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ELife Apr 2022While there is evidence that the visual cortex retains a potential for plasticity in adulthood, less is known about the subcortical stages of visual processing. Here, we...
While there is evidence that the visual cortex retains a potential for plasticity in adulthood, less is known about the subcortical stages of visual processing. Here, we asked whether short-term ocular dominance plasticity affects the human visual thalamus. We addressed this question in normally sighted adult humans, using ultra-high field (7T) magnetic resonance imaging combined with the paradigm of short-term monocular deprivation. With this approach, we previously demonstrated transient shifts of perceptual eye dominance and ocular dominance in visual cortex (Binda et al., 2018). Here, we report evidence for short-term plasticity in the ventral division of the pulvinar (vPulv), where the deprived eye representation was enhanced over the nondeprived eye. This vPulv plasticity was similar as previously seen in visual cortex and it was correlated with the ocular dominance shift measured behaviorally. In contrast, there was no effect of monocular deprivation in two adjacent thalamic regions: dorsal pulvinar and Lateral Geniculate Nucleus. We conclude that the visual thalamus retains potential for short-term plasticity in adulthood; the plasticity effect differs across thalamic subregions, possibly reflecting differences in their corticofugal connectivity.
Topics: Adult; Dominance, Ocular; Geniculate Bodies; Humans; Neuronal Plasticity; Sensory Deprivation; Thalamus; Vision, Monocular; Visual Cortex
PubMed: 35384840
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.74565 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Apr 2020Selective attention is a fundamental cognitive function that guides behavior by selecting and prioritizing salient or relevant sensory information of our environment.... (Review)
Review
Selective attention is a fundamental cognitive function that guides behavior by selecting and prioritizing salient or relevant sensory information of our environment. Despite early evidence and theoretical proposal pointing to an implication of thalamic control in attention, most studies in the past two decades focused on cortical substrates, largely ignoring the contribution of subcortical regions as well as cortico-subcortical interactions. Here, we suggest a key role of the pulvinar in the selection of salient and relevant information via its involvement in priority maps. Prioritization may be achieved through a pulvinar-mediated generation of alpha oscillations, which may then modulate neuronal gain in thalamo-cortical circuits. Such mechanism might orchestrate the synchrony of cortico-cortical interaction, by rendering neural communication more effective, precise and selective. We propose that this theoretical framework will support a timely shift from the prevailing cortico-centric view of cognition to a more integrative perspective of thalamic contributions to attention and executive control processes.
Topics: Alpha Rhythm; Attention; Cerebral Cortex; Executive Function; Humans; Nerve Net; Pulvinar
PubMed: 31972202
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.005 -
Journal of Affective Disorders Nov 2023American youth are seriously impacted by depression and suicide. The Texas Youth Depression and Suicide Research Network (TX-YDSRN) Participant Registry Study was...
BACKGROUND
American youth are seriously impacted by depression and suicide. The Texas Youth Depression and Suicide Research Network (TX-YDSRN) Participant Registry Study was initiated in 2020 to develop predictive models for treatment outcomes in youth with depression and/or suicidality. This report presents the study rationale, design and baseline characteristics of the first 1000 participants.
METHODS
TX-YDSRN consists of the Network Hub (coordinating center), 12 medical school "Nodes" (manage/implement study), each with 1-5 primary care, inpatient, and/or outpatient Sub-Sites (recruitment, data collection). Participants are 8-20-year-olds who receive treatment or screen positive for depression and/or suicidality. Baseline data include mood and suicidality symptoms, associated comorbidities, treatment history, services used, and social determinants of health. Subsequent assessments occur every two months for 24 months.
RESULTS
Among 1000 participants, 68.7 % were 12-17 years, 24.6 % were ≥ 18 years, and 6.7 % were < 12. Overall, 36.8 % were non-Hispanic Caucasian, 73.4 % were female, and 79.9 % had a primary depressive disorder. Nearly half of the sample reported ≥1 suicide attempt, with rates similar in youth 12-17 years old (49.9 %) and those 18 years and older (45.5 %); 29.9 % of children <12 reported at least one suicide attempt. Depression and anxiety scores were in the moderate-severe range for all age groups (Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents [PHQ-A]: 12.9 ± 6.4; Generalized Anxiety Disorder [GAD-7]: 11.3 ± 5.9).
LIMITATIONS
The sample includes youth who are receiving depression care at enrollment and may not be representative of non-diagnosed, non-treatment seeking youth.
CONCLUSIONS
The TX-YDSRN is one of the largest prospective longitudinal cohort registries designed to develop predictive models for outcome trajectories based on disorder heterogeneity, social determinants of health, and treatment availability.
Topics: Child; Humans; Adolescent; Female; Male; Depression; Texas; Prospective Studies; Delivery of Health Care; Registries
PubMed: 37459975
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.07.035 -
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 2021One important aspect for managing social interactions is the ability to perceive and respond to facial expressions rapidly and accurately. This ability is highly...
One important aspect for managing social interactions is the ability to perceive and respond to facial expressions rapidly and accurately. This ability is highly dependent upon intact processing within both cortical and subcortical components of the early visual pathways. Social cognitive deficits, including face emotion recognition (FER) deficits, are characteristic of several neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia (Sz) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Here, we investigated potential visual sensory contributions to FER deficits in Sz ( = 28, 8/20 female/male; age 21-54 years) and adult ASD ( = 20, 4/16 female/male; age 19-43 years) participants compared to neurotypical ( = 30, 8/22 female/male; age 19-54 years) controls using task-based fMRI during an implicit static/dynamic FER task. Compared to neurotypical controls, both Sz ( = 1.97) and ASD ( = 1.13) participants had significantly lower FER scores which interrelated with diminished activation of the superior temporal sulcus (STS). In Sz, STS deficits were predicted by reduced activation of early visual regions ( = 0.85, = 0.002) and of the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus ( = 0.44, = 0.042), along with impaired cortico-pulvinar interaction. By contrast, ASD participants showed patterns of increased early visual cortical ( = 1.03, = 0.001) and pulvinar ( = 0.71, = 0.015) activation. Large effect-size structural and histological abnormalities of pulvinar have previously been documented in Sz. Moreover, we have recently demonstrated impaired pulvinar activation to simple visual stimuli in Sz. Here, we provide the first demonstration of a disease-specific contribution of impaired pulvinar activation to social cognitive impairment in Sz.
PubMed: 35237135
DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.787383 -
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) Oct 2023Causal perturbations suggest that primate dorsal pulvinar plays a crucial role in target selection and saccade planning, though its basic neuronal properties remain...
Causal perturbations suggest that primate dorsal pulvinar plays a crucial role in target selection and saccade planning, though its basic neuronal properties remain unclear. Some functional aspects of dorsal pulvinar and interconnected frontoparietal areas-e.g. ipsilesional choice bias after inactivation-are similar. But it is unknown if dorsal pulvinar shares oculomotor properties of cortical circuitry, in particular delay and choice-related activity. We investigated such properties in macaque dorsal pulvinar during instructed and free-choice memory saccades. Most recorded units showed visual (12%), saccade-related (30%), or both types of responses (22%). Visual responses were primarily contralateral; diverse saccade-related responses were predominantly post-saccadic with a weak contralateral bias. Memory delay and pre-saccadic enhancement was infrequent (11-9%)-instead, activity was often suppressed during saccade planning (25%) and further during execution (15%). Surprisingly, only few units exhibited classical visuomotor patterns combining cue and continuous delay activity or pre-saccadic ramping; moreover, most spatially-selective neurons did not encode the upcoming decision during free-choice delay. Thus, in absence of a visible goal, the dorsal pulvinar has a limited role in prospective saccade planning, with patterns partially complementing its frontoparietal partners. Conversely, prevalent visual and post-saccadic responses imply its participation in integrating spatial goals with processing across saccades.
Topics: Animals; Saccades; Pulvinar; Prospective Studies; Macaca mulatta; Eye Movements
PubMed: 37724430
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad333 -
NeuroImage Oct 2021The thalamic pulvinar and the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) share reciprocal anatomical connections and are part of an extensive cortical and subcortical network...
The thalamic pulvinar and the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) share reciprocal anatomical connections and are part of an extensive cortical and subcortical network involved in spatial attention and oculomotor processing. The goal of this study was to compare the effective connectivity of dorsal pulvinar (dPul) and LIP and to probe the dependency of microstimulation effects on task demands and spatial tuning properties of a given brain region. To this end, we applied unilateral electrical microstimulation in the dPul (mainly medial pulvinar) and LIP in combination with event-related BOLD fMRI in monkeys performing fixation and memory-guided saccade tasks. Microstimulation in both dPul and LIP enhanced task-related activity in monosynaptically-connected fronto-parietal cortex and along the superior temporal sulcus (STS) including putative face patch locations, as well as in extrastriate cortex. LIP microstimulation elicited strong activity in the opposite homotopic LIP while no homotopic activation was found with dPul stimulation. Both dPul and LIP stimulation also elicited activity in several heterotopic cortical areas in the opposite hemisphere, implying polysynaptic propagation of excitation. Despite extensive activation along the intraparietal sulcus evoked by LIP stimulation, there was a difference in frontal and occipital connectivity elicited by posterior and anterior LIP stimulation sites. Comparison of dPul stimulation with the adjacent but functionally dissimilar ventral pulvinar also showed distinct connectivity. On the level of single trial timecourses within each region of interest (ROI), most ROIs did not show task-dependence of stimulation-elicited response modulation. Across ROIs, however, there was an interaction between task and stimulation, and task-specific correlations between the initial spatial selectivity and the magnitude of stimulation effect were observed. Consequently, stimulation-elicited modulation of task-related activity was best fitted by an additive model scaled down by the initial response amplitude. In summary, we identified overlapping and distinct patterns of thalamocortical and corticocortical connectivity of pulvinar and LIP, highlighting the dorsal bank and fundus of STS as a prominent node of shared circuitry. Spatial task-specific and partly polysynaptic modulations of cue and saccade planning delay period activity in both hemispheres exerted by unilateral pulvinar and parietal stimulation provide insight into the distributed interhemispheric processing underlying spatial behavior.
Topics: Animals; Electric Stimulation; Macaca mulatta; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Microelectrodes; Nerve Net; Parietal Lobe; Pulvinar; Saccades; Spatial Behavior
PubMed: 34147628
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118283 -
The Journal of Comparative Neurology Dec 2021The pulvinar is the largest nucleus in the primate thalamus and has topographically organized connections with multiple cortical areas, thereby forming extensive...
The pulvinar is the largest nucleus in the primate thalamus and has topographically organized connections with multiple cortical areas, thereby forming extensive cortico-pulvino-cortical input-output loops. Neurophysiological studies have suggested a role for these transthalamic pathways in regulating information transmission between cortical areas. However, evidence for a causal role of the pulvinar in regulating cortico-cortical interactions is sparse and it is not known whether pulvinar's influences on cortical networks are task-dependent or, alternatively, reflect more basic large-scale network properties that maintain functional connectivity across networks regardless of active task demands. In the current study, under passive viewing conditions, we conducted simultaneous electrophysiological recordings from ventral (area V4) and dorsal (lateral intraparietal area [LIP]) nodes of macaque visual system, while reversibly inactivating the dorsal part of the lateral pulvinar (dPL), which shares common anatomical connectivity with V4 and LIP, to probe a causal role of the pulvinar. Our results show a significant reduction in local field potential phase coherence between LIP and V4 in low frequencies (4-15 Hz) following muscimol injection into dPL. At the local level, no significant changes in firing rates or LFP power were observed in LIP or in V4 following dPL inactivation. Synchronization between pulvinar spikes and cortical LFP phase decreased in low frequencies (4-15 Hz) both in LIP and V4, while the low frequency synchronization between LIP spikes and pulvinar phase increased. These results indicate a causal role for pulvinar in synchronizing neural activity between interconnected cortical nodes of a large-scale network, even in the absence of an active task state.
Topics: Animals; Electrophysiology; Macaca; Muscimol; Pulvinar; Visual Cortex; Visual Pathways
PubMed: 34013540
DOI: 10.1002/cne.25193 -
JIMD Reports Sep 2022Aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU) is a rare lysosomal storage disorder that causes stagnation of development in adolescence and neurodegeneration in early adulthood....
Aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU) is a rare lysosomal storage disorder that causes stagnation of development in adolescence and neurodegeneration in early adulthood. Precision therapies, including gene transfer therapy, are in development with a goal of taking advantage of the slow clinical course. Understanding of disease natural history and identification of disease-relevant biomarkers are important steps in clinical trial readiness. We describe the clinical features of a diverse population of patients with AGU, including potential imaging and electrophysiological biomarkers. This is a single-center, cross-sectional study of the clinical, neuropsychological, electrophysiological, and imaging characteristics of AGU. A comprehensive assessment of eight participants (5 Non-Finnish) revealed a mean non-verbal IQ (NVIQ) of 70.25 ± 10.33 which decreased with age (rs = -0.85, = 0.008). All participants demonstrated deficits in communication and gross/fine motor dysfunction. Auditory and visual evoked potentials demonstrated abnormalities in one or both modalities in 7 of 8 subjects, suggesting sensory pathway dysfunction. Brain imaging demonstrated T2 FLAIR hypointensity in the pulvinar nuclei and cerebral atrophy, as previously shown in the Finnish AGU population. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) showed a 5.1 ppm peak corresponding to the toxic substrate (GlcNAc-Asn), which accumulates in AGU. Our results showed there was no significant difference between Finnish and Non-Finnish patients, and performance on standardized cognitive and motor testing was similar to prior studies. Age-related changes on functional assessments and disease-relevant abnormalities on surrogate biomarkers, such as MRS, could be used as outcome measures in a clinical trial.
PubMed: 36101820
DOI: 10.1002/jmd2.12294 -
Advances and Technical Standards in... 2023Posterior tentorial incisura not infrequently requires to be exposed for tumors of pineal gland, pulvinar, midbrain and cerebellum, aneurysms, arteriovenous...
Posterior tentorial incisura not infrequently requires to be exposed for tumors of pineal gland, pulvinar, midbrain and cerebellum, aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations. Residing almost at the center of the brain, this area is almost equal distance to any point on the calvarium behind coronal sutures enabling alternative routes to encounter. Compared to supratentorial routes either subtemporal or suboccipital approach, infratentorial supracerebellar route has several advantages as providing shortest, most direct approach to the lesions of this area without encountering any important arteries and veins. Since its initial description at the early twentieth century, a wide range of complications arising from cerebellar infarction, air embolism, and neural tissue damage have been encountered. Working in a deep, narrow corridor without enough illumination and visibility under very limited anesthesiology support hindered popularization of this approach. In the contemporary era of neurosurgery, advanced diagnostic tools and surgical microscopes with state-of-the-art microsurgery techniques coupled with modern anesthesiology have eliminated almost all drawbacks of infratentorial supracerebellar approach.
Topics: Humans; Neurosurgical Procedures; Pineal Gland; Pinealoma; Veins; Brain Neoplasms
PubMed: 37318569
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-28202-7_3 -
Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery Dec 2023Emerging neuromodulatory treatments, such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) and responsive neurostimulation (RNS), have shown promise in reducing drug-resistant seizures....
Emerging neuromodulatory treatments, such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) and responsive neurostimulation (RNS), have shown promise in reducing drug-resistant seizures. While centromedian thalamic nucleus and anterior thalamic nucleus stimulation have been effective in certain types of seizures, limited research has explored pulvinar nucleus stimulation for epilepsy. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review and individual patient data analysis. Of 78 resultant articles, 5 studies with transient stimulation and chronic stimulation of the pulvinar nucleus were included. Of the 20 patients reviewed, 65% of patients had temporal lobe seizures, while 20% had temporooccipital/occipital lobe seizures. Transient stimulation studies via stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) showed pulvinar evoked potential response rates of 80% in the mesial temporal region, 76% in the temporal neocortex, and 67% in the TP junction. Another study reported clinically less severe seizures in 62.5% of patients with pulvinar stimulation. In chronic stimulation studies, 80% of patients responded to RNS or DBS, and 2 of 4 patients experienced > 90% seizure reduction. The pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus emerges as a potential target for chronic stimulation in drug-resistant epilepsy. However, knowledge regarding pulvinar connectivity and chronic stimulation remains limited. Further research should investigate specific subregions of the pulvinar for epilepsy treatment. Understanding the role of pulvinar stimulation and its cortical connectivity will advance therapeutic interventions for epilepsy patients.
Topics: Humans; Pulvinar; Hippocampus; Deep Brain Stimulation; Epilepsy; Thalamus; Seizures; Drug Resistant Epilepsy; Anterior Thalamic Nuclei; Data Analysis
PubMed: 37979562
DOI: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2023.108041