scholarly journals Controllability of structural brain networks and the waxing and waning of negative affect in daily life

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Lee McGowan ◽  
Linden Parkes ◽  
Xiaosong He ◽  
Ovidia Stanoi ◽  
Yoona Kang ◽  
...  

The waxing and waning of negative affect in daily life is normative, reflecting an adaptive capacity to respond flexibly to changing circumstances. Here, we provide insight into facets of brain structure that may enable negative affect variability in daily life. We use diffusion spectrum imaging data from 95 young adults (Mage = 20.19 years, SDage = 1.80; 56 women) to construct structural connectivity networks that map white matter fiber connections between 200 cortical and 14 sub-cortical regions. We apply network control theory to these structural networks to estimate the degree to which each brain region’s pattern of structural connectivity facilitates the spread of activity to other brain systems (i.e., the region’s average controllability). We examine how the average controllability of functional brain systems relates to negative affect variability, computed by taking the standard deviation of negative affect self-reports collected via smartphone-based experience-sampling twice per day over 28 days as participants went about their daily lives. We find that high average controllability of the cingulo-insular system is associated with increased negative affect variability. Our results highlight the role brain structure plays in affective dynamics as observed in the context of daily life.

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliana Silva ◽  
Teresa Freire ◽  
Susana Faria

AbstractA better understanding of emotion regulation (ER) within daily life is a growing focus of research. This study evaluated the average use of two ER strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and concurrent and lagged relationships between these two ER strategies and affect (positive and negative affect) in the daily lives of adolescents. We also investigated the role of the same strategies at the trait level on these within-person relationships. Thirty-three adolescents provided 1,258 reports of their daily life by using the Experience Sampling Method for one week. Regarding the relative use of ER strategies, cognitive reappraisal (M = 2.87, SD = 1.58) was used more often than expressive suppression (M = 2.42, SD = 1.21). While the use of both strategies was positively correlated when evaluated in daily life (p = .01), the same did not occur at the trait level (p = .37). Multilevel analysis found that ER strategies were concurrently related to affect (p < .01), with the exception of cognitive reappraisal-positive affect relationship (p = .11). However, cognitive reappraisal predicted higher positive affect at the subsequent sampling moment ( β = 0.07, p = .03). The concurrent associations between cognitive reappraisal and negative affect vary as function of the use of this strategy at the trait level (β = 0.05, p = .02). Our findings highlighted the complex associations between daily ER strategies and affect of a normative sample of adolescents.


Neurosurgery ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 430-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan C. Fernandez-Miranda ◽  
Sudhir Pathak ◽  
Johnathan Engh ◽  
Kevin Jarbo ◽  
Timothy Verstynen ◽  
...  

Abstract BACKGROUND: High-definition fiber tracking (HDFT) is a novel combination of processing, reconstruction, and tractography methods that can track white matter fibers from cortex, through complex fiber crossings, to cortical and subcortical targets with subvoxel resolution. OBJECTIVE: To perform neuroanatomical validation of HDFT and to investigate its neurosurgical applications. METHODS: Six neurologically healthy adults and 36 patients with brain lesions were studied. Diffusion spectrum imaging data were reconstructed with a Generalized Q-Ball Imaging approach. Fiber dissection studies were performed in 20 human brains, and selected dissection results were compared with tractography. RESULTS: HDFT provides accurate replication of known neuroanatomical features such as the gyral and sulcal folding patterns, the characteristic shape of the claustrum, the segmentation of the thalamic nuclei, the decussation of the superior cerebellar peduncle, the multiple fiber crossing at the centrum semiovale, the complex angulation of the optic radiations, the terminal arborization of the arcuate tract, and the cortical segmentation of the dorsal Broca area. From a clinical perspective, we show that HDFT provides accurate structural connectivity studies in patients with intracerebral lesions, allowing qualitative and quantitative white matter damage assessment, aiding in understanding lesional patterns of white matter structural injury, and facilitating innovative neurosurgical applications. High-grade gliomas produce significant disruption of fibers, and low-grade gliomas cause fiber displacement. Cavernomas cause both displacement and disruption of fibers. CONCLUSION: Our HDFT approach provides an accurate reconstruction of white matter fiber tracts with unprecedented detail in both the normal and pathological human brain. Further studies to validate the clinical findings are needed.


Author(s):  
I Ketut Ardhana ◽  
I Nyoman Wijaya

Indian culture has dominantly influenced the Indonesian people, particularly in the western part of the archipelago. This, which started centuries ago, can still be seen in the peoples’ daily lives in social, cultural, economic and political matters. Both the Hindu and Buddhist lessons have been practiced in Bali, although it is argued that the Buddhist lessons had been developed earlier than the Hindu ones. These developments have strongly characterized Balinese daily life, so, it is very important to understand how the people anticipate and solve some crucial issues regarding the processes of modernization and globalization. There are some important questions that need to be addressed on the Indian influences in strengthening the Balinese culture from the earlier periods until the modern and even postmodern times. In this case, the specific questions are: Firstly, how did the Balinese accept these two lessons in their daily lives in the context of Balinization processes? Secondly, what kinds of tangible and intangible cultures of the Hindu and Buddhist lessons can be seen in the present day Bali? Thirdly, how do they strengthen the Bali identity or Balinization,  known as “Ajeg Bali”? Through this analysis, it is expected to have a better understanding of the issues of social, cultural, economic and political changes in Indonesia in general and Bali in particular in modern and postmodern times.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7203
Author(s):  
Emanuele Giorgi ◽  
Lucía Martín Martín López ◽  
Rubén Garnica-Monroy ◽  
Aleksandra Krstikj ◽  
Carlos Cobreros ◽  
...  

COVID-19 forced billions of people to restructure their daily lives and social habits. Several research projects have focused on social impacts, approaching the phenomenon on the basis of different issues and scales. This work studies the changes in social relations within the well-defined urban-territorial elements of co-housing communities. The peculiarity of this research lies in the essence of these communities, which base their existence on the spirit of sharing spaces and activities. As social distancing represented the only effective way to control the outbreak, the research studied how the rules of social distancing impacted these communities. For this reason, a questionnaire was sent to 60 communities asking them to highlight the changes that the emergency imposed on the members in their daily life and in the organization of common activities and spaces. A total of 147 responses were received and some relevant design considerations emerged: (1) the importance of feeling part of a “safe” community, with members who were known and deemed reliable, when facing a health emergency; and (2) the importance of open spaces to carry out shared activities. Overall, living in co-housing communities was evaluated as an “extremely positive circumstance” despite the fact that the emergency worsened socialization.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 500-503
Author(s):  
Xinru Sun

The study focuses on the WeChat usage and WeChat group activities of a group of Pumi youngsters in order to investigate their self-expression and interaction. This is done by adopting methods of online ethnography and offline fieldwork, which explains how the new medium gets involved in their daily lives and is used to construct multiple narrations. In this article, WeChat is regarded to be a kind of self-processed cultural description and practice. Meanwhile, WeChat builds one’s daily life through double articulation as mentioned by Roger Silverstone. Thus, WeChat connects reality and virtual space, interweaves individual minds with ethnic beliefs and achieves a tighter interaction between the inside and the outside of a village.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoed N. Kenett ◽  
Roger E. Beaty ◽  
John D. Medaglia

AbstractRumination and impaired inhibition are considered core characteristics of depression. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms that contribute to these atypical cognitive processes remain unclear. To address this question, we apply a computational network control theory approach to structural brain imaging data acquired via diffusion tensor imaging in a large sample of participants, to examine how network control theory relates to individual differences in subclinical depression. Recent application of this theory at the neural level is built on a model of brain dynamics, which mathematically models patterns of inter-region activity propagated along the structure of an underlying network. The strength of this approach is its ability to characterize the potential role of each brain region in regulating whole-brain network function based on its anatomical fingerprint and a simplified model of node dynamics. We find that subclinical depression is negatively related to higher integration abilities in the right anterior insula, replicating and extending previous studies implicating atypical switching between the default mode and Executive Control Networks in depression. We also find that subclinical depression is related to the ability to “drive” the brain system into easy to reach neural states in several brain regions, including the bilateral lingual gyrus and lateral occipital gyrus. These findings highlight brain regions less known in their role in depression, and clarify their roles in driving the brain into different neural states related to depression symptoms.


2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 547-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Brooks ◽  
Audrey King ◽  
Mark Tonack ◽  
Helen Simson ◽  
Maria Gould ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVES:To identify user perspectives on the issues that impact the quality of the daily lives of ventilator-assisted individuals living in the community.METHODS:Semistructured interviews were held with 26 Canadian ventilator-assisted individuals (mean age 44±14 [SD] years, range 23 to 60 years; mean ventilator experience 18±13 years, range three to 53 years) whose disability from neuromuscular conditions necessitated assistance with activities of daily living. Participants described their daily life experiences and perceptions of the factors that limited or enhanced their quality. Interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and analyzed for emergent codes and themes.RESULTS:Ventilator users characterized important issues in terms of personal successes and limitations, as well as dependencies on others for daily living. Personal support services, income security, health care and transportation were important positive contributors to their quality of life. Dependency on others was clearly a negative contributor. The ventilator was regarded as a form of assistive technology, similar to a wheelchair. Ventilator users perceived that ventilation was associated with a stigma and negative assumptions about disability, particularly if suctioning was required.CONCLUSIONS:The majority of participants considered home mechanical ventilation to be a positive benefit for independent living, enhancing their overall health. They were clear as to the issues of importance to them, and formulated recommendations for health care providers and policy makers that could improve the quality of their daily lives. Many of the issues identified in the present report are faced by the growing community of ventilator users.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moo K. Chung ◽  
Jamie L. Hanson ◽  
Nagesh Adluru ◽  
Andrew L. Alexander ◽  
Richard J. Davidson ◽  
...  

AbstractIn diffusion tensor imaging, structural connectivity between brain regions is often measured by the number of white matter fiber tracts connecting them. Other features such as the length of tracts or fractional anisotropy (FA) are also used in measuring the strength of connectivity. In this study, we investigated the effects of incorporating the number of tracts, the tract length and FA-values into the connectivity model. Using various node-degree based graph theory features, the three connectivity models are compared. The methods are applied in characterizing structural networks between normal controls and maltreated children, who experienced maltreatment while living in post-institutional settings before being adopted by families in the US.


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