scholarly journals The Medial Thalamus Plays an Important Role in the Cognitive and Emotional Modulation of Orofacial Pain: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Jin ◽  
Hong Yang ◽  
Feifei Zhang ◽  
Jue Wang ◽  
He Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Orofacial Pain ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Emotional Modulation ◽  
Pain Group ◽  
Medial Thalamus

The thalamus plays a critical role in the perception of orofacial pain. We investigated the neural mechanisms of orofacial pain by exploring the intrinsic functional alterations of the thalamus and assessing the changes in functional connectivity (FC) between the thalamic subregions with significant functional alterations and other brain regions in orofacial pain using the seed-based FC approach. There were 49 participants in the orofacial pain group and 49 controls. Orofacial pain was caused by orthodontic separators. The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of the two groups were analyzed to obtain the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) of the thalamus; the thalamic subregions with significant fALFF abnormalities were used as seeds for FC analysis. Student's t-tests were used for comparisons. Pearson's correlation analysis was performed using SPM software. Forty-four participants with orofacial pain (mean age, 21.0 ± 0.9 years; 24 women) and 49 age- and sex-matched controls (mean age, 21.0 ± 2.6 years; 27 women) were finally included. Compared with the control group, the orofacial pain group demonstrated the following: (1) increased function in the dorsal area of the thalamus and decreased function in the medial thalamus; (2) decreased FC between the medial thalamus and 12 brain regions (p < 0.05, family-wise error corrected, voxel > 100); and (3) potential positive and negative correlations between the medial thalamus-seeded FC and visual analog scale score changes (p < 0.05, AlphaSim corrected). The findings show that the medial and dorsal thalami play important roles in orofacial pain perception, and that the medial thalamus likely plays an important role in the cognitive and emotional modulation of orofacial pain.

scholarly journals The medial thalamus plays an important role in the cognitive and emotional modulation of orofacial pain: a functional magnetic resonance imaging-based study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Jin ◽  
Hong Yang ◽  
Feifei Zhang ◽  
Jue Wang ◽  
He Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Orofacial Pain ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Emotional Modulation ◽  
Pain Group ◽  
Medial Thalamus ◽  
Dorsal Thalamus

Abstract Background The thalamus plays a critical role in the perception of orofacial pain. We investigated the neural mechanisms of orofacial pain by exploring the intrinsic functional alterations of the thalamus and assessing the changes in functional connectivity (FC) between the thalamic subregions with significant functional alterations and other brain regions in orofacial pain using the seed-based FC approach. Methods The study comprised 49 participants in the orofacial pain group and 49 healthy controls. Orofacial pain was caused by orthodontic separators. The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of the two groups were analyzed to obtain the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFFs) of the thalamus, and the thalamic subregions with significant fALFF abnormalities were used as seeds for FC analysis. Student’s t-tests were used to perform comparisons. Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed using SPM software. Results Forty-four participants with orofacial pain (mean age, 21.0±0.9 years; 24 women) and 49 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (mean age, 21.0±2.6 years; 27 women) were finally included. Compared with the control group, the orofacial pain group demonstrated (1) increased function in the dorsal thalamus and decreased function in the medial thalamus; (2) decreased FC between the medial thalamus and 12 brain regions (p<0.05, family-wise error corrected, voxel>100); and (3) potential positive and negative correlations between the medial thalamus-seeded FC and visual analog scale score changes (p<0.05, AlphaSim corrected). Conclusions The findings show that the medial and dorsal thalamus play important roles in orofacial pain perception and that the medial thalamus likely plays an important role in the cognitive and emotional modulation of orofacial pain.

scholarly journals Applying 3DPCANet and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Aided Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wang ◽  
Hongfei Jia ◽  
Yifan Duan ◽  
Hongbing Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Public Data

Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, which changes the structure of brain regions by some hidden causes. In this paper for assisting doctors to make correct judgments, an improved 3DPCANet method is proposed to classify AD by combining the mean (mALFF) of the whole brain. The main idea includes that firstly, the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is pre-processed, and mALFF is calculated to get the corresponding matrix. Then the features of mALFF images are extracted via the improved 3DPCANet network. Finally, AD patients with different stages are classified using support vector machine (SVM). Experiments results based on public data from the Alzheimer’s disease neuroimaging initiative (ADNI) show that the proposed approach has better performance compared with state-of-the-art methods. The accuracies of AD vs. significant memory concern (SMC), SMC vs. late mild cognitive impairment (LMCI), and normal control (NC) vs. SMC reach respectively 92.42%, 91.80%, and 89.50%, which testifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

scholarly journals Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Connectivity Between Semantic and Phonological Regions of Interest May Inform Language Targets in Aphasia

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 3051-3067
Author(s):  
Amy E. Ramage ◽  
Semra Aytur ◽  
Kirrie J. Ballard
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Language Performance

Purpose Brain imaging has provided puzzle pieces in the understanding of language. In neurologically healthy populations, the structure of certain brain regions is associated with particular language functions (e.g., semantics, phonology). In studies on focal brain damage, certain brain regions or connections are considered sufficient or necessary for a given language function. However, few of these account for the effects of lesioned tissue on the “functional” dynamics of the brain for language processing. Here, functional connectivity (FC) among semantic–phonological regions of interest (ROIs) is assessed to fill a gap in our understanding about the neural substrates of impaired language and whether connectivity strength can predict language performance on a clinical tool in individuals with aphasia. Method Clinical assessment of language, using the Western Aphasia Battery–Revised, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were obtained for 30 individuals with chronic aphasia secondary to left-hemisphere stroke and 18 age-matched healthy controls. FC between bilateral ROIs was contrasted by group and used to predict Western Aphasia Battery–Revised scores. Results Network coherence was observed in healthy controls and participants with stroke. The left–right premotor cortex connection was stronger in healthy controls, as reported by New et al. (2015) in the same data set. FC of (a) connections between temporal regions, in the left hemisphere and bilaterally, predicted lexical–semantic processing for auditory comprehension and (b) ipsilateral connections between temporal and frontal regions in both hemispheres predicted access to semantic–phonological representations and processing for verbal production. Conclusions Network connectivity of brain regions associated with semantic–phonological processing is predictive of language performance in poststroke aphasia. The most predictive connections involved right-hemisphere ROIs—particularly those for which structural adaptions are known to associate with recovered word retrieval performance. Predictions may be made, based on these findings, about which connections have potential as targets for neuroplastic functional changes with intervention in aphasia. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12735785

scholarly journals How Does Our Brain Process Sugars and Non-Nutritive Sweeteners Differently: A Systematic Review on Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 3010
Author(s):  
Andy Wai Kan Yeung ◽  
Natalie Sui Miu Wong
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Fasting Duration

This systematic review aimed to reveal the differential brain processing of sugars and sweeteners in humans. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies published up to 2019 were retrieved from two databases and were included into the review if they evaluated the effects of both sugars and sweeteners on the subjects’ brain responses, during tasting and right after ingestion. Twenty studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The number of participants per study ranged from 5 to 42, with a total number of study participants at 396. Seven studies recruited both males and females, 7 were all-female and 6 were all-male. There was no consistent pattern showing that sugar or sweeteners elicited larger brain responses. Commonly involved brain regions were insula/operculum, cingulate and striatum, brainstem, hypothalamus and the ventral tegmental area. Future studies, therefore, should recruit a larger sample size, adopt a standardized fasting duration (preferably 12 h overnight, which is the most common practice and brain responses are larger in the state of hunger), and reported results with familywise-error rate (FWE)-corrected statistics. Every study should report the differential brain activation between sugar and non-nutritive sweetener conditions regardless of the complexity of their experiment design. These measures would enable a meta-analysis, pooling data across studies in a meaningful manner.

scholarly journals Processing facial emotions in adults with velo-cardio-facial syndrome: functional magnetic resonance imaging

2006 ◽  
Vol 189 (6) ◽  
pp. 560-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Therese Van Amelsvoort ◽  
Nicole Schmitz ◽  
Eileen Daly ◽  
Quinton Deeley ◽  
Hugo Critchley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
The Right ◽  
Velo Cardio Facial Syndrome

SummaryWe studied the functional neuroanatomy of social behaviour in velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS) using a facial emotional processing task and functional magnetic resonance imaging in adults with this syndrome and controls matched for age and IQ. The VCFS group had less activation in the right insula and frontal brain regions and more activation in occipital regions. Genetically determined abnormalities in pathways including those involved in emotional processing may underlie deficits in social cognition in people with VCFS.

Real-Time Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a Tool for Neurofeedback

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-162
Author(s):  
Doris Grössinger ◽  
Silvia Erika Kober ◽  
Stefan M. Spann ◽  
Rudolf Stollberger ◽  
Guilherme Wood
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Feedback Signal ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Brain Signals

Abstract. Neurofeedback allows participants to voluntarily control their own brain activity. Consequently, neurofeedback is a potential intervention tool in diverse clinical domains. Different brain signals can be fed back to the neurofeedback users, such as the hemodynamic response of the brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) or electrophysiological brain signals as measured with electroencephalography (EEG). Each of these neuroscientific methods has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, using fMRI all brain regions can be targeted, while in EEG and NIRS signals from deeper regions cannot be precisely differentiated. Hence, fMRI-based neurofeedback allows treatment of mental and physical diseases, which are associated with activation patterns in deeper brain regions. Until now, only the blood oxygen level dependent signal (BOLD) has been used as feedback signal in fMRI-based neurofeedback studies. However, we have started to develop a neurofeedback pipeline using a different fMRI signal, namely arterial spin labeling (ASL), which will be introduced in this article. ASL neurofeedback enables a direct modulation of the cerebral blood flow and, consequently, might improve rehabilitation of disorders caused by perfusion imbalance in the future.

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