Visual-Spatial and Verbal Remote Association: An fMRI Study

Although idea connections at verbal and conceptual levels have been explored by remote associates tests, the visual-spatial level is much less researched. This study investigated the visual-spatial ability via Chinese Radical Remote Associates Test (CRRAT), wherein respondents consider the positions of the stimulus and target Chinese radicals. Chinese Compound Remote Associates Test (CCRAT) questions also feature stimuli of a single Chinese character; therefore, it was adopted for comparison to distinguish the roles played by verbal and visual-spatial associations in a remote associative process. Thirty-six adults responded to CRRAT and CCRAT; their brain activities were analyzed. Upon excluding the influence of age, verbal comprehension, and working memory, it was found that the caudate, posterior cingulate cortex, postcentral gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus were activated when the respondents answered CCRAT, but only the caudate showed significant activation when they answered CRRAT. The Chinese radical remote association minus the Chinese compound remote association showed that the middle frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and precuneus demonstrated significant activation. Therefore, this study demonstrated differences in brain mechanisms between visual-spatial and verbal remote associations.

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Brain Activation during Thoughts of One’s Own Death and Its Linear and Curvilinear Correlations with Fear of Death in Elderly Individuals: An fMRI Study

Cerebral Cortex Communications ◽

10.1093/texcom/tgab003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kanan Hirano ◽

Kentaro Oba ◽

Toshiki Saito ◽

Shohei Yamazaki ◽

Ryuta Kawashima ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Activation ◽

Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Fear Of Death ◽

Supramarginal Gyrus ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Negative Linear Correlation ◽

The Right ◽

Older Populations ◽

Existential Issues

Abstract Facing one’s own death and managing the fear of death are important existential issues, particularly in older populations. Although recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated brain responses to death-related stimuli, none has examined whether this brain activation was specific to one’s own death or how it was related to dispositional fear of death. In this study, during fMRI, 34 elderly participants (aged, 60–72 years) were presented with either death-related or death-unrelated negative words and asked to evaluate the relevance of these words to the “self” or the “other.” The results showed that only the left supplementary motor area (SMA) was selectively activated during self-relevant judgments of death-related words. Regression analyses of the effect of fear of death on brain activation during death-related thoughts identified a significant negative linear correlation in the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and an inverted-U-shaped correlation in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) only during self-relevant judgments. Our results suggest potential involvement of the SMA in the existential aspect of thoughts of death. The distinct fear-of-death-dependent responses in the SMG and PCC may reflect fear-associated distancing of the physical self and the processing of death-related thoughts as a self-relevant future agenda, respectively.

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A-153 Neuropsychological Effects Assessed Using WISC-IV and WISC-V

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology ◽

10.1093/arclin/acab062.171 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 36 (6) ◽

pp. 1207-1207

Author(s):

Saba Verani ◽

Charles Golden

Keyword(s):

Fourth Edition ◽

Adult Intelligence Scale ◽

Data Synthesis ◽

Intelligence Scale ◽

Verbal Comprehension ◽

Neuropsychological Effects ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Verbal Comprehension Index ◽

Neurological Conditions ◽

Medical Histories

Abstract Objective This review explores The Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fifth Edition (WISC-V) administered to children with various medical histories including traumatic brain injury, vascular conditions, brain tumor, epilepsy, strokes, sickle cell disease, down syndrome, and neurotoxicity on neurodevelopment. This review aims to explore neuropsychological effects of these medical conditions derived from final scores and scale comparisons. Data Selection Peer-reviewed studies between 2000 and 2020 were gathered from EBSCO, Google Scholar, and Science Direct. Criteria was limited to neurological conditions present in children, who were required to be assessed using either WISC-IV or WISC-V. Children with other developmental or learning disabilities were excluded. Data on Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) were excluded along with any other assessment administered to children. Thirteen articles were included based on the criteria along with two articles that discuss the validity of WISC. Data Synthesis The components of the WISC-IV or WISC-V demonstrated low average or below average scores on many scales, especially overall FSIQ. The largest impairments were present in Processing Speed Index, Verbal Comprehension Index, Working Memory Index, Visual Spatial Index, and overall FSIQ. All children assessed with preexisting neurological conditions demonstrated deficits in neuropsychological domains. The severity of the neurological condition significantly impacted scores when compared to children with no conditions. Conclusions The administration of WISC-IV and WISC-V demonstrated neuropsychological and functioning impairments in children with preexisting neurological conditions. The assessment successfully identified deficit areas and earlier testing can encourage earlier treatments.

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Differences in Functional Connectivity Networks Related to the Midbrain Dopaminergic System-Related Area in Various Psychiatric Disorders

Schizophrenia Bulletin ◽

10.1093/schbul/sbz121 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 46 (5) ◽

pp. 1239-1248 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Yuko Nakamura ◽

Naohiro Okada ◽

Daisuke Koshiyama ◽

Kouhei Kamiya ◽

Osamu Abe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Psychiatric Disorders ◽

Affective Disorders ◽

Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Frontal Pole ◽

Related Area ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Medication Dose ◽

Healthy Control ◽

Fmri Analysis

Abstract Objective Disruptions in the dopamine system have been observed in psychiatric disorders. Since dopamine is mainly produced in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), elucidating the differences in the VTA neural network across psychiatric disorders would facilitate a greater understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these disorders. However, no study has compared VTA-seed-based functional connectivity across psychiatric disorders. Therefore, we conducted a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) study to perform a seed-based fMRI analysis, using the VTA as a seed. Methods We included participants with major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 45), schizophrenia (n = 32), and bipolar disorder (BPD; n = 30), along with healthy control participants (n = 46) who were matched for age, gender, and handedness. Results The results showed that patients with MDD and BPD had altered VTA-related connectivity in the superior frontal gyrus, frontal pole regions, hippocampus, cerebellum, and posterior cingulate cortex. Some of these differences in connectivity were also found between affective disorders and schizophrenia; however, there were no differences between the schizophrenia and control groups. Connectivity between the VTA and the hippocampus was correlated with positive symptoms in the schizophrenia group. The connectivity was not associated with medication dose, and the results remained significant after controlling for dose. Conclusions The results suggest that altered brain functional connectivity related to VTA networks could be associated with the distinctive pathophysiologies of psychiatric disorders, especially affective disorders.

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Moral emotions when reading quotidian circumstances in contexts of violence: an fMRI study

Adaptive Behavior ◽

10.1177/1059712320939346 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 105971232093934

Author(s):

Daniel Atilano-Barbosa ◽

Lorena Paredes ◽

Froylán Enciso ◽

Erick H Pasaye ◽

Roberto E Mercadillo

Keyword(s):

Emotional Experience ◽

Real Life ◽

Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Moral Emotions ◽

Moral Judgments ◽

Social Actions ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Cortical Regions ◽

Reference Processing

The increase of violence in Mexico and consequent suffering during the last decades is evident, but its effects over feelings and moral judgments remain uncertain. We used journalistic news showing real-life situations to investigate the effects of facing violence over the experience of four moral emotions which represent powerful impulses for social actions in situations of suffering linked to violence: Negative Compassion, Positive Compassion, Schadenfreude, and Indignation. We evaluate brain activation by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during three cognitive conditions: reading, introspection, and resting. When reading the news, only Indignation-evoking stimuli elicited salient brain activations in the posterior cerebellum, and temporal and parietal cortical regions, whose functions are related to anger experiences and processing of socially relevant circumstances. When introspecting the emotional experience, cerebellar, frontal, parietal, and occipital activations related to self-focused experiences were observed for all emotions. When resting after facing the stimuli, only the Negative Compassion emotion elicited brain activations in the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus related to emotional self-reference processing; thus, negative compassion may produce more perdurable cognitive-affective effects related to sadness while perceiving suffering in others. Our results may suggest different emotional-based social decisions to face suffering and violence and to motivate pro-social actions in the collectivistic Mexican culture.

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Functional MRI Investigation of Ultrasound Stimulation at ST 36

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine ◽

10.1155/2020/6794013 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Yarui Wei ◽

Ling Mei ◽

Xiaojing Long ◽

Xiaoxiao Wang ◽

Yanjun Diao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Block Design ◽

Brain Activation ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Activation Patterns ◽

Lentiform Nucleus ◽

Ultrasound Stimulation ◽

Postcentral Gyrus ◽

The Brain

Background. Clinical and experimental data suggest that ultrasound stimulation (US) at acupoints can produce similar effective treatment compared to manual acupuncture (MA). Although the brain activation to MA at acupoints is investigated by numerous studies, the brain activation to US at acupoints remains unclear. Methods. In the present work, we employed task state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the human brain’s activation to US and MA at ST 36 (Zusanli) which is one of the most commonly used acupoints in acupuncture-related studies. 16 healthy subjects underwent US and MA procedures in an interval of more than one week. On-off block design stimulation was used for the recording of fMRI-related brain patterns. Results. Both US and MA at ST 36 produced activations in somatosensory and limbic/paralimbic regions (postcentral gyrus, insula, middle prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex). Only US at ST 36 produced a significant signal increase in the inferior parietal lobule and decrease in the posterior cingulate cortex, whereas MA at ST 36 produced a significant signal increase in the lentiform nucleus and cerebellum. Conclusions. Our results indicate that US may be a possible noninvasive alternative method to MA due to its similar activation patterns.

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Brain activation in the processing of single chinese character: An event-related fMRI study

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/s1053-8119(00)91197-2 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. S265

Author(s):

H.-L. Liu ◽

Yonglin Pu ◽

Ching-Mei Feng ◽

Li Hai Tan ◽

John A. Spinks ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chinese Character ◽

Brain Activation ◽

Fmri Study

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Effect of visual spatial information on tactile spatial attention: An fMRI study

The 2011 IEEE/ICME International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering ◽

10.1109/iccme.2011.5876805 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Qiong Wu ◽

Chunlin Li ◽

Qiyong Guo ◽

Jinglong Wu

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Fmri Study

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Effect of Cognitive Reserve on Children With Traumatic Brain Injury

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617719000109 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (04) ◽

pp. 355-361 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jacobus Donders ◽

Eunice Kim

Keyword(s):

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Protective Effect ◽

Parental Education ◽

Cognitive Reserve ◽

Injury Severity ◽

Full Scale ◽

Verbal Comprehension ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Factor Index

AbstractObjectives:Traumatic brain injury can result in cognitive impairments in children. The objective of this retrospective study was to determine to what extent such outcomes are moderated by cognitive reserve, as indexed by parental education.Methods: Sixty 6- to 16-year-old children completed the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fifth Edition (WISC–V) within 30–360 days after having sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Their Full-Scale IQ and factor index scores were compared to those of demographically matched controls. In addition, regression analysis was used to investigate in the TBI group the influence of injury severity in addition to parental education on WISC–V factor index scores.Results: Cognitive reserve moderated the effect of TBI on WISC–V Full Scale IQ, Verbal Comprehension, and Visual Spatial. In the TBI group, it also had a protective effect with regard to performance on the Verbal Comprehension, Visual Spatial, and Fluid Reasoning indices. At the same time, greater injury severity was predictive of lower Visual Spatial and Processing Speed index scores in the TBI group.Conclusions: Cognitive reserve as reflected in parental education has a moderating effect with regard to children’s performance on the WISC–V after TBI, such that higher cognitive reserve is associated with greater preservation of acquired word knowledge and understanding of visual relationships. Measures that emphasize speed of processing remain affected by severity of TBI, even after accounting for the protective effect associated with cognitive reserve. (JINS, 2019,25, 355–361)

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