Atypical Activations of Fronto-Cerebellar Regions During Forethought in Parents of Children With ADHD

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 1050-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucile Rapin ◽  
Hélène Poissant ◽  
Adrianna Mendrek
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Children With Adhd ◽  
Future Studies

Objective: Although several studies suggest heritability of ADHD, only a few investigations of possible associations between people at risk and neural abnormalities in ADHD exist. In this study, we tested whether parents of children with ADHD would show atypical patterns of cerebral activations during forethought, a feature of working memory. Method: Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we compared 12 parents of children with ADHD and 9 parents of control children during a forethought task. Results: Parents of children with ADHD exhibited significantly increased neural activations in the posterior lobes of the cerebellum and in the left inferior frontal gyrus, relative to parents of control children. Conclusion: These findings are consistent with previous reports in children and suggest the fronto-cerebellar circuit’s abnormalities during forethought in parents of children with ADHD. Future studies of people at risk of ADHD are needed to fully understand the extent of the fronto-cerebellar heritability.

Investigating the Neural Correlates of the Affect Heuristic Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Kenny Skagerlund ◽  
Mikael Skagenholt ◽  
Paul J. Hamilton ◽  
Paul Slovic ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Affect Heuristic ◽  
Medial Frontal Gyrus

Abstract This study investigated the neural correlates of the so-called “affect heuristic,” which refers to the phenomenon whereby individuals tend to rely on affective states rather than rational deliberation of utility and probabilities during judgments of risk and utility of a given event or scenario. The study sought to explore whether there are shared regional activations during both judgments of relative risk and relative benefit of various scenarios, thus being a potential candidate of the affect heuristic. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we developed a novel risk perception task, based on a preexisting behavioral task assessing the affect heuristic. A whole-brain voxel-wise analysis of a sample of participants (n = 42) during the risk and benefit conditions revealed overlapping clusters in the left insula, left inferior frontal gyrus, and left medial frontal gyrus across conditions. Extraction of parameter estimates of these clusters revealed that activity of these regions during both tasks was inversely correlated with a behavioral measure assessing the inclination to use the affect heuristic. More activity in these areas during risk judgments reflect individuals' ability to disregard momentary affective impulses. The insula may be involved in integrating viscero-somatosensory information and forming a representation of the current emotional state of the body, whereas activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus and medial frontal gyrus indicates that executive processes may be involved in inhibiting the impulse of making judgments in favor of deliberate risk evaluations.

scholarly journals Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Davide Nardo ◽  
Megan Creasey ◽  
Clive Negus ◽  
Katerina Pappa ◽  
Alphonso Reid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Technical Challenges

Introduction: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique used to modulate human brain and behavioural function in both research and clinical interventions. The combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with tDCS enables researchers to directly test causal contributions of stimulated brain regions, answering questions about the physiology and neural mechanisms underlying behaviour. Despite the promise of the technique, advances have been hampered by technical challenges and methodological variability between studies, confounding comparability/replicability. Methods: Here tDCS-fMRI at 3T was developed for a series of experiments investigating language recovery after stroke. To validate the method, one healthy volunteer completed an fMRI paradigm with three conditions: (i) No-tDCS, (ii) Sham-tDCS, (iii) 2mA Anodal-tDCS. MR data were analysed in SPM12 with region-of-interest (ROI) analyses of the two electrodes and reference sites. Results: Quality assessment indicated no visible signal dropouts or distortions introduced by the tDCS equipment. After modelling scanner drift, motion-related variance, and temporal autocorrelation, we found no field inhomogeneity in functional sensitivity metrics across conditions in grey matter and in the three ROIs. Discussion: Key safety factors and risk mitigation strategies that must be taken into consideration when integrating tDCS into an fMRI environment are outlined. To obtain reliable results, we provide practical solutions to technical challenges and complications of the method. It is hoped that sharing these data and SOP will promote methodological replication in future studies, enhancing the quality of tDCS-fMRI application, and improve the reliability of scientific results in this field. Conclusions: The method and data provided here provide a technically safe, reliable tDCS-fMRI procedure to obtain high quality MR data. The detailed framework of the Standard Operation Procedure SOP (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4606564) systematically reports the technical and procedural elements of our tDCS-fMRI approach, which we hope can be adopted and prove useful in future studies.

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