scholarly journals Facial Expression Recognition and ReHo Analysis in Major Depressive Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sijia Liu ◽  
Ruihua Ma ◽  
Yang Luo ◽  
Panqi Liu ◽  
Ke Zhao ◽  
...  

Objective: To explore the characteristics of expression recognition and spontaneous activity of the resting state brain in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients to find the neural basis of expression recognition and emotional processing.Methods: In this study, two of the six facial expressions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, aversion, and surprise) were presented in quick succession using a short expression recognition test. The differences in facial expression recognition between MDD patients and healthy people were compared. Further, the differences in ReHo values between the two groups were compared using a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan to investigate the characteristics of spontaneous brain activity in the resting state and its relationship with clinical symptoms and the accuracy of facial expression recognition in patients with MDD.Results: (1) The accuracy of facial expression recognition in patients with MDD was lower than that of the HC group. There were differences in facial expression recognition between the two groups in sadness-anger (p = 0.026), surprise-aversion (p = 0.038), surprise-happiness (p = 0.014), surprise-sadness (p = 0.019), fear-happiness (p = 0.027), and fear-anger (p = 0.009). The reaction time for facial expression recognition in the patient group was significantly longer than that of the HC group. (2) Compared with the HC group, the ReHo values decreased in the left parahippocampal gyrus, left thalamus, right putamen, left putamen, and right angular gyrus, and increased in the left superior frontal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left medial superior frontal gyrus, and right medial superior frontal gyrus in the patient group. (3) Spearman correlation analysis showed no statistical correlation between ReHo and HAMD-17 scores in MDD patients (p > 0.05). The ReHo value of the left putamen was negatively correlated with the recognition of fear-surprise (r = −0.429, p = 0.016), the ReHo value of the right angular gyrus was positively correlated with the recognition of sadness-anger (r = 0.367, p = 0.042), and the ReHo value of the right medial superior frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with the recognition of fear-anger (r = −0.377, p = 0.037).Conclusion: In view of the different performance of patients with MDD in facial expression tasks, facial expression recognition may have some suggestive effect on the diagnosis of depression and has clinical guiding significance. Many brain regions, including the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, striatum, hippocampus, and thalamus, in patients with MDD show extensive ReHo abnormalities in the resting state. These brain regions with abnormal spontaneous neural activity are important components of LCSPT and LTC circuits, and their dysfunctional functions cause disorder of emotion regulation. The changes in spontaneous activity in the left putamen, right angular gyrus, and right medial superior frontal gyrus may represent the abnormal pattern of spontaneous brain activity in the neural circuits related to emotion perception and may be the neural basis of facial expression recognition.

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueying He ◽  
Jie Hong ◽  
Qian Wang ◽  
Yanan Guo ◽  
Ting Li ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study is to investigate brain functional changes in patients with intermittent exotropia (IXT) by analyzing the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) of brain activity and functional connectivity (FC) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). There were 26 IXT patients and 22 age-, sex-, education-, and handedness-matched healthy controls (HCs) enrolled who underwent rs-fMRI. The ALFF, fractional ALFF (fALFF) values in the slow 4 and slow 5 bands, and FC values were calculated and compared. The correlations between ALFF/fALFF values in discrepant brain regions and clinical features were evaluated. Compared with HCs, ALFF/fALFF values were significantly increased in the right angular gyrus (ANG), supramarginal gyrus (SMG), inferior parietal lobule (IPL), precentral gyrus (PreCG), and the bilateral inferior frontal gyri (IFG), and decreased in the right precuneus gyrus (PCUN), left middle occipital gyrus (MOG), and postcentral gyrus (PoCG) in IXT patients. The Newcastle Control Test score was negatively correlated with ALFF values in the right IFG (r = −0.738, p < 0.001). The duration of IXT was negatively correlated with ALFF values in the right ANG (r = −0.457, p = 0.049). Widespread increases in FC were observed between brain regions, mainly including the right cuneus (CUN), left superior parietal lobule (SPL), right rolandic operculum (ROL), left middle temporal gyrus (MTG), left IFG, left median cingulate gyrus (DCG), left PoCG, right PreCG, and left paracentral gyrus (PCL) in patients with IXT. No decreased FC was observed. Patients with IXT exhibited aberrant intrinsic brain activities and FC in vision- and eye movement-related brain regions, which extend current understanding of the neuropathological mechanisms underlying visual and oculomotor impairments in IXT patients.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Chen Chen ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Xiao-Wei Li ◽  
Wenqing Xia ◽  
Xu Feng ◽  
...  

Objective. Subjective tinnitus is hypothesized to arise from aberrant neural activity; however, its neural bases are poorly understood. To identify aberrant neural networks involved in chronic tinnitus, we compared the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) patterns of tinnitus patients and healthy controls.Materials and Methods. Resting-state fMRI measurements were obtained from a group of chronic tinnitus patients (n=29) with normal hearing and well-matched healthy controls (n=30). Regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis and functional connectivity analysis were used to identify abnormal brain activity; these abnormalities were compared to tinnitus distress.Results. Relative to healthy controls, tinnitus patients had significant greater ReHo values in several brain regions including the bilateral anterior insula (AI), left inferior frontal gyrus, and right supramarginal gyrus. Furthermore, the left AI showed enhanced functional connectivity with the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), while the right AI had enhanced functional connectivity with the right MFG; these measures were positively correlated with Tinnitus Handicap Questionnaires (r=0.459,P=0.012andr=0.479,P=0.009, resp.).Conclusions. Chronic tinnitus patients showed abnormal intra- and interregional synchronization in several resting-state cerebral networks; these abnormalities were correlated with clinical tinnitus distress. These results suggest that tinnitus distress is exacerbated by attention networks that focus on internally generated phantom sounds.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Volynets ◽  
Dmitry Smirnov ◽  
Heini Saarimäki ◽  
Lauri Nummenmaa

AbstractHuman neuroimaging and behavioural studies suggest that somatomotor “mirroring” of seen facial expressions may support their recognition. Here we show that viewing specific facial expressions triggers the representation corresponding to that expression in the observer’s brain. Twelve healthy female volunteers underwent two separate fMRI sessions: one where they observed and another where they displayed three types of basic facial expressions (joy, anger and disgust). Pattern classifier based on Bayesian logistic regression was trained to classify facial expressions i) within modality (trained and tested with data recorded while observing or displaying expressions) and ii) between modalities (trained with data recorded while displaying expressions and tested with data recorded while observing the expressions). Cross-modal classification was performed in two ways: with and without functional realignment of the data across observing / displaying conditions. All expressions could be accurately classified within and also across modalities. Brain regions contributing most to cross-modal classification accuracy included primary motor and somatosensory cortices. Functional realignment led to only minor increases in cross-modal classification accuracy for most of the examined ROIs. Substantial improvement was observed in the occipito-ventral components of the core system for facial expression recognition. Altogether these results support the embodied emotion recognition model and show that expression-specific somatomotor neural signatures could support facial expression recognition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wu ◽  
Yufang Zhao

Previous studies have found the effects of stereotype threat (ST) on cognitive processes, emotions, and motivations which could account for the underperformance in domain tasks. Efficient brain function does not require the function of different brain regions during specific tasks, but it does require the brain networks on which information is transported. Based on these, the effects of ST on the degree centrality under the resting state of brain regions related to these processes were investigated under math-related ST. The results showed that RSDC was decreased in the left hippocampus and left middle occipital gyrus (MOC), while RSDC was increased in the left precuneus, the right angular gyrus (AG), and the right superior parietal gyrus (SPG) under ST. Interestingly, we also found that the right-left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) and the right hippocampus were negatively correlated with manipulation check (MC) score in the ST group, while the right-left ATL and the right hippocampus were positively correlated with MC score in the control group. These results might reflect those individuals who attempted to inhibit the negative emotions induced by the negative stereotypes under ST conditions while increasing the self-relevant processes by retrieving episodic memory or autobiographical memory.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Yu ◽  
Chu-Qi Li ◽  
Qian-Min Ge ◽  
Hui-Ye Shu ◽  
Xu-Lin Liao ◽  
...  

Background: Neovascular glaucoma (NVG) is a serious eye disease that causes irreversible damage to the eye. It can significantly increase intraocular pressure and cause severe pain, as well as abnormal activity in the cortical and pre-cortical visual systems. However, there are few studies in this area. This trial assessed the altered regional brain activity in patients with NVG using the percentage of fluctuation amplitude (PerAF) method.Methods: Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scans were conducted in 18 individuals with NVG and 18 healthy controls (HCs), matched for education level, gender, and age. The PerAF method was applied to assess brain activity. Mean PerAF values of brain regions in NVG and HCs were compared using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.Results: Lower PerAF values were found in the NVG group than in controls in the right anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri (ACG.R), right superior occipital gyrus (SOG.R) and left superior frontal gyrus (orbital part) (ORBsup.L) (p < 0.001). In contrast, PerAF value was higher in NVG patients than in controls in the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG.L) (p < 0.001). The hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and visual analog score (VAS) were significantly and positively correlated with PerAF in ITG.L (r = 0.9331, p < 0.0001; and r = 0.7816, p = 0.0001, respectively).Conclusion: Abnormal activity in the patient’s brain regions further confirms that the NVG affects the entire brain, not just the visual pathways and posterior retinal mechanisms (including the hypothalamic lateral geniculate nucleus and the primary visual cortex). This strengthens our understanding of the NVG and provides potential diagnostic and therapeutic support for patients who are difficult to diagnose and treat early.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Huang ◽  
Muni Xiao ◽  
Ming Ai ◽  
Jianmei Chen ◽  
Wo Wang ◽  
...  

Background: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), which commonly occurs during adolescence, often co-occurs with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms in adolescents with MDD who engage in NSSI remain unclear. The current study examined the aberrant local neural activity in certain areas of the visual regions and the default mode network (DMN) and the resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) in changed brain regions in adolescents with MDD who engage in NSSI and adolescents with MDD only.Methods: A total of 67 adolescents with MDD were divided into two groups based on their NSSI behavior: the NSSI group (n = 31) and an age-, gender-, and education-matched MDD group (n = 36). The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) was used to assess the severity of MDD. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) analysis was used to detect alterations in local neural activity. Brain regions with aberrant neural activity were considered regions of interest (ROI). ALFF-based rs-FC analysis was used to further explore the underlying changes in connectivity between ROI and other areas in the NSSI group. Correlation analyses were performed to examine the relationship between neural changes and clinical characteristics.Results: There was no significant difference in HAMD scores between the two groups. ALFF analysis revealed that, compared to adolescents with MDD only, adolescents with MDD who engaged in NSSI displayed significantly enhanced neural activity in the right fusiform gyrus (FFG. R) and the right median cingulate and paracingulate gyri (DCG. R). Significantly reduced rs-FC of the FFG. R-bilateral medial orbital of the superior frontal gyrus (ORBsupmed. L/R)/bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus (SFGmed. L/R), FFG. R-bilateral posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG. L/R), DCG. R-left pallidum (PAL. L), DCG. R-right superior temporal gyrus (STG. R), and DCG. R-right postcentral gyrus (PoCG. R)/right inferior parietal lobule (IPL. R) was found in adolescents with MDD who were engaged in NSSI. Additionally, no significant correlations were observed between ALFF or rs-FC values and the HAMD scores between the two groups.Limitations: Owing to the cross-sectional design, the alterations in ALFF and rs-FC values in the FFG. R and DCG. R could not demonstrate that it was a state or feature in adolescents with MDD who engaged in NSSI. Additionally, the sample size was relatively small.Conclusions: This study highlights changes in regional brain activity and remote connectivity in the FFG. R and DCG. R in adolescents with MDD who engage in NSSI. This could provide a new perspective for further studies on the neurobiological mechanism of NSSI behavior in adolescents with MDD.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Juan Shen ◽  
Chao Xu

This paper uses resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to observe the changes in local consistency of brain activity in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Both healthy volunteers and Parkinson’s disease patients were scanned for resting brain functional imaging, and the collected raw data were processed using resting functional magnetic resonance data processing toolkit software. This study adopted the use of Regional Homogeneity (ReHo). The postprocessing method of RS-fMRI is to study the spontaneous brain activity changes of patients with Parkinson’s disease and cognitive impairment and to explore the changes in the function of their brain regions in the hope of providing help for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease cognitive impairment. The results showed that, compared with the normal control group, the brain regions with increased ReHo values in the PD group were the right central anterior gyrus, the right lingual gyrus, the left middle occipital gyrus, and the bilateral anterior cuneiform lobes. The results show that PD patients have abnormal brain nerve activities in the resting state, and these abnormal brain nerve activities may be related to PD cognitive and behavioral dysfunction.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng-Le Wei ◽  
Jing Chen ◽  
Yu-Chen Chen ◽  
Yu-Sheng Yu ◽  
Xi Guo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (Rs-fMRI) has confirmed sensorimotor network (SMN) dysfunction in migraine without aura (MwoA). However, the underlying mechanisms of SMN causal functional connectivity in MwoA remain unclear. We aimed to explore the association between clinical characteristics and effective functional connectivity in SMN, in interictal patients who have MwoA.Methods: We used Rs-fMRI to acquire imaging data in forty episodic patients with MwoA in the interictal phase and thirty-four healthy controls (HCs). Independent component analysis was used to profile the distribution of SMN and calculate the different SMN activity between the two groups. Subsequently, Granger causality analysis was used to analyze the effective causal connectivity between the SMN and other brain regions.Results: Compared to the HCs, MwoA patients showed higher activity in the bilateral postcentral gyri (PoCG) and supplementary motor areas, but lower activity in left Rolandic operculum/insula. Moreover, MwoA patients showed significantly causal connectivity from the SMN to the left calcarine sulcus, left middle temporal gyrus, right angular gyrus and right precuneus. There was also significant causal connectivity from the left calcarine sulcus, left inferior orbitofrontal cortex, right cuneus, right putamen and left inferior parietal lobule to the SMN. In the interictal period, there was positive correlation between the activity of the left PoCG and headache frequency (r = 0.410, p = 0.013), but negative correlation between the activity of the right PoCG and the impact of headache (r = -0.397, p = 0.016). In addition, the disease duration was directly proportional to the connectivity strength from the left PoCG to the right angular gyrus (r = 0.418, p = 0.011), and from the right PoCG to the left calcarine sulcus (r = 0.377, p = 0.023).Conclusions: These differential, resting-state functional activities of the SMN in episodic MwoA may contribute to the understanding of migraine-related intra- and internetwork imbalances associated with nociceptive regulation and chronification.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 514-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara B. Pillay ◽  
William L. Gross ◽  
William W. Graves ◽  
Colin Humphries ◽  
Diane S. Book ◽  
...  

Understanding the neural basis of recovery from stroke is a major research goal. Many functional neuroimaging studies have identified changes in brain activity in people with aphasia, but it is unclear whether these changes truly support successful performance or merely reflect increased task difficulty. We addressed this problem by examining differences in brain activity associated with correct and incorrect responses on an overt reading task. On the basis of previous proposals that semantic retrieval can assist pronunciation of written words, we hypothesized that recruitment of semantic areas would be greater on successful trials. Participants were 21 patients with left-hemisphere stroke with phonologic retrieval deficits. They read words aloud during an event-related fMRI paradigm. BOLD signals obtained during correct and incorrect trials were contrasted to highlight brain activity specific to successful trials. Successful word reading was associated with higher BOLD signal in the left angular gyrus. In contrast, BOLD signal in bilateral posterior inferior frontal cortex, SMA, and anterior cingulate cortex was greater on incorrect trials. These data show for the first time the brain regions where neural activity is correlated specifically with successful performance in people with aphasia. The angular gyrus is a key node in the semantic network, consistent with the hypothesis that additional recruitment of the semantic system contributes to successful word production when phonologic retrieval is impaired. Higher activity in other brain regions during incorrect trials likely reflects secondary engagement of attention, working memory, and error monitoring processes when phonologic retrieval is unsuccessful.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 803-813
Author(s):  
Sofia Volynets ◽  
Dmitry Smirnov ◽  
Heini Saarimäki ◽  
Lauri Nummenmaa

Abstract Human neuroimaging and behavioural studies suggest that somatomotor ‘mirroring’ of seen facial expressions may support their recognition. Here we show that viewing specific facial expressions triggers the representation corresponding to that expression in the observer’s brain. Twelve healthy female volunteers underwent two separate fMRI sessions: one where they observed and another where they displayed three types of facial expressions (joy, anger and disgust). Pattern classifier based on Bayesian logistic regression was trained to classify facial expressions (i) within modality (trained and tested with data recorded while observing or displaying expressions) and (ii) between modalities (trained with data recorded while displaying expressions and tested with data recorded while observing the expressions). Cross-modal classification was performed in two ways: with and without functional realignment of the data across observing/displaying conditions. All expressions could be accurately classified within and also across modalities. Brain regions contributing most to cross-modal classification accuracy included primary motor and somatosensory cortices. Functional realignment led to only minor increases in cross-modal classification accuracy for most of the examined ROIs. Substantial improvement was observed in the occipito-ventral components of the core system for facial expression recognition. Altogether these results support the embodied emotion recognition model and show that expression-specific somatomotor neural signatures could support facial expression recognition.


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