows that the hypoactivation of frontal brain regions is associated with an hyperactivation in the amygdala and vice versa. This antagonistic connectivity is concurrently linked with an increased number of humorous ideas and enhanced amygdala responses during the task. Our data therefore suggests that a neural antagonism previously related to the emergence and regulation of negative affective responses, is linked with the generation of emotionally positive ideas and may represent an important neural pathway supporting mental health.

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