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Journal of Affective Disorders Oct 2023The mood-concordance bias is a key feature of major depressive disorder (MDD), but the spatiotemporal neural activity associated with emotional processing in MDD remains...
BACKGROUND
The mood-concordance bias is a key feature of major depressive disorder (MDD), but the spatiotemporal neural activity associated with emotional processing in MDD remains unclear. Understanding the dysregulated connectivity patterns during emotional processing and their relationship with clinical symptoms could provide insights into MDD neuropathology.
METHODS
We enrolled 108 MDD patients and 64 healthy controls (HCs) who performed an emotion recognition task during magnetoencephalography recording. Network-based statistics (NBS) was used to analyze whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) across different frequency ranges during distinct temporal periods. The relationship between the aberrant FC and affective symptoms was explored.
RESULTS
MDD patients exhibited decreased FC strength in the beta band (13-30 Hz) compared to HCs. During the early stage of emotional processing (0-100 ms), reduced FC was observed between the left parahippocampal gyrus and the left cuneus. In the late stage (250-400 ms), aberrant FC was primarily found in the cortex-limbic-striatum systems. Moreover, the FC strength between the right fusiform gyrus and left thalamus, and between the left calcarine fissure and left inferior temporal gyrus were negatively associated with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) scores.
LIMITATIONS
Medication information was not involved.
CONCLUSION
MDD patients exhibited abnormal temporal-spatial neural interactions in the beta band, ranging from early sensory to later cognitive processing stages. These aberrant interactions involve the cortex-limbic-striatum circuit. Notably, aberrant FC in may serve as a potential biomarker for assessing depression severity.
Topics: Humans; Depressive Disorder, Major; Magnetoencephalography; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Brain; Emotions
PubMed: 37271293
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.06.001 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Apr 2024Face pareidolia is a tendency to seeing faces in nonface images that reflects high tuning to a face scheme. Yet, studies of the brain networks underwriting face...
Face pareidolia is a tendency to seeing faces in nonface images that reflects high tuning to a face scheme. Yet, studies of the brain networks underwriting face pareidolia are scarce. Here, we examined the time course and dynamic topography of gamma oscillatory neuromagnetic activity while administering a task with nonface images resembling a face. Images were presented either with canonical orientation or with display inversion that heavily impedes face pareidolia. At early processing stages, the peaks in gamma activity (40 to 45 Hz) to images either triggering or not face pareidolia originate mainly from the right medioventral and lateral occipital cortices, rostral and caudal cuneus gyri, and medial superior occipital gyrus. Yet, the difference occurred at later processing stages in the high-frequency range of 80 to 85 Hz over a set of the areas constituting the social brain. The findings speak rather for a relatively late neural network playing a key role in face pareidolia. Strikingly, a cutting-edge analysis of brain connectivity unfolding over time reveals mutual feedforward and feedback intra- and interhemispheric communication not only within the social brain but also within the extended large-scale network of down- and upstream regions. In particular, the superior temporal sulcus and insula strongly engage in communication with other brain regions either as signal transmitters or recipients throughout the whole processing of face-pareidolia images.
Topics: Brain Mapping; Face; Brain; Occipital Lobe; Temporal Lobe
PubMed: 38588422
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401196121 -
NeuroImage Oct 2023Hyperscanning is a form of neuroimaging experiment where the brains of two or more participants are imaged simultaneously whilst they interact. Within the domain of... (Review)
Review
Hyperscanning is a form of neuroimaging experiment where the brains of two or more participants are imaged simultaneously whilst they interact. Within the domain of social neuroscience, hyperscanning is increasingly used to measure inter-brain coupling (IBC) and explore how brain responses change in tandem during social interaction. In addition to cognitive research, some have suggested that quantification of the interplay between interacting participants can be used as a biomarker for a variety of cognitive mechanisms aswell as to investigate mental health and developmental conditions including schizophrenia, social anxiety and autism. However, many different methods have been used to quantify brain coupling and this can lead to questions about comparability across studies and reduce research reproducibility. Here, we review methods for quantifying IBC, and suggest some ways moving forward. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we reviewed 215 hyperscanning studies, across four different brain imaging modalities: functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), functional magnetic resonance (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Overall, the review identified a total of 27 different methods used to compute IBC. The most common hyperscanning modality is fNIRS, used by 119 studies, 89 of which adopted wavelet coherence. Based on the results of this literature survey, we first report summary statistics of the hyperscanning field, followed by a brief overview of each signal that is obtained from each neuroimaging modality used in hyperscanning. We then discuss the rationale, assumptions and suitability of each method to different modalities which can be used to investigate IBC. Finally, we discuss issues surrounding the interpretation of each method.
Topics: Humans; Reproducibility of Results; Thalamus; Brain; Neuroimaging; Hemodynamics
PubMed: 37666393
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120354 -
Trends in Neurosciences May 2024The functional properties of the infant brain are poorly understood. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience are opening new avenues for measuring brain activity in... (Review)
Review
The functional properties of the infant brain are poorly understood. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience are opening new avenues for measuring brain activity in human infants. These include novel uses of existing technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), the availability of newer technologies including functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and optically pumped magnetometry (OPM), and innovative applications of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants during cognitive tasks. In this review article we catalog these available non-invasive methods, discuss the challenges and opportunities encountered when applying them to human infants, and highlight the potential they may ultimately hold for advancing our understanding of the youngest minds.
Topics: Humans; Brain; Infant; Magnetoencephalography; Neurosciences; Electroencephalography; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; Brain Mapping; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
PubMed: 38570212
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2024.02.003 -
NeuroImage Oct 2023The presence of conflicting stimuli adversely affects behavioral outcomes, which could either be at the level of stimulus (Flanker), response (Simon), or both...
The presence of conflicting stimuli adversely affects behavioral outcomes, which could either be at the level of stimulus (Flanker), response (Simon), or both (Multisource). Briefly, flanker interference involves conflicting stimuli requiring selective attention, Simon interference is caused by an incongruity between the spatial location of the task-relevant stimulus and prepotent motor mapping, and multisource is combination of both. Irrespective of the variant, interference resolution necessitates cognitive control to filter irrelevant information and allocate neural resources to task-related goals. Though previously studied in healthy young adults, the direct quantification of changes in oscillatory activity serving such cognitive control and associated inter-regional interactions in healthy aging are poorly understood. Herein, we used an adapted version of the multisource interference task and magnetoencephalography to investigate age-related alterations in the neural dynamics governing both divergent and convergent cognitive interference in 78 healthy participants (age range: 20-66 years). We identified weaker alpha connectivity between bilateral visual and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (DLPFC) and left dorsomedial prefrontal cortices (dmPFC), as well as weaker gamma connectivity between bilateral occipital regions and the right dmPFC during flanker interference with advancing age. Further, an age-related decrease in gamma power was observed in the left cerebellum and parietal region for Simon and differential interference effects (i.e., flanker-Simon), respectively. Moreover, the superadditivity model showed decreased gamma power in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) with increasing age. Overall, our findings suggest age-related declines in the engagement of top-down attentional control secondary to reduced alpha and gamma coupling between prefrontal and occipital cortices.
Topics: Young Adult; Humans; Adult; Middle Aged; Aged; Cerebellum; Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex; Gamma Rays; Head; Cognition
PubMed: 37659656
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120351 -
PNAS Nexus Feb 2024Some conscious experiences are more vivid than others. Although perceptual vividness is a key component of human consciousness, how variation in this magnitude property...
Some conscious experiences are more vivid than others. Although perceptual vividness is a key component of human consciousness, how variation in this magnitude property is registered by the human brain is unknown. A striking feature of neural codes for magnitude in other psychological domains, such as number or reward, is that the magnitude property is represented independently of its sensory features. To test whether perceptual vividness also covaries with neural codes that are invariant to sensory content, we reanalyzed existing magnetoencephalography and functional MRI data from two distinct studies which quantified perceptual vividness via subjective ratings of awareness and visibility. Using representational similarity and decoding analyses, we find evidence for content-invariant neural signatures of perceptual vividness distributed across visual, parietal, and frontal cortices. Our findings indicate that the neural correlates of subjective vividness may share similar properties to magnitude codes in other cognitive domains.
PubMed: 38415219
DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae061 -
Brain and Behavior Sep 2023Empathy is a social-cognitive process that operates by relying mainly on the suppression of the cortical alpha rhythm. This phenomenon has been evidenced in dozens of...
INTRODUCTION
Empathy is a social-cognitive process that operates by relying mainly on the suppression of the cortical alpha rhythm. This phenomenon has been evidenced in dozens of electrophysiological studies targeting adult human subjects. Yet, recent neurodevelopmental studies indicated that at a younger age, empathy involves reversed brain responses (e.g., alpha enhancement patterns). In this multimodal study, we capture neural activity at the alpha range, and hemodynamic response and target subjects at approximately 20 years old as a unique time window in development that allows investigating both low-alpha suppression and high-alpha enhancement. We aim to further investigate the functional role of low-alpha power suppression and high-alpha power enhancement during empathy development.
METHODS
Brain data from 40 healthy individuals were recorded in two consecutive sessions of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects perceived vicarious physical pain or no pain.
RESULTS
MEG revealed that the alpha pattern shift during empathy happens in an all-or-none pattern: power enhancement before 18 and suppression after 18 years of age. Additionally, MEG and fMRI highlight a correspondence between high-alpha power increase and blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) decrease before 18, but low-alpha power decrease and BOLD increase after 18. Importantly, this neurodevelopmental transition was not revealed by four other measures: self-reported (a) ratings of the task stimuli, (b) ratings of naturalistic vignettes of vicarious pain, (c) trait empathy, or neural data from (d) a control neuroimaging task.
DISCUSSION
Findings suggest that at the critical age of around 18, empathy is underpinned by an all-or-none transition from high-alpha power enhancement and functional inhibition to low-alpha power suppression and functional activation in particular brain regions, possibly indicating a marker of maturation in empathic ability. This work advances a recent neurodevelopmental line of studies and provides insight into the functional maturation of empathy at the coming of age.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Young Adult; Alpha Rhythm; Empathy; Magnetoencephalography; Brain; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Pain
PubMed: 37334437
DOI: 10.1002/brb3.3110 -
Developmental Medicine and Child... Mar 2024Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a neurophysiological technique based on the detection of brain magnetic fields. Whole-head MEG systems typically house a few hundred... (Review)
Review
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a neurophysiological technique based on the detection of brain magnetic fields. Whole-head MEG systems typically house a few hundred sensors requiring cryogenic cooling in a rigid one-size-fits-all (commonly adult-sized) helmet to keep a thermal insulation space. This leads to an increased brain-to-sensor distance in children, because of their smaller head circumference, and decreased signal-to-noise ratio. MEG allows detection and localization of interictal and ictal epileptiform discharges, and pathological high frequency oscillations, as a part of the presurgical assessment of children with refractory focal epilepsy, where electroencephalography is not contributive. MEG can also map the eloquent cortex before surgical resection. MEG also provides insights into the physiopathology of both generalized and focal epilepsy. On-scalp recordings based on cryogenic-free sensors have demonstrated their use in the field of childhood focal epilepsy and should become a reference technique for diagnosing epilepsy in the paediatric population. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Magnetoencephalography (MEG) contributes to the diagnosis and understanding of paediatric epilepsy. On-scalp MEG recordings demonstrate some advantages over cryogenic MEG.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Child; Magnetoencephalography; Scalp; Epilepsy; Electroencephalography; Epilepsies, Partial; Drug Resistant Epilepsy
PubMed: 37421175
DOI: 10.1111/dmcn.15689 -
Scientific Reports Jul 2023Rhythmic activity in the delta frequency range (0.5-3 Hz) is a prominent feature of brain dynamics. Here, we examined whether spontaneous delta oscillations, as found...
Rhythmic activity in the delta frequency range (0.5-3 Hz) is a prominent feature of brain dynamics. Here, we examined whether spontaneous delta oscillations, as found in invasive recordings in awake animals, can be observed in non-invasive recordings performed in humans with magnetoencephalography (MEG). In humans, delta activity is commonly reported when processing rhythmic sensory inputs, with direct relationships to behaviour. However, rhythmic brain dynamics observed during rhythmic sensory stimulation cannot be interpreted as an endogenous oscillation. To test for endogenous delta oscillations we analysed human MEG data during rest. For comparison, we additionally analysed two conditions in which participants engaged in spontaneous finger tapping and silent counting, arguing that internally rhythmic behaviours could incite an otherwise silent neural oscillator. A novel set of analysis steps allowed us to show narrow spectral peaks in the delta frequency range in rest, and during overt and covert rhythmic activity. Additional analyses in the time domain revealed that only the resting state condition warranted an interpretation of these peaks as endogenously periodic neural dynamics. In sum, this work shows that using advanced signal processing techniques, it is possible to observe endogenous delta oscillations in non-invasive recordings of human brain dynamics.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Magnetoencephalography; Brain; Brain Waves; Brain Mapping; Rest
PubMed: 37419933
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37514-1 -
Neuropsychologia Nov 2023Brain electrophysiological responses can provide information about age-related decline in sensory-cognitive functions with high temporal accuracy. Studies have revealed...
Brain electrophysiological responses can provide information about age-related decline in sensory-cognitive functions with high temporal accuracy. Studies have revealed impairments in early sensory gating and pre-attentive change detection mechanisms in older adults, but no magnetoencephalographic (MEG) studies have been undertaken into both non-attentive and attentive somatosensory functions and their relationship to ageing. Magnetoencephalography was utilized to record cortical somatosensory brain responses in young (20-28 yrs), middle-aged (46-56 yrs), and older adults (64-78 yrs) under active and passive somatosensory oddball conditions. A repeated standard stimulus was occasionally replaced by a deviant stimulus (p = .1), which was an electrical pulse on a different finger. We examined the amplitudes of M50 and M100 responses reflecting sensory gating, and later components reflecting change detection and attention shifting (M190 and M250 for the passive condition, and M200 and M350 for the active condition, respectively). Spatiotemporal cluster-based permutation tests revealed that older adults had significantly larger M100 component amplitudes than young adults for task-irrelevant stimuli in both passive and active condition. Older adults also showed a reduced M250 component and an altered M350 in response to deviant stimuli. The responses of middle-aged adults did not differ from those of younger adults, but this study should be repeated with a larger sample size. By demonstrating changes in both somatosensory gating and attentional shifting mechanisms, our findings extend previous research on the effects of ageing on pre-attentive and attentive brain functions.
Topics: Middle Aged; Young Adult; Humans; Aged; Magnetoencephalography; Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; Brain; Aging; Sensory Gating; Somatosensory Cortex
PubMed: 37838067
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108702